Teachers’ and Students’ Perception of Their Roles in the Teaching and Learning of Science

Abstract

This study examined the perception of science teachers and students in teaching and learning from role identification perspectives. A survey design was used for the study. The sample consisted of 140 teachers and 270 students from nine selected schools that offer science in Benue State. To guide the study, three research questions were raised, while three hypotheses were formulated and tested. A 50-item and 30-item questionnaires for teachers and students respectively were developed and validated as instrument for data collection. These have reliability coefficient of 0.98 and 0.93 for teachers and students respectively. The data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, t-test and correlation coefficient. The result revealed a mismatch between the perceived and expected roles of science teachers and students. The mean of 4.08 and standard deviation of 0.39 for teachers and a mean of 4.40 and standard deviation of 0 .43 for students have revealed that teachers are more mismatched than students. The result also revealed that, the perception of male and female teachers do not differ significantly (r=0.08 for male, while r=0.75 for females). It was recommended that emphasis be laid on role identification in teachers’ pre and in-service training and teachers should recognize that their job subjects them to greater responsibility than their students.

DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2013.v3n9p109