Physical Sciences Teacher’s Epistemic Cognition on Electric Circuits and their Science Teaching Practice

Abstract

Although a wide range of studies have been conducted on teachers' cognition and their beliefs. The relationship between teachers' epistemic cognition and their teaching practices has rarely been studied. This study aimed to investigate how physical science teachers' epistemic cognition relates to their teaching practices on electric circuits. A mixed-method explanatory sequential design was adopted for this study. A purposive sampling technique was used to sample participants from the accessible population in uMkhanyakude District KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. A total number of forty Further Education and Training (FET) Physical Sciences teachers formed the sample. A survey (questionnaire level 5 Likert scale) and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. The Model of Teacher Epistemic Cognition was employed as the theoretical framework. The data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the study showed that physical science teachers’ teaching practices are strongly correlated to ECS (Epistemic Cognition Source), ECJ (Epistemic Cognition Justification), SEA (Simple Epistemic Aim), and ECC (Epistemic Cognition Certainty). Furthermore, there was a negative correlation between complex epistemic aims with teaching practice which accounted for why teachers do not teach electric circuits for conceptual understanding but rather algorithmically mathematical knowledge. Implications for teaching practices particular to electric circuits are discussed. The findings have implications for teaching science and further research into epistemic cognition.