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NSTA Position Statement:
Science/Technology/Society: A New Effort for Providing Appropriate Science for All
NSTA views STS as the teaching and learning of science in the context of human experience. It represents an appropriate science education context for all learners. The emerging research is clear in illustrating that learning science in an STS context results in students with more sophisticated concept mastery and ability to use process skills. All students improve in terms of creativity skills, attitude toward science, use of science concepts and processes in their daily living and in responsible personal decision-making.
There are no concepts and/or processes unique to STS; instead STS provides a setting and a reason for considering basic science and technology concepts and processes. STS means determining and experiencing ways that these basic ideas and skills can be observed in society. STS means focusing on real-world problems which have science and technology components from the students' perspectives, instead of starting with concepts and processes. This allows students to instigate, analyze, and apply concepts and processes to real situations. A good program will have built-in opportunities for the students to extend beyond the classroom to their local communities. These activities should be appropriate for the age of the students and be learner centered. STS should help lay the basis for empowering students so that as future citizens they realize they have the power to make changes and the responsibility to do so.
STS: How to Recognize Program
Basic to STS efforts is the production of an informed citizenry capable of making crucial decisions about current problems and issues and taking personal actions as a result of these decisions. STS means focusing upon current issues and attempts at their resolution as the best way of preparing students for current and future citizenship roles. This means identifying local, regional, national, and international problems with students, planning for individual and group activities which address them, and moving to actions designed to resolve the issues investigated. The emphasis is on responsible decision making in the real world of the student. STS provides direction for achieving scientific and technological literacy for all. The emphasis is on responsible decision making in the real world of the student where science and technology are components. Curricular and instructional processes might consider the following:
- Is it a problem or issue?
- How did it become a problem or issue?
- What are some alternative approaches to its solution?
- What are the potential effects of applying the alternatives on individuals and/or Society?
STS programs are characterized as those with many of the following characteristics:
- student identification of problems with local interest and impact;
- the use of local resources (human and material) to locate information that can be used in problem resolution;
- the active involvement of students in seeking information that can be applied to solve real-life problems;
- the extension of learning going beyond the class period_the classroom, the school;
- a focus upon the impact of science and technology on individual students;
- a view that science content is more than concepts which exist for students to master on tests;
- an emphasis upon process skills which students can use in their own problem resolution;
- an emphasis upon career awareness_especially careers related to science and technology;
- opportunities for students to experience citizenship roles as they attempt to resolve issues they have identified;
- identification of ways that science and technology are likely to impact the future;
- some autonomy in the learning process (as individual issues are identified).
STS: A Way of Producing Scientific and Technological Literacy
The major goal for STS efforts is the production of scientifically and technologically literate persons after 13 years of involvement with science in school. The scientifically and technologically literate person:
- uses concepts of science and of technology as well as an informed reflection of ethical values in solving everyday problems and making responsible decisions in everyday life, including work and leisure
- engages in responsible personal and civic actions after weighing the possible consequences of alternative options
- defends decisions and actions using rational arguments based on evidence
- engages in science and technology for the excitement and the explanations they provide
- displays curiosity about and appreciation of the natural and human-made world
- applies skepticism, careful methods, logical reasoning, and creativity in investigating the observable universe
- values scientific research and technological problem solving
- locates, collects, analyzes, and evaluates sources of scientific and technological information and uses these sources in solving problems, making decisions, and taking actions
- distinguishes between scientific and technological evidence and personal opinion and between reliable and unreliable information
- remains open to new evidence and the tentativeness of scientific/technological knowledge
- recognizes that science and technology are human endeavors
- weighs the benefits and burdens of scientific and technological development
- recognizes the strengths and limitations of science and technology for advancing human welfare
- analyzes interactions among science, technology, and society
- connects science and technology to other human endeavors, e.g., history, mathematics, the arts, and the humanities
- considers the political, economic, moral, and ethical aspects of science and technology as they relate to personal and global issues
- offers explanations of natural phenomena which may be tested for their validity.
Summary
STS requires that we rethink, restructure, reorganize, rewrite, and revise current materials (e.g., curriculum, texts, audiovisuals) used to teach science. STS will require a realignment of goals and objectives and a reallocation of resources. STS will require re-education on all levels from policy makers to teachers to parents. Such reform of science education is essential.
The bottom line in STS is the involvement of learners in experiences and issues which are directly related to their lives. STS empowers students with skills which allow them to become active, responsible citizens by responding to issues which impact their lives. The experience of science education through STS strategies will create a scientifically literate citizenry for the 21st century.
—Unanimously Approved by NSTA Board of Directors
July 1990