Teaching the principle of knowledge integration in life sciences in the further education and training phase

Abstract

The principle of knowledge integration has been a strong focus in the field of science education around the world, where teachers and administrators are encouraged to take an interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approach to the teaching of science in the field of education. In the South African education system, knowledge integration as a principle in curriculum research in education was introduced as an important pillar of outcomes-based education in the post-apartheid educational system, which the implication of moving from a subject-based discipline to a multi-disciplinary knowledge design. The paradigm of this study is grounded in Karl Maton’s Legitimation Code Theory that uses semantic waves to demonstrate a strong ‘discourse’ on and the potential of educational knowledge structures to enhance cumulative learning where knowledge is transferred and shared across the content of different learning areas of a school curriculum and built over time to promote lifelong learning in learners. This qualitative case study is confined to three metro east schools in the Western Cape and a purposive sample of seven Life Sciences educators. Data collected through semi-structured interviews and observations was analysed by utilising the principles of grounded theory. This study has employed an inductive approach to analysing research data in order to answer the research questions, aims, and objectives during the research process. The purpose of this case study research was to investigate teacher perceptions and views and explore strategies of knowledge integration within the field of Life Sciences and subsequently recommend how Life Sciences teachers can be trained to teach knowledge integration in the FET phase. The findings of the study show that Life Sciences teachers have a lack of understanding of curriculum models that are used to bridge the content knowledge gap in the teaching and learning of Life Sciences. The views and perceptions of the participants attest that most Life Sciences teachers when teaching the subject, do not necessarily consider knowledge integration and this results in the poor implementation of knowledge integration in the Life Sciences subject discipline. A poor teaching approach such as the teacher-centred approach that only benefits teachers in finishing the syllabus but is disadvantageous for learners as well as the lack of suitable teaching and learning materials were among the key problems that the researcher picked up during the observations. This study has revealed the need for the training of Life Sciences preservice teachers and for curriculum advisors and professional development workshops of Life Sciences teachers to empower them on how to use the multidisciplinary approach to teach Life Sciences as an integrated subject discipline by using the Life Sciences syllabus and thereby address their learners’ needs and improve their performance. This study further concludes that educators’ reluctance to consider multidisciplinary knowledge structure hampers the adequate teaching and learning of Life Sciences. For Life Sciences discipline to be adequately taught, knowledge of sub-disciplines such as chemistry, geography, physics, and biological sciences could contribute to knowledge acquisition of concepts and topics that are prescribed in the Life Sciences school curriculum. Curriculum Advisors as people given the responsibility of oversight on how the subject should be taught at schools need to empower educators with how to model and sequence knowledge to enable teachers to teach Life Sciences curriculum in its entirety to curb the challenge of poor performance of learners in the discipline