CXC Integrated Science - To integrate or not to integrate?

Abstract

This study examines the advantages and disadvantages of the Caribbean Integrated Science Curriculum (CISC), with special reference to student and teacher attitudes to science education and student performance in science in Antigua and Barbuda. Non-integration is preferred because: 1) many of the new teaching methods of integrated science can be incorporated into the traditional science course, 2) there is insufficient evidence of three-subject integration in CISC to necessitate the development of a new course, 3) the high conceptual demand of CISC means that it will cater for only about the top 20 percent of the student population, and 4) few competent teachers exist. It recommends (a) complete revision of the chemistry, biology, and physics syllabuses; (b) that compulsory science education for the first three years in all schools should take the form of an integrated science course; and (c) that every effort should be made to explore the most effective methods of school-based assessment in the separate sciences