Journal of Basic Education

Abstract

It was pin-pointed in the Hong Kong Education Commission Report No. 4 (1990) that the problems affecting students who can benefit from the common core curriculum is the wide range of discrete subjects offered, and this results in fragmentation and compartmentalization of the curriculum (p.13). The suggestion to resolve the problem was the integration of the three formerly separately taught subjects, Primary Science, Health Education and Social Studies into a new core subject, General Studies. However, the attempt to integrate Primary Science into the General Studies Curriculum encountered quite a number of difficulties and problems, especially in the teaching of science-related topics. This study aims to identify teachers' problems in teaching science topics in General Studies. More than 300 primary school teachers participated in a survey. Items in the questionnaire concerned with teachers' perceived problems on subject knowledge, science teaching resources, lesson preparation and teaching in class. The statistical analysis included mean calculation and ANOVA to compare responses from teachers who vaied in their own experience of science and science education. The findings drew our attention to the four broad issues concerning teachers' problems in teaching science: teachers' insufficient subject knowledge in science; the lack of science teaching resources and teaching aids to support primary science teaching; inadequate experience in conducting class activities and science experiments; and the difficulties in hadnling pupils' leaerning of science. With the view that young children should begin to develop scientific literacy in the primary school years, teachers' problem in teaching science would not only influence the quality of teaching and leaerning of General Studies, it would also affect the scientific literacy of Hong Kong primary school pupils and hinder the development of pupils' thinking. All in all this would have negative impact in preparing pupils to face the scientific and technological way of living in the 21^st century.

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