Abstract:

There has been a paradigm shift in South African high school education, Further Education, and Training (FET) since the introduction of the current Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) in 2012. Unlike its predecessor, the CAPS emphasizes the importance of using learner-centred teaching approaches, methods, and learning activities that are founded on the social constructivism theory. The teaching of Life Sciences seems to be significantly influenced by social constructivism perspectives in which learners must be given an opportunity to do so. However, in many South African schools, the teaching of Life Sciences is still dominated by traditional approaches that pride themselves on the transmission of knowledge and presentation of the facts with no real-life situations to which learners can relate. This study used qualitative research methods, and participatory action research to explore alternative pedagogies based on information and communication technologies (ICT) in the teaching of selected topics in Life Sciences to Grade 11 at a selected high school in Cape Town, South Africa. The sample entailed Grade 11 learners which were purposively selected. Findings showed the integration of ICTs enhanced learners’ understanding of concepts particularly where online simulation and models were used. Learners performed better when they were taught using ICTs than using traditional pedagogies. Furthermore, learners performed well when they were exposed to practical investigative activities in which they were able to construct knowledge. The study concluded the use of pedagogies that promoted learner-involvement practical work or demonstrations, observation on online experiments were key in knowledge construction in Life Sciences. The integration of ICTs in the teaching Life Sciences proved to be an effective alternative pedagogy that assisted learners in understanding concepts better.

Keywords:

Alternative pedagogies, teaching strategies, teaching methods, life sciences, pedagogical content knowledge, technological pedagogical content knowledge.