PHYSICAL SCIENCE TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF AN ADVANCED CERTIFICATE IN EDUCATION

Advanced Certificate in Education programmes was offered by many South African universities to provide opportunities for teachers to upgrade their positions. The purpose of the study was to explore Physical Science teachers' perceptions of their professional development. In this study we considered three domains of professional development which are content knowledge, pedagogic content knowledge and teacher beliefs and attitudes. This study used a mixed method approach using the form of an embedded design. The study was conducted with 156 students enrolled in an ACE Physical Science programme. The teachers stated that their content knowledge and pedagogic content knowledge had not only improved, but also their engagement with actual laboratories, and conducting experiments contributed to their teaching experiences. Hence, their self-confidence of physical science teaching evolved. The authors recommend that the ACE programme should also include a mentoring system with teaching practicum via school leadership and subject advisers.