Achieving Scientific Literacy: From Purposes to Practices

Some have said that the value of science education has declined and our goal of scientific literacy is an unrealized and unrealizable myth. Others have simply declared that our efforts to reform have failed. Rodger Bybee responds to these charges, offering insights into the issues surrounding contemporary reform. Achieving Scientific Literacy offers a broad vision for improving science education that is at times historical and philosophical and also concrete and practical. It extends and elaborates on several themes, including: a clarification of scientific literacy; a systemic perspective on reform; a standards-based approach to improving science education; and an emphasis on science teaching and student learning. Bybee maintains that although the rhetoric of reform is national, the actual reform must occur at state and local levels. His book addresses the critical challenge of transforming issues from national standards to state and local practices, and ultimately to the classroom, with the aim of developing greater coherence and consistency in science education. Achieving Scientific Literacy is a book aimed at anyone concerned about the future of science education. It should help classroom teachers, science supervisors and administrators with both the larger perspective of reform and the practical issues of improving their programmes and practices. Undergraduates who are entering the profession, scientists and engineers who support and influence school science programmes, and teachers and policymakers who identify and address critical issues of educational reform should find the book just as valuable.