DISCOVERING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Grade 10 Science teachers faced common problem in the lack of retention of students on the basic science knowledge needed for more advanced topic. Insufficiency and retention of prior knowledge from previous science topics may influence student achievement in the succeeding year, and also a relevant issue on the spiral curriculum design in Science. This is an important factor to consider because if there is a conflict in the transition of new concepts and the students' retained knowledge, it may compromise the teaching-learning process at the start of the lesson. It is therefore recommended that it is a must to assess the retention knowledge of students in four different areas of Science gained from grade 7 to 9 to determine the impact of the prior knowledge on the students’ achievement in Grade 10 topics.

Crafting instructional activities such as concept mapping, multiple choice assessments, homework activities, and brainstorming have been widely used in order to uncover the actual knowledge of the learners. Science modules contain pre-assessment tools which are given before starting a new topic. However, the modules do not contain intervention if the result of the assessment fails to meet the teachers’ expectation.

Assessing the retention knowledge of students will pave way for the development of strategies that will improve the conceptualization of learners on each subject topic. Therefore, teachers must come up with pre-lesson tool in eliciting basic knowledge as interventions for the higher level of understanding.

--oOo— The author is SST II Sta. Maria High School, Macabebe