Abstract
M. Ed. (Science Education)
South African Life Sciences teachers
have
been
subjected
to
three
policy
changes
during
the
past
six
years.
The
first
new
curriculum
was
implemented
in
2006,
and
when
it
was
found
that
this
curriculum
lacked
sufficient
botany
content,
a
new
version
of
the
curriculum
was
implemented
in
2009.
Following
this,
a
new
curriculum
was
being
implemented
in
2012
in
all
subjects,
leaving
Life
Sciences
teachers
fatigued
as
a
result
of
all
the
professional
development
workshops
they
had
to
attend
each
year.
One
principle
of
the
new
curriculum
was
that
teachers
had
to
use
a
constructivist
approach
to
teaching,
but
research
had
found
that
this
was
not
the
case
in
South
African
classrooms.
Furthermore,
research
also
showed
that
some
South
African
teachers
lacked
the
necessary
content
and
pedagogical
knowledge
to
teach
science
to
grade
12
learners.
The
aim
of
this
study
was
to
see
whether
teachers’
pedagogical
content
knowledge
could
be
improved
by
the
use
of
communities
of
practice
over
a
period
of
time.
The
content
that
was
focused
on
was
DNA,
protein
synthesis,
meiosis
and
genetics,
as
these
topics
were
flagged
as
problematic
topics
in
the
National
Senior
Certificate
examinations
in
2008.
A
generic
qualitative
design
was
used
as
this
research
was
situated
in
an
interpretive
framework.
The
genre
of
the
research
was
phenomenology
with
design
based
elements.
Before
the
intervention
started,
teachers
had
to
complete
a
questionnaire
and
this
questionnaire
had
to
be
completed
again
after
the
intervention.
Interviews
and
feedback
tools
were
used
to
obtain
teachers’
views
on
these
communities
of
practice.
The
interviews
also
had
a
section
that
pertained
to
teachers’
pedagogical
content
knowledge.
Structured
classroom
observations
were
used
to
see
whether
teachers
were
implementing
a
constructivist
approach
when
teaching
the
content.
It
also
served
as
a
method
to
ascertain
whether
the
activities
done
during
the
community
of
practice
sessions
were
implemented
into
classroom
practice.
It
was
found
that
communities
of
practice
are
an
effective
way
of
developing
teachers’
pedagogical
content
knowledge,
but
that
it
should
be
continuous
and
would
be
more
v
effective
over
a
longer
period
of
time.
Teachers
also
enjoyed
these
meetings,
shared
resources
and
motivated
each
other.
Another
finding
of
this
research
was
that
teachers
did
not
implement
a
constructivist
approach
to
their
teaching
as
required
by
the
new
curriculum,
even
though
they
indicated
that
they
preferred
this
approach
to
teaching.
A
recommendation
of
this
research
is
that
teachers’
professional
development
should
take
place
in
an
informal
community
of
practice
where
teachers
could
share
ideas
and
resources.
A
keystone
species
is
required
for
these
communities
of
practice
to
stay
sustainable.
These
communities
of
practice
should
be
implemented
on
a
continuous
basis
in
order
to
have
a
positive
effect
on
teachers’
practice.