Iddy, Hassan

2 Publications in AERD

Author Publications

Supporting the Development of Students’ Scientific Literacy

By Iddy, Hassan

Science teachers are increasingly encouraged to critically engage their students with scientific knowledge and expertise, with the expectation that such instructional practices will support the development of scientific literacy (SL). Drawing on Bildung framework, this qualitative study was conducted in Tanzania to explore how science teachers’ classroom practices facilitate the development of students’ SL. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and non-participant classroom observations with science teachers and students from six secondary schools. The study has identified five instructional practices that were used to support students’ development of SL, namely guided reading, code-switching, educational print and visual aids, science experiments, and science projects. While there is evidence that the instructional practices used provided opportunities for students to contribute their thinking, experience and understanding to the science learning, the instructional practices were mostly print-based, paper-based and teacher-led, resulting in little engagement in active scientific thinking and literacy learning. Overall, the knowledge base developed by this study is of practical use to science teachers and educators in making decisions about appropriate instructional practices and what should be the regular focus of pre-service teacher education and professional development programs. © 2024 Association for Science Teacher Education.

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Literacy practices as an arena for girls’ development of literacies

By Fussy, Daniel Sidney

Literacy practices play a catalytic role in equipping girls with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to make qualitative improvements on their lives. This paper reports on a qualitative study that identified existing literacy practices and the support available to enable the development of literacies among girls. Interviews and observations were used to generate data from in and out-of-school-girls, teachers, the ward education officer, parents, and religious, traditional and village leaders. The study found that girls had access to a variety of print materials, and used print more than any other literacy materials. Similarly, the engagement with traditional literacy practices like poems, folklore, metaphors, music or rituals was not reported by the participants, which may simply suggest that they do not associate the traditional literacy practices with literacy learning. This implies further that many traditional ways of acquiring literacies, which were part of the cultural heritage and ways of learning language of older generations, are being forgotten and possibly slowly vanishing. To support girls’ acquisition of literacies, it is essential to build the capacity of communities, parents, teachers, religious and local leaders who can help girls fully integrate all available literacy sources into their literacy learning. © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

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