Development of alternative teaching materials for Life and Earth Sciences: Immunology as an example

The school textbook is an essential element in the teaching-learning process. It represents a pedagogical support for the teacher as well as for the student. However, a survey conducted by our team among a sample of students in the third year of secondary school showed that the majority do not use the textbook as a pedagogical support for the acquisition of knowledge in Life and Earth Sciences (LES). An analytical study of the LES textbooks of the third year of Moroccan secondary school showed that these materials suffer from several shortcomings: cognitive errors, ambiguous vocabulary, and a mosaic of content that makes them difficult to use. In order to enhance the value of the textbook and facilitate its use by students, this article proposes an alternative document that will present a life and health sciences course designed according to a rethought pedagogical scenario, with a dominant participative style, guides for the exploitation of documents, functional diagrams, summary conclusions, etc. In order to evaluate the relevance of this project, the present work proposes, as a pilot sequence, the one relating to the mechanisms of specific immunity in the chapter "Immune responses". This article attempts to evaluate the acquisition of knowledge related to this theme, in an autonomous work session, by two groups of baccalaureate laureates of the Physical Sciences option who have the textbooks, "Al jadid fi SVT" or "Fi rihab SVT", as pedagogical supports. In a second phase, each group was divided into two sub-groups. The first was asked to use a different textbook. The second subgroup was asked to use the new personal production, relating to the same chapter, consisting of a document presenting the restructured course, illustrated by synthetic diagrams, cognitive assessments and summaries. The results of the evaluation carried out at the end of this experiment showed that the grades of the students in the second subgroups improved significantly, compared to the control subgroups. These promising results, demonstrated here, represent a motivation to continue the work on this project of revaluing school textbooks so that they can regain their privileged place in the Moroccan educational system

The adoption of the interdisciplinary approach in the teaching of life and earth sciences at university: a reality or a wish?

The interdisciplinary approach is a convergent pedagogy approach. It allows learners to develop new skills that enable them to group knowledge in different disciplinary fields. This reveals the many advantages of this approach that distinguish it from the traditional teaching approach that conveys compartmentalized knowledge. This approach is widely used to understand complex phenomenon such as those forming the subject of the study of biology and geology. The present, via a survey conducted among students holding a basic license in life and earth sciences, from the faculty of sciences of Tetouan, has set out to know whether, yes or no, the said approach has been integrated into their training and to collect, if necessary, their appreciations as for the interest which they would carry towards its adoption in university education. We use, in this analysis, the Likert scale in five points. The results obtained show that the interdisciplinary approach is not adopted in the faculty of sciences of Tetouan. However, the students of this faculty expressed the need to include this approach in their training course, given its importance in the overall learning of life and earth sciences

Evaluation de la formation dans le cycle de préparation à l’Agrégation des Sciences de la Vie et de la Terre au Maroc

Dans l’esprit d’enrichir et d’améliorer la qualité de l’enseignement des Sciences de la Vie et de la Terre au Maroc, un accord a été conclu entre le Maroc et la France en 1990 pour instaurer le cycle de préparation au concours de l’Agrégation, afin de recruter des professeurs agrégés de haut niveau scientifique, pédagogique et didactique. Toutefois, depuis l’instauration de ce concours, le pourcentage de réussite globale des candidats n’a jamais dépassé 16,8% dans toutes les promotions. L’analyse des rapports du jury du concours soulève des problèmes d’ordre cognitif et méthodologique auxquels sont confrontés les candidats. Pour résoudre ces problèmes, aucune étude de l’évaluation de la formation dans le cycle de préparation à l’agrégation n’a été réalisée ; le document officiel ne renvoie nulle part à l’amélioration de la qualité de formation, mais touche seulement les programmes et les filières d’études. De plus, le rapport élaboré annuellement par le jury du concours, à caractère descriptif, peut induire une interprétation erronée des résultats. Pour tenter de trouver des explications à ces propos, une analyse multiple a été menée pour se renseigner sur la spécificité des épreuves du concours, les compétencesrecommandées par le jury, les contenus des cursus de préparation au concours et les pratiques de leur enseignement. Les résultats montrent que les enseignements des cursus de préparation à ce concours, marqués par des cours magistraux, ainsi que leur pratique d’enseignement, qualifiée de dogmatique, ne sont pas alignés avec les compétences scientifiques et pédagogiques requises pour le concours. En ce sens, la formation à l’Agrégation doit se détacher de la formation universitaire classique et proposer des projets de formation alternative innovants, répondant aux exigences du concours de l’Agrégation des Sciences de la Vie et de la Terre. In 1990, Morocco and France make an agreement to enrich and improve the quality of education of Life and Earth Sciences, and to establish the cycle of preparation for the competition of the Aggregation in order to recruit associate professors of high scientific, educational and didactic levels. However, since the creation of this competition in Morocco in 1991, the overallsuccess rate of candidates has never exceeded 16.8% in all promotions. The analysis of the reports of the jury of the competition raises problems of a cognitive and methodological nature faced by the candidates. In order to solve the problems posed by this competition, no study of the evaluation of training in the cycle of preparation for aggregation has been carried out. The official document does not refer anywhere to improving the quality of training, but only to programs and courses of study. Moreover, the report drawn up annually by the selection board of the competition, which is of a descriptive nature, may lead to a misinterpretation of the results. In an attempt to find explanations for this, a multiple analysis was carried to learn about, the specificity of the competition tests, the skills of recommended by the jury, the content of the competition preparation courses and their teaching practice. The results show that the lessons of the preparation courses for this competition, marked by lectures, and their teaching practice, qualified as dogmatic, are not aligned with the scientific and pedagogical skills of the competition. In this sense, the training in Aggregation must be detached from classical university training, and propose innovative alternative training projects meeting the requirements of the competition of the Aggregation of Life and Earth Sciences

Pedagogical innovation and the development of 21st century skills and sustainable development in the teaching and learning of life and earth sciences in Morocco

The world of education in the 21st century is undergoing transformations that affect teaching methods and learning styles. The Moroccan education system is at the heart of this movement, demonstrating its will and institutional commitment through the pedagogical integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) into the teaching-learning process. However, a number of studies have shown that this integration into learning and assessment activities in life and earth sciences (LES) remains very weak, if not absent, in qualifying secondary and college education. To pedagogically innovate teaching practice in LES, our research comes to help teachers and innovative designers conceive digital resources to develop 21st century skills in LES. To meet the objective of our research, a questionnaire was drawn up and sent to 200 teachers in the various regional education and training academies of the Kingdom of Morocco. Analysis of the results showed that teachers’ awareness of these skills in general, and those specific to LES in particular, was moderate and that in-service and pre-service teacher training, the design of multi-level and multi-type digital resources, and curriculum reform are very important elements in reinforcing 21st century skills in the digital teaching-learning of LES