The History of Science And The Future of Science Education

In the continuing campaign to enhance science instruction one battle we are winning relates to the inclusion of elements of the nature of science (NOS) in official recommendations designed to guide the development of the science curriculum. Increasingly, standards documents in the U.S. states (which effectively control what is taught within their borders), the U.S. national science education standards (NRC, 1996) (which does not have the force of law but is regularly consulted in planning science instruction by the individual states) and many other nations now include explicit requirements to include the nature of science in plans for science learning. We seem to have responded positively to the 1970 call from Carey and Stauss who stated that, "if the teacher's understanding and philosophy of science are not congruent with the current interpretations of the nature of science, ... then the instructional outcomes will not be representative of science" (p. 363). There is little doubt that NOS should have a central place in the science curriculum and it is time that teachers blend both NOS and more traditional content to ensure that students come to understand what science is and how it functions.