Life Sciences Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge When Addressing Socioscientific Issues in The Topic Evolution

Mokgadi Elizabeth Relela, Lydia Mavuru

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

The South African life sciences curriculum envisages a teacher who negotiates through controversial issues in the topic of evolution and helps learners reconcile the content and their religious or cultural aspects. Previous studies have found that teachers are conflicted to teach evolution concepts due to socioscientific issues (SSIs) emanating from sociocultural and religious beliefs and those of their learners. Consequently, the current paper reports a study that sought to establish life sciences teachers' topic specific pedagogical content knowledge when teaching some concepts in the topic evolution. This is against the backdrop that teachers are conflicted about teaching the theory of evolution. In a qualitative study, an open-ended questionnaire designed to assess science teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Biological socioscientific issues (PCK-BSSIs) was administered to selected 28 life sciences teachers who had taught the topic evolution for some time. The findings showed that the teaching of SSIs in evolution through debates, argumentation, and discussions, provides a platform for learner critical thinking, problem-solving and the ability to make informed decisions. Some teachers failed to realise the need for inclusion of evolution in the curriculum considering its invasive and challenging nature with regards to sociocultural and religious beliefs. Teachers therefore used textbook knowledge without engaging learners. Based on these findings, the researchers recommend that teachers be equipped with not only the pedagogical skills to address controversial issues but should also be developed in the subject matter knowledge.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)302-318
Number of pages17
JournalInternational Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research
Volume22
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2023

Keywords

  • Evolution
  • life sciences
  • socioscientific issues
  • teachers' pedagogical content knowledge

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Life Sciences Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge When Addressing Socioscientific Issues in The Topic Evolution'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this