Factors Affecting Teaching Sciences in Secondary Schools - Essay Example

Factors Affecting Teaching of Sciences in Secondary Schools Name Institution Date Factors Affecting Teaching Sciences in Secondary Schools Key words Constructivism approaches, traditional approaches and sciences. Focus Questions What are the factors facing teaching sciences in schools? Who do they affect? What are the potential solutions to the factors affecting teaching sciences in secondary schools? Abstract Constructivism is the path to go for science teachers in secondary schools, this has been evidenced by the dismal performance of the subjects in secondary schools as well as many challenges that the traditional approach has not been able to help overcome. This therefore means that traditional approaches in teaching are no longer best suited for teachers to use in teaching sciences in secondary schools. The way that science subjects are being taught in secondary schools is very relevant for good performance in the subjects. However teaching approaches are not the only challenges that face teaching of sciences in secondary schools, other factors include lack of interest from students, lack of resources especially in secondary schools and also unqualified teachers among others. Introduction Sciences are taught in schools at both the primary and secondary levels. In secondary schools, science is categorized into three main branches that will help students understand the subject more clearly: chemistry, biology and physics. Some consider mathematics a science. There are other science branches that are not taught in secondary schools, including astronomy, astrology, meteorology, metaphysics and pathology, among others. However, the teaching of sciences in secondary schools has been marred with different challenges, such as out-dated teaching methods that is using the traditional approach of teaching, inadequate science teachers in schools, inadequate facilities for the teaching of the subjects, such as poor laboratories and research materials, among others, decreasing interest among female students to learn and participate in science activities andthe poor qualifications of current science teachers, among others. Sciences require a certain level of theory as well as practical experiments. Science, like many subjects, can be taught either using traditional approaches or using the constructivist approach. Purpose of the Conference Paper The purpose of the conference paper is to look at the various challenges that face teaching of sciences in secondary schools, how these challenges affect the teachers as well as the students and the future of the subject in secondary schools. This information will be deduced from previous articles by various scholars as well as researchers among other scholarly articles. The conference paper will also look at the various sources of these challenges and possible solutions. This paper has been written for the various stakeholders in the education sector and these include the students, teachers, heads of schools and representatives in the education sector among others. These challenges affect the overall performance of students, the attitudes of students towards the subject, the quality of science for the future, the quality of education as well as the scientific contributions in the world o science. Methodology Used for the Conference Paper This paper will mainly look at previous literature by other scholars to investigate the problems affecting teaching sciences in schools. It will also analyse the teaching practices and how they contribute or help solve the challenges in teaching sciences in secondary schools among other factors such as interest of the various stakeholders such as students, school heads as well stakeholders in the education sector. This paper will look at data especially with regards to the different challenges facing the two different genders of students. Literature review Teaching Approaches Constructivist Teaching Approach Teachers in secondary schools can use either the traditional approach or the constructivist approach toteaching. The constructivist approach to teaching is a learning theory that suggests that learners or students construct knowledge from their experiences. This means that the students have to come to class with knowledge acquired prior to the lesson. Such knowledge can be acquired from previous readings or experiments. The constructivist approach requires that the students or learners are actively engaged in the learning process, and the teacher plays the role of a guide in the learning process. The constructivists believe that learning will be more effective when it is built from something that the student or learner already knows, also known as schema, and the student participates in the learning process actively through discussions, discovering new knowledge and meanings and verbalizing the new knowledge acquired. To enable the learning of sciences among other subjects using the constructivist approach, the following conditions must be fulfilled: actively engaged students, a democratic learning environment, interactive and student-centred activities and a teacher whocan facilitate a responsible and autonomous learning process for the students or learners. The main goal for using the constructivist teaching practices is to facilitate independent learningby teaching and training students how to initiate learning from their own experiences. Learning using the constructivist approach is done in groups to encourage interactive learning, and the teachers who act as facilitators put an emphasis on social and communication skills thatwill facilitate collaboration and the exchange of ideas. Following the literature on the constructivists teaching approach it is very clear that schools that do not implement the constructivist teaching approach in sciences will face challenges such as lack of initiative from students that would rather have teachers spoon-feed them with the necessary content. Activities used in the Constructivist Approach of Teaching The constructivists approach has been successful in teaching sciences because it encourages the following activities: the use of experiments, conducting research projects, going on field trips, watching films, engaging in class discussion and online learning which facilitates discussion forums and learning (Piaget & Inhelder, 1969). These activities are very useful especially in learning science subjects. Sciences require a combination of theory and experiments to ensure a total learning experience. In the constructivist approach to learning, the students will be required to conduct individual experiments thatthey will share with fellow classmates during class time. The students also get the chance to apply the knowledge they have acquired in classrooms in the real world during field trips and excursions. For the field trips to be an effective learning or teaching practice for the learners, the teachers have to facilitate a discussion after the trip where the students or learners can exchange ideas and new knowledge acquired (Piaget & Inhelder, 1969). Students can be given research topics by their teachers to conduct research projects on and thereafter present their findings to the rest of the class during class time. Science teachers should give science-related projects to their students and thereafter facilitate presentations for the students to provideduring class time to share in their findings and allow other students to contribute their ideas on the projects to the learning process (Piaget & Inhelder, 1969). Teachers, including science teachers, can also use films to facilitate the learning process and thereafter prepare a discussion on the content they have just watched. This will facilitate learning for the students, as they will exchange their own ideas and knowledge, and the teacher guides them through setting questions or quizzes for the students (Piaget & Inhelder, 1969).Science teachers using the constructivist teaching practice can also hold class discussions on science-related topics. The teacher can give the students a topic to read aboutand then hold discussions in their next class to facilitate the exchange of information and ideas among the students with regard to the topic given. Discussions are evident in all constructivist practices, as it facilitates an interactive study section (Piaget & Inhelder, 1969). An online forum such as online discussions, blogs and wikis have been used by students to acquire information and is a good way to learn with the increasing number of students using the Internet to study and acquire information. Any information acquired online is more useful when discussed among classmates, where ideas can be exchanged among the students (Piaget & Inhelder, 1969). Traditional Teaching Practices Traditional teaching practices in teaching sciences have posed a challenge because the practice starts with giving students basic skills in the subject involved, and the teachers adhere to a fixed curriculum with the use of textbooks and workbooks as the main teaching and learning materials. In the traditional teaching practice, the teacher acts as an instructor and gives the learners instructions, and the student receives the information or knowledge given by the teachers. The student plays a very passive role in the learning process, as he or she takes what the teacher gives him or her and takesno initiative to acquire knowledge or meaning prior to the class (Piaget & Inhelder, 1969). In traditional teaching practices, the teacher assumes a directive and an authoritative role, with his word being the final word and the learners’ contributions being irrelevant. During assessments, teachers using the traditional teaching approach are only interested in the correct answers and not the content or methodology to get the right answers; their assessment isdone through tests. In traditional teaching practices, students are inactive and work by themselves, which is contrary to the constructivists approach (Piaget & Inhelder, 1969). The techniques in the traditional approach do not increase the students’ nor the teachers’ interests in learning the subject and also it creates an air of laziness for the students and teachers as the same curriculum is used every year and also the students barely exert any efforts to learn new things in the subject as they wait for the teacher to give them the content which they use not to apply in their daily lives but just to pass their assessments. Therefore the traditional approach to teaching is a challenge to teaching sciences in secondary schools. Difference between the Constructivist Approach and the Traditional Approach Traditional practices put an emphasis on basic skills, whereas constructivists put an emphasis on the general idea and spread out to parts. Traditional teaching practices adhere strictly to a fixed curriculum, whereas constructivism focuses on pursuing the curiosity and questions of the students. Traditional teaching practices use textbooks and workbooks as the learning materials (secondary sources), whereas constructivists use primary sources such as observations and discussions, sources that can be easily manipulated to their favour (Piaget & Inhelder, 1969). Learning in traditional practices is passive for the students because they only receive information and knowledge from their teachers, whereas the constructivist learning process is interactive among the students. Teachers using the traditional approach assume a directive role, whereas the teachers in the constructivist approach interact with their students. Assessments in the traditional approach are in the form of tests, and teachers are interested only in the correct answers, while assessments in the constructivist approach are done through observations, the efforts of the students, the students’ points of view and tests (Piaget &Inhelder, 1969). Other Factors Affecting the Teaching of Sciences in Secondary Schools Science as a subject requires more than just receiving information and knowledge from a teacher; instead, learners will get more from observations and deductions from experiments, field excursions and constant research. Other than out-dated teaching approaches there are other factors that may hinder the learning of sciences, and these factors could be either internal or external factors. The students could affect the teaching process by not playing their role inconducting research, failing to undertake assessments, performing poorly orexhibiting poor attitudes or a lack of interest in the sciences among others (Driver, Squires, Rushworth, & Wood, 1994). Teachers can also affect the teaching process of sciences in secondary schools by having poor qualifications, thus employing poor teaching practices, lack of knowledge in the science subjects as a result of a shortage of teachers, which forces teachers specialising inother subjects to teach sciences and a lack of training in better teaching practices, among others (Driver et al., 1994). Factors That Affect the Teaching Process in Private Schools and Public Schools Factors affecting teaching of sciences in secondary schools are different in public secondary schools and private secondary schools. Private schools are well funded and likely able to provide better facilities, such as laboratories for experiments, funds to go onfield trips and excursions and more qualified teachers than public schools, among others. However, private schools face challenges in the teaching process, such as poor attitudes ofthe students with regard to sciences, especially female students (Eryman & Sonmezer, 2008). Public schools are not well funded compared to private schools and therefore face the challenge of lacking the right facilities to ensure high-quality teaching, especially in developing countries. They might also lack funds for trips and excursions that will help in developing the needed content. This forces the public schools to use traditional teaching practices, while there are subjects like the sciences thatrequire the constructivist approach to ensure maximum learning opportunities for the students (Eryman & Sonmezer, 2008). Teachers are also not well compensated in public schools compared to private schools and thus are less motivated to teach the students. They will not go out of their way to improve the learning process and conditions for the students. Other challenges facing the teaching process in public schools include a lack of interest amongstudents who will not takeany initiative to learn new things. Public schools are more populated than private schools, making it difficult for the teachers to teach effectively. It becomes difficult for the teacher to reach all the students, putting other students at a disadvantage compared to students in private schools that are less populated (Eryman & Sonmezer, 2008). Challenges Faced by Teachers in the Teaching Process Another challenge facing the teaching of sciences in secondary schools is the challenges that teachers face. Teachers face a number of challenges when implementing teaching practices, whether they are using traditional practices or the constructivist approach. Problems facing teaching practices while using traditional practices include inert students whodo not engage actively in the learning process and cannot think for themselves in different real-life situations and inert students whoare used to receiving all information and knowledge from teachers who cannot relate the knowledge acquired from class to real life for themselves.Thestudents may be learning irrelevant things if they work individually without the interaction and involvement of other students and the guidance of their teachers (Ebmeter, 2003). Sciences require the constructivist approach to ensure that the students understand the information and knowledge as much as possible. Sciences require experiments to be done, observations to be made and the exchange of ideas to ensure that students arrive at the right conclusion with regard to the subject. The teachers should be well equipped to practice the constructivist approach in teaching science subjects in secondary schools (Ebmeter, 2003). Teachers are also faced with the challenge of dealing with teenage students who are undergoing physical and mental changes, making them difficult to work with. Students taught using the constructivist approach are required to be actively engaged in the learning process, taking theinitiative to understand and acquire new knowledge in sciences, but the developmental stage they are in makes them impulsive, rebellious and imprudent, among other traits that are not helpful in the learning process. Many people are restricted by the stereotype that science subjects are meant for male students and not female students, which causes a decrease in the number of female students taking up sciences, and among those whodo, a majority of them put little effort intothe learning process of the science subjects (Ebmeter, 2003). The science teachers in both private and public schools also face another challenge, a lack of proper training in different teaching practices. Teaching students using the traditional or the constructivist approach will depend on the facilities provided by the schools to facilitate the learning process for the students and the teachers as well. A school that is well financed and encourages the development of their teaching staff will have teachers whoare committed to their teaching and usethe best practices to ensure maximum learning. Teachers whodo not frequently attend vocational training may not be in a good position to determine the best teaching practices for the science subjects because they will not be able to learn about new ways of ensuring maximum learning for the students or todetermine the best methods to teach the subject for the benefit of the students (Ebmeter, 2003). Findings These are findings on what is causing challenges in teaching sciences in secondary schools. Teaching sciences in secondary schools, as shown in this paper, is marred by various challenges such as a lack of interest from students, student adolescence, poor compensation and lack of career development programs for the teachers. These problems, however, have solutions, such as financial and educational material support from education stakeholders, such as the government, the owners or stakeholders of the school and parents, among others (Ebmeter, 2003). Problems involving teenage troubles and adolescence can be mitigated by ensuring that the school has an active and effective guiding and counselling department that will help students overcome the character and behavioural challenges of puberty. Parents also can help teachers by showing an interest in their schoolwork and encouraging them to take initiative in the learning process by buying them science books and documentaries and taking them to science fairs and exhibitions that will help increase their understanding of the subject (Mintzes, Wandersee, & Novak, 2005). It is also clear that, as they age, more students are dropping science subjects, especially female students because of the stereotype that science subjects are performed better by male students. This stereotype is more prevalent in secondary schools than in primary schools, where the children are just curious to learn new things. In secondary schools, the number of students taking sciences also decreases because many students are discovering what they want to do in their future, and those not interested in the field of science opt to drop the subject (Mintzes et al., 2005). Another finding is that schools that do not perform well in sciences have little support from their school heads as well as from otherstakeholders in the education sector. Most schools, especially public schools, have a tendency to support well-performing areasand ignore those that perform poorly (Mintzes et al., 2005). Practical Implications The science subject is critical to secondary school students, as it helps them to understand more about the things they witness and use in their daily routines. Biology helps the studentsto understand more about their body structure and the functions of the various parts of their bodies, both internally and externally. They also understand more about the genetic make-up of animals, plants and trees and their relevance in the universe. Another subject in the science category is chemistry. Chemistry is a branch of science that deals with chemical components in substances that we use in our daily routines. It studies the compositions, structures, properties and changes in substances or what we refer to as matter. Another branch of science that is of importance to secondary school students is physics, which deals with the study of the movement of substances, their energy sources and the forces emitted and created by substances, among other topics.Ithelps students to understand nature and how the universe behaves. Since science helps secondary school students understand the universe and all the things within it, it could help in choosing career pathsfor students.Ithelps in the development of many fields, such as medicine, developing and creating working equipmentandothers that are necessary in the running of the day-to-day routines ofour lives. Stakeholders in the education industry need to understand that science is part of our everyday lives and that it should be invested in properly to ensure that the teachers are able to guide and equip the students well in the subject for the sake of their future. They should also understand that there are various techniques to be used in teaching the subject and thatfunds and teaching and reading materials will be required. The stakeholders in the education sector should be made aware of the challenges facing teachers so that they can come up with ways to improve teaching practices in the science subjects in secondary schools. These challenges that teachers face, such as inadequate facilities to ensure proper teaching practices, teenage traits and behaviours due to adolescent changes and alack of development programs, can be solved by stakeholders in the education sector (Albert & Levine, 1988). Some of the actions thatstakeholders in the education sector can taketo help teachers improve their teaching practices in the science subjects include funding schools, especially public schools, to ensure that they have enough classrooms to avoid overcrowding, hiring more teachers to ensure that students get enough attention from teachers and that they get the correct guidance in their learning process, compensating the teachers to keep them motivated in their jobs. Teaching is a service that is highly perishable, like other services,so to ensure that their quality is sustained and improved, teachers require development programs such as education seminars on sciences, continuing education, exchange programs to see what better-performing science teachers are doing and development talks with professionals to encourage them and share development ideas with them (Albert & Levine, 1988). There are also other ways to ensure that the science teachers are motivated to teach their students. This involves appreciation of the teachers’ role and efforts in the development of science. Award schemes include giving well-performing teachers cash to reward their efforts, giving them certificates, awarding them with scholarships to advance their knowledge and giving them vacations to ensure that they are well rested after a school session. Science teachers as well as other teachers can be motivated by awarding their children scholarships to study in the schools they are teaching in (Albert & Levine, 1988). How the Performance of Students Affects the Teaching Process? The teaching process is not just affected by the traits and behaviours of students or the inadequacy of teaching and learning materials; the performance of the students in the subject also affects the teaching process. The performance of a student in terms of observations, students’ perceptions and conclusions and tests, among other assessment techniques, can encourage or discourage a teacher to perform well in his or her duty. When the students perform well in their science subjects, the science teachers are motivated to teach well in the subject (Ebmeter, 2003). However, if studentsconstantly perform poorly, the teacher is demotivated and might lose interest in teaching the students the science subject. Therefore, students should also put in more effort to encourage teachers and look for better ways to develop the science subject. When the science teachers and their students perform well, the stakeholders in the education sector will also be encouraged to invest in the science subjects, which are often overshadowed by subjects such as the arts, music and literature.Therefore, students also play a role in improving teaching practices in the sciences (Ebmeter, 2003).This report will be able to help policymakers make the right decisions with regard to selecting the best approach in the teaching practice and designing the best policies to help curb the challenges that teachers face in the teaching process in the science subjects. Recommendations Challenges that affect teaching practices have an impact not only on the teachers and the education sector stakeholdersbutalso on the secondary school students. Most secondary school students are teenagers whoare going through puberty, and they are easily influenced, so when a teacher is not motivated, the students can easily associate themselves with the feeling and thus loseinterest in the science subjects as well. Therefore, school heads and stakeholders in the education sector need to ensure that the teachers are always motivated to influence the students positively. When the students are not motivated to take theinitiative in understanding and acquiring new information in science, they are also not going to perform well in their assessments, and this will cause the quality of science to drop. If the overall performance of sciences in secondary schools is poor, the stakeholders in the education sector, including school heads, will not put effort and investment into the science subjects, and this might affect the quality of inventions in the future. Therefore, policies and measures should be put in place to ensure that students perform well in the science subjects in secondary schools. It is highly recommended to establish development programs for science teachers, as high-quality teaching practices will result in high-quality science students and future scientists. If the teachers have inadequate qualifications, then the schools will produce mediocre science students as well as future scientists. The development programs will ensure that the teachers’ skills are always sharpened and that they deliver the best to the students. Factors affecting teaching practices have been established to affect the students as well; however, researchers and scholars have only been looking at how they affect the teachers. Therefore, policies and measures should be put in place to look at how the factors affecting teaching practice affect students and ways to overcome those challenges, especially for students in secondary schools. It is also recommended that, for secondary schools that are not performing well in sciences, instead of school heads and stakeholders ignoring them, they should develop and implement programs that will help improve the performance of the science subjects in theschool. These activities include setting competitive tests and awarding the best performers with rewards such as money, books, student scholarships and exchange programs to other schools in different countries, among other reward systems. Other activities include scheduling talks with professional scientists to encourage students to take the subjects seriously and changing the teaching techniques, for example, from using traditional teaching practices to using constructivist teaching practices, among other measures. Conclusion Science subjects (chemistry, biology and physics) are great investments for the future of inventions and innovations, so measures should be put in place to ensure that students in secondary schools get the best quality education in sciences to produce the best scientists. The stakeholders in the education sector and school heads should ensure that the quality of teaching practices isimproved for teachers teaching the science subjects so that they will be motivated and well qualified to deliver the best learning experience for the secondary school students. The role of ensuring high-quality teaching practices for science teachers in secondary schools does not lie with the teachers alone; other parties are involved as well, such as the students, school heads and otherstakeholders in the education sector. References Albert, D.,& Levine, D. U. (1988). Teacher satisfaction source.Peabody Journal of Education,65(3), 47-58. Bain, K. (2004). What the best college teachers do. 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