THE USE OF DIALOGUE AS A PSYCHOLOGICAL TOOL FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING PHYSICAL AND LIFE SCIENCES IN AND OUT OF THE CLASSROOM

This study looks at dialogue as a vital tool for teaching and learning in a Physical and Life Science classroom. Dialogue could elicit responses that could raise issues bothering science learners as well as science teachers, while teaching and learning goes on in the classroom or even out of classroom situations. Physical and Life Science is perceived as tough disciplines. This perhaps explains why using dialogue could discover strengths and weakness of both learners and teachers in these disciplines. The data for this qualitative study was collected from a focus group interviews. The response from Both Physical and Life Sciences learners (students), who offer between Mathematics and Mathematics literacy, were interviewed. The feedback from the interviews were transcribed, coded and categorized into themes, as supported by Saldana (2009).The Issues discovered from this study range from, students’ background, creating an authentic environment for teaching and learning through Teacher Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK), learners attitude, language used for communication while teaching and learning. This study got different feedbacks which supported discussions considered by the researcher. These feedbacks are from the Physical and Life Sciences Learners. In this context, Physical Science is made up of Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics. Biology and Health Sciences makes up Life Sciences in this study. The results suggest Learners had different interpretations about their teaching and learning in the classroom. This research was carried out in a township school in South Africa. In this qualitative study, however, it explains how dialogue could be used as a psychological tool (lens) to discover strengths and weakness of both learners and teachers in and out of the classroom learning situation.