Integration: An approach to Science in primary schooling

Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 2, Issue 1, Article 10 (Jun., 2001)
Peter J FENSHAM
Integration: An approach to Science in primary schooling

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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND : MID 1990s - on
- New opportunities for integration
The current reinforcement of language and number literacies as the priorities in the primary years of schooling suggest that, if science is to be other than marginal in the primary learners' experience, it should seek alliance with these two dominant areas of the curriculum. Teaching science in integrated ways that emphasise its roles in both language literacy and number literacy are strategies that seems much more likely to be much more fruitful than maintaining its earlier alliances with social studies and technology.
Can an educational case be made for these two integrations, with language and number?

To answer this question we will find that it is necessary to face again two questions:
What does learning Science mean?, and

More particularly, what are the goals of Scientific Literacy in primary schooling.

Fortunately for the purpose of exploring integration as an approach to teaching primary science, we do not have to pioneer the opening of these two questions, because they are currently being debated in many national and international fora.