Philippine Biology Education for a Curricular Innovation towards Industrial Revolution 4.0: A Mixed Method

Abstract

No curriculum exists in isolation, i.e. each curriculum is designed to be an input to another output. The interplay of curricula in the trifocal system of education in the Philippines only becomes ideal when alignment is checked at crucial checkpoints including the most recent checkpoint – the implementation of the K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum. One field that changed is Science Education. This study, an excerpt, aimed to innovate on the Senior HS Biology curricula by integrating Industrial Revolution 4.0 Skills to help prepare them to college course, especially in Fishery Education. Using mixed-method approaches, the study found evidence that Fishery Education students consider the Senior HS Biology curricula topics as ‘Useful’ in their Program courses and are mostly under Biochemistry, Cell Biology, Genetics, Evolution and Biodiversity, and that, 2 years after their K to 12 graduation, they consider themselves to still ‘have knowledge’ on these Biology topics. Further, content analysis assessment of experts showed that, aside from these topics, Cytology and Cytogenetics and a little of Taxonomy have been considered as preparatory for advanced higher Fishery Education. Furthermore, focus group discussion revealed that IR 4.0 skills could be integrated along the Senior HS Biology topics, and results reported that ‘cognitive flexibility’ as a skill is the most considered for topical integration. Recommendations include generating a framework to trace which Senior HS Biology topics are most and least needed in the Fishery Education checklist by the Philippine Commission on Higher Education to conduct deeper curriculum alignment assessment.