Social and Cultural Responsibilities of Science in the School Curriculum: Rationale, Objectives and Teaching Methods
Keywords:
Science Education, Social Factors, Cultural Factors, Educational Objectives, Teaching Methods, CaribbeanAbstract
The school curriculum throughout history has experienced ebbs and flows as various subject areas produce claims and counter-claims about their apparently legitimate position in the proper education of the world's learners. Science is no exception to the list of claimants which have made such demands and applied such pressures to the school curriculum. These claims and counter claims seem to coincide with periods of great cultural, social and ideological changes either world-wide or in the developed sectors of the world. Very few periods of such apparent upheaval are initiated in so-called Third World Countries but the latter do become involved in them eventually. I believe that the emphasis on social and cultural responsibilities of Science is such an upheaval that currently engages the attention of educators, policy makers and society at large in the present-day Caribbean. As such it seems important to look critically at the issues in an attempt to devise meaningful strategies to chart the way forward. This paper tries to grapple with this problem and concludes with suggestions of some objectives and teaching methods which seem relevant and feasible in our present situation.Downloads
Issue
Section
Articles
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).