04 July 2015
Academics and educators have come out strongly to voice the opinion that while topics taught in school must be made simple so that children can understand basic concepts, teachers need to give pupils room to discover more complex concepts later on. If not, misunderstandings and myths can persist well into adulthood.
How science is taught in Singapore schools has come under fire in recent months, with parents complaining that their children are taught to memorise answers, and are penalised unfairly for answers that do not contain the right “keywords”.
Dr Ling Shuo-Chien, an assistant professor at the department of physiology at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, said that scientific inquiry could be taught through processes like observing and coming to conclusions.