Pedagogical Reforms in School Science Education for Mitigating Damaging Misinformation in a “Post-Truth” World

The modern day is known as the “post-truth” era, characterized by the widespread dissemination of false information, as well as personal opinions and emotions taking precedence over established facts in public decision-making. For students, as future democratically engaged citizens, to make well-informed science-based decisions on matters of personal health and public policy, they require the knowledge and skills to identify false from accurate scientific information online. In this article, I argue that current school science curriculum are outdated in the context of modern social media and internet-centric media environment, requiring changes in education to successfully prepare students for some of the more pernicious features of the post-truth era. An increased focus on forms of social and digital media literacy, as well as knowledge about how science produces reliable information, are essential content for addressing this issue. It is important to emphasize that focusing on content-based changes alone is not sufficient. Methodological shifts are needed to ensure that the socially embedded aspects of scientific knowledge production and the application of knowledge in socio-political contexts are taught and communicated in ways that allows students to effectively employ their content-based education.