A comparative study of the teaching and learning of physical and human geography at advanced level in rural secondary schools in Makonde district in Mashonaland West province

Abstract

Variations in the Geography ‘A’ level results for both the Physical and Human Geography components have been noticed in both rural and urban schools. The study examined the causes of the variations in the results by comparing the teaching and learning of Physical and Human Geography in selected secondary schools in Makonde District in Mashonaland West Province. Quantitative as well as qualitative methods of data collection were used. These included questionnaires, in-depth interviews, lesson observations, tests and documentary analysis. The research findings indicated that students performed better in Human than in Physical Geography. This was attributed mainly to teachers who did not adequately cover the Physical Geography component of the syllabus. The results also showed that the other causes for the variations in the results were the shortage of textbooks, lack of libraries and in-service seminars and workshops for Geography teachers. It can therefore be concluded that the variations in the results for Advanced level Geography in rural secondary schools were due to lack of resources and the inadequate coverage of the syllabus by teachers. Keywords: Geography, Human, Learning, Physical, Teaching