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Introduction
Biology is a discipline with a well-established body of scientific knowledge that contributes to students’ understanding of life on Earth and of the contemporary world. This body of knowledge includes biological facts, principles and laws, theories, procedures for inquiry and applications. Biological knowledge is continuously advancing and dynamically changing. To facilitate learning and teaching of this growing body of knowledge, different approaches may be used, ranging from direct instruction, inquiry to co-construction of knowledge. In addition to direct instruction and individual study, students should also learn through scientific inquiry processes and collaboration with others.
It is essential for students to gain personal experience of scientific inquiry, to see science as a process, and to develop an understanding of its nature and methods. In the learning process, teachers may take up a variety of roles ranging from a transmitter of knowledge to a resource person, facilitator, counselor, assessor, and learning partner and, very often, involve a mixture of some of these. All these roles share the common goal of helping students to become independent and self-directed learners.
The most efficient and long-lasting learning takes place when the teacher of Biology encourages the development of higher-order thinking and critical analysis skills, which include applying, analyzing, evaluation and creating. Teachers should also pay attention to developing students’ affective and psychomotor skills.
When the study of biology is related to students’ everyday lives, they will find their learning more meaningful. Therefore, whenever possible, teachers should adopt a contextual approach, which helps students to integrate their daily life experiences into their learning of biology. Moreover, there is a need to link biology lesson to technological applications and societal issues. These activities provide contexts where students will experience biology as interesting field of study.
As biology is a practical subject, it is essential for students to gain experiences of science through “hands-on” practical activities, and to develop the skills and thinking processes associated with the practice of science. Such activities require students to link scientific thinking with the processes of problem-solving, decision-making and evaluation of evidence. Designing and undertaking practical work and investigations that are relevant to students’ real-life contexts will enhance learning effectiveness.
Projects provide inviting and productive learning experiences, and bridge the gap between learning in school and learning in the real world. Project learning enables students to construct knowledge, skills, values and attitudes through a variety of learning experiences.
Questioning is a useful instructional mode for maintaining the quality of classroom interaction. To be effective, a range of types of question has to be used for different purposes and in different contexts. For example, closed questions which have predetermined correct answers, are concerned with recalling factual knowledge or reporting simple information. They are useful for checking students’ background knowledge and focusing their learning. On the other hand, open questions allow for more thinking and may allow a range of responses.
The Biology syllabus states the intended learning outcomes to be achieved by the end of every unit. The methods to be implemented during instructional time were justified in the syllabus. This teacher’s manual gives practical ideas about ways of implementing the syllabus: suggestions about what to teach, strategies for facilitating teaching and learning, and how to assess the different tasks. A variety of suggested learning and teaching activities provide teachers with ideas to motivate students’ learning, and to make learning of Biology relevant, interesting and applicable in a daily life.
The purpose of this manual is thus, to help teachers in order to implement the Biology syllabus effectively. As the name suggests, this is a manual that provides teachers with some samples of learning-teaching techniques, suggested activities and assessment tasks. The samples may partly assist teachers in implementing the curriculum as intended and create their own exciting and constructive teaching strategies, and assessment activities. The intent is to focus and develop independent learning environment by maximizing students’ effort and minimizing teacher’s traditional instructional methods. The lesson should provide students with opportunities to make sense of what has been presented using a variety of approaches. Once the lesson is planned, the teacher should list the materials needed for the lesson and consider learning extensions in the form of homework, assignment, project, etc. In order to promote active learning, the teacher is expected to think of the following activities.
Learning and teaching activities should aim to engage students’ minds actively in the learning process, so that they remain “on task” and focused.
Learning and teaching activities that aims at nurturing generic and thinking skills should be employed in appropriate learning contexts to enhance students’ capacity for independent learning. Students should be provided with opportunities to take responsibility for their own Learning.
A class may be divided into smaller groups to accommodate task sharing. An investigation itself can be broken into component tasks to be shared by different members within these groups. This task sharing can enable a science class to address more complex and realistic problems that may enhance the relevance of school science. Small group activities provide important opportunities to develop problem-solving skills and concepts in ways that are not possible in most large groups or even in an individual instruction.
Learners should take part in activities that allow them to work with materials that give a “hands on’ experience of the phenomenon being observed. Questioning, sharing and communication of ideas with other learners should be encouraged during this stage.
The focus at this stage is analysis. The students are encouraged to put their observations, questions, hypothesis, and experiences from their previous stages into language. Communication between learners and learner groups can spur this process. The instructor is simply mediate discussions or simply acts as facilitator.
By using the knowledge gained in the previous stages, learners should be encouraged to build further knowledge and expand up on it. Inferences and deductions can be applied to similar or real world situations.
Evaluation should be ongoing and should occur at all stages, in order to determine that learning objectives have been met.
There are some selected topics from grade 9 biology contents on the assumption that the topics might help to indicate sample techniques in active learning. Some of the topics have been selected intentionally as the concepts are somewhat difficult for presentations (for example, cellular respiration, immunity and diseases, classification etc). Actually, the selection of the topics is subject to expertise judgment and past classroom experiences. More than 25% of the content areas of the grade level are presented in the manual.
The sequence of topics in the manual, the instructional strategies, assessment tasks, and activities proposed should not be regarded as a fixed order of learning and teaching. Teachers may have full autonomy to decide on what content areas to teach and the arrangement that suits their students and their circumstances. Individual topics should be studied as integral parts of the whole curriculum content of the grade level. If teachers find the manual useful, they can make use of it by incorporating valuable points and enriching the contents for the purpose of attaining the outcomes of the curriculum.