Conceptual understanding of photosynthesis
type: CreativeWork
description: The purpose of this study was to investigate possible reasons for the high failure rate in Biology, particularly under the topic “Photosynthesis”. Photosynthesis is a biological process which is critical for producing food for all living organisms. A test was used as a tool for collecting data. The test consisted of six questions taken from previous grade twelve final examination papers. The questions were analysed to determine the cognitive demands according to Blooms taxonomy. The questions were found to be integrated and tested lower and higher order cognitive levels according to Bloom’s taxonomy. The learners achievement scores showed that the test discriminated well among those learners who studied well and those who did not know their work. The sample was drawn from six high schools of Mthunzini circuit, in northern KwaZulu-Natal. To test whether there were significant differences in achievement scores among the six schools, a statistical Package for Social Sciences was used. Poor performance in the structured questions showed that language was a major barrier in expressing the learners ideas. Examples of incoherent sentences written by learners were captured in the main study. English as a medium of instruction affects the ability of the learners to answer questions. Looking at the learners responses, it is evident that language is a barrier to those students who cannot discuss in the target language (TL) of instruction which is English. Some students with better English competence were able to express themselves in the instructional language, and this gave them a chance of explaining their observations clearly and accurately. The poor performance at the level of 29% in lower order questions, showed how poorly the learners are mastering their work. Question 5 an application level question was the most poorly done with 66% learners achieving between 0-10%. The learners failed completely to plot a graph, they failed to use information given to identify correct …
abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate possible reasons for the high failure rate in Biology, particularly under the topic “Photosynthesis”. Photosynthesis is a biological process which is critical for producing food for all living organisms. A test was used as a tool for collecting data. The test consisted of six questions taken from previous grade twelve final examination papers. The questions were analysed to determine the cognitive demands according to Blooms taxonomy. The questions were found to be integrated and tested lower and higher order cognitive levels according to Bloom’s taxonomy. The learners achievement scores showed that the test discriminated well among those learners who studied well and those who did not know their work. The sample was drawn from six high schools of Mthunzini circuit, in northern KwaZulu-Natal. To test whether there were significant differences in achievement scores among the six schools, a statistical Package for Social Sciences was used. Poor performance in the structured questions showed that language was a major barrier in expressing the learners ideas. Examples of incoherent sentences written by learners were captured in the main study. English as a medium of instruction affects the ability of the learners to answer questions. Looking at the learners responses, it is evident that language is a barrier to those students who cannot discuss in the target language (TL) of instruction which is English. Some students with better English competence were able to express themselves in the instructional language, and this gave them a chance of explaining their observations clearly and accurately. The poor performance at the level of 29% in lower order questions, showed how poorly the learners are mastering their work. Question 5 an application level question was the most poorly done with 66% learners achieving between 0-10%. The learners failed completely to plot a graph, they failed to use information given to identify correct …
author: Mhlamvu-Zikhali, Nompumelelo Venentia
keywords: Photosynthesis
license: https://devspace.unizulu.ac.za/bitstreams/290df99b-0d51-4fbb-be5d-4713ae24c1d5/download
date published: 2010
date modified: 2026-07-24T06:16:55Z
provider: University of Zululand
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Zululand