Focus on 4th-IR at UWC events

LOCAL and international experts in education, as well as in natural and physical science, will converge at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) this month for an annual mini-conference and teacher training workshops.

More than 200 teachers are expected to attend a mini-conference today at the UWC’s Senate Hall.

At the same time a threeday parallel teacher training workshop – for natural and physical sciences teachers – will be held at the Department of Physics and Astronomy building.

The university said the events were the result of a partnership between UWC, its neighbouring Cape Peninsula University of Technology, the Western Cape Department of Education and the University of Missouri in the US.

The conference and workshops, according to Dr Mark Herbert of UWC’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, have as their aim the increase of the critical mass of learners needed in the sciences, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) sector in South Africa.

Herbert said the project was the first of its kind in the Western Cape.

It will also prepare youngsters for the Fourth Industrial Revolution(4th-IR) by improving their physics content knowledge and help teachers with pedagogical skills.

“The intention is to increase learners’ interest, participation and success in the subjects with a focus on empowering them with the skills for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, such as technology aptitude, communication, teamwork, creativity and problem solving, and critical thinking through Modelling Instruction pedagogy,” said Herbert.

“This intervention will deliver physics content from a disciplinary perspective with the modelling teaching pedagogy, which emphasises the practices of scientists and how scientific knowledge is constructed,” he said.

Herbert said that leadership skills would be built through mentoring, research and practice-based learning that includes comprehensive physics content, pedagogy, research and evaluation.