New Perspectives in Science Education

Many studies at international level demonstrate that chemistry is unpopular among students [1]. A reason for this unpopularity - and the low success rates in achieving high-order cognitive skills - is believed to be in the use of a content-driven approach in the most part of chemistry lessons, too much oriented towards the inner systematics of chemistry. In particular, Italian chemistry teaching is not oriented enough towards problem-solving and practical applications. Besides, chemistry teaching does not focus enough on the interplay of science, technology and society with regard to local issues, public policy-making and global problems, whereas a wide-ranging science teaching has been really effective in education researches carried out in Italy [2] and abroad [3]. The slightly modified version of the proposed “socio-critical and problem-oriented approach” can promote the essential skills of well-developed scientific literacy among students, when discussing and evaluating controversial issues taken from their everyday lives and society. Questions raised by chemical safety, human or animal health, environment respect, emerging technologies, also contain ethical issues. The Italian school curriculum includes these topics explicitly [4], but teaching practice is lacking in them.

In Italian technical schools, chemistry teaching is usually provided just during the first couple of years. The proposed approach can be of use in contrasting the typical lack of attention of this age and the parental background - usually more of help in case of students attending non-technical schools. The perception of the relevance of chemistry in everyday application raises awareness of the value of science and enable students to go beyond the surface features of phenomena, understanding key chemistry ideas [5]. The experience-based work described is related to the study of a well-known product, not only by pets owners: the cat litter, a cheap, safe, largely available material existing in a wide variety of types. This material offers different starting points for a critical examination, highlighting ethical issues involved: is the quality/price ratio justified? Is the composition clearly described? Is it environmental friendly? Is it injurious for the cat’s health?

First year secondary school students answered these questions by problem solving based laboratory experiments, analysis of various documents and cooperative learning activities planned by the teacher during all the school year. The learning assessment of the considered core chemistry concepts has been compared with the assessment related to the students not involved in the project. Different learning outcomes show that educating future scientists and citizens is more effective if the students are helped by their teachers in relating correctly what they learn in school to their daily lives and global issues.