The junior high school integrated science: the actual teaching process in the perspective of an ethnographer

Science education at the Basic School (Primary and Junior High School) serves as the foundation upon which higher levels of science education are pivoted. This ethnographic study sought to investigate the teaching of Integrated Science at the Junior High School (JHS) level in the classrooms of two science teachers in two schools of differing characteristics. The two teachers were selected purposively for the study. Observations of classroom teaching and casual conversations with the science teachers for an 11 week academic term period were the main source of data for the study. The focus of the observations was on the four stages of an Integrated Science lessons of which the application stage was found to be absent in the science teachers lessons. It was further revealed among other things that the instructional hours for the teaching of Integrated Science are not the same for all schools. Hence, curriculum developers are encouraged to factor the school culture of various schools throughout the country into planning national school curriculum.