The Initial Conceptions of Students in the Teaching Practice of Life and Earth Sciences Teachers in Morocco

Abstract

This study aims to describe the learning environment that can influence the construction of scientific concepts among Moroccan students. It focuses on the role of students’ initial conceptions in the teaching practice of Life and Earth Science (LES) teachers in Morocco. To conduct this study, we performed a quantitative analysis of collected data using a multiple-choice questionnaire, which aimed to understand the characteristics of the target group and the techniques employed to gather students’ initial conceptions of the ecosystem, as well as their declared and actual teaching practices. To compare our results, we considered two contexts: rural and urban, where the teachers operate. The analysis of the obtained results revealed that a majority of the surveyed teachers start by identifying students’ initial conceptions before approaching the teaching process. Additionally, the study found that debate and diagnostic testing are the most commonly utilized techniques for identifying and addressing students’ initial conceptions of the ecosystem. Furthermore, this analysis revealed that teachers do not take students’ conceptions into account when preparing the ecosystem learning sequence.