Science educators in the Asia Pacific Economic Conference region have avowed to engage in collaborative work to further improve science and mathematics teacher education in the region.

In a manifesto signed by science educators from Australia, United States, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, South Korea who are all participants of the APEC Forum on Best Practices on Human Resource Capacity Building in Science and Mathematics Teachers Education held in Manila recently, they indicated their strong support for collaborative activities in research, linkages and exchanges and policy development aimed at enhancing science and mathematics teacher education in the region.

The science educators said priority areas for collaborative work should include teacher's knowledge, delivery to diverse groups of learners, professional development models, ICT integration, social and cultural dimensions and role of science and mathematics education for civic participation by all.

Dr. Ester B. Ogena, Director of the Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute, said the APEC forum forged the minds of the best in the region to come up with a viable solution that would raise the quality of science and mathematics teacher education all over the region.

“This Forum has been conceived by the Science Education Institute of the Department of Science and Technology as part of its commitment in the APEC-HRD Working Group with the following objectives: provide a forum to exchange experiences on developing and improving the capacity of teacher education in science and mathematics through the sharing of best practices among APEC economies; provide a venue for discussion on important issues in teacher education in science and mathematics; and provide the ground work for building a network of teacher education institutions, especially for research, in science and mathematics among the APEC economies,” she said.

Ogena said the lively discussions between member economies was able to facilitate sharing of knowledge, experiences and best practices in developing the capacity of teachers in science and mathematics education.

“The APEC forum was a good opportunity for us to share good models and experiences and provide the momentum for institutions for continue reforms in education and research, and collaborate among member economies to make science and mathematics find their proper place in development to benefit our respective peoples and economies,” she said.

In the two day forum, science and mathematics educators from APEC economies tackled ethnoscience and ethno mathematics; equal access to science and mathematics education; cross cultural comparison of the learning styles of students; effective teaching; and the role of science and mathematics for sustainable development and building research communities in science and mathematics education among the research interest groups of the APEC economies.

Ogena said the declaration signed by the science educators would be submitted to the foreign ministers of the member economies through the APEC Education Network as a recommendation for the improvement of their science and mathematics teacher education.

“It is our hope that the sharing of best practices around the APEC region will be an opportunity to benchmark where each economy stands, what direction they could travel and how the economies could help each other improve their science and mathematics teacher education,” she said.

Other attendees of the forum are Dr. Fe Hidalgo , chairperson of the Commission on Higher Education and deans and top officials of University of the Philippines , Western Visayas State University , Western Mindanao State University , Mindanao State University , University of San Carlos , De La Salle University and Ateneo de Manila University. (30)