Dataset on secondary school teachers' and students' perceptions of teaching-learning activities used in Zambian secondary school biology classrooms

Abstract

Teaching and learning activities used in the classroom form an important part of the learning environment. Creating productive learning environments may be influenced by how teachers and students perceive the teaching and learning process. Teachers’ and students’ perceptions of teaching and learning seem to influence each other. For example, how teachers approach their subject matter impacts how their students learn and view the learning environment or process. Therefore, the degree of teaching and learning quality congruence between teachers' and students' perceptions of teaching-learning process may impact the setting of the learning environment. This article describes a dataset concerning teachers' and students' perceptions of 26 teaching-learning activities used in biology lessons. The data were collected from 57 biology teachers and 469 students from 16 selected secondary schools in four districts of Zambia. Data were collected during the 2022 academic year using separate validated survey questionnaires. The statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) version 25 was used to analyse the data by calculating descriptive and inferential statistics to describe and compare the participants’ perceptions of the teaching-learning activities in biology lessons. The data may provide valuable insight into current teaching practices in biology classrooms based on teachers' and students' perceptions. The data may also provide a basis for comparing teachers’ and students’ perceptions of teaching-learning activities in biology classrooms.

Specifications Table

Subject	Education
Specific subject area	Biology Education
Data format	Raw Analysed
Type of data	Table Text
Data collection	Firstly, permits were sought from the university of Rwanda and the Ministry of Education in Zambia. Secondly, teachers volunteered and consented to participate in the study, while headteachers consented on students' behalf. Data were collected between February and May 2022. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 60 biology teachers, 57 of them completed the questionnaires at their convenience, taking about 15 min. On the other hand, 469 students completed the researcher-administered questionnaires. On average, the students took about 20 min to answer the questionnaires. The questionnaires used to collect the dataset were modified five-point Likert-scale questionnaires for teachers and students, respectively [1,2].
Data source location	Institution: Ministry of Education City/Town/Region: Lusaka, Chilanga, Chongwe and Chipata districts Country: Zambia
Data accessibility	Repository name: Mendeley Data Data identification number (DOI number):10.17632/5jk24v47zp.4 Direct URL to data:https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/5jk24v47zp/4

1. Value of the Data

• •The data provides insight into the quality of biology teaching and learning experiences based on teachers' and students' perceptions. The data on teachers' and students' perceptions of the biology learning activities could be used by education stakeholders to plan to improve the secondary school biology learning environments and students' academic performance. The data may benefit education stakeholders in Zambia and beyond, including the Ministry of Education. Data may benefit the Department of Teacher Education, teachers, and researchers. Furthermore, researchers may use the data to explore how teachers’ and students’ perceptions may influence or be influenced by the teaching-learning process.
• •The data presented in this article can be used to improve biology learning environments, analyse the effect of teaching activities on students' academic performance, predict the effectiveness of teaching activities employed by biology teachers, assess the areas that need improvement and implement the required changes to the education process.
• •The data may provide potential comparisons of the perceptions of teachers and students, and highlight where those perceptions may differ.
• •Furthermore, researchers may use the data as a reference point for other similar research that compares teachers’ and students’ perceptions of biology learning environments at the secondary school level.

2. Objective

The main objective of the research for which these data were collected was to describe the secondary school teachers' and students' perceptions of teaching-learning activities used in biology classrooms. The dataset could inform the design of effective biology teaching and learning environments that may likely improve students' learning.

3. Data Description

The data described here were collected using two separate Likert-type questionnaires completed by 57 teachers and 469 students from selected secondary schools. As described in the methods section later, the teachers were purposively selected from 16 schools because they taught biology and agreed to participate in the study. However, students were randomly selected from only 8 schools. The teachers’ response rate was 95 % while students’ was 100%. Some teachers were reminded up to three times before all questionnaires were collected, while students’ questionnaires were collected immediately after being completed.

The questionnaire structure enabled the collection of biographic data of the participants and their responses to the statements/items on six categories of teaching-learning activities deemed to affect students' learning. The complete questionnaires are available at https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/5jk24v47zp/4 [4]. The collected data were entered into a Microsoft Excel file (data.xlsx) named “Dataset on teachers’ and students’ perceptions of biology teaching-learning activities” consisting of five sheets” which is available at https://data.mendeley.com.datasets/5jk24v47zp/4 [4]. The file comprises Sheet 1 (Teaching-learning activities), Sheet 2 (Raw data for teachers - teachers’ perceptions), Sheet 3 (Raw data for students - students’ perceptions), Sheet 4 (Combined data on teachers’ and students’ perceptions), and Sheet 5 (Analysed data) which are briefly described below.

Sheet 1 (Teaching-learning activities): Sheet 1 provides information on the teaching-learning activities measured by the 26 items in the questionnaires. These teaching-learning activities correspond to the statements that were provided in the respective participants’ questionnaires.

Sheet 2 (Raw data for teachers): This sheet consists of the raw data on teachers’ perceptions of the teaching and learning activities used in biology classrooms. It contains the following variables:

Subject: provides information about the participant (teacher = 2)

Subject ID: provides the code (serial number) assigned to each participant teacher

Gender: provides the gender of the participants (female = 1; male = 2)

Questionnaire items (Q1 to Q26): provide participants’ responses to questionnaire statements/ items. The items were measured on a 5-point Likert scale. The following labels were used for the responses: strongly agree = 5; agree = 4; undecided = 3; disagree = 2; and strongly disagree = 1.

Sheet 3 (Raw data for students): Sheet 3 consists of the raw data on students’ perceptions of the teaching and learning activities used in biology classrooms. It contains the following variables:

Subject: provides information about the participant (student = 1)

Subject ID: provides the code (serial number) assigned to each participant student

Gender: provides the gender of the participants (female = 1; male = 2)

Questionnaire items (Q1 to Q26): provide participants’ responses to questionnaire statements/ items. The items were measured on a 5-point Likert scale. The following labels were used for the responses: strongly agree = 5; agree = 4; undecided = 3; disagree = 2; and strongly disagree = 1.

Sheet 4 (Combined raw data): This sheet provides information about the respondents (participants) and their responses to the questionnaire items. The idea behind combining these data is to allow possible comparison of the participants’ perceptions. It contains the following variables:

Subject: provides information about the participant (student = 1; teacher = 2)

Subject ID: provides the code (serial number) assigned to each participant

Gender: provides the gender of the participants (female = 1; male = 2)

Questionnaire items (Q1 to Q26): provide participants’ responses to questionnaire statements/ items. The items were measured on a 5-point Likert scale. The following labels were used for the responses: strongly agree = 5; agree = 4; undecided = 3; disagree = 2; and strongly disagree = 1. The structure of the questionnaire and the information collected are shown in Table 1.

Table 1.

Questionnaire structure.

Questionnaire Section			Information collected
Part 1: Demographic information			Participant's gender
Part 2: Category of teaching-learning activities	Description	Questionnaire items	Information collected
Students' prior knowledge and misconceptions	Refers to biology concepts or topics that students know from prior learning, including misconceptions they may have	Q1 to Q3	Participants' answers to statements about teaching-learning activities related to students' prior knowledge and misconceptions
Making teaching/learning easy	Refers to making aspects of biology topics that are difficult aspects of biology topics easy to teach or learn	Q4 to Q7	Participants' answers to statements about teaching-learning activities related to making difficult aspects of biology topics easy to teach or learn
Biology curriculum	Refers to noticing, selecting, and sequencing salient biology concepts or topics	Q8 to Q14	Participants' answers to statements about teaching-learning activities related to the biology curriculum
Teaching strategies	Refers to subject-specific teaching or learning strategies	Q15 to Q19	Participants' answers to statements about teaching-learning activities related to teaching strategies
Representations and analogies	Refers to modes or forms of representing biology concepts, including analogies, examples, diagrams etc.	Q20 to Q21	Participants' answers to statements about teaching-learning activities related to representations
Assessment	Refers to methods and forms of assessing students' learning	Q22 to Q26	Participants' answers to statements about teaching-learning activities related to knowledge of assessment

Sheet 5 (Analysed data)

The primary purpose for presenting the analysed data in this paper was two-fold. Firstly, the analysis compares teachers’ and students’ perceptions of teaching-learning activities used in biology classrooms. Secondly, the data reports results of the assessment of the model (six-factor structure of the questionnaire) using psychometric data. The results of the analysis are reported in Sheet 5 (Analysed data) which contains 8 tables. Table 1 shows the reliability test result for teachers and students. Table 2 shows the descriptive statistics of the subscales. Table 3 shows the independent samples t-test results for comparison of participants’ perceptions for subscales, while Table 4 shows the independent samples t-test results for overall perceptions. Table 5, Table 6 show results of the factor analysis for teachers. On the other hand, Tables 7 and 8 show results of the factor analysis for students.

Table 2.

Reliability test results for the components.

Components/Subscales	Cronbach's Alpha
	Teachers	Students	Overall
Students' prior knowledge and misconceptions	.38	.47	.48
Making teaching/learning easy	.46	.45	.49
Biology curriculum	.67	.62	.65
Teaching strategies	.69	.45	.52
Representations and analogies	.59	.29	.31
Assessment	.67	.63	.66
Overall	.86	.80	.83

Table 3.

Comparison of participants' perceptions of the six categories of teaching-learning activities.

Component of Teaching-learning Activities	Participants	M	SD	t	df	p
Students' prior knowledge and misconceptions	Students	4.04	.74	−5.56	96.73	<0.001
	Teachers	4.43	.45
Making teaching/learning easy	Students	3.04	.79	−8.33	79.69	<0.001
	Teachers	3.79	.62
Biology curriculum	Students	3.82	.63	−8.92	92.30	<0.001
	Teachers	4.36	.41
Teaching strategies	Students	3.64	.71	−8.37	524	<0.001
	Teachers	4.44	.42
Representations and analogies	Students	3.95	.85	−4.40	84.92	<0.001
	Teachers	4.35	.61
Assessment	Students	3.47	.84	−11.90	102.76	<0.001
	Teachers	4.36	.49

Table 4.

Tests of Between-Subjects Effects (Power analysis test).

Source	Type III Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	Sig.	Partial Eta Squared	Noncent. Parameter	Observed Powerb
Corrected Model	15.99a	1	15.99	67.55	.000	.12	67.55	1.00
Intercept	2345.41	1	2345.41	9902.90	.000	.95	9902.90	1.00
Participant	15.99	1	15.99	67.55	.000	.12	67.55	1.00
Error	120.08	507	.24
Total	7145.69	509
Corrected Total	136.07	508

^aR Squared = 0.118 (Adjusted R Squared = 0.116).

^bComputed using alpha = 0.05.

Table 5.

Factor loading from the initial model assessment of the six factor structure of the teachers’ questionnaire.

Item Number	Factor Loadings
12	.715
17	.666
6	.659
11	.628
21	.626
24	.625
20	.619
16	.567
23	.562
22	.558
9	.553
3	.529
25	.526
15	.517
5	.509
19	.477
10	.471
7	.460
18	.450
2	.381
14	.316
13*
4*
8*
26	.319
1*

Note: Items with (*) did not load into this single factor.

Table 6.

Factor loading from the initial model assessment of the six factor structure of the students’ questionnaire.

Item Number	Factor Loadings
24	.585
19	.559
26	.556
6	.515
23	.510
11	.493
14	.471
20	.466
15	.461
12	.461
10	.452
25	.445
16	.416
1	.415
18	.402
8	.367
4*
9	.343
17*
2*
21	.360
22	.335
13	.385
7	.435
5*
3	.303

Note: Items with (*) did not load into this single factor.

4. Experimental Design, Materials and Methods

4.1. Research design

The study adopted the quantitative research approach and used the cross-sectional survey design, allowing data to be collected from a relatively larger sample than qualitative designs [5].

4.2. Sampling design and sample size

The study used the multiple-stage sampling design. Firstly, four districts were purposively selected from two provinces of Zambia. Then, 16 secondary schools were purposively selected from the four districts based on location and school type so that boarding and day secondary schools from urban and rural areas were represented.

The sample of teachers comprised 57 biology teachers (26 males and 31 females) purposively selected from 16 secondary schools because they taught biology and their students were available to participate in the study. The majority of the teachers (72 %) held a bachelor's degree, 23 % held a diploma, and only 5 % held a master's degree as their highest qualification. The student sample included 469 grades 10 (n = 142), 11 (n = 163), and 12 (n = 164) students (246 males and 223 females) enrolled during the 2022 academic year. The students were randomly selected from the teachers’ classes at eight secondary schools. Although the students did not represent all the schools where teachers were selected, it was assumed that the students' perceptions from the eight schools were representative of the 16 schools. Also, the students' average age was 16.5 years. The students were selected from all types of schools (urban, rural, boarding and day schools).

4.3. Research instruments

The two instruments used in this study were five-point Likert-scale questionnaires for teachers and students, respectively [1,2]. The questionnaires comprised 26 similar items (teaching-learning activities) phrased from the respective respondents' perspectives. All the items were positively phrased, so the responses ‘strongly agree and agree’ represented positive perceptions (satisfaction), 'undecided' represented neutral perceptions and 'disagree and strongly disagree' represented negative perceptions (dissatisfaction). The items in the teachers’ questionnaire were framed so as to allow teachers to indicate the extent to which they perceived their use of the teaching-learning activities. On the other hand, students’ items enabled them to indicate the extent to which they thought that their teachers enacted the same teaching-learning activities. The questionnaires were pilot-tested, and analysis yielded Cronbach's alpha values of 0.842 for the students' questionnaire and 0.896 for the teachers' questionnaire, indicating high reliability [3]. For the purpose of this study, the questionnaire items were divided into six categories of teaching-learning activities, as described earlier. This process was validated by four biology education lecturers. All of them agreed with the way questionnaire items were aligned to the six categories of teaching-learning activities based on experts’ validation reports. The structure of the questionnaire and the information collected are shown in Table 1. The full questionnaires used in the study can be found at https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/5jk24v47zp/4 [4].

4.4. Data collection procedures

The questionnaires were distributed to 60 biology teachers at the 16 selected schools. Teachers completed the self-administered questionnaires at their convenience, taking about 15 min. Up to three reminders were sent to the teachers in which they confirmed whether the questionnaires were ready for collection. The first author distributed and collected the questionnaires after they were completed. Three teachers did not complete the questionnaires after the third reminder, and these were considered non-respondents. Therefore, only 57 questionnaires were collected, representing a response rate of 95 %.

Students were randomly selected from grades 10–12 classes taught by 40 of the 57 selected teachers. The students completed the researcher-administered questionnaires. On average, the students took about 20 min to answer the questionnaires. The first author guided the students and answered their queries while they completed the questionnaires. The questionnaires were collected immediately after each student finished filling them. All the students correctly completed the questionnaires, representing a response rate of 100 %.

4.5. Analysis and model assessment

As already mentioned, the main objective of this analysis is twofold. First, it aims to compare the perceptions of teachers and students regarding the teaching and learning activities used in biology classrooms. Second, it reports the results of assessing the six-factor structure (model) of the questionnaires using psychometric tests. This is important because the current form of the questionnaires only depended on experts’ views. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 was used to run all the analyses for the reported results. Since the questionnaire items were written in a positive direction, there was no need to recode the item responses.

Firstly, the reliability of the collected data was checked by computing the Cronbach's Alpha for each questionnaire and its subscales. The results are shown in Table 2. It can be seen from Table 2 that the obtained reliability coefficients were quite low, ranging from 0.38 to 0.69 for teachers, and 0.45 to 0.63 for students. However, it can also be seen that the reliability of the questionnaires overall were quite high, 0.86 and 0.80 for teachers and students, respectively. This implies that the data collected using these questionnaires could still be useful for other researchers to use to answer research questions depending on their needs contexts.

Secondly, the independent samples T test was used to compare the participants’ perceptions for the six components and the results in Table 3 reveal that there may be significant differences in the participants’ perceptions. However, Table 4 shows that comparison perceptions of 526 participants (469 students and 57 teachers) at p = .05 gave a medium effect size (η² = 0.118) and an observed power of 1. However, with the effect size of 0.118, and sample sizes of 57 teachers and 469 students, the achieved power would be 0.13. This may affect the interpretation of any significant differences between the students and teachers in this sample.

Since the Cronbach's Alpha values of the subscales were low, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to check how the items load into the six-factor structure of the two questionnaires. The results reveal that the data do not support the six-factor structure of the questionnaires for both teachers (Table 5) and students (Table 6) as the items mainly loaded into a single factor describing teaching-learning activities used by teachers in biology classes. The full component matrices are included in the excel file (sheet 5) available at https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/5jk24v47zp/4. These results suggest that the questionnaire could be better rearranged to describe participants’ overall perceptions of teaching-learning activities used in biology classrooms rather than splitting them into the six components used in the original form. However, it should be noted that there are some items that need to be removed from the original questionnaires. Table 5, Table 6 show that the four items marked with (*) need to be removed from each questionnaire as they did not load into the single factor. Therefore, further analyses may focus on differences in participants' perceptions for individual items in the questionnaires.

Limitations

This study was limited mainly by the small sample size, i.e., 57 teachers and 469 students selected from only four districts of two provinces in Zambia. Therefore, the data may not represent the Zambian teaching-learning scenario and may only be generalised to similar contexts. However, the data may be used as a foundation for exploring and comparing teachers’ and students’ perceptions of teaching-learning activities used in biology classrooms.

Ethics Statement

Firstly, permits were sought from the University of Rwanda (protocol/reference number: 02/DRI-CE/075/EN/gi/2021) and the Ministry of Education in Zambia. Also, the teachers consented to voluntarily participate in the research, while headteachers consented on behalf of the students. The purpose of the research was explained to the participants, who were also informed that participation in the research was voluntary.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Thumah Mapulanga: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Gilbert Nshogoza: Supervision, Writing – review & editing. Yaw Ameyaw: Supervision, Writing – review & editing. Anthony Bwalya: Validation, Formal analysis, Writing – review & editing.

Data Availability

• Dataset on secondary school teachers' and students' perceptions of teaching-learning activities used in Zambian secondary school biology classrooms (Original data) (Mendeley Data).