Pupils’ Cultural Interpretations of Causes of Rainbow in Kenya.

Abstract

This study investigated the extent to which primary and secondary school pupils believe in cultural interpretations of the causes of the physical phenomenon of rainbow and the influence of education level, ethnic communities and gender on cultural beliefs.  Cross-sectional survey research design was used.  The target population was Standard Seven, Form one and Form Three pupils in ten districts selected from Nyanza, Rift Valley, Central, Eastern and Coast Provinces in Kenya.    A total of 2837 secondary and 625 primary school pupils participated.  The pupils were drawn from 15 primary and 31 secondary schools. A questionnaire was used to gather information from pupils.  .  Hypotheses were tested using the chi square ( ²) statistic at ? = 0.05 level of significance.  Some of the results obtained give statistically significant relationship between pupils’ beliefs in cultural interpretations of causes of the scientific phenomenon of rainbow and the communities where they come from.  There appears to be no significant relationship between pupils’ beliefs in cultural interpretations of the scientific phenomenon of rainbow and level of education in some of the communities.  There was also a statistically significant relationship between pupils’ beliefs in cultural interpretations of causes of rainbow and gender, more girls than boys believed in the cultural interpretations. The findings from this study inform curriculum developers of some of the cultural beliefs that are likely to influence the learning of science. It is recommended that teachers discuss cultural interpretations of scientific concepts before introducing them in their lessons