Challenges for effective teaching of chemistry in secondary schools of developing countries: A review

Abstract

Effective teaching is the ability to improve student achievement and expressed by content knowledge, quality of instruction, teaching climate, classroom management, teacher beliefs and professional behaviors. Teaching chemistry has been identified to be one of the major bases for the transformation of our national economy, and hence must be accorded adequate attention. However, it has been shown that implementing of effective teaching chemistry almost ignored in secondary schools in many countries of the world because of different factors. The main purpose of this review was to identify challenges facing implementing effective teaching chemistry at secondary schools in different areas of the world based on different published works. The most recent and majorly the last 10 years that published in reputable journals have been reviewed and used as a direct source. Hence, the dominant factors that frequently indicated in most findings specially in developing countries to implement effective teaching chemistry in secondary schools are problems related to student attitude toward chemistry, laboratory inadequacy, poor method of instruction, large class size, curriculum constraints, and educational administrations. The other factors are teacher’s salary, parental support, teachers’ feelings and attitude, professionalism, time constraints, self-assurance and school setting are identified as causes for the dominant factors. However, each of them affects the implementation of effective teaching chemistry with varies degree from school to school and also among different countries. The implementation process of effective teaching chemistry in developing countries is still limited in high schools and students perform poorly in chemistry subject. It is recommended that teachers, educational leadership, parents, educators and policymakers address the factors. [African Journal of Chemical Education—AJCE 14(2), May 2024]