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GEOFFREY DOBSON, senior lecturer in molecular science at James Cook
University in Townsville, believes that science education needs an overhaul.
Writing last month in the Journal of Chemical Education (vol 74, no. 4),
Dobson says that school science tends to be taught as a body of established
facts. As a result, young people often see science as boring, irrevelant and
offering little scope for creativity. Dobson argues that science is a dynamic
process with no absolutes. What we see as the body of knowledge has stood the
test of observation and critical analysis, he says, but it can always be
overturned by a new experiment or a novel theory. The challenge to the educator
is to present that flavour without devaluing the current body of knowledge. His
thoughtful paper deserves attention.