Abstract
The study aims to describe Grade R teachers’ awareness of children’s SPS and also how their
teaching exemplifies their awareness and describe their science content knowledge. The
premise of the inquiry is that young children can benefit from early advancement of their
science knowledge and that teachers need to be aware that children are ready to learn science
in Grade R. I argue that teachers can guide children to develop their skills of thinking
scientifically and ‘doing’ and experiencing science, if teachers are aware of how these skills
develop. I propose that teachers can do much to help children to change their naïve concepts
and begin to form more normative science concepts, as they develop the cognitive processing
skills required by a scientific world view. The proviso is, however, that teachers must be aware
of children’s developmental skilfulness at this age – their emergent, ability to see and to
experience the world scientifically.
In a descriptive case study, utilising qualitative data in different modalities, I investigated
teachers’ awareness of the above children's developmental skilfulness. These modes of data
collection were individual interviews, stimulated recalls and lesson observations with analysis
of lesson plans. Research was conducted in two different school systems, of which all four
schools were situated in the suburbs of Johannesburg, Gauteng. The unit of sampling was
Grade R teachers. The data analysis was based on the grounded theory model of Strauss and
Corbin (1998) and O’Donoghue (2007).
The pattern that was composed from the data analysis shows, in seven themes, that the
teachers have some awareness of science process skills (SPS) but are not able to express it
or connect it to their daily teaching. From the teachers’ expressed views and knowledge,
coupled with data from observed lessons, the study discusses the data with a custom designed
rubric, which included Shulman’s (1987:8) typology of teacher knowledge and Snow, Griffin
and Burns’ (2005) continuum of teacher knowledge. According to the ‘levels’ of development
characteristics of the latter - and interpreted along with the various teacher knowledge types
of the Shulman model - the study concludes that the teachers are inclined to practice in firmly
set procedures and that they are not reflective practitioners who inflect knowledge into practice.
Furthermore, their own science content knowledge and discourse inhibit the pedagogy of their
already limited science teaching.
M.Ed. (Childhood Education)