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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 21, Issue 1, Article 4 (Dec., 2021) |
The study is guided by the following research questions –
- Do the secondary science teachers face any difficulty, when teaching outside their subject specialisation? If yes, then in which subject(s)?
- If secondary science teachers teach the subjects outside subject specialisation, do their students face any difficulty in conceptual understanding of science? If yes, then in which subject(s)?
- From secondary school teachers’ point of view what are the reasons of difficulties in teaching the subject outside specialisation?
- Do the secondary science teachers feel the need of training to address difficulties in teaching outside subject specialisation? If yes, then which area of science education?
Purposive sampling technique was used for the participants of the study. The main objective of a purposive sample is to produce a sample that can be logically assumed to be representative of the population (Lavrakas, 2008). The sample of the study comprised 65 teachers teaching science at the secondary stage. The number of participating teachers from the schools was one to five, depending upon whether one or three teachers were teaching science in a class and number of sections running in the school.
The study covered twenty-three schools spread over five States / Union Territories of India. 17 schools were located in urban area and 6 were in rural area. One States/UT each from the northern, southern, eastern, western and central part of India was purposefully selected to represent the status of the country with regard to the study. From each of the State/UT, five schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) were randomly selected for the study. CBSE is a national level board of education in India. However, one school each from one State and one UT could not participate in the study.
45 female and 20 male teachers (n=65) participated in the study. 95 percent of the participating teachers had professional degree in Education. Their teaching experience varied between 6 to 17 years.
Figure 1. shows the duration of the training programme, participating teachers attended in the last three years. Only 19 percent of teachers had attended 21 days programme and11 percent had participated in 10 days training. Majority of them (34 percent) had participated in three days programme.
Figure 1. Duration of training programme teachers attended in last three years
18 percent of teachers had attended some training programme of 1-2 days. Another 18 percent of them had not attended any training programme in the last three years.
Figure 2. shows the time spent by the teachers for the preparation of each lesson. Only 25 percent of them spent one to two hours to prepare their lessons. 16 percent took 30-50 minutes to prepare for the lesson. 12 percent of teachers spent less than 30 minutes to prepare a lesson, while the other 12 percent of them spent the time as per requirement of the lesson. A big percentage of teachers (32 percent) took only 30 minutes for the preparation of a lesson.
Figure 2. Time spent by the teachers for the preparation of each class (lesson)
The tools comprised a questionnaire. In addition, a semi -structured face-to-face interview was also used to compliment and substantiate the data obtained from the questionnaire. The content of the tools was validated by the experts in the field of science education and then its field trial was carried out in a CBSE affiliated school of Delhi, which was not part of the sample. The tools were revised in the light of their feedback.
Mixed method approach was followed in the study combining quantitative and qualitative methods. According to Brannen and Moss (2012), the existence of the mixed methods approach stemmed from its potential to help researchers view social relations and their intricacies clearer by fusing together the quantitative and qualitative methods of research while recognizing the limitations of both at the same time.
Assuring the participating teachers of anonymity, the researcher administered the questionnaire and conducted face-to-face semi-structured interview with them. Responses of the questionnaire and semi-structured interview were coded and analysed. Percentage and cumulative percentage of responses were calculated with the objective of investigating teachers’ perspectives on teaching outside subject specialisation. Findings are elaborated below on the basis of data analysis.
