New Perspectives in Science Education

The different theories on human motivation carried out by Social Apprenticeship or Enterprises’ world have given the so-called extrinsic and intrinsic reasons to the scientific background. Anthropologic theory on human motivation, introduced a third group: transcendental reasons. There will always be three types of consequences, whether we like it or not. They are three different consequences, but interconnected between themselves: interconnection itself (extrinsic reasons), any judge’s apprenticeship (intrinsic reasons) and the apprenticeship from the person who receives the impact of our actions (transcendental reasons). We move ourselves in a human context, where there is always someone receiving the impact of our actions. The weight that each of those actions may have on our decisions defines our emotional quality. If someone always takes into account transcendental reasons, he will be a very humane person. But if he only reacts on extrinsic reasons, he will only be a mean one. The transcendental reasons are some referents to know if we are humanizing or un-humanizing ourselves with our ways of acting. From a practical point of view, they represent the value that we really give others inside the subject. They are the real value that we give another human being; an operative way to the development of otherness and the path to combine theory and practice with moral education in science education.

Keywords: rational motivation, transcendent motives, extrinsic and intrinsic motives, moral education in science education;