Education for Science and Science for Education: more than a Play upon Words
Vol. 95, Suppl. I: 49-52, 2000
Danielle Grynszpan/+, Tania C Araújo-Jorge*
Laboratório de Educação Ambiental em Saúde, Departamento de Biologia *Laboratório de Biologia Celular, Departamento de Ultrestrutura e Biologia Celular, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Av. Brasil 4365, 21045-900 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil
In the celebration of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute centenary, we wanted to stress our concern with the relationship between two of its missions: research and education. What are the educational bases required for science and technology activities on health sciences for the future years? How can scientists collaborate to promote the popularization of academic knowledge and to improve a basic education for citizenship in an ethic and humanistic view?
In this article we pointed out to need of commitment, even in the biomedical post-graduation level, of a more integrated philosophy that would be centered on health education, assuming health as a dynamic biological and social equilibrium and emphasizing the need of scientific popularization of science in a cooperative construction way, instead of direct transfer of knowledge, preserving also macro views of health problems in the development of very specific studies.
The contemporary explosion of knowledge, particularly biological knowledge, imposes a need of continuous education to face the growing illiteracy. In order to face this challenge, we think that the Oswaldo Cruz Institute honors his dialectic profile of tradition and transformation, always creating new perspectives to disseminate scientific culture in innovated forms.
Key words: scientific education - health education - science popularization
In the celebration of the centenary of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute (IOC), the theme "Educational Basis for Biomedical Research" was chosen to open the International Symposium in order to stress the institution's concern with the relationship between its two missions: research and education. This is an attempt to bring up for debate the integration of the two as an expression of the institutional project. In addition to its goal of qualifying health professionals by conveying scientific knowledge, the Institute also holds the responsibility of being a locus of criticism, capable of reproducing but also, and mainly, of questioning and producing new knowledge. This capacity has been the hallmark of IOC academic predicates during this century, which have made the Institute stand out in the field of biomedical research at the national and international levels.
In this round-table we asked outstanding colleagues to address those issues. All the invited speakers collaborated effectively for the development of science education and popularization, especially in the domain of life sciences. They all innovate in science, and were (and still are) important masters of many generations of scientists engaged on a humanistic position. These masters testify the integration between research and education, by acting at many levels and by contributing for the development of different scientific education project for teachers or for the production of educational products and materials. Their contributions will help us to analyze our own reality and pave ways that support the pioneer position of this institution, in its search to predict issues linked to health and science education.
As the title of our contribution depicts, the speakers in this round-table will approach two main questions: (1) what are the educational basis required for science and technology activities on health sciences for the future years? How can knowledge be taught and promoted?; and (2) what can science do to improve scientific education for citizenship? As "chairwomen" of this session, we want to address these questions briefly, by indicating how scientists in this Institute are dealing with them and what the perspectives are for an effective intervention on this area in the coming years.
BIOMEDICAL EDUCATION IN A CHANGING SOCIETY
+Corresponding author. Fax: +55-21-560.6474.
E-mail: danielle@ioc.fiocruz.brReceived 7 August 2000
Accepted 4 September 2000
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