"Our civilization depends on our understanding of what it is and how it works," observed Lord Dearing as he opened the Wellcome Trust’s ‘Citizenship Education in Science Key Stage 3’ conference at Central Hall Westminster on 28 February 2002. His words encapsulate the fundamental idea behind the introduction of citizenship into the National Curriculum from September 2002.

In today’s increasingly complex world, children will face difficult choices as they grow up, and they need to be equipped with adequate information and reasoning skills to make decisions throughout their lives. As tomorrow’s legislators and voters, they need to understand the roles of parliament and the media, and to be able to participate, negotiate and debate complex issues. If children become disenfranchised and separated from political systems, whole sections of society could fail to take part in the democratic process. It therefore seems logical to set up a more formal system for enabling them to take part in society, realise their rights and responsibilities, engage in debate and, crucially, to understand what could happen in the absence of democracy.

The new citizenship curriculum aims for a 'light touch', leaving schools to interpret the four pages of this shortest of national orders. While this allows for flexibility, it also poses questions for teachers. Should citizenship be taught as a separate subject, for example, or is it best taught in the context of other subjects such as history, geography and science?

Last year, the Association for Science Education and the Wellcome Trust - which have both supported activities to engage pupils in the societal impact of science for a number of years - began collaborating to promote the scientific aspects of the citizenship agenda. The citizenship conference, held as part of this collaboration, aimed to promote fruitful discussion between science and humanities teachers about how the ethical, legal and social implications of science could be taught in schools. The conference was held just one day after a House of Lords’ ruling endorsing UK research into the therapeutic potential of stem cells, a decision with immense implications for society.

Debate about societal issues surrounding science could help maintain interest in the subject at a crucial stage in education. Research shows that although pupils enjoy science at primary school, they commonly lose interest as they move into secondary education. Moreover, what happens in science classrooms at ages 11-14 years is crucial to post-16 A-level subject choices. As Lord Dearing pointed out, enthusing and engaging pupils is the most vital aspect of citizenship education.

The Wellcome Trust-ASE collaboration has developed two citizenship units and teaching materials as part of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority Key Stage 3 scheme of work, which covers this age range. The units are supported by additional materials, published on the ASE’s Science Year CD-ROM ‘Can We? Should We?’ and aim to be easy for busy teachers to use and stimulating for pupils.

Teachers’ views

While most teachers at the conference were enthusiastic about teaching citizenship, there were some justifiable concerns. The project is being launched with no pilot year, and no additional resources of time, money or training have been allocated for teachers.

Science teachers face a particular dilemma. They are used to teaching specific scientific principles, and may feel uncomfortable guiding an open-ended discussion that explores all aspects of an issue without reaching any particular conclusion. Last year, a Wellcome Trust report - Valuable Lessons: Engaging with the social context of science in schools - found that science teachers feel that they lack the skills, confidence and time to initiate classroom discussion. Conversely, in humanities lessons, it is easier to accommodate debate, but often based on incomplete understanding of the issues.

However, it was also clear that many science teachers already include citizenship elements in their classes as a means of engaging pupils. They noted that pupils are far more interested if science can be made relevant to their lives or to topics in the news, and if they are given the chance to debate the wider implications. One teacher said her primary aim in teaching physics was to give children a sense of how their scientific knowledge and logic can help them analyse the world and be active citizens within it, and quoted Burrhus Frederic Skinner: "Education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten."

Highwire, a city learning centre in Hackney, London, aims to enrich school education through imaginative video and web projects that encourage debate and collaboration. Its ‘Ethics and Genetics on Screen’ project has been very successful in stimulating pupils to consider social issues related to science. Pupils have to plan and research together, debate what they want to say and decide how to distil the information into a one’ or two-minute video, an excellent discipline in communications. The activity is a dynamic, ongoing process: participants continue to debate the ideas after the video is made, and are clearly stimulated and motivated by their projects.

Finding out whether or not citizenship in education in general - and in science education in particular - actually produces more well-rounded, thoughtful, responsible citizens will take time, of course. The Government has approved £2.5 million for an eight-year longitudinal study, which will examine changes in behaviour, attitude and knowledge as a result of citizenship education. However, evaluation of a subject that emphasises values, responsibility, informed argument and participation - and for which written tests may therefore not be the best indicator of progress - could be problematic.

Press education

Most teachers agree that newspapers are a major source of scientific information and a useful vehicle for illustrating ideas about the interaction of citizenship and science: the strengths and limits of science to solve everyday problems and the interplay of goals, values and interests. Such issues were covered in depth by Tim Radford, Science Editor of the Guardian, and Dr Ruth Jarman of Queen’s University Belfast, as well as during discussion sessions.

Studies in Northern Ireland have shown that 76 per cent of teachers use newspapers to develop skills of enquiry, communication and participation. Trials exploring innovative ways of engaging children with the media included scattering laminated copies of newspaper articles throughout the school, where children could pick them up informally and discuss them, to see which stories prompted the most interest. Another project focused on a local dispute over turning a quarry into a dump. Pupils argued different viewpoints, using local newspapers to source their information.

However, in using press reports to teach science and related issues, it is also important to ensure pupils understand the different agendas of science and the media. The way science is reported in the media is sometimes criticized by scientists as being sensationalised and over-simplified. On the other hand, journalists argue that the media may have a responsibility to tell people what is going on, but the public has no responsibility to listen. Science journalists therefore need a compelling voice; and since people have loved hearing and telling stories from the beginning of time, they use stories and dramatisations as vehicles for engaging interest and conveying the facts.

Some of the issues around science reporting are questions of language. Since the job of the journalist is to make the story clear and compelling, in the interests of transparency he or she will use simple terminology, which can prompt accusations of 'dumbing down'. Journalists point out that members of the public are willing to devote time and attention to paragraphs full of difficult and unfamiliar words only if the story is big enough. For a smaller story, long, technical words are likely to deter readers and thus act as an obstacle to the communication of knowledge.

The difference in the roles of the press and science teachers in science education could perhaps be summarised by saying that it is the journalist’s job to tell the story, and the teacher’s job to show children how to look critically at newspapers, and understand the constraints of time pressures, expertise, audience, and agenda under which journalists work. The role they both share is that of keeping people interested in science.

See also

• Science Centrestage: Festival and scheme details
• Press release (26 February 2002) Wellcome Trust calls on science teachers to play an active role in citizenship curriculum

External links

• National Curriculum Online