PHL science and math education should start in kinder, experts say

By Barbara Marchadesch

Published March 22, 2012 7:38pm

A set of new recommendations from experts and academics could alter and improve the way science and mathematics are taught in elementary school and high school in the Philippines —including the introduction of key concepts as early as preschool.

The Science Education Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-SEI), together with the University of the Philippines’ National Institute for Science and Mathematics Education Development (NISMED) and the Philippine Council of Mathematics Teachers and Educators (MATHTED), recently launched four publications on the frameworks of science and mathematics education in the country.

The Science Framework for Philippine Basic Education, Mathematics Framework for Philippine Basic Education, Framework for Philippine Science Teacher Education and Framework for Philippine Mathematics Teacher Education were formally handed over to various stakeholders in the field at a ceremony at the Hyatt Hotel and Casino Manila on March 14. (A fifth publication, International Migration of Science and Technology Manpower-OFWs, was also launched at the event.)

Statement of philosophy

Dr. Merle C. Tan, who was part of the technical working group for the first two publications from its start in 2006, calls the books a “statement of philosophy” from educators and experts on how science and mathematics should be taught in the country. “It’s a framework; anybody or any school can use it,” she says.

They are intended to provide guidance for science and math education for all levels as well as for planning teachers’ pre-service training and later assessment.

Dr. Tan says that the frameworks were created out of a need for the Philippine equivalent of such a resource in the United States. “Prior to development of the frameworks, we had to quote the US ones,” she says. “We knew what they had and wanted to create one with a Philippines perspective that would apply to us.”

Guidance for science education

The Framework for Philippine Science Teacher Education addresses the major challenges of the national educational system, from the shortage of qualified science teachers and the lack of quality textbooks to the fact that the philosophy of science education at the basic education level (elementary and high school) is not clearly defined and reflected in the teacher curriculum.

It lists the qualities of a good science teacher, and emphasizes that in order to increase the number of good science teachers in the country, resources must be made available to them to continue their professional development—resources such as training programs, conferences, and a revised college curriculum for those studying to become science teachers. The work also suggests different rubrics, or tables, for professional knowledge parameters that a science teacher can use to rate her own performance.

Science Framework for Philippine Basic Education lists the important components for a K-12 science curriculum, evolving with each level:

Inquiry skills: These include asking questions about the world, designing and conducting investigations, using different strategies to obtain information, and communicating results. Students should develop the inquiry skills of properly collecting and organizing data, formulate explanations or models based on their investigations, analyzing and evaluating information, and making decisions based on sound judgment and logical reasoning.
Scientific attitudes: Students should develop their critical thinking skills, which are developed through “inquiry activities” that students engage in in their attempts to explain the outcomes of their investigations. The development of this skill progresses from level to level. Schools should also encourage students’ creativity and curiosity, and reward perseverance, intellectual honesty, objectivity and independent thinking.
Content and connections: The aforementioned process skills that students pick up are given meaning by the context of the subject matter under investigation. For science education, the framework covers three content areas—Life Science, Physical Science and Earth and Space Science, and listing the core ideas that students should understand and retain long after they have completed their basic education. The framework uses the term “enduring understandings” to refer to these big ideas, which stay in the student’s mind long after graduation and reside at the heart of the discipline. The framework lists the enduring understandings for each of the content areas.

The recommended science curriculum is a decongested one that focuses on depth rather than breadth, stressing the three major content areas, inquiry skills, and scientific attitudes. And even with the new K to 12 educational system implemented, Science is still taught as a separate subject starting from Grade 3 and not earlier, in accordance with the development of the students’ reading and comprehension skills.

Math education for students and teachers

The Mathematics Framework for Philippine Basic Education discusses “the principles and general guidelines that math education should focus on,” says Dr. Catherine P. Vistro-Yu, project director and lead researcher of the Mathematics Framework Project.

The levels are divided into three sections: lower elementary mathematics (K to Grade 3), upper elementary (Grades 4 to 6), and high school (Grades 7 to 10-12), and the assessment targets for each. The book stresses that students need stronger mathematical knowledge, skills and values to be able to pursue higher education and to become a competitive part of a technologically oriented workforce.

And they can become better at mathematics if their studies hone their analytical thinking. Being mathematically competent, argues the book, is not just having the ability to compute and perform mathematical procedures, but also being able to pose math problems, solve math problems, and apply math skills and reasoning in other subjects and everyday situations.

A student can become mathematically competent if his environment is safe, clean and well-equipped with learning tools, if there is communication between him and his teacher, and if he is actively engaged during the learning process.

With these in mind, the Framework for Philippine Mathematics Teacher Education puts together the most important domains of knowledge that mathematics teachers of all levels should teach their students, and the best way they can teach these to them. It lists the qualities of a good mathematics teacher, and it lays out the road to professionalizing math teachers—to training them well, providing a credible professional accreditation system, and facilitating their growth and movement towards becoming experts in their field. In the publication’s preface, Dr. Vistro-Yu says, “With this framework, we give credence to our teachers who continue to make supreme sacrifices despite the many obstacles that they face.”

The committee began work on the frameworks in 2005, shaping them with a K to 11 educational system in mind. They were later refigured for the impending K to 12 system to be implemented soon. “These books also have an international perspective, meeting global standards of education,” says Dr. Vistro-Yu.

Dr. Ester Ogena, member of the Executive Committee for the science frameworks, hopes that the books help their targets—students and teachers of all levels across the country: “Our schools need strong frameworks like this in math and science, particularly in basic education,” she says. “We hope that math, science and technology education and human resources will be strengthened, and that these can sustain the desire to improve the lives of Filipinos.”

She also hailed the SEI’s efforts and their help in putting together the frameworks. “We applaud their research and human resource capacity building innovations, and their science and technology support. All these things can help the country.” — TJD, GMA News

Tags: science, mathematics, dost, education