Interdisciplinary Learning in Japanese Lower Secondary School: A Questionnaire Survey of Students’ Understanding of Enzymes as Life or Matter

Abstract

The new Japanese Government Curriculum Guidelines include a framework that comprises the four core ideas of energy, particle, life, and earth. These are primarily relevant to physics, chemistry, biology, and earth sciences, respectively. The four core ideas allow the boundaries between subjects to be flexible, which may foster interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary viewpoints. An enzyme is an interdisciplinary learning item that lies between life and particle (or matter), and may be used as a marker for the evaluation of students’ interdisciplinary viewpoints. The results of the questionnaire show that Japanese lower secondary students have only a vague concept of an enzyme, and of the boundary between life and matter.