Abstract
This paper presents findings on a study that was conducted at two selected secondary schools in Ohangwena educational region in Namibia. The study used a quantitative approach to investigate if using learner-centred approach improves learners’ understanding of acids and bases. With a sample of 80 grade 11 learners taking Physical Science Ordinary level, a quasi-experimental design was used to collect data from two schools for two weeks (one week at each school). The Pre-test, post-test scores from the control group consisting of 40 learners from school A and an experimental group of 40 learners from school B were used to establish the cause and effect relationship between the use of Learner-Centred Approach (LCA) and learners’ understanding of acids and bases based on their performance in the tests were given. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the quantitative data from the tests cores and a t-test analysis was conducted for both groups. The study results indicated that the experimental group performed better than the control group. It also emerged that using various learner-centred activities attracted learners’ interests in learning and understanding acids and bases. It is therefore concluded that learner-centred approaches improved high school learners’ understanding of the topic acids and bases. The study recommends that Physical Science teachers should make the teaching and learning of acids and bases more practical-based by using learner-centred approaches.
Highlights
Like many other post-independent African countries, Namibia went through many changes after independence, politically, socially and educationally, as the nation sought to determine its own destiny
The study recommends that Physical Science teachers should make the teaching and learning of acids and bases more practical-based by using learner-centred approaches
The results of the pre-tests and post-tests of both groups were paired and a t-test was carried out to determine whether the use of various learner-centred teaching methods had a significant effect on the performance of the high school learners in understanding the topic acids and bases
Summary
Like many other post-independent African countries, Namibia went through many changes after independence, politically, socially and educationally, as the nation sought to determine its own destiny. Immediately after independence, the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC, 1993) articulated four major goals of education as access, equity, quality and democracy and it states that, “As we make transition from educating the elite to education for all we make a shift from teacher-centred to learner-centred” The trends of changing from a traditional (teacher-centred) approach to a learner-centred one are observed in some Southern African countries, namely, Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa and Namibia (Khoboli, 2007). 65) stated that “for more than three decades national governments and international donor agencies have worked to improve elementary and secondary education in sub-Sahara Africa by encouraging the adoption of learner-centred pedagogies”. In independent Namibia, education transformation is worth examined, since it deals with the change from teacher-centred to learner-centred teaching approaches. It is against this background that the MEC (1993) proposed learner-centred-teaching methods for basic education in Namibia
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