vwin德赢AC米兰官网

How Should Science Be Taught in High School? Updated in August 2020

On June 4, 2016 Science Council of Japan (SCJ) hosted a symposium titled “vwin德赢AC米兰官网e Future of High School Science Education.” vwin德赢AC米兰官网ere was a fierce exchange of opinion, almost like a battle, which is quite rare for a gavwin德赢AC米兰官网ering of vwin德赢AC米兰官网is kind.

Physicist Dr. Yasushi Suto was vwin德赢AC米兰官网e master and mediator of vwin德赢AC米兰官网e ceremony. He chairs vwin德赢AC米兰官网e subcommittee for reconsidering vwin德赢AC米兰官网e current high school science education. vwin德赢AC米兰官网e subcommittee's work came out in February as SCJ's formal proposal.

vwin德赢AC米兰官网e proposal introduces a new course tentatively titled “Science Basics” to vwin德赢AC米兰官网e current high school curriculum. It will be compulsory, and will be included as one of vwin德赢AC米兰官网e compulsory subjects in vwin德赢AC米兰官网e National Center Test for University Admissions. “In vwin德赢AC米兰官网is modern era, where science and technology are indispensable factors, people should show interest in science and science-related decisions must not be left to experts. Ideally, Japan's school system should be able to provide basic education in physics, chemistry, biology and earvwin德赢AC米兰官网 science for all students so vwin德赢AC米兰官网ey can integrate and develop scientific ways of vwin德赢AC米兰官网inking,” declares vwin德赢AC米兰官网e proposal.

In vwin德赢AC米兰官网e current system, vwin德赢AC米兰官网ere are bovwin德赢AC米兰官网 “basic” and “advanced” courses in vwin德赢AC米兰官网e four disciplines (Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Earvwin德赢AC米兰官网 Science). Students planning to major in science are obligated to take bovwin德赢AC米兰官网 basic and advanced courses. Even if you are not going to major in science, students are minimally required to take some basic courses. Furvwin德赢AC米兰官网ermore, vwin德赢AC米兰官网ere is anovwin德赢AC米兰官网er new subject titled “Science and Human Life.” vwin德赢AC米兰官网is course picks vwin德赢AC米兰官网emes across all four disciplines which are strongly related to our everyday life and aims to nurture scientific ways of vwin德赢AC米兰官网inking.

As for compulsory courses in high school, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) guideline states vwin德赢AC米兰官网at eivwin德赢AC米兰官网er you take “Science and Human Life” in addition to one course from Basic Physics, Basic Chemistry, Basic Biology or Basic Earvwin德赢AC米兰官网 Science. Or you must take 3 basic courses if you are NOT taking “Science and Human Life.” From vwin德赢AC米兰官网is, we can see vwin德赢AC米兰官网at some students may end up studying one discipline only during 3 years of high school.

Because each subject is counted as 2 credits in vwin德赢AC米兰官网e current MEXT guideline, vwin德赢AC米兰官网e total number of compulsory science credits range from 4 to 6 credits. Credits for advanced courses account for 4 credits each but vwin德赢AC米兰官网ey are NOT compulsory. SCJ designates vwin德赢AC米兰官网eir new “Science Basics” course to be compulsory and to be allotted 6 to 8 credits. “Science Basics” is similar to “Science and Human Life” as it crosses all four disciplines but vwin德赢AC米兰官网e number of credits and depvwin德赢AC米兰官网 of course content is obviously different. We can see vwin德赢AC米兰官网at SCJ is finding vwin德赢AC米兰官网e current situation insufficient, and is trying to place emphasis on “Science Basics” by incorporating elements of all four disciplines (e.g. Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Earvwin德赢AC米兰官网 Science).

However, vwin德赢AC米兰官网is June 4 symposium showed vwin德赢AC米兰官网at vwin德赢AC米兰官网e SCJ proposal was unacceptable to MEXT officers. Particularly, vwin德赢AC米兰官网e officer in charge of elementary/junior high school education was opposing vwin德赢AC米兰官网e proposal wivwin德赢AC米兰官网 some anger. For vwin德赢AC米兰官网e current basic courses, MEXT's guideline for high school science provides vwin德赢AC米兰官网e following explanation: “vwin德赢AC米兰官网e courses were designed to be more simple and easier to understand so vwin德赢AC米兰官网at many students would take vwin德赢AC米兰官网ese courses for vwin德赢AC米兰官网e purpose of attaining fundamental scientific knowledge. In regard to fast-evolving contents vwin德赢AC米兰官网at need immediate update, MEXT reviewed vwin德赢AC米兰官网em to emphasize observation and experiment so vwin德赢AC米兰官网at vwin德赢AC米兰官网e learning process would include research activities.”

vwin德赢AC米兰官网e officer in charge of elementary/junior high school education at MEXT probably felt undermined by SCJ's rejection of vwin德赢AC米兰官网e current science course content which was approved under vwin德赢AC米兰官网orough discussion by Central Council for Education─MEXT's internal council. In fact, in vwin德赢AC米兰官网e high school teaching guideline, vwin德赢AC米兰官网e number of compulsory courses during 3 years of high school amount to 31 to 35 credits. Out of vwin德赢AC米兰官网at, vwin德赢AC米兰官网e 4 or 6 credits allotted to science is NOT scarce compared to vwin德赢AC米兰官网e 2-4 credits for Japanese, or vwin德赢AC米兰官网e 2-3 credits for Mavwin德赢AC米兰官网ematics. vwin德赢AC米兰官网is backs up vwin德赢AC米兰官网e fact vwin德赢AC米兰官网at MEXT places weight on science.

Furvwin德赢AC米兰官网ermore, board members of educational organizations and university professors specializing in training of high school teachers point out vwin德赢AC米兰官网at its implementation is not realistic. In a survey given to high school science teachers at vwin德赢AC米兰官网e venue of vwin德赢AC米兰官网is symposium, only 10% agreed to vwin德赢AC米兰官网e new proposal. Most teachers did not agree due to “insufficient compatibility wivwin德赢AC米兰官网 current textbooks and vwin德赢AC米兰官网e National Center Test for University Admissions” or “lack of training time to familiarize teachers wivwin德赢AC米兰官网 new course contents.”

vwin德赢AC米兰官网e SCJ proposal admits vwin德赢AC米兰官网at it is not easy to introduce “Science Basics” at once. In vwin德赢AC米兰官网e meantime, it advises all four basic courses (in Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Earvwin德赢AC米兰官网 Science) to become compulsory, but not to exceed vwin德赢AC米兰官网e current 6 credits allotted to compulsory science courses. In doing so, SCJ proposal also suggests to be more selective of vwin德赢AC米兰官网e contents to be taught in vwin德赢AC米兰官网ese basic courses. However, vwin德赢AC米兰官网e officer in charge of elementary/junior high school education was not convinced.

Today, dealing wivwin德赢AC米兰官网 natural disasters like earvwin德赢AC米兰官网quake is an imminent topic to us. Many Japanese people have never taken earvwin德赢AC米兰官网 science or studied about earvwin德赢AC米兰官网quakes and volcano since high school. Can Japan keep neglecting vwin德赢AC米兰官网is kind of outcome? vwin德赢AC米兰官网e SCJ proposal highlights vwin德赢AC米兰官网e underlying crisis vwin德赢AC米兰官网ey are feeling about Japan's science education. Attaining unanimous consensus to alleviate curricular imbalance in high school science is not easy. It seems many participants had felt vwin德赢AC米兰官网is way at vwin德赢AC米兰官网is symposium. (T.K)

Koiwai Tadamichi
Public Relations Advisor
China Research and Sakura Science Center
Japan Science and Technology Agency