Enacting the 3rd Cycle Science Education Curriculum in Timor-Leste

Abstract

In 2010-11 Timor-Leste's Ministry of Education introduced a new curriculum model described as an "integrated curriculum" called 3rd Cycle Science Education Curriculum for pre-secondary students (Grade 7 to Grade 9). An underpinning concept within the science curriculum was the goal of scientific literacy that provided a focus for the integration of the subject domains that were previously taught separately by specialist teachers. Adopting this curriculum was seen by Timorese educational officials and educators as a strategy to advance the development of this country and its young learners. It was also hoped that increasing the scientific literacy of Timorese society would enable them to respond to the challenges of integrating into the regional and global economy of the 21st century. In the context of Timor-Leste, this is a significant vision considering how it has just become independent and is doing its best to stand on its own as a modern nation. Hence the focus of this research was to investigate how this new curriculum has been enacted in Timor-Leste schools, drawing on the voices of the Ministry of Education, educationalists involved in professional development and teachers of this 3rd Cycle Science Education Curriculum. This study used an interpretivist qualitative approach that involved 45 3rd cycle science teachers from three municipalities in Timor-Leste: Dili, Baukau, and Likisa, three Ministry of Education officials, two educationalists, and three student teachers. Data were collected from multiple sources such as focus group discussions, individual interviews, and documentary analysis. Content and thematic analysis were used to analyse the data. The overall findings of the study suggest that there were misalignments between the vision of the 3rd Cycle Science Education Curriculum that had been developed by outsiders and how it was interpreted by both educational officials, educationalists and science educators. Consequently, this lack of understanding influenced this curriculum enactment for both educational officials and teachers alike. Fundamental to not realising scientific literacy was these teachers' reliance on a pedagogy that was behaviourist, with transmission of knowledge reinforced by in-service teacher professional development as well as the national assessment system. Even though these Timor-Leste teachers had a strong belief that they needed more resources and knowledge development to improve their pedagogical content knowing, these findings showed that rather than giving priority to knowledge development they need to develop an understanding of constructivist learning linked to pedagogy. It is suggested that a constructivist pedagogy will provide teachers with the skills to progress towards integrated contextualised learning.