A study of the association between classroom practice and philosophy science amongst A-level biology teachers in Harare, Zimbabwe

Abstract

This paper reports a small-scale investigation into the classroom practice and the philosophy of science (PoS) of thirty three A-level biology teachers in Harare, Zimbabwe. Data was collected through a survey questionnaire and structured classroom observations in biology theory and practical lessons. Analysis of the biology teachers' responses to the PoS items gave 5 different teacher clusters. Patterns in the data show the differences in clusters' PoS were associated with aspects of the clusters' differences in classroom practice. The clusters which were significantly less process oriented, less positivist and less inductivist in PoS, had classroom practices that were more teacher centred in theory lessons. In practical lessons these same teachers demonstrated what had to be done and then left students to do it. Interestingly, an association between PoS and the working conditions of the teachers, their academic training and professional qualification, is also apparent in the data.