Teachers’ Competencies in the Design and Delivery of Chemistry Practical Work

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate chemistry teacher’s competencies in the design and delivery of chemistry practical work in selected schools of Kitwe District. The objectives of the study were to: determine the nature of chemistry practical activities designed and delivered by teachers, establish the range of science process skills developed through chemistry teacher designed practical activities. The study was qualitative and a case study design was used. The target population was chemistry teachers teaching the two chemistry syllabi; pure Chemistry (5070) and Science (5124) a combination of Chemistry and Physics in selected secondary schools of Kitwe district.  The sample comprised six chemistry teachers and 24 pupils drawn from three secondary schools. The study involved the use of: observation schedule, semi-structured interview schedule, focus group discussion guide and document analysis schedule to collect data. The findings showed that most of the practical activities designed by teachers were procedural in nature hence they were characterised by learners following laid down procedures.  It was also noted that the focus of most of these practical activities was to expose learners to pieces of apparatus, verify and confirm what was discussed during theory lessons. The types of science process skills and how they were developed was linked to the nature of the observed practical activities. For this reason, these science process skills were not effectively developed to the extent that could lead learners to construct their own understanding of concepts.  The findings of this study are likely to be informative to chemistry teachers, secondary school heads of science department and science teacher educators.

Keywords: Teacher’s competency, Science Process Skills, Practical work, Designing

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-23-03

Publication date: August 31^st 2019