This article addresses some of the curriculum implications of adopting a socioscientific issues (SSIs)-oriented approach to science education, including (a) the need to provide scientific knowledge on a need-to-know basis and adapted to the complexity, multidimensionality, and fluidity of real-world situations and the constraints of particular…

Discusses affective dimensions in school science. Uses data from two case studies and explores ways in which science has the potential to stimulate and challenge emotions. Discusses the importance of affect in learning, how emotions might feature more centrally in science classrooms, and how definitions of scientific literacy might more explicitly…

Reports on a study that takes its point of departure from four facets of human functioning to which scientific literacy may contribute from a personal, social, and scientific disciplinary perspective. These include everyday coping, social decision making, working in technological industrial enterprises, and extending the frontiers of science and…

Comments on the article 'Time to Change Drivers for Science Literacy' by Peter Fensham and addresses two issues: (1) Why is reforming the science curriculum so hard?; and (2) What are the potential possibilities of and problems with Fensham's reform proposal? (Contains 12 references.) (Author/YDS)

Comments on the criticisms of Fensham (2002) of scientific literacy curricula being designed by scientists and science educators. Suggests that an analysis of literacy leads to several propositions from which the analogy with scientific literacy can be drawn. (Author/YDS)

Describes the history of science and its purposes in school curriculum, and the reform movements in science education. Explains confusion of "literacy" and "literate" and the use of mass media as a major source for scientific literacy. Discusses science for all and science for possible future scientists. (Contains 41 references.) (Author/YDS)

Comments on Fensham's suggestion for a change of driver for developing new curricula in school science. Discusses the support needed for a curriculum driven by societal experts, unintentional contributions to the existing problem, and a personal research agenda. (Author/YDS)

Alternatives to traditional science education will remain as limited as their predecessors unless the very structures of schooling are called into question. Alternatives cannot be designed at the drawing board by theoreticians but must be grounded in praxis, thereby providing concrete trajectories along which science education can actually change.…

Comments on Fensham's (2002) suggestion that 'societal experts' are better situated than academic scientists to decide what knowledge is worth having. Suggests that Fensham's proposal lacks the educo-politics needed to counter the customary devious educo-politics expected from those who support the status quo, particularly some academic…

Explains a proposal for society to be the driver for scientific literacy and the need to understand the roots of persistent difficulty in incorporating useful knowledge into the secondary school curriculum. Discusses changes taking place in the economy, the idea of enlisting industry as an ally to legitimate alternative forms of knowledge, and…