Rawatee Maharaj-Sharma

University of the West Indies, St. Augustine | UWI · School of Education

This case study explored what experiences contribute to the ideas of energy held by 30 purposively selected primary school students from one primary school in Trinidad and Tobago. The 30 students were selected from across all levels of the primary system. The study used the Interview About Events (IAE) approach to explore students’ ideas about ener...

Qualitative narrative inquiry using exploratory interviews with two novice leaders with backgrounds in science education were used to profile the evolving leadership approach adopted by these individuals. The approaches were analysed in relation to contextual differences to reveal what learnings can be derived from the experiences shared by these i...

Storytelling has the potential to successfully convey knowledge, understanding and experiences in an unintimidating and exciting way to experts as well as non-experts in almost all fields. Storytelling’s utility as an information transmission medium makes it an attractive choice for use in classrooms where knowledge sharing, and the construction of...

In this work the WIHIC (What is Happening In this Classroom) instrument was used to assess the types of interactions, from students' perspectives, that occur in two science classrooms in Trinidad & Tobago. It was the first attempt to use the WIHIC instrument in the research context. An exploratory case study research design in the quantitative para...

The aim of this study was to examine how Microsoft PowerPoint is used by science teachers in Trinidad and Tobago and to gauge from teachers what considerations influence their decision to use PowerPoint presentations in their science teaching. A total of 20 secondary school science teachers were observed using PowerPoint in the delivery of science...

This experimental study was conducted in one public school in Trinidad with the aim of observing the effect of drama on the achievement and attitude towards science, of a group of upper primary school science students when taught a science unit. The experimental group was taught using drama-based instruction and activities while the control group r...

Qualitative narrative inquiry using exploratory interviews with five experienced secondary school science teachers in Trinidad and Tobago were analysed to reveal what learnings can be derived from the experiences and stories shared by these individuals. The stories present science teaching as an evolutionary process, which portrays science teaching...

This study was undertaken to examine and interpret how science teachers in Trinidad and Tobago use ICT devices and ICT-based teaching and learning activities in their science teaching. A total of 30 lessons taught by five different teachers were observed and analyzed using an interpretative research methodology to develop generalized observations....

The purpose of this study was to investigate how science teachers in Trinidad and Tobago use ICT-based instructional technologies in classroom science teaching. The participants were 30 secondary school science teachers who completed their Postgraduate Diploma in Education within the last 2 years from the University of the West Indies in Trinidad a...

Analogies have been widely used as tools for teaching difficult science concepts. The purposeful use of appropriate analogies can facilitate analogical thinking and help students develop the necessary transfer skills required for lifelong learning. Analogical thinking facilitates the development of higher order thinking skills among students. In th...

This study was undertaken to examine and interpret how science teachers in Trinidad and Tobago used analogies in their science teaching. A total of 30 lessons taught by five different teachers were observed and analysed using an interpretative research methodology to develop generalized observations. The findings revealed that in general science te...

The nature, type and usefulness of analogies generated by upper primary school students are discussed herein. This work looks at the range of analogies upper primary school students generate and how they use them to develop conceptual understandings. Fifty-five standard four students were asked to generate analogies during a science unit of work an...

This article reports on the views of five secondary school science teachers who accepted the challenge to explore the self-assessment aspect of their practice with specific regard to their understandings of classroom research and their willingness to actively initiate and engage in classroom research. The approach is an explorative one and the acco...

The Wind Imaging Interferometer (WINDII) on board the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) measures winds from the Doppler shifts of airglow emissions, and as a by-product the volume emission rates (photon cm-3 s-1) of those emissions. This includes the atomic oxygen O( 1S) emission at 557.7 nm, which during the daytime is emitted over a larg...

This study is part of a larger research project, which was conducted by the School of Education in 2002 to investigate the status of lower secondary science in Trinidad and Tobago. It is an exploratory study of a sample of 31 lower secondary science classrooms representing the range of schools types within the educational system. While one limitati...

The Wind Imaging Interferometer (WINDII) on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite has been in orbit since September 12, 1991. One of the quantities measured is the volume emission rate of the atomic oxygen O(1S) 557.7 nm transition over the altitude range 90 to 300 km, providing a profile with two peaks, one near 160 km (F- region) and the other...