What are the goals of science teaching? Is it possible to agree upon goals for science teaching? Who determines the goals of science teaching? Have the goals of science teaching changed during the 20th Century? And how will these influence science education in the New Millenium? These are a few of questions that we'll explore in this section to help us gain insight into an important aspect of science education, namely, the goals of science teaching.
Goals are ends towards which we direct our attention. They tend to be reflective statements expressing an individual's or a group's philosophic perspective on the broad aims or objectives of education. For example, consider this goal:
Science education should prepare individuals to utilize science for improving their own lives and for coping with an increasingly technological world.
This broad aim or goal, which reflects a recent emphasis in science education, and one that many recommend, highlights how science education should contribute to the personal needs of individuals as well how to use science to make everyday decisions. Goals should have relevance to students lives.
When we speak about goals of science education (or for that matter, the goals of education in general) it is important to keep in mind that the United States is the only highly technical, industrialized country that does not have a national science curriculum. Education is set in a decentralized system, with individual states and school districts determining the goals and the curriculum for its students. As you study the material in this and the next two chapters on the science curriculum, ask yourself questions such as:What are the implications of a decentralized educational system on goal setting? What are the pro's? What are the con's?
Goals represent the desired or the hoped for directions for science teaching. What are desired directions of science education for the 21st Century? To answer this question, we will examine the recommendations of a number of commissions, professional organizations, and convened groups. The science education community has been and will be influenced by these reports and recommendations. The impact will influence, among other things, the nature of textbooks,curriculum development efforts at the national and local levels, and teaching practices over the next decade and beyond.
The goals of science education in the future will be very different than the goals of the 1960s, which shaped science education curriculum, instructional practices and textbooks into the 1990s, in that they will encompass science competence for all students, regardless of sex, race and economic status. There will be disagreement among science teachers as to what goals are of most worth. For example, some science educators raise the question "Why should all students be taught to think like scientists?" Some science educators claim that instead of valuing only the mode of thinking practiced by the scientific community, science education should value the abilities and cultural relevance of diverse modes of thinking that can contribute to the solution of problems.
One of the trends in the formulation of science education goals is the emphasis on citizenship education, that is, science should be of value to people as individuals, workers and citizens. Alan Voelker describes this direction this way:
Science education literature indicates that the main reasons for school science are (1) to provide background for citizenship, (2) to provide background for those entering occupations or careers oriented toward science and technology, and (3) to contribute to the preparation of scholars. Science teaching in elementary and secondary schools should emphasize citizenship education. Schools, the province of all citizens, can best serve future scholars and science-related career aspirants in an educational atmosphere where scientific literacy for all citizens is given top priority.
Voelker points out that if the science curriculum is to become truly responsive and responsible to citizens in a scientifically and technologically oriented world, then the concerns of all citizens need to be elevated to top priority. The science curriculum that was designed for aspiring scientists and engineers, and its heavy emphasis on the scientific process may have to give way to new forms of science curriculum that advocate a variety of ways and methods of getting involved in science education. This orientation toward citizenship has its roots in reports issued in the later part of the nineteenth century, but was most notably developed in the 1930s when science educators insisted that science education should be an integral part of general education in a democratic society.
Champagne and Hornig (1987) suggest that many goals have been proposed for the science curriculum of the future, including:
• The development of a productive work force that will maintain economic prosperity and security (a nationalistic, economic goal).• The development of a literate citizenry that is knowledgeable about scientific and technological issues and able to make informed decisions in their public and private lives (scientific literacy goal).
• The widespread adoption of the intellectual style of scientists, which is equated with better thinking ability (an academic or discipline-centered goal).
• The development of the ability to apply social, ethical, and political perspectives to interpretations of scientific information (an application goal).
These and other goals will be proposed. However, the tide has turned in favor of developing science curriculum programs whose goals are solidly based on interaction of science and its citizens. Gone are the days (at least for now) where science is viewed as the pristine discipline, with its underlying assumptions and tacit way of knowing, to be learned by every school child, as if he or she were a little scientist.
What do you think should be the goals of the science curriculum? Read ahead and participate in the activity that follows, "The goals of the science curriculum."