Educational Objectives for Science, Technology, Society, and Values Programs

Because science, technology, society, and values courses and programs are interdisciplinary, directly address social change, and must be future oriented, new guidelines for defming educational objectives must be developed. Five categories of specific objectives that can help a teacher design a unique course or groups of courses are: 1) educational objectives concerned with cultural attitudes toward social change; 2) educational objectives concerned with the ability to analyze future developments; 3) educational objectives concerned with basic and applied problem-solving skills; 4) educational objectives concerned with analytical and synthesizing skills; 5) educational objectives concerned with values considerations. The educator should determine which categories of objectives to focus on and which specific objectives within these categories to emphasize. These categories and specific objectives are presented as a heuristic aid-rather than a constraint-for course and program design.