Introduction: A Broad Look at Contextualization of Science Education Across National Contexts

Teaching for the Contextualised Learning of Science: AChecklist-Based Science Curriculum Analysis

“…An analysis of the literature (Hodson, 2009(Hodson, , 2010Leite et al, 2020;Taber, 2017) shows that two main sets of arguments have been put forwards to support this idea. One of them concentrates on the relevance of scientific literacy for citizens living in modern scientific and technologically advanced societies (Chowdhury et al, 2020;Holbrook, Rannikmae, 2017;S{nchez Tapia, 2020;Sharon, Baram-Tsabari, 2020). In this regard, it is stated that they need to understand the key scientific ideas so that they can not only benefit from science without putting (or continue putting) the planet at risk but also engage in informed socio-scientific debates in order to reach thoughtful decisions (Chowdhury et al, 2020;Hobbs, 2020;S{nchez Tapia, 2020;Sharon, Baram-Tsabari, 2020).…”

“…One of them concentrates on the relevance of scientific literacy for citizens living in modern scientific and technologically advanced societies (Chowdhury et al, 2020;Holbrook, Rannikmae, 2017;S{nchez Tapia, 2020;Sharon, Baram-Tsabari, 2020). In this regard, it is stated that they need to understand the key scientific ideas so that they can not only benefit from science without putting (or continue putting) the planet at risk but also engage in informed socio-scientific debates in order to reach thoughtful decisions (Chowdhury et al, 2020;Hobbs, 2020;S{nchez Tapia, 2020;Sharon, Baram-Tsabari, 2020). The other set of arguments focuses on the need to prepare and attract people for scientific and ABSTRACT Contextualised learning is required for learners to master successfully the 'big ideas' of science and to perceive the relevance of science education.…”

“…A reason for this failure may have to do with curriculum developers' difficulty in achieving an appropriate balance between avoiding elitist polices and promoting excellent science teaching in order to attract students into science. A consequence is that even though learners recognise the overall usefulness of science, they can hardly perceive the relevance of school science knowledge to their daily lives (EC, 2011(EC, , 2015European Commission/ EACEA/Eurydice, 2022;S{nchez Tapia, 2020;S{nchez Tapia et al, 2018;Sheldrake et al, 2019). In addition, they do not feel confident enough to engage in science courses (EC, 2015;Sheldrake et al, 2019) partly due to a gap between students' learning interests and curriculum contents (Todd, 2020).…”

“…However, if the most advanced model (based on the idea of context as social circumstances) is to be implemented, then context-based science education should begin with a problem, associated with a real-world fact or phenomenon, embedded in its multifactorial conditions. This would provide a base for scientific explanations to be built on (King, 2012) and for pupils to understand facts or phenomena in their real-world contexts and in turn to perceive the relevance of science to their daily lives (Broman, 2020;Poerwanti, Istiyati, 2019;S{nchez Tapia et al, 2018;S{nchez Tapia, 2020).…”