Assessment of current status of hands on, minds on and hearts on activity during science session: the case of primary schools in Woldia town

Abstract

The study was conducted to assess the status of hands on, minds on and hearts on activity during science session and students’ attitude towards science subject at full cycle primary schools in Woldia Town. For this study descriptive survey approach was applied and four scaled items questionnaire was employed for 425 students, observation of lab rooms and unstructured interview was employed for laboratory assigned teachers to triangulate the responses of the students. Accordingly, the results indicated that, large number of participants in this study did not have positive attitude towards science. Only 62.34% of the respondents had positive attitude towards science subjects while 37.66% of the respondents do not have positive towards science subjects. Likewise, only 50.51% of students indicated that they were satisfied with the method of learning science subjects (hands on, minds on and hearts on activities) while 49.49% indicated that the students were not satisfied with the method of learning science subjects (luck of hands on, minds on and hearts on activity during science class). In relation to the availability of adequate laboratory 53.92% of the students indicated that the school laboratory was not appropriate for science teaching while 46.08% responses indicated the laboratory supports science teaching. The data obtained from the questionnaire was confirmed by unstructured interview and observations). In view of conclusion, the method of teaching science associated with the luck of hands on, minds on and hearts on activity and the attitudes of the students did not have sound in Woldia Town full cycle primary schools. The schools should be evaluated to improve the students’ academic result in related to cognitive, psychomotor, and affective educational domains.