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. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Recruitment into the scientific community is one oft-stated goal of science education—in the post-Sputnik United States, for example—but this obscures the fact that science textbooks are often read by people who will never be scientists. It cannot be presupposed that science textbooks for younger audiences, students in primary and secondary schools, function in this way. For this reason, precollegiate-level science textbooks are sometimes discussed as a subset of literature popularizing science. The high school science classroom and the textbook are (...) forums for exposing the public to science. The role of governments and educational institutions in regulating the consumption of these texts not only determines which books are used; it influences how they are written, read, and deemed authoritative. Therefore such science textbooks should not be seen as (at best) the disjunction of texts-for-training and books-for-popularization. A changing sense of what “textbooks” are compels a different understanding of their use in the history of science. (shrink)