Conference Proceedings (DAES)

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/11070/147

Browse

Browsing Conference Proceedings (DAES) by Author "!Gaoseb, Noah"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Proceedings of the 14th Annual SAARMSTE Conference. University of Pretoria , 2006
    (University of Pretoria, 2006) !Gaoseb, Noah; Campbell, Bob; Kasanda, Choshi D.; Kapenda, Hileni M.; Lubben, Fred; Kandjeo-Marenga, Hedwig U.
    The MASTEP professional development intervention programme set out to improve the teaching of science and mathemancs in senior secondary schools Namibia. This paper demonstrates that teachen who participated in MASTEP (science, i.e. biology and physical science) changed their practice in ways that embraced the use of everyday contexts and reflected a more learner centred approach to science education The nature of the change and the stimulus for change are discuss
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The role of practical work in science teaching in Namibia
    (SAARMSTE, 2001) Kapenda, Hileni M.; Kandjeo-Marenga, Hedwig U.; !Gaoseb, Noah; Kasanda, Choshi D.
    This paper presents a study into science practical work conducted in Namibian classrooms. Lesson plans, task sheets and student work are used to identify the intended learning outcomes. In addition, aspects of task design (inductive-deductive; open-closed,ยท nature of student involvement) and the context of the practical task (duration; interaction patterns; types of task information and apparatus; nature of the student record) are explored. Millar's Profile Form is used to analyse twelve practical tasks. Findings show an emphasis on conceptual instead of procedural objectives, and a frequent change from an inductive to a deductive approach during the execution of the tasks. The practical activity is rarely consolidated in a laboratmy report but functions as an enjoyable introduction to a set of unrelated consolidation questions. Suggestions are made for the modification of the analysis scheme, and for in-service activities to support teachers to use practical work more effectively.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Use of Nonstandardised Measurements To Enhance Student Learning of Units
    (University of Namibia, 2007) !Gaoseb, Noah; Kasanda, Choshi D.
    Measurement is described in the directives of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM, 1989: 51) as "of central importance to the curriculum because of its power to help children see that mathematics is useful in everyday life and to help them develop many mathematical concepts and skills." At primary level, the instruction emphasized the importance of establishing a firm foundation in the basic concepts and skills of measurement. For example, understand the attributes of length, capacity, mass, weight, area, volume, time, temperature, and angle. However, when learners reach secondary level, still many do not have the sense of estimating one centimeter, one centimeter square, or hectare. This can be attributed to the way measurements are introduced and used in the schools. In fact metric units are just taken for granted. We need to inculcate into our learners the sense of ownership of the units of measurements, even the metric units. This is only possible if we revisit the nonstandard units our ancestors used to measure objects as the basis of known (contextualizing) and move to the unknown, the metric units. The metric systems of units have evolved since the adoption of the first well-defined system in France in 1791 (Wikipedia, 2007). Learners need to see the necessity of using the metric systems and this can only be done if they work with nonstandard units and see the inconsistency in their measurements.