Taiwanese Science Curriculum Reform and Earth System Education

Curriculum reform has been a significant emphasis for most of countries all over the world for the past few years. It was the first time for Taiwan to develop a new Science and Life Technology curriculum Standards (SaLTS) for grades 1 through 9 compulsory educations. The SaLTS features integrated science content with the aim at motivating students to learn science and encouraging students to apply science to their everyday life, which is practically well aligned with the philosophical essence and foundations of Earth Systems Education (ESE). This paper calls attention to the importance of the inclusion of ESE into the forthcoming science curricula of Taiwan and worldwide and provides some exemplary ESE-inspired curriculum and instructional modules that have been successfully implemented in the secondary schools of Taiwan. Hopefully, this paper can shed some lights on the future development of the ESE-based science curricula, instructional modules, and teacher preparation programs.