Abstract:

South African learners’ poor performance in mathematics and physical sciences has been a matter of concern and few studies have been conducted to explore the factors affecting poor performance in the foresaid subjects. Use of participative teaching approaches towards reflective learning implementation is advocated by the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement Grades 10-12 Physical Sciences, prescribed by the Department of Basic Education, South Africa. This was a correlational study which explored teacher application of investigative methods, indirect teaching style, classroom climate, group discussions and learning material use. A total of 149 learners who were randomly selected completed a questionnaire. Learners rated the frequency at which physical sciences teachers applied investigative methods, indirect teaching style, conducive classroom climate, group discussions and learning material. Spearman rho was used to analyze the collected data. There was a strong positive correlation between teacher adoption of investigative methods and indirect teaching style. The results also showed that there was strong positive correlation between teacher use of indirect teaching style and learner participation in group discussions. However, it is also important to note that a modest level of positive correlation existed between teacher adoption of indirect teaching style and classroom climate and there was no correlation found to exist between classroom climate and group discussions. Therefore, the study recommends that teachers should structure and support group learning by designing learning tasks that enable learners to use science process skills to construct own understanding of real-life problems. This will enable learners to learn together and share meaning with each other in a productive learning environment.

Keywords:

Classroom climate, group discussions, indirect teaching style, investigative methods, learning experiences, learning material, physical sciences teaching.