New Perspectives in Science Education

This paper presents the author’s thoughts about some of the problems faced by current science curricula.  These relate, in the main, to a separation of school science from the practice of professional science and to a lack of investigations in school science. He suggests ways in which these could be remedied by taking a more inclusive, integrated approach to the teaching of the various science subjects, mathematics and the rest of the school curriculum.

Science occupies a number of major roles in children’s education beyond the simple concept teaching of the subject as one element of society’s knowledge of the world in which we live.  However, the most pressing reason for the expansion of science education in the past few decades is the desire of governments to develop those aspects of their economies that rely on knowledge and skills associated with science and technology. In addition to this the need to develop a scientifically literate population [1] that can make informed decisions about the future application of science to the needs of society is clearly an important goal of education.