EXPLORING IN-SERVICE SCIENCE TEACHERS’ BELIEFS ABOUT GOALS OR PURPOSES OF SCIENCE TEACHING

Abstract

The performance of Malawian secondary school learners is poor at national-level assessments. This is especially true for science-related subjects as the chief examiners’ reports for science highlight. Even though there is an improvement in the overall pass rate for learners at this level over the years (from 48% in 2006 to 60% in 2016), the situation remains worrisome since learners’ performance in science remains poor. The chief examiners’ reports for science have advanced several reasons. In the reports, they highlight issues such as students’ failure to apply the concepts they learn in class, students’ failure to appreciate what science is, how it is conducted, poor foundation in as far as the use of other scientific skills is concerned and poor scientific skills that are displayed by the learners during assessment (Malawi National Examinations Board, 2013, 2014, 2015). This is rather a depressing issue as it is happening when one of the objectives of science teaching at this level is to inculcate various skills that are instrumental in the learning of science such as reasoning, problem-solving and instrument manipulation skills (Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, 2013). A closer look at these highlighted factors speaks directly to the curriculum emphasis categories, developed by Roberts (2015), which in this research have been called goals or purposes of science teaching. There have been efforts by both the ministry of education and non-governmental organization to curb the issue of poor performance by learners in science. For instance, the Malawi Ministry of Education Science and Technology (MoEST), in conjunction with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), launched a Strengthening of Mathematics and Science in Secondary Education (SMASSE) project in 2004. This Professional Development (PD) program was aimed at equipping teachers with novel techniques of effective science teaching as well as enhancing the development of their beliefs and Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) (World Bank, 2010). Despite these reform efforts, Nampota (2016) noted that teaching science remains poor and that student performance in science remains largely unimpressive. The chief examiners’ still highlight the same factors that lead to poor student performance in sciences. It is for this reason that the research explores the goals or purposes that Malawian science teachers set out when they are teaching science to their learners. Teachers’ “goals or purposes of science teaching” are beliefs that describe the teachers’ “conceptions about the function of science education in general” (Friedrichsen et al., 2011, p. 371). Bob Maseko, University of Malawi, Malawi Hlologelo Climant Khoza University of Pretoria, South Africa Abstract. Research indicates that teachers’ beliefs about goals or purposes of science teaching, as one dimension of science teaching orientations, influence what happens in the classroom. The purpose of this research was to explore the self-reported and enacted goals or purposes of science teaching of four in-service Malawian science teachers using the curriculum emphases concept as a theoretical lens. This research used qualitative case study research design. Semi-structured interviews and classroom observations were used to explore teachers’ self-reported and enacted goals or purpose of science teaching, respectively. A deductive analysis approach was used to analyze interview and classroom observation transcripts, to understand the teacher’s goals or purposes. Results reveal that while teachers have multiple self-reported goals or purpose of science teaching, most of these are not enacted during teaching in the classrooms. This suggests the topic-specific nature of the goals or purposes. Results also show that all the teachers were not aware of the self-as-explainer goal or purpose of science teaching both during interviews and instruction. These findings are discussed, and implications are proposed for science in-service teacher professional development and pre-service teachers’ training programs.