Looking at the Social Aspects of Nature of Science in Science Education Through a New Lens

Particular social aspects of the nature of science (NOS), such as economics of, and entrepreneurship in science, are understudied in science education research. It is not surprising then that the practical applications, such as lesson resources and teaching materials, are scarce. The key aims of this article are to (a) synthesize perspectives from the literature on economics of science (EOS), entrepreneurship, NOS, and science education in order to have a better understanding of how science works in society and (b) illustrate how such a synthesis can be incorporated in the practice of science education. The main objectives of this article are to (1) argue for the role and inclusion of EOS and entrepreneurship in NOS and re-define entrepreneurship in the NOS context; (2) explore the issues emerging in the “financial systems” of the Family Resemblance Approach (FRA) to NOS and propose the inclusion of contemporary aspects of science, such as EOS and entrepreneurship, into NOS; (3) conceptualize NOS, EOS, and entrepreneurship in a conceptual framework to explain how science works in the society; and (4) transform the theoretical knowledge of how science operates in society into practical applications for science teaching and learning. The conceptual framework that we propose illustrates the links between State, Academia, Market and Industry (the SAMI cycle framework). We suggest practical lesson activities to clarify how the theoretical discussions on the SAMI cycle framework can be useful and relevant for classroom practice. In this article, science refers to physics, chemistry, and biology. However, we also recommend an application of this framework to other sciences to reveal their social-institutional side.     

Discovering Functional Programming Through Imperative Languages

The pedagogical desirability of functional programming is effectively swamped by an overwhelmingly imperative‐language‐oriented culture. Because a meaningful subset of the functional paradigm is accessible within imperative languages, it is possible to identify a subset of Modula‐2 that characterizes the functional paradigm subset. A series of list‐processing problems and their solutions in the Modula‐2 subset provides students with ample exposure to the practice and theory of functional programming. Extension to the full functional paradigm and migration to specialized functional languages are managed, in the worst case by initial pseudo‐Modula‐2 programming involving hypothetical extensions supporting higher‐order functions and polymorphism. More powerful solutions to this problem are foreshadowed, in the form of preprocessor implementations of Modula‐2‐ and Ada‐derivative functional languages.     

哥伦布发现美洲与海洋地理科学

多年来，人们对哥伦布发现美洲的动因、过程、影响、作用及其他问题，多有争论，褒贬不一，本仅从海洋地理科学的角度，分析哥伦布航海的成因及海洋地理科学发展的关系，从一个侧面对哥伦布及其航海活动的地位与作用给以客观评价。     

哥伦布发现美洲与海洋地理科学

多年来,人们对哥伦布发现美洲的动因、过程、影响、作用及其他问题,多有争论,褒贬不一.本文仅从海洋地理科学的角度,分析哥伦布航海的成因及海洋地理科学发展的关系,从一个侧面对哥伦布及其航海活动的地位与作用给以客观评价.     

学诗三得

作者将自己近十年的习诗心得，归纳为三个方面。其一，背诗的好处。背诗，就是与古今文人、名人、有真知灼见、真情实感的人作超越时空的对话。其二，我是如何背诗的。记忆也要训练，长的背不了，先背短的，笨背、巧背、串背，再长的诗词也可以背下来了；在背诗中感觉自己慢慢进入了＂知之者不如好之者，好之者不如乐之者＂的境界。其三，背诗的收获。背诗可以让人体会出诗词的韵味，积累富有表现力的词汇，借用古人名篇创作的结构、布局。     

Assessing Aspects of Undergraduate Research Through Journaling

Abstract

It is necessary while mentoring students in undergraduate research to conduct assessments in order to determine how well the research experience is progressing. It may also be necessary to assign a grade to a student’s performance at the conclusion of such a venture. Journaling may be used both as a formative assessment tool and as a summative assessment tool. This paper discusses the process of introducing journals into a mentoring relationship and using them to inform interactions with students.     

社会文化史的兴起

社会文化史是继文化史和社会史复兴之后而出现的一个新兴交叉史学流派，自产生十几年来，从学科的理论方法到研究实践，都取得了较大发展，有越来越多的研究者被吸引到这一领域中来。社会文化史扩展了史学研究新领域，开拓了史学研究新视角和新方法，势将成为史学发展创新的一个生长点。     

Fostering Distributed Science Learning Through Collaborative Technologies

TACTICS (French and Spanish acronym standing for Collaborative Work and Learning in Science with Information and Communications Technologies) is an ongoing project aimed at investigating a distributed community of learning and practice in which information and communications technologies (ICT) take the role of collaborative tools to support social construction of knowledge. This community is composed of researchers, graduate students, and high-school teachers and their students, from six schools and four universities in Canada and Mexico. It set out in fall 2000 to develop a community around the general topic of integrating concepts in science school subjects. Once a prototype community is established, it can become a terrain where different aspects could be studied. Subsequently, researchers could gradually take a back seat allowing as well as ensuring the autonomy of the school members involved and, thereby, the viability of the learning community. The set up of the proposed prototype distributed science learning community was therefore an essential yet far from trivial first step. This paper discusses the process of setting up the community and the lessons learned.     

Increasing Science Awareness Through an Unusual Book

Journal of Science Education and Technology -     

Teaching Science Through Pictorial Models During Read-Alouds

This study examines how three elementary teachers refer to pictorial models (photographs, drawings, and cartoons) during science read-alouds. While one teacher used realistic photographs for the purpose of visually verifying facts about crystals, another employed analytical diagrams as heuristic tools to help students visualize complex target systems (rainbow formation and human eye functioning). Another teacher used fictional cartoons to engage students in analogical storytelling, communicating animal camouflage as analogous to human “blending in.” However, teachers did not always explicitly convey the representational nature of pictorial models (analog and target as separate entities). It is argued that teachers need to become more aware of how they refer to pictorial models in children’s science books and how to promote student visual literacy.     

环境科学专业本科毕业论文工作若干环节中的几点思考

毕业论文是高校本科教学的一个重要教学环节,对于环境科学专业,由于专业涉及知识面广、专业性强等客观因素,若指导工作安排不当,直接会影响毕业论文的质量。结合指导本科生毕业论文的经验,从毕业论文时间安排、毕业论文命题和选题、毕业论文实验方案设计、实验室管理和指导撰写论文等教学环节上,提出了关于做好环境科学专业本科毕业论文工作的几点思考。     

When Nature of Science Meets Marxism: Aspects of Nature of Science Taught by Chinese Science Teacher Educators to Prospective Science Teachers

Nature of science (NOS) is beginning to find its place in the science education in China. In a study which investigated Chinese science teacher educators’ conceptions of teaching NOS to prospective science teachers through semi-structured interviews, five key dimensions emerged from the data. This paper focuses on the dimension, NOS content to be taught to prospective science teachers. Among a total of twenty NOS elements considered by the Chinese science teacher educators to be important ideas to be taught, five were suggested by no less than a half of the educators. They are (1) empirical basis of scientific investigation, (2) logics in scientific investigation, (3) general process of scientific investigation, (4) progressive nature of scientific knowledge, and (5) realist views of mind and natural world. This paper discusses the influence of Marxism, a special socio-cultural factor in China, on Chinese science teacher educators’ conceptions of NOS content to be taught to prospective science teachers. We argue the importance of considering ideological traditions (mainly those in general philosophy and religion) when interpreting views of NOS or its content to be taught in different countries and regions and understanding students’ conceptual ecology of learning NOS.     

Theorising Learning in Science Through Integrating Multimodal Representations

Research in Science Education - There is growing interest in the construct of “transduction”, first introduced by (Kress, Cope and Kalantzis (eds), Multiliteracies: Literacy learning...     

Bringing Science to Life Through Community-Based Watershed Education

Four elements of successful student-scientist partnerships (SSPs) have been identified through experience in a wide variety of educational settings. SSPs should: use an inquiry-based approach to education; be built around authentic, community-based investigations; let students be scientists; and allow scientists to be educators. Each element is discussed and illuminated with examples from case studies of watershed education programs that are based on an interdisciplinary, action-oriented watershed education model developed by the Global Rivers Environmental Education Network (GREEN).     

Charles Darwin and Evolution: Illustrating Human Aspects of Science

Recently, the nature of science (NOS) has become recognized as an important element within the K-12 science curriculum. Despite differences in the ultimate lists of recommended aspects, a consensus is emerging on what specific NOS elements should be the focus of science instruction and inform textbook writers and curriculum developers. In this article, we suggest a contextualized, explicit approach addressing one core NOS aspect: the human aspects of science that include the domains of creativity, social influences and subjectivity. To illustrate these ideas, we have focused on Charles Darwin, a scientist whose life, work and thought processes were particularly well recorded at the time and analyzed by scholars in the succeeding years. Historical facts are discussed and linked to core NOS ideas. Creativity is illustrated through the analogies between the struggle for existence in human societies and in nature, between artificial and natural selection, and between the division of labor in human societies and in nature. Social influences are represented by Darwin’s aversion of criticism of various kinds and by his response to the methodological requirements of the science of that time. Finally, subjectivity is discussed through Darwin’s development of a unique but incorrect source for the origin of variations within species.     

Documenting Science Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge Through PaP-eRs

This paper examines science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge and ways in which that knowledge might be captured, articulated and portrayed to others. The research from which this paper is drawn has involved interviews with experienced science teachers in an attempt to make the tacit nature of their practice explicit. Initially, case methodology was envisaged as being a way of documenting these teachers' pedagogical content knowledge. However, over time, the form of knowledge and information that we were gathering and attempting to portray extended beyond that which could reasonably be described as being case-based. Hence we have developed an approach to articulation and portrayal based on what we call the CoRe (Content Representation) – which represents the particular content/topic of the science teaching – and PaP-eRs (Pedagogical and Professional experience Repertoire) – which help to illuminate specific aspects of the CoRe and therefore offer insights into pedagogical content knowledge itself. The results of this study offer new ways of conceptualising what pedagogical content knowledge is and how it might be captured, documented and disseminated.