Abstract
The contributions of science and scientists to combatting Covid-19 have been at the forefront of media attention throughout 2020 and early 2021, exposing the public to the processes of science in an unprecedented manner. The pandemic has highlighted the necessity of scientists working collaboratively with other disciplines in informing thinking about a complex, evolving real-world problem. This draws attention to recent efforts, both in the UK and internationally, towards curriculum reform integrating epistemic insight (knowledge about knowledge, including about what disciplines are and how they interact), with significant implications for the teaching of science in schools. We present findings from two exploratory workshops with 15–17-year-old students in England on the role of science during the pandemic. We found that the workshops provided space for students to begin to develop epistemic insight regarding how science informs decision-making in dialogue with other disciplines. We make recommendations proposing pedagogical approaches using live, complex, real-world problems to address issues around understandings of the nature of science, misinformation, trust and participation in science.
Highlights
Covid-19 has been described as the greatest challenge for the world since World War Two (BBC 2020a)
We do this by presenting findings from an exploratory, small-scale research project with students aged 15–17 from two English schools which sought to evaluate a workshop on Covid-19 and science, based on the Epistemic Insight curriculum framework
Covid-19 has changed the way that we think about science, our understanding of how science works together with other disciplinary perspectives
Summary
Covid-19 has been described as the greatest challenge for the world since World War Two (BBC 2020a). We make a case for introducing pedagogical tools and assessment frameworks based on the Epistemic Insight curriculum framework, an approach that includes developing students’ understanding that different questions and problems call for different disciplinary approaches. We show that workshops we designed to develop epistemic insight can be used to strengthen and test students’ understanding of the nature of knowledge and their appreciation of the importance of multidisciplinary approaches. We do this by presenting findings from an exploratory, small-scale research project with students aged 15–17 from two English schools which sought to evaluate a workshop on Covid-19 and science, based on the Epistemic Insight curriculum framework. The workshop was designed to develop students’ understanding of the nature of science and the relationships between science and other disciplines in the context of real-world problems
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