高等学校理科教育の在り方を考える

The newly revised Japanese Curriculum will be introduced along with the proposed5-day school week in 2002．The new course guide for study from 2003 was published on March，1999．The contents of this educational system were carefully selected，and individuality of students has been emphasized．In addition，a number of significant new recommendations are outlined in the Science Currriculum．These include：
（1）Avoiding areas which at present remain scientifically contentious．
（2）Qualitative problems are no longer addressed．
（3）Fostering an inquiring mind in the field of science．
The fundamental problems within science education，however，must be viewed from another important aspect．Science education has traditionally been divided into four subjects；Chemistry，Biology，Physics，and Earth Science．The problem is that those concerned with each individual subject may not fully appriciate the distinct differences between the sciences．Education in pursuit of nature truth has been frowned upon，because it is achieved by synthetically grasping nature．“Science”as taught at school differs from that studied by scientists．Traditional science education has focused only on how to solve questions likely to be asked for examimtions to higher education．Education in pursuit of nature truth can
further enhance students’ability to understand all nature and is thus on holistic approach．It is important that we exchange ideas with each other regarding each scientific subject；otherwise prejudices may well develop．We must be open-minded in an attempt to prevent this from happening in the future．Students’interest in natural science，however，will never wane．
Society today，dependent on science，prospers from many positive outcomes of scientific advances．Yet，there is an ongoing distust of scientific development．Therefore，I strongly believe that teachers and scientists must turn their
attention to the social influence on science from now on，and have a firmly universal sense of ethics toward the benefits of modern science，which we will enjoy in the coming 21 st century．