Science teachers’ perceptions of the cultural factors influencing students’ science learning: comparative analysis of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Yemen

Abstract

This study investigates the perceptions of a sample of Arab science teachers pertaining to the cultural factors affecting pupils learning processes in three Arab countries. A randomly sampled group of 169 science teachers from the three countries comprised the participants, Egypt (N=37), Yemen (N=53), and Saudi Arabia (N=79). A questionnaire consisting of 48 items measuring six cultural factors was used to collect data. Descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA were used to analyse data. Results indicated that teachers in the three countries have a consensus that science is not exclusively an aspect of Western culture. Saudi Teachers' awareness of the influences of the cultural factors on science education was clearer than that of the Egyptian and the Yemeni teachers. There were significant differences in the nature of science subscale, common everyday scientific knowledge subscale, and classroom science teaching and learning subscale, while there were no significant differences in science, culture and community subscale, science learning subscale, and science and real-life subscale. Scheffe post hoc test indicated that Saudi teachers scored higher than their Yemeni peers in their perceptions of nature of science subscale and common everyday scientific knowledge subscale while Egyptian teachers were more likely than Yemeni teachers to perceive cultural factors affecting classroom science teaching and learning. We concluded that cultural factors could facilitate or debilitate science education in schools. It is vital to increase science teachers' awareness of the role that cultural factors play in facilitating science instruction and learning.