Secondary school teachers' and students' perceptions of teaching-learning activities used in biology classrooms

Description

The data on teachers' and students' perceptions of teaching-learning activities used in Zambian secondary school biology classrooms were collected between February and May 2022 using two separate survey questionnaires administered to 57 secondary school biology teachers selected from 16 secondary schools and students (469) selected from eight secondary schools. Both instruments were five-point Likert-scale questionnaires measuring participants' perceptions of teaching-learning activities used in biology classrooms. The data includes respondents' gender and their responses to statements on teaching-learning activities used in biology classrooms. Furthermore, students' data on grade level and age were also collected. Respondents (subjects) indicated the degree to which they agreed with 26 teaching-learning activities related to (a) students' prior knowledge and misconceptions, (b) making teaching-learning easy, (c) biology curriculum, (d) teaching strategies, and (d) representations and analogies. The responses ranged from strongly disagree (1), representing disagreement/negative perception, to strongly agree (5), representing agreement/positive perception. Therefore, 1 and 2 represent disagreement/negative perception, 3 represents neutral perception, while 4 and 5 represent agreement/positive perception. The dataset is accompanied by an Excel file named "Dateset on teachers’ and students’ perceptions of biology teaching-learning activities" with five sheets: Sheet 1 (Teaching-learning activities), Sheet 2 (Raw data for teachers), Sheet 3 (Raw data for students), Sheet 4 (Combined raw data) and Sheet 5 (Analysed data). The data were analysed using SPSS version 25, and the results suggest significant differences between teachers' and students' perceptions about teaching-learning activities used in biology classrooms.

Steps to reproduce

The data on teachers' and students' perceptions of teaching-learning activities used in Zambian biology classrooms were collected using five-point Likert-scale survey questionnaires. The data were collected from 57 biology teachers and students (469) from selected secondary schools. Respondents indicated the degree to which they agreed with statements about 26 teaching-learning activities related to (a) students' prior knowledge and misconceptions, (b) making teaching/learning easy, (c) biology curriculum, (d) teaching strategies, and (d) representations and analogies. The respondents/subjects were coded as 1 - students and 2 - teachers. Students' grade levels were coded as 1 - grade 12, 2 - grade 11 and 3 - grade 10. Respondents' gender was coded as 1 - female and 2 - male. On the other hand, the responses to the questionnaire statements were coded as follows: 1 - strongly disagree, 2 - disagree, 3 - undecided, 4 - agree, and 5 - strongly agree (all questionnaire items were positively phrased, so no re-coding was needed). Therefore, 1 and 2 represent disagreement/negative perception, 3 represents neutral perception, while 4 and 5 represent represent agreement/positive perception. The questionnaires were pilot-tested, and analysis yielded Cronbach's alpha values of 0.842 for the students' questionnaire and 0.896 for the teachers' questionnaire, indicating high internal consistency. Teachers took about 15 minutes to complete the questionnaires, while students took 20 minutes.

Institutions

Categories

Funding

Licence