MEXICO CITY, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- The state-run Mexican Academy of Sciences has been using a teaching method which may probably revolutionize the way that science is taught in the nation, SilviaRomero Hidalgo, coordinator of the program's mathematics segment, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
Science In Your School (LCETE), the brainchild of top Mexican mathematician Carlos Bosch Giral, aims to reach 10,000 teachers in2010, up from around 400 this year, and change their attitude to science as well as open them up to more interactive teaching methods. The course covers biology, physics, chemistry, geography and math, and has a complete module covering verbal and written communication, which is run by philosophers.
"The idea is to show that you can use materials that are within reach and teach in a highly attractive way," Romero explained. "An important part of the program is showing that it can be done with low-cost materials."
The 8-year-old program has already made a massive impact on teachers serving Mexico's rural communities, where teachers receive the least formal training. Romero said the program's emphasis on hands-on investigation with simple materials instead of rote learning of facts or formulae could help teachers of most subjects across Mexico.
Teachers who are taking the LCETE course said it had already revolutionized the way they viewed mathematical formulae, and had generated a great deal of demand among Mexico City teachers who had to fight for a place.
"Reaching rural teachers sometimes means eight hours of travel for the trainers, but it is turning out to be very good for us in terms of results," said Romero, a teacher in the Tlacopac neighborhood in western Mexico City.
In Mexico's rural areas, primary school teaching still takes place in one-room schools. There, a single teacher covers all topics for a group of children ranging from five to eleven years old. The teachers are usually known as a "community instructors" (CIs). Typically, they are high school graduates who do one year of such teaching in exchange for a three-year grant to extend their higher education. Unlike city-based teachers who take the course in compact Saturday morning sessions, CIs have a gruelling once-a-month session of eight hours professional training.
"Children who have had a CI that has been taught by us come out with much better results than their peers in the same state," Romero said. Mexico recently standardized its tests across the nation, and the outstanding achievements of LCETE-graduate teachers have become manifest across the five of 32 states where the program has been implemented.
These successes have already drawn international attention. Education authorities in Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Colombia, Bolivia, Panama and Peru have contacted Bosch seeking cooperation in organizing LCETE-modeled programs.
One strength of the program is that the trainers are mostly active research scientists at upper undergraduate or lower post-graduate levels.
"You build better citizens when you build good teachers," Romero said.
The researchers recruited by the program are passionate about their chosen topics and regard science as something dynamic, rather than a static list of facts.
The 500 lead trainers will act as mentors to 20 teacher students and keep regular and direct contact of up to two hours a day with them, an improvement from teaching methods in the past.
"It is obviously much easier for students to be committed when there is a human contact," Romero concluded.
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