In the US, the National Science Standards have a category called "Science as
Inquiry", (URL for gr 9-12 below) which I would translate to include not only
the methods/practices of science, but also its history and development,
instrumentation, social organizations, discourses, political and economic
influences, people, and so on. ID is an opportunity for students to learn
what is science by also learning what is not science, contextualized in well
publicized and current debate.
To explain my personal perspective, I came through the physical science
pipeline to a terminal degree and professional practice, and can count on my
fingers the number of times I encountered science as inquiry in formal
education, twice through my own pro-activity in requesting independent
studies. Each was immensely thought provoking and informative about science
in the bigger picture, and I feel that there was still, in retrospect, an
imbalance, a deficit, in what I should have learned.
I can say, again in retrospect and having deliberately left the field, that
understanding what one does when one is a scientist, what impact any science
has upon the world, and how factions of society see value and use in any
science is something quite important in our acceleratingly technological
world, whether one is or is not to become a scientist.
http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/nses/html/6e.html#csa912
bb
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