VIEWPOINTS OF ANALYSIS OF OBJECTIVES OF SCIENCE EDUCATION―IN RELATION TO THE VIEWS OF SCIENCE―

Abstract

In this article the author attempts to clarify the viewpoints from which the objectives of science education could be successfully analyzed, focusing on the views of science which underlie the objectives of science education. The paper classifies the objectives which have been characteristic of science education for the last 30 years into the six different kinds of objectives, and identifies the six different views of science which mainly influence the six objectives respectively. The six kinds of combination of the objectives and the views are as follows: (1) Transmission of scientific knowledge and the pragmatic views of science, (2) Development of scientific abilities and the views of science as inquiry, (3) Appreciation of science and the views of science as culture, (4) Philosophical understanding of science in a narrow sense and the views of science as a view of nature, (5) Development of social ability and the views of science as social phenomena, (6) Development of ability to understand science critically and the views of science as an industrialized enterprise with the function of ideological legitimatization. The paper further points out the viewpoints which are able to analyze fundamentally various kinds of objectives of science education today. The viewpoints involved in the combinations of the objectives and the views of science are as follows: (1) The influences of the views of science on the decision of the objectives of science education must be discussed only in the whole framework of the views of education, (2) The simultaneous and complex influences of various kinds of views of science upon the decision must be considered, (3) Full attention must be paid to the influence of both the obvious views and the hidden views of science upon the decision.