Mullins D W
Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Alabama at Birmingham 35294, USA.
Orig Life Evol Biosph. 1995 Oct;25(5):495-510. doi: 10.1007/BF01581997.
Since 1983, when the National Commission on Excellence in Education released its much-awaited report, A Nation at Risk, the United States has perceived itself to be in the midst of a serious education crisis. While nearly everyone is in agreement that most areas of the educational enterprise are in need of some revision and revitalization, problems related to science education have clearly received the lion's share of reform-minded attention. The present essay reviews the various symptoms of the so-called science literacy (education) crisis; speculates on the unique role that the philosophical underpinnings of the "cosmic" (Weisskopf, 1994) or origin sciences may play in these problems; and offers some suggestions as to how academic research scientists interested in these areas might more readily and effectively involve themselves in efforts to improve science education at all levels of the educational system.
自1983年美国国家教育优异委员会发布期待已久的报告《国家处于危险之中》以来，美国就认为自己正处于一场严重的教育危机之中。虽然几乎每个人都一致认为教育事业的大多数领域都需要进行一些修订和振兴，但与科学教育相关的问题显然受到了改革派的最大关注。本文回顾了所谓科学素养（教育）危机的各种症状；推测了“宇宙”（魏斯科普夫，1994）或起源科学的哲学基础在这些问题中可能发挥的独特作用；并就对这些领域感兴趣的学术研究科学家如何更轻松、有效地参与到改善教育系统各级科学教育的努力中提出了一些建议。
