Turning the Spotlight on Science

Abstract

In addition to addressing a number of topical and controversial SSI (health hazards associated with mobile phones, xenotransplantation, stem cell research, GM foods, and the like), the curriculum needs to turn the critical spotlight on science itself. In particular, encouraging students to direct careful and critical attention to the role and status of scientific knowledge, the procedures by which scientific knowledge is generated, validated and disseminated, the language in which it is communicated to other scientists, students and the wider public, the values that underpin the conduct of scientists, the moral-ethical issues raised by contemporary scientific developments, and the wider social, political and economic climate in which science is practised. If teachers are to present science and scientific practice in a critical light, they need reliable information about the kind of understanding their students are likely to have already. Methods for ascertaining those views, including questionnaires and surveys, interviews, small group discussions, writing tasks and classroom observations (particularly in the context of hands-on activities), have been extensively reviewed by Hodson (2008, 2009a) and will not be revisited here. While it is always dangerous to generalize from research findings, it is fair to say, as noted in chapter 2, that many students (and their teachers) hold confused, confusing, misleading or downright false views about science, scientists and scientific practice36, views that are compounded by similarly inadequate/unsatisfactory views located in science textbooks and curriculum materials, projected via the so-called “hidden curriculum”, encountered through informal learning experiences in museums, zoos and science centres, and promulgated by the popular media.