Engagement in constructing understanding of selected chemistry concepts through the integration of indigenous knowledge

Abstract

Students’ engagement in chemistry lessons is essential for construction of knowledge and understanding. The issue is with the adoption of teaching and learning strategies that encourage students’ engagement. Indigenous knowledge (IK) practices have been argued to provide suitable contexts in relation to the students’ everyday life experiences to reveal the relevance, practicality and applicability of concepts for effective teaching and learning. Therefore, chemistry lessons designed using suitable contextual IK practices, have the tendency to promote the meaningfulness of concepts to students thereby fostering their engagement in lessons. The study was conducted as a case study to evaluate the effect of students’ engagement in ‘integrated indigenous knowledge-chemistry lessons’ (IIK-CLs) on students’ learning outcome. Relevant data was collected from 20 purposely sampled IK experts and 8 chemistry tutors and ‘integrated indigenous knowledge-chemistry lessons were consequently developed. Specific chemistry concepts were taught using the ‘IIK CLs’ which engaged students in numerous activities. The behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement of 26 randomly sampled students were assessed using observational schedule and questionnaire on all three types of engagement. The interrupted time series design was also used to evaluate the effect of the designed ’integrated ‘IK-CLs on the students’ learning outcome and on gender. Students’ responses were analysed using Excel and statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) and the results presented in tables and graphs. The ‘IIK-CL’ recorded a high percentage of students’ engagement, revealed a significant improvement in students’ performance and impacted positively on students learning. The integration of IK practices in the teaching of chemistry concepts promoted students’ engagement and enabled the construction of knowledge and understanding