CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS OF IMPLEMENTING INNOVATIVE PEDAGOGIES AND PRACTICAL WORK IN STEM EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY OF SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN CROSS RIVER STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study determined teachers’ perceived challenges of utilizing innovative pedagogies and practical work skills in secondary schools STEM classrooms in Cross River state. It found teachers perceived solutions to the challenges of utilizing innovative pedagogies and practical work skills in secondary schools STEM classrooms in cross River State and determined the prospects of utilizing innovative pedagogies and practical work skills in STEM classrooms in cross River State. These were with a view to providing empirical information on perceived challenges of utilizing innovative pedagogies and practical work skills in secondary school STEM classrooms in Cross-Rivers state. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design .The population for the study was 1509 STEM teachers in all the 32 government science secondary schools in the Cross-River state. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 250 STEM teachers for the study. The research instrument was a researcher made 4- points Likert scale type of Questionnaire titled: “Questionnaires for Challenges and Prospects of Implementing Innovative Pedagogies and Practical Work in STEM Education’’(CPIIPPWSE) which was validated by experts, test retest method was used to determine the reliability of the instrument to be 0.81. The instrument was administered in 2025/2026 academic session through research assistants, and data collected was analysed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation with a criterion mean score of 2.50. The findings of the study revealed factors like lack of electricity supply to rural schools, inadequate infrastructures particularly in rural schools, large class size, motivation and related factors are barriers to innovative STEM pedagogy and practical work skills particularly in rural schools in the state as perceived challenges. Seven recommendations were made, among which is: Government commitment, community support, and partnerships with private companies are needed to establish annual STEM teacher professional development programmes to give all STEM teachers the needed skills for effective implementation of STEM education goals in the state, irrespective of school location.