10/23/2019 Teaching science in the Philippines: Why (and how) we can do better - FlipScience - Top Philippine science news

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Teaching science in the Philippines: Why (and how) we can do better

Published on August 3, 2018 by Rafael Ambag

Science has been defined in a plethora of ways since the scientific revolution, dating back to the 17th century. In fact, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2018) hosts a
multitude of its conceived definitions, including “the state of knowing which distinguishes from ignorance,” “a departmentalized and systematized knowledge as an object
of study,” and “a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws as obtained from the scientific method.” It is worth noting that most of
these definitions all emphasize the notion that science is merely equivalent to knowledge, which for a six-year-old kid can just mean a huge depot of facts and trivia.

Science in public schools: a personal experience

How is science education in the Philippines? If you are a part of the majority of the population that went through their elementary education in a public school like me,
you would easily recall the atmosphere of such an Sign up for
environment. FlipScience
Forty to fifty studentsupdates
clustered in adelivered straight
classroom, staying in schoolto your
from 8 aminbox.
to 4 pm, patiently going
through all their subjects in one day. I belonged to the special science class, the top section of the batch as perceived by most teachers. Unlike most of my batchmates who
endured the agony of staying in bland classrooms, my section’s classrooms through the years were actually good. They had science quotes posted on the walls, a solar
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system model attached to the ceiling, diorama projects on different ecosystems, a life-size human skeletal model, shelves of science textbooks, and even laboratory glass
wares donated by alumni.
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All of these things in our classroom created the impression that our science classes were good and fun, but that’s not how it works. For one, our section NEVER used the
glass wares placed in our classrooms. As a child, I really wondered why we never used them. Would it be any better if we just let such resources collect dust on the
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10/23/2019 Teaching science in the Philippines: Why (and how) we can do better - FlipScience - Top Philippine science news and features for the in…
shelves? Our teacher always explained that these items were ‘fragile’ and not suitable for children’s use. I always thought that even the simple lesson of introducing such
glass wares and a demonstration of how they are used would be really exciting; unfortunately, that never happened.

A large chunk of our science classes were not necessarily ‘classes’ – most of them revolved around being the fastest pupil to copy all the words on the board. We did this
two to three times a week, alongside the signature “shh” sounds that the monitor makes in order to prevent the class from being too noisy. Most of our classes involved
group presentations with our ever-reliable Manila paper and black markers. We were given tasks, and we were obligated to present our answers to the class. Experiments
were indeed sporadic, and most of the time, we only had one per quarter. Up to this point, I feel bothered by the fact that I can’t specifically remember any of the
experiments we did.

That is my personal experience as a science class pupil, and I can only wonder how my batchmates from the non-special science class fared. Things changed when I went
to Philippine Science High School for my secondary education, but was that the case for my other batchmates who went to the other public DepEd schools as well?

Lackluster performance
Science education in our country cannot be considered as a strength. Based on results from 2014, the passing rate for the national achievement test (NAT) for grade six
pupils is only 69.21%. The passing rate for high school seems far worse, with a passing rate of only 46.38% from 2010 statistics. Aside from the aforementioned national
examination, the Philippines has exhibited a consistently abysmal performance in international surveys such as Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study
(TIMSS). In 2003, for high school, the country ranked only 34th out of 38 countries in HS II Math, and 43rd out of the 46 participating countries in HS II Science. For
elementary, fourth grade participants ranked 23rd out of the 25 countries in both math and science. Our country stopped participating in the survey in 2008, perhaps after
getting such lackluster scores.

This raises an all-important question: Why is this so?

Shortage of teachers
Numerous factors can be attributed to the current predicament faced by the country. First and foremost would be the shortage of science and math teachers in the country.
In 2016, DepEd secretary Leonor Briones stressed the need to hire more teachers with the implementation of the K to 12 program, which created 36,641 free teaching
posts. The government tried to make ends meet forSign up for
this shortage by FlipScience
having DepEd offerupdates delivered
teaching posts with above straight to your
entry-level salary grades inbox.
to Science and Technology
graduates under the Junior Level Science Scholarships of the Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute. The scholar graduates of the program
would also receive a teacher training program for them to qualify
The best for the Licensure
Pinoy Science news andExamination for Teachers
features coming (LET). Qualifying graduates from the scholarship would be
your way.
given the position of special science teacher with a starting salary grade of 13. DepEd also called for graduates of Science, Math, or Engineering courses without LET
certification, as well TESDA accredited technical-vocational graduates with expertise in specific learning areas, to apply as part-time teachers for the K to 12 Senior High
School Program. juandelacruz@example.com

Shortage of classrooms and laboratories Sign Up

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The shortage of classrooms and lack of science laboratories for DepEd schools is also an issue. With the implementation of the K-12 program, Benjie Valbuena, national
chair of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers-Philippines (ACT-Philippines) estimated the classroom shortage in the country to be 113,995 as of 2017. By June 2017,
Education Undersecretary Jesus Mateo announced that 50,000 of the needed 113,000 classrooms had already been completed and are pending for use. The undersecretary
stressed the objective of the government to create more classrooms “to meet lower class size, which leads to conducive learning.”

Aside from the obvious lack of classrooms, there is also a lack of science laboratories to facilitate science learning and application of its concepts to students. In 2014,
DepEd reported a shortage of science laboratories in regions III, IV-A, X, XI, and XII, with an average of only one in ten schools having its own laboratory. In the
National Capital Region, the ratio improved with three laboratories for every 10 schools; however, the findings showed that the rest of the regions did not have any
science laboratories. This problem prompted researchers from Diliman and Los Banos of the University of the Philippines to develop Versatile Instrumentation System for
Science Education and Research (VISSER). This instrumentation system includes hardware, software, sensors, and experiment modules for various science subjects. The
device’s hardware component includes multi-channel plug and play analog and digital sensors that run on a microcontroller. The microcontroller pools all the information
and connects such hardware to the device’s modules. The modules include experiments in biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering. As of this writing, the lab is being
pilot-tested by the UP National Institute of Physics.

UP associate professor Ranzivelle Marianne L. Roxas-Villanueva presents the VISSER project at

a press briefing. Image credit: Newsbytes.ph

Quality of learning materials

DepEd also faces a challenge in terms of the quality of its textbooks, with many teachers reporting that the books are obsolete and flooded with errors. In Torrijos,
Marinduque, the situation of “sick books” is nothing new. Teachers from that municipality are well-acquainted with the circulation of such textbooks. They even provided
a copy of an English book for children inundated with marks from highlighter pens showing typographical, grammatical, factual, and conceptual errors. Antonio Calipjo
Go, a critic of the circulating DepEd textbooks, was able to identify 1,300 “errors” in a Grade 10 English Learning book. An anonymous teacher also pointed out
numerous errors in her draft copy of the 2014 Grade 9 Science Learner’s material. These errors were already reported in order to improve the final version of the material.

The general perception of science in the Philippines

The aforementioned predicaments of Philippine education severely limit how most the public schools can teach science to their students. The lack of classrooms limits the
conduciveness of lectures to students; public schools that lack classrooms oftentimes compensate by holding classes at their multipurpose gymnasiums, with their
makeshift classrooms separated only by curtains. Students there can hear the chatter all over the place, and end up listening not only to their teacher’s lecture, but also to
the lecture from the adjacent classroom. Textbooks and learning materials are also critical. If they are bland and unengaging, how can one expect students to even flip
through their pages with interest? The lack of laboratories also damages the quality of education, limiting teachers to lectures and reporting activities for students instead
of lab experiments that show how the concepts work in real life. Filipino students are bombarded with theories and terminologies, which are not necessarily the things that
make science exciting. Scientists do not memorize and regurgitate information; they ask questions, predict outcomes, and actually perform experiments.
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With these limitations in science teaching, one cannot help but wonder how our countrymen perceive science. The average Filipino who does not work in a science-related
industry has likely never related the concept to hisThe best
or her Pinoy Science
everyday news
life. The and
word features
‘science’ coming
itself your
seems way.and elusive, only being applied to people who spend most
distant
of their days in the lab or in the classroom. When you hear the word ‘science’, what comes to mind? Probably, it’s a bunch of concepts from biology such as evolution, or
the oft-repeated statement that “the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.” As far as chemistry goes, you might remember mixtures, compounds, and elements. In
juandelacruz@example.com
terms of physics, you would probably just imagine blackboard full of equations and symbols, with Albert Einstein patiently and painstakingly trying to make you
understand them.
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Science at its core

Many would say that science is something that normal people don’t actively engage in. However, in reality, science is a crucial part of our everyday lives. One of the most
well-known promoters of science, Carl Sagan, once said:

“Science is more than a body of knowledge. It’s a way of thinking; a way of skeptically interrogating the universe.”

Notice that in his quote, there is no emphasis on memorizing all the bones in the body, or being adept at solving all the kinematic equations. It simply boils down to
questioning everything around us.

Over the centuries, innumerable discoveries and advances in science came as a result of the scientific method. It is a framework followed by most scientists and
researchers in conducting their investigations and scientific work. Note that I used the term ‘framework’ instead of procedure or steps. This is due to the fact that there
many fields in science, each with their own variation of the method in order to cater their respective needs. Thus, when one hears the term ‘scientific method’, what
should come to mind are only the following: asking questions to explore cause and effect relationships, proper gathering and examining of acquired evidence, and
synthesizing all available information to come up with an answer to the initial question. This is how science worked before, and how it will continue to work in the
foreseeable future. We should erase the notion that treats science just as a body of knowledge, expecting students to only cough up concepts and fancy terms such as
photosynthesis or glycolysis. As Sagan said, it is a way of thinking — and that is how it serves its purpose in nation-building.

A long journey for science in the Philippines

Providing competent science education facilitates students to be curious at a young age and to cultivate their set of beliefs from the answers to their questions. Science
pushes for the concept of objectivity, as opposed to relying solely on emotions that might hinder proper decision-making. Instead of arguing based on gut feel or emotions
alone, we present data and facts, while remaining open-minded about the perspectives of other people. The values of objectivity and open-mindedness, in turn, enable and
encourage people to listen to each other.

With this in mind, the current situation of STEM education in the Philippines proves that we have a long road ahead of us. Nevertheless, this should not stop us from
pausing and admitting that yes, there is a problem that we should work upon. We can still improve our textbooks and learning materials. We can still encourage more
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people to become STEM educators. We can still improve for scores,
our NAT FlipScience updates
and confidently delivered
participate straight
in international to more.
surveys once yourImproving
inbox.science education
will not only allow our country to have citizens who are thinkers first and foremost, but also increase the number of STEM graduates to address the glaring industrial and
agricultural needs that will boost the economic growth of our
The best country.
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The Philippines is still a developing country. It is not a classification that one should be ashamed of. What it is is an indication that that our country experienced massive
setbacks due to colonization, corruption, and the lack of a properly educated voting population. In fact, we are completely capable of achieving the successes experienced
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by countries on the other side of the globe. What we should know is that for us to reach such a goal, we need science. Not just science discussed in textbooks and

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observed in laboratories, but science in everyday life; science that is evident in how we handle all of our tasks and decisions. A strong science education is not an option,
it is a must. We must improve the ways we teach science in the Philippines, if we want to see ourselves moving and thinking forward. –MF

Note: The views expressed in this essay are based on the author’s opinions, experiences, and research, and do not necessarily represent the views of this website.

REFERENCES

Bernardo A, Limjap A, Prudente M, Roleda L. 2008. Students’ Perceptions of Science Classes in the Philippines. Asia Pacific Education Review – ASIA PAC
EDUC REV. 9:285–295. doi:10.1007/BF03026717.
Cruz MJS dela. 2017 Mar 11. Science ed and a thinking society. [accessed 2018 Mar 26]. http://opinion.inquirer.net/102324/science-ed-thinking-society.
Definition of SCIENCE. [accessed 2018a Mar 26]. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/science.
DepEd to hire more Math, Science teachers. 2016a. The Manila Times Online. [accessed 2018 Apr 3]. http://www.manilatimes.net/deped-to-hire-more-math-
science-teachers/286207/.
Dios A de. The National Achievement Test in the Philippines. [accessed 2018 Apr 3]. http://www.philippinesbasiceducation.us/2013/07/the-national-achievement-
test-in.html.
How DepEd plans to address PH classroom shortage. Rappler. [accessed 2018b Apr 3]. http://www.rappler.com//nation/172372-deped-address-ph-classroom-
shortage.
Mundo F del. 2015 Sep 14. A losing battle to improve textbooks. [accessed 2018 Apr 4]. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/721749/a-losing-battle-to-improve-textbooks.
Science education realities. 2014. The Manila Times Online. [accessed 2018 Apr 3]. http://www.manilatimes.net/science-education-realities/100096/.
The Birth of Modern Science. 2016b. The Great Courses Daily. [accessed 2018 Mar 26]. https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/birth-modern-science/.
UP team develops low-cost science lab for public high schools. 2017. Newsbytes Philippines. [accessed 2018 Apr 3]. http://newsbytes.ph/2017/04/02/up-team-
develops-low-cost-science-lab-for-public-high-schools/.
Villar MB. Of aging farmers and food security | BusinessMirror. [accessed 2018 Apr 10]. https://businessmirror.com.ph/of-aging-farmers-and-food-security/.

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Erwin F Corales
Thank you for this article. I made this as a reflection reading for my
BEED students in the course The Teaching of Science in Elementary
Grades.
Like · Reply · 8w

Milano Torres
This article is a good start to undertake the course Teaching Science
in the Elementary!
Lik R l 10

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