nL;

PUBLISHER'S
PAGE
Ailicipalinu lutut'E lhinus
Some thoughts on science education in 2044
S WE CELEBRATE THE soth
Anniversary of the National
Science Teachers Association,
our thoughts naturally turn to
the future. What will science education
be like 50 years from now?
What will the chronicle of NSTA's
hrsthundredyears have to say about
the period 1995-2044? While it may
be folly to prognosticate, we cannot
iunction as educators without a vision
of the future. What happens in
classrooms fifty years hence will
depend on what we do today. So this
rs a good opportunity to restate our
goals for science education, and to
take stock of science and society, as
we enter the 21st century.
I believe that science itself-its
basic concepts, principles, empirical
laws, and fundamental theorieswill
change very little in the next
fifty years. Scientific advances are
slow compared to the pace of technological
innovation. Science educators
will take a great step forward
when they learn to distinguish between
science and technology, yet
are able to use technology to teach
science. The confusion of the two
has long been with us. In 1883
Henry Augustus Rowland, addressing
the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, said
"the proper course of one in my position
is to consider what must be
done to create a science of physics in
the country , rather than to call telegrams/
electric lights, and such conveniences
by the name of science."
While interactive CD-ROM and
powerful computers (not to mention
electric lights) are not science per se,
they can be very useful in the classroom,
freeing up the teacher to teach
and motivating students to learn
science based on relevance.
What are the most important
things young people in the 2lst century
will learn from science? The
same things they shouldbe learning
today (only more so). First and foremost,
they will still need to learn
facts, names, definitions/ concepts/
empirical laws, theories, models,
and universal laws of science, and to
keep them from turning into one
another (the "Law of Relativity,"
the "Theory of Universal Gravitation").
They will learn about countless
applications of scientific principles
to meet human needs or solve
societal problems, without losing
sight of the basic science. Second,
they will understand that what
makes a certain kind of activity science
is its ability to predict. It is not
enough to explain what happenedscience
must be able to say whatwill
happen. Students will leam that in a
true science, someone's explanation
of a phenomenon is acceptable only
if independent investigators can
verify empirical facts or reproduce
experimental results. Third, students
will learn how to learn. In
school they will discover reasons to
keep educating themselves about
science for the rest of their lives,
and they will have picked up the intellectual
tools required to do it.
Fourth, they will develop a keen
sense of skepticism. They will carefully
examine statements from "authorities,"
whether they are the
world's leading scientists, politicians,
or clerics. They will draw on
their own reasoning abiiity and scientific
training to study issues and
come to their own conclusions.
How will students acquire these
abilities? Not by burrowing in a
textbook. Not by listening to a
teacher. Not by watching a video, no
matter how well produced, in which
every step in the development of a
particular concept is explained with
the greatest clarity. Not even by interacting
with af"ancy computer system
that provides continuous feedback
and monitors the student's
progress. They will acquire these
abilities by arduous concentration
and hard work motivated by their
desire to learn some basic aspect of
science for reasons that are entirely
their own. They must be guided to
the science thatthey find essential,
some piece of apuzzle of their own
devising.
These plzles and problems will
be so varied that no classroom situation
or "cooperative group" with a
JUI.Y/AUTtlSI ISS4