The Gateway Science: a Review of Astronomy in the OECD School Curricula, Including China and South Africa

The Gateway Science: a Review of Astronomy in the OECD School Curricula, Including China and South Africa

Astronomy is considered by many to be a gateway science owing to its ability to inspire curiosity in everyone irrespective of age, culture, or general inclination towards science. Currently, where there is a global push to get more students engaged in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematic...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Research in science education (Australasian Science Education Research Association) Vol. 51; no. 4; pp. 975 - 996
Main Authors: Salimpour, Saeed, Bartlett, Sophie, Fitzgerald, Michael T., McKinnon, David H., Cutts, K. Ross, James, C. Renee, Miller, Scott, Danaia, Lena, Hollow, Robert P., Cabezon, Sergio, Faye, Michel, Tomita, Akihiko, Max, Charles, de Korte, Michael, Baudouin, Cyrille, Birkenbauma, Daina, Kallery, Maria, Anjos, Sara, Wu, Qixuan, Chu, Hye-eun, Slater, Eileen, Ortiz-Gil, Amelia
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-08-2021
Springer
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Advanced Placement Programs
Astronomy
Celestial bodies
Computational Linguistics
Core curriculum
Cosmology
Course Content
Cross Cultural Studies
Curricula
Curriculum Evaluation
Earth Science
Education
Elementary Secondary Education
Foreign Countries
Physics
Reviews
Science
Science Curriculum
Science Education
Science Instruction
Science Interests
Student Interests
South Africa
China
Astronomy education
Astronomy curricula
Science education
Science curricula
OECD education
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Astronomy is considered by many to be a gateway science owing to its ability to inspire curiosity in everyone irrespective of age, culture, or general inclination towards science. Currently, where there is a global push to get more students engaged in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, astronomy provides an invaluable conduit to achieve this shift. This paper highlights the results of a study which has reviewed the presence and extent to which astronomy has been incorporated into the school curriculum of the Organisation for Economic and Cooperative Development (OECD) member countries. In addition, two others strong in astronomy research, China and South Africa, are included together with the International Baccalaureate Diploma science curriculum. A total of 52 curricula from 37 countries were reviewed. The results reveal that astronomy and its related topics are prevalent in at least one grade in all curricula. Of the 52 curricula, 44 of them had astronomy-related topics in grade 6, 40 introduced astronomy-related topics in grade 1, whilst 14 had astronomy-related topics explicitly mentioned in all grades. At all year levels, celestial motion is the dominant content area; however, topics such as stars, physics, cosmology, and planetary science become much more frequent as a proportion towards the higher year levels. The most common keywords employed in the curricula related to basic astronomy concepts were the Earth, Sun, Moon, and stars, all with a high frequency of use. There is hardly any focus on Indigenous Astronomy or the role of prominent women astronomers. Relational textual analysis using Leximancer revealed that all the major concepts could be encompassed within two broad themes: Earth and Physics. Astronomy and Physics are often seen as different domains, with astronomy content being more facts based, than based on concepts.
ISSN:0157-244X
1573-1898
DOI:10.1007/s11165-020-09922-0