General pedagogical knowledge

The discussion in this section will focus on pedagogical issues related more specifically to practical work (as discussed in Chapter Three). It will describe Batandwa’s knowledge and beliefs about general laboratory management, the organization and management of group work and materials during practical activities in general, and in the observed lessons.

It appeared that Batandwa has a good idea of how the laboratory or practical work is managed at the school. Firstly with regard to the physical resources, he was able to describe the procedures involved in the acquisition of smaller items, as well as more expensive items. There was no one person overseeing the laboratory resources, and it seemed that Batandwa was able use his own initiative to source and purchase smaller items.

So, but lucky enough I do research a little bit and, ja, we didn't have the equipment, ja, so I had to go to Goodwood. There's a place there, which is called Progressive Electronics. And then I bought the multi-meters and the capacitors and then I had to … because this capacitors, different colours there they give you certain capacitors all those type of things. [practical work interview, p. 3] However, his requests for larger items such as an oxygen tank and scales were not approved by the School Governing Body.

Previous difficult experiences influence the decisions a teacher makes in the future, and this seemed to be true for Batandwa when he explained why he had done a teacher demonstration rather than a hands-on experiment.

It is a combination of things. The best would have been to have them to do more practicals and all that. But the issues there are too many of them. There are about 50 something of them and sitting with those and trying to conduct a practical with them. Previous experience has shown it is a bit tricky…

One could actually manoeuvre that with a relatively good class, let us say of a selection of bright learners who are focused. Most of them are not and will try to steal some chemicals and try to do some naughty child things. That is the challenge with a class of that nature. [pre-lesson interview, p. 3] This extract also highlighted one other challenge Batandwa faces, that of large class sizes. He seemed to deal with this by reducing the number of hands-on activities with the class but

also by enlisting the help of others. In the one lesson observed he asked the student teacher to supervise one half of the class while conducting a practical with the other.

In class, however, he told learners that he would ideally have had them actually do the experiment themselves, but he cited safety and lack of resources as the reasons for doing demonstrations instead.

Reflecting on the demonstration he said:

OK, because everything can be seen from where the learners were sitting, you know. I mean, the flame and the sound and everything, you know.

[practical work interview, p. 5] However, being an observer at the back of the room, it was clear to me that the learners at the back were able to see the flame and hear the sound, but were unable to see the evidence that a gas was produced and the change in the colour of the litmus paper. He was aware of this during the lesson and said he is going to pass the bottle along but then failed to do so. The demonstration was thus not that well-managed.

Batandwa recognised that doing practical work required lots of planning, and although reluctant to talk about what his colleagues do, he did say

though, I must say, practical work adds to the work load because if you are going to do a practical work lets say the following day you know, make sure you are staying after school, may be just to make sure everything is there, everything works, like you are trying to, trying to use, you know. If, like something does not work, you try to see, OK, what is an alternative that they can use, there, and all that. So, that's why some people will avoid it, ja… because I've seen cases where someone tries to do the practical and then it doesn't work because they did not really test it, that it works, that it is working first, you know. … so, that's

the problem with a practical … it needs a lot of planning, a lot of it, ja.

[practical work interview, p. 4]

Learners’ absenteeism sometimes meant that the practical had to be repeated after school, which further added to a teacher’s workload.

As indicated above, the large classes posed a major stumbling block. He was aware of the benefits of working in groups when resources were limited but admitted that he found it difficult to manage a large number of groups. His concerns were safety when working with hazardous substances and that he would have been unable to assist when required. In terms of formal assessment requirements, learners must submit individual work, but he managed the large classes by allowing them to work in groups:

… they did some groups, they did some groups. Though, each individual had to do their own report, but they, because the equipment is a bit scarce, so they did it in groups, ja. [practical work interview, p. 2] Batandwa has a sound knowledge of how the laboratory and resources are managed at the school and is able to conduct practicals despite the challenges of large classes, and the lack of certain resources. He uses group work to overcome these difficulties but also realises that the nature of the practical and safety considerations sometimes makes a teacher demonstration a safer option. His demonstrations are, however, not always conducted as effectively as possible.