The Importance of Science Education

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Introduction

Our experiences influence the formation of our attitudes, desires and purposes (Dewey1938).Similarly, the experiences of the students in the science classroom determine the subjects that they do as well as lead to a decline in the number of students choosing to do integrated science. In the quest to gain insight into their experiences in the science classroom, it is prudent for the researcher to review some of the issues that could have impacted on their experiences in the teaching and learning of integrated science. The current issues that will be reviewed are (1) importance of science education (2) the integrated science curriculum (3) attitude towards science teaching and learning (4) teaching strategies and motivation (5) teaching style (6) students’ experiences. The review of the literature in this research on students’ experiences in the science classroom in relation to science teaching and learning serves to guide and inform the discussion which will emerge from the findings of the research.

Importance of Science Education

Science education is relevant to all areas of life in our society, however many students seem to lose their interest for it in schools. Schreiner and Sjoberg (2004) have implied that students have developed ambivalent attitude toward science while Reiss (2000)( as cited in TLRP EPSE Research briefing 2006) is of the view that students need to believe that the science that is taught in schools is relevant to their personal lives. Science education is important or relevant to all of us in three main ways: our personal lives, our civic lives and our economic lives. In ...

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...esult of the teaching strategies used in the secondary school. Baird’s et al., (1990) interview revealed that students’ expected secondary school science to be active, interesting and fun and they look forward to doing experiments, dissection, investigations and projects however their expectations were short lived. As these once motivated students experience the reality of secondary school science, many become disappointed and disenchanted in the science classroom. Baird et al., (1990) explained that secondary school students were given notes, observed demonstrations and were not given any real science work to do. The students expressed disappointment with the teaching strategies as they claimed that the teaching strategies lack hands –on activities; they had to write a lot of notes and the teachers lecture to them and the topics were most times irrelevant.

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