Author: Claudia Rose, born in Mexico City D.F., Mexico, studied Veterinary Medicine at the University of Chile in Santiago. After working for 10 years as a veterinarian in a government laboratory animal facility, she made a career change towards teaching in 1997, and earned a M.A. in Integrative Education at TIES (The Institute for Educational Studies), associated with Vermont College. She has been teaching at the International School Nido de Aguilas in Santiago, Chile for the past 8 years. She is currently coordinator of the International Baccalaureate Program.
The educational system in Chile has recently undergone significant and ambitious
reform, leading towards administrative decentralization and the implementation
of a national standards-based curriculum developed during the 1990s through the
cooperative effort of many educators throughout Chile. Historically, the Ministry of Education
played a central role in Chilean education, defining everything from the
specific curricula for each level to the number of hours assigned to each topic
in every subject. Although the
Ministry of Education has kept a regulatory role, as of 1990, schools by law
have the freedom to prepare their own plans and study programs, as long as they
demonstrate that these comply with the fundamental objectives and minimum
contents established for each grade level by the Ministry.
The
Chilean Constitution of 1980 guarantees education, and municipal public schools
must provide free education to all students. Ninety-two percent of all students
enrolled attend either municipal schools or strongly subsidized private
schools, while the remainder attends private schools fully financed by parents.
Enrollment is considered to be good, as 98 percent of all children 6-13 years
of age, and 85.9% of adolescents 14-17 attend school regularly. Students first attend an obligatory,
common 8-year Elementary program (Educación Básica), and then attend a 4-year
high school (Educación Media). These students are tracked either into high
schools oriented towards the humanities and science, which are attended by most
college-bound students, or into technical high schools where students also
learn a trade and tend to enter the work force directly, although they retain
the possibility of applying to college.
The
science curriculum stresses the understanding of the natural world as well as
the understanding of the nature of science and its relationship to society, and
emphasizes the use of inquiry and hands-on activities to develop knowledge.
Many topics are covered from a systems approach, and stress the need for
understanding environmental issues.
The curriculum is of a spiral nature, as topics are covered repeatedly
in increasing depth and complexity.
During
the first four years of elementary school, science education forms part of a
wider curricular unit, “Understanding the Natural, Social and Cultural
Environment”, which leads children to explore the natural world through diverse
activities. Between grades 5 and
8, science education is considered a separate curricular unit during which
students study and gain further understanding of the workings of nature while
touching topics from the various disciplines of science.
Between
grades 9 –12 (“Primero medio” to “cuarto medio”), students cover topics in
biology, chemistry and physics each year. The new standards are academically
demanding, but content is presented within the context of Chile’s culture and
economy. Societal and environmental issues have a major role in the standards,
and the nature of scientific enterprise is also emphasized throughout all
topics, as attaining a high level of scientific literacy is one of the main
objectives of the reform to science curricula.
The
implementation of the new curricula for science and all other subjects has led
to a number of other changes in Chile’s educational system. The lengthening of
the school day from a half-day to a full-day schedule is still underway
throughout the country, as funds are made available for the construction of
more schools to accommodate the doubled load of students. Teachers will require
support in terms of training and materials to carry out inquiry and hands-on
activities, and work hours and pay scales will also need to be worked out. The
college-entry testing system is also being modified to reflect the changes in
curriculum, creating considerable controversy among all sectors involved. In
this sense, the main concern is equity, and the fear is that the new curricula
and college-entry testing will tip the scales in favor of those few who can pay
for private schools, where the cost of implementation is not a problem. At
present, the majority of those who enter college belong to the 8% of the
students who attend private schools. The challenge, then, is implementation in
that majority of schools where resources are scarce, teachers are poorly paid
and students unmotivated by the bleakness of their academic future.
Note: Please visit the companion website for
tables showing the Chile Science Standards, grades 5-8 and 9-12.