Dissertation (MA Education)
Fresh water conservation skills have been observed to be inadequate among young generation, despite fresh water being scarce and important to humankind. This study developed curriculum exemplary materials that could address students missing skills for fresh water conservation skills among secondary school students. This study was conducted in Tukuyu secondary school located at Rungwe district in Mbeya region. Three Geography teachers were involved in this study. Moreover, sixty two Form Two students from Tukuyu secondary school were involved in this study. Quasi-experimental and phenomenographical research designs were employed to generate data through, Syllabus review, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with teachers, interview with students, pre-test and post-test to students and participant lesson observations. The study used lesson study approach in which teaching involved patterns of variation theory through creating variation for discerning critical aspects of learning fresh water. Meanwhile the findings unveiled that the identified missing skills among students were mainly due to adaptation of conventional way of teaching, associated with inadequate materials for teaching and learning. The findings disclosed that students initially lacked skills for freshwater conservation and was due to the lack of proper understanding of teachers on the objective and competence based curriculum which could foster’s learners to acquire skills. However, after intervention, the results revealed that there was a significant increase of the mean score between pre and post-test. Paired sample t-test result had shown significant different in mean score between the pre-test (0.371) and post-test (0.806). The findings indicated that the exemplary materials were effective in developing skills to students on freshwater conservation. Also, the lesson study approach as the method used to present the materials revealed to be with a very high effect on developing student’s skills for freshwater conservation. The study paved the way on how to identify missing skills and delivering the content in relation to the learning needs. Also, this study served to improve pedagogical content knowledge about water and its types. Thus, the lesson study can be used to address students missing skills in learning for the sake of developing skills for future well utilization of natural resources like freshwater