In Search of Culturally Responsive Tools for Meaningful Learning of Chemistry in Africa: We Stumbled on the Culturo-Techno-Contextual Approach

Abstract

This study described the implementation procedure (step-by-step) of the culturo-techno-contextual approach (CTCA) in the classroom with concrete curricular examples for each step. The study then proceeded to explore the potency of CTCA on nuclear chemistry, a traditionally perceived difficult concept among secondary school students in Nigeria, as obtained from the survey phase of the study. Using a quasi-experimental research design, we had a total of 221 senior secondary school two (SS2, the equivalent of grade 11) students from two schools in educational district V of Lagos State, Nigeria, who participated in the experimental phase of the study. After the pretest exercise for both the experimental and comparison groups, we had a four-week treatment where the experimental group was taught with CTCA, and the comparison group was taught with the conventional lecture method. Four weeks after the posttest, a retention test was conducted for both groups using the same Nuclear Chemistry Achievement Test instrument used for the pre-and posttests. Data collected were analyzed using ANCOVA, and the results obtained showed a statistically significant mean difference between the groups [F(1, 218) = 84.12; p < 0.05], indicating that CTCA improved students' performance in nuclear chemistry. We also found no statistically significant difference in the achievement of male and female students in the experimental group. Within the limitations of the study, we concluded that CTCA is a viable culturally relevant tool for teaching chemistry concepts. The future directions of the study were also highlighted.

Concept difficulty in secondary school chemistry: An intra-play of gender, school location and school type

“…The second research question sought the specific difficulties that students have with learning the top five perceived most difficult topics in chemistry as identified in the first phase of this study (Oladejo et al, 2022). Since most previous studies terminated their quest at the level of mere listing of the perceived difficult concepts, it was a key objective of this study to dig deeper and probe the aetiology of the difficulty.…”

“…Acid (Oladejo, Okebukola, Olateju et al, 2022) On the other hand, the volume of studies addressing topic difficulty in science is sparse in Africa, compared with studies in similar research conducted in Australia (Garnett & Treagust, 1992), Europe (Blanco & Garrote, 2007;Cimer, 2012;Şahin & Yağbasan, 2012;Kaltakci-Gurel, Eryilmaz & McDermott, 2016) and North America (Ralph & Lewis, 2018). This study also attempts to fill this gap.…”

“…The second question in this study sought to x-tray the specific difficulties that students have with learning the top five perceived most difficult topics in chemistry as reported by Oladejo, Okebukola, Olateju et al (2022). Responses from the interviews were winnowed and summarized based on the preponderant views.…”

“…Evident within the literature, are studies that have focused on this convergence but have narrowed their objectives to a mere listing of difficult concepts in science subjects, just as in phase one of this study (Oladejo, Okebukola, Olateju, Akinola, Ebisin & Dansu, 2022). The list of such difficult concepts has also been previously published in biology (Johnstone & Mahmoud, 1980;Lazarowitz & Penso, 1992) as well as in chemistry (Maatman, 1995;Pinarbasi & Canpolat, 2003;Sözbilir, 2004).…”

Ways to Learning Science are Undergoing Mutation: Would the Culturo-Techno-Contextual Approach be an Effective Variant for Learning Chemistry?

“…Science education communities around the world witnessed incredible advancements in science teaching and learning in the 20th century as research outputs focused largely on how to improve students' performance (Abanikanda, 2019; Sannu, 2015; Oludipe, 2012); and winning more students to science (Afuwape and Olugbuyi, 2019; . By the dawn of the century and since the beginning of the 21st century, there has been a slight shift in the thrust of science education research and advocacy towards promoting unity and inclusion for global scientific literacy (Oladejo et al, 2022). This growing call for inclusiveness at all levels of 641 science teaching and learning (including informal science) has taken different shapes and dimensions to include respect for different worldviews about science (Martínez, 2020), early science learning (Ikpah, 2022) and STEM-E (Tunnicliff, 2022), and emerging methodologies for delivering school science (Okebukola et al, 2016).…”