{"id":5737,"date":"2020-04-23T15:58:56","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T14:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/?p=5737"},"modified":"2021-06-15T16:15:37","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T15:15:37","slug":"big-questions-in-challenging-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/big-questions-in-challenging-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Big questions in challenging times"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Professor Berry Billingsley looks at how science can help us make sense of current times. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

We are experiencing\nunprecedented personal, social, environmental and economic challenges. Barely a\nday goes by without a change to something we once took for granted as part of\nour daily lives. But changes can also create opportunities and, fortunately for\nthose of us in education, young minds are always looking for new ideas and new\nways to think. And, importantly, many of them are relying on their teachers to\nhelp them to find accurate information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Faculty of Education, we\nare conducting a major piece of research <\/a>to\nestablish how the education system in England can open its classrooms to Big\nQuestions, and equip young people with the ‘knowledge about knowledge’ they\nneed to formulate and examine their own enquiries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The big question we ask today is: \u2018how do we as individuals and as a society work together to tackle and overcome the challenges of COVID-19?<\/em>\u2019<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

We know that science \u2013 as a\nmethod of enquiry and as a source of knowledge \u2013 can help us. Science informs\nour thinking about every aspect of our lives today. Why is that? Well, science\ncan often give us a high level of certainty. Wash your hands often and with\nsoap \u2013 why? Because we understand very well what happens when we engulf the\nvirus with soap and use water to hasten it from our skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, stepping back, we can see\nthis as a way to talk with students about what it means to work scientifically.\nScience begins with observations of the natural world and constructing ways to\nexplain our observations. Science tests ideas by making predictions and\ncarrying out systematic and objective observations . . . There are some\nquestions, such as this one, that we can address by draw\u00ading on scientific\nknowledge that is well established and by testing predictions that are\nrelatively straightforward for scientific methods to test. Engineers frequently\ncapitalise on these \u2018sweet spots\u2019 of science to design products \u2013 such as bars\nof soap \u2013 that make our lives safer, better and easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many other questions\nbeing discussed in the news that do not have such clear answers. Talking about\nhow science interacts with and compares with other disciplines helps many\nstudents to gain a richer and deeper understanding of the nature of science and\nalso acknowledges that most real-world questions are too big for one discipline\nalone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also often\nopportunities to explain that different disciplines have different preferred\nquestions, methods and norms of thought. Some of the graphics we are currently\nseeing in the news create an opportunity to talk about the power and\nlimitations of mathematical models. Mathematics can help us to race through\nmultiple scenarios to try to visualise how differ\u00adent rules and guidelines\nmight affect how quickly the virus spreads. But behind a simple line graph in\nthis case there is much that we do not know \u2013 such as what help to give people\nso that they can make the changes they are being asked to make. Scholars may\ndraw on multiple strategies \u2013 such as in this case \u2013 to also study what is\nhappening in other countries and the outcomes of differ\u00adent approaches as they\nunfold in real life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our social norms are changing.\nWho\u2019d have thought it would look OK to have TV presenters keeping their\ndistance from each other by sitting at either end of a sofa? We are all\nwondering what we will keep and what we will gladly lose on the other side of\nthis massive global investigation and response. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TV shows are also opportunities\nto highlight that we are seeing experts from many disciplines in the media.\nEach discipline has its preferred questions, methods and contributions to make.\nScholars in all areas can speak to the value of openness and collaboration.\nWidening the frame still further, this is an opportunity to say that what will\nhelp us all to get through this problem will not only be the wisdom of our\nexpert scholars, valuable though this is. We will also need to draw on our\nshared sense of human\u00adity, empathy, moral reasoning, and common sense . . . in\nother words, there are some responses that we can make together and some that\nwe can make as individuals, uniquely and in our own situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[This\narticle is continued in the forthcoming issue of School\nScience Revi<\/em>ew, https:\/\/www.ase.org.uk\/resources\/school-science-review\/issue-376<\/a> ]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berry Billingsley<\/strong> is Professor of Science Education for LASAR <\/a>(Learning about Science and Religion)<\/strong><\/em> in the Faculty of Education<\/a>. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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