Examining the Senior Secondary School Chemistry Curriculum in China in View of Scientific Literacy

Abstract

The notion of scientific literacy has been advocated as the central goal in the current chemistry curriculum in China. This chapter aims to examine the embedding of the idea of scientific literacy in the new senior secondary school chemistry curriculum. This analysis was built on the concept of curriculum balance and scientific literacy and was defined by the four themes: (a) the knowledge of science, (b) the investigative nature of science, (c) science as a way of knowing, and (d) the interaction of science, technology, and society. A content analysis method was employed to analyze the Senior Secondary School Chemistry Curriculum Standards (SSSCCS), three series of the new chemistry textbooks, and a volume of a traditional series of chemistry textbooks (prior to the curriculum reform). It was found that the issue of curriculum balance has not been well dealt with in the new senior secondary chemistry curriculum, with the theme of “science as a way of knowing” greatly lacking; however, compared with the traditional textbook, the occurrence of the themes of “the investigative nature of science” and “the interaction of science, technology, and society” has greatly increased in the new chemistry books. The problem of the imbalanced distribution of the themes of scientific literacy in the senior secondary school chemistry curriculum is discussed in the last part of this chapter.