---
title: "Science education"
chunk: 2/6
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_education"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:18:54.994028+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Chemistry education is characterized by the study of science that deals with the composition, structure, and properties of substances and the transformations that they undergo.
Chemistry is the study of chemicals and the elements and their effects and attributes. Students in chemistry learn the periodic table. The branch of science education known as "chemistry must be taught in a relevant context in order to promote full understanding of current sustainability issues." As this source states chemistry is a very important subject in school as it teaches students to understand issues in the world. As children are interested by the world around them chemistry teachers can attract interest in turn educating the students further. The subject of chemistry is a very practical based subject meaning most of class time is spent working or completing experiments.

=== Biology education ===

Biology education is characterized by the study of structure, function, heredity, and evolution of all living organisms. Biology itself is the study of living organisms, through different fields including morphology, physiology, anatomy, behavior, origin, and distribution.
Depending on the country and education level, there are many approaches to teaching biology. In the United States, there is a growing emphasis on the ability to investigate and analyze biology related questions over an extended period of time. Current biological education standards are based on decisions made by the Committee of Ten, who aimed to standardize pre-college learning in 1892. The Committee emphasized the importance of learning natural history (biology) first, focusing on observation through laboratory work.

=== Nature of Science education ===
Nature of Science education refers to the study of how science is a human initiative, how it interacts with society, what scientists do, how scientific knowledge is built up and exchanged, how it evolves, how it is used. It stresses the empirical nature and the different methods used in science. The goals of Nature of Science education are stated to be to help students evaluate scientific and pseudo scientific statements, to motivate them to study science and to better prepare them for a career in science or in a field that interacts with science.

== Pedagogy ==
While the public image of science education may be one of simply learning facts by rote, science education in recent history also generally concentrates on the teaching of science concepts and addressing misconceptions that learners may hold regarding science concepts or other content. Thomas Kuhn, whose 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions greatly influenced the post-positivist philosophy of science, argued that the traditional method of teaching in the natural sciences tends to produce a rigid mindset.
Since the 1980s, science education has been strongly influenced by constructivist thinking. Constructivism in science education has been informed by an extensive research programme into student thinking and learning in science, and in particular exploring how teachers can facilitate conceptual change towards canonical scientific thinking. Constructivism emphasises the active role of the learner, and the significance of current knowledge and understanding in mediating learning, and the importance of teaching that provides an optimal level of guidance to learners.
According to a 2004 Policy Forum in Science magazine, "scientific teaching involves active learning strategies to engage students in the process of science and teaching methods that have been systematically tested and shown to reach diverse students."
The 2007 volume Scientific Teaching  lists three major tenets of scientific teaching:

Active learning: A process in which students are actively engaged in learning.  It may include inquiry-based learning, cooperative learning, or student-centered learning.
Assessment: Tools for measuring progress toward and achievement of the learning goals.
Diversity:  The breadth of differences that make each student unique, each cohort of students unique, and each teaching experience unique.  Diversity includes everything in the classroom: the students, the instructors, the content, the teaching methods, and the context.

These elements should underlie educational and pedagogical decisions in the classroom. The "SCALE-UP" learning environment is an example of applying the scientific teaching approach.  In practice, scientific teaching employs a "backward design" approach.  The instructor first decides what the students should know and be able to do (learning goals), then determines what would be evidence of student achievement of the learning goals, then designs assessments to measure this achievement.  Finally, the instructor plans the learning activities, which should facilitate student learning through scientific discovery.

=== Science pedagogical approaches ===
A number of pedagogical approaches are important in modern science teaching, each of which come from distinct philosophical backgrounds and involve different classroom strategies. These include teacher-centred pedagogy, which is a traditional behaviourist approach, where the teacher is the main source of knowledge and directs learning. However, other more constructivist approaches are today often favored  which are more learner centred. Pure discovery is where students are autonomous and teachers have a minimal role. 
However, more favoured is a learner guided approach, where the educator guides and facilitates learning. Specific hands-on illustrations of this approach are available. Another form is inquiry based learning, where the student takes on the role of the investigator with often the educator providing initial questions to examine. In practical and experiential science the emphasis is on practical hands-one experimentation, with students performing experiments themselves. Often a blend of the above methods are used depending on context and lesson.

== Research ==
The practice of science education has been increasingly informed by research into science teaching and learning.  Research in science education relies on a wide variety of methodologies, borrowed from many branches of science and engineering such as computer science, cognitive science, cognitive psychology and anthropology. Science education research aims to define or characterize what constitutes learning in science and how it is brought about.
John D. Bransford, et al., summarized massive research into student thinking as having three key findings: