What is scientism in education classroom?
A good example of scientism in education is the No Child Left
Behind Act (2002). Scientism is the belief that in the power of
scientific techniques, and in the applicability of these techniques
to all else - to human behaviour, to ethics, to society, to
religion, to culture, to everything. The impression given is that
the scientist has the solution to all problems. It also creates an
epistemological hierarchy with the "lower" disciplines, such as
literature or history, having nothing to contribute to science,
whereas science having everything to contribute to them. This has
led to critiicism that the instrumentalism and micro level
responsibility related to scientism in education constitute a
manipulative ideological smokescreen to distract public attention
away from the structural inequities that generate disparate
academic outcomes among students in industrialized democracies.