One of the aims of Department of Education is to produce competent graduates who can follow the trends of globalization and modernization of 21st century. The Science curriculum is designed around the three domains of learning science: understanding and applying scientific knowledge in local setting as well as global context whenever possible, performing scientific processes and skills, and developing and demonstrating scientific attitudes and values. The acquisition of these domains is facilitated using different approaches in teaching science.
MULTI-INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH
Teachers require an interdisciplinary perspective in combination with their main discipline to provide them with the broad perspective required for becoming an effective teacher and being prepared for the varied and transitional nature of teaching. Teachers must prepare varied activities as much as possible they have to integrate technology.
SCIENCE-TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY (STS) APPROACH
Teaching is not always an easy time to try out radically new instructional approaches due to many constraints teachers face. Teachers should let the students explore in the environment or in the community like for example giving an assignment to his/her students by means of observation and conducts an interview to the people in the community which is related to the lesson.
CONTEXTUAL LEARNING
Hutson (2006) said that Contextual learning is defined as a way to introduce content using a variety of active learning techniques, designed to help students conduct what they already know to what they are expected to learn and to construct new knowledge from the analysis and synthesis of this learning process. Different strategies and motivations that will arouse the interest of the students must be prepared by the teacher. From there, teachers may catch the attention of his/her students then introduce the topic or the lesson. The students may also learn the content through an activity so that they are the ones who will discover what the lesson all about is.
PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING
The researchers who have adopted the PBL approach and have applied it to various disciplines have realized that PBL has important cognitive learning outcomes such as course achievement, retention, problem solving skills, learning strategies, approaches to learning (Berkel and Dolmans, 2006; Chin and Chia, 2004). In teaching Science the teacher gives problems to the students and solves it scientifically by using the scientific method. In doing so, students can find better solution to the problem which later can be applicable in decision making in life.
INQUIRY-BASED APPROACH
It is a process through which scientists and mathematicians attempt to find answers to questions through observation, exploration, and/or experimentation. In science classroom most of the lessons required to have an experiment wherein the students can make their own observation. The experiment is important so that students can have a deeper understanding about the lesson and at the same time the application of the lesson.
The above –cited approaches can help the science teachers in teaching science to his/her students especially on this new curriculum that we have. In addition to that we can produce students who are more creative and critical thinker.
By: Marilou J. Tañada | Head Teacher III | Bataan National High School
