Republic of the Philippines

Nueva Vizcaya State University

Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya

College of Teacher Education

Graduate Program
Name: MELINDA C. GARPIDA
Subject: Philo 512 (Philosophical and Scientific Basis of Trends and
Research in Science Education)
Professor: DR. MARCELINO T. RAZALAN
Semester: 2nd Semester, 2016-2017

Current Trends in Science Education in the Philippines

INTRODUCTION
Science is important to everyone. School science education should
support the development of scientific literacy in all students as well as
motivate them to pursue careers in science, technology, and engineering.
Science is useful because of its links to technology and industry, which,
from a national perspective, are areas of high priority for development. It
provides ways of making sense of the world systematically. It develops
students’ scientific inquiry skills, values and attitudes, such as objectivity,
curiosity, and honesty and habits of mind including critical thinking.
TRENDS
1. Curriculum
2. Student achievement in Science and Mathematics
3. Career in Science and Math
4. School Science equipment
5. Teachers preparation in scientific disciplines
6. Research in Science Education
1. Curriculum
In 2013, Republic Act No. 10533 or the Enhanced Basic Education Act
(EBEA) was signed into law by President Benigno Aquino III. Its guiding
principle is to make Filipino graduates “globally competitive” to serve the
needs of a “globalized environment.” It provided the basis for lengthening
the basic education program from 10 years to 12 years.
A. Reforms in EBEA
 the spiral progression approach
 putting up career tracks as part of the senior high school including
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Strand
of the Academic Track, and Technical-Vocational Track,
B. The Science Curriculum
 It aims to develop scientific literacy among learners that will prepare
them to be informed and participative citizens who are able to make

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 judgments and decisions regarding applications of scientific knowledge
that may have social, health, or environmental impacts.
 It envisions the development of scientifically, technologically, and
environmentally literate and productive members of society who are
critical problem solvers, responsible stewards of nature, innovative and
creative citizens, informed decision makers, and effective communicators.
 It integrates science and technology in the social, economic, personal
and ethical aspects of life.
 It promotes a strong link between science and technology, including
indigenous technology, thus preserving our country’s cultural heritage.
 As a whole, the K to 12 science curriculum is learner-centered and
inquiry-based, emphasizing the use of evidence in constructing
explanations. Concepts and skills in Life Sciences, Physics, Chemistry, and
Earth Sciences are presented with increasing levels of complexity from
one grade level to another in spiral progression, thus paving the way to a
deeper understanding of core concepts. The integration across science
topics and other disciplines will lead to a meaningful understanding of
concepts and its application to real-life situations.

Senior High School Science Curriculum

Core Subjects (for all tracks)
-Physical Science and Earth and Life Science
-Gen. Math and Statistics and Probability
Specialized Subjects (STEM Strand)
-Gen. Chem 1 and 2
-Gen. Bio 1 and 2
-Gen. Physics 1 and 2
-Pre- Calculus and Calculus

2. Students Achievement in Science and Math

World Economic Forum’s Global Competitive Index data showed
that Philippines ranked 96th (out of 144 countries) for the year 2013 and
ranked 70th for the year 2014 in terms of quality of Science and Math
education.
The Math and Science scores/ranks in the Trends in International
Mathematics And Science Study (TIMSS) of selected countries revealed that
among the 45 countries that participated in the TIMSS for eighth-grade
students, the Philippines ranked 41st in Math and 42nd in Science.
Among 25 countries that joined the study among fourth-grade
students, we ranked 23rd in both Math and Science, again with scores more
than 200 points lower than the first ranked Singapore.

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 In 2008, even with only the science high schools participating in
the Advanced Mathematics category (TIMSS, 2008) the Philippines ranked
lowest among 10 countries. Based on the results of the 2012 National
Achievement Test. In the science part of the exam 41.58% of examinees
scored below average and 49.95% of scored average

3. Career in Science and Math

The low achievement in basic science and math education translates to
low number of enrollees in these disciplines. According to the data of the
Commission on Higher Education (CHED), only 0.49% of the total enrollees
from 2001-2012 entered mathematics-related programs while only 0.97%
were enticed to pursue courses in natural science.

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4. School Science Equipment
Classrooms are scarce, but the situation for science laboratories is even
worse. The Department of Education reports a serious lack of science
laboratories in both elementary and high schools all over the country.
According to DepEd data, in regions III, IV-A, X, XI, and XII, only one
school has a science laboratory out of every 10 public elementary schools.
In the National Capital region, this ratio is 3 laboratories for every 10
elementary schools. The public elementary schools in the other regions
don’t have any science laboratory to facilitate science learning.
Preliminary results from a survey done by Raymond Pingol from the
VISSER project show that only around 20% of high schools have
laboratories with non-traditional “modern” equipment. Unfortunately, these
“modern” equipment are typically no more than the combination of a
computer and an LCD projector.

5. Teachers Preparation in the Science Discipline

There is only a small fraction of teachers in high school that qualified and
capable to teach Physics, Chemistry, Biology and mathematics. Although
these numbers have increased for public schools due to scholarship efforts
of the DOST-SEI, there is still a need to have programs for the continuing
professional development such as training programs and conferences.
On the part of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST),
science education is given more emphasis especially on the tertiary and
post-graduate levels. Among the programs and interventions being
undertaken by the DOST include developing S&T human resources,
teachers’ capability, ICT infrastructure, and promoting S&T awareness and
consciousness. It also has the GrEAT-M project or the Grants for
Educational Assistance on Technology Course for Muslim students. It also
has the Mindanao Upgrading in Science and Technology (MUST) project
that aims to improve the competence and capabilities of elementary and
secondary science and math teachers in Mindanao.
Data in the last 3 decades show that although the country’s number of
researchers has been increasing, properly published papers per PhD even
decreased; indeed, the national output hardly increased. A lot of the
research funds went to unpublished or poorly published researchers who
produced unpublished or poorly published papers (without adequate per
review) — in short, gray literature. Gray literature is not taken seriously,
and it doesn’t count in international evaluations of research performance.
According to the UNESCO Science Report of 2010 on the Philippines, there
were only 81 researchers in research and development per million people in
2009. Without our industries, science and engineering graduates will not
even be able find suitable engineering and science work in the country.

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Thus, they are rarely allowed to contribute to the industrialization of the
country.
SUMMARY
1. Curriculum- the K to 12 science curriculum is learner-centered and
inquiry-based, emphasizing the use of evidence in constructing
explanations. Concepts and skills in Life Sciences, Physics, Chemistry, and
Earth Sciences are presented with increasing levels of complexity from one
grade level to another in spiral progression.
-Senior HS- STEM TRACK and Core Subjects in Science and Mathematics
2. Students Achievement in Science and Math
 Lags behind compared to other southeast asian nations.
 The national achievement test results reflect the poor achievement of
grade 6 and grade 10 students in science and mathematics
 Among the five tested subject areas in NAT, Math ranked 5 th and
Science ranked 4th
3. Career in Science and Math
According to the data of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED),
only 0.49% of the total enrollees from 2001-2012 entered mathematics-
related programs while only 0.97% were enticed to pursue courses in
natural science. There is a need to increase the number of students who
will pursue careers in sciences and mathematics
4. Science Laboratory and Equipment
The Department of Education reports a serious lack of science laboratories
in both elementary and high schools all over the country.
5. Teachers Preparation in the Science Discipline
A small fraction of teachers in high school are qualified and capable to
teach Physics, Chemistry, Biology and mathematics. Although these
numbers have increased for public schools due to scholarship efforts of the
DOST-SEI, there is still a need to have programs for the continuing
professional development such as training programs and conferences.

According to former Science Undersecretary Fortunato T. Dela Peña,

“Science education has always played an important role in the development
of a country.  It has been instrumental in imparting the ‘hard’ skills and
knowledge to students to enable them to contribute to nation building.  
For many years now, science education has been helping the Philippines
develop a workforce to support the needs of industries, services,
agriculture, the academe and government.  It has also been instrumental in
coming up with technological innovations useful in many application areas.”

Basic Problems and Issues of Science Education in the Philippines

INTRODUCTION

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 According to former Education Secretary Jesli A. Lapus, “Science
and Technology are integral to our capacity  -as individuals and as one
nation- to move ahead in this fast-paced technology-based world. They are,
without doubt, integral to our daily lives.” Philippine education in general
has historically been problematic with science and mathematics education
even more weak. In view of this, the Aquino administration pushed for a
complete overhaul of the education system by adding two years in basic
education, apparently as a solution to its recurring troubles.
The government claims that the K-12 program will remedy our
education system’s deteriorating situation, especially in the field of science
and technology. An investigation of the past educational system however
reveals that the problem is deeper, symptomatic of institutional maladies
and involving many sectors of society. By not directly addressing these root
causes, K-12 will only aggravate rather solve the deterioration of our
educational system.

Basic Problems and Issues

The poor state of our science and math education as a whole can be
attributed to the following problems and issues
 inadequate science curriculum which does not promote a strong
science culture;
 shortcomings in teachers’ competency in Science, Math and Research
 shortages in basic education facilities, particularly science
laboratories and equipment.
1. Inadequate science curriculum and weak promotion of a strong
science culture
One of the fundamental objectives of ensuring scientific literacy
(and thus science education) in a country is to produce citizens capable of
adapting to a variety of situations and solving problems through scientific
thinking. Basic science education comes down to instilling into students the
ability to think and view the universe objectively and systematically. Even at
the early stages of education, curiosity and systematic exploration of the
environment should be encouraged.
Before the implementation of the K-12 program, the Philippines
used the 2002 Basic Education Curriculum and the 2010 Secondary Education
Curriculum (SEC). Our student’s lack luster performance in past international
science and math tests shows that there is a problem with our education
system. A number of studies document that the BEC and SEC are partly to
blame.
A report prepared by Carlo Magno (2011) for AUSAID concludes
that the SEC, “lacks opportunities to use science skills to support learners to
solve problems, question, critique, analyze, and evaluate scientific claims.” It
noted several instances in the secondary level science curriculum where
certain topics were given unnecessary attention

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 A discussion paper published by the Philippine Institute for
Development Studies (2005) remarks that the BEC is overcrowded in subjects
and insensitive to the varied ethnic backgrounds of the students. This leads
many students to lose focus and resort to memorization in order to pass.
Clearly an overhaul of the BEC and SEC is needed, but the spiral
curriculum system spread over multiple years that the government is
proposing might do more harm than good. The rationale behind this is that
students can be taught a simple concept at the beginning, with the complexity
of the topics increasing year after year. A short review or revisit of previous
topics helps student recall and prepares them for the more complex lessons to
come.
A 2005 study comparing the (old) Philippine and Japanese
educational systems commented that “the use of science practical works is
highly emphasized in the Japan science curriculum while the Philippine
science curriculum emphasizes health education and Filipino values.”
The topic and concepts of K-12’s spiral curriculum have also not
been divided in order of increasing complexity. Many of the topics are related
to each to other horizontally. For example, in the subject Parts and functions
of animal and plants, the different organ systems, the Digestive, Respiratory,
Excretory Systems are studied in Grade 8 while the circulatory,
nervous, and endocrine systems are studied in the higher years when
knowledge on one organ system is not a prerequisite for learning other
organ systems.

2. Shortcomings in teachers' competency on science and math

 A CHED research on the competence of pre-service science teachers (PT)
from four Teacher Education Institution (TEI) showed worrying results.
Chemistry pre-service teachers scored low in their understanding of the
foundational concepts of chemistry, especially with regards to the atomic and
molecular nature of matter.
 Biology PT’s fared a little better, with more than half of test subjects showing
an understanding of biological processes (e.g. how the food we eat is
transformed into muscular energy).
 For physics PT’s the assessment revealed a lack of analytical skills, showing an
inability to apply, synthesize, and evaluate different physics concepts together.
 The results of the Licensure Exam for Teachers (LET) confirms the CHED
study, revealing that the problem persists throughout the country and across
other teacher specializations and subjects. From the August 2014 LET, only
35.74% of elementary school teacher examinees passed. Performance for
secondary school teacher examinees is almost the same, with only 34.4%
passing.
 CHED Memorandum Order No. 32 (2010) which placed a nationwide
moratorium on the opening of teacher education courses for the school year
2011-2012. The memorandum cited the proliferation of substandard teacher

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 schools which, “if allowed to continue unabated would result to the
deterioration of the quality of graduates.”
 In 2012, the administration of the Test of English Proficiency for Teachers
(TEPT) and Process Skills Test (PST) in Science and Mathematics to all
permanent Grade I and II public school teachers was issued through DepED
Memorandum No. 12, S. 2012.
 The Process Skills Test (PST) in Science and Mathematics is a 40-item multiple
choice test to be taken for an hour. It is comprised of processing skills such as
observing; classifying; inferring; predicting; measuring/quantifying;
communicating; interpreting data; analyzing data; evaluating; experimenting;
making conclusions; making models; and defining operationally.
 The Teachers’ Mean Performance in the PST in all regions, is low with only
26% - 50% proficiency level. The results of the 117,728 examinees show that
62% of the teachers have poor process skills which they used predominantly
in teaching science and mathematics.
 Even if the problem of math and science education has already been
identified, there has not been a substantial government intervention through
trainings and programs that addressed the problem.

Shortcomings in teachers' competency on science, math and research

 National Science Consortium, which has been put up by the country’s seven
top universities and the Science Education Institute of the Department of
Science and Technology (DOST). Its objectives are (1) enhance the capability
of the higher education system by producing technically competent PhD and
MS graduates and (2) address the lack of Filipino researchers to enable our
country to compete economically with its neighbors
 The DOST launched the Science and Technology Master Plan in 1990-2000. Its
R&D budget had increased yearly in 1991-1995, a four-fold growth from P800
million to over P3 billion. In 1992-1998, it implemented the Engineering and
Science Education Project (ESEP). This was to upgrade engineering and
science through PhD and MS scholarships. “If one surveys local universities
today, one will find that many of the leaders were ESEP graduates.
 Yet with all the money, effort, and years spent in those programs, the
country’s S&T hardly improved. The research output remained the same from
1981 to 1995. And the total of Philippine publications in leading journals even
decreased in 2000 to 2005 — from a mere 185 down to 178, reported by the
study of publications in Asia; China, South Korea, Singapore, and Thailand
with about two-fold increase in publications during the same period.
 The Consortium cites UNESCO figures showing the Philippines with 7,500
researchers in 2009 against Singapore’s 28,000. Last 2010, at the international
conference in Japan on teaching and research activities, a report on scientific
publications of 10 Asian countries showed the Philippines with the least
published papers. The Philippines had only 178 valid publications in 2005,
whereas tiny Singapore had 3,609, or 20 times more. Since Singapore’s

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 28,000 researchers were 4 times that of the Philippines’ 7,500, and
Singapore’s research output was 3,609 against our 178, then Singapore
researchers were 5 times more productive than their Philippine counterparts.
 The programs have failed because unpublished and poorly published officials
and faculty members have relied on personal judgment, when they evaluate
research proposals and publications, screen faculty applicants, and select
candidates for promotions, recognitions, and awards

3. Shortages in science laboratories and other facilities

 Although the DepED claims that the K-12 curriculum is centered on an inquiry-
based approach, present material realities could render any reform ineffective.
Data from the Department of Education reveals a serious lack of science
laboratories. Only 4.8% of all public elementary schools have their own
science lab. Regional variations reflect the uneven development between city
and province. In NCR, roughly 42% of elementary schools have a science lab
compared to a measly 2.3% for ARMM. Secondary schools fare better, with
around 50% of secondary public schools nationwide having their own science
lab.
 A separate statistic from DOST-SEI director Ester Ogena reveals that on
average, a science lab in the Philippines is shared by 1,325 students. In order
for learners to keep pace with today’s lightning advances in science and
technology, they must have access to quality equipment and facilities. The
shortage in science laboratories and other facilities are a result of lack of
adequate national budget for education.
 The 2015 National Expenditure Program increased the DepEd budget by
12.5% to P339.3 billion. Budgetary increments can be traced to the a much
higher budget for operations, with significant increments going to the
following expenditure items: (1) operations of schools, P15.4 billion; (2)
provision of learning resources (e.g., textbooks, science and math equipment,
DepEd computerization program), P7.7 billion; and (3) provision and
maintenance of basic education facilities, P8.2 billion.
SUMMARY
In sum, the Philippines should radically reform its approaches in solving
problems to ensure the achievement of its objectives. It is not about the
advancement of science just for science’s sake. Rather, it is about advancing
science in the context of a desire to improve the human condition. This entails
attention to the processes by which understandings from the natural sciences,
the social sciences, and engineering influence—or fail to influence—public policy
(S&T for sustainable well-being). The Philippines will then have a chance of
catching up with its more progressive neighboring countries in science,
education, and national progress. There is No shortcut to progress.

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