Teaching Science At Okatope School In Namibia

SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS AT OKATOPE JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL: SHARING EXPERIENCES. By Salom M Shikola and Reuben Sirinji @ Rundu College of Education, Namibia, November 2008.

Introduction. In this assignment are the strength and weaknesses in teaching math and science largely based on my three weeks of observation at Okatope Junior Secondary School in the Ohangwena region of Namibia. The school is five kilometres away from the centre of the upcoming Helao-Nafidi urban area and only 15 km from the busy border town of Oshikango. The assignment explores five strengths that can be used to overcome the relative disciplinary isolation of science and mathematics in a school curriculum. There are also weaknesses in teaching mathematics associated with essentializing, contextualizing, and problem-centring and also arising from the interdisciplinary curriculum and the purposes of the discipline driving the integration. Essentializing raises the scientific and mathematical facts to a level of fundamental concepts and helps establish internal connections within science and mathematics. Contextualizing efforts create external ties between the scientific and mathematical theories and their historical and cultural roots. Problem-centered integration (another strategy for external integration) mobilizes different disciplinary tools toward the solution of a pressing problem. Substantiating our claims with examples from programmes and courses according to Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA), Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of science subjects can help educators choose the optimal way to present their interdisciplinary material or to design hybrid approaches that build upon the strengths of several strategies.

Observed strengths in mathematics and science teaching. 1. The school has a mathematics and science club. This club was introduced in the same year 2003. The club is not for getting profit but is to making sure that all the learners are attended to and they can give back what they were given and apply it in the community and Even in their daily life Okatope Junior secondary school is not training doctors or engineers but they are concentrating on literacy and numeracy, to know to write and read and count to make sure vision 2030 is realised. Some learners went the extent of coming up with more imaginative projects like making an electrical pulleys and it worked very well. According to the principal this learners are improving each and every day. Learners used to compete in this club within the school and outside the school. There are also some neighbouring schools which have mathematics and science clubs. 2. The department of Mathematics and Science at Okatope junior secondary is determined to be a regional recognized centre of

learning, creativity, as well as a major partner in the development of education. It is committed to playing a leading role in the growth of their school into a comprehensive educational centre. Their purpose is the advancement of mathematics and the sciences by engaging learners and staff in many learning programme. They create a scholarly environment in which programmes, are based on solid scientific experiments aimed at expanding the knowledge of learners. We integrate teaching, learning and programmes at learners’ levels. Their learners will be responsible citizens who possess the skills of enquiry and the ability to critically evaluate and to disseminate scientific knowledge. The department of Mathematics and Science is committed to increasing opportunities in both fundamental and applied areas of their disciplines. They feel that the time is ripe to expand their presence in the community by supporting the type of applied programs and development that will provide opportunities for their learners to get opportunity in senior secondary schools that offer their field of study utilizes their prior skills. At the same time, they are adamant that the current high quality incoming primary learners programs must be maintained and enhanced in several areas. They are dedicated to helping the school to become an engine of growth and development for the new knowledge-based industries that will determine Namibia’s future as a leader in the new economy. 3. The school provide learners with projects in mathematics and science. This happen in this way that learners are given opportunity to participate in projects locally nationally and even internationally if it is possible this projects are not for the privileged but for all learners despite race or back ground. For a learner to participate in this projects is him or her self to prove it does not have a limited number as long as a learner must be capable of what is going on in the project. Learners use to take part in mathematics and science competitions which took place in the region and other region. They started this project in the year 2003 when Mr Kennedy Mbidi was selected as a principal of Okatope junior secondary school. They find more interesting followed by an excellent performing in Ohangwena school projects competition where they won the first position. By my own point of view when I am looking at this programs I feel so incredible and I feel like if I was a learner at that school even though I am still a part of it. I am saying I am part of it because it is just at our back yard and is where my young sisters are schooling. These projects help learners to think critically and help them to be positive toward mathematics and science as many people have wrong perception about mathematics. These projects help learners to connect better with basic understanding of four basic operations and how to use them in different mathematical operations. It help learners to read more books that are having more information even those for the following grades, this broaden their knowledge and understanding of maths and science in general. One of the reasons why this school is performing well especial in mathematics is because they are working hard. When learners are learning mathematics or in science class they put more effort to make sure they will ensure their place in the project so they are motivated and well prepared for the task that they have to do.

4. Math set: The school manage to assists learner with mathematic set and calculator for free. This motivates parents and children that math and science is important in their kid’s life. the set is consist of pacer with pecil,15cm ruler, scissor and compass plus a calculator, in my point of view this will help student to work well with mathematics because math need instrument for it to prefect. According to the information we got they set up this program of assisting learners to find out what is the really cause of the fairer, this thought was because most of the learners are orphans some are from poor families that can even afford the calculator, for the school to make sure learner are having calculators during the examinations they assists them. 5. Make teaching of mathematics and science be more integrative with other areas of knowledge? The first is internal integration within maths and science where different school of the same curriculum are brought together through their common conceptual roots. The second kind of integration is external integration, where science and mathematics exchange ideas and tools with other fields outside of the paradigm of the scientific or logical-analytical method. The external kind of integration may appear to be a more definitive case of integration, as cross-paradigmatic bridges are established. However, the integration of sub-fields of science and mathematics may be a necessary first step to connect more distant epistemologies. In the 1970’s, the humanistic trend in (Lindsay, 1970) psychology stimulated educators to centre their curricula on core issues of the human condition. The spirit of connecting the natural sciences to social and human values produced a number of “unifying approaches” to the teaching of science in the secondary school curriculum (Lindsay, 1970). “A path to the greatest fulfilment and self-actualization” was envisioned in science (Maslow, 1971).

Weaknesses in teaching mathematics: a. The over-reliance on calculators. There talks of growing evidence that too much cyber-time dumbs down our children. The too frequent and too early use of calculators in the teaching and learning of math can do the same. Students soon learn to systematically click on particular features of the calculator to obtain a numeric result. In essence, they memorize the functions of the calculator to achieve a result, rather than learn or understand how to do the math. Because they have absolute trust in the answer the calculator provides, they don’t even bother to check to see if the answer makes any sense. For them, math is more an exercise of pushing buttons than of problem solving or making quantitative judgments. When their calculator is removed, they are at total loss as to how to proceed, even for simple additions or multiplications. For example, they are unable to readily compute 13 x 25, because they lack the ability to conceptualize the problem and are hence unable to break this product down as (10 x 25 = 250) + (3x 25 = 75), for a total of 325. This discomfort with simple calculations and excessive trust in calculators has now infected many

people’s daily lives. When taxes are to be computed on a purchase and change given, they place full trust on a sales clerk who is likely equally inept with simple calculations. In this case learners will be shocked when they go to senior secondary schools were not every time they should use calculators. Learners have to fully understand the fundamentals of the subject in order to succeed. Without understanding the math, science and theory behind the numbers, while they are in junior secondary school they may suffer as they proceed. b. The proliferation of topics at all levels. Things That Don’t Add Up in Math Classes” describes the spiral math and science curriculum used in the teaching of math and science as crippling learning, especially among disadvantaged learners. The spiral model offers a surface-level mix of math and science topics each year, with the idea that the learners picks up a bit more with each passing. As noted in the in their school record. But one of the teacher concluded that there were too many topics that were introduced too early, repeated too often, and covered too superficially. They suggest that fewer topics should be covered each year, but at greater depth. And because this model fails to provide the necessary foundation at the elementary level, it leaves many otherwise capable learners completely unprepared when faced with the realities of math and science. c. The de-emphasis of fractions in the school curriculum. Because the use of calculators to produce decimal answers is seen as so important, competence with fractions is viewed with less importance than it once was. Learners receive little knowledge of fractions at the primary level. Face students in a post primary math class who cannot comprehend that 5/4 (five quarters) of a portion is greater than one full portion (four quarters). Post primary learners have never heard of matter and science terminologies which make it difficult for them to cope with new level of education. Many counsellors (and sometimes teachers) reinforce the notion that math and science is for every body. d. The perception of math as too hard. While this seems to be a growing universal perception by society at large, it is reinforced far too frequently within the learners, especially that sciences are too hard. Perhaps this is partly due to their own discomfort with mathematics, but these are the very people who should be encouraging learners that they can do math and science if they work at it and helping them explore ways to succeed at math and science. Instead, they suggest easier pathways for students, or avoidance of math beyond the bare minimum required for secondary school completion. And students believe them – after all, it’s what many learners want to hear by that stage anyway. Is this wrong? Most counsellors probably agree, at least quietly if not openly, that this approach is not a proper solution to the problem. A common error is to counsel learners to take the wrong pathway despite their anticipated academic plans. For example it is important to do basic arithmetic without the use of a calculator. While the content of this Grade 10 course may not be a perfect match for all the above, it is nevertheless critical that learners have strong

math competencies. But the main thing is that it is not a hard pathway. e. The lack of a mathematics background of many teachers. This is undoubtedly the number one problem with the teaching of mathematics in the Namibian educational system. Many teachers are themselves uncomfortable with mathematics and science, yet they are assigned to teach it. Likewise, many secondary teachers of mathematics and science lack appropriate backgrounds in mathematics and science, and yet are assigned to these subjects. in June 23 this year (2008), there was an article in the Namibian news paper which almost stipulate the statistics of mathematics in Namibian examinations grade 10 and 12 it shows me that most learners have low content of math and science including some individual teachers, and to that may be added only one mathematics education (how to teach math) subject. Sadly, the school teachers do not have a mathematical and science or scientific background to supplement this skeletal exposure to mathematics and science in their teacher-training program. And for many of these teachers, their entire math and science schooling may have been undertaken with trepidation and apprehension. Would you ask a person who barely speaks English to teach an English class? I doubt that anyone would seriously suggest that this is reasonable and worthy. Then why would one suggest that a person without a sufficient background in math and science, and possibly even a discomfort with the subject, would be competent teaching introductory foundational mathematics that becomes the building blocks for further comprehension in arithmetic, geometry, trigonometry, algebra, and numerical logic in general? Sadly, it doesn’t get a lot better at the secondary level. Some learners claims that of secondary school math classes were taught by “outof-field” teachers, defined as teachers without a major or minor in mathematics (or science, likely, for that matter). Long live Okatope Combined School.