Study Conducted On Science
Education in Guanacaste
(InfoWebPress) – A state project for enhancing science education
based on exploration of knowledge has entered its second phase. The
project previously conducted a diagnosis during 2008 at 16 schools
in Guanacaste and San Jose — which allowed to collect information
about what teachers are currently doing to teach science and the
strategy the Ministry of Education (MEP) must employ to train and
support them.
MEP, in alliance with the government-backed Century XXI Strategy and
the National Academy of Sciences, officially kicked off the
project’s second phase last Feb. 17.
The initiative began in 2007 and so far has included an exchange of
experiences with France, Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Panama, through
which Costa Rican education officials learned about programs such as
“La main à la pâte” and “Hands-on.” Thanks to inter-institutional
support, MEP has gone into a process of research and diagnosis that
would result in the eventual application of the science education
project for grades 1-6. In a conceptual state at this point,
officials hope the project will become a reality by incorporating it
into current science curricula.
The project is part of MEP’s quality of education critical focus,
which the ministry has been developing during the Arias
administration with the goal of strengthening the quality and
relevance of the country’s public education so that students acquire
and grow knowledge and also attain the sensitivity and competencies
necessary to have useful and fulfilling lives.
Dr. Gabriel Macaya Trejos, president of the National Academy of
Sciences and former rector of the University of Costa Rica (UCR), is
convinced that science education plays a key role in forming
intelligent, proactive and wholesome citizens.
Macaya’s proposal is to take science to citizens so that they can
have better tools, opportunities and skills for communication and
culture — and so that the visions and capabilities of individuals
can be transformed, favoring a better social and natural
environment.
As Macaya understands it, science is not a collection of facts, but
a toolbox of values, attitudes and practices. Scientific formation
also includes, he said, the ability to communicate knowledge and
acquire new skills to inform and form ourselves critically.
Meanwhile, Education Minister Leonardo Garnier said that the science
education based on the exploration of knowledge project is an
important part of his office’s plans to improve educational quality
because it seeks a type of learning that is more compatible with the
needs of children and youths outside of the classroom.
“Teachers should be comfortable teaching their students biology by
getting them near it, that is, going to a tree, touching plants or
recreating in a museum the stories that have constituted what we are
today,” Garnier explained.
“Adequate scientific formation should allow citizens to understand
problems as critical as global warming or demographic changes,
improving energy efficiency, increasing agricultural productivity,
the elimination of diseases through prevention, or the protection of
natural resources — all topics that concern the planet’s sustainable
development challenges,” Macaya added.
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