Bridging science education and science communication research

Abstract

In some senses, both science education and science communication share common goals.Both seek to educate, entertain and engage the public with and about science.Somewhat surprisingly, given their common goals, they have evolved as disparate academic fields where each pays little attention to the other. 1 The purpose of this special issue, therefore, is an attempt some form of rapprochement-to contribute to building a better awareness of what each has to contribute to the other and the value of the scholarship conducted in both fields.Before attempting reconciliation, though, it is useful to point to several of the main differences between science education and science communication research traditions.One such difference is the emphasis that they give to each of those three aspects-educating, entertaining and engaging the public.Whereas the priority for science education is, not surprisingly-education-and entertainment and engagement are a helpful by product, for the field of science communication, it is engagement that is the priority.Another difference is the critical view that some science communication research adapts towards science and scientists, a result possibly of its journalistic and sociological foundations.Science education tends to position "what science says" and "how scientists do things" as the truth that frames the model for what students should learn.In contrast, many science communication researchers position "what science says" as only one of many types of potentially relevant knowledge and "how scientists do things" as an imperfect way of making sense of the world.Furthermore, the context of the formal (school) versus informal (media) environments has strongly affected the possible methods and the subjects of study.One simply cannot give a random sample of adult television viewers a one-hour test in a natural setting which changes the nature of the questions which can be addressed.In addition, compared to science education-a field of study that emerged in the 1950s, science communication is a relatively young field.One of the consequences of these differences is that the fields have distinct and separate emphases.For instance, one of the goals of science education is to educate the next generation of scientists-an aspect that concerns only those science communicators who work with young people, and then only to engage, stimulate and sustain interest in science.Given the significance of

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