Abstract
Teacher professional development is an important priority in a country which underperforms in science education. In this study the role of the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) in assisting teachers in their pedagogical content knowledge development is explored. The assumption is that such institutions should work with Higher Education Institutions in better equipping our teachers for the demands they face in the 21st Century classroom. One such demand is that teachers are expected to incorporate Environmental Education principles in their teaching, yet most teachers were never trained to do so.
This study concerns an evaluation of a South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) Teacher Professional Development Programme in Environmental Education. It is argued that such a programme could lead to the transfer of skills to the teachers if it is conducted in a participatory way, as in the case of this SANBI’s Teacher Professional Development Programme.
The effect of such an approach is that the programme can be cascaded down to almost all the teachers in schools, and thus leading to the development of communities of practice (CoP). Communities of practice provide an opportunity for teachers to share experiences thus leading to professional relationships and improved pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). This study followed design-based research principles, to assess the influence of SANBI’s programme on teachers’ professional development. The dissertation also describes how the research was conducted and makes some recommendations on what needs to be done to further improve this programme. In the research, discursive interviews, observations and focus group interview methods were used. The use of these tools highlighted the creativity that manifested among teachers who were involved in the programme...
M.Ed.