An investigation into factors that militate against teaching and learning of integrated science at the junior high school level

Abstract

The study was conducted to investigate the factors that affect the effective teaching and learning of integrated science at the Junior High School level in Juaboso district. The study stemmed from the Researcher’s involvement in teaching integrated science, conduct, supervision and marking of district mock examination in integrated science organized by Juaboso district education directorate. A total of 240 out of 987 students from 10 selected junior high schools in the district were randomly selected for the study. In addition, 10 integrated science teachers were purposely selected, one from each of the 10 schools selected for the study. A descriptive survey research design was used. This design was chosen because it follows various means of obtaining the perceptions of both students and teachers which have to be compared and contrasted. The main instrument used for the collection of date was questionnaire. This was followed by interviews with some of the students and the science teachers selected from each school which strengthened the validity of the results of the study. In order to validate the instrument and ensure that the results that would be obtained are reliable, the instrument was pilot tested and Cronback Alpha reliability co-efficient of 0.81 was obtained from the pilot tested results. The following were the major findings of the study; Most of the science teachers in Juaboso district are untrained with majority of them having their education up to the SHS level.