Secondary science teachers’ perspectives of teaching outside their subject specialisation

The first item of the questionnaire was developed with an aim to get the data on teachers’ subject specialisation and whether they were teaching within or outside subject specialisation.

Do secondary science teachers teach the science subjects outside their subject specialization?

It was found that in all 43.07 percent of teachers were teaching outside their subject specialisation (Table 1.). 13.33 percent, 43.75percentand 50 percent of science teachers with their specialisation in Physics, Chemistry and Biology respectively were teaching outside their subject specialization.

Table 1. Teachers teaching within and outside their subject specialisation (n=65)

Teachers’ subject Specialisation	Percentage %	Percentage (%) of teachers
Teachers’ subject Specialisation	Percentage %	teaching within subject specialisation	teaching outside subject specialisation
M.Sc. Physics	23.07	86.66	13.33
M.Sc. Chemistry	24.61	56.25	43.75
M.Sc. Biology	36.92	50.00	50.00
M.Sc. Mathematics	1.54	0	100
B.Sc.	13.8	33.33	66.66
Total	99.98	56.92	43.07

66.66 percent of teachers having Bachelor degree in science were teaching all the three subjects in science and 33.33 percent of them were teaching the subject of their expertise area (Fig 3.). One teacher with specialisation in Mathematics was teaching all the three subjects of science.

Figure 3. Teachers teaching within and outside their subject specialisation (n=65)

Do the secondary science teachers face any difficulty, if teaching outside their subject specialisation? If yes, then in which subject(s)?

All the teachers teaching outside their subject specialisation (43.07 percent) faced difficulties in teaching one or two subjects of science (Table 2.). Teachers having their Masters in Physics and Chemistry did not find any difficulty in teaching their respective subjects. However, 8.33 percent of teachers with their specialisation in Biology found difficulties in teaching some topics of Biology.

Table 2. Teaching outside subject specialisation: difficulties faced by the teachers teaching outside subject specialisation (n=65)

Teachers’ subject specialisation	Physics		Chemistry		Biology		Physics and Biology
Teachers’ subject specialisation	%	Cumulative %	%	Cumulative%	%	Cumulative%	%	Cumulative%
M.Sc. Physics	0	0	0	0	100	13.33	0	0
M.Sc. Chemistry	57.14	24.99	0	0	14.29	6.25	28.57	12.50
M.Sc. Biology	41.66	20.83	50	25.00	8.33	4.16	0	0
M.Sc. Mathematics	100	100	100	100	0	0	0	0
B.Sc.	83.33	55.55	16.66	11.11	0	0	0	0
Total	53.57	23.07	28.57	12.31	14.29	6.45	7.14	3.04

Teaching outside subject specialisation: cumulative percentage of the teachers facing difficulties in teaching outside their subject speciation was found.

Teachers facing difficulties to teach Physics– Teacher with specialisation in Mathematics (only one in the sample); 24.99 percent of teachers with specialisation in Chemistry; 20.83 percent with specialisation in Biology and 55.55 percent having Bachelor degree in science encountered difficulties in teaching Physics. In all 23.07percent of those teaching outside subject specialisation had to face difficulties in teaching Physics. Figure 4. depicts that only the teachers having specialisation in Physics do not find any difficulty in teaching Physics.

Figure 4. Teachers outside subject specialisation facing difficulties in teaching Physics

Teachers facing difficulties to teach Chemistry – 25 percent of teachers with specialisation in Biology and11.11 percent of them having Bachelor degree in science faced difficulties to teach Chemistry. No teachers with their specialisation in Chemistry and Physics respectively had any issue with teaching Chemistry. In all 12.31 percent of those teaching outside subject specialisation had difficulties in teaching Chemistry. The teacher with specialisation in Mathematics also faced difficulties in teaching Chemistry (Fig.5.).

Figure 5. Teachers outside subject specialisation facing difficulties in teaching Chemistry

Teachers facing difficulties to teach Biology-All the 13.33 percent of teachers with their Masters in Physics; 6.25 percent of teachers with specialisation in Chemistry and surprisingly 4.16 percent of teachers with Masters in Biology found difficulties in teaching this subject. In all 6.45 percent of those teaching outside subject specialisation had difficulties in Biology. None of the teachers having a Bachelor degree in science and the teacher with specialisation in Mathematics expressed any challenge in teaching the portions of Biology of the science textbook (Fig.6.).

Figure 6. Teachers outside subject specialisation facing difficulties in teaching Biology

Teachers facing difficulties to teach Physics and Biology both- 12.50 percent of teachers with their specialisation in Chemistry faced difficulties to deal with the concepts of Physics and Biology both (Figure 7.).

Figure 7. Teachers outside subject specialisation facing difficulties in teaching Physics and Biology

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)?

One of the remarkable findings of the study is that students face difficulties in the same subjects in which teachers find difficulties in teaching. A one-to-one mapping between the subjects a teacher found difficult to teach and the subject his/her students found difficult to learn was done (Table 3). Figure 8. Shows 24.61 percent of teachers and their students had difficulties in teaching-learning of Physics topics. The second and the third bar in Figure 8. depicting 12.31 percent and 23.08 percent represent the same data for the teachers’ and students ‘difficulties in teaching-learning of Chemistry and teaching-learning of Biology respectively. Even if teachers had no difficulties (in all 16.91 %) in teaching any subject, their students encounter difficulties in learning concepts pertaining to Physics, Chemistry or Biology. Further, it was found that neither 10.77 percent of teachers, nor their students faced any difficulty in any subject in teaching-learning.

Table 3. Students have difficulties in the same subject in which their teachers find difficulties in teaching

Subject in which teachers find difficulties in teaching	Subjecting which students find difficulties in learning	Teachers’ response in percentage(n=65)
Physics	Physics	24.61
Chemistry	Chemistry	12.31
Biology	Biology	23.08
Physics	Chemistry	4.61
Physics	Biology	3.08
Chemistry	Biology	1.54
Biology	Chemistry	3.08
No difficulty	Physics	6.15
No difficulty	Chemistry	6.15
No difficulty	Biology	4.61
No difficulty	No difficulty	10.77

Figure 8. Students have difficulties in learning the same subjects in which their teachers find difficulties in teaching

From secondary school teachers’ point of view what might be possible reasons of difficulties in teaching the subject outside specialisation?

Analysing the teachers’ responses given in semi-structured interview, different themes emerged and thus, origin of difficulties became clear. Teachers opine that their difficulties stem from various factors related to teaching-learning of science as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9. Teachers views on origin of difficulties in teaching outside subject specialisation

Percentage of the area of difficulties and some quotes are given to illustrate their perspectives.

A majority of teachers (37 percent) point out at the students to be the source of their difficulties - ‘Student basic concept are not clear’, ‘Students have difficulties in corelating the concepts of the topics’; ‘Students are not able to understand’; ‘Students are weak in Mathematics’.

25 percent of teachers see fault in the Science Textbook. ‘Too many concepts in one chapter’; ‘Concepts are explained in a nutshell in the textbook’; ‘Difficult to understand and visualize the abstract concepts of Physics’, ‘Detailed explanations are not given’.

Only 8 percent of teachers could identify limitation of the pedagogy they employ. ‘I studied Physics up to class XII so out of touch’; ‘Because Physics was not my Subject’; ‘Carrying out experimental work is difficult’ ; ‘I have to brush up chemical structure of compounds for teaching’; ‘Studied Mathematics till X and Physics till XII, so find difficult to teach numerical problems’; ‘I have lots of problems in teaching’ ; ‘Unable to organise the concept for teaching purpose’; ‘Being a student of biology, I feel teaching Physics difficult’; ‘Derivations are difficult to explain’; ‘Visualisation of some concepts like ray diagrams are a challenge for me’.

21 percent of teachers could not locate origin of their difficulties while 9 percent of responses were placed in other category.

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?

Teachers teaching within and outside subject specialisation both were asked to articulate their needs to attend a training programme in any specific area of science education. 26 percent of teachers expressed that they would like to attend the programme to enhance their conceptual understanding. 20 percent of them were interested to achieve a set of skills required to carry out experiments and activities through capacity building programme. 14 percent of the teachers wanted to learn new method of teaching science and 18 percent of them felt that they do not need to attend any training. Interestingly,77 percent teachers of the sample, whether teaching within subject specialisation or outside subject specialisation, felt the need of training in some or the other area of science education (Fig.10.).

Finally, teachers were asked to express their opinion that whether having separate teachers teaching Physics, Chemistry, and Biology can minimize student difficulties in conceptual understanding of science. 92 percent of them answered, ‘Yes’.

Figure 10. Teachers views on the need to attend training programme in different areas of science education