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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science
Learning and Teaching, Volume 4, Issue 2, Foreword (Dec., 2003) Jack HOLBROOK Rethink Science Education
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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science
Learning and Teaching, Volume 4, Issue 2, Foreword (Dec., 2003) Jack HOLBROOK Rethink Science Education
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PARADIGM CHANGE 3 Science Education is based on Constructivist principles
Constructivism, and the need for students to form overt constructs, appropriate for learning, is at the very heart of STL (Lutz, 1996). By embedding the science conceptual learning in a social issue or concern and ensuring the science is seen as relevant in the eyes of the student, it is inevitable the teaching builds on students' prior constructs, or ideas. These prior constructs, or ideas may have come from interactions within society, or earlier learning within the school.
Using a teaching approach that makes a student's prior constructs overt, necessitates the emphasising of student involvement. For the teaching of science subjects to be more relevant for students:
- there is a need for student participation in the choice of social context for science learning;
- an increase in student activities and with this greater opportunities for student self learning;
- there needs more potential diagnostic measures of the effectiveness of the teacher;
- this calls for maximising student involvement and the important move away from teacher centred approaches.
The STL (scientific and technological literacy) approach that is proposed here is very different from the un-contextualized emphasis on scientific principles and concepts used in most textbooks. The science and technology within society is often very complicated and demanding in conceptual understanding. So the STL approach needs to find ways to meet this challenge. The constructivist learning builds from constructs previously held by students. Students are definitely required to think (minds-on), but the depth of treatment reflects the 'need to know' required for the learning being promoted.
The inclusion of scientific principles and scientific concepts within the teaching and teaching materials marks a strong demarcation between social science and science teaching. Although the approach is societal, the conceptual learning is still an area of emphasis. The demarcation between social science and science is NOT made, as is often the case where teaching rigidly follows the textbook, by the simple addition, or absence, of values education.
Copyright (C) 2003 HKIEd APFSLT. Volume 4, Issue 2, Foreword (Dec., 2003). All Rights Reserved.
