Abstract

The present study investigates the extent to which what was taught in the classroom conformed to the state standard.  Specifically, the exploratory case study focuses on the discrepancies between the actual classroom practices and the policy intentions during the teaching of Basic Electricity in Nigerian primary schools.  To achieve the objective of the study, five teachers were observed for three weeks during the teaching of Basic Electricity, a unit of content prescribed in the mandated science curriculum.  Subsequently, these teachers were interviewed to collect information regarding the rationale for their classroom practices.  Evidences from the classroom observation and documentary analysis of teachers’ lesson notes revealed the following discrepancies: variation with respect to (a) content coverage and sequence of content delivery (b) teachers and pupils’ activities (c) teaching approaches (d) learning and instructional materials and (e) assessment techniques.  The rationale for the observed discrepancies as depicted by the data analysis include: teachers’ shallow understanding of curriculum content, fear of pupils engaging in dangerous experiments at home, abstractions of curriculum policy intentions, lack of professional development, teachers’ eagerness to complete the syllabus,  influx of learners in primary schools, teachers’ financial constraint and lack of learning and instructional materials.  Based on these findings, recommendations were made towards narrowing the gap between the actual classroom practices and the curriculum planners’ intentions.