Study On School Technology Risk Education

Based on the Theory of Post-modern Knowledge and the Risk Society Theory, this paper puts forward and systematically studies the school technology risk education theory as well as the problems concerning the courses and teaching.School risk education refers to the technology risk education activities conducted in the ways of course or other teaching media. The fundamental objective of school risk education is to guide students to correct understanding of the role of science, make them have the awareness of ethic of responsibility with technology involved and allow them to form good technology risk attainments. In the global risk social background, technology risk education shall be conducted to help students correctly understand risks, comprehend the causes of the occurrence of all kinds of risks, correctly treat the objectiveness of the existence of risks, understand the causes of the occurrence of risks regarding science, technology and all quarters of the society, have a healthy attitude towards risks, not be afraid of risks and learn the train of thought and simple skill in risk analysis. Through case study, drawing up evaluation scheme and other forms, this paper enables students to learn how to make balance between risks and benefits, cost and profits and other social, economic, spirit and cultural indicators and allows them to understand the basic process of risk decision, which creates conditions for students to participate in or influence risk management; it teaches students to analyze their own behaviors and habits and correct the behaviors that may bring about negative effects on the individual and the environment, such as overuse of plastic bags, smoking, excessive drinking, unprotected sexual behavior etc.Aimed at middle school students and college students, this paper, adopting document analysis method, survey method, interview method and case analysis method, makes a study on the level and status of Chinese students'risk attainments, risk perception and risk decision. According to the comparative analysis on the excellent cases of risk education in developed countries, this paper proposes the objective, courses and teaching structure ideas of technology risk education in China. The main results of the study are as follows:I. The risk awarenes. As a comprehensive concept, technology risk risk awarenes is a part of technological literacy. Taking the finiteness of science and the negative effects of technology into account, it reflects students'degree of deep understanding of the relationship between science and technology and social relations; it embodies students' basic views on the nature of science and the risks, basic understanding of process and methods of risk analysis as well as basic cognition of the responsibilities of scientific workers. This paper makes an investigation into the technology risk attainment of college students and middle school students from three aspects:(1) Finiteness of scientific value. Science and technology plays an important role in facilitating the development of modern society and it is the main impetus for the development of the contemporary world. However, science is not the only means of solving all problems in the real world, as many social problems cannot be thoroughly settled only relying on science.(2) Negative effects of science and technology. Science can benefit mankind and improve people's living conditions. On the other hand, the development of high-tech tremendously enriches our life and at the same time brings about harm that cannot be neglected to the human environment and health. The application of new achievement has certain social risks and the effects of such risks are generally unknown (3) Social responsibilities of scientists. As the development of science and technology brings about many moral problems, scientists shall not only care how to find scientific theories but also consider the future application of scientific and technological achievements and take moral responsibilities for the future effects of new scientific and technological achievements. According to the survey and interview results, Chinese students have certain risk attainment as a whole. The scores of each r risk awarenes dimension that takes the average answer accuracy rate as the indicator are as follows respectively:finiteness of scientific value (0.82), negative effects of science and technology (0.77), social responsibilities of scientists (0.73). The comparison of academic degrees shows that college students are superior to middle school students and senior high school students are better than junior high school students, while there are no obvious differences between college students of arts and students of science. II.Risk perception and risk decision. The risk perception may be construed as different mental images or mental models associated with the risks by different cultures, organizations or individuals. They are from commonsense reasoning, personal experience and cultural tradition for expressing perceptions of the individuals to the risky world and attitudes to the developing tendency. The risk decision refers to a trade-off process when a decision maker faces two or more uncertain decision consequences, especially facing the possibility with negative results. The risk reception is a psychological basis of the risk decision, while the risk perception features of the decision maker directly influence the decision-making behavior and its consequence. This study designs a questionnaire around radioactive hazards with "nuclear energy power generation" and "chest X-ray" as risk perception objects for learning about the perception and social value judgment tendency of students to different types of risk objects. For the risk nature, the nuclear energy power generation is a "terroristic high risk", while the chest X-ray belongs to a "non-terroristic high risk". In the willingness to accept of two technologies, the nuclear energy power generation is an "involuntary risk", while the chest X-ray mostly belongs to a voluntary risk. The survey contents of two kinds of risk objects are respectively composed of usefulness, security, support evaluation, fear level evaluation, damage degree estimation and accident liability attribution, etc. The findings are mainly as follows:(1) Effectiveness evaluation features. Students have higher general acceptance degree on the usefulness evaluation of two types of risk technologies. On the high-risk involuntary issue (nuclear power), three groups of students tend to high effectiveness evaluations (91%on average), which are basically consistent with the Chinese general public survey results (94%). On the low-risk voluntary issue (chest X-ray), the student evaluations (80%) are lower than the general publics (97%). Part of the reason may be related to the situation that fewer students accept chest X-ray, which indicates that the selection of the voluntary risk technology is linked with the use frequency and direct effectiveness cognition.(2) Insecurity evaluation features. For insecurity to the nuclear power, the students have a relatively high performance of more than75%that is greatly different from our public survey results (35%). The insecurity to the chest X-ray shows the same tendency, on which74%of students show insecurity, while only28%of publics show insecurity. And (3) risk decision-making mode. There are some differences between our students and publics of China, the United States and Japan on the decision-making mode. Students have higher support degree to the nuclear power, which fits the irrational-adventure mode, and more tend to choose usefulness in the coexistence of usefulness and risk. Students have lower support rate to the chest X-ray, which fits the rational-negation mode. Through the technical evaluation surveys, it is reflected that the students' evaluation to the technology is also lack of objectivity, especially having an idealization pursuing tendency to the low-risk projects.III. Goals of school technological risk education. This article expresses the following ten goals of the school technological risk education:(1) when facing health or environmental risks, students are able to show a rational decision-making process;(2) students should be able to evaluate advantages and disadvantages of a scientific method for evaluating the type and size of the risks;(3) students should be able to explain scientific estimation results of the risks;(4) students should be able to evaluate how the mass media affect them and the risk perception of the others;(5) students should be able to evaluate how opinions and behaviors of the family and friends affect them and the risk perception of the others;(6) students should be able to evaluate how the personal bias affects them or the risk size judgment of the others;(7) students should be able to evaluate how the risk features affect them and the risk perception of the others;(8) students should be able to evaluate how the individual risk perception affects them and the perception of the others to the related benefits;(9) students should be able to identify information resources, to obtain information from these resources, and to properly estimate and apply these information; and (10) students should be able to recognize (identify) the intermediaries, organizations or groups related to the risk management, and to participate in the risk management when facing significant social and environmental health or environmental risk decisions.IV. Curriculum and teaching construction. This article offers the following four technological risk education suggestions:(1) add a risk discussion content to the science classroom, and integrate the technological risk education into the scientific curriculum;(2) develop curriculum resources of the public risk education by projects such as the project learning tree for establishing "focus on risk";(3) carry out risk education activities in schools, and set seminars in the universities; and (4) improve the technological risk literacy of science teachers.