African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and
Technology Education
ISSN: 1811-7295 (Print) 2469-7656 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rmse20
Exploring Teacher Pedagogical Practices That
Help Learners Make Connections During the
Teaching of Reactions in Aqueous Solutions at
Senior Secondary Level
Brighton Mudadigwa & Audrey Msimanga
To cite this article: Brighton Mudadigwa & Audrey Msimanga (2019) Exploring Teacher
Pedagogical Practices That Help Learners Make Connections During the Teaching of Reactions
in Aqueous Solutions at Senior Secondary Level, African Journal of Research in Mathematics,
Science and Technology Education, 23:3, 332-343, DOI: 10.1080/18117295.2019.1688476
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/18117295.2019.1688476
Published online: 02 Dec 2019.
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African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 2019
Vol. 23, No. 3, 332–343, https://doi.org/10.1080/18117295.2019.1688476
© 2019 Southern African Association for Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology
Education (SAARMSTE)
Exploring Teacher Pedagogical Practices That Help Learners
Make Connections During the Teaching of Reactions in
Aqueous Solutions at Senior Secondary Level
Brighton Mudadigwa
a*
, and Audrey Msimangab
a
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Sol Plaatjie University, Kimberley, South Africa
*Corresponding author. Email: bbmudadigwa@gmail.com
b
Evidence from the literature supports the idea that a hierarchical and coherently organised curriculum
fosters meaningful learning. We argue that the learning can only be realised if teaching complements the
curricular coherence by allowing learners to make links during the teaching and learning process. The
study reported in this paper explores the extent to which selected teachers’ pedagogical practices
support this coherence in their teaching of the electrolytic cell. Two teachers were observed teaching
Reactions in Aqueous Solutions at senior secondary level. The classroom discussions were transcribed
and analysed using the Pedagogical Link-Making tool by Scott, Aguair and Mortimer. The tool has three
aspects; pedagogical link-making for continuity, pedagogical link-making for knowledge building; and
pedagogical link-making for emotional engagement. In this case pedagogical link-making to promote
continuity was used to analyse the data to establish coherence and progression in concept coverage.
According to Scott and colleagues, an important part of teaching science is to support learners in
making their own links between concepts within the lesson, across lessons and across grades. This is
link-making for continuity. The teachers were interviewed after teaching in order to clarify some of the
pedagogical practices observed during the lesson. There was little evidence of teachers helping learners
to make the connections between concepts and thus make sense of the content themselves.
Furthermore, even in classrooms with learner involvement, there was hardly any link-making by
learners. We discuss the implications of these findings for teaching and learning as well as for teacher
education.
Keywords: Continuity; link-making; conceptual understanding; coherence
Introduction
One of the aims of South Africa’s Department of Basic Education (DBE) is to improve learner performance in the physical sciences. This aim is also entrenched in the science Curriculum and Assessment
Policy Statement (CAPS) (Department of Education, 2011). The curriculum encourages the teaching
of science for conceptual understanding and discourages strategies that promote reliance on memorisation which tend to lead to rote learning. However, learner performance and achievement in the physical sciences remains low. The DBE laments learners’ lack of understanding of basic concepts and
failure to make conceptual interpretations. In a diagnostic report following the first CAPS examination
in 2014, the DBE reported that learners struggled with questions that required scientific explanations,
especially in the topic Chemical Change (Department of Education, 2015).
The problem of lack of conceptual understanding in Chemical Change topics has also been highlighted at university level (Potgieter & Davidowitz, 2010). The performance of first-year students
was found to be poor in basic concepts such as Atoms and Ions, Mole Concept, Chemical Reactions,
Exploring Teacher Pedagogical Practices
333
Acids and Bases, Chemical Solutions and Stoichiometry. Elsewhere in the world, Chemical Change
and some of its subtopics have also been found to be a challenge for learners (Doymus, Karacop,
& Simsek, 2010). These all point to learner inability to make connections between concepts, which
are necessary for conceptual understanding. For decades link-making has been an essential strategy
for teaching science for conceptual understanding (see, for instance, Scott, Mortimer, & Ametller,
2011). For this goal to be achievable, the learning material should be structured in a way that
makes explicit the inter-relatedness of concepts. Thus, teaching and learning material that is anchored
and builds on pre-existing knowledge has been found to enhance meaningful learning (Ausubel, 2012).
Equally, the teaching strategies employed by teachers should augment the meaning-making processes in the classroom. Scott et al. (2011) describe the ideas above as Pedagogical Link-Making
(PLM), which is a process they believe is fundamental to the teaching and learning of scientific knowledge. PLM is defined as a teaching and learning process where teachers and learners interlink concepts in a constant meaning-making progression during classroom interactions. Therefore, the
purpose of the study concentrated on how the teachers’ pedagogy influenced learner sense-making
through concept link-making and how the nature of the links improved learners’ conceptual
understanding.
Literature Review
The conceptual understanding of reactions in aqueous solution, particularly dissolution of ionic compounds in solution, appears to be problematic for learners (Naah & Sanger, 2013). For example,
Naah and Sanger (2012) discovered that learners had a common misconception on dissolution of
salts: learners wrote that the compound salts dissolved as neutral atoms or molecules rather than
as anions and cations. Adadan and Savasci (2012) also discovered that learners believed that,
when table salt is dissolved in water, it simultaneously melts and dissolves, and at the same time
turns into ions in water. In the study done by Abell and Bretz (2018), learners treated the dissolution
process as a double displacement reaction when they indicated that water and salt react together to
form an acid and a metal hydroxide or oxide. Warfa, Roehrig, Schneider, and Nyachwaya (2014)
examined pedagogies that can be used to correct such misconceptions in the teaching and learning
of the dissolution process. They observed two teacher-initiated discourses, monologic and dialogic.
Discursive dialogic settings were found to be helpful in assisting learners to directly link the different
representational levels in the dissolution process (Warfa et al., 2014). The discursive dialogic strategies are learner-centred approaches that utilise teacher–learner engagement in the teaching and
learning process.
This study explores the Grade 10 teachers’ strategies in teaching for conceptual understanding
against the prescriptive CAPS curriculum in the topic Reactions in Aqueous Solutions. Concept
maps have been used to assess learners’ conceptual understanding of content taught (Cavlazoglu,
Akgun, & Stuessy, 2013). The quality of teachers’ concept maps has been assessed in professional
development workshops (Cavlazoglu et al., 2013). However, none of the researches ventured into
how the teachers assisted learners at the social plane to interconnect scientific concepts during the
teaching and learning process.
Teaching for Meaningful Learning
According to Ausubel (2012), meaningful learning is the ability of a learner to relate non-arbitrary and
non-verbatim incoming knowledge to already pre-existing knowledge. Novak (2010) suggests that
meaningful learning is the facilitation of the construction of valid meanings and reconstruction of misconceptions (invalid meanings) in learners’ cognitive structures. This definition not only refers to links
between prior knowledge and incoming knowledge as a relationship but further adds the construction
or building of conceptual understanding. The term conceptual understanding refers to the internalisation of the interlinked concepts within the mental structure of the learner (Konicek-Moran & Keeley,
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Brighton Mudadigwa and Audrey Msimanga
2015). Hence, the way in which thoughts are organised and structured has a significant impact on the
internalisation of ideas by learners.
The quality of meaningful learning depends upon the organisational structure of the learning material
and its conceptual richness. This organisational quality of the learning content is what is referred to as
link-making. The DBE uses the word ‘coherence’ for the same concept and suggests that the learning
material should be organised in such a manner that it is coherent and logical to facilitate learner comprehension (Department of Education, 2011). Sibanda and Hobden (2016) found that Physical Science
teachers’ preferred concept arrangements were not consistent with the prescribed new CAPS. Generally, they found that 70% of teachers sequenced topics from microscopic level to macroscopic level,
whereas the opposite was true with the new curriculum. This difference suggests a disjuncture
between policy and practice and casts doubts on whether and how teachers would be able to
promote coherence considering the prescriptive nature of the CAPS work schedule in terms of sequencing of concepts. However, even when the content is clearly organised, it is the responsibility of learners to construct meaning on their own (Nicol, 2009). Sikorski and Hammer (2017) argue that
coherence should be treated as a phenomenon that is embedded in learner sense-making. That is,
learners must be actively involved in seeking coherence and developing scientific storylines guided
by the curriculum and not following it linearly, to avoid rote memorisation (Sikorski & Hammer, 2017).
One cannot dispute the power of memorisation in getting learners to just pass examinations, as
many already do. Prosser and Trigwell (1999) identify deep memorisation as the method used by learners in revising for examinations. In meaningful memorisation learners repeat the text to be learned
several times in a manner that deepens understanding, focussing on different aspects with each repetition. However, the knowledge acquired through memorisation will soon be forgotten, as it is irretrievable from long-term memory. Accessing isolated material acquired through rote learning tends to be
difficult; such knowledge is useful for recall of low-level tasks but not for conceptual understanding
(Taber, 2014). Novak (2002) argues that, even if it is retrieved, learners have difficulty in applying
rote-learned knowledge to solve problems in new contexts. Therefore, memorisation only caters for
the immediate outcomes rather than for sustainable acquisition of content knowledge. Meaningful
learning, however, empowers learners with conceptual understanding and enables transfer to other
contexts as often required in tertiary education. Hence, Scott et al.’s (2011) concept of PLM is fundamental to the teaching of science for conceptual understanding. We now discuss how we used PLM as
an analytical tool in this study.
Analytical Framework
Pedagogical Link-making consists of three primary forms. Firstly, it includes pedagogical link-making
to support knowledge building: constructing significant relations between different types of knowledge
for learners to acquire a comprehensive understanding of the content knowledge. Secondly, PLM
includes pedagogical link-making to promote continuity: making connections between concepts that
have been taught over different time scales; and thirdly, it includes pedagogical link-making to encourage emotional engagement: the teacher creating links during the teaching and learning process to
boost a constructive emotional response from learners. Pedagogical link-making to promote continuity
is required to develop learners’ conceptual understanding of the subject matter. Hence, this paper
draws on the second form, i.e. pedagogical link-making to promote continuity, to understand how
teaching can become ‘the development of a scientific story’ (Scott et al., 2011, p. 13), i.e. teaching
that helps learning go beyond memorisation. We seek to answer the research question: to what
extent do chemistry teachers facilitate learner conceptual link-making to promote continuity in the
teaching of Reactions in Aqueous Solutions at the senior secondary level?
Link-making to promote continuity involves making connections between concepts that have been
taught over different time scales. Scott et al. (2011) identified two approaches to promoting continuity:
link-making to develop the scientific story and link-making to manage or organise time. The curriculum
is generally covered over a period of time and for the South African senior secondary level this happens
over three years (Grades 10–12). During teaching and learning, concepts must be linked to other
Exploring Teacher Pedagogical Practices
335
related concepts in the lesson: to those that have been covered in the past and to those that are still to
be covered in future. Scott and colleagues refer to this as developing and maintaining the scientific
story of an idea by making links between interrelated concepts. In this study we view teaching to
promote continuity as encompassing the arrangement of interlinked concepts hierarchically and coherently. However, while the teacher should purposefully and explicitly show the connections, s/he must
also provide opportunities for learners to engage on a social plane and make the connections for themselves (Scott et al., 2011).
The development of interrelated concepts is attributed to the ability of the teacher to link concepts in
current lessons with previous and subsequent lessons using learners’ previous knowledge. Table 1
explains the three levels of link-making that promote continuity.
Link-making at the macro scale entails continuity links made on the extended time scale (months and
years) involving teaching across different sections of the science curriculum. The meso scale requires
continuity links made on an intermediate time scale (days and weeks) involving referencing of concepts between lessons or topics. The micro scale refers to continuity links made on the immediate
time scale (minutes within a lesson), involving referencing of concepts/events within a lesson.
Methods
A qualitative case study methodology was adopted, working with two volunteer science teachers,
teaching at different schools. In qualitative research an observer studies meanings constructed by participants on a phenomenon in their natural setting (Denzin & Lincoln, 2013). The researchers were
spectator observers (Patton, 2015) who visited and gathered data from teachers in their natural classroom settings. We sought to understand teachers’ pedagogical approaches in their context-specific
settings without deliberately changing any conditions of their natural classroom environment.
Hence, there was no in-depth discussion of the PLM with participants. The teachers were observed
teaching the topic Reactions in Aqueous Solutions (Grade 10), under the general topic Chemical
Change. The two participants each had a professional teaching degree and an undergraduate
degree in chemistry. Data were collected through both audio and video recordings. An audio recorder
was strapped to the teacher to capture all the proceedings of his teaching. Video recordings of the
entire class captured the extent and the nature of learner participation including any non-verbal communication. After the lesson observations, the two teachers were interviewed to establish reasons for
the observed teaching sequences. Each teacher was assigned a pseudonym.
Classroom discourse was analysed in order to understand the impact of teachers’ chosen strategies
in teaching for conceptual understanding and not the nature of the discourse. The two teachers were
observed teaching the topic of Reactions in Aqueous Solutions, which lasted for a week according to
the work schedule. For this article, only the first lesson of each participant was analysed using pedagogical link-making to support continuity at Grade 10. The first lesson can be viewed as a corridor that
connects significant learning areas. From it, teaching can branch into different pertinent individual concepts. Therefore, in analysing the first lesson we were investigating, firstly, how the teachers connected the concept at hand with preciously learned concepts from prior grades and from topics that
have been covered earlier in the Grade 10. Secondly, we explored ways in which the teachers signalled links to future concepts within the general topic of Reactions in Aqueous Solutions. We constructed concept maps for each teacher’s lesson to analyse how concepts were structured in the
Table 1. Scales of link-making to develop continuity.
Links to develop continuity
Explanation
Macro scale
Meso scale
Micro scale
Extended time scale separated by months and years.
Intermediate time scale separated by days and weeks.
Immediate time scale separated by minutes or within the lesson.
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Brighton Mudadigwa and Audrey Msimanga
enactment of the lesson. The concept maps were our own representation of how concepts were linked
in the lesson.
The transcribed lessons and interviews were analysed using the scales of continuity as described by
Scott et al. (2011) (see Table 1). Through member checking the participating teachers were asked to
comment on emerging trends from the analysis. Also, two colleagues who understood PLM were
requested to score the scales of continuity on the lesson transcripts. Consensus was reached
through several cycles of discussion and analysis until the results were consistent in all of the different
analyses.
Analysis of Results
Each Grade 10 teacher’s first lesson was transcribed and analysed using the Scott et al. (2011) framework as described above. Figure 1 shows for each lesson the number of links made by both teacher
and learners at the different levels of link-making; that is, at the micro, meso and macro scales. In the
figure, PC1 represents the first approach of pedagogical link-making for continuity and the numbering
1, 2 and 3 represents the three scales at which link-making is made. Thus, PC1-1 means pedagogical
link-making for continuity in developing the scientific story with a focus on link-making at the micro
scale; PC1-2 is link-making at the meso scale, while PC1-3 is at the macro scale.
The micro scale had a total score of 11 links between the two classes, which was the highest compared with the meso scale (three links) and the macro scale (six links). Macro scale links were used to
connect the concept of Reactions in Aqueous Solutions (a Grade 10 topic) with concepts in previous
Grade 10 topics separated by months, particularly Chemical Bonding. The least meso scale links were
made in each class compared with the other two levels of link-making. As expected, link-making at the
micro-scale has the highest frequency as it involves linking concepts in the current lesson. Here learners and teachers continually refer to the concepts being discussed at the time. Figure 1 shows that in
total Mr Johannes and his learners made considerably more links (14) than Mr Zulu and his class (six).
Mr Johannes took a social constructivist approach in his teaching. Through the teacher–learner and
learner–learner engagement prevalent in Mr Johannes’ lesson, he and his learners could make
more links within the lesson. Thus, Mr Johannes seems to make the effort towards teaching for conceptual understanding by making more links (14) during his lesson presentation.
Another important finding relates to patterns of both teacher and learner link-making practices as
shown in Figure 2. Figure 2 indicates that most of the links were made by the teachers across all
scales of link-making to promote continuity, i.e. four out of six links at the macro scale, two out of
three links at the meso scale and seven out of 11 links at the micro scale. Learners were somewhat
Figure 1. Number of links per scale made by each class during the first lesson.
Exploring Teacher Pedagogical Practices
337
Figure 2. Teachers’ (tr) and learners’ (lr) use of the micro, meso and macro links.
involved at the micro level with four out of 11 links between the two classes. Both teachers allowed
learners to discuss either in whole class discussions or in small groups, but small group discussions,
observed particularly in Mr Johannes’ class, yielded most of the learner link-making. Scott et al. (2011)
suggest that both teachers and learners must make links and that the role of the teacher is to indicate
the relationships and help learners to make those connections themselves.
The Nature of Link-making
In the next section, we illustrate the two teachers’ link-making practices with excerpts from their
lessons. Mr Zulu’s lesson was on the concept of precipitation. His previous lesson had been on electrolytes, and he started the new lesson by recapping on that concept. The beginning of the conversation is captured in the excerpt below.
Turn
1
2
3
Speaker
Zulu
Class
Zulu
4
Zulu
5
Zulu
6
7
Class
Zulu
Utterances
Last time we were talking about electrolytes is that correct?
Yes
We said they were substances which dissociate in water to form ions, is that so? And I gave you
homework that is sodium chloride, potassium bromide, and potassium permanganate. Then I
said to show the dissociation of these into their ions.
Who did the homework?
(Teacher moving around checking learners’ work.)
Right Sessi can you go and do it on the board what you did there.
(Learner writes the equation of dissociation on the board as follows:
−
NaCl(s) Na+
(aq) + Cl(aq) )
Right, when sodium chloride dissociates in water it will form positive sodium ions and negative
chloride ions. Correct?
Yes
And we did this when we were looking at bonding in Term 1, where the transfer of electrons is
from the sodium atom to the chlorine atom. Because of time, I’m going to give you the memo for
the other two [dissociations].
In turn 3 the teacher is pointing out that they discussed the dissociation of electrolytes in the previous
lesson (meso scale), which Sessi successfully illustrates in the form of an equation on the board. The
story of ions in aqueous solution is a foundation for the future concepts of precipitation, a process in
which ions react to form a solid in aqueous solution. In this case, both the teacher and the learner identified the link. The story, therefore, begins to unfold well: the teacher by way of the recap in opening the
lesson and the learner demonstrating in the equation her understanding of the concept.
In turn 4 the teacher then makes a macro scale link, where he refers to chemical bonding done in
Term 1 of the same grade. The lesson described here was observed in Term 3, 6 months later. It
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Brighton Mudadigwa and Audrey Msimanga
would have been interesting to observe learners making the connections on the concept of chemical
bonding if the teacher had given them the opportunity. This would have demonstrated how learners
connected the lesson at hand with what was done approximately 6 months ago. Unfortunately, it
was the teacher who made the link and then went on to explain without engaging learners. Except
for what was seen in the learner’s equation written quietly on the board, there was no evidence
from the dialogue that learners understood the connections made. Mr Zulu terminated the dialogue
on chemical bonding and revision of homework because of time. Thus, other learners did not have
an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to make the connections on the concepts of electrolytes
because of time. A concept map summarising the story developed in Mr Zulu’s entire lesson is
shown in Figure 3.
The topics referred to in Mr Zulu’s class discussion were relevant to the current topic, but the question remains whether Mr Zulu drew on all possible concepts that would have enhanced learner understanding of redox reactions, as well as acids and bases.
Now let us consider Mr Johannes’s lesson. Mr Johannes was teaching the same topic at a different
school. The excerpt below shows how Mr Johannes introduced his lesson.
Turn
1
Speaker
Johannes
2
3
Class
Johannes
4
5
Class
Johannes
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Kenny
Johannes
Siya
Johannes
Class
Johannes
Kenny
Johannes
Class
Class
Transcription
When I introduced this topic to you yesterday, I said when we look at chemical reactions, there
are two types of chemical reactions; ion exchange and redox reactions, is that so?
Yes
From there, looking at the redox reaction there are three types, we have got precipitation
reactions, gas forming reactions and acid–base reactions. We are going to start with the
precipitation reaction, are we together?
Yes
Before I get into more detail, we also looked at the dissolution of salts, when we were adding salt
into what?
To water
To water. When we added salt to water, we found out that … , what do they do?
They dissolved
Some dissolved right?
Yes
When they dissolved, they form what?
They form a solution
They form a solution, right?
Yes
Yes
Figure 3. The conceptual structure and link-making in Mr Zulu’s lesson.
Exploring Teacher Pedagogical Practices
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
Johannes
Mattie
Getty
Johannes
Class
Johannes
Class
Johannes
Class
Nolly
Johannes
27
Class
339
When you look at the water cycle, we have water falling as what?
Solid
Snow
They fall as what?
Snow
As snow right
Yes
Very correct besides snow, they can fall as what?
As rain
As hail
As rain right. So when we talk about precipitation, it’s something that is coming from
somewhere, now from the water cycle, it is water falling from the sky. But when we are looking
from a chemical reaction, precipitation is the falling of a solid out of a solution. The falling of a
solid out of a what?
Solution
In the extract above, in line 1, Mr Johannes made a meso-scale link with the previous lesson
which looked at ion exchange and redox reactions. In line 5, the teacher made a meso-scale
link when he referred to the dissolution of salts, a concept to do with the release of ions into solution. The teacher engaged with the whole class and with individuals to access their understanding
of the previous lesson. Later, in line 16 the teacher made a discipline-based link (macro scale)
between the water cycle in Grade 9 Geography content and Chemical Change in Grade 10. In
line 26 a connection is made between precipitation reactions and heterogeneous mixtures to
Matter and Material, a topic covered in the first term signifying link-making at macro level. Mr
Johannes also seemed to engage learners a lot more to illustrate the necessary links between
scientific ideas within the lesson. The diagrammatic conceptual outline of the lesson structure is
shown in Figure 4.
The concept diagram is not linear, but it is a web of interrelated concepts. The way the teacher
ordered his scientific ideas was systematic and showed competence in linking concepts coherently.
However, although learners were engaged, they were not given an opportunity to explain their contributions to ascertain their understanding. Nevertheless, subsequently learners engaged with each
other in small groups. The excerpt below shows the discussion of one of the groups on the formation
of silver chloride from silver nitrate and sodium chloride based on submicroscopic representation diagrams on a worksheet.
Turn
70
71
72
73
Speaker
3rd
1st
3rd
1st
Transcription
I think it’s going to be solid
Yeah.
But how is it doing it?
He said we should draw a diagram to show how to represent silver chloride.
Figure 4. The conceptual structure and links from Mr Johannes’s lesson.
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74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
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Brighton Mudadigwa and Audrey Msimanga
2nd
1st
4th
3rd
2nd
4th
2nd
1st
4th
1st
3rd and 2nd
2nd
1st
How, in our notes?
Yeah.
So silver nitrate it’s going to continue, and it’s going to be solid.
Yeah it might be solid.
We can’t just say solid.
We need to find the solution first.
Yeah.
Isn’t it going to be.
Isn’t it going to be what?
I am sure the ions exchange here.
Yeah.
So this.
It will be silver chloride.
The episode was extracted from the small group discussion where the teacher was not involved.
Such group discussions were rarely held in the class. In this particular group discussion the first
learner was leading the argument and she was able to link ion exchange (meso scale) with precipitation reactions and she correctly identified that silver chloride would be formed. In this excerpt,
there is evidence that the first learner understood the concept of ion exchange and was able to
solve the precipitation problem, in the process helping her fellow learners. While it is commendable
that learners in this study did make some connections at the micro scale, these were few for the development of a complete scientific story. We now compare the two teachers’ pedagogical approaches.
Cross-case Analysis
It can be argued that both teachers were knowledgeable on the subject matter of precipitation. Both
linked the underlying concepts of precipitation such as dissolution and solubility. Both teachers
made the links themselves but did not create opportunities for learners to make the links during the
introductory part of the lesson. Their argument was that learners should be presented with underlying
scientific concepts as guidance for further discussions. One of the differences in their approaches was
the absence of group work. Mr Zulu spent 13 minutes of the lesson on teacher talk, 9 minutes on
teacher–pupil interaction. Basically, his approach was teacher talk as opposed to Mr Johannes’s
who encouraged learner talk, involving learners in the discussion.
Another difference was in the number of concepts linked and the way they were connected. For Mr
Zulu’s lesson, the concept interrelatedness structure was linear whereas Mr Johannes’s exhibited a
network of linked concepts with several branches. This suggests differences in teaching approaches
between both teachers. There is not much evidence on learner understanding in Mr Zulu’s class except
for Sessi, who correctly did the dissolution homework exercise on the board. Other than that, the learners did not participate except for providing answers as a class. In Mr Johannes’s class learners did
participate, although teacher–pupil interactions consisted of one-word answers. Nevertheless, in
small groups, we observed that learner–learner interactions were more robust, although in several
cases the teacher was called to arbitrate on some disagreements.
During the interviews we asked the teachers about learner engagement in making links with their
previous knowledge. Both teachers raised having insufficient time, see excerpts below from interviews
with the teachers.
Researcher
Johannes
How can we actually teach the curriculum without being in a rush? What is the problem, why are we
rushing?
Okay, when I … look at the schedule fine, it has coverage, but I don’t … my schedule doesn’t cater to
all my needs, it’s not fair to everyone. Yes, for the fast learners but for the least, slowest learners it
doesn’t cater for them even though I have morning lessons. Under normal circumstance, if there is
positive contact time my learners should understand, but now. I try to put extra lessons whether
morning or afternoon but still my least [capable] learners they are not catered for with my schedule …
I’ve always commented on that it doesn’t cater for all my learners, worse the slowest learners.
Exploring Teacher Pedagogical Practices
341
Mr Zulu had this to say:
Zulu
To be honest, some of these things we are doing it’s in a rush because of the time factor. We are doing it in a
rush we just want to squeeze them and blah blah, then we move and go on to Grade 11. We think … that they
should have grasped these things in grade 10, and then we move on. But if we polish it at Grade 10, I don’t
think that we will be having this problem. …
The two teachers indicated that time was the most significant factor in decisions to engage learners
in link-making because the syllabus was considered too congested. Mr Zulu’s first lesson which was
supposed to be 40 minutes was reduced to 22 minutes owing to assembly, which lasted longer than
was indicated on the timetable. Also, learners took a long time to come into the classroom. The fact
that learners trickled into classes late was observed in both schools reported here. Hence, most
lessons we observed were shorter than the time allocated on the timetable. Therefore, time shortage
is a twofold factor: firstly, the prescribed time is not fully utilised owing to late coming and disturbance in
the school routine, but secondly, the syllabus is considered too congested and content heavy.
Discussion
In the quest for teaching for conceptual understanding, learners’ previous knowledge is important as it
informs the teacher about pre-conceptions. Ausubel (2012) argues that new knowledge should trigger
conceivable links within the learner’s cognitive structure that relates to already existing concepts. The
teachers were able to successfully link learner previous knowledge to the concepts being discussed.
However, learner sense-making of the links was not explicit in the lessons observed. In the case of Mr
Zulu, there is little evidence that learners successfully linked previous knowledge with the concept of
precipitations. There was no input from the learners during the discussions to ascertain the depth of
their comprehension. In contrast, Mr Johannes provided some opportunities, albeit few for learners
to construct their own understanding through small group discussions. Learners were able to start
making links between interrelated concepts. Novak (2010) argues that the focus of good instruction
is to enable learners to take responsibility for their own meaning-making, not for the teacher to do
everything for them. Novak (2010) states that unorganised and incoherent learning material compounds the problem of chemistry teaching and forces learners to learn by memorisation only and regurgitate the isolated concepts. By not connecting or being shown the relationship of paramount concepts
in a topic, learners find it difficult to integrate their existing knowledge with new knowledge and are
forced to memorise to pass examinations (Sirhan, 2007).
Contrary to Mr Zulu’s linear link-making, Mr Johannes was able to link several concepts with the topic
of precipitation reactions to form a web of conceptual links. A network or net of concepts exhibits the
richness in the connectedness of the scientific ideas that enhance meaning-making. This logistical
arrangement of the learning material and its conceptual richness drives the quality of meaningful learning (Novak, 2010). A linear outline is limited in the scope of the relationship of a concept with other
scientific concepts, thereby encouraging learning of isolated facts which is tantamount to rote learning
(Fortus, Sutherland Adams, Krajcik, & Reiser, 2015). If learning by regurgitating happens this early at
Grade 10, by the time learners get to Grade 12, they will not remember the underlying concepts when
they have to write examinations that demand an in-depth understanding of a hierarchical and coherent
curriculum. At this level learners would find it difficult to comprehend the more complex topics and thus
resort to memorisation. When these learners proceed to tertiary level, they cannot draw meaningfully
on the concepts and their connections (Potgieter & Davidowitz, 2010).
In their effort to complete the syllabus, teachers are forced to rush through the content and resort to
linear conceptual structures and very little link-making which creates conceptual gaps for learners.
Consequently, teaching and learning focus on discrete pockets of knowledge which inevitably push
learners towards rote learning to achieve their assessment goals. This suggests that, in order to
provide opportunities for the conceptualisation of content knowledge by both teachers and learners,
the syllabus needs streamlining. The principal argument is that the Physical Science curriculum
covers a vast range of topics and the content calls for high levels of conceptual understanding. We recommend that teacher education and teacher professional development should include in their
342
Brighton Mudadigwa and Audrey Msimanga
programmes deliberate opportunities for PLM-based teaching to empower science teachers and
hence benefit learners. In our analysis we did not look at the nature and depth of the teacher links
to ascertain how relevant the link-making was in teaching for understanding of the particular
concept. Such an analysis could be valuable in terms of assessing the quality and potential impact
of the links themselves.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
ORCID
Brighton Mudadigwa
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5366-6207
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