Abstract

The current widespread reexamination of the offerings in science education is in response to the forces which will shape science courses for years The writers have examined the all round study of teaching science of SOLUTION, such as history of teaching, analysis of Japanese and foreign text books, research on the actual conditions of child experience and a comparison of a discosvcery method and a conventional method in teaching science of solution. It may be given as a conclusion that most vital programs are those based on the needs of the child in his environment, prgrams which are in harmony with the total school program and mindful of the needs of society and which utilize the materials, concepts, and methods unique to science. The process of curriculum development involvs the exploration of all these sources to find in them the content and the methods for the science program. However, the uniqueness of science education is derived from the eontent of organized knowledge and the methods of discovery inherent in the formal sciens. In designing the science curriculum we have to look to the basic science for both answers and questions. We look to the science for key questions which will lead children into the structure of organized science. Scientific content may become more meaningful to child if he is given a continuous orientation toward the basic principles of science. It is not the statement of the conception that should be considered the objecive, but rather the building up of a background of ideas and experiences which are involved in the conception and whieh, in turn, make the conception understandable, acceptable, and useful to the learner in interpreting new experiences. It is not memorization of fact that should be considered the goal, but the growth of the individual along lines of the profound truchs of sciences. The completely enquiring classroom would have two aspects. On the one hand, its materials exhibit science as enquiry, ont he other hand, student would be led to enquire into these materials. The key is process, using the word in a general sense. We suggest three types of process in science teaching. One is the process of discovery that is usually called the scientific method. It involves hypothesizing about antecedent-consequent relations, testing hypotheses, and stating the resulting principles or generalizations. A second refers to the processes in nature, the antecedent-consequent relations, that are discovered threough the use of the scientific method. These process, often called causeeffect relations, concepts, generalizatins of principles, are the heart of science. The third refers to the process of applying knowledge in the various sciences and technologies. Man is powerful when he employs his knowledge of antecedent-eonsequent relations to control nature. In these teaching-learning processes, child will develop functional knowledge, in strumental skills, under-standing of the scientific method and a scientific attitude.