Conceptual understanding of photosynthesis
The purpose of this study was to investigate possible reasons for the high failure rate in Biology, particularly under the topic “Photosynthesis”. Photosynthesis is a biological process which is critical for producing food for all living organisms. A test was used as a tool for collecting data. The test consisted of six questions taken from previous grade twelve final examination papers. The questions were analysed to determine the cognitive demands according to Blooms taxonomy. The questions were found to be integrated and tested lower and higher order cognitive levels according to Bloom’s taxonomy. The learners achievement scores showed that the test discriminated well among those learners who studied well and those who did not know their work. The sample was drawn from six high schools of Mthunzini circuit, in northern KwaZulu-Natal. To test whether there were significant differences in achievement scores among the six schools, a statistical Package for Social Sciences was used. Poor performance in the structured questions showed that language was a major barrier in expressing the learners ideas. Examples of incoherent sentences written by learners were captured in the main study. English as a medium of instruction affects the ability of the learners to answer questions. Looking at the learners responses, it is evident that language is a barrier to those students who cannot discuss in the target language (TL) of instruction which is English. Some students with better English competence were able to express themselves in the instructional language, and this gave them a chance of explaining their observations clearly and accurately. The poor performance at the level of 29% in lower order questions, showed how poorly the learners are mastering their work. Question 5 an application level question was the most poorly done with 66% learners achieving between 0-10%. The learners failed completely to plot a graph, they failed to use information given to identify correct axes on which to plot the independent and dependent variables. There was therefore also a problem of mathematical literacy which should make sure that every learner can handle a simple graph question. Learners who had chosen careers for which Biology is a requirement, performed better than their peers. Career choices seemed to be a factor in motivating learners to strive to do well. There were no significant differences in the achievement scores between boys and girls at 95 confidence levels. In one of the more conceptual questions the girls did better than boys at the range of 61-70% while at the range 71-80% only the girls featured. The efforts by the government to encourage girl children to do well may be beginning to pay off. It is also an achievement that the overall study showed the girls performing as well as the boys. The study provides a window which shows what is happening in our Black schools and a challenge for the government to look for ways of assisting, in particular, poverty stricken schools and also supplying such schools with well qualified teachers. The schools may also need to spend more time on task instead of allowing learners to mill around doing nothing.
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