A Case Study of the Common Difficulties Experienced by High School Students in Chemistry Classroom in Gilgit-Baltistan (Pakistan)

Takbir Ali

SAGE Open, 2012, vol. 2, issue 2, 2158244012447299

Abstract: This article reports a research study conducted with four chemistry teachers in three high schools (two government schools and one private school) in Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan. The study investigated questions concerning common difficulties high school (Grades 9 and 10) students experience in chemistry classroom, the possible reasons for these difficulties, and the ways in which teachers help students overcome these difficulties. A qualitative case study method was used to investigate the questions, which used in-depth interviews with teachers, classroom observation, and postobservation discussion with the teachers, as main data collection tools. The key findings of the study allude to a huge gap between what is intended in the National Curriculum in terms of students’ learning in chemistry and what actually happens in the classroom where students learn chemistry. Promoting in-depth learning appeared to be an uphill task for the teachers. The main hurdle lies in students’ inability to demonstrate a good understanding of very basic concepts of the subject. Despite faced with such a challenge, the teachers appear to be committed to teaching their subject. The implications of the results of the study are explained in the context of schools, teachers, and other educational stakeholders by emphasizing the need for synchronization and integration of efforts on the part of schools.

Keywords: National Curriculum; high school chemistry; in-depth learning; common conceptual difficulties (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244012447299 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:2:y:2012:i:2:p:2158244012447299

DOI: 10.1177/2158244012447299

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in SAGE Open
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().