Intellectual independence for nonscientists and other content-transcendent goals of science education

Many theories of science education try to justify teaching science on the basis of goals that transcend learning the content of science. The main purpose of this article is to examine in detail one such content-transcendent goal, namely, the goal of intellectual independence for nonscientists from science. The article first provides a brief overview of some content-transcendent goals for science education other than intellectual independence, and indicates certain irremediable problems with particular formulations of these goals, but also suggests why such goals are offered by science education theorists and needed by science education. Second, some formulations of, and philosophical motivations for, the goal of intellectual independence are reviewed and some of the philosophical controversies over the reachability of that goal are examined. Finally, a research agenda directed toward obtaining evidence pertinent to the resolution of many of the controversies is outlined. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.