Teaching Science in the “New Normal”

Gone are the days that teachers only utilize traditional method in teaching such as giving discussions or lectures to learners using chalk and blackboard. Hence, teachers today transform methods of teaching into innovative approach to develop the high order thinking skills of the learners.

Inquiry – based approach in teaching Science allows the learners’question and curiosities to drive curriculum. This method can be applied by collecting data or significant information through the application of the five human senses: (1) seeing; (2) hearing; (3) touching; (4) tasting; and (5) smelling. Utilizing the inquiry teaching gives learning opportunities to learners in asking some questions and make some discoveries on their own capabilities. This teaching practice allows teacher to become the facilitator and learners become the teacher on their own simple way by seeking solutions, designing investigations, and asking new questions.

Today, teachers are dealing with millennial learners who can think and solve a particular problem. Learners’skills in making observations, gathering and analyzing information, synthesizing the data and drawing conclusions are useful in problem – solving. These skills can be applied also in the new normal set up of learning. Learners can use the learned knowledge and skills both at school and at home in dealing with some challenges in everyday living.

With the implementation of inquiry – based approach, teachers allow learners to seek appropriate resolutions to questions and issues. In this method, teachers are not solely responsible in imparting the knowledge and interest to learners. Learners participate in asking questions and also seekers of the answers. Moreover, teachers also determine the learners’prior knowledge and experiences relevant to the topic being presented. With this, the documentation of the learners’progress before and after the assessments will be in charge of the teacher since the teachers are ones who prepare variety of assessments for learners to show what they know.

In this world of information, all resources are available at a remarkable rate. If the learners are not able to learn how to access and process this information, they will be at an incredible disadvantage and will be left behind. Learning with facts is not enough since facts are changing.

Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to encourage learners on searching information in order to solve a certain problem. Learning to process the acquired information is also essential to make meaningful decisions in the future.

--oOo-The author is Teacher III at Guillermo D. Mendoza National High School, Guagua, Pampanga.

For many, Science is tough, laborious, a quite complicated subject. For me, Science is passionately interesting and exciting! Really enlightening, edifying, incredibly relatable to various aspects and facets of life and living. That’s exactly how I want my students to likewise think and feel about Science.

Yes, I am a Science teacher and I’ve been teaching the subject for more than two decades now. Before Covid-19 arrived on the scene, teaching Science was already a formidable challenge to most of us, Science teachers. Even more so this time of pandemic, when classes are held distantly, either thru online or modular distance learning modalities. Science experiments and activities are mostly unimaginable to perform at home without the guidance and assistance of the more experienced Science teachers, where precautionary measures and procedures are thoroughly explained and demo-teachings are performed before the actual execution of the students themselves. There are Science notions that need in-depth, detailed clarifications mainly to some students having a hard time apprehending their lessons.

At any rate, we, as educators, must be relentless and resilient enough to be able to conform and practice the most relevant and suitable methodologies that will help our students learn Science from the comfort of their home, and hopefully love the subject even without the physical presence of the engaging and inspiring Science teacher. Varied modes and innovative teaching approaches are adapted and practiced by the “new normal” Science educators. Lectures and discussions thru different online platforms, either synchronous or asynchronous, are of great help in reaching out to those students who find it hard to assimilate lessons and grasp Science theories rather by themselves. Simple experiments using indigenous, noncorrosive, nontoxic materials, like “kitchen experiments” where most of the materials needed for the experiment can be found in the kitchen or any part of the household is another strategy. Simplified activities which can be done at home where instructions are provided thru printed modular mode of delivery.

I believe our 21st century learners, the millennial students, are very much resourceful and creative, their imaginations are remarkably amazing! And with proper motivation both from us teachers and parents, they could still excel even in this most trying times of learning away from school due to the global pandemic that urged the Philippine educational system to come up with these “new normal” teaching-learning techniques and strategies, particularly in the delivery of Science concepts in its simplest structure yet ultimately significant and most essential learning competencies are achieved.

--oOo-The author is Teacher III at Guillermo D. Mendoza National High School