Date post: | 21-Jun-2015 |
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Education |
Upload: | david-geelan |
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David Geelan
The University of Queensland
SCIENCE EDUCATION FOR GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP
CHALLENGES FACING THE WORLD
• climate change and extreme weather
• water
• pollution
• energy - end of fossil fuels
• disease pandemics
• war and violence
• economic crises
COMMON FEATURES
• Many of these challenges need to be addressed globally as well as locally
• Many of these challenges are related to science, and need scientific knowledge to find solutions
SCIENCE EDUCATION
• Science teaching currently does a good job of preparing the 10% of students who go into science and engineering careers
• Unfortunately, it also tends to tell the other 90% of the population ‘you cannot understand science’
SCIENCE EDUCATION
• In order to face the challenges of the future, science education must:
• help all students to understand science, enough to take a role as active citizens
• place scientific issues in local and global contexts
CITIZENSHIP
• What does it mean to be a citizen?
• Citizens have rights and responsibilities
• Citizens take an active, informed role in deciding on a nation’s direction through voting
GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP
• Since many future challenges are global, each human being also has global rights and responsibilities
SCIENCE FOR ALL
• Preparing all students to be fully engaged, informed citizens means helping them to understand science
• Science education for all students needs to be engaging, and to connect to their experience
SCIENCE EDUCATION FOR PROTECTION
• Understanding science helps all citizens avoid being deceived by people making dishonest claims in the name of science
• Science education helps students judge the quality of scientific claims and information
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, SOCIETY AND ENVIRONMENT (STSE)
• Science education for global citizenship needs to include consideration of:
• the nature of science
• science and technology
• science and society
• environmental issues and sustainability
MEANINGFUL LEARNING
• Students will learn things that mean something to them now much better than things they are promised will mean something later
• Linking science learning to students current experiences of life makes it meaningful
CONCLUSION
• Many of the challenges facing Australia, Thailand and the world are:
• global in scope and
• scientific in nature
• Science education for all students has an important role in preparing society to address these challenges