JOSEPH CHRISTOPHER G.

MAGBATA
12-BERYLLIUM
1. If we have to improve the country's (Philippines) scientific (and/or
mathematics) literacy, how would science (or mathematics) be taught in
school? Do you think the science (or mathematics) education curriculum
be changed? If so, what reformation should be done? Explain.

To further understand and create a solution on how science and mathematics

should be taught, we need to consider different factors that might affect in students’
learning. According to Mondal (2013), there are seven factors that might affect students’
learning ability. To enumerate, these seven factors are intellectual factor, learning
factor, physical factor, mental factor, emotional and social factors, teacher’s personality
and skills, and environmental factor. To simplify, among the factors, there are only three
factors that might greatly affect student’s learning ability and scientific literacy: learning
factor, teacher’s personality, and environmental factor. It is important to know the
factors for it will help to identify how science and mathematics must be taught in school
in order for student to have a quality education and improve their scientific and
mathematical literacy.

First is learning factor which includes the child’s capacity and willingness to learn.
Some students find mathematics and science boring and difficult to learn. Baez (2007)
stated that the reason why mathematics alone is boring and difficult to understand is
because it doesn’t use strategies that story tellers do. Most commonly other people use
their imagination to improve their willingness to learn and also they understand a lesson
when it is taught to them in a creative manner. Therefore, in order for math and science
to be understood easily, math and science teachers must teach math and science in a
creative and effective way.

In connection with the first factor, environmental factor is the second factor.
Arthur (1999) states that students must learn to do science, rather than just learning
science. His statement is also connected to John Dewey’s “Learning by Doing” theory
which states that a student might able to learn more quickly and effectively by doing a
task related to the lesson. But the problem is science activity can be effectively learn in
science laboratories. But, according to Department of Education (DepEd) data, one out
of 10 public elementary schools in region III, IV-A, X, XI, and XII has a proper science
laboratories. Thus, one thing that might contribute to low scientific literacy of Filipinos is
lack of proper science laboratories and incomplete laboratory equipment and apparatus.
(The Manila Times, 2014). Therefore, government must provide science laboratories
and equipments in each public schools in order for students to learn science effectively.

Lastly, teacher’s personality and way of teaching are important factors. DepEd
Secretary Leonor Briones said that science and math teachers can make difference in
making Science and Mathematics exciting and fun to learn and erasing the notion that
those subjects are boring and difficult to learn (DepEd, 2018). With this statement,
JOSEPH CHRISTOPHER G. MAGBATA
12-BERYLLIUM
teachers must use their full effort to discuss and deliver science and math lessons in a
less boring and less difficult way. If a teacher teaches science and mathematics in a
dully way, students will not fully understood the lesson so they must be scientific and
mathematical literate.

In terms of the curriculum, they must change it in which it is aligned to the two
subjects. For science, the curriculum must not always in memorizing scientific names,
anatomy of humans, the periodic table and formulas yet the curriculum will most likely
composed of laboratory works, science activities, experiments, analyzing scientific data,
and inventing or discovering simple things. For mathematics, lessons and topics are
acceptable but the learning time or duration of teaching one lesson must be change. In
teaching algebra and calculus, they must teach it properly and slowly in order for
students to catch up.

All in all, there are lot of changes and improvements that the government and
schools must prioritize. Our country needs professional scientific and mathematical
literate teachers and proper science laboratories with complete equipments and
apparatus. In learning science and math, curriculum should be modified in order for
students to catch up and learn to do science and math.

2. (a) How would science and technology education help build or develop a
nation?

Roger Bacon, an English Franciscan friar philosopher, scientist and scholar of

the13th century, stated, “Neglect of mathematics works injury to all knowledge, since he
who is ignorant of it cannot know the other sciences or the things of the world" (Fatima,
2013). Technology will not rise without science and mathematics. We will not discover
the anatomy of our body, the life forms on Earth, the astronomical bodies, history of the
universe, microscopic and atomic things, and the phenomena in our world without
science and mathematics. In developed countries, science and mathematics is their
priority in education because they believe that these two is the key for development.
For the development of economy, innovations and gaining information are
significant. Innovation of products needs science and technology for us to discover new
things and improvements. Access to new information is essential so that we are able to
know the latest statistics in our economy. All of this needs science and mathematics for
ongoing development of our nation (U.S. Department of State, 2008).
A more scientific and mathematical literate citizens in a nation might lead to a
better and fast-growing economy. To achieve this, improvement in science and
mathematics education is needed. Government must focus on the improvements of
science laboratories in each school. Teachers must be fully-trained and expert in the
JOSEPH CHRISTOPHER G. MAGBATA
12-BERYLLIUM
two subjects so they can teach science and mathematics effectively to students. Also,
government, especially the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), should
prioritize the scientists and inventors in fully funding their works and studies for it will
help to the improvement of technology that will surely lead to development of our
country.
Science and mathematics are essential in the development of our nation (U.S.
Department of State, 2008). We should focus on the improvement of science and
mathematics education. We must fully support and recognized Filipino scientist and
inventors.

(b) What could be the challenges of science education in the 21st century
and how they should be addressed?

Challenges and possible problems we may encounter are unavoidable. In

science education, our country has a lot of problems that needs to be addressed and to
be solved for we are in the 21st Century in which modernization and globalization is
reigning. According to the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment
(PISA) results, Philippines got the lowest score in reading comprehension and second-
lowest in mathematics and science among 79 countries (San Juan, 2019). This means
that Filipinos need to be more scientific and mathematically literate. But, what are the
hindrances to our goal to improve in science and mathematics?

Lack of proper learning facilities is the first hindrance. In our country, there are
several public schools that don’t have proper classrooms and most likely science and
computer laboratories. Consequently, students cannot properly learn to do science
activities or experiments and cannot operate or use computers. It is important for
student to learn how to use computers because having computer skills is one of the 21 st
Century skills that we must have.

The other one is lack of effective and professional teachers. There are several
teachers in our country yet few are eager to teach effectively science, mathematics, and
technology. DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones said that science and math teachers can
make difference in making Science and Mathematics exciting and fun to learn and
erasing the notion that those subjects are boring and difficult to learn (DepEd, 2018).
Teachers must also be an expertise in teaching and should have 21st Century skills.

With all of these hindrances, the Department of Education (DepEd) launched a

program called “Sulong EduKalidad” to solve the problems in science education. The
program has four key areas that aims to review and update the k to 12 curriculum,
improvisation of learning facilities, upskilling ang reskilling of teachers and school heads
JOSEPH CHRISTOPHER G. MAGBATA
12-BERYLLIUM
by professional development program and collaboration with the stakeholders for
supports (San Juan, 2019).

As time flies, modernization quickly grows. Our country needs to get along with
other developing countries so that we can reach the development we aspire. With the
improvements of our science and technology education, we can also improve our 21 st
century skills.

3. (a) Discuss comprehensively the relevance of studying history and

philosophy of science to education.

Science is not an easy subject and it compose of many sub-sciences including

life science, applied science, political science, computer science, mathematics,
technology and social science. Yet, we ought to know the origin and nature of science
for us to learn more and continue innovating our works and ourselves too. The
relevance of science’s history and philosophy is very significant to learn.
We study the significance of history of science to improve our self (Sarton, 1931).
The history of science does not only give us wisdom and humanism, yet it also helps us
to regulate our consciences. It helps not to be arrogant, not to be too optimistic for
success and teach us to be thankful for the accomplishment of the task we finished
(Maienschein, 2000).
Being efficient is one of history of science’s relevance. According to Mayr (1982),
we are not just learning through our mistakes but we also learn through the mistakes
that other people have done. Knowing the history of different scientist making their
mistakes or failing in their own works gives us confidence to persevere and avoid the
mistakes and failures. Ignoring the history might lead to another and much worse
mistake (Maienschein,2000).
Next is perspective (Mach, 1960). Science’s history and philosophy provides
better perspective and judgement for scientists. As they continue to improve their
perspective, their judgement in their works will become a lot better (Maienschein,2000).
Imagination is the fourth relevance. Imagining the philosophy of science will
make our understanding a much clearer. Also, imagination helps us to be creative and
we can make the best output or product (Wachhorst, 1982). For example, Facebook
creator Mark Zuckerberg only imagines a world where people are connected to each
other which led him to create the popular social media site (Maienschein,2000).
Lastly is the education and public understanding of science. Our world, especially
our country needs to be educated about the nature of science and its content. Though it
is really hard to quickly catch up each topic in this subject, we must slowly understand
how science works in our everyday living (Maienschein,2000).
JOSEPH CHRISTOPHER G. MAGBATA
12-BERYLLIUM
The history and philosophy of science is a very essential topic. We cannot move
forward to innovation and development without knowing science’s origin and nature.
Therefore, we need to study and comprehend the history and philosophy of science.

(b) How could the inclusion of history and philosophy of science in

teaching science help improve society's scientific literacy? Provide specific
examples where such inclusion can improve scientific literacy.

Without knowing the history and philosophy of science, we will not understand
what science really is. Inclusion of science in our education might be a good strategy for
us to become scientific literate. Here are some examples of applying the relevance of
science’s history and philosophy.

Many scientist in the time of scientific revolution fought the church to prove that
the people beliefs were wrong. Nicolaus Copernicus insisted to the people that the
Earth revolves around the sun, not the sun revolves around the Earth. At first, the
church did not believe in him yet after many years scientist had proven that Copernicus
is right in his theory of heliocentric. This is an example of perseverance.

Alexander Fleming, a bacteriologist, accidentally made the penicillin, the world’s

first antibiotics. He was studying the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus when he find out
that his petri dishes were contaminated by a mold called Penicillium notatum. After he
observed the mold, he found out that the mold prevents the bacteria from growing. Later
on, he discovered that the mold can fight infectious diseases and he discovered the
penicillin (Markel, 2013). This is an example of accidental inventions.

According to him in Sir Isaac Newton’s book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia

Mathematica, philosophy of science is hard to understand yet upon understanding it and
discovery of different forces, we can understand also other phenomena. With the help of
the philosophy of science, he was able to use one of his famous strategy in studying his
works, the scientific method. Scientific method helps Newton to discover such as the
Laws of Motion, Universal Law of Gravity, and invented Calculus (Harper, 2013).

With the examples provided, we learn that the discovery and inventions we have
today are product of scientists’ perseverance and optimism. If we include the history of
science and its philosophy in our education, students will eager to learn more about
science and encouraged to do experiments that can lead to new discoveries and
inventions.
JOSEPH CHRISTOPHER G. MAGBATA
12-BERYLLIUM
REFERENCES

Arthur, C. (1999). The Truth Is That Science Is Boring To Schoolchildren. Retrieved

from https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/the-truth-is-that-science-
is-boring-to-schoolchildren-1079925.html

Baez J. (2007). Why Mathematics Is Boring. Retrieved from

https://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2007/04/why_mathematics_is_boring.html

Department of Education (2018). D e p E d , DO S T I n k P a c t T o F u r t h e r S c i e n c e ,

M a t h E d u c a t i o n O f T e a c h e r s , L e a r n e r s . R e t r i e ve d f r o m
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Fatima R. (2013). Role of Mathematics in the Development of Society. Retrieved from

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s-scientific-method-turning-data-into-evidence-about-gravity-and-cosmology/

Maienschein, J. (2000). Why Study History for Science. Retrieved from

https://cbs.asu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/Maienschein%20Why%20Study
%20History%20for%20Science%202000.pdf

Markel, H. (2013). The Real Story Behind Penicillin. Retrieved from

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/the-real-story-behind-the-worlds-first-
antibiotic

Mondal, P. (2013). 7 Important Factors that May Affect the Learning Process. Retrieved
from http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/learning/7-important-factors-that-may-
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S a n J u a n , R . ( 4 D e c e m b e r , 2 0 1 9 ) . DepEd welcomes PISA results, recognizes

'gaps' in education quality. Philstar Global. Retrieved from
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results-recognizes-gaps-education-quality

The Manila Times (28 May, 2014). Science Education Realities. Retrieved from
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realities/100096/
JOSEPH CHRISTOPHER G. MAGBATA
12-BERYLLIUM
United States Department of States (2008). Science and Math Education for
Development. Retrieved from https://2001-
2009.state.gov/g/oes/rls/fs/2008/113650.htm