In this post I want to announce a new website entitled: Science Curriculum—A Global Perspective.

In the last two posts I alluded to science teaching from a global perspective.  In the first of these two posts, entitled Infusing Global Thinking into science teaching, I discussed some examples of how educators have developed programs that infuse global thinking into science, in particular the Global Lab program, which is being revitalized in Russia and the Global Thinking Project, which engaged thousands of students during the period 1991 – 2002.  In the second post, which announced a science education conference in Istanbul, I introduced to readers of this weblog, DR. M. Fatih Tasar, professor of science education at Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.  In my introduction of Dr. Tasar, I explained that he authored an essay on Science Education in Turkey which was published in The Art of Teaching Science: Inquiry and Innovation in Middle School and High School.  I also mentioned that there were six additional essays written by various authors on science education from Australia, Chile, China, Ghana, Japan, and Russia.

Science education is a worldwide community of teachers and researchers, and is an active force in the socio-political, educational and economic dynamics of most countries.  Researchers have documented that science education reform is a worldwide trend, and have identified several forces that have impacted these improvement efforts. Reform has been influenced by: constructivist views on learning, cross-national studies of student learning, globalization, and advances in science, technology and information technology.  Social constructivism, perhaps more than any other construct, has influenced the development and design of curriculum experiences in most countries over the past several decades.

I have developed a website that includes the original compelling essays written by seven science educators about science teaching in their own nation.  The website includes science education in:

• Australia by Roger Cross
• Chile by Claudia Rose
• China by Ronald Price
• Ghana by Charles Hutchison
• Japan by Shigehiko Tsukahara
• Russia by Sergei Tolstikov
• Turkey by M. Fatih Tasar

I hope you you will visit the new site and explore science education as seen through the lenses of these outstanding educators.  I’ve added photos, videos, maps, and links to help you delve further into science education in these countries.