PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH TEACHING AND LEARNING OF INTEGRATED SCIENCE (A CASE STUDY OF SCHOOLS IN THE ASANTE MAMPONG MUNICIPALITY)
ABSTRACT
The study was conducted to find out the problems associated with teaching and learning of Integrated Science in senior high schools in the Asante Mampong Municipality. The objectives of the study were to find out how instruction is being delivered in the teaching and learning of integrated science with respect to the team teaching and learning of integrated science and also the solitary teaching and learning of integrated science. The type and level of teachers teaching the discipline, the use of relevant teaching-learning materials, students’ involvement in practical work and students’ opinions and views about the teaching and learning of integrated science were also considered. Questionnaires and interviews were used to obtain data from teachers and students respectively and was analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative means. The results indicate that majority of teachers prefer the team teaching approach to the solitary teaching approach, high percentage of science teachers do not attend science workshops/in-service trainings and a high percentage of teachers have difficulty in teaching the Physics and Chemistry aspects of integrated science. The results again proved that students were found to prefer the team teaching approach to the solitary teaching approach. The researchers recommended that the team teaching approach to teaching integrated Science should be the accepted approach to teaching integrated science in senior high schools, the Ghana Education Service (GES) should post graduates especially those from Universities those who offered Integrated Science education at the university to senior high schools to teach Integrated Science and lastly, in the absence of teachers who have specialized in integrated science, teachers who have specialized in the individual branches of science can be employed to take specified areas of study so as to improve teaching and learning of integrated science.