Teaching Science for Citizenship

Image: Adobe Stock

by Andy Zucker, Ed.D.
Contributing Writer

In an age of pandemics, climate change, gene editing, and artificial intelligence, how should we prepare young people to be thoughtful citizens? That is an important question, especially given people’s heavy reliance on the internet for news and information amid the proliferation of mis- and dis-information related to science.

Science for an Uncertain World

According to the experts who spent two years writing A Framework for K-12 Science Education, learning “science for citizenship” means three things. Most importantly, students should learn how to better evaluate information related to science and thus avoid misinformation. This is critical because multiple studies show that young people are often unable to sort fact from fiction, whether on Instagram, TikTok, or other sources. Also, science and technology change so rapidly that people will always need to learn about subjects they did not study in school, whether about genetic testing for themselves or family members, the benefits and the dangers of artificial intelligence, the safety of offshore wind turbines, or whether to put solar panels on the roof. Learning to learn competencies are essential and need to be taught and practiced in all classrooms.

Secondly, learning science for citizenship means having sufficient knowledge of science and engineering to engage in public discussions on important science-related issues, such as whether and how to regulate the plastics that are finding their way into animals and humans, or whether and how government should act to mitigate climate change. That kind of thinking requires not only learning facts but also supervised practice in understanding and weighing the pros and cons of various policies, which need not always be about controversial issues. Research shows that given balanced information and with guidance by a facilitator, such as a teacher, ordinary people are capable of high-quality deliberation. Even if some members of a group are poor reasoners, the group can have thoughtful, respectful discussions and reach sound conclusions.

Lastly, students should learn to be careful consumers of scientific and technological information related to their everyday lives. Is it safe to buy underarm anti-perspirants containing aluminum, which some people say cause cancer? How can I find out? Who should I trust and why? Once again, practice is important. It takes only a few minutes for students to search on the internet to inquire about aluminum in anti-perspirants and for teachers to ask questions about what their students discovered and why one source might be more trustworthy than another. There are many science-related questions to explore, like this one, that do not involve politics. Over time, young people will develop competencies leading to more thoughtful evaluation of science-related information.

Beyond College and Careers

Learning science for citizenship is not all that students need to learn from their science classes. It’s a question of balance. Currently, preparing students for college and careers is overemphasized in US national and state science education standards—the policies describing what science students should know and be able to do—while learning science for citizenship is underemphasized. We need a better balance.

Similar problems are evident in the UK and Europe. One recent article about the need to reinvent US science education standards which documented deficiencies in the US Next Generation Science Standards noted that “we could have used standards documents from many other countries as well.” As an example, in the UK in 2023 only 42% of students aged 7 to 13 responding to a national survey considered an understanding of science important to their everyday lives, and only 57% thought an understanding of science important to society in general.

Students want to engage with science in ways that will affect their everyday lives, whether as consumers, voters, or global citizens, but science classes focus almost exclusively on preparing young people to continue their education and for careers, not how to use science to help make everyday decisions that affect them. It is perhaps unsurprising, then, that a recent survey of eighth graders in the United States found that only 39% indicated they are interested in what they learn in science class.

Teaching Science Media Literacy

Learning about vaccines and immunizations is not part of the US science education standards. Neither is learning about scientific agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administrations (FDA), the World Health Organization (WHO), or the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The concept of a scientific consensus is not part of the standards, so young people might believe that a single study is more important than the conclusion of dozens of experts—in fact, IPCC reports represent the consensus of hundreds of experts. The standards have almost nothing to say about how people should evaluate science-related information they encounter in advertising, online posts, cable news, or elsewhere. This calls for a set of competencies around science media literacy. For example, students should learn how to recognize relevant scientific expertise and therefore understand that a physicist might be an expert in one field and yet be a non-expert, and not a highly trustworthy source, when it comes to vaccine safety and efficacy.

Science teachers’ professional organizations have already moved in this direction. The National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) recommends teaching science media literacy to all biology students, noting that “the adverse influence of misinformation about science has grown substantially” and science media literacy should “become an integral part of the science education curriculum.” The National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) publishes a regular column called “Fact-or-Faux” in each issue of The Science Teacher, a set of articles to help teachers teach students to better evaluate claims they see that are supposedly based on science.

NSTA also published a 2016 Position Statement advocating teaching science in the context of societal and personal issues. In other words, NSTA recommends that science classes help students become better voters, consumers and lifelong learners where science is involved.

A similar recommendation, that the standards be designed around contemporary issues and contexts rather than disciplinary core ideas, was reached by the study of science education standards cited earlier. The authors concluded that current standards are poorly aligned with learning theories and so it is not surprising that students show little interest in their science classes. “When learners do not perceive a meaningful purpose (meaningful for them) in the tasks in which they are expected to engage, their motivation to engage with these tasks will decline,” the authors wrote, and students will be less likely to be interested and learn.

Aligning Education with the Real World

Young people need an education that prepares them for living in a world where science and technology are an essential part of the fabric of life. Are most vaccines safe and effective and should my child be vaccinated? Should I support laws that require certain vaccinations? How do I know which claims on the internet to believe, for example about treating a disease, or whether a new class of nuclear reactors is safer than older ones, or whether everyone needs to take vitamin supplements, or whether to “drain toxins” from my body by using an expensive product I learned about in an advertisement? How do I know which sources of information to trust, and why?

In the short term, there are many instructional resources available that teachers can use to teach about science topics relevant to students’ current and future lives, and teacher organizations are on board. However, working around science education standards is not a good long-term solution.

Education systems depend on aligning key parts. The goals for K-12 science education need to be aligned with standards, curricula, instruction and tests. When one or more of those elements does not support the others, teachers, students, and policymakers are confused about which are important and which to ignore. Currently, many key science education documents acknowledge teaching science for citizenship as an important goal—however, the other key elements of the system are not aligned and do not clearly support the goals.

As a result, teachers do not believe mandated state science tests of students adequately reflect important priorities. One study found that “less than 40 percent of respondents said the assessment and accountability policies in their state substantially support Framework-aligned science instruction. Further, nearly two-thirds said there is a substantial need to change their state’s science assessments to better align with the Framework.” An earlier survey of mathematics and English teachers similarly found that only one-third supported state tests because most teachers felt that standards and tests focused too much on preparing students for college and careers and excluded other important concepts—a finding similar to those about science teaching and science tests.

Preparing Citizens for the Future

The world in which young people are growing up is increasingly shaped by science, such as green energy products, remarkable new pharmaceuticals, robotics, artificial intelligence, and scientific misinformation circulating to millions or billions of people, all of which call for an informed citizenry. Meeting this challenge will require science education standards, curricula, instruction, and tests to place a much higher priority on learning science for citizenship. At an individual level, this could involve letting teachers and legislators know—whether through schools, community forums, or public consultations—how important it is that students learn and practice the science-for-citizenship competencies they will need to make thoughtful personal and societal decisions that call on scientific knowledge.