Abstract:
In South Africa, the Grade 12 ‘classes of 2008 and 2009’ were the first to write
examinations under the revised Life Sciences (Biology) curriculum which focuses on
outcomes-based education (OBE). This paper presents an exploration of what
students (as learners) considered to be difficult and interesting in Grades 10–12 Life
Sciences curricula in the Further Education and Training (FET) phase. A sample of
125 first year, pre-service Life Sciences and Natural Sciences teachers from a
university responded to a questionnaire in regard to their experiences with the newly
implemented FET Life Sciences curricula. The responses to the questions were
analysed qualitatively and/or quantitatively. Friedman tests were used to compare
the mean rankings of the four different content knowledge areas within each
curriculum, and to make cross-curricular comparisons of the mean rankings of the
same content knowledge area for all three curricula. All four content areas of Grade
12 were considered as being more interesting than the other two grades. In terms of
difficulty, the students found the Grade 10 curriculum themes the most difficult,
followed by the Grade 12 and the Grade 11 curricula. Most of the students found the
themes under the content area Diversity, change and continuity (Grades 10–12)
more difficult to learn than the other three content areas. It is recommended that
more emphasis needs to be placed on what learners are interested in, and on having
this incorporated into Life Sciences curricula.
