Abstract
A study was conducted on a group of secondary science teachers in the state of Victoria, Australia, who explicitly identified themselves with the process of teaching Science-Technology-Society (STS) science in the science curriculum *. This study investigated the beliefs and conceptions (a set of values, ideas and understandings) of these 'STS' teachers about science teaching and their science STS curricula in practice. Case studies of these nine teachers were used as the overall research methodology in this interpretive study. Four curriculum constructs, Curriculum Emphases, Aspects of Learning, Teaching Strategies and Approach to Content in Science Learning were used in this study as conceptual tools or constructs to access and analyze the curriculum data which came from classroom observations, curriculum documents and interviews with the teachers. This paper will report some of the major findings, amongst which the followings were found to be posing a serious challenge to STS teaching: i) the 'technology is applied science' view, being an inadequate and misleading account of technology, was predominantly held by all the teachers, ii) students were not taught how to make decisions on science-related social issues although this was stated by the teachers as an objective of teaching science, and iii) there was a lack of teaching of the philosophical and historical aspects of science resulting in an impersonal, scientistic and unsocial presentation of science. Unless these issues are resolved, it remains in doubt whether science teachers are ready to teach the STS theme.
| Keywords: | science teachers; teacher conceptions; science learning; Science-Technology-Society (STS) curriculum |
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* Note: As this is a study of STS teaching/learning within a science curriculum and since it is from a science education perspective, the term 'STS' used in this article is understood to be the same as 'STS science' whereas 'science' is throughout here to mean 'traditional science'.
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