Encouraging Involvement with School Science

In distinguishing between students' “participation in learning activities” and their “involvement with the object of study” (i.e., a science idea, a socioscientific issue, the natural world), this paper discusses three notions, namely, the purpose of learning school science, the awareness of the significance of the object of study, and the sense of wonder experienced from doing and learning science. These three notions have not been adequately addressed by the science education community, but they are important because they provide a framework for reconceptualizing those student-centered and socially oriented approaches that supposedly make school science more interesting and more relevant to students' everyday world.