The Science Curriculum in Primary and Lower Secondary Grades
Summaries of the most widely used science curricula in private schools in Dubai are as follows:
- Curriculum for United Kingdom schools―In Grade 4 (Key Stage 2), students do the following: learn about a wide range of living things, materials, and phenomena; begin to make connections among ideas and to explain things using simple models and themes; apply their knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas to familiar phenomena, everyday things, and personal health; conduct investigations working alone and with others; and begin to use a range of reference sources in their work. The study of science at the secondary level (Key Stage 3), which includes Grade 8, engages learners at many levels, linking direct practical experience with scientific ideas. Experimentation and modeling are used to develop and evaluate explanations, encouraging critical and creative thought. Students learn to question and discuss issues that may affect their own lives, the direction of society, and the future of the world.13
- Curriculum for International Baccalaureate schools―Students taking the TIMSS assessment are in the Primary Years Program (Grade 4) and Middle Years Program (Grade 8). In the Primary Years Program, science is taught in an interdisciplinary program with mathematics, not as a separate subject. Eighth grade students usually take a combined science and mathematics course. Inquiry, problem solving, and the application of science are strongly emphasized, as well as the acquisition of scientific knowledge. The International Baccalaureate program expects that students will have opportunities to act as scientists rather than learn about science. As a consequence, students might be less familiar with a large body of factual content knowledge, but skilled in the process of scientific inquiry.
- Curriculum for United States schools―Similar to the mathematics context, most US schools in Dubai adopt a set of curriculum standards for science relevant to a specific state, and adapt these to meet the needs of their students.
- Curriculum for Indian schools (Central Board of Secondary Education and Indian Certificate of Secondary Education)―Science plays an important role and is seen as developing students’ cognitive, affective, and psychomotor abilities. Emphasis is placed on cultivating a spirit of inquiry, creativity, objectivity, and aesthetic sensibility. In the upper primary stage, students engage with the processes of science to develop such skills as observing, recording, drawing, tabulating, plotting graphs, etc. By Grade 8, abstraction and quantitative reasoning occupy a more central place in the teaching and learning of science. At this stage, while science is still an integrated subject for all students, the separate disciplines of physics, chemistry, and biology begin to emerge. Also, formative and summative assessments include a practical element.