ABSTRACT
The study, which was qualitative-phenomenological in nature, aimed to prove that reflective journal, which was consist of six researcher-made and duly validated questionnaires, could be beneficial in getting the science teaching practices of secondary schools’ science teachers. To interpret the data, thematic analysis was used and the following insights were derived: (1) teachers teaching science used either traditional or modern teaching practices or the combination of both to cater learners’ diversity; (2) science teachers need to seek professional development and engage in capacity-building trainings to enhance teaching practices; (3) collaborative efforts from stakeholders were beneficial for the success of teaching-learning process, and; (4) through reflective journals, the records of their practices in teaching will help evaluate which area of the pedagogy needs improvement. The findings were used as basis for plan of action that will help science teachers enhance their teaching practices and use relevant resources towards teaching science subjects.
Keywords: Science teaching practices, Secondary schools, Reflective journal, Plan of action
INTRODUCTION
Science requires a thorough study of the structure and characteristics of the natural world trough observations, measuring and experimentations in order to formulate scientific theories and laws (Cambridge Dictionary, 2023). The K-to-12 Science curriculum, specifically in the junior high school level, from one grade level to the next, ideas and abilities in the earth sciences, physics, chemistry, and life sciences are taught at ever higher degrees of complexity (Department of Education, 2016). The necessity of learning science at all stages of education has been the emphasis of most educational systems throughout the world in today’s technologically-advanced culture (Khine, Fraser, Afari, Oo, and Kyaw, 2017).
Though Science is fun and engaging to teach with, teaching Science subjects is a challenging task and in reality, science teachers in secondary schools are teaching all the subject areas of Science despite the fact that they only specialized in either biology, physics, chemistry or life science and some are hybrid secondary school science teachers teaching Science subjects both in junior and senior high school. Thus, how do science teachers in secondary schools of Alimodian reflect on their teaching practices attracts the attention of the researcher.
Inside the classroom, the teacher has the sole responsibility to facilitate learning and its success depends mostly on the personal, emotional and social investments and how classroom was established as a learning environment that is both safe and entertaining (Kiely, Davis, Carter, & Nye in Ahsanu, Purwati, & Wardani, 2020). Ngolobo and Kanandjebo (2021) encourages instructors to be open to new ideas in order to improve their teaching practices. Therefore, plan of action was crafted to enhance science teaching practices such as participating in related trainings, and seminar-workshops are conducted year-round to capacitate teachers on how to enhance their teaching practices and how to cater learners’ diversity and how they can learn best through incorporating varied teaching strategies and methodologies in the lessons.
Unfortunately, what is being taught inside the classroom is not always what students learn because of the many instances affecting the transfer of knowledge as well as on how to acquire information and skills from teachers to learners. For Hashim and Yusoff (2021), teachers in the classroom need to a thorough reflection on their own teaching practices and one of these methods is through the use of reflective journals. Reflective journaling has been used to help new or aspiring teachers identify practices they want to improve in the classroom and further change tactics shown to be ineffective (Burns, 2020). Reflection is part of the educational processes, it is found in the last page of the lesson plan, however reflective journaling is not a common practice among educators because in reality, aside from managing and delivering classroom instructions, teachers also have other responsibilities and coordinatorships assigned to them, therefore, they cannot rigorously reflect on their teaching practices or even update their preparations of the lessons. In order to practice the essence of reflection among teachers, the researcher would be using reflective journal which will serve as an instrument to record and determine the science teaching practices of science teachers in secondary schools of Alimodian.
In the study, reflective journal plays an important role as a “tool” that helped the researcher in finding out how science teachers in the secondary schools of Alimodian conduct their Science lessons. Making use of a reflective journal, the researcher was able to capture the teaching practices of science teachers by analyzing the entries that they have written.
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