AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON TEACHERS' KNOWLEDGE AND APPLICATION ABOUT THE PRACTICE OF SCIENCE
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Date
2011-03
Authors
00I, HEAN BENG
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Abstract
This study explores the teachers' and trainees' knowledge about the
practice of science and to what extent the said knowledge is shared with their
students. Questionnaires were distributed to 139 teachers from Perak, Kedah
and Penang and to 110 trainees from one university. Interviews with 13
teachers ahd 11 trainees were conducted, audio recorded and transcribed.
The responses from the questionnaire provided information about the
teachers' knowledge about the practice of science. The interview transcripts
helped to determine whether the knowledge and activities that reflected the
practice of science were part of their classroom teaching. The findings of this
study indicated that the teachers and trainees have a mixture of positivistic
and post-modern knowledge about the practice of science. However, this
knowledge was not shared with their students explicitly or implicitly. The
teachers were aware that their present practices do not reflect the actual
practice of science but they felt that they have little control over the demands
of the science curriculum and the emphasis for academic excellence. The
trainees were more concerned about content and pedagogical skills. The
findings of this study suggest that to promote science literacy, the science
curriculum, besides the science content, must also include the emphasis the
elements and activities that encourage the awareness about the processes
involved before scientific ideas are accepted and published. This must be
explicitly emphasized at pre-service levels and continually supported in
schools by the stakeholders of Malaysian science education.
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Keywords
TEACHERS , KNOWLEDGE