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Radical Solutions for Education in AfricaCan Open Science Offer Solutions to Science Education in Africa?

Radical Solutions for Education in Africa: Can Open Science Offer Solutions to Science Education... [In this chapter, we examine some international and continental challenges related to science education and science teacher training. Authors such as De Beer (J New Gener Sci 14:34–53, 2016) indicate that there is a general lack of qualified science and mathematics teachers in African primary and secondary schools. In addition to the challenge of integrating indigenous knowledge in African schools (Jegede in Int J Sci Educ 19:1–20, 1997; De Beer in The decolonisation of the curriculum project: the affordances of indigenous knowledge for self-directed learning, (NWU self-directed learning series, volume 2), AOSIS, Cape Town, 2019b), science education challenges can be classified as systemic (e.g. lack of resources, outdated curriculum, curricular change, policy reform and classroom-related aspects (e.g. class size, teacher pedagogical content knowledge and skills, relevant assessments) (Ogunniyi and Rollnick in J Sci Teach Educ 26:65–79, 2015; Tikly et al. in Supporting secondary school STEM education for sustainable development in Africa, University of Bristol, 2018). Literature review forms this chapter’s main research methodology. Research questions are related to the following thematic areas: communities of practice for science teachers, contextualisation and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), and assessments. Open Science (OS), its components, benefits and general principles (openness, inclusion, fairness, equity and sharing) are used to develop a framework/model to address the issues raised. While scholars are increasingly motivated to augment the transparency of their work using the Open Science Framework (OSF) (Bezjak et al. in Open science training handbook, Zenodo, 2018; Munafò et al. in Nat Hum Behav 1:1–9, 2017; Nosek et al. in Science 348:1422–1425, 2015; Nosek et al. in Proc Natl Acad Sci 115:2600–2606, 2018; Stall et al. in Nature 570:27–29, 2019), it is not clear whether the uptake of OS is similar for science educators. The proposed model makes use of different aspects of the OSF to create a community of practice of teachers and students with a peer network of “critical friends”. In our conclusion, we give recommendations in view of radically improving science teacher education on the African continent and beyond. Our proposed model offers the opportunity to extend the principle of openness to science teachers and students by fostering sharing, collaboration while also focusing on self-directed learning and constructionist pedagogy.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

Radical Solutions for Education in AfricaCan Open Science Offer Solutions to Science Education in Africa?

Part of the Lecture Notes in Educational Technology Book Series
Editors: Burgos, Daniel; Olivier, Jako
Ferreira-Meyers, Karen; Dhakulkar, Amit
Radical Solutions for Education in Africa — Aug 3, 2021
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References (34)

Publisher
Springer Singapore
Copyright
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
ISBN
978-981-16-4098-8
Pages
149 –174
DOI
10.1007/978-981-16-4099-5_8
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[In this chapter, we examine some international and continental challenges related to science education and science teacher training. Authors such as De Beer (J New Gener Sci 14:34–53, 2016) indicate that there is a general lack of qualified science and mathematics teachers in African primary and secondary schools. In addition to the challenge of integrating indigenous knowledge in African schools (Jegede in Int J Sci Educ 19:1–20, 1997; De Beer in The decolonisation of the curriculum project: the affordances of indigenous knowledge for self-directed learning, (NWU self-directed learning series, volume 2), AOSIS, Cape Town, 2019b), science education challenges can be classified as systemic (e.g. lack of resources, outdated curriculum, curricular change, policy reform and classroom-related aspects (e.g. class size, teacher pedagogical content knowledge and skills, relevant assessments) (Ogunniyi and Rollnick in J Sci Teach Educ 26:65–79, 2015; Tikly et al. in Supporting secondary school STEM education for sustainable development in Africa, University of Bristol, 2018). Literature review forms this chapter’s main research methodology. Research questions are related to the following thematic areas: communities of practice for science teachers, contextualisation and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), and assessments. Open Science (OS), its components, benefits and general principles (openness, inclusion, fairness, equity and sharing) are used to develop a framework/model to address the issues raised. While scholars are increasingly motivated to augment the transparency of their work using the Open Science Framework (OSF) (Bezjak et al. in Open science training handbook, Zenodo, 2018; Munafò et al. in Nat Hum Behav 1:1–9, 2017; Nosek et al. in Science 348:1422–1425, 2015; Nosek et al. in Proc Natl Acad Sci 115:2600–2606, 2018; Stall et al. in Nature 570:27–29, 2019), it is not clear whether the uptake of OS is similar for science educators. The proposed model makes use of different aspects of the OSF to create a community of practice of teachers and students with a peer network of “critical friends”. In our conclusion, we give recommendations in view of radically improving science teacher education on the African continent and beyond. Our proposed model offers the opportunity to extend the principle of openness to science teachers and students by fostering sharing, collaboration while also focusing on self-directed learning and constructionist pedagogy.]

Published: Aug 3, 2021

Keywords: Science education; Open science; Teacher education

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