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