Henriette Manishimwe’s research while affiliated with University of Rwanda and other places

In the pursuit of improving the quality of education, the involvement of stakeholders in the planning of mathematics and science teaching and learning has been a persistent concern. To address this issue, a study was conducted to investigate how stakeholders can be engaged in the planning process for teaching mathematics and science at the secondary school level in Rwanda. The study had two main objectives: (1) to assess the current level of participation by school stakeholders in the planning of teaching and learning, and (2) to apply an adaptive planning process to engage stakeholders in planning of activities related to the teaching and learning of mathematics and science at the school level. The study used the Adaptive Planning Approach, which involves engaging stakeholders in the planning process. It was conducted in four secondary schools that were purposefully selected based on their participation in continuous professional development training programs in teaching and learning of mathematics and science. Two schools were from the rural and other two were from the urban area districts in Rwanda. A total of 44 participants, comprising 8 parents, 16 teachers, 8 students, 4 head teachers, 4 deputy head teachers, and 4 sector education officers participated in the study. Data was collected into three main stages: (1) pre-Adaptive Planning Process workshop using the interview, (2) Adaptive Planning Process (APP) workshop to assess the current engagement of stakeholders at school level and (3) plan for the activities aiming for teaching mathematics and science and (4) develop the implementation and monitoring plan for the activities planned during the APP workshop. Results demonstrate stakeholders sharing the experience, working together to formulate a vision, exploring their values, and collaboratively developing objectives towards the vision. They have also indicated a collaborative plan for the implementation and monitoring of school activities. We conclude that facilitating equitable participation among a wide range of stakeholders and taking care to include parents enriches the knowledge base from which to manage the teaching of mathematics and science process and lays a foundation for a collaborative relationship among school stakeholders. We recommend more studies of this kind to verify and generalize the findings of this research.

span lang="EN-US">Students in secondary schools in Rwanda manifest difficulties in learning science subjects including biology. Studies revealed that inadequate teaching methods dominated by teacher-centered traditional or conventional educational strategies are some of the factors that cause difficulties in learning, which in turn leads to poor achievements in biology. This study investigated the effect of inquiry-based learning (IBL) using 5Es instructional model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate) on secondary school students’ achievement in biology. There were 231 secondary school students from six schools in Rwanda constituted the sample. A quasi-experimental quantitative approach consisting of pre- and post-tests was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. Results indicated that the mean of post test score of experimental group was higher than the mean of counterparts in control group. Further, t-test and ANCOVA were used for inferential statistics. Findings showed once again significant differences between experimental groups taught with IBL and control group taught with conventional teaching methods. There was no significant effect on gender while a significant difference based on school location was identified. The study recommends educational stakeholders to use the IBL designed by 5Es instructional model at school level to solve problems related to poor performance in biology.</span

Teaching methods dominated by teacher demonstration, chalk and talk, have been attributed as the main source of negative attitudes towards biology. This study aimed to explore the impact of enquiry-based learning on students’ attitudes towards biology. The study comprised 228 students purposely selected from six secondary schools. Focus-roup discussions were used to collect qualitative data with a phenomenological design. Six groups were probed with interview questions, three on the side of the experimental group and three on the side of the group subjected to conventional teaching methods. The data were analysed by using NVIVO software, and later, content analysis was employed descriptively. The study's findings revealed an extensive impact of enquiry-based learning on enhancing students’ attitudes towards biology. Moreover, a remarkable commitment was identified on the side of the experimental group, while exploring biological concepts in their groups. Difficulties, such as insufficient laboratory activities, lack of planning for practical laboratory skills, and the inability to grasp the scientific names of micro-organisms were identified. Learners proposed ways of improving teaching and learning biology, such as providing learning resources, extra time to explore the biological content, more laboratory practical work, access to ICT tools, field studies, and the need for active learning methods. More support in active learning was requested on the side of the control group. The students subjected to enquiry instructions improved their attitude towards biology. Further studies can adopt in-depth interviews, in order to gain more information.

Attitude has been regarded as a motivating feeling for the learning of biology. However, how inquiry-based learning contributes to attitude change towards the learning of biology has not yet been studied in Rwanda. This study intends to determine the effect of inquiry-based learning on students’ attitudes toward learning biology. A sample of 228 secondary school students at the upper secondary level in Rwanda was used. A quasi-experimental design with pre-and post-test was employed. One group was randomly assigned to the control group (N = 109) under the conventional teaching method, while the second group participated as the experimental group (N = 119) under the inquiry-based learning method. Biology attitude questionnaire (BAQ) was tested and a Pearson reliability of .89 coefficient was found, and hence the BAQ was adopted and used for the control and treatment groups before and after learning microbiology. Results asserted a significant effect of intervention in favor of the experimental group. However, a significant effect of the treatment on students’ attitude change in relation to gender was not identified. The study recommends using inquiry-based learning to promote attitude toward learning biology as it raises students’ interest to learning biology and alleviates the difficulty of its concepts. Keywords: biology education, inquiry-based learning, students’ attitudes, quasi-experimental design

Biology continues to present difficulties in teaching and learning. Among other biology domains classification of living things is considered to be one of the challenging subjects as different studies indicated students’ misconceptions in the test to classify both plants and animals. Inadequate teaching methods were the core source of these challenges which were also found to lead to poor performance in schools. This review paper shows the role of active teaching methods to improve learning science subjects. The article gives an insight into how adopting innovative teaching methods can help educators implement appropriate teaching strategies recommended in reforms of science education, such as the Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) using the 5Es (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and evaluate) instructional model. Findings of this review indicate that the instructional methods give opportunities to relieve misconceptions for learners. It is appreciated to allow students learning by doing, hence perform well in assessments and evaluation due to acquired skills and competences. This is the reason why the 5Es instructional model was recommended among other active learning instructions as a remedy that can enhance teaching and learning of biology, especially the content of classification of living things, based upon its advantages in science education.