Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Futures Thinking in Science Education

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Science Education

  • 255 Accesses

Futures thinking is aimed at detecting, inventing, analyzing, and evaluating possible, probable, and preferable futures, the deliberate plurality of the name highlighting the range of future possibilities and notions of alternatives (Slaughter 1996). Variously called futures studies, the futures field, futures research, futuristics, prospective studies, or prognostics, it involves a structured exploration into how society and its physical and cultural environment could be shaped in the future. Increasingly, communities are calling on futures approaches to envisage preferred futures and to compare these with current trends and scenarios of other possible futures. Such thinking is regarded as a valuable approach to dealing with uncertainty, the aim being to understand and evaluate alternatives. In science education, socio-scientific issues (SSIs) offer scope for developing students’ futures thinking skills. Such skills are increasingly being recognized in curriculum documentation as one...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Gidley JM, Hampson GP (2005) The evolution of futures in school education. Futures 37:255–271

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hicks D (2012) The future only arrives when things look dangerous: reflections on futures education in the UK. Futures 44:4–13

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones A, Buntting C, Hipkins R, McKim A, Conner L, Saunders K (2012) Developing students’ futures thinking in science education. Res Sci Educ 42(4):687–708

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd D (2011) Connecting science to students’ lifeworlds through futures scenarios. Int J Sci Soc 2(2):89–103

    Google Scholar 

  • Slaughter RA (1996) The knowledge base of futures studies. DDM Media Group, Hawthorn

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research, The University of Waikato, Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Cathy Buntting

  2. Deputy Vice-Chancellor, The University of Waikato, Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Alister Jones

Authors
  1. Cathy Buntting
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Alister Jones
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cathy Buntting .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Monash University Fac. Education, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

    Richard Gunstone

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this entry

Cite this entry

Buntting, C., Jones, A. (2013). Futures Thinking in Science Education. In: Gunstone, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Science Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6165-0_118-2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6165-0_118-2

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6165-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation