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The quality of education provided to students is closely related to teacher professional knowledge and teaching-learning activities used in classrooms. Teachers’ and students’ perceptions of teaching-learning activities used in their classrooms may influence and give insight into educational quality. This study compared 40 teachers’ and 469 students’ perceptions about teaching-learning activities used in biology classrooms. The participants were selected from eight Zambian secondary schools, and data were collected using paper-based Likert-scale surveys. Data were analysed using the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) to compute frequencies and Chi-square tests. The results revealed that teachers had more positive perceptions than students for all teaching-learning activities indicators. Furthermore, the perceptual differences between teachers and students were statistically significant for most (65%) of the teaching-learning activities. The results also revealed that the participants’ perceptions of teaching-learning activities in the components ‘making biology teaching-learning easy’ and ‘assessment strategies’ were negative. The implications of these findings for teaching and learning were discussed. The study recommends exploring the reasons behind the participants’ perceptions through data from actual classroom observations. The study also recommends supporting teachers’ enactment of teaching-learning activities related to the categories ‘making biology teaching-learning easy’ and ‘assessment strategies’.

AbstractThis study aimed to examine the effect of three teaching approaches: The traditional teaching method, Teacher based demonstration experiment (TBDE), and the Student hands-on experiment (SHE), on students’ conceptual understanding of solutions and titration. The data were collected using a chemistry achievement test (CAT) comprising of 30 multiple-choice questions, prepared according to four levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, including remembering, understanding, applying, and analyzing. The results reveal that TTM alone could help students attain conceptual understanding in the lower-level knowledge domain and showed a slight improvement in the application and analysis level. At the same time, a great misconception was observed in the level of understanding. On the other hand, the combination of TTM with laboratory experiments either by TBDE or SHE improved students’ conceptual understanding of the first three learning domains better than TTM alone. Supplementation of laboratory experiments also improved students’ percentage scores for questions that looked difficult before intervention. The current study recommends that chemistry teachers should combine TTM with a laboratory experiment to bridge the gap between theory and practice. However, despite the positive impact of laboratory experiments in the first three learning domains, their effectiveness seemed to be reduced at the level of analysis. This finding is because the level of inquiry was low. After all, students had to follow the experiment protocol prepared by the teacher. Therefore, we recommend further studies to explore the effect of inquiry-based learning laboratories on students’ conceptual understanding of solutions and titration.

Teaching and learning activities used in the classroom form an important part of the learning environment. Creating productive learning environments may be influenced by how teachers and students perceive the teaching and learning process. Teachers’ and students’ perceptions of teaching and learning seem to influence each other. For example, how teachers approach their subject matter impacts how their students learn and view the learning environment or process. Therefore, the degree of teaching and learning quality congruence between teachers' and students' perceptions of teaching-learning process may impact the setting of the learning environment. This article describes a dataset concerning teachers' and students' perceptions of 26 teaching-learning activities used in biology lessons. The data were collected from 57 biology teachers and 469 students from 16 selected secondary schools in four districts of Zambia. Data were collected during the 2022 academic year using separate validated survey questionnaires. The statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) version 25 was used to analyse the data by calculating descriptive and inferential statistics to describe and compare the participants’ perceptions of the teaching-learning activities in biology lessons. The data may provide valuable insight into current teaching practices in biology classrooms based on teachers' and students' perceptions. The data may also provide a basis for comparing teachers’ and students’ perceptions of teaching-learning activities in biology classrooms.

Abstract Teachers’ reflections on their practice are a powerful tool for measuring and supporting their professional knowledge. Pedagogical content knowledge is one of the most influential domains of teacher professional knowledge. This multiple-case study investigated the topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge (TSPCK) components that Zambian secondary school science teachers integrate when reflecting on biology lessons. Three teachers from the same school were observed teaching a biology lesson and attended post-observation interviews. Data were mainly collected through lesson plans, lesson observation field notes and post-observation interviews. The data were analysed using in-depth analysis of explicit TSPCK, enumerative and constant comparative approaches. TSPCK maps were constructed to illustrate each teachers’ integration of TSPCK components. The results revealed four features about the integration of TSPCK components: (a) None of the teachers depended solely on a single TSPCK component as they integrated other components (b) The components curricular saliency, students’ prior knowledge and misconceptions, and conceptual teaching strategies were central in the TSPCK maps of all the teachers, while representations and analogies, and what make the topic easy/difficult to teach/learn were least integrated (c) All teachers had different pairs of reciprocal connections among TSPCK components, and (d) All teachers had different pairs of most integrated components. The implications of these findings for science and teacher education research were presented and discussed. It was concluded that teachers’ reflections revealed the integration between TSPCK components and showed them differently. The study recommends investigating teachers’ reflections over several lessons and tracking any changes in their TSPCK integration.

The effective use of technology in teaching can aid in enhancing the teaching and learning of a subject matter. This study aimed to enhance the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) of five pre-service biology teachers (PSBTs) by implementing a TPACK-Instructional Design (TPACK-ID) model-based technology integration course at a Zambian public university. An explanatory case study design was used. Data sources for the study included semi-structured interviews, video lesson recordings, lesson plan reports and PSBTs' reflection notes. Data from interviews and reflection notes were analyzed using deductive thematic analysis while a TPACK rubric was used to simultaneously analyze lesson plan reports and video lesson recordings. The findings indicated that the TPACK-ID model-based technology integration course improved PSBTs' overall TPACK and sub-knowledge domains: pedagogical knowledge, technology knowledge, technological content knowledge, and technological pedagogical knowledge. The study recommends implementing context-based technology integration courses in teacher preparation programs to enhance pre-service teachers' TPACK.