A teacher's conceptions and practices of active learning in science teaching amid large scale curriculum reforms

Among the objectives of the reformed South African school curriculum is the use of active learning teaching approaches. According to the Department of Basic Education (DBE, 2014), the aim is to enhance critical thinking skills among learners. Equally important to achieving these objectives are sufficiently skilled human resources as well as appropriate physical resources. However, the South African curriculum dispensation has been besieged by a plethora of contextual difficulties (Ankiewicz, 2020). In fact, the legacy of apartheid education still negatively affects the efforts of the reformed curriculum (McKeever, 2017). This is apparent in the existing skills among many of the current teacher cohort. Virtanen, Niemi and Nevgi, (2017) have argued for appropriate teacher education to promote 21st century skills for pre-service teachers. These, they argue, are skills that require teachers to use active learning and encourage collaboration in knowledge creation. The motivation for 21st century skills for teachers, they add, is that they are equipped to promote traits such as self-regulated learning. In fact, Tan, Chua, and Goh (2015) posit that self-regulated learning may assist learners to self-direct and eventually manage their learning processes.

Currently, economic knowledge demands (Kereluik et al. 2013) require teachers and learners to develop “new ways of thinking and learning” (p.127). With their current knowledge and skills limitations, teachers’ ability to facilitate learning for extant economic knowledge is inhibited (McKeever, 2017). Potentially, learners’ capacity to engage meaningfully with newly introduced curriculum learning materials is also limited (Maddock & Maroun, 2018). Thus, without appropriate teaching and learning resources, teachers would be unable to engage in active learning approaches in their teaching. Consequently, they may not develop learners’ higher-order thinking skills as required by the objectives of the curriculum. Sahin-Taskin (2018) says that without these skills, learners would not be able to participate in a wide range of active learning activities.

There are, however, varying experiences among researchers and science teachers regarding the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of active learning approaches on learning outcomes. While its effectiveness is highlighted (see Gavassa et al. 2019, Ballen et al. 2017, Watkins & Mazur, 2013), others associate it with difficulties in science teaching (see Kim, Speed & Macaulay, 2019; Van Daele, Frinjns & Lievens, 2017). Among the shortcomings of active learning or its use as a teaching approach is the lack of appropriate knowledge and skills development among teachers (Jarvis, et. al. 2014; Virtanen, et. al. 2017; Wei Li, 2013). Yet, there is paucity of research on teachers’ teaching conceptions of active learning and related practices. In fact, the researchers’ experience points to limited research studies in active learning teaching approaches in South African school contexts. As a matter of fact, studies on teachers with limited resources or no formal constructivist teaching knowledge and skills are rare in South African education systems.

Naturally, curriculum change and/or changing teaching situations require teachers to adapt to the new contexts (Margolis et al. 2017). In complex and dynamic situations such as curriculum change, conflicts abound. Van den Bergh, et.al. (2014) have reported on situations in which teachers lacked appropriate knowledge to facilitate active learning and ascribe this to, among others, their behaviour when providing feedback to learners. They argue that teacher feedback is ‘not optimal to enhance student learning yet’ (p.782). Thus, teacher knowledge and practices adaptation difficulties require deeper interrogation and understanding before any aspects of a new curriculum can be implemented.

The paper reports on the teacher who participated in a project amid large-scale curriculum reforms in South Africa. Therefore, in this paper, the researchers report specifically on the teacher's conceptual and practical adaptation in this context of change. Hence, the foci of the study are particularly on his knowledge, experience, and actions as a constituent part of a continuously changing teaching context. As a result, the aim is to answer the following two questions:

What are science teachers’ conceptions of active learning in teaching science amid large-scale curriculum reforms?

This question aims to establish a teacher’s conceptions associated with active learning teaching approaches in the context of large-scale curriculum change. The current curriculum requires a teacher to navigate and/or adapt their teaching to new conceptual understandings and related practices. This is enacted through newly introduced and relatively unfamiliar content and teaching approaches.

In what ways (if any) are a science teacher’s conceptions of active learning in science teaching associated with his teaching practices in the context of curriculum changes?

With this question, the potential for associative links between a teacher’s conceptions of active learning and his teaching practices is assumed. Therefore, it is argued that the links are both associative and changing because the teacher is transitioning in knowledge and practices. In states of transition, teachers’ concepts, beliefs, and the meanings they generate are not stable between and/or across different situations of their teaching. That is, their concepts may not be fully established as the teacher is potentially on a new learning trajectory.

In the two questions above, conceptions and practices are presented in the plural because they are bound to continually change. This change would be continuous with the changing situations of the reform process and/or contexts. Thus, varying active learning conceptions and associated teacher practices may emerge at different instances of the teacher’s teaching. In fact, these variations in conceptions and practices constitute a teacher’s adaptation process amid curriculum change.