STUDENTS PERCEPTION OF DIFFICULT TOPICS IN BIOLOGY SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

While adequate research has been conducted in other countries of the world as named above in relation to biology topics perceived as difficult, and pupils’ learning challenges, very little research of this nature had been carried out in Zambia. Despite the teachers’ full knowledge of the difficulties that pupils face in learning some of these topics in biology which actually lower their overall performance in biology examinations, teachers have taken no serious steps to redress the situation. This is partly due to the teachers’ lack of specific research-based information on how to teach such problem topics which could otherwise serve as a tool in alleviating the pupils’ difficulties in learning the aforesaid topics. This study therefore established the topics in biology which were perceived as difficult and examined the pupils’ difficulties in learning biology, and highlighted 2 some of the possible teaching strategies that the biology teachers could use in order to address the learning challenges. Various Scholars have investigated difficulties pupils face in learning biology in other countries such as Scotland, Nigeria, Turkey and Israel (Johnstone and Mahmoud 1980). In their findings, Johnstone and Mahmoud (1980) suggested that genetics was among the most challenging topics in biology for secondary school pupils. Lazarowitz and Penso (1992) identified cells, physiological processes and hormonal regulation as being the biological concepts that posed learning difficulties to the secondary school pupils.

According to Johnestone (1999), monohybrid, dihybrid crosses and linkages in genetics, meiosis, central nervous system, alleles and genes were largely perceived by pupils as being topics of the highest diiculty. There has been consistent decline in the performance of students in public examinations conducted by the west African Examination Council (WAEC) and the National Examination Council (NECO) in sciences across the country over the years (Agogo, 2003; Samba & Eriba, 2012). Ahmed and Abimbola (2011) argue that because of its numerous importance, Biology is the most popular choice, among science subjects nationwide, oered by candidates sitting for the senior secondary school certificate examinations. According to WAEC Research Report (2008) and (2009), despite the popularity of Biology, results of research studies always revealed the poor performance of students in the subject. Results from findings revealed that a vast number of factors are responsible for the students’ poor performance: difficult biological concepts (Tekkaya et al., 2001; Çimer, 2004; Zeidan, 2010); the nature of science itself and its teaching methods Lazarowitz and Penso (1992) as well as the biological level of organization and the abstract level of the concepts. Çimer (2011) argued that many concepts or topics in biology, including water transport in plants, protein synthesis, respiration and photosynthesis, gaseous exchange, energy, cells, mitosis and meiosis, organs, physiological processes, hormonal regulation, oxygen transport, genetics, Mendelian genetics, genetic engineering, and the central nervous system can be perceived as difficult to learn by secondary school students. While Tekkaya et al. (2001) found that hormones, genes and chromosomes, mitosis and meiosis, the nervous system, and Mendelian genetics were considered difficult concepts by secondary school students. Özcan, (2003) stressed that experiencing difficulties in so many topics in biology negatively affects students’ motivation and achievement. Students’ difficulties with many topics in biology have stimulated researchers to investigate why students experience such difficulties and how to overcome these difficulties.

Experiencing difficulty in Biology could be attributed to many factors such as classroom learning environment, lack of interest in learning science, overloaded curriculum content and delineation of science from society, among others. Designing learning environments while ignoring students’ interests and expectations causes several learning problems as well as decreasing their interest in biology (Yüzbaşılıoğlu and Atav, 2004; Roth et al., 2006; Zeidan, 2010). Fraser (1998) in Çimer (2011) indicates that there is a close relationship between students’ perceptions of their classroom learning environment and their success. Osborne and Collins (2001) also report that students’ diminishing interest in learning science was due to the curriculum content being overloaded and not generally related to working life, the lack of discussion of topics of interest, the absence of creative expression opportunities, the alienation of science from society and the prevalence of isolated science subjects. Another reason reported by many researchers, specifically in Turkey, is that due to the nature of biological science, biology learning is generally based on memorization. Biological science includes many abstract concepts, events, topics and facts that students have to learn. This makes it hard for students to learn them (Çimer, 2004; Saka, 2006; Durmaz, 2007). Also, in addition to determining the factors that negatively aect students’ learning in biology, understanding students’ views on what makes their biology learning effective is crucial, as many researchers suggest that in order to improve the quality of teaching and learning in school, students’ views must be taken into consideration by researchers, teacher educators, schools and teachers (Macbeath and Mortimore, 2001; Çimer, 2004; Ekici, 2010). They argue that what students say about teaching, learning and schooling is not only worth listening to but provides an important perhaps the most important foundation for thinking about ways of improving teaching, learning and schools. For instance, Phoenix (2000) states that student views of teaching may reflect the ways that they learn best. Indeed, schools that acknowledge the significance of student views have found that these views can make a substantial contribution to classroom management, to learning and teaching, and to the school as a social and learning place (Macbeath et al., 2000). It is thought that how students perceive the learning environment in biology aects their attitudes towards biology and its learning (Çakıroğlu et al., 2003; Telli et al., 2009).

1.2 Statement of the Problem

For over a decade now various scholars of senior high school pupils have exhibited unsatisfactory performance in some biology topics that are perceived as difficult to learn, and the reasons for their learning challenges are not known. While adequate research has been conducted in other countries of the world in relation to biology topics perceived as difficult, and pupils’ learning challenges, very little research of this nature has been carried out in Nigeria especially Kogi State. The researcher also observed that once the teachers have difficulty in understanding certain biology topics, he/she will not be able to teach such topics to the good understanding of the students, hence such teacher is likely to avoid such topics and students are likely not understand the area of the biology curriculum not taught by the teachers and the students may even not prepare well for external examination in such topics. These might lead to poor performance in the senior secondary certificate examination as the syllabus and questions are based on the senior secondary education curriculum. Based on this premise, the study is set out to find out the perception of the students on difficult topics in senior secondary schools curriculum in Kogi state.