Science Education in an Age of Misinformation. Stanford University, 2022, Osborne et al.

The deluge of information (and mis- and dis-) certainly does require changes in the school system. There's less need to memorize trivia (can look nearly anything up quickly) and more need to know how to do so wisely. More emphasis on fundamental knowledge in needed, so they don't fall prey to even blatantly incorrect claims. A better understanding of probability and statistics would be useful too; for example, luck is a perspective of past events, rather than a force that influences future events.

Of course, a major conflict of interest is between what's useful for students and what's convenient for teachers. Trivia is easy for teachers to write tests for. Testing whether they really understand what luck is, or how to judge a website based on content rather than appearance, is more difficult.
 
https://sciedandmisinfo.stanford.edu/

About the Report
https://sciedandmisinfo.stanford.edu/about-report

This report is a product of a collaboration of a group led by Jonathan Osborne and funded by a grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The content stems from a series of discussions held among the following participants:

Jonathan Osborne, PhD, Stanford University, Stanford, USA

Jonathan Osborne’s research focus is a mix of work on policy and pedagogy in the teaching and learning of science. In the policy domain, he is interested in exploring students' attitudes to science and how school science can be made more worthwhile and engaging - particularly for those who will not continue with the study of science. In pedagogy, his focus has been on making the case for the role of argumentation in science education both as a means of improving the use of a more dialogic approach to teaching science and improving student understanding of the nature of scientific inquiry.

Other authors details at link
 
Trish said:
how school science can be made more worthwhile and engaging
Click to expand...
Flames and explosions are engaging. Smoke and smells somewhat engaging. Orbitals and covalent bonds: snooze time.

I agree that more discussion would be helpful about how science explains the world, and how knowing the scientific basis for something can be useful for an average non-scientist. Why you shouldn't let cooked fruit sit in an aluminum pot (acid attacks Al), or why you shouldn't let water freeze in a container (expansion). Knowing a bit about electricity and magnetism should help you avoid certain scams, and lets you know what not to do when a powerline drops on your car (don't step out).

I'm not sure of the importance of this debate now. How long before education is done at home (or what amounts to a group babysitting building), through an AI, with a completely different set of issues to debate?
 
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