CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
Lesson 1 40 minutes)
4.5 Stimulated recall interviews
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Towards the end of the lesson, the teacher tried to summarise the main points from what transpiration is all about, and how plants have adapted to reduce transpiration rate. The learners were then informed that they were going to be given a task that they had to do during the afternoon study time and finish at home on their own.
Table 4: A summary of the strategies observed from the teachers
Strategies Teacher 1 Teacher 2
Use of locally available material for demonstration during practical work
√ √
Elicitation of learners prior knowledge √ √
Use of a chalkboard to summarise content to learners √ √
Question and answer (dialogue) √ √
Homework √
Scaffolding √
Group work √
Code-switching √ √
Feedback on activities √
Use of analogies √
From the table above, it was evident that teachers used similar strategies to help learners make sense of concepts on the topic on transpiration. The differences being that Teacher 2 did not scaffold learners. This could be because he gave the task to learners as homework where learners worked on their own, hence no group work given and no feedback was provided. On the other hand, Teacher 1 did not make use of analogies to clarify concepts.
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knowledge. She noted that learners responded in a chorus and that there were too many in each work groups which led to some of them not being fully engaged in the lesson.
When asked to talk about challenges that learners face during the lessons, which made it difficult for learners to understand transpiration, she had this to say:
“Plotting graphs and use of units on the X and Y axis are some of the challenges learners face. They cannot differentiate between dependent and independent
variables. Learners also fail to relate concepts to the situation on real life as humidity and temperature are observed in most weather situation" (see appendix C…SR1-T1).
Figure 7: A graph constructed by learners in a group.
Figure 4.5 above shows a graph constructed by learners in a group. Its numerous errors demonstrate that they had difficulties when working with graphs.
Teacher 1 was asked to highlight challenges that she faced while teaching the topic. She reported that he found it a challenge to conduct practical work seeing that there were no materials like a potometer so that sometimes teachers needed to improvise.
Teacher 2 was also asked to suggest strategies that she might use to help learners understand transpiration better. She suggested that she would make sure learners were divided to work in smaller groups. She would also make learners work on activities individually; and use of the learner-centred approach by giving more practical work to learners.
63 Teacher 2
This teacher could not wait to watch the video as he was also excited to watch himself teaching. He indicated that his voice projection was good and learners participated actively.
On the other hand, he suggested ideas on how he could improve. He stressed that he needed to introduce a learner-centred approach rather than the teacher-centred approach which he used (and this contradicted his earlier claim that learners were actively involved). Teacher 2 commented that he needed to move around the classroom and monitor all learners in the classroom instead of being stationed in front of the classroom. He also noticed that he under- utilised the chalkboard which he could have used more to summarise the main points while teaching. He further indicated that learners needed to get feedback after writing an activity instead of being given marked scripts with no feedback.
When I asked Teacher 2 to reflect on challenges faced when he taught the lesson, he
indicated that learners were shy, could not express themselves in English and learners failed to define terminologies such as xerophytes.
Regarding the challenges that he faced when mediating learning of the topic on transpiration, Teacher 2 stated that his department does not have apparatus such a potometer or even a science laboratory. He then suggested what he might do to improve on the lesson
presentation. He would give more activities and feedback to his learners. He would give more practical work to learners instead of just teaching theoretically.
Below is a table summarising the challenges faced by learners and teachers as well as the strategies suggested by the teachers to improve on the presentations of the topic.
Table 5: A summary of what emerged from stimulated recall interviews (SRI)
Teacher 1 Teacher 2
Challenges faced
by learners - Difficulties in plotting graphs and in using X and Y axes.
- Learners could not differentiate between dependent and
independent variables.
- Failure to relate concepts like humidity and temperature to real life.
- Learners were too shy to ask questions
- Learners could not define concepts such as xerophytes
Challenges faced
by teachers No materials like a potometer - No apparatus such a potometer
- No science laboratory
64 Strategies to
improve - More clarification of concepts - Building on learners’ prior
knowledge
- Dividing learners to work in smaller groups
- Giving activities to learners to work individually
- Learner-centred approach through giving more practical work.
- Monitoring all learners in the classroom by moving around - Making use of the
chalkboard to summarise main points
- Giving feedback on learners activities - Use of a learner-centred
approach
Although Table 5 indicates only a few challenges arising from teachers’ reflections on the particular lessons from the table above, more challenges might have been identified
depending on the nature of activities given to learners and questions posed during the lessons.
From looking at marked activities given to learners I learned that all had difficulties in plotting graphs and labelling the x and y axes. During the second lesson given by Teacher 1, learners spent much time debating and arguing while trying to figure out the x and y axes and plotting, even though the teacher explained at the beginning (see Appendix D, O-T1:
386,390, 416, 456…). Although Teacher 2 did not highlight graphing seeing that the activity was done as homework (where learners worked on their own) and there was no feedback given, when I looked at the activity that he marked, it was apparent that his learners had the same problem (See Appendix D).
From the lessons observed, it is also evident from the short sentences that learners spoke, that they were shy to speak in English and to respond to questions or ask. In some cases, others laughed at those who tried to say something. Those learners who tried to say something, struggled to formulate sentences and one could struggle to make sense of what they were trying to say (See appendix D, O-T1: 133, 308, 338… and O-T2:202, 265, 483, 674…). It seemed likely that learners’ poor English proficiency is one reason why they failed to explain concepts by linking them to their prior knowledge as highlighted by the teachers.
Both teachers mentioned that they were challenged by a lack of science equipment available at their schools, especially the potometer. The teachers’ teaching strategies differed, except where they spoke about the use of learner-centred education, because both could pick up from the videos that they spoke more than the learners were engaged.
65 PHASE TWO
This phase was aimed at answering the fourth research sub-question, which was:
In what ways can grade 11 Biology teachers improve mediating learning of the topic on transpiration?
In this phase the teachers and I collaboratively developed two fully scripted model lessons.
These lessons were taught as revision lessons, since the topic had been taught to Grade 11 learners already. The items for these lessons were selected in consultation with the two teachers. We selected especially challenging features of the unit and presented our “best shot”
at effectively teaching it. We also co-designed our potometer. We felt a need to use
PowerPoint slide show software where pictures could be shown in colour to make the lesson live to learners. Colour pictures were taken from the internet. It took us almost the whole day preparing the lesson. At some points we got stuck and had to ask advice from other teachers as well as the biology subject advisor for the region. Although three lessons were prepared, we also designed a topic task that learners had to write during the afternoon study session.
Below is lesson one of the three lessons that we designed (see Appendix E).