THE SHORTAGE OF SCIENCE TEACHERS IN UNDERDEVELOPED TERRITORIES: How the Problemcan be SolvedAuthor(s): G. D. BishopSource: Caribbean Quarterly, Vol. 8, No. 4 (DECEMBER, 1962), pp. 42-44Published by: University of the West Indies and Caribbean QuarterlyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40652833 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 14:06

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

University of the West Indies and Caribbean Quarterly are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve andextend access to Caribbean Quarterly.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.230 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 14:06:41 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE SHORTAGE OF SCIENCE TEACHERS IN UNDERDEVELOPED TERRITORIES

How the Problem can be Solved Dr. G. D. Bishop

Department of Education, University of the West Indies, Kingston.

EDITOR'S NOTE: In addition to the Jamaica Course, Dr. Bishop has con- ducted a Coarse in St. Kitts in September, and also a Course for Secondary School Teachers in the Caribbean held in Trinidad in August.

"Science is modern life itself in one of its most fundamental aspects, and therefore an essential basis of a modem education for everybody'*'

{Sir. F. Clarke: "Education and Social Change9')

Today one does not need to argue whether or not science should be taught in Schools. The question, rather, is: How can we train sufficient teachers of science? In under-developed countries the problem of science teaching is aggravated by

(i) lack of adequately trained teachers of science (ii) lack of laboratory facilities (iii) lack of apparatus and equipment.

This article indicates how the problem is being tackled in Jamaica. The few training colleges that exist are, of course, giving some

training in the teaching of science to their students. But the number of trained science teachers emerging from these colleges will not even remotely meet the large number needed by the nation's schools. The University of the West Indies will, in the near future, be turning out some one or two dozen trained graduate science teachers annually. This trickle will hardly meet the ever-increasing needs of the secondary and high schools.

To overcome the shortage of trained science teachers the Ministry of Education and the Department of Education of the University collabo- rated and finally evolved this solution.

It was felt that the situation was too urgent merely to wait some years for the first trickles of trained science teachers to emerge from the training colleges and the University. It was decided to meet the lack of trained personnel by turning to the teachers already in the schools. Many of the teachers, despite their own lack of a sound knowledge of science and despite lack of adequate facilities, were makingbrave efforts to teach the subject. But, as one would expect from having staff untrained in the special techniques of science teaching, the results were, on the whole, unsatisfactory. There were many teachers, too, who, it was felt, would like the opportunity of being trained to teach science, even though they had never taught the subject or had never been taught the subject themselves.

4 42

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.230 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 14:06:41 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Having decided to concentrate our efforts on existing teachers, further problems arose. Many of the schools are already inadequately staffed. To remove teachers from the schools for the purpose of attending courses on the teaching of science would aggravate the staff problems in the schools even more. However, it was felt that Head Teachers would not mind losing a member of staff for only a term or even six weeks, since they would benefit in the long run by receiving back to the school a more proficient teacher. Whilst a course extending over one term was con- sidered the minimum, the first pilot course was restricted to six weeks. During this six weeks the Ministry of Education continued to pay teachers their salaries, and so any financial complications were thus avoided.

The pilot course was restricted to twenty-five teachers. Many of these teachers had little or no knowledge of science themselves. Some had done a little biology, but most were ignorant of any physics or chemistry. The criticism was made that it was impossible to teach people how to teach a subject about which they knew little or nothing. Admittedly a teacher of any subject should have a sound basis in that subject. But if we postponed our first course until we waited for teachers who were well grounded in science we would never begin, because where would these persons have got their grounding without having science teachers in the first place. The vicious circle has to be broken, and the sooner the better.

The dilemma of training teachers to teach a subject about which they knew very little was overcome by this device. The teachers were to be taught science and the techniques of teaching it at the same time. Again ridicule: how much science can you teach in six weeks? Not very much, but certainly something, and, what is more, the teachers can be given that inspiration which will lead them to learn more on their own momentum.

The method of teaching adopted in the course was a modified heurism. Instead of the teachers being told, say, the principles of electro-magne- tism, of mechanics, of germination, etc. etc. the students were made to conduct their own experiments and 'discover' these principles for them- selves as a result of their own findings. Of course, help and guidance were given where absolutely necessary: life is too short to adopt a purely heuristic approach. Students were issued with sheets which gave in- structions as to how the experiments were to be carried out and how the necessary apparatus for the experiments was to be improvised. But the answers and principles were to be thought out by the students. The directors of this course believe that science shonld be taught in the schools in the same way viz, employing a modified heurism. With this end in view a special textbook has been compiled, embracing a five year course starting at age about eleven, and employing a modified heuFistic technique. Of course, it would have been quite impossible to take the students through a five year science course in a matter of six weeks. So a selec- tion of experiments was necessary. By taking the students through this selection, not only did they gain a knowledge of some of the fundamental

1. Modern Experimental Science. Vols. I. II, III, (with Teachers' Handbook) By Dr. G. Bishop. To be published by Collins.

43 4

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.230 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 14:06:41 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

principles of science themselves, but they also acquainted themselves with the techniques of science teaching which they would carry back to their schools. And, back in their schools, the teachers would continue to learn with their pupils - and no teacher worth his salt would ever be ashamed of that - as they worked steadily through the textbooks. (Of course, in addition to this experimental work, the students on the course were given lectures on related topics e.g. - class and laboratory organi- sation and management, the science syllabus, methodology, testing, first aid etc.)

A feature of the course was the emphasis on the experimental ap- proach, using improvised apparatus. None of the teachers came from schools that possessed laboratories, and most possessed none or very little equipment and apparatus. It was precisely for this reason that the course was given in an ordinary classroom, not in a well-equipped laboratory. That was the only way to convince the teachers that a magnifi- cent laboratory is not essential for the good teaching of science. All the apparatus used was improvised from cotton reels, jam jars, tin cans, pieces of wood, etc. etc. No school could ever complain that it could not procure tin cans etc. A remarkable feature of this course was the quite unexpected enthusiasm shown by the teachers for making impro- vised apparatus. It was almost impossible to get some of the teachers to go home at the end of the day's work!

Without any doubt this pilot course was an unqualified success. The pattern has been set as to how to cope with the problem of the grave shortage of science teachers. In conclusion, it might be mentioned, that if the future science teachers of any nation are to be first-rate then the persons selected to train these teachers must themselves be first-rate teachers with experience of the conditions met with in the schools, teachers fired with an almost missionary zeal to see that the new develop- ing nations will be adequately supplied with inspiring teachers who, in turn, will bring forth educated citizens, acquainted with the broad out- lines of science and capable of becoming the specialists and the tech- nologists that any progressive nation will need. If the persons chosen to give these courses to teachers are merely going to hand out the dry bones of academic courses they themselves took, we will hardly be better off than when there were no science teachers.

u 44

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.230 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 14:06:41 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions