The low enrolment, lack of interest, exacerbated by the general poor performance in physical science in South Africa paints a gloomy picture about the status of physical science in the country. Despite the fact that there might be other factors at play, one factor which cannot be ignored is the discourse about the use of language in the science…

Choice of instructional language is influenced by both previous and current perceptions of the value of a given language. For many South African learners, this has contributed to their education being presented either partially or entirely in a second or third language. This effectively limits their cultural capital and educational opportunities.…

This study investigated the reading demands of restricted-use items administered to South African grade 9 learners as part of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015. The method proposed by Mullis, Martin and Foy (2013) was used to categorise items into low, medium and high readability groups. The 'knowing' domain…

With the introduction of the Life Sciences (LS) Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) in 2012 in South African schools, a practical examination has become compulsory in grades 10 and 11. The LS CAPS policy stipulates the types of practical work that needs to be conducted to develop specific process skills in learners. This interpretive…

Introduction: Through the education for all initiative, a number of education systems have been able to provide access to their students at the basic education level. The major challenge is that most of these learners, especially, those from poor families who attend schools with limited resources are often not successful. However, in South Africa,…

Determinants of educational achievement extend beyond the school environment to include the home environment. Both environments provide tangible and intangible resources to students that can influence science achievement. South Africa provides a context where inequalities in socio-economic status are vast, thus the environments from whence…

This book contains a compilation of papers presented at the International Conference on Education and New Developments (END 2017), organized by the World Institute for Advanced Research and Science (W.I.A.R.S.). Education, in our contemporary world, is a right since we are born. Every experience has a formative effect on the constitution of the…

South Africa's education system is still deep in the throes of reform under its third Minister of Education since 1994. Poor communities, in particular those of rural Africans, bear the brunt of the past inequalities. The challenge was to explore the extent of the "gap" in students' scores by comparing the advantaged and disadvantaged…

Eight hundred and ninety-nine (431 male, 467 female and one missing value) Grade 8 and 9 (n = 184 and 713, respectively, with two missing values) learners from secondary schools in Mpumalanga completed a science and mathematics questionnaire. Student's t tests showed that male and female, as well as language groups' scores, differed significantly.…