Transformative pedagogy adoption by Natural Sciences pre-service teachers in a South African university

Transformative pedagogy is based on the principle that learning requires concerted effort to critically examine beliefs, values, and assumptions, and places learners at the heart of the learning process. The development of pre-service teachers' lesson planning skills is considered key in raising effective teachers to close the gap between theory and practice. Lesson planning enables pre-service teachers to think through what they teach, how they teach, and how to evaluate their teaching. This study sought to analyse lesson plans of final year natural science pre-service teachers to gain insights regarding the integration of principles of transformative pedagogy based on Mezirow's theoretical model of transformative pedagogy. The sample focussed on the written data derived from three lesson plans structured by the selected natural science pre-service teachers at a selected university in South Africa. This study employed a purposive sampling technique and thematic analysis to analyse the data. The findings revealed all three lesson plans included principles of transformative pedagogy, namely, open dialogue, critical consciousness and autonomy. The pre-service teachers could structure lessons that would enable learners to critically reflect on their existing beliefs and values that would enable learners to undergo a transitional change in their lifestyle and personal behaviour.