Scientism and the Separated Science Teaching System in the Former Soviet Union

Abstract

In the 1930s in the former Soviet Union, integrated science teaching was discontinued, and physics, chemistry, and biology began to be taught as separate sciences so that students could acquire the fundamentals of science required for industrializing the socialist society. This separated science teaching system was maintained until the end of the Soviet Union. After World War II, as industrialization progressed and brilliant results in space development thrilled the people of the Soviet Union, it was considered even more important for children to acquire the fundamentals of science. Furthermore, recognizing that a Scientific-Technological Revolution had come, it was thought that the acquisition of the fundamentals of science was essential for the socialistic development of personality. The background to this way of thinking is scientism-the idea that life and society will develop from natural science. From the standpoint of scientism, the establishment of the separated science teaching system in the 1930s was begun. Moreover, as the idea of scientism spread and was strengthened, the separated science teaching was considered essential in Soviet schools.