Science | Environment | Health: Towards a Science Pedagogy of Complex Living Systems (Contributions from Science Education Research)

This book provides a fascinating insight into the on-going process of self- reflection in the Science|Environment|Health (S|E|H) community. The basic vision of a new S|E|H pedagogy is to establish a transdisciplinary dialogue between the three educational fields of science education, environmental education, and health education. This approach finds growing interest among science educators. Since 2014, the ESERA special interest group S|E|H has united both experienced and junior researchers all over Europe in a burgeoning research community. This book presents a selection of results of these vibrant activities. Systems theory has turned out to be a stimulating theoretical framework for S|E|H. The limits of predictability in complex living systems result in structural uncertainty for decision-making, and they ask for emphasising and rethinking the role of pedagogical concepts like informed citizenship and scientific literacy. They challenge crude scientific determinism inenvironmental and health education, which all too often ends up with students’ eco- and health depression. Instead, S|E|H conceives coping with uncertainty in terms of an interplay between cognitive and affective factors. The horizon of the future remains always open. Hope must never die in a new S|E|H pedagogy.

Albert Zeyer, Dr. med. et dipl. math., is a mathematical physicist and physician. After working as a science teacher and a children’s doctor in Swiss schools and hospitals, he was a senior researcher at the Institute of Education of the University of Zurich. He then became a professor of medicine at the Institute of Health Professions of the University of Applied Sciences Bern. Currently, he is professor of science education and head of science teacher education at the University of Teacher Education Lucerne, Switzerland. His research interests are the transdisciplinary dialogue of science, health and environmental education, and public understanding of science.