Abstract

The paper reports on a case study of a South African grade 12 teacher who perceives the teaching of projectile motion to be difficult, with a special focus on instructional strategies. The Department of Basic Education (2010) indicated that the performance of students in projectile motion is not desired due to a number of factors, of which one of them is how they were taught by teachers. The qualitative study focused on the microscopic side of teaching practice in order to build the fundamental resources for in service training. Data was collected through interviews and classroom observations. Results emerging from this participant show that the explanatory framework and empirical perspectives of the teacher could have influenced the poor comprehension by students and his perception that teaching projectile motion is difficult. Furthermore, it is suggested that even though there is more focus on improving the subject matter knowledge of the teachers, there is also an important need to focus on the teaching practices, with a focus on instructional strategies.