CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING OF IMPROVISED INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS THROUGH TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION OF THEIR AVAILABILITY AND IMPLICATION IN SCIENCE TEACHING AND LEARNING ENDEAVORS IN THE SOUTHERN PROVINCE OF RWANDA

The modern teaching and learning approaches necessitate a sense of creativity and the ability to generate innovative solutions thereby addressing various issues around our environment. Enriching and creating attractive teachings is the key quality of qualified teachers. Notwithstanding endeavors of education providers have significantly increased in this era of technology-mediated knowledge and skills transfer, there still issues to address concerning the choice of pedagogical tools, their availability, and appreciation of the unique contribution of these tools in teaching and learning particularly in science content presenting complex experimental procedures, demonstration, and visualization of the content in a 3-D enhanced form. The present investigation aimed at gaining an understanding of the rationale of improvised instructional materials by science teachers in the southern province of Rwanda. We presented also various barriers that impede the full use of these materials by some science teachers in Rwanda and possible solutions. The study encompasses the total population of 137 secondary school teachers and the sample size of 102 were used. The online survey was conducted to prepare a questionnaire containing 10 questions related to the study assumptions. The statistical package for social sciences (SPSS 21.0) was used to perform data analysis through frequencies and percentages. From the data collected, 81.4% emphasized that both standard and improvised instructional materials hold potential advantages in teaching and learning endeavors while 68.6% stressed that improvised instructional materials alleviate the abstract nature of science subjects and secondary school science teachers continuously experience several challenges while trying to maximize the benefits of improvised instructional materials.