SCIENCE

FRAMEWORK FOR
PHILIPPINE BASIC
EDUCATION
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 INTRODUCTION
 Science is important to everyone. School science education should
support the development of scientific literacy in all students as
well as motivate them to pursue careers in science, technology,
and engineering.
 These statements were drawn from a series of consultation
meetings and focus group discussions with different sectors of
society held in 2006: industry, university, scientists, parents,
teachers, school administrators, community leaders, media,
students, and many others.
 IMPORTANCE OF THE SCHOOL
SCIENCE EDUCATION
 Science is useful because of its links to technology and industry,
which, from a national perspective, are areas of high priority for
development.
 Science provides ways of making sense of the world systematically.
 It develops students’ scientific inquiry skills, values and attitudes,
such as objectivity, curiosity, and honesty and habits of mind including
critical thinking. All these are useful to the individual student for his
own personal development, future career, and life in general.
 These skills, values, attitudes, and dispositions are likewise useful to
student belongs to, and are further useful to the country that the
community that an individual lives in.
 IMPORTANCE OF THE SCHOOL
SCIENCE EDUCATION
 The learning of science is also important for the nation’s
cultural development and preservation of its cultural
identity.
 Science is most useful to a nation when it is utilized to solve
its own problems and challenges, keeping a nation's cultural
uniqueness and peculiarities intact.
 Thus in many countries, science teaching and learning is
linked with culture.
 CHALLENGES IN SCIENCE
EDUCATION: PHILIPPINES CONTEXT

Some Filipino students have gained recognition

for their high level of accomplishments in the
International Science and Engineering Fair,
Robotics Competition, and Physics Olympiad

Students in far-flung rural schools scoring much higher

than the international mean in the case of the
Third/Trends in International Mathematics and Science
Study (TIMSS) or have gone beyond the 75% mastery
level in the case of the National Achievement Test
(NAT).
 CHALLENGES IN SCIENCE
EDUCATION: PHILIPPINES CONTEXT
Grade 6 and fourth year
Filipino students have: students in selected schools:
-low retention of concepts -cannot apply concepts to
-have limited reasoning and real-life problem solving • UP NISMED has three
analytical skills situations major functions:
-poor communication skills -cannot design an 1. curriculum development
(UP NISMED, 2004) investigation to solve a 2. training in Sci & Math
problem (UP NISMED, 2005). 3. research in Sci & Math

Purpose: To focus its efforts

on the science curriculum to
improve the quality of
education at the elementary
Consistently poor performance and secondary school levels.
of Filipino students in
international assessment studies
and national assessment studies
 FACTORS BEHIND THE LOW
PERFORMANCE IN SCIENCE OF
FILIPINO STUDENTS
Quality of Teachers

The Teaching-learning Process

The School Curriculum

Instructional Materials

Administrative Support
 Science is for
School science should everyone.
recognize that science Science is both
and technology reflect, content and
influence, and shape our
culture process.

The Guiding
Principles Of School science
School science should Science should emphasize
promote the strong link Curriculum depth rather
between science and
Framework breadth.
technology, including
indigenous technology

School science should School science should

demonstrate a nurture interest in
commitment to the Science learning.
development of a should be
culture of science.
relevant and
useful.
THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF SCIENCE
CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK
1. Science is for everyone.

• This principle recognizes the proactive relationship between science and

society. This means putting science into the service of individuals and
society. Science education should aim for scientific literacy that is
operational in understanding oneself, common human welfare, social,
and civic affairs.
2. Science is both content and process.

• Science content and science process are intertwined. The value of science
processes is to advance content or the body of knowledge. Without
content, students will have difficulty utilizing the science process skills.
Science processes cannot exist in a vacuum. They are learned in context.

3. School science should emphasize depth rather breadth.

• School science should highlight coherence rather than fragmentation, and

use of evidence in constructing explanation.
THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF SCIENCE
CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK
4. School science should be relevant and useful.

• To be relevant and useful, the teaching of science should be organized around

situations, problems or projects that engage the students both as an individual
and a member of a team.

5. School science should nurture interest in learning.

• Students are generally interested in problems that puzzle them. They

have a natural urge to find solutions.
• Organizing the curriculum around problems or phenomena that
puzzle students helps motivate them to learn.

6. School science should demonstrate a commitment to the

development of a culture of science.

• A culture of science is characterized by excellence, integrity, hard

work, and discipline.
THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF SCIENCE
CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK

School science should promote the strong link

between science and technology, including
indigenous technology.

School science should recognize that science and

technology reflect, influence, and shape our
culture.

• The science curriculum should recognize the place of science

and technology in everyday human affairs. It should integrate
science and technology in the civic, personal, social,
economic, and the values and ethical aspects of life.
WHAT IS IN THE FRAMEWORK?
 The curriculum framework is the overall structure for
organizing learning and teaching.
 It ensures that learning experiences provided to students are
commensurate with their abilities at different stages and
with their ways of perceiving and learning about the world.
 The framework is NOT the curriculum itself. Rather, it is a
skeleton that provides the basis for a strong, organized, and
cohesive curriculum.
 WHAT IS IN THE
FRAMEWORK?
 It is not a syllabus, but a framework.
 According to Bybee (1990), “a framework is like the broad
sketches of an architect’s plan. The framework gives an
initial picture of the program and is based on certain
specifications. The architect’s plan has to fulfill certain
requirements. At the same time, the more specific details are
left to the contractors and the carpenters. Everyone knows
there will be modifications as the framework is developed
and implemented, but there should be some fidelity to the
original intentions, specifications, and design.”
 WHAT IS IN THE FRAMEWORK?
Being interrelated, these
(1) inquiry skills
components are woven
together in order to
support the holistic
development of a
Three Interlocking scientifically literate
Components individual!

(3) content and (2) scientific

connections attitudes

Purpose:

To provide a structure around which educators, curriculum developers, textbook

writers, and teachers can develop instructional materials incorporating coherent
learning activities and experiences that prepare students to become scientifically
literate in a dynamic, rapidly changing, and increasingly technological society.
SCIENCE CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK
(BASIC EDUCATION)
 SCIENCE CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK
(BASIC EDUCATION)

G1-10 approach adopted by It encourages a It addresses the need to

the Framework provides a developmental and develop students’
picture of the total span of integrated approach to understanding of the big
the basic education of curriculum planning, ideas of science over the
students. teaching, and learning. years.

It enables students to
progress smoothly through It provides the basis for
the grade levels and avoids continuity and
the major disjunctions consistency in the
between stages of students’ basic education.
schooling.
 SCIENCE CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK
(BASIC EDUCATION)

The latter is in keeping with the

maintaining good
health and living pervasive trend in science education
safely where the focus of the curriculum is
from content-focused science to one
that prepares students for better
understanding and use of science in
their everyday life (Fensham, 2006).

Three
Overarching
Themes

utilizing energy and

conserving and coping with changes
protecting the
environment
CURRICULUM COMPONENTS
Inquiry Skills

CURRICULUM
COMPONENTS

Content and Scientific

Connections Attitudes
COMPONENT 1: INQUIRY
SKILLS
 Science is a way of thinking about and investigating the world
in which we live.
 This component addresses those skills scientists use to
discover and explain physical phenomena.
Skills Activities
• asking questions about the Scientific investigations
world
FIELD WORK
• designing and conducting
investigations EXPERIMENT
• employing different S Project Work
strategies to obtain DEBATES
information group discussion
• communicating results
 COMPONENT 1: INQUIRY
SKILLS
Other Inquiry Skills Students Should Develop
• identifying and controlling • They should develop skills to
variables
design and conduct
• collect and organize data investigations addressing self-,
• formulate explanations or as well as teacher-generated
models questions.
• analyzing and evaluating • A person should not accept
information, procedures, and every piece of information
claim offered to him as true without
some analysis.
• make decisions based on sound
judgment and logical reasoning • People have to decide on many
things in the course of a single
day.
• These inquiry skills are summarized in the following chart.
 COMPONENT 2: SCIENTIFIC
ATTITUDES
 Scientific attitudes –These refer to values and habits of mind which
are especially important in science and are necessary if students are
to become lifelong learners and productive citizens.
 How they are important?
1. Critical Thinking
2. Curiosity
3. Creativity
4. Intellectual Honesty
5. Accuracy
6. Objectivity
7. Active Listening
8. Assuming Responsibility
9. Taking Initiative
10. Perseverance
COMPONENT 2: SCIENTIFIC
ATTITUDES
Development of inquiry skills contribute towards development of critical
a. Critical thinking in learners. Critical thinking skills are developed through inquiry
Thinking activities that students engage in and through their attempts to explain the
outcomes of their investigations using evidence and logical argument.

School should be a place where students are encouraged to be curious.

A curious person is someone who desires to know or to learn. One
b. Curiosity must also possess an active desire to explore and tinker, to investigate
and learn from the results.

Many people think that creativity resides only in artists. But anyone
can be creative, no matter which field he is in, so long as he is able to
c. Creativity use his imagination. A creative person is someone who is always
trying to cook up something new or different.
 COMPONENT 2: SCIENTIFIC
ATTITUDES
d. Intellectual Being honest means being truthful. Thus, being intellectually honest means not
copying someone else’s work and claiming it to be one’s own. It means recording
Honesty each and every observation and not selecting only those that support one’s
hypothesis.

If the students are careless in their measurements and sloppy in their

e. Accuracy recordkeeping, then the results of their inquiry may not be reliable.

An objective person is able to deal with facts or conditions as they are,

without being swayed by his personal feelings, prejudices, and
f. Objectivity expectations. An objective person always validates observations and
explanations.
 COMPONENT 2: SCIENTIFIC
ATTITUDES
An independent thinker is one who tries to answer questions on his
g. Independent own, using his own observations and experiences. He does not
Thinking simply accept the ideas and opinions of others. He looks for relevant
data and information and then makes up his own mind.

Participating in discussions with other people is one way of learning new things.
h. Active But in a discussion people are often interested only in expressing their own
Listening views, neglecting to give the other person the chance to be heard and understood.

In a team, everyone has an important role to play. Each member is

i. Assuming required to perform a certain task. A responsible person will not
Responsibility simply accomplish what he is assigned to do. He will carry it out to
the best of his ability.
 COMPONENT 2: SCIENTIFIC
ATTITUDES
A person with initiative is a source of delight to his fellow workers.
j. Taking When he sees something that needs to be done, he does not go and look
Initiative for someone to do it. He simply goes ahead and does it himself, without
being told. He does not wait for orders, memos, or requests.

A person who perseveres is someone who persists despite difficulties,

k. Perseverance
who keeps on trying in the face of failures, who carries on regardless
of disappointments.
COMPONENT 3: CONTENT AND
CONNECTIONS
 In this Framework, there are three content areas covered: (1) Life
Science; (2) Physical Science; and (3) Earth and Space Science.
 This framework does NOT spell out all of the science content that
can be included in a school science curriculum. Rather, it is
organized around core or big ideas, which are broad, important
understandings that students should understand and retain long after
they have completed their basic education.
 These big ideas link seemingly different, isolated and unrelated facts
and phenomena to a coherent whole. They help unify the curriculum
to avoid a loosely connected array of topic-driven lesson.
COMPONENT 3: CONTENT AND
CONNECTIONS
 In this Framework, the term enduring understandings is used
to refer to these big ideas.
 These enduring understandings have the following
characteristics:
a) enduring value beyond the classroom;
b) reside at the heart of the discipline;
c) require uncoverage of abstract ideas;
d) and offer the potential for engaging students (Wiggins and
McTighe, 2005).
COMPONENT 3: CONTENT AND
CONNECTIONS
COMPONENT 3: CONTENT AND
CONNECTIONS
 These are followed by related essential questions which are
listed after the enduring understandings.
 Wiggins and McTighe (2005) give four different but
overlapping meanings which characterize essential questions:
1) important questions that recur throughout our lives;
2) point to the core of big ideas in a subject and to the frontiers of
technical knowledge;
3) help students effectively inquire and make sense of important
but complicated ideas, knowledge, and know-how; and
4) will most engage a specific and diverse set of learners
COMPONENT 3: CONTENT AND
CONNECTIONS
COMPONENT 3: CONTENT AND
CONNECTIONS
 The focus questions are more specific to the concepts that will
eventually lead the students to grasp the big ideas.
COMPONENT 3: CONTENT AND
CONNECTIONS
 The science ideas for each content area include the fundamental concepts
in the discipline that have not changed over time and are similar to
concepts found in the basic education science curricula in different
countries.
COMPONENT 3: CONTENT AND
CONNECTIONS
 The sample learners’ performance is a statement that describes an activity,
skill, and outcome which students are expected to do and carry out.
 These will demonstrate their understanding of the concept and their ability
to apply the science ideas in various contexts.
COMPONENT 3: CONTENT AND
CONNECTIONS
 The application of knowledge and skills may start with familiar contexts.
 It is important that students participate in activities and experiences that
enable them to build accurate and powerful conceptual connections.
COMPONENT 3: CONTENT AND
CONNECTIONS
 In this Framework, students are introduced to numerous real-life
applications of science concepts.
 Embedding these concepts in the context of students’ daily life helps them
develop a more coherent understanding of the concept or process they are
learning.
 Without such connections students are likely to view science ideas as
unrelated and discrete instead of unifying and holistic.
END..

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