Science teaching and learning is facing a new dilemma. It has to move from its old perception of science as a purely positivistic and value-free enterprise into regarding it as what it really is: a value-laden human endeavour characterised by historical, cultural, social and political parameters. Science teachers now have to deal with ethical, and…

This article reports on the effect of textbook analysis as a tool of teacher professional development on nature of science (NOS) understanding of 10 science teachers in South Africa. The teacher professional development program (TPDP) was based on an explicit reflective methodology of textbook analysis and conducted online due to the Covid-induced…

Integrating literacy in science and mathematics learning and teaching has been an ongoing endeavour. There are frameworks developed to guide teachers' practices, but little is reported on assessing literacy simultaneously with scientific or mathematical content knowledge. We reviewed the literature on assessing literacy in science and mathematics…

The inquiry-based strategy in science education is widely recommended and incorporated in practical work. However, contextual and intrinsic teaching challenges associated with practical investigations (inquiry-based practical work), occur in resource-constrained physical sciences classrooms in South Africa. The intrinsic challenges have previously…

Our study investigates the challenges encountered by learners and teachers of physical sciences in rural schools, specifically in the Joe Gqabi district of South Africa. We utilised self-study and constructivism theories in rural settings to examine the complex challenges for physical sciences in rural schools. In an interpretivist qualitative…

The education landscape continues to change as perpetuated by crises like COVID-19 propelling teachers to adapt and change their pedagogical approaches. As a mid-career science teacher educator, having developed ways of teaching, I experienced pedagogical tensions that were unsettling during COVID-19, thus threatening what I already knew about…

Active learning is considered among teaching approaches best suited for promoting critical thinking in science classrooms. Hence, the reformed South African school curriculum identified active learning as appropriate to achieve most of its objectives. This paper reports on an explorative study of a science teacher's active learning conceptions and…

Argumentation is central to science learning. Students in every domain of science should have the opportunity to develop the ability to think and act in ways associated with argumentation. When engaged in argumentation, students learn how to puzzle through problems, to see multiple ways of finding solutions, to gather and evaluate evidence on…

Although there is a lot of interest in the development of computational thinking (CT) and the benefits it could have for every student, integrating it into science classrooms may be more difficult than traditional teaching. This can be very challenging for South African science teachers. Thus, there is an increasing need to prepare teachers and…

The study reported on here was a qualitative interpretative case study. We explored the pedagogical issues of Senior Phase natural sciences teachers when teaching the matter and materials strand in some of the schools in the Siyabuswa circuit. This study was motivated by the concerted focus on the Fourth Industrial Revolution in developing…

This research analysed the cultural factor of metacognition within South African physical science classrooms, by conducting research on physical sciences classes within two KwaZulu-Natal districts. The data from the mixed methods design suggested that Indigenous pupils were not taught in their first language, cultural knowledge was not promoted…

This study investigates the perspectives of physical sciences teachers regarding implementing learning style-based instructional strategies [LSBIS] in science classrooms in South Africa. The aim is to identify the challenges and opportunities associated with integrating these strategies into teaching practices. Research on learning styles and…

In this article we report on the initial professional discourse on teaching natural science (NS) in the Foundation Phase among a sample of novice teachers in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The sample comprised 7 novice teachers (NTs) with 3 or fewer years of teaching experience. We investigated the NTs preparedness to teach NS,…

This paper analyses the current state of postcolonial and decolonial science teaching, based on a systematic review of the literature, with a special focus on the European context. It shows that currently, a very narrow view on postcolonial science teaching prevails, limiting its scope to former colonies. A total of 227 articles published…

Preservice teachers who are specialising in the teaching of the subject natural science at a primary school level, ought to demonstrate the ability to present lessons that provoke a joyful yet meaningful educational experience amongst learners. One such approach that was taken, was when natural science preservice teachers were tasked with…