Abstract
Science is one of the main attributes of the contemporary world and, more than any other human activity, characterizes the current period from previous centuries. Great advances in the field of science and technology deeply influence natural and social processes. There has been a worldwide recognition of the role of science in modern societies, along with an urgent need to move towards more and better scientific education, particularly in developing countries. It becomes fundamental to modify the current education system regarding science and technology in countries like Mexico, where a cornerstone has been the inclusion of the reflections that historical and philosophical studies have produced in the last three decades.
This article discusses the importance of recent history and philosophy of science studies for science education in Mexico. The educational reforms in 1993 and 2006 acknowledge the advances in science teaching in basic education (elementary and junior high schools) as well as the inclusion of history and philosophy of science in official curricula.
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Notes
- 1.
Some authors consider the first of the technoscientific revolutions to be the agricultural revolution; the second, the industrial revolution, (these two revolutions emerged from applying new sources of energy to mass production of goods and the transfer of information theory to industrial processes); the third the informatics and robotics revolution; and the fourth the postindustrial revolution. These revolutions were manifestations of the ever-increasing capacity of human beings to control and manipulate their environment and resulted in important social and political changes (Hirschhorn 1986; Stehr 1994).
- 2.
A more broad approach had been boarded by two of the authors (Chamizo and Garritz 2008).
- 3.
Thanks to recent studies on the history and philosophy of science, it can be said that the different ways in which humanity has explained phenomena, i.e. the different patterns of scientific explanation, have been modified over time (see, e.g. Martínez 1993).
- 4.
Values have been basic elements of the twentieth-century educational perspective in Mexico, for they have social, political and pedagogical content that expresses the standards of comprehensive human education. For this reason, values have been considered an asset whose conveyance and quality must be promoted. Their presence in the social milieu has been linked to the development of the Mexican educational system since the end of the nineteenth century (Latapí 2003). Nevertheless, as Wuest Silva and collaborators (1997) mention, the study of the role played by the values associated with science and pedagogy did not begin until the 1980s.
- 5.
The role of critical discourse in science is not a peripheral feature, but rather it is at the core of its practice, and without it, it would be impossible to construct reliable knowledge; for authors like Osborne (2010), scientific education must include critical discourse in the teaching of science to foster the ability to reason and argue scientifically.
- 6.
Elementary or basic education includes compulsory preschool, primary and junior high education. Preschool lasts for 2 years (4–5 years old), primary education lasts for 6 years (6–11 years old) and junior high education lasts for 3 years (12–15 years old).
- 7.
On March 4, 1993, the Article 3 of the Constitution was amended, assigning a mandatory character to junior high school. This fact provoked one of the most important changes in the 70-year life of junior high school since its foundation. This reform was incorporated into the General Education Act (Ley General de Educación), enacted on July 12, 1993. In this way the government, through the Ministry of Public Education (Secretaría de Educación Pública, SEP), together with the states, committed to the decentralization of education, to 100 % coverage and to raising its quality levels.
- 8.
The SEP was founded in 1921 by the Mexican government. Since then, this ministry has designed the content of the national curricula for all subjects for basic education.
- 9.
The teaching of science in elementary school includes biology, physics and chemistry.
- 10.
In 1959 the SEP launched a new program, the Free-Text Program (Gilbert 1997), which established the National Commission for the Free Textbooks (Comisión Nacional de Libros de Texto Gratuitos, Conaliteg), and the production of the national textbooks for all basic education subjects, which are based on the national curricula. These textbooks, official and distributed for free, are still being handed out to every basic-level student, teacher and school (private and public, urban and rural) in the country, giving access to all basic-level students to education. These textbooks provide specific guidelines for each grade and are considered excellent sources of information.
- 11.
It is worth mentioning that some science educators were engaged in the production of the elementary textbooks around 1996 and added a good deal of history and philosophy of science to them.
- 12.
This was already a requirement in the 1970s but only as a junior high school subject among many. For example, the discussion was limited to the study of fossils as evidence of life in the past, with illustrations that showed the gradual evolution of horses as well as the differences between contemporary humans and their ancestors; the references to Darwin were minimal (Barahona and Bonilla 2009).
- 13.
According to the 1993 Reform, the federal authorities launched a new curriculum including these new perspectives in 1997 for teacher’s colleges; 4 years later, in 2001, the first group of elementary school teachers graduated with this training. However, there has been no evaluation as to whether the training truly is enabling them to teach natural sciences with an evolutionary focus or, even more importantly, if the students manage to develop an evolutionary mindset.
- 14.
- 15.
These two reforms (2009 and 2011) are so recent that it is impossible for us to make an evaluation that provides a comparison with regard to the reforms referred to in this document.
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Acknowledgements
This paper was supported by the projects Ciencia Básica 2012 SEP-CONACyT 178031 ‘La enseñanza de la evolución en el contexto de la historia y la filosofía de la ciencia en México’; SEP-CONACyT 49281 ‘La enseñanza de los modelos y el modelaje en la enseñanza de las ciencias naturales’; and DGAPA/UNAM, IN403513 ‘El tema de la evolución en los libro de texto de secundaria en México desde la historia y la filosofía de la ciencia, 1974–2012’. The authors also want to thank M. A. Alicia Villela González for her research assistance and the comments and suggestions of the four anonymous reviewers on an earlier version of this manuscript.
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Barahona, A., Chamizo, J.A., Garritz, A., Slisko, J. (2014). The History and Philosophy of Science and Their Relationship to the Teaching of Sciences in Mexico. In: Matthews, M. (eds) International Handbook of Research in History, Philosophy and Science Teaching. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7654-8_69
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