Nigerian senior secondary school (SSS) chemistry teacher’s knowledge and beliefs about application of multiple representations’ (MR) in chemistry pedagogy
Abstract:Multiple representations interpret for repeated substitutions of pedagogical activities of concepts with different types of representations. The challenges in learning chemistry have to do with beliefs, pedagogy and school curriculum. These challenges were also attributed to students’ lack of interest, which led to the increase in chemistry attrition rates. The framework for this study was an intervention that involved the case study of five purposively selected chemistry teachers from low resourced SSS in Lagos. The descriptive and interpretive methodologies were used in the study. This article narrated a research process on chemistry teachers’ knowledge and beliefs about applications of multiple representations in SSS chemistry pedagogy. Five case study teachers completed the only questionnaire in this study. They responded to items on their background data, and about teaching practices, beliefs and difficulties in teaching chemistry effectively. They were interviewed and their classroom lessons were observed, before the intervention. The intervention in the study consisted of two professional learning workshops. Participants were actively engaged on how to apply multiple representations during the pedagogical processes of three perceived “difficult” chemistry topics. The chemistry teachers’ classroom activities were also observed, after the first and second multiple representations workshops. The process involved representational activities and challenges that were complemented with experiments and small group discussions. Findings showed that application of multiple representations (MR) impacted positively on the teachers’ knowledge, beliefs and practices. The students were more actively engaged in learning chemistry. It was recommended that chemistry teachers should be resourceful, creative and develop skills that supports the application of multiple representations in classroom pedagogies.
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