Preparing Students with 21st Century Skills: Integrating Scientific Knowledge, Skills, and Epistemic Beliefs in Middle School Science Curricula

Abstract

In the 21st century, every citizen needs to acquire adequate scientific knowledge and skills to be competitive in the job market, and be scientific literate in everyday contexts. The recent push for STEAM education calls for integrating science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematic components together to prepare students for 21th century challenges. To address these concerns, in this chapter we discuss how to prepare students with critical skills to succeed in the 21st century. Our discussion of reconceptualizing science curriculum in middle school level is based on three major perspectives. To prepare students to face the challenges in the 21st century, educators need to help students (1) acquire sufficient core scientific knowledge, (2) gain skills needed to engage in scientific practice, and (3) develop sophisticated epistemic beliefs to understand the nature of scientific knowledge and the methods of making it. We discuss the importance of each perspective in science education in light of the current literature, and address some remaining issues for future directions.