Taiwanese science and life technology curriculum standards and earth systems education

Abstract

In the past several years, curriculum reform has received increasing attention from educators in many countries around the world. Recently, Taiwan has developed new Science and Life Technology Curriculum Standards (SaLTS) for grades 1 9. SaLTS features a systematic way for developing students' understanding and appreciation of individual society nature interactions, which are well aligned with the philosophical essence and foundations of Earth Systems Education (ESE). Implementation of several ESE-inspired curricula or instructional modules in the secondary schools of Taiwan have all demonstrated promise in improving students' abilities both in their cognitive and affective domains. Moreover, several empirical studies suggest that implementing the Earth-system integrated theme has the potential to serve as a model for future development of an integrated science curriculum and instruction, not only in Taiwan but also worldwide.