Problems in the application of science education to national development

Abstract

Failure to make important distinctions between science and technology and failure to recognize science as a cultural form leads to school science inappropriate to national development. Although there are instances to show that science can have on important impact on technological growth, other examples show that science is not of necessity a precursor to technology. On occasion the application of science to technical problems may impede technological and hence economic development. In order for school science to have a desirable effect on technological and economic development, it is important to recognize science as a cultural form. Cultural theory, supported by recent evidence in the cognitive sciences, suggests that knowledge learned in particular social and cultural contexts, such as that of the school, remain applicable only under the cultural rules of that context. Knowledge so learned is not transferred to contexts where other rules of cognition apply. We possess insufficient knowledge about the cultural and social attributes of science and technological learning both in and outside the school to design school science curricula and methods which are demonstrably related to economic and technical development.