ABSTRACT

The daily addition to our knowledge about the living and made world – widely accessible through television programmes and other media reports about newly explored parts of planet Earth and indeed other planets – is one sign that scientific knowledge is exponentially increasing. Other signs are in the applications of science in constantly changing technology, particularly in our modes of communication and access to information. How can science education be expected to keep up with this knowledge explosion? Is it not inevitable that what is taught in schools will be seen to be out-of-date and out of touch? That is only the case if we think of science education in terms of a collection of facts and theories. If, instead, we consider it as a progression towards the development of broad underlying ideas that have wide application, then we are less at the mercy of constantly expanding information. These are the ideas that help our understanding of familiar and new things around and enable us to take part in decisions as informed citizens of a world where science and technology are of ever increasing significance.