Paradigmatic Shifts in the Approaches to Science Education
One author who has blended all of the above factor-considerations and more into the new call for changed paradigmatic
approach and considerations on science education is Derek Hodson, Emeritus Professor of Science Education at the
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (University of Toronto), Adjunct Professor of Science Education at the
University of Auckland and Visiting Professor of Science Education at the University of Hong Kong. Professor Hodson’s
deep grasp of the challenges and opportunities for science education and the issues that impact teaching and learning in
the field is accurately reflective of his illustrious offices and titles as a most notable expert in the field as he presents to us,
supplemented with extensive notes and an impressive array of top scholarly reference books and journals, Looking to the
Future: Building a Curriculum for Social Activism. The title of the book is not only appropriate but communicates some
of the author’s fundamental beliefs about science education, but also reflect the paradigmatic shifts in approaches to
science education and conceptions of the roles of science in individual, organizational and societal life and progress. The
title of the book is highly descriptive of what Hodson calls “the four major elements of science education” and which he
has developed and proposed over decades of understanding, writing about, and teaching science education and its history
and philosophy. These “four major elements of science education” form the basis of Hodson’s propositions and practical
recommendations for transforming science education curriculum and teaching and learning strategies and methods to
reflect, respond to, and adapt to the changing needs of 21st century global society and individuals. As preface to Looking
to the Future, Hodson brings us back to the history of these ideas reflected in his writings as far back as 1992, which up to
present, leads him to designate these “four major elements of science education” as: