Biology and Environmental education are increasingly important disciplines to be taught in rural settings, where it is frequent for impoverished indigenous communities to hold ownership of invaluable natural resources such as forests and rain forests. However, the current Mexican national curriculum pays little attention to students’ differences in culture,customs, beliefs, epistemologies, and economic backgrounds. Therefore, indigenous communities have often been left marginalised within the formal education system. This omission is particularly concerning in Mexico, the fourth most biodiverse country in the world,and one of the ten most culturally diverse. Pedagogical practices that privilege student differences can be a method of advancing towards a socially just educational system, which promotes scientifically literate people who can understand and participate in a science permeated world, and are motivated and engaged with learning.‘Situated learning’ is a learning theory that confers the possibility of integrating the pupils’culture and ways of interpreting the world within the curricular aims. However, no reports exist of its application in indigenous schools. Therefore, this research was conducted with the aim to develop, apply, and evaluate the Biodiversity and Evolution Situated Sequence(BESS). The BESS is a teaching sequence designed to foster motivation and learning of Biodiversity and Evolution in lower secondary school students (age 12-13) from two indigenous communities in the Oaxacan Northern Mountain Range (ONMR) in the South of Mexico. The research followed a mixed methods multi phase design consisting of three phases: a qualitative phase to explore the context of the communities, followed by two preexperimental phases teaching with the BESS. Three cohorts consisting of 22-33 students(n=89), and five science teachers participated in the research.The findings indicate that the situated learning approach of the BESS was particularly effective in improving the learning of evolution and the nature of science; and it moderately improved student motivation in science. Other key findings suggest that the most prominent misconception held by Zapoteca students was thinking of water as an inherently living thing;and that girls in these communities were more motivated in school and in science than boys.This research provides an applied example of a situated learning approach in the science classroom, which incorporates limitations such as curriculum requirements and allocated teaching time. It can also serve as a pathway for researchers and practitioners who would like to either adapt the BESS to new contexts or create new situated learning experiences within formal education.
Motivation and learning of biodiversity and evolution in a situated learning environment in indigenous communities in Oaxaca, Mexico
Guerrero Gutierrez, P. (Author). 1 Jul 2019
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy