This week I came across an interesting Nature piece on the growing momentum in state and local legislatures to promote 'teaching the controversy.' In essence, this practice would introduce 'alternative' views in the classroom for publicly controversial scientific theories, even if those theories are widely accepted in the scientific community. From the piece:
"State and local legislatures in the United States are experimenting with new ways to target the topics taught in science classes, and it seems to be paying dividends. Florida’s legislature approved a bill on 5 May that would enable residents to challenge what educators teach students. And two other states have already approved non-binding legislation this year urging teachers to embrace ‘academic freedom’ and present the full spectrum of views on evolution and climate change. This would give educators license to treat evolution and intelligent design as equally valid theories, or to present climate change as scientifically contentious."
(Source: Nature, "Revamped 'anti-science' education bills in United States find success")
Thoughts from fellow educators? Is the 'teaching the controversy' movement helpful or harmful? Should so-called alternate theories be included in science curricula? As a teacher I find this discussion pretty relevant, and I'm curious how other scientists/educators feel about this!
Submitted May 14, 2017 at 08:26AM by TravisJBernardo http://ift.tt/2rfvYeE
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario