Science Teachers’ Perceptions of Instructional Skills and Challenges in Teaching Science Subjects: A Qualitative Study in Tehsil Dargai, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Abstract

The research is a qualitative study of the perspectives held by science teachers in secondary schools, regarding their teaching capabilities and the complexities that they encounter when teaching science subjects in Tehsil Dargai, District Malakand, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Based on a qualitative research design and thematic analysis, using semi-structured face to face interviews, the study took a purposely selected sample of 15 male and female science teachers in secondary schools to discover rich insights in their data. Results show that the overall views of teachers about their instructional competencies are mainly positive (especially in terms of content delivery and interaction with students), but the delivery of student-centered, hands-on, and experiential science teaching in practice is severely interrupted by interconnected systemic and practical limitations instead of shortcomings in teacher knowledge or motivation. The most challenged ones in terms of occurrence and magnitude are inadequate resources and lack of laboratory facilities that greatly limit practical experiments and learn-by-doing, extreme time constraints due to overloaded syllabi, busy schedules, and long curricula restricting deep instruction, questioning, and individualized attention, overcrowded classrooms making discipline, management, and individual attention challenging, burdensome workloads and insufficient preparation time to class time and family commitments, and student related such as poor foundational knowledge, lack of interest and motivation towards science, disparity in ability levels, and indis The mentioned barriers can be associated with more general trends in the Pakistani rural and underserved school settings, which highlights that the main factors obstructing the quality of instructions and student interactions are structural in nature. The paper determines that institutional changes such as improved lab facilities, smaller classes, rationalized curricula and schedules, workload, and basic student provision are urgent and necessary to improve an area such as Tehsil Dargai to allow teachers to maximize their teaching abilities in the most meaningful and pragmatic oriented teaching and enhanced student learning.

Keywords: Science teacher, instructional skills, teaching issues, qualitative research, Tehsil Dargai, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, laboratory, overload of classes, time management, work overload, student motivation, systematic constraints, rural education, Pakistan secondary schools, thematic analysis, practical science teaching.