Moroccan Secondary School Research Articles

The use of a three-tier diagnostic test to investigate conceptions related to cell biology concepts among pre-service teachers of life and earth sciences

ABSTRACT Many studies worldwide have shown that students and pre-service teachers have misconceptions about cell biology concepts. In most cases, teachers are the source of their students’ misconceptions. In this regard, we conducted this study to investigate if Moroccan pre-service teachers of life and earth sciences have a good understanding of cell biology concepts, and to find which concepts they misconceive. We developed and validated a three-tier diagnostic test with 20 items concerning cell biology concepts. The test was based on knowledge related to cell biology included in the Moroccan secondary school life and earth sciences’ curriculum, which the pre-service teachers will teach. The use of a three-tier test allowed us to differentiate incorrect answers due to misconceptions from those related to a lack of knowledge and correct answers related to strong knowledge, from lucky guess. This study shows that pre-service teachers share several cell biology misconceptions, and that they misconceive the following concepts: cell, gene, hormone, nerve impulse and immune response. Misconceptions detected may impede pre-service teachers’ learning and may be transmitted to their students, which requires development of a training strategy to overcome these obstacles.

Gender Representation in Moroccan EFL Textbooks’ Conversations: A Quantitative and Qualitative Content Analysis

By employing two analytical methods, this study investigates gender representation in the conversations of an EFL textbook currently used in Moroccan secondary schools. First, a quantitative content analysis studies the following four criteria: (1) dialogue initiation, (2) turn-taking, (3) the number of words used, and (4) the number of participants. Second, a qualitative content analysis of all the textbook conversations is carried out by examining males’ and females’ topics of the talks, their active/passive roles, their high/low status, and gender differences in language use. Although the results indicated a minor numeric difference favouring males, the qualitative analysis proved an obvious stereotypical depiction of female participants in conversations' topics by connecting them with household chores' issues and assigning them traditional gender roles. Furthermore, gender differences in language use were discovered, which confirms the results of prominent figures in the area, such as Lakoff (1975), Spender (1980), and Tannen (1991). The paper ends with a conclusion and some recommendations aiming at supporting textbooks free of sexist attitudes.

Didactic transposition of experimental activities and knowledge by Biology teachers working in moroccan secondary schools. Comparative approach with scholastic textbook authors

Cet article porte sur la manière dont les enseignants des sciences de la vie et de la Terre (SVT), qui œuvrent dans les collèges marocains, transposent les pratiques expérimentales et le savoir. Il se propose également de comparer cette transposition didactique à celle envisagée par les auteurs des manuels. Nous nous plaçons dans le contexte de l’enseignement du concept de digestion pour les élèves de troisième du secondaire collégial (élèves de 15 à 17 ans). Servant de relais entre l’élève et le manuel comme curriculum potentiel, l’enseignant est considéré comme le porte-parole de la transposition didactique interne. Ainsi, l’analyse des pratiques de l’enseignement scientifique nous paraît alors intéressante du fait que notre travail vise à analyser le curriculum réel relatif à l’enseignement expérimental de la digestion et à le comparer à la façon dont ce savoir est présenté dans le curriculum potentiel. Ce travail montre que les enseignants, comme les auteurs des manuels, ne disposent pas des savoirs et des savoir-faire nécessaires à la mise en œuvre d’une démarche expérimentale. En outre, il fait apparaître que l’exploitation des résultats expérimentaux par les enseignants ainsi que le modèle d’enseignement mis en place dans les classes ne sont pas à la hauteur des aspirations attendues de l’introduction de l’Approche par compétences (APC) dans les établissements scolaires marocains.

Implementing Character Education and Behavior Improvement in Moroccan Secondary Schools

Character education has recently become an important area of concern and research among researchers and stakeholders in the field of education worldwide. The emergence of character education as an area of research, theory, and policymaking has been motivated by a generally noted increase of violence and misbehavior among students in educational institutions, which negatively affects the school environment and effectiveness as well as students’ performance, achievement and success. It has also been driven by the increasing awareness of the fundamental role and mission of education and educational institutions in instilling in learners the values and character traits of citizenship. In this context, the objective of this research is to investigate the impact of implementing character education and the improvement of students' behavior in Moroccan secondary schools. To collect data, the questionnaire and the semi-structured interview were used to elicit information from teachers and students on their opinions and perceptions of the impact of implementing character education programs and activities on students’ behavior improvement. The most important findings of this study confirm that character education does not constitute a mainstream practice in the classroom and its institutional context. In this respect, this article presents some suggestions to integrate effective character education programs in policy making, teachers training, and students’ life in the classroom and Moroccan school contexts.

Teachers’ Most Frequently Used ICT Tools for Teaching Language Skills and Components in Moroccan Secondary School EFL Classrooms

The present study explored the most frequently used ICT tools for teaching language skills and components in Moroccan secondary school EFL classrooms. This study adopted a mixed-method approach of investigation wherein two instruments were used to collect data: a survey questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. A total number of 80 Moroccan secondary school EFL teachers participated in this study and were selected using convenience sampling. Eight teachers were selected for the interviews through reputational and purposive sampling. Collected data was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Findings revealed that teaching speaking and listening skills received high use of ICT compared to teaching language components and reading and writing which integrated medium and low ICT use, respectively. Findings also showed that computers, laptops, and projectors are the most preferred ICT tools among EFL teachers. This study concluded that teachers’ ICT tools preference seems to have an impact on their ICT use frequency. The latter is also influenced by other factors such the availability/unavailability of ICT equipment/facilities in the schools and training/lack of training on the use of ICT in instruction. A number of recommendations are presented regarding a successful integration of ICT in EFL language teaching in the Moroccan secondary school contexts.

Barriers to ICT Integration in Moroccan Secondary School EFL Classrooms

There is a broad consensus in the literature that the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become an effective tool that can be used for educational purposes. The use of ICT in the classroom creates better learning opportunities and enhances the quality of teaching. However, barriers to ICT integration hinder this process. The aim of this paper is to explore the perceived barriers to ICT integration that Moroccan secondary school teachers encounter in EFL classrooms. This study adopted a mixed-methods design, and data were collected through two instruments: a survey questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. Secondary school EFL teachers in the area of Agadir, Morocco, participated in this study and of the 80 informants who completed and returned the questionnaire, 8 of them were interviewed. The findings indicate that the major barriers that teachers encounter in integrating ICT into the classrooms were lack of adequate ICT facilities in the schools, lack of time, lack of continuous and effective ICT training, technical problems, and lack of technical support. Further, various solutions and recommendations are offered to minimize these barriers and maximize the beneficial use of ICT in the teaching and learning process in Moroccan EFL secondary school settings. Keywords: Barriers, EFL Settings, ICT, Moroccan Educational Context, Technology Integration DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-26-04 Publication date: September 30 th 2021

The Teaching of Science Subjects through Foreign Languages in Moroccan Secondary Schools: Science Teachers’ Perceptions and Experiences

The present study explores Moroccan science teachers’ perceptions of teaching science subjects through foreign languages, mainly French, in Moroccan secondary schools. Seventeen science and technology teachers have been interviewed and data were analysed following the grounded theory methodology. The researcher constructs hypotheses based on data collection and analysis following axial coding. The findings of the study reveal that although science teachers hold positive attitudes towards the change in the language of instruction, they do not agree with the way this new initiative is being implemented. According to them, neither teachers nor students have been prepared to cope with a foreign language as a medium of instruction. They think students’ low French proficiency is the major challenge in this new initiative. Hence, they admit to resorting to the mother tongue to facilitate students’ content learning. Also, they have expressed their dissatisfaction with the prioritization of French as a foreign language and as a language of instruction. Instead, they suggest preparing young generations to switch to English as a medium of instruction through introducing English as a first foreign language at the primary and middle schools instead of French. The study ends up with some implications to overcome the challenges of the new policy.

Culture Teaching in Moroccan EFL Secondary Schools

To empower Moroccan students to join the rapidly growing globalized world, the Ministry of education, through multiple official documents, incessantly calls for culture incorporation in the teaching of foreign languages. While the existing research studies on culture in the Moroccan EFL context have considerably revolved around textbook analysis, no study known to the researcher, has explored the real classroom practices of culture teaching in Moroccan secondary schools. Hence, this study explores how culture is being treated by the teaching practitioners at Moroccan secondary EFL classrooms – second-year Baccalaureate level. The thematic analysis of the data collected from 76 EFL instructors at Souss Massa Academy, through online questionnaires and interviews, has shown that the research participants demonstrated a good understanding of the culture teaching. However, the findings exhibited that plenty of challenges have made the linguistic components continue to pre-empt the significant portion of time in the classroom teaching. Based on the reported hurdles, a set of recommendations for the EFL teachers, ELT supervisors, textbook and curriculum designers, and further research were highlighted.

The Challenges Facing the Teaching of Speaking in the Moroccan EFL Classroom

This study seeks to investigate the challenges facing the teaching of speaking in the Moroccan English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. The study adopted a mixed method design and random sampling to select Moroccan secondary school teachers of English. Data on the challenges hindering the implementation of speaking activities were collected using questionnaires administered to teachers and interviews as well. The data collected were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The study yielded that teachers perceive the teaching of the speaking skill as difficult and rank class size as the main challenge hindering the effective teaching and learning of the speaking skill.

The Effect of Motivation on Moroccan Secondary School students’ Language Proficiency

English language is considered as a global language, and with every single day, its users are increasing especially in the Arab world. The present study is exploratory in nature, investigating the effect of motivations on students’ English proficiency. It was meant to see whether there is any significant correlation between this variable as well as students’ English proficiency in the secondary level in Morocco. Additionally, it examines the extent to which there would be differences in language skills, domains and final foreign-language grades among high-school students completing a second year of English as a foreign-language in a foreign context such as the Moroccan one. Oral and written proficiency measures were adopted and administered by the researcher himself and with the help of participating teachers in addition to language supervisors (inspectors). The participants in this study are second year Moroccan EFL students enrolled for the school year 2017.The study incorporates quantitative as well as qualitative approach and has used a proficiency test, questionnaires besides an observational instrument to collect data from respondents. Initially, a total number of about 101 students participated in the study but only 78-ended taking part in the study. The data obtained has been quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed with ANOVA test of Fisher and the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS). From the findings of the data, the study concludes that Moroccan students have overall differences among the two proficiency groups (High, Low) and study disciplines (Science or Letter). Conclusions and implications about connections among foreign-language proficiency language skills, attitudes, motivations are presented as well as discussed.

The Use of Educational Software in Teaching Physics in the Moroccan Context

In the educational field, many researchers have studied the role played by the educational software in teaching physics. This review study aims to analyze the use of educational software in the teaching of physics in Moroccan secondary schools between the years 2010 and 2019. The sources for the data collection process were obtained through searches on Google Scholar pages. The analysis of the results allowed us to identify the advantages and disadvantages related to the integration of educational software in teaching physics in the Moroccan context. In addition, the study contributes with a set of recommendations for future use of educational software.

Study of Some Key Elements of Design and Selection of an Educational Video Game Conducive to the Moroccan Secondary School Learners: The Motivational Profile and Pedagogical Coherence

Educational video games are being used increasingly in teaching physics. They offer learners a fun and convivial learning environment. However, the use of an educational video game genre that is ill-suited to a type of learning situation or inconsistent with the learners' motivational profile influences the effectiveness of its use in the classroom. In this context, this article deals, on the one hand, with the coherence between the genre of video games and the type of learning situation found in the context of the competency-based approach. On the other hand, it presents the results of a survey to describe the Moroccan learners' motivational profile in video games. The results show that the games should be adapted to each type of learning situation, designed and chosen to meet the learners' interest and avoided when learners are not interested in the genre of the games. It is also pointed out that most of learners prefer to use video games at the level of the explanation of the lessons and the exercises. In light of this research, we have made a number of recommendations for choosing and designing an educational video game.

The Effect of Autonomous Learning on Language Proficiency and Use of Language Learning Strategies for the Moroccan Baccalaureate Learners

Autonomous Learning (AL) as a teaching concept has been widely approved of as a highly sophisticated promoter of efficient language teaching and learning. It is a pedagogical philosophy that is believed to enhance the quality of lifelong learning by accentuating the learner’s presence as an active partcipant in the teaching-learning operation. In fact, developing effective autonomy-enhancing methodologies and devising appropriate and practical activities that may nurture the sense of learning responsibility and promote the teacher’s classroom presence as assistant and guide has attracted considerable attention in the realm of applied linguistics ever since the early 1960’s. In the same vein, this paper aims to tackle the issue of AL in the Moroccan secondary school environment and how incorporating it into the classroom can increase Baccalaureate graders’ language proficiency (LP) and their use of language learning strategies (LLS). Two groups (control and experimental) of twenty students each were involved in a one- year- long experiment to demostrate how training learners to become autonomous, through the systematic use of the learner development program (LDP) that was devised by Sharles and Zsabo (2000), would advance their LP and their ability to effectively use LLS. The results show that the level of LP and use of LLS can improve when teachers engage their learners in autonomy-enhancing activities in a consistent and systematic manner.

Moroccan Teachers’ Level of ICT Integration in Secondary EFL Classrooms

The sheer growth of information and communication technologies (ICT) has reshaped teaching and learning practices tremendously in the learning environments all over the globe. Research reveals that teachers are the key agents in the integration of ICT in particular in language teaching and learning. However, some of the many factors, this ICT integration are associated with teachers’ personal characteristics such as gender. Therefore, the current study investigates the Moroccan male and female teachers’ level of ICT integration in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in the public secondary school EFL classrooms. This study aims to explore whether gender influences the way EFL teachers’ ICT use in the classroom. It is a survey which adopts a mixed-method approach of investigation, and two instruments are used to collect data: a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. Eighty full-time teachers (45 male and 35 female teachers) belonging to different public secondary schools in the area of Agadir Idaoutanane and Inzegane Ait-Meloul participated in the study by answering a questionnaire, and eight teachers out of this sample (4 male and 4 female teachers) are interviewed. The results of data analysis reveal that although female teachers employed ICT in their teaching less than their male counterparts, there is no significant difference in using ICT in language teaching between the two groups. A number of propositions are presented as to how to incorporate ICT in language learning in the Moroccan secondary schools EFL contexts.

The Communicative Orientation of English Language Teaching Classrooms in Moroccan Secondary Schools

The present paper addresses the issue of theory and practice in the implementation of the communicative approach in the context of English as a foreign language teaching in Morocco. It set to evaluate the communicative orientation of English language teaching classrooms in Moroccan secondary schools. This evaluation incorporates the investigation of the constraints imposed on teaching English for communicative purposes in this context. The results reveal the dominance of non-communicatively oriented practices and classrooms over their communicatively oriented counterparts. However, the dominance of communicative features in forty-one of the classes observed (34.16%) is relatively high given the current state of communicative language teaching in Morocco and the constraints that were found to impede its implementation in this context. These constraints are related essentially to the foreign language context, the formal nature of the classroom environment, the traditional nature of students’ personality traits and their conceptions of classroom participation and role-relationships, the nature of assessment procedures, lack of adequate and varied teaching materials and equipment, and the large size of classes. These findings suggest that English language teaching in Moroccan secondary schools has undergone important changes from the dominance of traditional and teacher-centred classrooms towards more communicative language teaching. They would also imply that the implementation of the communicative approach in foreign language contexts is not impossible, but rather feasible. To this end, this article presents some suggestions to enhance communicatively oriented attitudes and practices in English as a foreign language teaching classrooms in Morocco.

How Morocco's Secondary School Students Classify Animals

Bringing out the misconceptions is a primordial process in teaching and the learning of biology. This article aims to highlight Moroccan students' alternative conceptions, regarding animal and to elicit their ability to classify some animals. Data was collected using the Animal Classification Test (ACT) distributed at the Moroccan secondary school at the Tangier-Tetouan regional Academy of Education And Training. The results obtained showed that students have real obstacles to classify even most known animals (goose, butterfly, crocodile, etc.). These obstacles are often misconceptions and were poorly treated and reformulated by the teaching-learning process. In fact, many students used “non-taxonomic” criteria, such as habitat and locomotion to classify animals even after learning the categories of the biological taxonomy. In addition, this article finds that high school students have almost the same alternative conceptions about animal classification as the intermediate secondary school. This result confirmed that alternative conceptions are more resistant to change and persist anchored on student's mind even after teaching-learning sequences.

Computer Science Program in Moroccan Secondary Schools: Curricula Analysis

Computer Science Program in Moroccan Secondary Schools: Curricula Analysis

Moroccan Teachers’ Level of ICT Integration in Secondary EFL Classrooms

The sheer growth of information and communication technologies (ICT) has reshaped teaching and learning practices tremendously in the learning environments all over the globe. Research reveals that teachers are the key agents in the integration of ICT in particular in language teaching and learning. However, some of the many factors, this ICT integration are associated with teachers’ personal characteristics such as gender. Therefore, the current study investigates the Moroccan male and female teachers’ level of ICT integration in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in the public secondary school EFL classrooms. This study aims to explore whether gender influences the way EFL teachers’ ICT use in the classroom. It is a survey which adopts a mixed-method approach of investigation, and two instruments are used to collect data: a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. Eighty full-time teachers (45 male and 35 female teachers) belonging to different public secondary schools in the area of Agadir Idaoutanane and Inzegane Ait-Meloul participated in the study by answering a questionnaire, and eight teachers out of this sample (4 male and 4 female teachers) are interviewed. The results of data analysis reveal that although female teachers employed ICT in their teaching less than their male counterparts, there is no significant difference in using ICT in language teaching between the two groups. A number of propositions are presented as to how to incorporate ICT in language learning in the Moroccan secondary schools EFL contexts.

The evaluation in the physical sciences in the Moroccan secondary school curriculum: the case of experimental skills

Evaluation is a task of great importance in the service of the teaching/learning that allows us to check whether or not specific educational objectives have been achieved.Currently, with the emergence of active pedagogies, according to several points of view, new challenges have emerged other than simply assessment. As far as Moroccan education is concerned, assessment focuses on the level of mastery of specific skills on the part of learners at the beginning, during and at the end of the year, as well as at the end of each period of learning.Our present research is interested in the taking into consideration the evaluation of experimental skills in the physical sciences as part of the Moroccan educational system.To be able to check the hypotheses that have been advanced in our study, we developed a questionnaire that was distributed to a sample of physics-chemistry secondary school teachers in Morocco.The majority of the teachers in our sample have reported several constraints, including a lack of material necessary to plan and implement the work practices needed to provide an adequate education in terms of experimental activity in the field of physics-chemistry.
 
 Keywords: Evaluation, teaching–learning, skills, physics and chemistry

The association between teen dating violence, dates’ substance abuse, depression, anxiety, and suicide: Fez city as a case study

Introduction Teen dating in an Arab and a Muslim country as Morocco happens very often in secret and without parents’ knowledge. The secretive nature of such relationships increases the likelihood of negative practices’ occurrence, which have traumatic effects on the mental and physical health of daters. This study aimed to explore and analyse the association between intimate partners’ substance abuse, violence occurrence, and participants’ feelings of depression, anxiety, and suicidality. Methods This cross sectional study was conducted in Fez city, and self-administered questionnaires were distributed among a sample of 407 Moroccan secondary school students. Socio-demographic data were obtained using a standard questionnaire. Information on mental and physical health of daters was collected using validated scales. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 20.0. Results The mean age of participants was 16.67 ± 1.71, and about 52.8% were males. As many as 72% of participants were in high school, and the majority (41.5%) were from poor families. Concerning teen dating violence occurrence, dates’ substance abuse was found to be a risk factor OR = 3.60; IC 95% (1.77–7.31). Indeed, dates’ drugs consumption was associated with participants’ victimization OR = 3.27; IC 95% (1.72–6.21) participants’ feelings of depression OR = 1.92; IC 95% (1.08–3.41), anxiety OR = 1.71; IC 95% (1.00–3.00), and the development of suicidal behaviours OR = 2.40; IC 95% (1.42–4.07). Conclusion The strong correlation between dates’ substance abuse, teen dating violence occurrence, participants’ feelings of depression, anxiety, and suicide commands urgent intervention for secondary school students in Fez city even though it conflicts with traditions and norms.