Trust, Science Education and Vaccines

The issue of trust in science has come to the fore in recent years. I focus on vaccines, first looking at what is known about trust in vaccines and then concentrating on whether what science education teaches about vaccines can be trusted. I present an argument to connect the phenomenon of vaccine hesitancy to the issue of trust and then argue for what an education about vaccines in school science might look like that takes seriously the notion of respect for students, including students who hold views about vaccination with which science teachers might disagree. Trust in others (people and institutions) varies greatly, both between countries and within countries, and depends on the characteristics of both trustor and trustee, and there are great differences in the extent to which people trust vaccines. However, it is a mistake to think that people who do not trust vaccines are simply ill-informed. There are a range of reasons for rejecting what is often an unexamined narrative about vaccines, namely that vaccines are always desirable. Many people come from communities that have sound reasons for being suspicious of what they are told by governments, business and the medical establishment. COVID-19 and earlier reactions to vaccination health scares show how important high-quality education about vaccines is. Much of that education can take place out of school, but the foundations are laid in school. Vaccine rejection and hesitancy have major global public health implications. Good quality vaccine education should help students understand about relevant biology and the nature of science; it should also be respectful of all students, including those who come from families that reject vaccines or are hesitant about them

Is It Possible that Robots will not One Day Become Persons?

That robots might become persons is increasingly explored in popular fiction and films and is receiving growing academic analysis. Here, I ask what would be necessary for robots not to become persons at some point. After examining the meanings of “robots” and “persons,” I discuss whether robots might not become persons from a range of perspectives: evolution (which has led over time from species that do not exhibit personhood to species that do), development (personhood is something into which each of us grows), chemistry (must persons be carbon-based and must robots be non–carbon-based?), history (we now consider more entities to be persons than was once the case), and theology (are humans privileged over the rest of creation, and how relevant is panpsychism?). I end by considering some of the implications if/once robots do become persons

Sex(uality) and Religion in Schools - China, England and the United States

The scriptures of the world’s religions have a great deal to say about sexual values. For sex educators, whether or not they have a religious faith, both religious and non-religious views about sexual values need to be considered; to live together in a pluralist society, all of us need to understand at least something of what it is that motivates others. Often, those with religious convictions have more conservative views about sex and sex education, though this is far from always being the case. I discuss the relationship between religion and school sex education in China (a country where religion plays a much smaller role than in many other countries), England (with a particular focus on the concerns that many Muslim parents have) and the USA (where abstinence education has been widespread for over three decades). I end by suggesting how teachers might account of religion when teaching sex education

Consent, mutuality and respect for persons as standards for ethical sex and for sex education

This article examines Lamb, Gable & de Ruyter's critique of consent as the standard by which one can determine if a sexual encounter is ethical in their ‘Mutuality in sexual relationships: a standard of ethical sex?’. Their examination of this issue is to be welcomed for a number of reasons, including growing criticism of ‘consent’ as the gold standard in medical and social science research ethics. The focus of this article is specifically on school sex education (principally, for 11–16-year-olds). Contrary to Lamb et al., I argue that it is difficult to maintain that ‘The standard of mutuality should be taught in all schools and the government should indeed demand or support this, even with checks to see if children have learned this standard, at least in attitudes about sexual behavior’ for three reasons. First, while there are good arguments in favour of school children being introduced to the ideal of mutuality, it seems too high a bar to require children to ‘have learned’—a phrase that can be taken to mean to ‘have come to accept’ rather than merely to ‘understand’—this; consent is a more appropriate requirement and is itself a sufficiently rich term that it merits analysis by students, aided by their teachers. Second, my judgement as a sex educator is that sex education is more effective when students are given the opportunity to explore what is good and what is right, rather than simply being told. Third, if we have to adopt a single principle, there is much to be said for ‘respect for others’ to trump both ‘consent’ and ‘mutuality’

ASE Presidential Address: The role of science education at a time of climate crisis and the sixth mass extinction

Back in 2011–2013, when the current version of the National Curriculum was being drawn up, the members of the Science Working Party were told by civil servants not to include climate change. One hopes that this would now be unthinkable. What should we be doing in school science, at primary and secondary level, given the increasing importance of anthropogenic climate change and extinctions? Is it enough to help build learners’ knowledge and understanding or should we be helping them take action

Debating Evolution in Context – Religion in the Biology Classroom – Brazil, England, Pakistan and the United States

Evolution is perhaps the central theory in biology. Many with a religious faith accept its validity but there are many with a religious faith who reject it, holding that it contradicts their understanding of their religion. I examine the place of religion in the biology classroom when teaching evolution in four contrasting countries: Brazil, England, Pakistan and the USA and then go on to discuss ways in which school biology teachers might deal with the issue. One approach is to consider evolution as a controversial issue; this can work well so long as ‘controversial’ is used to mean ‘contentious’, not that evolution is scientifically controversial – the overwhelming majority of scientists see evolution as a very robust and well-established theory. I explore the worth of seeing acceptance of creationism or intelligent design as worldviews, and discuss the advantages of treating evolution as a sensitive issue for some students

The assessment of practical skills

Major changes are currently afoot as to how practical work will be assessed in highstatus examinations (GCSEs for 16-year-olds and A-levels for 18-year-olds) in England. We explore here how practical skills might best be assessed in school science and introduce two terms: direct assessment of practical skills (DAPS) and indirect assessment of practical skills (IAPS). We conclude that both the direct and indirect assessment of practical skills have their place in effective assessment of school science and that too great a reliance on the indirect assessment of practical skills will lead to assessment that is less valid

Teaching science interdisciplinarily – the BRaSSS approach

Recently, there have been a number of moves to encourage the development of approaches to science teaching that emphasise its links with other curriculum subjects. This article describes the rationale of one such project for 11- to 16-year-olds: the Broadening Secondary School Science (BRaSSS) project. We situate the project in the history of interdisciplinarity in science education, explain the principles that underpin the project and describe the extensive materials that have been produced and are now freely available for others to use