STS education: international perspectives on reform

Abstract

This text celebrates the fact that science-technology-society (STS) has come of age in schools. STS science reform has been nurtured worldwide by the political economics of science and technology today and by heightened public concern for an environment at risk. Reform means changing the orthodox teaching of science from a monolithic, socially sterile rhetoric of conclusions to a culturally relevant study of scientific facts and principles connected to the political, economic, technological and ethical realities of the communities where students live. This volume offers an internationally diverse collection by educational leaders, including Peter Fensham, David Layton, Hilary Rose, Herb Thier, Bill Williams and John Ziman. The book is divided into five parts. Part 1 describes the roots of STS education, clarifying the current debate between supporters of STS and those of traditional science teaching. Part 2 examines the pragmatic heart of projects and programmes as they actually exist in classrooms. The authors of part 3 consider the cultural aspects of science education and argue that STS successfully addresses such problems as the public understanding of science in Western countries and the challenge of teaching science in non-Western communities. Part 4, Gender Questions and STS, analyses the reasons women often feel alienated from existing valid and neutral science, and considers gender anomalies and enigmas both inside and outside the classroom. Part 5 gives emphasis to research into STS education by reviewing and critically discussing the research itself, as well as describing innovations where learning, teaching and researching form a coherent whole. This text should be useful for pre-service graduate courses in secondary science education and science curriculum design; secondary schools science educators; and professors and researchers of science education.