Science No Longer Means Science

Start by visiting the following Web site http://www.oecd.org. It looks good right, concern for the economy, concern for governments and so on.

The OECD however has a secret agenda. They have a Program for International Student Assessment PISA that has a science test. In a recent version of the science test there was a focus on beliefs and the Australian Council for Educational Research chief executive Geoff Masters, the one that implements PISA here said that "the purpose of science courses was to develop a concern for the environment in students."

What this means is that instead of getting the underlying science when it came to environmental sustainability, students were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with statements that included making regular emission checks a condition of using a car, and producing electricity from renewable sources as much as possible even if it increased the cost.

The reason given was that "agreement on these issues indicated a greater sense of responsibility" they say that this correlates with "better scores in the science test." (sic) Ignoring the highly doubtful use of statistical correlation for the moment this is the antithesis of the Scientific Method.

It is all part of the move towards a touchy-feeley education system that moves away from the core educational principles that we used to take for granted. Sadly very few seem to see any problem with this. Worse the result of such weak policies will not be obvious for a number of years.