Teachers’ Purposes and Practices in Implementing Practical Work at the Lower Secondary School Level

Abstract

This study investigated teachers’ purposes and practices in conducting practical work at the lower secondary school level. Six science teachers from a state in Malaysia were interviewed. The findings suggest that teachers’ aims in terms of practical work can be classified into: conceptual, procedural and affective domains. Implemented practical work was highly structured in the sense that every detail about how to conduct the practical task, what to observe and what the expected results would be, was given to the students. Students’ experience of practical work as implemented could lead to a surface approach to learning rather than deeper learning for understanding.