Abstract
The world has been changing at an increasingly shocking speed over the recent past years; these changes that have taken place have pushed humans in all sectors to review, remediate, and change their approach to doing things. The purposes of education have been expanded over the last couple of decades to include the development of a broader range of competencies, cognitive as well as social and intrapersonal, informed by the current changes and complexities (Ferrante, G et al 2016). The education sector, particularly the South African education sector, is no exception; it also had to go through extensive changes by reforming the curriculum over the years.
This study focused on the Life Sciences Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) curriculum and aimed at examining the ways in which Life Sciences educators draw on it to develop students’ capabilities for the 21st century. That is, how does the Life Sciences CAPS curriculum aim to redress the historical legacy of exclusion and prepare students for meaningful participation in the 21st century. The Capabilities Approach to curriculum informed this study. Capabilities are those things that an individual can do best. Capabilities can be innate or acquired. Education thus plays a critical role in teaching capabilities to learners. The research methodology and design for this research study was qualitative and data was collected through individual interviews and analysis of curriculum documents.
The results revealed that, although the Life Sciences curriculum encompasses 21st century skills such as deeper disciplinary knowledge, higher order thinking skills and social skills the Life Sciences educators are not well informed of the 21st century skills and capabilities that learners need in order for them to be able to survive and participate meaningfully in society. At most, the Life Sciences educators are fully aware of the need for and importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) integration in the lessons. The educators indicated that they do use data projectors and smartboards in classrooms to enhance the use of ICT and technology at large. The learners relate better and more to these technologies, hence lessons with ICT integration grasp learners’ attention and contribute to learner participation in the classroom.
The findings further show that the Life Sciences curriculum designers are not aware of or in touch with what the different learners in different schools around the country go through. There is an inability to educate and equip learners and educators by developing a relevant curriculum that addresses learners equally. According to the Life Sciences educators interviewed, Life Sciences as a subject and the curriculum content prescribed, is relevant to the learners, as it is prescribed, it is prescribed in such a way that it teaches the learners exactly what they should to learn and know about themselves and the environment in which they live, and there is no curriculum or content gap in the curriculum. However, the one element that constrains the prescribed curriculum content from the development of 21st century skills and capabilities is educators lack of knowledge and understanding of how to emphasize such skills in their teaching.
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The above-mentioned findings explain that: 1. The curriculum developers from the national office of the Department of Basic Education (DBE) develop a generic curriculum for all the learners in all the schools in South Africa although the learners’ contexts and learning environments are not the same. For example, the environmental strand in the Life Sciences curriculum focuses on vegetation and it does not make sense learners whose environment is not rich in vegetation, especially the vegetation prescribed and taught in Life Sciences, the concepts remain abstract to learners although the curriculum developers meant well. 2. For the educators that were interviewed, as per their environments and contexts, the prescribed content is relevant to the learners in the respective contexts and environments. They are not on the disadvantage side of the curriculum plan/vision. 3. The educators that were interviewed explained expressed their concern on the poor performance of learners because pf the streaming/subject combinations in their respective schools. Majority of learners elect the stream that automatically has Life Sciences in it and hence for the few learners who do not perform well in the subject, do not find it interesting as it appears to have been forced on them and they have little to no choice but to go on with Life Sciences until grade 12.
The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has the responsibility to re-evaluate the curriculum and its implementation in diverse contexts and align it to the 21st century skills and competencies required by all the learners. It also has ‘big shoes to fill’ in making sure that the curriculum developers and specialists (Chief Education Specialists (CES), Deputy Chief Education Specialists (DCES) and Senior Education Specialists (SES)), departmental heads and educators are well equipped with a deep understanding of the 21st century competencies, skills, and capabilities. The research also revealed that the majority of learners take Life Sciences as a subject by default because of the subject streams in their schools, and thus the Life Sciences CAPS curriculum does not seem meaningful because it appears as though the subject is being forced on them and they do not have a choice in the matter. This is also a contributing factor to low performance and lack of commitment by learners towards Life Sciences as a subject. Teachers indicated that the one aspect and element that the current learners taking Life Sciences as a subject lack, is commitment. They show low commitment, and this affects their participation in the classroom during lessons, which also affects the Life Sciences results because a lack of commitment also contributes to low performance.
The findings thus showed that there is still a long way to go for the proper instilling of 21st century skills, competencies, and capabilities in learners. Although the LS curriculum has the potential to develop it, there is limited contribution of the Life Sciences CAPS curriculum towards the development of 21st century skills and capabilities.