DOCUMENT RESUME ED 390 648 SE 056 959 AUTHOR Poole, Michael TITLE Beliefs and Values in Science Education. Developing Science and Technology Education. REPORT NO ISBN-0-335-15645-2 PUB DATE 95 NOTE 146p. AVAILABLE FROM Open University Press, Suite 101, 1900 Frost Road, Bristol, PA 19007 (hardcover: ISBN-0-335-15646-0; paperback: ISBN-0-335-15645-2). PUB TYPE Reports Evaluative/Feasibility (142) Books (010) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC06 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Beliefs; *Cultural Influences; Elementary Secondary Education; Foreign Countries; Moral Values; Science Curriculum; Science Instruction; Social Values; Student Attitudes; Technology; *Values ABSTRACT This book asserts that beliefs and values are integral to the scientific enterprise and the theory and practice of education and hence science education, and that it is desirable to explore such matters in the classroom. It aims at helping science teachers demonstrate how spiritual, moral, social, and cultural factors affect science. Chapter 1, "Everybody Needs Standards," begins by looking at ways in which beliefs and values are located within science and within education and moves on to fundamental matters about the bases of belief systems. Chapter 2, "What Science Cannot Discover, Mankind Cannot Know?" considers how beliefs about the nature of the scientific enterprise have affected popular views about the status of science, and the particular educational task this presents. The ways in which beliefs and values affect the language of science, its models, and metaphors, is the theme of chapter 3, "Every Comparison Has a Limp." Chapter 4, "Wanted! Alive or Dead," addresses issues of environmental beliefs and models. Chapcer 5, "In the Beginning," deals with teaching about the Earth in space and traces out current interest in metaphysical as well as physical questions about origin. Chapter 6, "Publish and be Damned?" looks at one historical episode in cosmology--the Gailileo Affair, and chapter 7, "God Knows What the Public Will Think," focuses on the beliefs and values involved in particular historical events--the Darwinian controversies. (JRH) ******************* ************************************ Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * from the original document. *********************************************************************** bEVELOPIN G SCIENCE AND 'TECH NOLOGY 'EDUCATION LIEFS AND VALUES IN SCIENCE EDUCATION MICHAEL POOLE -PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS M TERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES 1. INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)" -r U.S. OSPARTMENT OP EDUCATION OfIce of Educational Reellerch end Improvement 'EDUCATIONALRESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERICI Th aocumenthes been teprOduCed Oft ,P ..cowed from II* pereon of OnionisItnyt t onconetinp 0 Minor chenpes have OW midi to *roomy* to.t reproduction Quality Points& vowoprnione Meted m this poor BEST COPY AVAILABLE mint Oo not neceteerey MOM/int ofticII OE SI oomtan Of (*hey , 2 Beliefs and Values in Science Education 3 DEVELOPING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION Series Editor: Brian Woolnough, Department of Educational Studies, University of Oxford Current titles: John Eggleston: Teaching Design and Technology Richard Gott and Sandra Duggan: Investigative Work in the Science Curriculum David Layton: Technology's Challenge to Science Education Keith Postlewaite: Differentiated Science Teaching Michael J. Reiss: Science Education for a Pluralist Society Jon Scaife and Jerry Wellington: Information Technology in Science and Technology Education Joan Solomon: Teaching Science, Technology and Society Clive Sutton: Words, Science and Learning Brian Woolnough: Effective Science Teaching Beliefs and Values in Science Education MICHAEL POOLE Open University Press Buckingham Philadclphia ._ 0 Open University Press Celtic Court 22 Ballmoor Buckingham MK18 1XW and 1900 Frost Road, Suite 101 Bristol, PA 19007, USA First published 1995 Copyright © Michael Poole 1995 All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency Limited. Details of such licences (for reprographic reproduction) may be obtained from the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd of 90 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1P 9HE. A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Poole, Michael (Michael W.) Beliefs and values in science education / Michael Poole. p. cm. (Developing science and technology education) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-335-15646-0. ISBN 0-335-15645-2 (pbk.) I. ScienceStudy and teaching. I. Title. II. Series. 0126 .9. P66 1995 507'.1dc20 94-41387 Typeset by Type Study, Scarborough Printed in Great Britain by St Edmundsbury Press, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk 6 An Educational Model 'the sensible educator....will not expect or intend the novice to alter it. The extreme liberal leaves to produce an educated adult who has no beliefs, the novice to find his own materials and devise his values, or attitudes, which he cannot rationally own plan, for fear of exercising improper influ- defend against all corners and who is incapable of ence. The most he will do is to provide strictly settled convictions, deep-seated virtues, or pro- technical information if asked. The sensible educa- found loyalties. But neither will he treat his pupils tor helps the novice to build the best house he can in such a way as to leave them with closed minds (in the light of accumulated experience). He and restricted sympathies. The process of being strikes a balance between the need to produce a educated is like learning to build a house by good house and the desirability of letting the actually building one and then having to live in the novice make his own choices: but he is careful that house one has built. It is a process in which the the house is designed in such a way that it can individual inevitably requires help. The extreme subsequently be altered and improved as the authoritarian helps by building the house himself owner, no longer a novice, sees fit.' according to what he believes to be the best plan and making the novice live in it. He designs it in Professor Basil Mitchell such a way as to make it as difficult as possible for The Durham Report 7 Series editor's preface 9 Preface 11 Acknowledgements 13 CHAPTER 1 'Everybody need Standards' 15 bases of decision-making CHAPTER 2 'What science cannot discover, mankind cannot know'? 33 beliefs and values about science CHAPTER 3 'Every comparison has a limp' 49 language, concepts and models CHAPTER 4 'Wanted! Alive or dead' 65 environmental beliefs and values CHAPTER 5 'In the beginning .. 81 cosmology and creation CHAPTER 6 'Publish and be damned'? 99 the Galileo affair CHAPTER 7 'God knows what the public will think' 115 the Darwinian controversies Notes and references 131 Index 141 Series editor's preface It may seem surprising that after three decades of the methods and the content of the subject, the curriculum innovation, and with the increasing way a scientist or engineer works and the appropri- provision of a centralised National Curriculum, ate knowledge and understanding, but what is the that it is felt necessary to produce a series of books relationship between the two? How does the which encourage teachers and curriculum de- student's explicit knowledge relate to investi- velopers to continue to rethink how science and gational skill, how important is the student's tacit technology ,:hould be taught in schools. But teach- knowledge? In the past the holistic nature of ing can never be merely the 'delivery' of someone scientific activity and the importance of affectiw: else's 'given' curriculum. It is essentially a personal factors such as commitment and enjoyment have and professional business in which lively, thinking, been seriously undervalued in relation to the enthusiastic teachers continue to analyse their own student's success. activities and mediate the curriculum framework And, of particular concern to this series, what is to their students. If teachers ever cease to be the relationship between science and technology? critical of what they are doing, then their teaching, In some countries the scientific nature of tech- and their students' learning, will become sterile. nology and the technological aspects of science There are still important questions which need make the subjects a natui al continuum. In others to be addressed, questions which remain funda- the curriculum structures have separated the two, mental but the answers to which may vary accord- leaving the teachers to develop appropriate links. ing to the social conditions and educational Underlying this series is the belief that science and priorities at a particular time. technology have an important interdependence What is the justification for teaching science and and thus many of the books will be appropriate to technology in our schools? For educational or teachers of both science and technology. vocational reasons? Providing science and tech- Increasingly, teachers have become aware that nology for all, for future educated citizens, or to science and technology are not objective, imper- provide adequately prepared and motivated stu- sonal, amoral activities but that they have, under- dents to fulfil the industrial needs of the country? lying them, fundamental issues relating to the very Will the same type of curriculum satisfactorily nature of the subjects and the purposes for which meet both needs or do we need a differentiated they are to be used in society. Teachers and curriculum? In the past it has too readily been curriculum developers have increasingly sought to assumed that one type of science will meet all sec science in this wider, cultural context, to see needs. how scientific ideas have developed and how they What should he the nature of science and have been influenced by the world-view held by technology in schools? it will need to develop both society at that time.