https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2017/1...to-science
EXCERPT: [...] What's the relationship to science that we should be aiming to achieve? And why does it matter?
International assessments reliably find that the U.S. lags behind many other countries when it comes to scientific literacy, and a variety of efforts aim to improve what's referred to as "public understanding of science." While some of these efforts focus on assessing and improving people's attitudes towards science, the educational world is typically more concerned with imparting knowledge and understanding.
But spelling out what these epistemic relationships entail isn't entirely straightforward. What does it mean to understand evolution, or photosynthesis, or climate change? And what does understanding buy us that mere knowledge does not?
A new paper, forthcoming in the journal Public Understanding of Science, argues that research on the public's understanding of science often conflates knowledge and understanding, and that this conflation has costs....
MORE: https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2017/1...to-science
EXCERPT: [...] What's the relationship to science that we should be aiming to achieve? And why does it matter?
International assessments reliably find that the U.S. lags behind many other countries when it comes to scientific literacy, and a variety of efforts aim to improve what's referred to as "public understanding of science." While some of these efforts focus on assessing and improving people's attitudes towards science, the educational world is typically more concerned with imparting knowledge and understanding.
But spelling out what these epistemic relationships entail isn't entirely straightforward. What does it mean to understand evolution, or photosynthesis, or climate change? And what does understanding buy us that mere knowledge does not?
A new paper, forthcoming in the journal Public Understanding of Science, argues that research on the public's understanding of science often conflates knowledge and understanding, and that this conflation has costs....
MORE: https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2017/1...to-science