Science Education: Talent Recruitment and Public Understanding (Nato: Science and Technology Policy, 38)

This work is a survey of the best science education practices with special emphasis on scientific research training. Its content aims to provide a great help to all teachers dealing with talented students and to all scientists and activists in the field of science education. Science education is an important element of the recruitment of further generations for scientific research. This complex process begins at the nursery and ends by the completion of a PhD study. A key point is the science education of high school students, who are in a very susceptible age to ask clear questions about the world around them, and to seek answers in a methodological way, as science does. This age, from 14 to 19 is the age of self-test, where the adolescent tries his strength and capabilities. The hierarchy-free atmosphere of a good scientific group gives the talented high school student a freedom and a chance to break from the original social and economic circumstances of the family. This work summarizes the best contributions from a workshop helping to establish more of these research training practices in Central-Eastern European countries.