Learning For a Better World: Futures in Science Education (original) (raw)

The changing face of science education : preparing scientifically literate citizens of tomorrow

2005

Science has social implications. Educating students in science involves more than the acquisition of 'facts' or the development of investigative skills. If students are to become independent and responsible citizens, they need to be capable of understanding scientific issues and their impact on society. An argument will be put forward in favour of a science education that considers the social implications of scientific activity on both a local and global scale. Teachers need to change traditional teaching methods to more innovative activities that are more child-centred and take into consideration the social and ethical aspects of the scientific enterprise.

SCIENCE EDUCATION AT THE CROSSROADS

2005

Abstract Science education seeks to change society, but does little to produce change in itself. Our initial effort into changing ourselves and our discipline resulted in Science Education at the Crossroads. This conference brought together stakeholders in science education to present their problems, rather than research results, and discuss methods of addressing these. In this paper, we describe this conference, its development, and its future.

Science Education Futures. Science Education as if the Whole Earth Mattered

2018

In 1990 a gathering of ecopsychologists took place at the Harvard Centre for Psychology and Social Change to participate in a conference entitled “Psychology as if the Whole Earth Mattered”. They concluded that “if the self is expanded to include the natural world, behavior leading to destruction of this world will be experienced as self-destruction” (Roszak, Gomes, & Kanner, 1995). I take this idea into the realm of science and science education which I suggest requires a reconfiguration and extension of science into a new inter- and trans-disciplinary realm of sustainability science with implications for renewed pedagogies of science in schools and universities. Such a changing perspective requires greater vision, creativity and imaginative approaches to address the problems currently facing the planet and the future of humanity. This paper provides an overview of a journey in science education over the years covering a range of views around science: starting from what we might c...

Realising the school science curriculum

The Curriculum Journal

This article identifies historical, pedagogical and epistemological problems which distance the school science curriculum from social questions, and issues of social justice more specifically. Drawing on a critical realist approach it addresses these problems and aims to demonstrate that social justice lies at the heart of inquiry and science in schools.

Towards a more authentic science curriculum: The contribution of out-of-school learning

International Journal of Science Education, 2006

In many developed countries of the world, pupil attitudes to school science decline progressively across the age range of secondary schooling while fewer students are choosing to study science at higher levels and as a career. Responses to these developments have included proposals to reform the curriculum, pedagogy and the nature of pupil discussion in science lessons. We support such changes but argue that far greater use needs to be made of out-of-school sites in the teaching of science. Such usage will result in a school science education that is more valid and more motivating. We present an ‘evolutionary model’ of science teaching that looks at where learning and teaching take place, and draws together thinking about the history of science and developments in the nature of learning over the last hundred years or so. Our contention is that laboratory-based school science teaching needs to be complemented by out-of-school science learning that draws on the actual world (e.g. through fieldtrips), the presented world (e.g. in science centres, botanic gardens, zoos and science museums) and the virtual worlds that are increasingly available through information technologies.

Real science and school science : endless wonder versus the drive to explore

2001

Science may be simply defined as a way of finding out about how the world works. It is often viewed as objective and being built on a step-wise procedural base. The question arises as to whether school science needs to be different to cutting-edge (‘real’) science since the outcomes have different purposes, one requiring scientific breakthroughs, the other being imitative and simple. The divergence between these two realities of science impacts on the development of science curricula in that relevance for students, rather than purely imitating real science, steers science curricula.

Re-designing Science Pedagogy: Reversing the Flight from Science

Journal of Science Education and Technology, 2008

This article takes as its starting point the ongoing downturn in student interest in, and engagement with, the enabling sciences. We make a case that embedding of creative pedagogies in science education has significant potential to arrest the flight from modern science. Five propositions are explored in order to argue the case: that young people are more engaged by active tasks than with a passive consumption approach to transfer of core knowledge; that it is boredom, not rigour, that disengages them--the difference is between static and dynamic sources of knowledge; that creativity is not the antithesis of scientific rigour but the core business of scientific thinking; that we now have new understandings of creative pedagogies that make teaching strategies visible and effective; and, that these strategies can build academic, digital and social capacity simultaneously and this is the new core business of the science educator. We conclude by flagging implications for leading such pedagogical change in science faculties.

Validity and worth in the science curriculum: learning school science outside the laboratory

It is widely acknowledged that there are problems with school science in many developed countries of the world. Such problems manifest themselves in a progressive decline in pupil enthusiasm for school science across the secondary age range and the fact that fewer students are choosing to study the physical sciences at higher levels and as careers. Responses to these developments have included proposals to reform the curriculum, pedagogy and the nature of pupil discussion in science lessons. We support such changes but argue from a consideration of the aims of science education that secondary school science is too rooted in the science laboratory; substantially greater use needs to be made of out-of-school sites for the teaching of science. Such usage should result in a school science education that is more valid and more motivating and is better at fulfilling defensible aims of school science education. Our contention is that laboratory-based school science teaching needs to be complemented by out-of-school science learning that draws on the actual world (e.g. through fieldtrips), the presented world (e.g. in science centres, botanic gardens, zoos and science museums) and the virtual worlds that are increasingly available through information and communications technologies (ICT).