Abstract:

Zambia launched its revised curriculum for basic education in January 2014. This change brought a shift in the focus of instruction from the teacher to the learner. It meant that the role of a teacher in the classroom changed from being a centre of the lesson to the role of the facilitator. Teacher’s main role is now thought to coordinate the learners as they choose what they want to learn and how they want to learn it. Being the head of department at one of the secondary schools in Lusaka, a capital of Zambia, and supervisor of science teachers, it has been observed that the teachers in natural sciences department had sufficient skills to prepare lesson plans that could promote active learning of students, however, it was still seen they tend to give many instructions to students during lessons despite the emphasis on their role as facilitators.

Based on this situation, this paper set an objective to investigate why teachers of science still become a centre of lesson despite having prepared a lesson plan that could promote active learning of students.

In the study, 14 teachers of science at Lusaka boy’s secondary school were asked to prepare two lesson plans each that could promote active learning. After preparing lesson plans, they were requested to teach their own lessons, while the researchers observed. Of the 28 lesson plans, eight (8) were for integrated science lessons at junior secondary level, ten (10) were for biology at senior secondary level and the other ten (10) were for physical science at senior secondary level. At the end of each lesson, researchers had discussions with each teacher concerning the approaches used and the effects of such approaches on learners as their reflections.

Through the analysis of lesson plans, it was found that 25 out of 28 lesson plans included activities that could promote active learning or active involvement of students in the lessons, while 3 lesson plans were prepared in the manner that teachers became the centre of the lessons. When it came to teaching, students’ active learning were observed in 5 lessons, while the teachers became the centre of the lessons and the learners were on the receiving end in the 23 lessons. In the discussions with the teachers on why the differences were seen between planning and implementation, teachers who had lesson plans putting themselves as the centre of the lessons confessed that they did not understand the difference between the lessons that promote active learning and those that promote teachers as a centre of the lessons. Teachers prepared lessons that could promote active learning but failed in teaching accordingly.

They gave their reasons of failing as:
1) they had a knowledge of active learning of students, but they were used to conducting lecture type lessons, therefore, they were not able to find ways of giving opportunities for students to start thinking and developing their own ideas in the lessons, and
2) they thought in the lessons that students did not have the ability to generate their own ideas and comments in the activities as most of them were used to receiving teachers’ instructions and explanations during the lessons.

The research revealed that, even though the new curriculum required teachers to change their way of teaching from traditional way to the ways that enhanced active learning of students, the teachers in schools did not have sufficient skills of aligning the classroom interactions with the demands of the curriculum.