Instrument for Assessing Disposition for Contextual Learning of Science of Students in East Africa

Attempts to make classroom science relevant to the real worlds of students can be enhanced by understanding their ways of learning and knowing. This study, which investigated East African (EA) students’ ways of knowing in science discourses, discusses the development, validation, and application of an instrument to assess EA students’ disposition for contextual learning of science. The Instrument for Assessing Disposition for Contextual Learning of Science (I-ADCLOS) is intended to assist teachers and students to assess their degree of disposition for contextual teaching and learning of science. Exploratory factor analysis of student responses to a 36-item questionnaire developed from theory yielded a validated 31-item I-ADCLOS comprising three dimensions and six subdimensions: Personal Awareness of Influences on Learning Science and Limitations of Traditional Knowledge (PA_ILS_LTK); Attitudes Towards Science Learning in Local Contexts and Nature of Traditional Knowing (AT_SLiLC_NoTK); and Orientation Towards Collateral and Personal Learning Strategies (OTC_PLS). These dimensions were further explored and determined to each bear two subdimensions—PA_ILS_LTK: (a) independence of science learning from cultural influences and (b) metacognitive learning; AT_SLiLC_NoTK (a) instrumentalist–culturalist perspectives and (b) exam-centered, textbook/teacher reliant learning; and OTC_PLS (a) personal awareness of successful learning strategies and other ways of knowing and (b) privileging science and learning by rote.