Short-term Course on Inquiry-based Activities for Elementary School Science Teaching

Teachers from the Division of Caloocan City headed by Dr. Arturo Tolentino (EPS for Science, 7^th from left)
and Dr. Aileen Canoy (PSDS, 5^th from left) with Dr. Aida Yap, Dr. Erlina Ronda, and the ESS training team.

The Elementary School Science Workgroup conducted a seminar-workshop titled “Short– term course on Inquiry-based Activities for Elementary School Science Teachers” held at the Elementary School Science Laboratory of UP NISMED last 24-26 April 2019. A total of 25 Grade 5 and Grade 6 Science teachers from the Division of Caloocan City participated in the three-day event. The training program aimed to improve the teachers’ content knowledge on selected concepts in the physical and life sciences, and develop their understanding of inquiry as a pedagogical tool. The course started with the introduction of inquiry as a pedagogical tool in teaching science. In the succeeding sessions, the features of inquiry were applied in the modelling of the teaching-learning processes on specific Grade 5 and Grade 6 topics namely, respiratory system, reproductive system, electric circuits, energy transformation, mixtures, and the concept of burning. Content knowledge on these topics were assessed by pretest and posttest administration while teachers’ understanding of inquiry was assessed by their ability to identify the features of inquiry that were incorporated in the lesson. 

Participants to this seminar were teachers of schools under the DepEd Caloocan City Division who had not attended a training course in the last five years. Dr. Arturo Tolentino, Education Program Supervisor for Science, and Dr. Aileen Canoy, Public School District Supervisor, facilitated the selection of teacher-participants for this training. The seminar-workshop is a registered professional development program under the Professional Regulation Commission with accreditation number 2017-040-1544. The teachers earned 15 CPD units for their participation.

UP NISMED and Caloocan City Division would like to thank Smart Communications, Unilab Foundation, and J. Amado Araneta Foundation for funding the conduct of the seminar-workshop.

by R. Tan