An assessment of how scientific literacy-related aims are actualised in the National Primary Science curricula in China and Finland

This research compared how the scientific literacy-related goals of the current Chinese and Finnish national science curricula at primary school level are actualised using a revised Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scientific literacy framework in the content analysis of the curricula. The content of the curricula focuses principally on knowledge, followed by competencies and attitudes, respectively. The learning context was seen to be thoroughly integrated with the content in both countries. However, the curricula are written in different ways. Generally, the literacy objectives for both curricula are based on scientific knowledge (Vision I) and the application of knowledge-based skills in situations (Vision II). However, they are characterised by implicit views that derive from the pursuit of the value-driven transformation of individuals and society achieved through science education (Vision III). The Chinese curriculum appears to favour the Anglo-American curriculum tradition, whereas the Finnish curriculum appears to be more attached to the Bildung-Didaktik tradition in terms of core tasks and the specification of objectives. The recommendation is that Vision III should be included in the science curricula, and should explicitly relate to social and scientific topics with a view to furthering a scientifically literate public.     

Scientists’ Habits of Mind as Evidenced by the Interaction Between their Science Training and Religious Beliefs

In Australia, education is the responsibility of each of the six states and two territories. Consequently there are significant differences between the science curricula offered by these eight educational authorities. This research analyses the educational significance of these curricular variations. A five‐level categorization of curriculum was used as the framework for the analysis. These five levels extend from the statement of the vision for the learning of science to the assessment of learning. The goal of the analysis was to determine the individual visions and whether they were consistently expressed in the syllabus documents published by the authorities. The study was restricted to physics, biology and chemistry in the senior school. The conclusion is that there is a richness of curriculum design within Australia and much can be learnt from the implicit curriculum experiment that is being undertaken with Australian school students.     

Reforming Science Education: Part II. Utilizing Kieran Egan’s Educational Metatheory

This paper is the second of two parts and continues the conversation which had called for a shift in the conceptual focus of science education towards philosophy of education, with the requirement to develop a discipline-specific “philosophy” of science education. In Part I, conflicting conceptions of science literacy were identified with disparate “visions” tied to competing research programs as well as school-based curricular paradigms. The impasse in the goals of science education and thereto, the contending views of science literacy, were themselves associated with three underlying fundamental aims of education (knowledge-itself; personal development; socialization) which, it was argued, usually undercut the potential of each other. During periods of “crisis-talk” and throughout science educational history these three aims have repeatedly attempted to assert themselves. The inability of science education research to affect long-term change in classrooms was correlated not only to the failure to reach a consensus on the aims (due to competing programs and to the educational ideologies of their social groups), but especially to the failure of developing true educational theories (largely neglected since Hirst). Such theories, especially metatheories, could serve to reinforce science education’s growing sense of academic autonomy and independence from socio-economic demands. In Part II, I offer as a suggestion Egan’s cultural-linguistic theory as a metatheory to help resolve the impasse. I hope to make reformers familiar with his important ideas in general, and more specifically, to show how they can complement HPS rationales and reinforce the work of those researchers who have emphasized the value of narrative in learning science.     

Different habitus: different strategies in teaching physics? Relationships between teachers’ social,economic and cultural capital and strategies in teaching physics in upper secondary school

With environmental awareness in the societies of today, political steering documents emphasize that all education should include sustainable development. But it seems to be others competing ideals for teaching physics, or why do the physics teachers teach as they do? Physics teachers in secondary school in Sweden have generally, been focused on facts and a strong link with scientific theories and concepts. In general, the curriculum sway the teaching, a standard text book in physics is used, the teaching is organized according to the book and the teacher deals with and demonstrates typical tasks on the whiteboard and group work is common for special issues related to tasks from the textbook or elaborating. The aim with this study is to analyze why physics teachers in upper secondary school choose to teach energy as they do. Data emerging from a questionnaire focused on indicators of the teachers’ cultural and economic assets, or capital, according to the work of Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology. Especially his concept on life styles and habitus provide a tool for analysis. We focus on physics teachers’ positions in the social space, dispositions and standpoints towards the ideal way to teach physics in upper secondary school (n = 268). Our response rate is 29 % and due to the low response rate a non response bias analysis was made. In our analysis we primarily sought for groups, with a cluster analysis based on the teaching practice, revealed common features for both what and how they teach and three different teaching types emerged. Then we reconstructed the group habitus of the teachers by analyzing dispositions and standpoints and related those to the specific polarization of sacred values, that is struggles about the natural order (doxa) in the social space of science education, which is a part of and has boundaries to dominating fields like the natural sciences and the political fields (curriculum etc.). Three teacher-groups’ habituses are described and analyzed; (1) The Manager of the Traditional, (2) The Challenger for Technology and (3) The Challenger for Citizenship. By constructing the habitus of the teachers in the different groups we can explain why teachers teach as they do and thereby make a contribution to both science education research and to teaching training, whereas reflective approach which also includes the individual dispositions and representations are paramount. In our paper we elaborate the grounds and implications of these findings further.     

Do Spanish secondary school teachers really value different sorts of procedural skills?

The aim of teaching science at secondary school level is that of achieving the scientific literacy of all citizens. This must involve diverse objectives, among which may be found the development of procedural skills (thought, manipulative, communicative, etc.). The new curricula of many countries provide for these objectives. However, it is important to know to what extent the teaching staff consider them as true content to be taught. In this article, we analyse the opinions of secondary school teachers belonging to schools in north‐western Spain with regard to how they value different types of procedures. Our findings show that the surveyed teachers establish differences between various procedural skills as far as the recognition of their presence in the classroom and their evaluation are concerned, although it may be said that they generally value procedural skills highly. These findings are discussed. In addition, the persistence of traditional conceptions in the teaching of science, as well as the difficulty of assuming that the changes promoted by new curricular approaches are addressed, are highlighted.     

Briging it all back home: some implications of recent science and technology studies for the classroom science teacher

In this paper, we support the validity of drawing from science studies to reshape science education. While true educational reform must involve alternative curricular structures, we stress that we do not propose here either a comprehensive curricular framework or a report on a pilot classroom project, as our research perspective comes from science studies rather than from education. Instead this paper is intended to encourage educators to draw from methodologies used in science studies to further their goals in education research and in classroom teaching. First, we examine theoretical connections and divergences between science studies and theories of education. Secondly, we discuss the benefits of teaching science as a social process and offer some suggestions that can be introduced by classroom teachers into pre-existing science curricula.     

Body talk: students’ identity construction while discussing a socioscientific issue

Vision II school science is often stated to be a democratic and inclusive form of science education. But what characterizes the subject who fits into the Vision II school science? Who is the desirable student and who is constructed as ill-fitting? This article explores discourses that structure the Vision II science classroom, and how different students construct their identities inside these discourses. In the article we consider school science as an order of discourses which restricts and enables what is possible to think and say and what subject-positions those are available and non-available. The results show that students’ talk about a SSI about body and health is constituted by several discourses. We have analyzed how school science discourse, body discourse and general school discourse are structuring the discussions. But these discourses are used in different ways depending on how the students construct their identities in relation to available subject positions, which are dependent on how students at the same time are “doing” gender and social class. As an example, middle class girls show resistance against SSI-work since the practice is threatening their identity as “successful students”. This article uses a sociopolitical perspective in its discussions on inclusion and exclusion in the practice of Vision II. It raises critical issues about the inherited complexity of SSI with meetings and/or collisions between discourses. Even if the empirical results from this qualitative study are situated in specific cultural contexts, they contribute with new questions to ask concerning SSI and Vision II school science.     

How do teachers interpret and transform entrepreneurship education?

During the last decade, entrepreneurship education has become a central curricular topic in many locations in the world. In Sweden, entrepreneurship education was implemented in the curriculum for the first time in 2011, as something that should be included in all upper secondary school programmes. In this article, we focus on one of these programmes, the handicraft programme, investigating how entrepreneurship education is formulated in the latest curriculum and how teachers understand and transform such content in their teaching. Drawing on Bernstein’s concepts of classification and framing, we illustrate how entrepreneurship education in the Swedish curriculum has a ‘dual definition’, representing very different framing and classification, but still clearly belongs in a ‘market relevance’ discourse. This is expressed through the way in which the concept is transformed by teachers in their teaching. We also find that entrepreneurship education has low legitimacy among teachers, particularly when it is classified weakly. The weak framing and classification, taken together with the low legitimacy among teachers, are likely to lead to very different transformations of entrepreneurship education in different educational contexts. In the long run, this could have a negative effect on the equivalence of teaching at upper secondary school.     

(Re)visions to a secondary teacher education course: Trials and triumphs in attempting to disrupt hegemonic understandings and performances of education

The purpose of this paper is to explore curricular (re)visions made over the span of two semesters to a required secondary teacher education course. Specifically, we focus on our trials and triumphs in implementing the revised curricula. Our work is guided by the following question: in what ways do preservice teachers deem the diversity-focused course curriculum as relevant to their future teaching stances/practices? Data collected illuminated the complexities of disrupting hegemonic understandings and performances of education. Some of the data indicated that preservice teachers deemed the diversity-focused course curriculum as relevant to and connected with their future teaching stances/practices. Other data highlighted that some preservice teachers’ struggled with making sense of their future teaching practices in relation to issues of oppression and privilege, while other preservice teachers were resistant.     

A Call for Action (Research): Applying Science Education Research to Computer Science Instruction

In educational research, investigators in one field are often ignorant of similar research in other fields. Physics education in particular has undergone dramatic reforms in recent years, all based on insights gained from conducting educational research. Often, pedagogical methods resulting from research in one field can be revised and transferred to another. This paper demonstrates that many methods used in physics and other science programmes<fnr rid="b"> <fn id="b">Throughout this paper, programme will refer to the curricular concept and program will refer to computer programs.</fn> can be adapted to teaching computer science. The author has pursued action research in computer science and implemented ideas from science education, especially from physics education, in teaching computer science classes at a small religious secondary school in the southwestern United States. This paper presents ideas and teaching strategies with the hope of building bridges between computer science education research and other science education research.     

关于职业学校物理实验教学的几点思考

物理是一门以实验为基础的自然科学,实验在物理教学中具有不可替代的强大教育功能。生动的物理实验不仅可以有效激发学生学习物理的兴趣和好奇心,提高他们的实践能力、分析能力、科学探究能力,更重要的是可以培养他们严谨、实事求是的科学情感与态度。职业学校强调培养目标要＂以能力为本位、以就业为导向＂,这也要求物理教学要加强实验教学来提高教学效果和开发学生创造能力。笔者从学生动手实验这一课堂教学环节来谈谈自己对职业学校物理实验教学的一些见解。     

A Comparison of Student Teachers' Beliefs from Four Different Science Teaching Domains Using a Mixed Methods Design

The study presented in this paper integrates data from four combined research studies, which are both qualitative and quantitative in nature. The studies describe freshman science student teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning. These freshmen intend to become teachers in Germany in one of four science teaching domains (secondary biology, chemistry, and physics, respectively, as well as primary school science). The qualitative data from the first study are based on student teachers' drawings of themselves in teaching situations. It was formulated using Grounded Theory to test three scales: Beliefs about Classroom Organisation, Beliefs about Teaching Objectives, and Epistemological Beliefs. Three further quantitative studies give insight into student teachers' curricular beliefs, their beliefs about the nature of science itself, and about the student- and/or teacher-centredness of science teaching. This paper describes a design to integrate all these data within a mixed methods framework. The aim of the current study is to describe a broad, triangulated picture of freshman science student teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning within their respective science teaching domain. The study reveals clear tendencies between the sub-groups. The results suggest that freshman chemistry and—even more pronouncedly—freshman physics student teachers profess quite traditional beliefs about science teaching and learning. Biology and primary school student teachers express beliefs about their subjects which are more in line with modern educational theory. The mixed methods approach towards the student teachers' beliefs is reflected upon and implications for science education and science teacher education are discussed.     

Identifying a Gender‐inclusive Pedagogy from Maltese Teachers’ Personal Practical Knowledge

In secondary education 'energy' is often introduced by distinguishing different 'forms of energy' for different phenomena. Of these forms of energy, only kinetic and potential energy are accepted in current science. The question has been raised whether all forms of energy should be eliminated from secondary school science curricula. As a contribution to this discussion we will first analyse the language used to introduce 'forms of energy' in order to determine possible inconsistencies and limitations of validity, judged from the viewpoint of thermodynamics. In Part II, the results of two teaching experiments at university level will be presented. In these experiments attempts are made to build on students 'forms of energy' language as well as to challenge its limitations. As a result of both parts, conclusions will be drawn as to whether 'forms of energy' can be accepted 'as an intermediary language' and changes to the usual teaching sequence will be proposed.     

物理教育在提高国民科学素养中的作用

在大力提倡“科教兴国”的今天 ,普及科学知识 ,培养和提高学生的科学素养 ,应该是中学物理教学责无旁贷的重要任务 要完成这一任务 ,可采取五个方面的措施     

An Examination of the Changes in Science Teaching Orientations and Technology-Enhanced Tools for Student Learning in the Context of Professional Development

This research examines how science teaching orientations and beliefs about technology-enhanced tools change over time in professional development (PD). The primary data sources for this study came from learning journals of 8 eighth grade science teachers at the beginning and conclusion of a year of PD. Based on the analysis completed, Information Transmission (IT) and Struggling with Standards-Based Reform (SSBR) profiles were found at the beginning of the PD, while SSBR and Standards-Based Reform (SBR) profiles were identified at the conclusion of PD. All profiles exhibited Vision I beliefs about the goals and purposes for science education, while only the SBR profile exhibited Vision II goals and purposes for science teaching. The IT profile demonstrated naïve or unrevealed beliefs about the nature of science, while the SSBR and SBR profiles had more sophisticated beliefs in this area. The IT profile was grounded in more teacher-centered beliefs about science teaching and learning as the other two profiles revealed more student-centered beliefs. While no beliefs about technology-enhanced tools were found for the IT profile, these were found for the other two profiles. Our findings suggest promising implications for (a) Roberts' Vision II as a central support for reform efforts, (b) situating technology-enhanced tools within the beliefs about science teaching and learning dimension of science teaching orientations, and (c) revealing how teacher orientations develop as a result of PD.     

Socioscientific issues via controversy mapping: bringing actor-network theory into the science classroom with digital technology

ABSTRACT

What are the current challenges and opportunities for bringing actor-network theory (ANT) into issues-based science education? This article discusses experiences gained from introducing an educational version of ANT deploying digital technology into an upper secondary school science class. This teaching innovation, called controversy mapping, has been pioneered in different contexts of higher education before being adapted to school education. Experimenting with controversy mapping in a Swedish science class raised both conceptual and practical issues. These centre on: (1) how ANT-inspired controversy mapping redesigns the citizenship training enacted by institutionalized approaches to issues-based education as socioscientific issues (SSI); (2) how controversy mapping reconfigures the interdisciplinarity of issues-based science education; and (3) how controversy mapping displaces scientific literacy and knowledge of the nature of science as guiding concerns for teaching in favour of new preoccupations with digital literacy and digital tools and methods as contemporary infrastructures of free and open inquiry.     

中学物理人文价值与人文教育浅析

人教育是培养学生人素质的教育，包括人知识的学习和人精神的培养，新经济时代要求素质教育，素质教育必须是人扣科学的共同发展。中学物理除具有自身工具性的特点外还具有丰富的人价值，表现在扣谐统一的美感、理智性情感、道德感、集体协作精神扣平等开放精神以及辨证唯物观等，加强中学物理人教育应提倡开放式教学模式，把物理教育同物理历史世界、生活世界、科学研究世界联系起来。     

Reconsidering the 'nature of science' as a curriculum component

Although the nature of science has long been seen as an important, indeed central, component of science education during this century, efforts to integrate an authentic view of the nature of science into the curriculum have often met with little success. Work in the field of science studies since the 1960s has compounded this difficulty by presenting educators with various competing, often conflicting, views of the essence of scientific inquiry. I discuss previous attempts to come to grips with this fundamental issue of how to deal with the competing views of science and suggest an alternative approach for integrating nature of science issues into the school science curriculum. What is needed is for educators to accept that no single nature of science exists and to develop curricula that help students understand instead the diverse, local practices that are found within and across scientific disciplines.     

Teaching the Nature of Science from a Philosophical Perspective

This paper draws attention to basic philosophical perspectives which are of theoretical and methodological interest for science education, general education and curriculum research. It focuses on potential contributions philosophy class can offer if philosophy education opens up for science and for a collaboration of teachers in the context of post-compulsory education. A central educational goal is to connect basic philosophical skills with any curricular intellectual practice. This implies the possibility of crossing disciplinary boundaries. Hence, the present paper questions the disciplinary rigidity of education and aims at bridging the artificial gap between teaching philosophy and teaching science in order to enrich the individual school subjects involved. Towards this end, this article sketches out a conceptual framework for the issue of interdisciplinarity with regard to philosophy and science in upper secondary school. This framework takes into account aspects of the nature of science (NOS), history and philosophy of science (HPS) and the critical thinking approach which have significant implications for teaching. It aims to facilitate a basic understanding of the significant positive impact philosophy could have on improving scientific literacy as well as decision-making in general. I set forth methods of cross-curricular teaching which can promote innovation in education as interdisciplinarity already does in research since there is growing appreciation of collaboration and partnership between philosophy and science.

     

建立高职教育课程标准的思考

目前 ,我国高职教育发展迅速 ,但课程建设仍存在一些问题。为了提高和保障高职教育质量 ,必须加强高职课程标准建设 ,制定高职教育课程标准 ,其目的是为了进一步完善国家职业标准体系 ,为高职教育和培训提供科学、规范的课程教学依据