Abstract
AN INTERVENTION ON SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ UNDERSTANDING OF AND MEDIATION OF LEARNING OF STOICHIOMETRY IN SELECTED SCHOOLS IN THE ZAMBEZI REGION
Desalu D. Denuga*, Kenneth M. Ngcoza and Joyce Sewry
ABSTRACT
The study investigated six Physical Science teachers from three different High schools within Katima Mulilo urban about their understanding of and mediation of learning of stoichiometry. All the Physical Science teachers teach Physical Science in Zambezi region and volunteered to be part of the research process, using participating action research (PAR) within community of practice (CoP). The participants answered questionnaires, interviewed on the mediation of learning of stoichiometry and took part in the intervention workshop. Sixty learners, twenty from each school answered stoichiometry diagnostic test and were taught during afternoon-school programme. The learners voluntarily agreed to be part of the research processes after consultation. The findings revealed that the use of a diagnostic test on learners made the Physical Science teachers aware of the learners? challenges in stoichiometry and what is difficult to understand, which necessitated the need for intervention workshops to assist them. It also helped in the use of prior knowledge, one of the tenets of topic specific pedagogical content knowledge (TSPCK) to access what learners already know about stoichiometry.
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