Information Communication Technology (ICT) is becoming valuable tools to help improve education, especially during teaching and learning of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. In this regard, we conducted this study to explore the usability of ICT tools in Physics taught courses. To collect data, we used classroom observation protocol for undergraduate STEM to assess how teachers and learners spend time on classroom activities among day and boarding schools and urban and rural schools. We also surveyed physics teachers after a short workshop on the use of PhET simulations and YouTube videos for teaching optics to reveal their workability and usefulness. As a result, we found that teachers in the day schools guide and assign more work to their learners, allow them to work in groups more than those in boarding schools. Similarly, learners in rural schools spend much time working in groups more than their colleagues in urban schools. However, teachers in urban schools spend much time guiding their learners than teachers in rural schools. Teachers use more of textbooks among various instructional tools. Teachers were not aware of and used to PhET simulations and YouTube videos in physics class; however, after the workshop, they conceived them as convenient electronic instructional tools that can accelerate the active learning of Optics. Since these resources are free to access and easy to use, we highly recommend teachers to use them in their daily teaching and learning activities.
Regular class observations are one of the means to monitor factors and dynamics that influence quality learning. From 2016, the Rwanda education system introduced a new curriculum known as Competence-Based Curriculum (CBC), which ensures fosters more the learner-centered approach. This study was carried out to assess CBC input after four years of implementation. For this assessment, the reformed teaching observation protocol (RTOP) was used to observe 42 classes from 17 classrooms taught by nine teachers from the eastern province and Kigali city in Rwanda. Outcomes of our analysis indicated that after four years of CBC implementation, learners' active participation has improved. The overall aggregate scores of observed lessons were 2.16 out of 4 ratings (54%) across all the 25 RTOP statements. Grouping the RTOP statements into six factors, learner-centered physics class is practiced at a 61% level while the overall reformed physics class is at a level of 53%. The results of this study led us to formulate some recommendations that would more improve physics students' active learning.
Light has the most interesting phenomena among physics concepts. We designed the light phenomena conceptual assessment (LPCA) to help teachers measure their students’ conceptual understanding of light phenomena. We expected to measure increases in student understanding of light phenomena after learning about the wave and particle nature of light in Rwandan secondary schools. We analyzed the results of 244 physics students using descriptive and inferential statistics. The data revealed a low understanding of light phenomena, and this low understanding is connected to instructional tools and strategies used by teachers. Students confused reflection and refraction of light. They also struggled with understanding total internal reflection and light scattering. Therefore, teachers should teach optics by allowing students to observe related phenomena in order to more effectively promote student conceptual understanding of light phenomena.
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