Don't Be Nervous, Don't Be Flustered, Don't Be Scared. Be Prepared

This article addresses some of the curriculum implications of adopting a socioscientific issues (SSIs)-oriented approach to science education, including (a) the need to provide scientific knowledge on a need-to-know basis and adapted to the complexity, multidimensionality, and fluidity of real-world situations and the constraints of particular problem contexts; (b) the centrality of nature of science understanding, including the language and form of scientific argumentation; and (c) the urgency of enhancing levels of critical reading skills and media literacy. It discusses the anxieties, problems, and difficulties teachers might encounter in engaging students in the cut and thrust of classroom debate and dealing with controversy and moral-ethical issues and forewarns of the opposition they might face in choosing this approach, especially when extended to include engagement of students in sociopolitical action. The article closes with a plea to teachers not to be nervous, flustered, or scared but, rather, to be prepared to fight for what many science educators consider a science education better suited to life in the early 21st century.