Problems of Discipline Centered Science Education and a Method of the Utilization of Everyday Materials in Science Education

학문 중심 과학 교육의 문제점과 생활 소재의 과학 교재화 방안

The new movement in science education in America and Europe has been heavilly oriented into technological and soceital aspect of science since 1970. However, this spirit has not been well informed in Korea and not adapted in science education. This paper aimed to arouse Korean science educators attention to everyday situation as a science education context. In this paper, the discipline centered science education was briefly reviewed and problems related to the philosophy was pointed out. At the same time the researcher introduced STS context as a science education objective, and elaborated the three elements(physical situation, technological situation. and societal situation) of the context. In the paper, the advantages of the use of everyday context in science education were examined. THe advantages were analysed in terms of the nature of science, learning psychology, integrated science, and societal aspect of science education. The paper also suggested the criteria to select teaching materials from STS context. The suggested criteria were the degree of science concepts involvement, frequency of experience, strength of experience, and possibility of direct experience.