Case studies on the curriculum and pedagogy in chemistry and science education in Syria today

Abstract

Abstarct This dissertation intended to analyze the nature of the science teaching in Syria with a special emphasis on chemistry education (Chapter 1). It was operated through a triangle-based study of the intended curriculum, teachersa and studentsa views. The 10th grade Syrian intended chemistry curriculum has been analyzed as a case based on an analysis of the official grade-10 chemistry school textbook in comparison to six other chemistry textbooks from a purposeful sample of Arab countries, namely Algeria, Egypt, Kuwait, Palestine, Jordan and Saudi-Arabia. These countries are economically, societally, cultural and geographically diverse, but they all are part of the Arab world and use Arabic as a common language (Chapter 2). The second part of this study analyzed teachersa views on chemistry and physics teaching based on interviews. Instances of the interviews were the use of ICT, laboratory work, including the history of science in teaching, and the teachersa view on the national curriculum (Chapter 3). In a third step, grade-10 science studentsa attitudes and views towards science education were surveyed by interviews with respect to their possibilities for participation in the science classroom, practical work, out-of-school science education, and their current views on potential careers in science and technology (Chapter 4).