Science education in an uncertain and briskly changing society

Abstract

Along history, there have always been times of brisk changes and uncertainty perception, but both had been attributed to superhuman powers, or to nature forces. Nowadays, what makes its perception so ominous is the conscience of human influence on the future: now we are responsible, by action or omission. Besides, there are characteristics of the new society that makes us to refect on changes we are living today, when what matters for education is intelligence, daring, risk and diversity. We live in the society of imagination and we have to think what the new learning perspectives are.

In this context an analysis will be made on today’s science education paradigms, the following in particular: affectivity; analogies; argumentation; communication and information technologies; competences; inquiry; models and modeling; nature of science; pedagogical content knowledge; risk; science and technology at the frontier; socio-scientific issues and uncertainty.