Reconceptualising the Physical Sciences Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement in a South African Context

Post-apartheid South African curriculum reforms, from outcomes-based education (OBE) to the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), resulted in different challenges. Teachers, in particular those teaching Physical Sciences in the Further Education and Training (FET) phase from Grades 10-1...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of higher education Vol. 10; no. 2; pp. 116 - 127
Main Author Mpungose, Cedric Bheki
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Sciedu Press 2021
Subjects
Curriculum Development
Educational Change
Educational Policy
Foreign Countries
High School Teachers
National Curriculum
Pedagogical Content Knowledge
Physical Sciences
Science Curriculum
Science Instruction
Science Teachers
Scientific Concepts
Secondary School Curriculum
Teacher Attitudes
South Africa
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ISSN1927-6044

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Summary:Post-apartheid South African curriculum reforms, from outcomes-based education (OBE) to the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), resulted in different challenges. Teachers, in particular those teaching Physical Sciences in the Further Education and Training (FET) phase from Grades 10-12, were expected to cope with changes and master Physical Sciences curriculum for the attainment of good results, but were unable to do so because they were missing an understanding of curriculum concepts. The success of any curriculum depends on ten fundamental and broad curriculum concepts: rationale, goals, activities, assessment, accessibility, resources, content, roles, environment, and time. However, empirical findings show that Grade 12 Physical Science teachers in South African schools still struggle to understand and contextualise curriculum concepts in order to redefine specific CAPS Physical Science concepts. Consequently, this conceptual study uses Van den Akker (2004) curriculum spider web concept framework in reconceptualising Grade 12 CAPS Physical Science concepts. This study argues that teaching without knowing specific subject curriculum concepts can lead to poor teacher performance and poor subject results, this study concludes by proposing a formal, non-formal and informal framework for CAPS Physical Science to resolve this.
ISSN:1927-6044