Science as an Integrated Approach – A Démarche Focused on Promoting the Competencies for Life

Our world is not a world made of disciplined puzzle pieces, but one where issues, situations, realities must be addressed in full uniform, gathering knowledge, skills, abilities, patterns, acquired interdisciplinary mental schemes and actions, but also beyond disciplines. Unfortunately, the knowledge is transferred often to pupils/students in limited contexts, circumscribed different subjects, and the attempts for breaking this pattern are quite shy, at least in Romanian schools.Considering that the learning objects subsumed under Science area are the first enabled to be envisaged in an integrated approach, with the help of a conducted Delphi study organized in the FP7 European Research Project PROFILES - Professional Reflection-Oriented Focus on Inquiry-based Learning and Education through Science (code: SiS-2010-5.2.2.1-2.2.1-266,589), it was proposed to identify the perception of the academic trainers in relation to the content to be taught to lower and upper secondary school-children, Science teaching skills, as well as learning contexts to be organized.The paper illustrates some results of this investigative approach that shows a gap between the effectively implemented curriculum in school and the real training needs (objectified in content and specific skills) identified by questioned trainers. Most opinions stipulate that a Science integrated approach allows the students’ experience to be clearly involved in the process, offering more substance and relevance of learning. Topics such as Renewable Energy Sources, The Environment - Do We Love It or Destroy It?, Nutrition and Health: What Is Good to Eat?, have a great potential to become more accessible and interesting for students if they are considered beyond the narrow lens of disciplines, isolated from each other, and treated inter-, many-(multi-) and/or trans-disciplinary.