Various reasons for underperformance in physical sciences have been found, such as a lack of teachers’ content knowledge and a lack of resources. This study looks into the extent of alignment between the various levels of the curriculum on circuit electricity (intended, implemented and attained levels). The research took place in Mpumalanga amongst 1423 Grade 11 learners with their teachers at 42 South African schools. The study followed an exploratory research design, using an interpretive paradigm whereby the learners responded to a survey questionnaire, namely the learner electricity learning confirmatory questionnaire. Their teachers’ electricity teaching lesson plan was collected and analysed. The alignments of four different curriculum levels were compared, namely the formal curriculum (21 electricity topics in the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement); the perceived curriculum (the topics included in the lesson plans); the experiential curriculum (learner reports of topics studied); and the assessed curriculum (problematic electricity topics in diagnostic reports). This study provided evidence of a misalignment of the formal with the perceived, experiential and assessed curricula, but a closer alignment of experiential curriculum with the perceived and assessed curricula. Findings contradict the impression that teachers plan to teach for the examinations; however, they teach sections that do not appear in the exam. More alarmingly, teachers omit ‘conceptually difficult’ sections from their lesson plans but include the relevant applications of these concepts in calculations. District officials need to ensure that the difficult electricity concepts are taught, and they should make sure that the teachers teach what is expected in the formal curriculum.

中文翻译：

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电路电气课程不同层次之间的衔接性研究

已经发现造成物理科学表现不佳的各种原因，例如缺乏教师的内容知识和资源。这项研究调查了电路电气课程各个级别（预期，实施和达到的级别）之间的一致程度。这项研究是在Mpumalanga的42家南非学校的1423名11年级学习者及其老师中进行的。该研究遵循探索性研究设计，使用解释性范式，学习者对调查问卷做出回应，即学习者电力学习确认性问卷。收集并分析了他们的老师的电力教学课程计划。比较了四个不同课程级别的对齐方式，即正式课程（《课程与评估政策声明》中的21个电力主题）；预期的课程（课程计划中包含的主题）；体验式课程（所研究主题的学习者报告）；以及经过评估的课程（诊断报告中的电力问题）。这项研究提供了正式课程与感知课程，体验课程和评估课程不符的证据，但经验课程与感知课程和评估课程的吻合程度更高。调查结果与教师计划教考试的印象相矛盾；但是，他们教授考试中未出现的部分。更令人震惊的是，教师在课程计划中忽略了“概念上困难的”部分，但将这些概念的相关应用包括在计算中。