An Investigation into the Difficulties of Students in Learning Biology

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the difficulties of students in learning biology. Especially, causes of difficulties in terms of subject matter, use of instructional materials, teachers’ styles of teaching, students’ attitudes, study habits and students’ anxiety in subject were examined. Difficult biology topics were also investigated. Sixteen high schools from eight townships of four districts in Yangon Region were randomly selected. (32) biology teachers and (640) Grade Ten science students from the selected schools participated in this study. Three instruments: questionnaire for teacher, questionnaire for student and an achievement test were used. For obtaining questionnaire reliability, the pilot test was administered. According to the questionnaires’ responses, causes of students’ difficulties learning in biology were presented as percentage. According to the teachers’ responses, the most serious causes of difficulties of students in learning biology were due to inadequate use of instructional materials and students’ poor study habits in biology. Based on the students’ responses, the most serious causes of difficulties were due to inadequate use of instructional materials and students’ anxiety. Difficult topics such as plant and animal cells, plant and animal tissues, bacterial cell and protozoa were mostly responded. And then, students’ achievement in biology was presented as mean score and standard deviation. Pearson product moment correlation was also used to study the relationship between students’ learning difficulties and their achievement in biology. The correlation between students’ learning difficulties and their achievement in biology was r=-.698, p < .01. These results showed that students who have difficulties in learning have lower achievement and vice versa