International Seminar on Best Practices in Science and Mathematics Teaching and Learning
From APEC HRDWG Wiki
This Education Network project in Mathematics Education was a follow-up to the seminars on Best Practices and Innovations in the Teaching and Learning of Science and Mathematics at the Primary Level, held in Malaysia in 2003, on Best Practices and Innovations in the Teaching and Learning of Science and Mathematics at the Secondary Level, held in Malaysia in 2004, and the NIER Regional Workshop on “Enhancing the Quality of Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific” in 2003. All these seminars aimed to respond to the challenge laid down by APEID to identify innovative teaching and learning strategies for capacity building in science and technology education while taking account of the fact that traditional teaching methods that encourage rote learning.
Resources from the seminar:
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The National Institute for Educational Policy Research (NIER) of Japan decided to organize an International Seminar on Best Practices in Science and Mathematics Teaching and Learning from 14 to 18 November 2005 as a contribution to the work of the Education Network of APEC in collaboration with the UNESCO Asia Pacific Regional Bureau for Education in Bangkok, Asia and Pacific Programme of Educational Innovation for Development (APEID), UNESCO Bangkok. | |
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Setting the direction of the seminar, Ms. Molly Lee, Coordinator, Asia Pacific Programme of Educational Innovation for Development (APEID), UNESCO Bangkok spoke on “Experiences and Research Evidence of Best Practices in Science Education.” | |
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A document summarizing the presentations at the seminar, as well as the discussion sessions. | |
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List of Participants | |
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Agenda and Schedule of Work | |
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Text of the Keynote Presentation by Molly N. N. Lee, Ph.D., APEID Coordinator, UNESCO Bangkok | |
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Annex 4 - Papers from Economies |
In addition to information specific to the economy, each of the following papers includes descriptions of the economies' programs involving these Seminar themes:
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Australia’s practices described in this report show several education initiatives, including how student teachers investigate children’s understanding of science, how to improve pre-service training of primary and secondary science teachers, and partnerships between universities and local schools to enhance educational effectiveness. | |
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The programs outlined in this report highlight the trend in Canadian education toward practical applications of knowledge. This includes using real-life problem solving and applications of learning to the work environment, employing thematic teaching in response to the problems of human and national needs, and integrative training to enhance the role and effectiveness of Canadian teachers. | |
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This report outlines Chile's educational system in recent years and its relatively low scores on the TIMSS evaluation. This is explained in part by the lack of confidence mathematics teachers have in themselves and their training experience. A proposed solution, communal workshops, are based on a principle of improvement and cooperation of people with similar characteristics where team work and interchange of experience is the basis for a good performance. The idea of these workshops is to have an instance of reflection, discussion and interchange of experience. The main objective pursued in every session is that teachers complement their mathematics learning, and with that conceptual support, they are enabled to reflect about their teaching practices and check their teaching knowledge expecting to achieve good-quality learning with their students. | |
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To overcome problems in mathematics and science education, Indonesia implemented the Project for Development of Mathematics and Science Teaching for Primary and Secondary Education (IMSTEP) from October 1998 until September 2003 with support from the government of Japan. The two-year follow-up program of IMSTEP has been implemented since October 2003 for preparing the dissemination of the project outcomes. The overall goal is to improve students’ scientific thinking and experimental skills as well as their understanding of science and mathematics in lower secondary education in Indonesia through institutionalizing and disseminating outputs of the Project. The purposes of the Project are: (1) The quality of in-service training in science and mathematics education will be improved by the institutionalized participation of university. (2) Education to prospective teachers in science and mathematics at the three universities (UPI, UNY, and UM) will be improved. | |
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The introduction to this report states, “Intellectual creativity is one of Japan’s most precious resources.” For the Japanese nation, an extremely important item on the national agenda is how to cultivate public interest, especially among the younger generation, in science and technology, and how to build up a wide range of human resources for science and technology in the future. The foundation of science and technology is composed of science and technology education. The achievements of Japanese students in the international surveys were ranked in the top group. But “the drift away from science and technology” is one important issue with regard to re-evaluation of how science and technology education has been carried on in Japan. | |
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This report mentions that the Republic of Korea has welcomed the fact that their students have consistently performed well in recent international studies of science and mathematics achievements. It posits the notion that quality teaching tends to be “inherited” and that Korean students, taught by competent teachers, acquire competence in science and mathematics. A possible explanation may be the cultural values underlying many East Asian countries – those of Confucianism – including a strong emphasis on the importance of education, high expectation for students to achieve, attribution of achievement more to effort than to innate ability, a serious attitude towards study, and the ideal of a scholar teacher. The report then shares exemplars of practice that have proven to work well in Korea and might assist other economies to improve their own education and teaching systems. The report also notes several reasons why the teaching profession is highly strived for in Korea. | |
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Noting that the role of teachers in Malaysia is essentially the same as in other economies, that of an “enabler” of learning via a systematic process within the classroom, this report recommends a redefinition of their role to meet the rapid changes in pedagogy and the requirements that come with the development of globalization. The teachers’ role has taken a new dimension with the incorporation of the research element, vis-a-vis the inculcation of action research among classroom teachers in Malaysian schools. The report describes several programs initiated by the Ministry of Education to inculcate a culture of research, such as eliciting papers from experts on the role and character of Malaysian teachers and strengthening in-service training. | |
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Mexico has embarked on a project that entails a wide and integral review of the objective, process, tools, structure and organization of the education in Mexico. This is necessary in order to form an education system according with the new conditions and national aspirations that privilege learning and knowledge. It demands the systematic participation of the individuals, groups, organizations and sectors of the country to guarantee its continuity and the engagement with it. To advance the national education system from the prevailing situation to that described is not simple and cannot be done in a short time. An involved federal administration is not enough – sustainable effort from all society is necessary. The changes must be progressive and firm, based on work plans that engage all the government levels and all the actors in the system; that is to say, with programs that involve the whole population. To initiate this process is the main objective of the governmental action defined in this plan. | |
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Introduces the context of teachers and teacher education in New Zealand, including the various training programs and degrees earned by those seeking to become primary and secondary teachers. The introduction describes the in-service teacher development programs funded by the Ministry of Education as part of the Literacy and Numeracy Strategy, which is evidence-based and aims to improve educational attainment. It also describes how mathematics and science are incorporated into the National Curriculum and ongoing attempts to revise these standards, and how mathematics and science teachers are specially trained in their fields. | |
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The introduction states that the decade of the 1990’s was one of great change and expansion in Peru’s school system, dedicated to improving access for all children to schools and education. While access to education did indeed improve during this time, the quality of education overall suffered, to the extent that in the year 2004, Peru’s education system was declared in emergency status. The National Emergency Programme of Education is reformulating the approaches in Mathematics and in Communication curricula. New strategies have been proposed in many different areas of the Ministry of Education. | |
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Teacher training in the Philippines has always been a challenge for any training provider. The number of teachers alone is a very fundamental factor, and the Department of Education (DepEd) has to employ numerous training schemes to maximize the provision of training programs to the greatest number of teachers possible each year. Aside from the concern of numbers, it is also a fact that a good number of teachers teaching science and math are not majors of the subject they are teaching. This predicament was addressed by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in cooperation with the DepEd years back when it implemented project RISE (Rescue Initiative for Science Education) to enhance the subject content mastery of science teachers who are non-majors. The project was implemented through | |
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In this article, we would like to report the new curriculum for primary school and secondary school in Chinese Taipei. In this new curriculum, which started from fall of 2005, one of the subjects undergoing a big change is Mathematics. For the past ten years, from 1996 to 2005, they have employed the so-called “Constructive Mathematics” as the teaching method at each level of school. Based on the philosophy of mathematical constructivism, this teaching method theoretically has certain advantage if compared to the traditional one. After 9 years’ experiment, it was found that the result was not as good as expected. Chinese Taipei has seen the overall computational skill of students become much lower than before. Because of the poor performance of students, from time to time, the constructive mathematics has been seriously criticized by parents. Due to the pressure from the general public, the Government recently re-evaluated the teaching of constructive mathematics, and started a new curriculum for mathematics. | |
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The mission of the Faculty of Science, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand, not only produce graduates student with knowledge and virtue but also contribute to society through the dissemination of current scientific knowledge. One of the above-mentioned activities is to strengthen both teachers and students from some selected schools in the southern part of Thailand for their science and mathematics capability. The Faculty works in co-operation with the Ministry of Science and Technology of Thailand (MOST) and the Institute of Promoting Science and Mathematics of Thailand (IPST) for financial support. The main objectives of the project are as follows:
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The best practices described here are derived from a series of curriculum supplements created as a the result of a collaboration between government scientists employed at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the instructional materials development experts at BSCS (Biological Sciences Curriculum Study), and classroom teachers from around the nation. Printed copies of these curriculum supplements are sent free-of-charge to any science teacher in the U.S.A. Teachers from other nations who are interested in these instructional materials are allowed to download PDF copies of the supplements. The NIH Curriculum Supplements are teacher’s guides to two weeks of classroom lessons that explore the science behind health topics. Each supplement contains all of the background readings and scientific information needed for teachers to teach the module. Optional online activities complement the “paper & pencil” lessons. While we believe that the online activities enhance the student experience, the supplements have been designed to be usable even in schools with no access to technology. More information about the NIH Curriculum Supplement Series can be found at http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements. | |
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The introduction to this report notes that education is a top national priority in Viet Nam, but that many teachers are trained through different and occasionally asynchronous programs. This leaves many dissimilarities throughout the economy in respect to the skills, capabilities, and effect of teachers. In Tran Hung Dao High School in Hanoi, the author had a chance to successfully apply the policies of the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), and after two years, the school evolved from a low quality high school to a high quality high school in teaching and learning. This significant achievement obtained by the application of ICT in teaching and learning has greatly increased the teaching and learning qualities and brought Tran Hung Dao High-School (THDHS) to a bright point in the educating field of Hanoi. This report introduces MOET’s experimental practices that have brought about the progress at THDHS in improving teaching and learning skills in Science and Math: | |
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The author writes about the role of the National Institute for Science and Mathematics Education Development, University of the Philippines (UP NISMED), in implementing projects and programs that reflect this philosophy: “learners learn most effectively from experiences that are engaging, meaningful, challenging and relevant and from teachers who facilitate construction of knowledge from such experiences.” A new feature of this philosophy has come about through the concept of practical work approach (PWA) in teaching science and mathematics. PWA involves manipulation of objects and ideas that lead to conceptual understanding of different situations and phenomena. It helps in developing thinking and work skills that learners need to use in solving problems and making decisions in real life. PWA is often equated with hands-on, minds-on and hearts-on oriented activities or those that developed higher order thinking skills using a variety of individual and small group activities. It the Philippine school setting, PWA involves the use of improvised equipment and easily available materials as well as the environment as a learning resource. The report goes on to describe the role of PWA in teacher training, how PWA is done in the classroom, and a sample training plan. | |
