Teachers want change in science syllabus

The science syllabus should focus on current issues, its content reduced and emphasis placed on problem solving and reasoning rather than memory work, the Maltese Association of Science Educators (Mase) has recommended.

Measures also need to be taken to change the prevailing student perception that sciences are boring and difficult, the association stressed.

The organisation, made up of volunteers, produced the recommendations after analysing the results of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (Timss) 2007, an international study released at the end of last year.

The Timss study, which looked into the performance of Grade 4 and 8 students in mathematics and science in 59 countries, highlighted a need to review science education as Maltese Form 3 students ranked 30th out of 49 countries in sciences.

The Timss report allocated results according to a scientific scale from one to 1,000 with the scale average marked at 500.

In the area of science, where Malta scored 457 points, the top three achieving countries were Asian: Singapore (567), Chinese Taipei (561) and Japan (554) and the bottom three Ghana (303), Qatar (319) and Botswana (355). Malta was followed by Turkey (454), Syria (452) and Cyprus (452).

A closer look at Maltese students' performance indicates that 21 per cent were high flyers, 27 per cent were average and the majority, 52 per cent, performed poorly.

While Maltese students valued the importance of science, many struggled to find the subject enjoyable.

In its independent research, the association found that students who performed the best in sciences: spoke English at home; had parents with higher level of education; had access to computers and books at home; attended school regularly; and their teachers showed higher levels of job satisfaction.

The association also found that students attending schools with fewer economically-disadvantaged peers performed better than those who had a large number of socially-disadvantaged class mates. Given these findings, the association made a number of recommendations to policy makers aimed at improving students' performance in the sciences.

Recommendations included providing support to students by giving particular attention to low achievers (that made up 52 per cent of the students in the study), supporting economically-disadvantaged students and improving the monitoring of absenteeism.

Another set of recommendations was directed at supporting teachers by improving their working conditions, ensuring their salaries attracted them to the job and providing them with opportunities for professional development.

The association also recommended changes to the curriculum by revising teaching practices to make sciences more hands-on and relevant to students, teaching sciences in primary schools as a core subject, explore the possibility of having an integration of the three science subjects throughout secondary school to avoid fragmentation and focusing on improving the level of English by teaching it at an early age.

The Mase report can be viewed on www.masemalta.com.