Abstract
The purpose of the study was to transforming chemistry learning from the textbooks in the silent classrooms to the school garden through activity-based learning with students’ meaningful engagement in collaboration with the science teachers in the community schools in Nepal. This research also aims to clarifying the epistemological gridlocks (banking concept of education) of school science teachers through measuring pH of garden soil samples by the basic level students’ activities. The concern of this study was facilitating school science teachers to impart the practical knowledge of chemical concept (pH of soil) by simple experiments whose backup is based on the epistemologically Vedic education system in Nepal. In-depth interviews and participant observations were taken with the students and teachers about their epistemic beliefs of teaching and learning the basic chemical concepts of chemistry based on the basic level science curriculum. It is found that the science teachers’ positivist congestions were rooted in the dogmatic approach in chemistry teaching and hinders the eloquent engagement of students in the school gardening activities. Science teachers’ belief system enabled me to understand the positivist epistemology mindset and transform into play way chemistry learning in the school garden. This broader sphere of teachers’ beliefs enabled me to recognize why positivist epistemology and connected traditions linking activity-based chemistry learning superficially forceful in the community schools. It is recommended that the suggestions for the school teacher professional improvement are needed to supervise and facilitate them to clarify the reflections on their situated personal experiences.
Highlights
School science reforms in almost all parts of the world support a view of teaching and learning chemical concepts that highlights activity-based instruction and meaningful engagement of students and teachers in practical activities (Marx et al, 2004; Sawada et al, 2002; Wallace and Louden, 1992; Van Driel, Beijaard and Verloop, 2001)
Taking into consideration the basic level science teachers hold in demonstrating the performs of classroom activities in the silent environment to recite the chemical concepts, the anticipated transformation in school science based on science teachers’ capability to assimilate the theory and hands-on activities of a reform with their opinions
School science teachers hold the contextual and the dogmatic belief about the activity-based chemistry learning through school gardening activities is found in many research literature (Acharya, 2017; Bazzul, Wallace and Higgins, 2018; Gottschalk, 2018; Rowbottom, 2016)
Summary
School science reforms in almost all parts of the world support a view of teaching and learning chemical concepts that highlights activity-based instruction and meaningful engagement of students and teachers in practical activities (Marx et al, 2004; Sawada et al, 2002; Wallace and Louden, 1992; Van Driel, Beijaard and Verloop, 2001). One of the major concerns is that basic level science teachers in the schools of Nepal show epistemological immature understandings about basic chemical concepts through school gardening activities (Acharya, 2016, 2019). This study follows in that understanding how teachers’ beliefs concerning activity-based chemistry learning from the school garden intersect with factors such as local context and teachers’ epistemic beliefs, we can better inform our approaches to reform learning chemistry at the basic level schools in Nepal. In this article I seek to explore science teachers’ beliefs about the application of school garden and how they connect with various beliefs concerning teaching and learning in a situated practice of developing scientific thinking
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