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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 12, Issue 1,
Foreword (Jun., 2011) Dana L. ZEIDLER Global sustainability and public understanding of science: The role of socioscientific issues in the international community
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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 12, Issue 1,
Foreword (Jun., 2011) Dana L. ZEIDLER Global sustainability and public understanding of science: The role of socioscientific issues in the international community
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Membership in Scientific Community
By encouraging responsible scientific thinking, I aim to foster conscientious scientific practices for all students. Within the scientific community, “conscientious” may be viewed as the attitudes and actions that demonstrate great care and attention to conducting any task. However, this requires not only technical competence, but moral aptitude as well. There must be present a sense of rigor that stands in contrast to what many engaged in “professional ethics” would think of as merely a “sense of right and wrong.” In contrast, I would like to suggest that science education, in the pursuit of rigor, focus on formation of what Green (1999) terms the conscience of craft. The metaphors typically used here include phrases like “hitting the mark” and “perfect practice” reflecting traditions of the classic Greeks who equated morality with skill and craft. It is in this sense that I would wish to advance rigor as the ability to skillfully craft judgments and initiate actions out of a cacophony of partial and often conflicting evidence. These are tools of virtue – crafted in such a way as to live skillfully and prudentially. To this, I wish to emphasize that membership in the scientific community – being part of a pluralistic world, carries with it moral obligations to the welfare of that community as well as other communities at-large. (It is interesting to note that the Greek word for “individual” was idiotes for someone who was disengaged from the polis and all aspects of public and community life. Of course, contemporary etymological derivation gives us the word “idiot.”)
So, to avoid a sea of nattering nabobs of negativism and idiots (apologies to William Safire), a reasonable approach may be found in fostering responsible scientific thinking through agency. Sociocultural perspectives in science education have compelled those who recognize the power and potential benefits it holds for our students to mesh scientific literacy with a sense of personal identity. Equally important is the development of shared commitment to agency at the group and community level. To help realize this, pedagogy needs to be transformative in both formal classroom contexts as well as informal social settings.
Copyright (C) 2011 HKIEd APFSLT. Volume 12, Issue 1, Foreword (Jun., 2011). All Rights Reserved.
