Secondary science teachers’ perspectives of teaching outside their subject specialisation

National Curriculum Framework (NCF) –2005(NCERT, 2005) recommends that at the secondary stage, students should be engaged in learning science as a composite discipline. Based on the recommendations of NCF-2005 National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi, India has developed textbooks at the secondary stage with an integrated approach to science, with no sharp divisions into disciplines such as Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Teachers are expected to organize an integrated approach to teaching the seven themes–Food; Materials; The world of the living; How things work; Moving things; People and ideas;Natural phenomena and Natural resources around which science curriculum has evolved at the secondary stage. Secondary science teachers are usually specialized in one particular subject. However, many times, secondary science teachers have to teach outside their subject specialization, viz. topics based on all the disciplines –Physics, Chemistry and Biology in class ninth and tenth. It is recognized that the abilities like abstraction and quantitative reasoning occupy a more central place, in the secondary classes, than in elementary classes. While science is still an integrated subject at the secondary stage, this is the time when the disciplines of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology begin to emerge. The child should be exposed to experiences as well as modes of reasoning that are typical of these subjects, while continuing to be encouraged to look at things across disciplinary boundaries (NCERT, 2019). The teachers’ knowledge base strongly influences all aspects of teaching like preparation, planning, and decision making regarding the choice of content to be learnt (De Jong et al., 2002). Luft et al. (2020) also recognize that science consists of many disciplines (e.g., Biology, Physics, Chemistry, etc.), with each discipline having a unique way of producing knowledge and unique knowledge components. Cross-cutting ideas often transcend these different disciplines (NRC, 2013), but they are not often emphasized in the subject matter coursework required in science teacher preparation programs.

Stern and Roseman (2004) point out that many teachers in the middle school/junior secondary years do not hold a university major in science, thus limiting their ability to plan and teach science classes effectively. More importantly, their students are less likely to be provided with sound learning experiences, which research has shown ultimately hampers student performance (Darling-Hammond and Youngs, 2002 ).In her study Mizzi (2013) concludes that many research studies have shown that there are considerable differences when teaching within and outside area of expertise.

The better teachers understand their students’ difficulties with respect to a certain topic, and the more representations and activities they have at their disposal, the more effectively they can teach about the topic. (Nakiboglu et al. 2010). An in-depth research study conducted by Hashweh (1987) with six experienced secondary school teachers preparing to teach topics within and outside their area of expertise showed remarkable differences in planning, response to students’ questions and conduction of lessons based on their prior subject matter knowledge. Within their field of expertise, teachers had a wide knowledge base of the subject, knew the subject in more depth and were able to draw links between different areas of knowledge in the same subject discipline. On the other hand, teachers teaching outside subject specialism, with lower background subject matter knowledge, followed the textbook structure quite closely, could not generate new activities and asked recall questions. They could not detect students’ misconceptions and in some cases, they reinforced these ideas.

Hattie (2003) has identified that one of the differences in the attributes of experts and experienced teachers is, they do not differ in the amount of knowledge they have about curriculum matters or knowledge about teaching strategies. But experts do differ in how they organize and use this content knowledge. Experts possess knowledge that is more integrated, in that they combine new subject matter content knowledge with prior knowledge; can relate current lesson content to other subjects in the curriculum; and make lessons uniquely their own by changing, combining, and adding to them according to their students’ needs and their own goals.

Studies undertaken by Hobbs (2012) shed light on how teachers themselves experience and understand out-of-field teaching. The researcher finds that this issue ultimately impacts on the quality of education we provide to students. The phenomenon of teaching outside specialism is common in many countries (Hobbs and Törner 2019). Luft et al. (2020) argue that one additional reason for the global persistence of out-of-field teaching pertains to the absence of discussion of this area. The quiet acceptance of out-of-field teaching as the norm, a culture of “this is just part of what we do,” contributes to a reluctance of teachers and school administrators to challenge the status quo.

Integrated science pedagogy demands presenting the overarching ideas associated with the science concepts, facilitating students to establish horizontal and vertical inter-linkages of concepts with the foundational ideas. Therefore, teaching science through an integrated approach requires more in-depth knowledge in a particular area of specialization. Teaching outside their subject specialisation put secondary science teachers to lots of challenges and difficulties. To the best of the researcher’s knowledge, no such exploration of secondary science teachers’ perspectives on teaching outside subject specialisation has been done in India. Teaching is not transferring the subject content to students; it is transforming the subject matter knowledge into a form that students can develop deep conceptual understanding. Obviously, teachers have a pivotal role in teaching-learning process. Hence, giving space to their voice also in the educational process is very important. Having their perspectives on teaching outside the subject specialisation can provide some insight about the quality enrichment of teaching-learning process of science.