@phdthesis{Manuel2022,
  author    = {Djabr{\´u} Manuel},
  title     = {LEARNING BEYOND SCHOOL: A systemic approach to promote contextualized, effective, emotional, and sustainable learning for science teachers (pre-service) in Chimoio-Mozambique.},
  url       = {https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:he76-opus4-4475},
  pages     = {270},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {The quality of education in Mozambique has been faced with several challenges and criticisms. This situation comes from a long time ago. In many studies, it has been revealed that the quality of education is rather low, and there is evidence that students have difficulties in reading, writing, and calculating, especially in primary education. Also, there are weak links between theory and practice in secondary education. These difficulties negatively affect the development of skills and students’ profiles. In addition, this significantly delays the country's scientific, technological, and socio-economic development. The problems of education and other sectors in Mozambique could be solved by creating synergies and establishing joint approaches or actions involving all collaboration partners and as a system. Aware of this, reforms have been carried out in the field of educational sciences to adopt innovative learning approaches through improving learning methodology and promoting contextualized learning according to the authentic needs of society. To enhance the knowledge and understanding of natural sciences and thus improve the quality of education, an interventional study was carried out based on an innovative learning theory made up of a cluster of connectivism, constructivism, and cognitivism. Theory into practice was organized as a systemic approach based on contents found in the Mozambican curricula (teacher education and secondary schools) and integrating science-technology-society approaches. The research was devoted to analysing relevant core elements, institutional preconditions at schools and the university, and pre-service teachers’ pre-conceptions about these approaches and finding out outcomes that can enrich curricula and improve the quality of education in Mozambique. This study was designed to involve pre-service teachers of chemistry and other natural sciences (Biology and Physics) from P{\´u}ngu{\`e} University working together with students of grades 8, 9, and 11 from all (seven) secondary schools existing in Chimoio. These groups would be supported by lecturers and researchers from the university, secondary school teachers, specialists, technicians from partner companies, and communities or individuals belonging to the community who together could contribute to solving a problem in a systemic approach. Because of the Pandemic COVID-19 situation in the country, the sample had to be slightly modified and structured according to the three different stages, organised in the following way: Stage I (preparatory): one hundred and eleven (111) chemistry’s pre-service teachers from three different branches (Manica, Tete, and Sofala) of the Pedagogical University participated and applied a questionnaire. This stage took place in 2019 after the documentary study. It aimed to ascertain the pre-service teachers' preconceptions to understand their preparedness before the fieldwork. For comparative reasons, six questions from the validated VOSTS instrument (Views on Science-Technology-Society) of Aikenhead, Ryan, and Fleming (1989), which is used widely internationally also, were incorporated into this questionnaire. The codification of students´ views was newly adapted to four scores, namely: Realistic (R), Has Merit (HM), Na{\"i}ve (N), and Neutral (Ne). Stage II (fieldwork/practical work): Sixty-six (66) chemistry pre-service teachers from Manica and Tete participated. This stage took place in 2020 after the restructuring of the former Pedagogical University when the Manica and Tete branches were joined together to create the P{\´u}ngu{\`e} University (UniP{\´u}ngu{\`e}). In this stage, three lecturers from UniP{\´u}ngu{\`e} (two in organic chemistry and one in environmental chemistry) also participated in monitoring and support. Three external people also participated: a building engineer and a pipe connection specialist (representing the water supply company/FIPAG), and the municipal councillor for education and culture (representing the municipality); Two secondary school teachers also participated in the study (one in chemistry and one in agriculture and cattle breeding); Stage III (Science Motivation Questionnaire): the original questionnaire questionnaires from Glynn, Taasoobshirazi, and Brickman (2009) and Sotiriou, Mordan, Murphy, and Lovatt (2017) were in English, and it was necessary to translate them into Portuguese to apply to the chemistry´s pre-service teachers (main group). For this reason, the questionnaire was translated by fifty-three (53) pre-service teachers of English courses in a pilot study before administering it to the main group. After checking the reliability of the translation (Cronbach´s Alpha = .928), the sixty-six (66) pre-service teachers who participated in practical activities filled in the questionnaire. This questionnaire intends to assess intrinsic motivation and personal relevance; Intrinsic motivation and personal interest; Perceived Competence; Effort/Importance; Value/Usefulness, and Collaborative Work Relatedness. The outcomes from local interventions were collected by mixed methods research involving qualitative (documentary study, participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and participatory-based research) and quantitative (questionnaires and interviews with fixed questions) methods. Data collected by quantitative methods were processed using the statistical package SPSS versions 20.0 and 25.0. The results of the six questions taken from the VOSTS instrument show that most pre-service teachers do not present a realistic view (R), but rather a view with some legitimacy/merit (HM) in most questions (four) and with a cumulative average of about 54\%, and in the case of the other two questions, the results indicated for an inappropriate view (Na{\"i}ve/N) with the cumulative average of 49\%. With respect to science motivation, it was found that after practical activities, pre-service teachers have developed high levels of motivation, with the subcategory \"the value/ usefulness of practical activities\" scoring highest (80\%) and the subcategory \"collaborative work-relatedness\" scoring lowest (49\%). These findings may be the result of ethnic and tribal conflicts that negatively interfere in the friendship between people, but also of the traumas caused by unpleasant and shocking memories of the use of technology in the war that lasted for about sixteen years and the repeated armed conflicts, kidnappings, and murders where science and technology have not been able to bring solutions. This study also revealed that the pre-service teachers could not put these new approaches into practice right from the beginning, and almost none of them had heard of the systemic approach before. Additionally, in the practical activities, it was found that despite the lack of knowledge about how to design and carry out learning activities using Science-Technology-Society integration and the systemic approach, all students (100\%) were satisfied. The practical activities carried out show that applying knowledge collaboratively and by a systemic approach to solve everyday problems in communities promotes the development of skills and makes knowledge lasting, establishing contextualized, effective, and emotional learning. In practical activities, several projects were developed, such as the production of soap based on ash as a saponification agent and other products such as lettuce, cabbage, alcohol, etc. Both the knowledge and the products resulting from these projects have been presented at national and international public events (conferences, workshops, seminars, etc.) Further education of university students on the job led to several individual qualifications as bachelor's degrees (Licenciatura), of which five of them have already been defended with relevant monographs. Finally, it is concluded from the findings that it will be possible to transfer this approach to other universities and schools in Mozambique and elsewhere, contributing, therefore, to help develop communities, improve learning and the profile of both students and teachers, as well as the profile of universities and schools.},
  language  = {en}
}