Secondary School Teachers Attitude Toward Teaching English as a Second Language: A Comparative Study

The study explores the comparative analysis of secondary school teachers’ attitude toward teaching English as a second language. The major objective of the study was; to find out secondary school teachers’ attitude toward teaching English related to different demographics. The researcher used quantitative research method that was descriptive in nature. The population of the study comprised all the male and female teachers at Secondary level in province of Punjab, Pak istan. The researchers selected the secon dary school teachers in districts: Lahore, Multan, Sialk ot and Vehari as the sample of the study. Questionnaire was used as a research tool for the study. The researchers distributed the questionnaire among the respondents of the study and collected data. For data analysis, researcher used the statistical techniques of mean score, t-test and ANOVA. The findings of the study informed that difference in mean scores of male and female teachers was not significant, t-value = -.075, p=.634>0.05. It was found that there was a significant difference in teachers’ attitude towards teaching English as second language having professional qualification of B.Ed. and M.Ed. at secondary school level, t-value = .521, p=.047<0.05. It was concluded that male and female respondents have almost same type of attitude of teaching English as second language.

Students’ Questioning in a Primary Science Classroom

Asking questions is central to intellectual effort. The questions which one asks play a significant role in bridging the gap between the known and unknown. Teachers in Pakistan use questioning as a major strategy to teach science in the primary classroom. However, most of these questions check the memory of their students, keep them on task, or check the instructions the teachers have given usually for class work or homework. Science teachers are the sole owners of questions and therefore students in Pakistani science classrooms have been positioned as the people who answer questions which have been posed by the teacher. The growing dominance of active learning environments in the developed world has done much to challenge this positioning but in our context, still, there remains an immensely strong institutional presumption that being a successful student is tested by the capacity to answer questions. This study was conducted to try out different strategies a teacher can use in a primary science classroom to promote students' questioning skills. The study revealed that a variety of 'hands-on, minds- on' activities with an appropriate level of difficulty can help to promote students' questioning skills. A gradual increase in the level of difficulty of stimulating activities, a friendly environment and acceptance of students' ideas helped them to overcome their fear of 'being wrong' and instead nurtured their innate curiosity. This resulted in the students' ability to create their own learning strategies which were all used as part of the science lesson. Several challenges to this approach in the learning of science were identified. They include completion of syllabus, time allocated for science lessons, product oriented assessment, school culture, individual accountability in the classroom and creativity on the part of teacher. Growing evidence from existing literature and my study seem to suggest that, primary science teachers in Pakistan need to review their role in the teaching/learning process. Any attempt to change the educational policy regarding the teaching of science would be useless if the implementers (teachers) of the policy do not realise their changing role. They are on the cutting edge and responsible for promoting students' curiosity, to help students to be autonomous learners.