Josette Farrugia

In Malta, the number of female students registering for Secondary Education Certificate (SEC) examinations at the end of their compulsory schooling consistently outnumbers that of male students, a higher percentage of female students register for Matriculation Certificate Examinations and acquire the Matriculation Certificate and more female students than male students start University courses and eventually graduate per academic year. Statistics available show relatively low numbers of students, especially male students engaging in further education and this led the Gender Issues Committee of the University of Malta to ask: why do some students opt not to participate in further education but to drop out of the system at the earliest opportunity? This prompted the Gender Issues Committee to embark on research attempting to answer this question. The study carried out with school guidance teachers and students who opted not to sit for any SEC examinations also sought to determine whether there were any differences between reasons given by boys and those given by girls among other things. The results show that students who do not sit for any SEC examinations come mainly from Area Secondary Schools and the main reasons given were that the examinations are too difficult for them; that they do not like school; that they wished to stop studying; and that these students wanted seek employment. The dire necessity for higher levels of certification and the need for vocational courses at compulsory school level were among the conclusions reached through this study.

Student-centred approaches have been associated with deeper learning and improved interest in science. The chemistry curriculum and the pedagogies used in the chemistry classroom in Malta and other countries are often traditional and emphasise content delivery. This exploratory study focused on the way teachers learn and how they approach and feel about making changes to their teaching towards a more student-centred approach. A teacher learning community of four chemistry teachers was formed. Focus groups and reflective journals were used to generate data. Results show how teachers appraise the nature and content of different kinds of professional development sessions and how the community helped teachers with different epistemological beliefs to move along the teacher-centred to student-centred continuum.