New Perspectives in Science Education

Situated in the context of the Master’s degree in Teaching Secondary Education, Baccalaureate, Vocational Training and Language Instruction from the University of Málaga, a group of professors responsible for the subject “Teaching Innovation and Educational Research” of the specialities of Mathematics and Geography, History and Philosophy, have coordinated ourselves to devise an interdisciplinary activity divided in two steps: first an observation in a series of public schools of Málaga and second, the design of a small interdisciplinary intervention to carry out in those high schools.

The methodology in which this project is based is the Problem Based Learning (PBL). In the planning of the subjects involved in this project, we considered of vital importance the coordination between these two areas of knowledge. To start promoting this interdisciplinary approach of education, we proposed this problem to the students of these Master’s degrees to introduce them to the investigation and decision making processes that will allow them to construct a meaningful learning as teachers.

With this activity, we expect that these future teachers start:

·         Reflecting on the Mathematics, Geography, History and Philosophy curricula.

·         Understanding of the educative value of the mathematical, geographical, historical and philosophical contents.

·         Understanding the necessity and benefits of a multidisciplinary process of teaching and learning.

This reflective process about the possibilities of the specification of the curricula of History, Geography, Philosophy and Mathematics and the connections between them will allow future teachers develop communicational skills (through different representations, such as verbal, written, audiovisual or digital) that they will apply in their future practice to offer their future students a meaningful social learning.

We believe this is a first step to take in order to change the unfortunate reality that is the Secondary Education with its compartmentalised and hermetic subjects, a vision that is being criticised increasingly from both students and future teachers. We expect to expand this project to more specialities in the following years.

We hope to share this experience and its results with this poster and hopefully get suggestions for the planning and possible modification of these subject’s guidelines.