Exploring Problems in Learning Biology:Students’ and Teachers’ Perspectives, in Perak, Malaysia

Abstract

Biology is one of the science subjects that has small number of student enrolment and is known as a
hard subject where abstract concepts were generally taught. These abstract concepts contributed to the
difficulties in learning biology and low interest among the students. A qualitative approach was utilized to
answer the research questions. Individual interviews with ten students and four biology teachers, and document
analysis of ten student’s biology notebook were carried out to collect the data needed. Findings of the study
reveals that four major factors; teacher, parents, self and infrastructure contributed the problems faced by the
students in learning biology. The findings of the study will be beneficial to the students and biology teachers as
the causes that contribute to the problems in learning biology can be identified and rectified so that student’s
negative perception on biology can be changed.