Natuurwetenskaplike geletterdheid en informele natuurwetenskaponderwys
educational resource
posted on 2024-11-18, 15:12authored byInaugural addresses
Inaugural lecture--Department of Education, Rand Afrikaans University, 15 October 1985@@Informal science teaching, i.e. the teaching that occurs spontaneously and unplanned
in all sorts of places (buses, over coffee, etc.) and at any time is identified
in addition to formal teaching (schools) and non·formal teaching (extra classes, museums, radio, press, television, etc.) as of the utmost importance and a very necessary condition to promote scientific literacy.
Scientific literacy is seen as a desire and cognitive preference to do and to want to do something of a scientific nature rather than the traditional view that reflects
scientific competence or what you can do of a scientific nature. Underlying cognitive preference (what you do and want to do) is a hierarchy of values or value preference. Most projects and attempts to alleviate problems of science teaching and related scientific manpower problems handled symptoms and tried to manipulate well-known facts. A long term strategy would be to change the value systems of scientific illiterate societies through informal
teaching so that science takes a higher place in the hierarchy of values.
Research in which informal science teaching is taken both as independent and dependent variable is envisaged.