Biodiversity Learning Continuum for Elementary School Students Based on Teacher Cognitive Ability

Abstract

An evaluation of the national curriculum by practitioners suggests that learning materials across school levels still overlap, are irrelevant to student development phases and competencies required, too challenging for students to learn, too broad in terms of topics, and lacking in depth. This evaluation encourages the needs for special studies regarding the sequence of the materials -known as a learning continuum -to be taught to students to fit students' learning development, so that learning becomes more effective. The study aims to develop a biology learning continuum on the biodiversity topic for elementary school (ES) students. In this developmental research, the learning continuum was developed based on (1) the survey results regarding the cognitive ability of the 240 participating teachers, (2) group discussion results considering the stages of student cognitive development, cognitive levels and dimensions of materials, and (3) Biological science curriculum study (BSCS) as the standardized biology learning materials. The study has successfully developed 32 sub-topics in the learning continuum which were transformed into only 31 sub-topics at the cognitive level of C1 and C2, and the cognitive dimensions of fact and concept knowledge. This learning continuum is expected to help the development of a spiral curriculum in ES for more effective learning.

Biology science learning continuum at the elementary school level based on teachers’ cognitive abilities

“…At least two studies show that teachers' cognitive abilities in mastering content have a strong influence on student achievement [19], [20] Cognitive competencies possessed by teachers, therefore, can be used to predict student performance [21]. On the other hand, competencies that are not mastered by teachers will be less likely to be mastered by students [22]. Therefore, the cognitive abilities of teachers can be one of the bases for constructing the learning continuum.…”