By Aideloje Ojo
Minna
Lack of timely reforms of outdated Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards ( BMAS) by the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) has continued to pose danger to pre- service science teachers education in the country.
A lecturer with the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University Lapai, Professor Mohammed Tajordeen Mustapha stated this in his inaugural lecture delivered at the University main campus at the weekend.
He called on the NUC and other teachers educators to redefine the objectives and contents of teacher education generally and science teacher education in particular to include emerging issues of local and global significance that will offer pre-service teachers the opportunity to develop global competence and perspectives.
He said, ” NUC should ensure timely review of the Core Corriculum and Benchmark for Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) and consider the contents of the pre-service science teacher education curriculum to reflect more balance of the proportion of academic and professional science education knowledge based courses “.
In the inaugural lecture titled, “Mirroring Pre-Service Science Teacher Education Through Evaluation Lens: Reflections on Quality, Globalization and Contemporary Relevance”, Professor Mustapha argued that outdated curriculum content of the BMAS had created some knowledge gaps and deficiency in the pre-service science teacher preparation which portends negative consequential effects.
He explained that the BMAS had not be reviewed for 15 years from 2007 till recently in 2022, adding that, ” this fell short of the expectation, and therefore, made science teacher education curriculum outdated in content and context over the years before the recent review. This had implication on quality of the science teachers that have graduated based on the 2007 NUC curriculum over the past years “.
He emphasized the need for science lecturers and science educators to adopt effective teaching strategies at the university level that are participatory, more interactive ICT driven pedagogy and inquiry- based teaching to foster conceptual understanding, critical thinking and problem solving skills in their students.
In a remark, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Mohammed Hadi Suleiman explained that the lecture has brought to light the fact that researches in areas of specialization can indeed enhance learning for science, technology, engineering and mathematics
