Developing grade 9 teachers’ natural sciences subject content knowledge through professional collaboration

Abstract

Continuous Professional Teacher Development (CPTD) is critical in deepening Natural Sciences (NS) teachers' content knowledge. The NS subject in the South African curriculum is a subject that lays a foundation for science knowledge and skills in the lower grades; that is, Grades 4 to 9. It comprises other subjects such as Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Geography, Astronomy and Chemistry. Although the NS subject content is mainly located in Life Sciences and Physical Sciences, most teachers specialise either in Life Sciences or Physical Sciences; hence, there is a gap in the NS subject content. This often results in teachers either not treating the topics they did not specialise in well or not teaching them at all. This results in low learner performance and related problems, like a shortage of science skills that are so needed in the country. Thus, learners are lagging in terms of science skills compared to their international counterparts. The CPTD interventional programmes organised by the Department of Basic Education do not assist much in addressing the challenge of teachers' subject specialisation. The idea of NS teachers working in collaboration for mutual information sharing leaves room to be reconnoitred. It is on this basis that this study explored the usage of Teacher Professional Collaboration (TPC) in developing Grade 9 NS teachers' content knowledge. Ten Grade 9 NS teachers from five schools located in the Madibeng subdistrict of Northwest Province were conveniently sampled to participate in this study. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and observations within Collaborative Action Research (CAR). The findings showed that teachers understood and taught the topics they did not specialise in better and they were motivated to do so. The study contributes knowledge on TPC and the broader dialogue on effective and sustainable CPTD programmes.