Transformation of organic chemistry for teaching and learning: an analysis of Grade 12 South African textbooks and examination guidelines.

[摘要] In the context of educational transformation in South Africa the organic chemistrycontent of science textbooks needs to be mediated by the authors of the booksprofoundly and flexibly so as to provide for the diverse abilities and backgrounds ofSouth African learners. This mediation requires critical interpretation of thecurriculum documents [examination guidelines], representation and selection of theinstructional ideas by using pedagogical content knowledge [PCK] so as to make thecontent accessible to the learners and to help them prepare for examinations. Thepurpose of this content analysis which used PCK as a theoretical framework was toestablish how the grade12 organic chemistry content has been transformed forteaching and learning by the textbook authors and what teaching methods havebeen used, as not all the textbooks seem to cover the same content. To capture thePCK of the authors a representation of the content or CoRe was used for each of thebooks analysed using the Big Ideas from the text as well as the Bishop and Denley’ssix knowledge bases of PCK. The study showed that although all the books analysedshowed evidence of the authors’ PCK none of them mediated the content sufficientlyto cater adequately for the learners’ needs.

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand