Grade 10 Science Teachers Teaching Outside of Subject Specialism: Challenges and intervention for Concept Mastery

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

This research was conducted in order to determine the challenges faced by teachers when teaching science concepts outside of their field of specialization.

METHODS

Questionnaires were distributed and interview was conducted to the Grade 10 science teachers of Dasmarinas North National High School. Learning Action Cell and Focused -Group Discussion were the interventions done during the conduct of the research.

RESULTS

LAC sessions, focused group discussion and peer mentoring increased the concept mastery of the teachers. Moreover, their confidence in teaching the lesson to the student increased after the interventions.

DISCUSSIONS

Teachers teaching outside of their subject specialism faced different challenges in teaching the subject matter which lead to poor concept mastery and low confidence level on teaching the topics. However, Learning Action Cell, focus group discussion, and peer mentoring provided help to address these problems. In general, support from the workplace was found to be an effective strategy to help teachers deal with their weaknesses in subject matter.