ALIGNING CURRICULUM, INQUIRY, AND ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION: AN EVIDENCE-INFORMED PROJECT-BASED INSTRUCTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR GRADE 4 SCIENCE

Abstract

Environmental education in primary schools is increasingly expected to connect disciplinary learning with students’ capacity to investigate and respond to environmental issues. Project-based learning (PjBL) can support this integration, but its value depends on coherent alignment among curriculum requirements, scientific inquiry, age-appropriate environmental action, classroom feasibility, and assessment. This theory-informed descriptive study develops a proposed instructional framework for Grade 4 Science by integrating three evidence sources: international scholarship on environmental education and project-based science learning, analysis of the Vietnamese Grade 4 Science curriculum under the 2018 General Education Curriculum, and a cross-sectional needs-analysis survey of 80 primary teachers from Thai Nguyen and Cao Bang provinces. Teachers strongly endorsed environmental education (M = 4.32–4.55 across six perception items), yet PjBL was the least frequently used surveyed method (M = 2.74, SD = 0.94), and 67.5% had organized a Grade 4 Science project no more than once during the previous two school years. The most frequently reported barriers were limited instructional time (76.3%), lack of project exemplars and practical guidance (70.0%), and difficulty assessing individual contributions (65.0%). Assessment was knowledge-dominant: 73.8% reported using knowledge questions or tests, compared with 30.0% using process checklists and 25.0% using behavioral observation. Integrating these needs with curriculum and research-based design principles, the study proposes a three-dimensional Curriculum–Inquiry–Action Alignment Framework, operationalized through five design principles, a five-stage instructional cycle, and three implementation supports: scaffolded collaboration, flexible learning ecologies, and multi-source assessment. The framework is evidence-informed and practice-oriented; classroom implementation and empirical validation remain priorities for subsequent research.