Fremtidens naturfaglige uddannelser. Naturfag for alle

Summary: Science education of the futureeducation in the sciences should be ensured, based on theunderstanding that science is for all. Thus, all students atsecondary level should be offered a general education in thesciences with the specific aims of providing the necessaryscience competencies for self-perception and actioncompetence, a better understanding of the surrounding worldand participation in the democratic process. With the purposeof ensuring a more balanced recruitment of both genders andmore homogeneous qualifications from those recruited, it isrecommended that all secondary level students be offered aspecific Science Programme including the subjects physics,chemistry and biology on an equal footing. It is alsorecommended that universities and other tertiary levelinstitutions accept this as a common standard for admittanceto all programmes in science, medicine, engineering,agriculture and pharmacy. The competencies required to teachin upper secondary school should be more broadly defined,allowing employment of, for example, engineers andveterinarians in order to increase diversity among secondaryschool teachers. Upper secondary school teachers shouldensure the necessary resources to initiate pedagogical debateas well as supporting educational development focusing onevaluation and competence-based teaching.Concerning the tertiary level, it is recommended that thefocused science educational efforts during past years will becontinued and strengthened - for example by adding specificdemands in contracts between universities and the Ministry ofScience, Innovation and Technology. In areas with a largegender imbalance among employees, it is recommended thatthe Ministry of Science, Innovation and Technology usecontracts to actively reward institutions making serious effortsto redress this imbalance. Leaders of the institutions of highereducation are obliged to ensure continuous in-service trainingof all teachers in the areas of pedagogy, teaching andeducation. Regarding the employment of new scientific staffat the universities, teaching competencies must be consideredequally as important as research competencies.95