Environmental Teachers’ Perceptions about Science-Technology-Society (STS) Education

Authors: Christiana Fwenji Zumyil, Toma Maina Antip

Abstract:

Environmental Science subject is currently not an independent subject taught in secondary schools in Nigeria like Biology, Agricultural Science, Chemistry, Geography and other subjects that students take final exams (West Africa Examination Council, WAEC, National Examination Council, NEC, National Board for Technical Education, NABTED)., on it but its elements/topics/contents are integrated into the curriculum of the subjects mentioned, and because of that, it becomes difficult to know what should be taught and how it should be taught. Currently, it is still difficult to implement student-centered strategies in the classroom. Through this study, we sought to diagnose the difficulties, advantages and perceptions that Environmental Teachers experience when conceiving and implementing Science-Technology-Society (STS) strategies in SS2 classes at the Secondary Education level. Four semi-structured interviews were conducted with Secondary School Environmental Teachers. Despite the difficulties found, the advantages, the motivation and the involvement of the students that this teaching perspective enables to lead the teacher to continue developing and implementing STS strategies in the classroom.

Keywords: environment, science, technology, society, science-technology-society, science education, secondary teaching