PETALING JAYA: An educationist has called for the education ministry to reimagine the teaching of science and mathematics in schools to reignite passion in these two subjects.
Yunus Yasin, president of the Association of Science Technology and Innovation (Asti), said these subjects must be presented to schoolchildren as gateways to attaining knowledge and a better understanding of all that is happening around them.
“Science and mathematics are an exploration,” he said, adding that students must be taught to explore nature as part of their learning experience.
An engineer by profession, Yunus said the interest of students in these subjects will grow when their exploration leads them to the discovery of formulas and concepts that form part of their learning.
Yunus’ comments followed a warning by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim last month that students’ interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) was waning.
Educationists have attributed the disinterest to a perception that the subjects were too difficult.
Yunus said more effort needs to go into changing the way these subjects are taught in school.
Yunus, who frequently organises science fairs and innovation competitions in schools, says the best way to teach STEM is to ensure students know the purpose of learning these subjects.
“We need to teach the context of each topic in relation to nature, and how to derive these formulas and concepts from their own observation,” he said.
He added that feedback received from teachers was that school syllabuses were too packed, resulting in there being insufficient time for conducting experiments with their students.
Yunus said the syllabuses for these subjects were too broad in scope and ought to be narrowed down in favour of more depth in teaching the core topics of each subject.
He said students need time to understand what they are being taught, which can only happen through the conduct of experiments.
“To observe, you need to do experiments, not read slides,” he said.
He also urged the media to introduce more science-based TV shows for children, adding that shows can air on TV as well as on social media.
“We don’t have any locally produced documentary channels. We should produce shows like those seen on BBC Earth and ‘Bill Nye the Science Guy’ from the US to create awareness and develop children’s scientific thinking,” he said.
Yunus advised parents to be positive and encourage their children to pick up science and mathematics.
“You don’t have to be a scientist to encourage your children, you just need to have a positive mindset towards learning science and mathematics,” he said. - FMT
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