ASSESSMENT OF TECHNOLOGICAL PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE OF BIOLOGY TEACHERS IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KWARA STATE, NIGERIA
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Date
2020
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UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN
Abstract
The integration of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) into classroom instruction has been a challenge for the educational systems that aim to cope with the needs and demands of the 21st century. TPACK framework represents the knowledge needed by teachers bringing together content knowledge, technological knowledge and pedagogical knowledge with the aim of integrating Information and Communication Technology (ICT) into teaching-learning processes. There is growing concern on the method of teaching biology. Therefore, the study assessed the TPACK of biology teachers in senior schools. The objectives of the study were to: (i) examine biology teachers’ knowledge about teaching biology topics at the senior school level; (ii) determine the extent to which biology teachers were knowledgeable about modern digital technologies for teaching biology; (iii) ascertain the availability of modern digital technologies for teaching by biology teachers; (iv) determine the form of training possessed by biology teachers with modern digital technologies; and (v) investigate the biology teachers’ level of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge based on gender, teaching qualification and teaching experience.
The cross-sectional survey type of descriptive research method was adopted in the study. The total population of biology teachers in Nigeria consisted of 22,675. The target population were 1,122 biology teachers from senior secondary schools in Kwara State. Purposive sampling technique was used based on the teachers that have ICT gadgets in their schools to select 680 sampled biology teachers from the target population. The research instrument that was used in this study was adapted from Archambault and Crippen (2009) and Sahin (2011). Data were tested using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and t-test statistics at 0.05 level of significance.
The findings of the study were that:
i. 65.0% of the Senior School biology teachers possessed adequate knowledge about biology topics;
ii. 74.9% of the biology teachers did not possess adequate knowledge about modern digital technologies in teaching of biology topics;
iii. 57.9% of the sampled schools did not possess modern digital technologies in the teaching of biology topics;
iv. 53.5% of the Senior School biology teachers acquired self-training of ICT use in teaching;
v. 74.2% of the biology teachers possessed adequate knowledge of TPACK;
vi. there was a significant difference in the level of TPACK between male and female biology teachers in favour of the female teachers (t=555)-3.467 p<0.05);
vii. there was a significant difference in the level of TPACK between qualified and less qualified biology teachers in favour of less qualified teachers (t=555)-6.288, p<0.05); and
viii. there was significant difference in the level of TPACK of biology teachers' based on teaching experience in favour of the experienced biology teachers (F=3,554) 66.587, p=.003)
The study concluded that biology teachers possessed low level of TPACK. This implies that although biology teachers had good mastery of their subject matter, they do not have ICT-integration in their instructional approach due to lack of ICT knowledge. The study recommended that biology teachers should integrate TPACK in their lessons and its application in teaching so as to solve problem of poor performance in biology.
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Keywords
TECHNOLOGICAL, PEDAGOGICAL, CONTENT KNOWLEDGE, BIOLOGY TEACHERS, SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS, KWARA STATE