This book explores the impact of the socio-historical, political, and economic environment in South Africa, both during and after Apartheid. During this time, the South African education system demonstrated an interest in a specific type of knowledge, which Koopman refers to as ‘a science of government’. This ‘science of government’ leaves the learners with a blurred understanding of science that is disconnected from external nature and human nature, and is presented as a series of abstract concepts and definitions. The book also investigates the dialectical tensions between the science curriculum and the role of the teacher as an active implementer of the curriculum. The book draws on the work of various phenomenological scholars, namely Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Max van Manen to discuss these tensions.

School Science Practical Work in Africa presents the scope of research and practice of science practical work in African schools. It brings together prominent science educators and researchers from Africa to share their experience and findings on pedagogical innovations and research-informed practices on school science practical work. The book highlights trends and patterns in the enactment and role of practical work across African countries. Practical work is regarded as intrinsic to science teaching and learning and the form of practical work that is strongly advocated is inquiry-based learning, which signals a definite paradigm shift from the traditional teacher-dominated to a learner-centered approach. The book provides empirical research on approaches to practical work, contextual factors in the enactment of practical work, and professional development in teaching practical work. This book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and post-graduate students in the fields of science education and educational policy.

What are the benefits and risks for Africa's participation in the globalisation nexus? Remapping Africa in the Global Spaceis a visionary and interdisciplinary volume that restores Africa's image using a multidisciplinary lens. It incorporates disciplines such as sociology, education, global studies, economics, development studies, political science and philosophy to explore and theorise Africa's reality in the global space and to deconstruct the misperceptions and narratives that often infantilise Africa's internal and international relations. The contributions to this volume are a hybrid of both 'outsider' and 'insider' perspectives that create a balanced critical discourse that can provide 'standard' paradigms that can adequately explain, predict, or prevent Africa's current misperceptions and myths about the African 'crisis' and 'failure'status. The authors provide a holistic, and perhaps, anticolonial and anti-hegemonic perspective that can benefit a wide spectrum of academics, scholars, students, development agents, policy makers in both governmental and non-governmental organisations and engage some alternative analyses and possibilities for socio-politico and economic advancement in Africa. The book provides up-to-date scholarly research on continental trends on various subjects and concerns of paramount importance to globalisation and development in Africa.

This book highlights recent developments in literacy research in science teaching and learning from countries such as Australia, Brazil, China, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan, and the United States. It includes multiple topics and perspectives on the role of literacy in enhancing science teaching and learning, such as the struggles faced by students in science literacy learning, case studies and evaluations of classroom-based interventions, and the challenges encountered in the science classrooms. It offers a critical and comprehensive investigation on numerous emerging themes in the area of literacy and science education, including disciplinary literacy, scientific literacy, classroom discourse, multimodality, language and representations of science, and content and language integrated learning (CLIL). The diversity of views and research contexts in this volume presents a useful introductory handbook for academics, researchers, and graduate students working in this specialized niche area. With a wealth of instructional ideas and innovations, it is also highly relevant for teachers and teacher educators seeking to improve science teaching and learning through the use of literacy.

This book aims to highlight science education in countries along the Belt and Road. It consists of 30 chapters divided into three main parts, namely Arab and African countries, Asian countries and European countries,. We invited science education experts from 29 “Belt and Road” countries to introduce the current status of science education in their countries and the new requirements with the rapid evolution of Information Technology. The major contributions of this book include: 1) Provide the current status of science education in countries along the Belt and Road as well as the requirement for developing and improving science education in these countries; 2) Discuss new insights of science education in future years; 3) Inspire stakeholders to take effective initiatives to develop science education in countries along the Belt and Road.

This book will benefit specialists in the field of the education sciences. It represents significant progress in knowledge production. Self-directed learning has become increasingly important, not only for education in South Africa but also for education sciences in the international arena. This is a result of the changing education landscape, caused by the demands of the 21st century as well as the rapid change in knowledge production. Learners should be equipped with skills to take responsibility for their own learning. New innovative strategies should be incorporated into teaching and learning in order to meet the changing demands in education. Traditional teacher-centred practices are still the norm in most South African schools and higher-education institutions and do not adequately prepare students for lifelong learning in the 21st century. The content focuses on the theory behind self-directed learning, explores strategies such as cooperative learning, problembased learning, case-based teaching and large-group teaching that enhance self-directed learning and the use of blended learning in a self-directed learning environment. The book demonstrates how self-directed learning can be enhanced in mathematics, computer-science and life-science education and through the use of student tutors for geography. Digital technology could, for example, also be used in innovative ways for education in isiZulu folk poetry. The findings are based on original empirical research and a sound theoretical-conceptual framework. In an environment of rapidly changing knowledge production, this book responds to the challenge of how to equip learners with the necessary skills to take responsibility for their own learning. The book presents innovative teaching and learning strategies for meeting the changing demands in education. Group activities, the responsibilities of learners and the obstacles that hinder their learning are analysed, and the way in which educators can support them is discussed. Educational values such as mutual trust are discussed, and self-directed assessment is explored. This is a timely collective work authored by experts who subscribe to the approach of self-directed learning. Educators should discover new teaching and learning strategies and value the integration of self-directed learning in the classroom.

This monograph reports on South Africa's performance in TIMMS 2003 relative to 50 other countries; describes the performance of different groups of learners in South Africa; and provides contextual information about teachers, schools and the curriculum. The report concludes with recommendations for strategic interventions to improve South African learners' performance in mathematics and science. The findings contained in this report offer valuable insights to academics, policymakers, curriculum-planners and teachers and those involved in the development of education in South Africa.