Lessons in Chemistry
- Wits University
Science education professor envisages a theoretical construct to help high school teachers teach Chemistry – wins global recognition.
Professor Elizabeth Mavhunga has come a long way since she first encountered a white lecturer in a fully equipped chemistry lab, to becoming only the third South African to receive a NARST Fellowship Award some 40 years later. NARST is the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, based in the United States.
The Soweto-born Wits alumna grew up in Mhluzi, Middelburg. Her qualifications include a BSc Chemistry – “after being rejected for Pharmacy” – then a BSc Honours, completed with a bursary from AECI Ltd. She received her doctorate in Science Education in 2012.
Chemistry in technicolour
Mavhunga recalls both the shock and exhilaration of her undergraduate student experience: The first cultural shock was to be taught by a white lecturer, in the Humphrey Raikes Chemistry building, full of mostly white students.
“You have to keep in mind that I grew up in a very small community, largely semi-rural at that time. People did not intermingle at the time, and my engagement with white people was only when we went to town for shopping or to see a doctor.”
Furthermore, Mavhunga had to overcome the reality that she couldn’t fully comprehend what was being taught – “I could not figure out whether it was the English or the abstract nature of the content,” she says.
The next shock was to walk into a fully furnished Chemistry laboratory stocked with different shaped flasks, measuring instruments, chemicals and “all these rules, the Do’s and Don’ts.” But then ultimately, “the exciting realisation that I could actually conduct sound chemical experiments – with all the glamour of colours! – and a perfect logic behind their reactions.”
Teaching experiments
After graduating with an honours degree in Chemistry, Mavhunga worked at AECI as a research officer for PVC polymers and monomers for three years.
“My passion for education drew me back to studying a MSc in Science Education, which I completed Cum Laude in 1997. After starting a family and raising children, I returned for my PhD in 2010 and completed it two-and-a-half years later.”
Mavhunga joined the Wits School of Education as a Senior Lecturer in 2013, progressing to Associate Professor in 2017, and full Professor in 2021.
Her passion for education and academia is evident: “I have always loved the education environment, the energy that students and teachers bring, the fact that it is a system where one can predict outcomes, and there is a respectable way of acknowledging achievements. I love the drama and the excitement that goes with graduations! I love the feeling of control over one’s time and the wins that come with self-discipline.”
Digitizing science and AI-empowered teaching
Mavhunga’s research interest reflects her predilection for systems, sound experiments, and predictable outcomes. Her research focus is in defining and subsequently fast-tracking the development