Teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, curriculum designing, and student’s comprehension of secondary school ordinary level physics in Lusaka, Zambia.
Date
2019
Authors
Zulu, Jacqueline
Mulenga, Innocent Mutale
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
UNESWA Journal of Education
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to analyse teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge
and curriculum designing of secondary school ordinary level (O-level) physics in
order to establish if they contributed to learners’ poor comprehension of physics. The
embedded mixed methods research design was used with more of qualitative data
than quantitative data informing the study. 172 participants comprising of 158 Grade
12 learners, 10 teachers of physics and 4 physics educational specialists were
sampled for the study. Data was collected using questionnaires for learners, semistructured interview schedules for teachers and educational specialists and a lesson
observation guide. Thematic analysis aided the understanding of qualitative data
while descriptive statistics were used to analyse quantitative data. Findings revealed
that O-level Physics for secondary school in Zambia had some areas that affected
Learners’ comprehension due to the way the programme was designed. However,
the major hindrance to Learners’’ poor comprehension of the subject was teacher
pedagogical content knowledge. Thus, it was concluded that teachers’ poor physics
pedagogical content knowledge and numerous skills acquisition demands that the
subject put on learners contributed to Learners’ difficulties in comprehending the
subject. Therefore, researchers in this study recommended that the Ministry of
General Education in Zambia should come up with a deliberate professional
development programme to up skill teachers in the teaching of physics from both the
theoretical and practical points of view.
Description
Keywords
Curriculum development. , Ordinary level physics. , Pedagogical content knowledge.