Making Science Meaningful: A Phenomenological Inquiry into Teachers’ Pedagogical Practices in a Philippine Private Montessori School

Abstract

Abstract Science education becomes meaningful when learners are provided opportunities to connect scientific concepts with observation, experimentation, inquiry, everyday experiences, and authentic problems. Within Montessori-oriented learning environments, science pedagogy may further emphasize learner independence, concrete experiences, exploration, purposeful activity, and teacher facilitation. This qualitative descriptive phenomenological study explored teachers’ lived experiences of implementing pedagogical practices that made science meaningful in a Philippine private Montessori school. Specifically, it examined how teachers translated abstract scientific concepts into understandable learning experiences, facilitated inquiry and hands-on activities, connected science with learners’ everyday lives, responded to differences in learners’ abilities and interests, and reflected on challenges encountered in science instruction. Participants consisted of purposively selected teachers with direct experience teaching science or facilitating science-related learning activities. Data were generated through semi-structured, in-depth interviews and analyzed using Colaizzi’s descriptive phenomenological method. The inquiry was theoretically informed by constructivist learning, experiential learning, inquiry-based science education, and Montessori principles while allowing meanings and themes to emerge from participants’ narratives. The study conceptualized meaningful science pedagogy as a dynamic interaction among scientific content, learner experience, pedagogical facilitation, and teacher reflection. The findings offer implications for learner-centered science teaching, professional development, experiential instruction, and the contextualization of science within private Montessori-oriented educational environments. Keywords: experiential learning, inquiry-based learning, Montessori education, phenomenology, science education, science pedagogy, teacher experiences 1. Introduction Science education is fundamental to developing learners who can observe phenomena, ask meaningful questions, evaluate evidence, solve problems, and make informed decisions. Effective science instruction therefore extends beyond memorizing scientific terminology, principles, and processes. It involves helping learners understand how scientific knowledge explains phenomena encountered in everyday life. Science, however, contains concepts that can be difficult for learners because many scientific processes cannot be directly observed or easily connected with prior experience. Teachers consequently occupy a critical position in transforming abstract scientific ideas into meaningful learning experiences. Constructivist perspectives emphasize that learners actively construct knowledge by connecting new information with prior understanding and experience (Vygotsky, 1978). Science teaching from this perspective requires more than information transmission. Teachers facilitate experiences through which learners investigate, question, manipulate materials, discuss observations, interpret evidence, and reconstruct existing understandings. Experiential learning similarly provides a relevant perspective. Kolb (1984) proposed that learning develops through the transformation of experience involving concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. Science provides considerable opportunities for such learning through experimentation, observation, demonstrations, field experiences, model construction, and practical problem-solving. Inquiry-based science education further emphasizes learners' participation in processes associated with scientific investigation. Rather than receiving predetermined explanations exclusively from teachers, learners can formulate questions, investigate phenomena, gather evidence, interpret findings, and communicate explanations. Such practices potentially make science meaningful because students experience science as a process of inquiry rather than merely a collection of facts. These principles have particular relevance within Montessori-oriented education. Montessori pedagogy traditionally emphasizes purposeful activity, concrete learning experiences, learner independence, carefully prepared learning environments, observation, and teachers' facilitative roles (Lillard, 2017). While implementation can vary among schools using the Montessori designation, these principles provide a potentially rich context for examining how teachers make science accessible and meaningful. Kolb (1984) argued that experience becomes educationally meaningful when learners reflect upon and transform it into understanding. Consequently, hands-on science should involve not merely manipulating materials but predicting, observing, explaining, questioning, and reflecting. Understanding science pedagogy within such settings requires attention to teachers' actual experiences. Teachers continuously make decisions regarding when to explain, demonstrate, question, provide materials, allow exploration, intervene, differentiate activities, and connect concepts with learners' experiences. Quantitative studies can determine relationships between teaching strategies and achievement, but they provide less insight into what teachers experience while attempting to make science meaningful, how they interpret learners' responses, why they modify instruction, and what professional meanings they derive from these experiences. This study therefore employed a phenomenological approach to examine science teaching through the lived experiences of teachers in a Philippine private Montessori school. Research Objectives The study aimed to explore teachers’ lived experiences of implementing pedagogical practices that made science meaningful within a Philippine private Montessori school. Specifically, it sought to describe teachers’ experiences of teaching science within a Montessori-oriented learning environment; identify the pedagogical practices they employed to make abstract scientific concepts understandable; examine their use of experiments, demonstrations, observations, inquiry, and other experiential activities in science instruction; explore how they connected scientific concepts with learners’ everyday experiences and environments; determine how they encouraged curiosity, questioning, exploration, and learner independence; describe how they responded to differences in learners’ prior knowledge, interests, abilities, and learning needs; identify the challenges they encountered in implementing meaningful and experiential science instruction; examine how they adapted their pedagogical practices in response to learners’ reactions and classroom circumstances; and explore the professional meanings and insights they derived from their experiences of teaching science. Theoretical and Conceptual Foundations The study was anchored in Constructivist Learning Theory, Experiential Learning Theory, Inquiry-Based Science Education, and Montessori educational principles. Constructivism conceptualizes learners as active participants in knowledge construction rather than passive recipients of information. Drawing from Vygotsky (1978), meaningful science learning was understood as developing through interaction, prior knowledge, guided participation, and appropriately scaffolded experiences. This perspective was particularly relevant because scientific understanding often requires learners to reconcile previous beliefs with evidence emerging from observation and investigation. Complementing constructivism, Kolb's (1984) Experiential Learning Theory conceptualizes learning as a cycle of Concrete Experience → Reflective Observation → Abstract Conceptualization → Active Experimentation. Science instruction provides opportunities for this process when learners observe phenomena, conduct activities, reflect on outcomes, develop explanations, and test emerging understanding. The study was also informed by inquiry-based science education, which emphasizes questioning, evidence gathering, investigation, interpretation, and explanation as important components of scientific learning. Montessori educational principles provided an additional contextual lens through their emphasis on concrete experiences, purposeful activity, learner independence, observation, and prepared learning environments (Lillard, 2017). These frameworks served as sensitizing concepts rather than predetermined themes. Conceptually, meaningful science teaching was viewed as an iterative interaction represented by Scientific Concept ↔ Learning Experience ↔ Learner Response ↔ Teacher Reflection ↔ Pedagogical Adaptation. Teachers translated scientific content into learning experiences, observed how learners responded, reflected on the quality of understanding and participation, and subsequently maintained, modified, scaffolded, or redesigned their pedagogical approaches. Meaningful science learning was therefore understood as a dynamic and relational process created through the interaction of scientific knowledge, learner experience, pedagogical facilitation, and reflective teaching.  Research Gap Existing research has extensively examined inquiry-based learning, constructivist science teaching, experiments, student achievement, and science engagement. However, three gaps justified the present investigation. First, many studies have examined science pedagogy quantitatively by measuring learning outcomes or comparing instructional strategies. Such designs provide valuable evidence but may not fully explain teachers' lived experiences of making scientific concepts meaningful. Second, pedagogical approaches are frequently examined separately, although teachers may combine explanation, demonstration, inquiry, experimentation, questioning, contextualization, and differentiation within the same lesson. Third, relatively limited phenomenological scholarship has examined teachers' experienc