Teaching mathematics and science in English: Looking through the eyes of teachers

Abstract

This study examined the perception of Malaysian secondary school teachers on the implementation of the national policy on teaching Mathematics and Science in English which was introduced in 2003 and reversed in 2009. A total of 14 public secondary schools were randomly selected using the stratification technique throughout the nation. It was further stratified based on Math and Science teachers and the final sample comprised 154 Math and 160 Science teachers. This study employed a purely quantitative research design which entailed the administration of a questionnaire. The study investigated the perception of teachers regarding the implementation of the policy and the usage of English language in classroom teaching. The findings indicated that about 54% of Math and Science teachers preferred to continue with the implementation of the policy. However, further analysis indicated that 75% of the math novice teachers would like to continue with this policy as compared to 41.9 % and 52.4% of the experienced and very experienced respectively. This relationship was significant at the 0.05 level. The findings also exhibited that 70.3% of Science novice teachers also indicated a positive response whereas 61.7% of the experienced and 41.7 % of the very experienced teachers indicated otherwise. This relationship was also significant at the 0.05 level. These findings imply that the younger teachers are more open and have found it easier to adapt to the change in policy in comparison to the experienced and more experienced teachers. Findings also indicated that in total average, 29.5% of the Math teachers and 34.6% of Science teachers use English language more than 61% in their classroom teaching. This is indicative of the fact that a majority of the teachers are still unable to conduct their lessons using 100% English language.