Learner experiences of transition from the General Education and Training band to the Further Education and Training band in science

Abstract

This is a four year longitudinal study into learner experiences of transition from the General Education and Training band to the Further Education and Training band in science. The study focused on Natural Science in the GET band and Physical Science in the FET band and used both quantitative and qualitative methods. The learners who participated in the study were a unique cohort. They were in grade 1 when Curriculum 2005 was introduced in 1997. They were also the last group of learners in 2005 that completed their compulsory schooling (grade 9) under the outcomes based C2005 in which content was not prescribed. The curriculum was revised and content was re-introduced in 2006 when they started grade 10 (FET) with teachers who were mostly not trained in Outcomes Based Education. In 2008 they were the first matriculants from the new curriculum. Their progress and experiences from the GET band to the FET band should have therefore generated a lot of interest from both the political and educational perspectives. This study is exploring their particular situation. There is a gap between curriculum 2005 and the National Curriculum Statement. Learners in this study who were doing grade 9 Natural Science in 2005 under c2005 were greatly disadvantaged by the curriculum that did not prepare them adequately for grade 10 Physical Science. Initially, there was an increase shown in interest in science from grade 9 to grade 10 but this interest declined as learners progressed to grade 12. During their progress from the GET phase to the FET phase their transition was characterized by a decline in interest in Physical Science caused by lack of practical work, loss of the closer student-teacher relationships and disappointment when their expectations of teaching strategies were not met. They themselves described the transition as difficult. However, the achievement in the examination of those who were post positivist-oriented was better than the achievement of those who were empiricist-aligned. When faced with problems of conceptual understanding, they resorted to guess work and rote application of concepts and algorithms. Although these findings were derived from a study of learners in only one school from a poor township in South Africa, they are consistent with other reports in the literature. Copyright