The impact of covid-19 on the teaching of biology in senior high schools

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic which first appeared in China disrupted the normal daily lives of people in the world. Countries including Ghana took various measures to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus which included social distancing, lockdown in the whole country and all schools were closed down which disrupted the whole education system. The study investigated the impact of COVID-19 on the teaching of biology in Senior High Schools in the Cape Coast Metropolis of Ghana. The study also examined the teaching strategies adopted during a pandemic and how these teaching strategies could be employed effectively during a pandemic. One hundred biology teachers were randomly selected with the aid of computer generated numbers for the study. A structured questionnaires was used for data collection. The data collected was prepared and coded using Statistical Package for Social Science software and analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency, mean, mode and percentage. The outcome of the study showed that COVID-19 had impacted biology teaching methods in Senior High Schools as schools migrated to remote teaching and learning during the pandemic. However, the study showed that only few of the Senior High Schools in the study area offered remote teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and this was attributed to lack of educational technologies and poor internet connectivity. The study suggests that school curriculum should be reviewed to adapt to distance teaching and learning in Senior High Schools and biology teachers should be trained to be equipped with remote teaching and learning skills. Again, project-based learning (PBL) as well as inquiry-based learning (IBL) should be adopted to teach biology in Senior High Schools during a pandemic