دانلود کتاب علم شهروندی در آموزش علوم

Discussing science, understanding what science is, learning science, and teaching science are distinct yet interconnected topics in the public’s understanding, and, for the public, the meaning and significance of science in society have evolved over time. The understanding of science for the public, closely linked to scientific literacy, is now a political issue that features on the agendas and programmes of governments in democratic regimes. It is an issue that spans across contemporary societies, although the way it is approached is diverse, particularly regarding the emphasis placed on it within formal education. It should be noted, however, that compulsory education is a political decision and, accordingly, its duration and content have changed over time in all countries. In Portugal, compulsory education was set at six years only in 1964, but its implementation on the ground took many years due to a lack of teachers and schools equipped for the new concept, at a time when many parents and, above all, grandparents were illiterate. The type of science intended to be taught then to children coming from disadvantaged backgrounds cannot be assessed by today’s standards of scientific culture. The same occurred with many subsequent restructurings, the most significant of which took place after the revolution of 1974. It took 22 years for compulsory schooling to be extended from six to nine years, as established in 1986 by the framework law on education. This structure has remained essentially unchanged, with occasional adjustments, with the main modification in 2012, when compulsory schooling was extended to 12 years. The greatest challenge we face today is adapting the educational project to contemporary societies—considering that unreliable information is more readily available and disseminated with the simple click or touch of a screen. Being literate in science and in many other fields is a goal for which researchers in Education are called upon to intervene. Citizen science, a term whose meaning has evolved over time, as will be discussed further by the author of this book, refers us to two more common concepts, although they are not of linear interpretation: science and citizenship. Do they come together to form a more complex concept? Since this is not the focus of these introductory remarks, I leave the answer to this question to interested readers. Indeed, I will not address the topic that the author has studied in depth and so eloquently presents, supported by the extensive bibliography she cites. However, it is worthwhile to explore the text before us in order to understand the contributions of citizen science as a means to reflectively engage with and monitor science-based societal issues. In summary, in this book, the concept of citizen science is based on five main characteristics: “public participation”, “voluntary contributions”, “scientific production of research and knowledge”, “real-world contexts”, and “socio-scientific issues”. In addition, citizen science projects may encompass more extensive levels of scope, enabling the analysis and interpretation of data on a given issue at a local, regional, or national level, or even as a contribution to a global problem. I have therefore chosen to reflect on science education and its role in fostering critical and reflective citizenship. Considering that science is a borderless body of knowledge, permeating our daily lives, and that society itself no longer has natural or ethically neutral boundaries, we may regard citizenship as the mediating concept between the two—a concept that is increasingly complex, given that both science and society have become interwoven with technology, which has tangible implications for our lives, even for people with no scientific background. Many scientific and technological discoveries and inventions, such as the contraceptive pill in 1960 and the World Wide Web in the 1990s, have profoundly transformed our personal and social lives, demanding new skills and knowledge and, inevitably, requiring us to rethink educational guidelines and strategies. Teaching science, or any other subject area, cannot simply replicate the teaching strategies of the past, even if those approaches were once effective. Understanding what students think and know about the topics is essential, but not sufficient. Furthermore, science education throughout schooling, while becoming increasingly specialised and in-depth, must enable students to understand that addressing real-world problems requires multiple bodies of knowledge, and it is through their combination that a solution may emerge. A real-life example illustrating this articulation was experienced by all of us during the COVID-19 pandemic. Never had we witnessed a situation in which so many scientists from different fields, working cooperatively, provided explanations about the devastation caused worldwide by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This real example of open science demonstrated the impact of scientific knowledge on society and, with each passing day, underscored the urgency of developing an effective vaccine. What is currently known about science learning is the result of the work of many researchers across all continents; yet, in just a few decades, the world has changed in unpredictable ways. Students’ questions in an era of artificial intelligence are not easily answered by a great number of teachers, as many of these questions are themselves unexpected. The same was true at the end of the 1970s, when in vitro fertilisation was invented and adolescent students would ask in the classroom how to make a “test tube baby”. Are teachers prepared for the challenges posed by contemporary knowledge?