Teachers’ Content Knowledge and Strategies Used in Teaching Physical Science in Selected Schools at Buffalo City Municipality, South Africa
Abstract
Physical Science encourages an ethical and responsible approach to studying, creating, and applying the sciences. In South Africa, there is a devaluation of indigenous scientific knowledge and limited access to scientific knowledge due to a history of poor, non-existent, or inadequate schooling in some communities. This paper investigates teachers’ content knowledge and strategies for teaching Physical Science in selected schools at Buffalo City Municipality, East London, South Africa. This paper adopted a descriptive research design and used random sampling to select forty-two Physical Science teachers out of the total population of fifty-two. Self-designed structured questionnaire of Likert modified scale response, the Physical Science Teachers’ Content Knowledge and Strategies Questionnaire (PSTCKSQ), was used to collect participant feedback. Three research questions were set for the paper and revealed the following respectively, a Mean () 3.33 shows a general agreement across all items about the positive impact and importance of Physical Science education another Mean () 3.14 shows a general agreement across all items about the effectiveness and use of different teaching strategies in Physical Science education and the mean score ( = 2.79) indicates moderate agreement on the adequacy of teacher training in Physical Science content. It is recommended among others that Physical Science teachers should establish a stimulating and productive learning environment that encourages students’ curiosity, comprehension, and admiration of the topic by utilising their content expertise. The paper concludes that to address local and global concerns, assist economic development, promote scientific literacy, create employment possibilities, and encourage critical thinking and well-informed decision-making, Physical Science education is essential in South African schools for driving innovation and technological advancement.
https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.23.11.11
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