The post-truth era and how science education keeps ignoring it

The term “post-truth” has been used to characterize the contemporary era . Designated as the word of the year in 2016 by the Oxford English Dictionary , “post-truth” refers to “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping political debate or public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Authors advocate that more needs to be done to address the adverse effects of post-truth, such as misinformation , and to help people cope with it. But what exactly needs to be done? Take the science education ecosystem, for example: What are the implications for science curricula in schools and universities? How should school science teachers and university lecturers teach? One way of dealing with post-truth is to focus on the nature and importance of scientific evidence to counter proliferation of misinformation. My own research group has been investigating strategies to support evidence-based reasoning in secondary school science lessons for more than 25 years. Our work has highlighted how students’ skills in evidence-based reasoning can be supported through resources and pedagogical strategies .