In the study reported on here we investigated how teachers exercised their role as curriculum leaders in secondary schools in South Africa. The study was conducted in 4 schools (2 semi-urban and 2 rural) in the Vhembe district of South Africa. Semistructured individual interviews, focus-group discussions (FGDs), and lesson and meeting observations…

Participating in classroom mathematics conversations, particularly engaging with the opinions of others, can improve learners' mathematical comprehension. Teachers can use a variety of invitation and follow-up moves to encourage student engagement. The study aimed to explore teacher follow-up on learners' initial responses to teacher questions and…

The need for problem-solving and creative thinking skills to be taught well in business studies classrooms can never be overemphasised due to the complexity of the problems and challenges faced by businesses in the 21st-century business environment. Teachers are, therefore, required to adopt pedagogies that would enable learners to acquire…

Education in the 21st century has had an evolutionary impact on teachers' teaching approaches in South African schools. Teachers are continuously faced with challenges in improving teaching and learning approaches in response to addressing the particular needs of a diverse group of learners. With this article we aimed to explore life orientation…

School science subjects may be informed by curriculum ideologies such as discipline-centered, service-centered, student-centered, or citizen-centered ideologies. The distinct characteristics of each ideology complicate the extent to which science subjects could integrate different curriculum ideologies. Consequently, the present research explored…

Decades of career in adult education confirmed the author's assumption that adult learners possess lots of lived experiences, exhibit different learning styles and have immediate learning needs to fulfil. Some learners may be slow and take time to grasp information while others might be shy, introverts, lack confidence or extroverts who like to…

A new Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) was introduced in South Africa in 2012 to, among others, drive a learner-centred and constructivist approach to practical work in the high school subject Physical Sciences. This study investigates teachers' concerns with the implementation of practical work in Physical Sciences. A survey of…

Recent reforms in science education highlight the need for student-centred approaches to teaching in school curriculum policy in South Africa. Science teachers are required to move away from traditional teacher-centred practices which regard students as mere passive recipients of knowledge. In this study, we examine classroom talk for the type of…

In the field of education, globally, teachers are recognised as important contributors in shaping learners' interaction in a cooperative learning environment through effective lesson planning. There is a plethora of research conducted internally on lesson planning, as a critical instructional competency for good teaching and as a purposeful…

Life Orientation (LO) is judged by the Department of Basic Education to be critical for the development of social and environmental responsible behaviour among South African schoolchildren. Despite this crucial role, the research revealed that the participants in the study reported on do not succeed as expected with the fostering of competencies…

The twenty-first century has witnessed a call for teachers to integrate information and communication technology (ICT) into teaching and learning. However, creating a classroom environment that engages in active learning has proved to be a hurdle to South African teachers, as more traditional teaching methods continue to be utilised in teaching.…

This study explored the perceptions of teachers and learners regarding the use of Process Oriented Guided Learning Inquiry Learning (POGIL) to teach stoichiometry. A qualitative case study was carried out at two conveniently and purposively sampled township schools in Pretoria, South Africa. For this purpose, two Grade 11 physical sciences classes…

A current problem faced in South Africa is that university graduates are weak and underprepared for the work environment. The purpose of this study was to assist students in bridging the aforementioned gap and to ease the transition from theory to practice. The aim of the study was to critically analyse the development and implementation of the…

The scarcity of trained man power in the field of science and technology has become a growing phenomenon today. Thus, we are still facing the same challenge country wide. With the multidimensional increase in the field of science and technology, there is a huge shortage of expert workforce in the field of STEM. The numbers of students who qualify…

Being a class room teacher in rural areas for more than two decade's author has observed that rural area learners are suffering from multi faced learning barriers. Conceptual understanding and reasoning capacity is very poor and they are performing poorly in their school based examinations. Aim of this paper is to present a suitable, cost…