Maltese Science teachers’ perspectives of student-centred teaching and the benefits, challenges and barriers faced

Abstract

The National Curriculum framework (MEDE, 2012), brought about a bold vision which challenged teachers to move away from traditional modes of teaching and replace them by ‘student centred and inquiry-based approach to learning’. This dissertation aims at generating a better understanding of Maltese science teachers’ understanding of student-centred teaching in science education. It also sheds light on the benefits, challenges and barriers encountered and practices of coping strategies which help teachers persevere in their use of student-centred teaching. To generate data, a mixed method approach was used, where online questionnaires were distributed to all Maltese science teachers who teach Year 7 and Year 8 science. The cohort of questionnaire responses amounted to 100 participants. Subsequently, online focus group interviews were held with 9 science teachers. All data had to be collected though online means due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The data generated shows that most Maltese teachers have sophisticated views about student-centred teaching which reflect constructivist practices. Teachers also have a clear understanding of what student-centred teaching practices involve at a classroom level. Results show that teachers acknowledge that certain classroom activities could be student-centred if planned and executed well. This cohort of teachers recognise that student-centred teaching has many benefits and some of the greatest benefits perceived by teachers are student empowerment and that students learn 21st century skills. They consider external difficulties (barriers) to pose greater difficulties than internal ones (challenges). One of the greatest difficulties was time because they state that time is limited both to prepare activities (challenge) and to execute them (barrier). The results show that most teachers find the benefits of student-centred teaching outweigh the difficulties encountered with this teaching method which is encouraging as such teachers are more likely to use such a teaching style in their teaching. Additionally, teachers’ experience does not affect the likelihood to implement student-centred teaching as both novice and experienced teachers found student-centred teaching to be a powerful teaching-strategy. Teachers found support from colleagues and other members of staff to be the most beneficial way of assisting them to sustain their student-centred teaching style. From data generated though this dissertation, it is highly encouraged that administrators seek to provide meaningful teacher training, especially for novice teachers, through programmes of collaboration and support in the implementation of student-centred teaching so that training can be more personalised and truly tackle these difficulties as they arise.