On 7 April 2021 almost 1-year of the setting up of the Inquiry Based Science Education, IBSE Pilot Centre at Sri Bestari Private School Kuala Lumpur on 1 July 2020, the Science Centre is now named the Yves Quéré IBSE Pilot Centre taking after the eminent Professor Emeritus in Physics, Yves Quéré from France.
The IBSE programme in Malaysia takes after the programme developed by 3 prominent Physicist and Scientist in France who are Nobel Laureate Professor Georges Charpak, Professor Emeritus Pierre Léna and Professor Emeritus Yves Quéré. In 1996 they set-up what is called today the La Fondation La main à la pâte which has received the endorsement of Académie des Sciences, the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris) and the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Lyon in 2011. The IBSE approach to the teaching and learning of Science through Fondation La main à la pâte has reached more than 40 countries in the world and has 3 regional networks and Southeast Asia is one of them.
Sri Bestari Private School KL is at the forefront of IBSE here in Malaysia where the aims of La main à la pâte to develop curiosity, creativity and a critical attitude as core competencies among students are fondly embraced by the school’s community.
The 7 April launch event was well attended by prominent Scientists and friends of Professor Quéré from all over the globe on a virtual platform. His Excellency Mr Roland Galharague, the French Ambassador to Malaysia graciously attended the event at Sri Bestari Private School KL and extended congratulatory remarks to Professor Quéré for his tireless efforts and immense contribution to the development of Science through IBSE in France, Malaysia and all over the world and had done a great service to the world over.
In his acceptance speech, Professor Quéré who join us live from La Fondation La main à la pâte, Paris stated that there are two (2) questions we need to address in the pursuit of Science in schools. The first was why should we teach Science and the second how should we teach Science. To the first question, Professor Quéré explained that children should be familiar to the natural world – the visible and the invisible matter, the sky, sound, waves, forces, movement, electricity and many more. However, what is more important is that Science and Mathematics teaches a child to think properly with logic and with honesty, thus accumulate knowledge and understanding. In comparison we are no match to a computer which can accumulate knowledge faster and more extensively but of course a computer has the inability to understand and this opens a broad avenue for our children where the future will depend much more on understanding than on knowledge.
On the important second question of how should children learn Science, Professor Quéré explained that children should learn facts of the natural world but more importantly children should “Do Science” in order to immerse themselves in the facts and thereby understanding through doing is more important than learning facts and accumulating knowledge. Thus, the IBSE pedagogy is creative and critical exploration of the natural occurrences around us through experimentation is the hallmark of the La main à la pâte approach which in simple translation means ‘Hand in the dough’ albeit learning by doing. Ever since the introduction of IBSE at Sri Bestari Private School Kuala Lumpur in 2016, the interest in Science among the students is on the rise and the academic achievement in Science among the students have maintained a 100% passing rate the past few years and can only be attributed to the implementation of this revolutionary approach in the teaching, learning and exploration of Science through IBSE as vouched by Dr Baptist, the Principal of the school.
