INTEREST IN SCIENCE AND SCIENCE SUBJECTS TEACHING – HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

This paper represents the attempt of the authors to understand and present, from historical perspective, the interest in natural and social sciences, and especially the interest in introducing their contents into teaching. Thus, the authors analyze the interest in natural and social sciences in Ancient Greek and Roman thought, then in Middle Ages and finally in 18th and 19th century when the solid grounds for science teaching was established. The paper points out to the existence of the first traces of science a couple of thousands years B. C., but the development of science connects to the ancient Greece and its major thinkers who made the first theories about the origin of the world. Further studies of nature were, in the Middle Ages, dominated by the Christian ideology in which the origin of the world and occurrence of living creatures were usually connected to the mystic forces. Only with the development of Renaissance, thinkers put the man and his real life problems in the center of their thought. Only then we can testify the stronger interest in natural sciences. In the circumstances of humanistic shaping of social life, entering of scientific contents into teaching and appearance of scientific subjects came naturally. The Modern Epoch brought the great advances in natural and social sciences. At the same time the demands for introducing scientific knowledge into teaching subjects became more prominent. Special credits for introducing science into teaching and development of methodology of science subjects are paid to the great scientists and thinkers of 18th and 19th century.