Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences

Yazarlar: T. Subahan Mohd Meerah, Lilia Halim, Saemah Rahman, Roslina Tan Abdullah, Halimah Harun, Arbaat Hassan Hassan, Abang Ismail

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Özet: This paper reports on a professional development initiative with Malaysian primary school science teachers through collaborative action research aimed at enhancing their teaching in order to improve marginalized children’s learning. Their performance of such children, both in the external as well as in the school-based assessment, is weak, especially in subjects like Science and Mathematics and eventually results in their dropping out at the primary level. The first phase of the study, based on a series of observations, focuses on group discussions with teachers and consecutive school visits, and has identified that the teachers face difficulties in teaching Science and Mathematics. The findings show that teachers tend to use similar teaching approaches as those which are being used in urban schools, which are more teacher-centred in nature. Furthermore, many teachers do not possess sound pedagogical skills in terms of teaching Science and Mathematics and have the ability to employ alternative approaches suitable for marginalized children in their context. To overcome this situation, the second phase of this study involved developing modules by the teachers and researchers collaboratively as a means of providing alternative ways of teaching science. Additionally, teachers become used to the concept of action research. Findings show that teachers perceive the modules to be very useful and beneficial to them. Moreover, the students demonstrated increase interest and active involvement in the learning activities.

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