5.5 SELECTING THE SAMPLE
5.5.4 The Participants
169 library; one school (C) has a moderately stocked library, while the fourth (D) has a well- stocked functional library.
The percentage pass in Life Sciences for the 2010 examinations ranged from 80% to 96% at the four selected schools with the number of learners who wrote ranging from 76 in School A to 200 in School B. This percentage pass was determined at the 40% level of achievement. In the South African context a candidate is deemed to pass Life Sciences if s/he attains a minimum of 30%. Hence, when schools’ Grade 12 results are released/published by the Department of Education, the rate of achievement at the 30% achievement level and the 40%
achievement level are provided. One of the pre-determined criteria for the selection of schools was a minimum of 50% of students achieving 40% and over. The 80% to 96% that was obtained by these schools for the 2010 examinations therefore adequately satisfies this particular criterion. Furthermore, the overall pass rate in the Umlazi District for the 2010 Life Sciences results was 64% and the total number of learners who wrote this examination was 10992. In addition, while preparing this thesis, the author studied the results of the 2011 and 2012 examinations in Life Sciences for these schools and computed an average of these for the years spanning from 2011 to 2012 as indicated in Table 5.1. The average/mean obtained by the selected schools ranges from 56% to 95.5% while the mean District pass rate was 52%
for the two years. The proportion of candidates achieving 40% and over for the entire Umlazi District, is also indicated in the table. The reason for excluding the 2010 results from the computation of the mean is because it is based on the NCS 1 curriculum while the 2011 and 2012 results are based on the NCS 2 curriculum.
170 Table 5.2: Teacher Participants’ biographical data
Teacher 1 Teacher 2 Teacher 3 Teacher 4
Total teaching experience
15 years 15 years 28 years 11 years
Duration of lesson taught in school
55 minutes 60 minutes 60 minutes 60 minutes
Teacher based classrooms
No Yes Yes Yes
Subjects and grades taught in preceding years:
2006 Biology – Gr 11 &
12
Natural Sc. Gr 9
Biology – Gr 11 &
12
Biology – Gr 11 &
12
Biology Gr 11 Life Sciences Gr 10 Natural Sc. Grs 8 &
9 2007 Biology– Gr 12
Nat.Sc. Gr 9
Life Sciences – Gr 10
Biology – Gr 12
Life Sciences – Gr 11
Biology – Gr 12
Life Sciences Gr 11 Life Sciences Gr 10 Natural Sc. Grs 8 &
9 2008 Life Sciences Gr
10, 11 & 12 Maths – Gr 8
Life Sciences – Gr 10 & 12
Life Sciences – Grs 11 & 12
Life Sciences – Grs 11 & 12
Natural Sc. Gr 8 2009 Life Sciences– Gr
12
Maths – Gr 9
Life Sciences – Gr 11 & 12
Life sciences – Gr 11 & 12
Life sciences – Gr 10 , 11 & 12 Natural Sc. Gr 8 2010 Life Sciences Gr 10
& 12
Life Sciences – Gr 10 & 12
Life sciences – Gr 11 & 12
Life sciences – Gr 10 & 12
Natural Sc. Gr 8 2011 Life Sciences – Gr
10 & 11
Life Sciences – Gr 12
Life sciences – Gr 11 & 12
Life sciences – Gr 10 & 11
Natural Sc. Gr 8 &
9 2012 Life Sciences – Gr
12
Life Sciences – Gr 10 & 12
Life sciences – Gr 11 & 12
Life sciences – Grs 11 & 12
Natural Sc. Grs 8 &
9 Position at school Post Level –1
(PL1): Subject co- ordinator
Post Level-1 (PL1):
Subject co-ordinator
Post Level-2 (PL2):
Head of Department (HOD)
Post Level-1 (PL1):
Qualifications:
Diploma
Higher Diploma in Education (HDE)
Secondary Teachers Diploma (STD) -
Higher Diploma in Education
171
+ Further Diploma in Education (FDE)
HDE (Post Graduate) Specialisation
subjects
Natural Science and English
Biology and Mathematics Biological Sciences and Environmental studies
Biology Biology
Environmental Biology
Degree/s - Bachelor of Arts
(BA)
Bachelor of Paedogogics in Science Education (B. Paed. (Sc)
Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in
Biological Sciences
Major subjects - Education &
Sociology
Zoology &
Education
Cell Biology &
Environmental Biology Post Graduate
Degree/s
Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) Honours
- Bachelor of
Education (B.Ed.) -
Area of specialisation
Environmental studies
- Didactics -
Other - - - -
Total years of studying biology / life sciences
0 4 3 3
The table of information above may be interpreted as follows:
Post level 1 educators are classroom based teachers who in terms of the hierarchy of the schooling system are at the entry level. Their responsibility does not include supervising their colleagues.
The teacher with the least length of experience, namely T4 has been teaching Biology and/or Life Sciences for 11 years while the teacher with the greatest amount of experience, namely T3 has been teaching for 28 years. All participants teach in moderately to well-resourced schools with laboratories. Three out of the four teachers, namely T2, T3, and T4 have base rooms where they conduct all their lessons. In other words, it is the learners who move to these teacher–based rooms while the teacher remains in this room for all his/her lessons. The advantage of teacher-based room is that it could serve as the Life Sciences teachers’
laboratory. Hence, teachers will not have to carry resources around to the classrooms. If schools do have laboratories then most schools will have two laboratories. One is used for
172 Physical Sciences and the other being allocated for Life Sciences. However, schools generally have more Life Sciences teachers than laboratories. Having teacher-based rooms prevents the avoidance of doing practical work. Furthermore, since these schools do not have laboratory assistants, having base rooms helps the teacher in clearing up at the end of the lesson in the time between periods. In these three schools each lesson is of sixty-minute duration. The fourth teacher namely T1, moves to the learners in order to conduct Life Sciences lessons.
This means that the teacher will be conducting lessons in different classrooms. The duration of each lesson at this school is fifty-five minutes.
All four teachers have relevant primary qualifications for teaching Natural Science and Engllish. Two of them have degrees in science education or science (T3 and T4 respectively) with majors in a relevant Life Sciences course while the other two have diplomas in science education. One of these teachers namely T1, is qualified to teach Natural Sciences. However, this particular teacher also has a Bachelor of Education Honours degree specialising in Environmental studies. T2 with a Diploma in Education also has a Further Diploma in Education specializing in Biological Sciences and Environmental Studies. This teacher also has a Bachelor of Arts degree with majors in Education and Sociology. According to South African criteria, all four teachers are qualified although T1 is not adequately qualified for teaching Life Sciences at Senior Secondary level. Information about the institutions where the participant teachers studied, and details of the selection and depth of content studied by these teachers was not available. Therefore it is not possible to make a judgment on the adequacy of the qualifications of T2 – T4, whereas T1 is not adequately qualified for the subject.
However, the teachers have a minimum of 11 years’ experience teaching Biology and/or Life Sciences. The researcher is mindful that, whilst the issue of formal qualification does not directly pertain to this study, the findings could be influenced by it.