Abstract:
Students’ engagement in chemistry lessons is essential for construction of knowledge and
understanding. The issue is with the adoption of teaching and learning strategies that
encourage students’ engagement. Indigenous knowledge (IK) practices have been argued
to provide suitable contexts in relation to the students’ everyday life experiences to reveal
the relevance, practicality and applicability of concepts for effective teaching and learning.
Therefore, chemistry lessons designed using suitable contextual IK practices, have the
tendency to promote the meaningfulness of concepts to students thereby fostering their
engagement in lessons. The study was conducted as a case study to evaluate the effect of
students’ engagement in ‘integrated indigenous knowledge-chemistry lessons’ (IIK-CLs)
on students’ learning outcome. Relevant data was collected from 20 purposely sampled IK
experts and 8 chemistry tutors and ‘integrated indigenous knowledge-chemistry lessons
were consequently developed. Specific chemistry concepts were taught using the ‘IIK CLs’ which engaged students in numerous activities. The behavioural, emotional and
cognitive engagement of 26 randomly sampled students were assessed using observational
schedule and questionnaire on all three types of engagement. The interrupted time series
design was also used to evaluate the effect of the designed ’integrated ‘IK-CLs on the
students’ learning outcome and on gender. Students’ responses were analysed using Excel
and statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) and the results presented in tables
and graphs. The ‘IIK-CL’ recorded a high percentage of students’ engagement, revealed a
significant improvement in students’ performance and impacted positively on students
learning. The integration of IK practices in the teaching of chemistry concepts promoted
students’ engagement and enabled the construction of knowledge and understanding
Description:
A thesis in the Department of Science Education, Faculty of Science Education
submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfilment
of the requirements for the award of the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
(Science Education)
in the University of Education, Winneba
