The ‘Great Divide’: How the Arts Contribute to Science and Science Education

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a rapid growth in interest about the relationship between the arts and the sciences. This article explores this developing relationship and the suggestion that science and science learning are not complete without the arts. We see three levels at which the arts might improve the teaching and learning of science. The first is at a macro-level, concerned with ways in which subjects (including the arts and sciences) are structured and options for studying them provided and packaged. The second is at the meso-level, guiding approaches constructing science curricula that engage learners through using STS (Science, Technology and Society) contexts. The third is at the micro-level, of pedagogical practices in science and teaching that can be drawn from the arts. The drivers of STEAM (Science, Technology, Arts, Engineering and Mathematics) add new dimensions to the nature of science in the twenty-first century and make science likely to diverge even more rapidly from school science unless new pedagogies, including those from the arts, help close the gap. The result could be a more authentic and engaging school science, one more relevant to the needs of the twenty-first century.