Astronomy and the School Curriculum in South Africa
Channel: Auke Slotegraaf
Date: 2012-11-03

Presented by Anthony Lelliott at the ASSA Symposium, 2012 October 14, at SAAO in Cape Town.
The presentation provides an analysis of the current South African school curriculum in terms of astronomy content. When the curriculum was revised in the 1990s and early 2000s, astronomy was moved from the geography curriculum into the natural sciences. At the primary and junior secondary school level, basic astronomy content is relatively well covered in terms of the solar system and 'space science', with relatively little reference to current issues that occupy astronomers and cosmologists. Further there is a paucity of astronomy in the FET level of schooling (grades 10-12) so that there is no sequence of conceptual development of astronomical topics from upper primary school to matric level. The presentation considers the issues raised by Adams and Slater (2000), Sadler (2001) and Pasachoff (2001, 2002) in the USA, regarding the sort of astronomy that should be taught at school and early tertiary level. In view of the positioning of South Africa as an astronomy 'hub', the consequences of the current status of astronomy in the school curriculum are discussed, and recommendations for its development are made.
Visit the official symposium website for further details:
http://symposium2012.assa.saao.ac.za