Science Education for the
Twenty First Century

Jonathan Osborne

doi:10.12973/ejmste/75396

Science Education for the Twenty First Century

Full Text (PDF)

Jonathan Osborne ¹ ^*

More Detail

¹ King's College London, London, UK^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

This paper argues that the dominant form of science education that is common across the world rests on a set of values that have no merit. Moreover, such practice has a negative impact on students’ attitudes to science. It makes the case that the primary goal of any science education should be to develop scientific literacy and explores what that might consist of and why such an education is necessary in contemporary society. It concludes by examining some of the challenges that such a change might require.

Keywords

science education
aims and purposes
educational norms
fallacies

License

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 3, Issue 3, 2007, 173-184

https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75396

Publication date: 23 Oct 2007

Article Views: 8595

Article Downloads: 9933

Open Access References How to cite this article

References

Adams, J. (1995). Risk. London: UCL Press Ltd.
Alexander, R. (2005). Towards Dialogic Teaching. York: Dialogos.
Bartholomew, H., Osborne, J. F., & Ratcliffe, M. (2004). Teaching Students ‘Ideas-About-Science’: Five Dimensions of Effective Practice. Science Education, 88(6), 655-682.
Bell, P., & Linn, M. C. (2000). Scientific arguments as learning artifacts: designing for learning from the web with KIE. International Journal of Science Education, 22(8), 797-817.
Bencze, J. L. (1996). Correlational studies in school science: breaking the science-experiment-certainty connection. School Science Review, 78(282), 95-101.
Berry, A., Mulhall, P., Loughran, J. J., & Gunstone, R. F. (1999). Helping students learn from laboratory work. Australian Science Teachers' Journal, 45(1), 27-31.
Brown, J., Collins, A., & Duiguid, P. (1989). Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32-42.
Bybee, R. W. (1997). Towards an Understanding of Scientific Literacy. In Gräber, W. & Bolte, C. (Eds.), Scientific Literacy (pp. 37-68). Kiel: Institut für die Pädogogik Naturwissenschaften an der Universität Kiel.
Carraher, T., Carraher, D., & Schliemann, A. (1985). Mathematics in the streets and in the schools. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 3, 22-29.
Chinn, C. A., & Anderson, R. C. (1998). The structure of discussions that promote reasoning. Teachers College Record, 100, 315-368.
Chown, M. (1998, 7.11.98). The cosmic connection. New Scientist, 62.
Cohen, I. B. (1952). The education of the public in science. Impact of Science on Society, 3, 67-101.
Coles, M. (1998). Science for employment and higher education. International Journal of Science Education, 20(5), 609-621.
Cossons, N. (1993). Let us Take Science into our Culture. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 18(4), 337-342.
Cunningham, C. M., & Helms, J. V. (1998). Sociology of science as a means to a more authentic inclusive science education. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 35(5), 483-499.
De Boer, G. (2000). Scientific Literacy: Another look at Its Historical and Contemporary Meanings and Its Relationship to Science Education Reform. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 37(6), 582-601.
DeHart Hurd, P. (1958). Science literacy: Its meaning for American Schools. Educational Leadership, 16, 13-16.
Delia, J. (1977). Constructivism and the study of human communication. Quartely Journal of Speech, 41, 66-83.
Driver, R., Newton, P., & Osborne, J. (2000). Establishing the norms of scientific argumentation in classrooms. Science Education, 84(3), 287-312.
Durant, J. (1993). What is Scientific Literacy? In Durant, J. & Gregory, J. (Eds.), Science and Culture in Europe. London: Science Museum.
Durant, J. (1999, January 1999). Public Understanding of Science: Three complex words. Social Sciences, 41, 3.
Edmondson, K. M., & Novak, J. D. (1993). The interplay of scientific epistemological views, learning strategies, and attitudes of college students. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 30(6), 547-559.
Enger, S. K., & Yager, R. (Eds.). (1998). The Iowa Assessment Handbook. Iowa: University of Iowa.
European Commission. (1995). White paper on education and training: Teaching and learning—Towards the learning society (White paper). Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications in European Countries.
Financial Times Editorial. (1999, 20.2.99). The perversion of science. The Financial Times, p. 8.
Fuller, S. (1997). Science. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
Hacker, R. J., & Rowe, M. J. (1997). The impact of National Curriculum development on teaching and learning behaviours. International Journal of Science Education, 19(9), 997-1004.
Horton, R. (1971). African Traditional Thought and Western Science. In Young, M. D. (Ed.), Knowledge and Control (pp. 208-266). London: Colin-MacMillan.
Independent Editorial. (1999, January 2, 1999). The real challenges of the next century are scientific. The Independent, pp. p 3, (Review Section).
Jimenez-Aleixandre, M. P., Rodriguez, A. B., & Duschl, R. (2000). 'Doing the lesson' or 'doing science': argument in high school genetics. Science Education, 84(6), 757-792.
Kim, H., Kang, T., & Song, J. (2003). The features of practical work for physics in middle school science textbooks based on the 7th national curriculum in Korea. Sae Mulli, 47(6), 387-394.
Kuhn, D. (1992). Thinking as argument. Harvard Educational Review, 62(2), 155-178.
Kuhn, D. (1993). Science as argument: Implications for teaching and learning scientific thinking. Science Education, 77(3), 319-337.
Kuhn, D., Shaw, V., & Felton, M. (1997). Effects of dyadic interaction on argumentative reasoning. Cognition and Instruction, 15(3), 287-315.
Latour, B., & Woolgar, S. (1986). Laboratory life: The construction of scientific facts. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Laugksch, R. (2000). Scientific Literacy: A Conceptual Overview. Science Education, 84(1), 71-94.
Lave, J. (1988). Cognition in Practice: mind, mathematics and culture in everyday life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press:.
Lyons, T. (2006). Different Countries, Same Science Classes: Students' experience of school science classes in their own words. International Journal of Science Education, 28(6), 591-613.
McComas, W. F. (Ed.). (1998). The Nature of Science in Science Education: Rationales and Strategies. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Merton, R. K. (Ed.). (1973). The sociology of science : theoretical and empirical investigations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Millar, R. (2005, 28 August-Sept1). Tweny First Century Science: Design and impact of a scientic literacy approach in school science. Paper presented at the The European Science Education Research Association Conference, Barcelona.
Millar, R., & Osborne, J. F. (Eds.). (1998). Beyond 2000: Science Education for the Future. London: King's College London.
Newton, P., Driver, R., & Osborne, J. (1999). The Place of Argumentation in the Pedagogy of School Science. International Journal of Science Education, 21(5), 553-576.
Nolen, S. B. (2003). Learning Environment, Motivation and Achievement in High School Science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 40(4), 347-368.
Norris, S. (1997). Intellectual Independence for Nonscientists and Other Content-Transcendent Goals of Science Education. Science Education, 81(2), 239-258.
Norris, S., & Phillips, L. (2003). How literacy in its fundamental sense is central to scientific literacy. Science Education, 87, 224-240.
Norris, S., Phillips, L., & Osborne, J. F. (2006 (in press)). Scientific Inquiry: The Place of Interpretation and Argumentation. Washington DC: National Science Foundation.
Ohlssson, S. (1996). Learning to do and learning to understand? A lesson and a challenge for cognitive modelling. In Reimann, P. & Spada, H. (Eds.), Learning in Humans and Machines (pp. 37-62). Oxford: Elsevier.
Osborne, J. F., & Collins, S. (2001). Pupils' views of the role and value of the science curriculum: a focus-group study. International Journal of Science Education, 23(5), 441- 468.
Osborne, J. F., Duschl, R., & Fairbrother, R. (2002). Breaking the Mould: Teaching Science for Public Understanding, from http://www.kcl.ac.uk/education/hpages/jopubs. html
Osborne, J. F., & Ratcliffe, M. (2002). Developing effective methods of assessing Ideas and evidence. School Science Review, 83(305), 113-123.
Osborne, J. F., Ratcliffe, M., Collins, S., Millar, R., & Duschl, R. (2003). What 'ideas-about-science' should be taught in school science? A Delphi Study of the 'Expert' Community. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 40(7), 692-720.
Osborne, J. F., Simon, S., & Collins, S. (2003). Attitudes towards Science: A Review of the Literature and its Implications. International Journal of Science Education, 25(9), 1049–1079.
Rowe, M. (1983). Science education: a framework for decision making. Daedalus, 112(2), 123-142.
Shamos, M. H. (1995). The Myth of Scientific Literacy. New Brunswick:NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Sjøbeg, S., & Schreiner, C. (2005). How do learners in different cultures relate to science and technology? Results and perspectives from the project ROSE. Asia Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, 6(2), 1-16.
Sutton, C. R. (1992). Words, Science and Learning. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
Taylor, C. (1996). Defining science. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
van Eemeren, F. H., Grootendorst, R., & Henkemans, F. S. (2002). Argumentation; Analysis, Evaluation, Presentation. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Vygotsky, L. (1962). Thought and Language. Cambridge, Massachusetts.: MIT Press.
Wason, P. C., & Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1972). Psychology of Reasoning: Structure and Content. London: Batsford.

How to cite this article

APA

Osborne, J. (2007). Science Education for the Twenty First Century. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 3(3), 173-184. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75396

Vancouver

Osborne J. Science Education for the Twenty First Century. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2007;3(3):173-84. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75396

AMA

Osborne J. Science Education for the Twenty First Century. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2007;3(3), 173-184. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75396

Chicago

Osborne, Jonathan. "Science Education for the Twenty First Century". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2007 3 no. 3 (2007): 173-184. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75396

Harvard

Osborne, J. (2007). Science Education for the Twenty First Century. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 3(3), pp. 173-184. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75396

MLA

Osborne, Jonathan "Science Education for the Twenty First Century". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 3, no. 3, 2007, pp. 173-184. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75396