Bringing a paradigm shift in teaching science and mathematics

KUALA LUMPUR: The Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE) module is among the approach taken to help boost interests in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects among students in the country.

The IBSE module developed by the International Science, Technology and Innovation Centre (ISTIC) under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation is a step in the right direction and it envisions a paradigm shift in the teaching and learning of science.

Professor Yang Farina Abdul Aziz of Academy Sciences of Malaysia (ASM) underscored that the module advocates shifting the role of teachers from instructors to facilitators in raising students' curiosity, creativity and reasoning by including them in the investigative and discovery process through experimentation.

"The approach stressed on the involvement of active learners in the learning process by tapping into the curious nature of children, encouraging them to identify problems, find possible explanations or solutions, build hypotheses that need to be tested, design solutions, conduct investigations, validate the hypotheses that have been made, and structure the knowledge to answer the questions that arise and compare them with proven facts," explained Yang Farina.

The method was based on the “La main a la pate” or "hands on" approach founded by the French Academy of Sciences in 1996.

"Basically it is about having very simple experiments that the teachers can do in the classroom, using simple ingredients. So this is where teachers can make an impact, because seeing is believing.

"Science is not about thing that you cannot see, students get interested with things that they can see and when they are interested they will start asking questions, this is how we create interest in them," she said.

In effort to disseminate the knowledge, ASM in partnership with ExxonMobil had organised a three-day workshop for teachers from all over the country, held concurrent with the National Science Challenge (NSC) from July- August 2017.

The effort is seen crucial in fulfilling the country's aim of 60:40 ratio of science's stream students to non-science students as Malaysia looks toward achieving a STEM-driven economy by TN50.