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.

     

小学科学教学要走进自然

科学教育的主要教学目标应该放在培养小学生的好奇心上。这一要求明确地指明了科学教学除了课本和课堂教学的第三种教学方式——走到大自然中进行学习。因此,小学科学教学应该和自然紧密结合,帮助学生认识到自身和大自然以及我们所生活的社会之间所存在的关联,最终实现学有所用。     

Neuroscience as a Contemporary Science Domain to Contextualize Nature of Science Instruction

Science & Education - The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate if neuroscience, a contemporary example of science-in-the-making, provides a useful domain for contextualized...     

Nature和Science论文在大气科学专业英语课程教学中的使用

专业科技文献阅读能力的培养是大气科学专业英语课程的一个重要教学内容。该作者在大气科学专业英语课程教学过程中选用Nature和Science论文作为阅读材料的教学实践经验。选取的文献资料聚焦大气科学科技发展动态和前沿热点问题,适合作为课堂教学的专业阅读材料,在实际教学中取得了较好的教学效果。希望在大气科学专业英语课程专业阅读材料的选用方面提供一些有益的实践经验,以供相关教育工作者在该课程教学中借鉴和参考。     

Teaching and Learning Nature of Science in Elementary Classrooms

Science & Education - Our goal in this article is to provide research-based strategies for embedding Nature of Science (NOS) into science instruction at the elementary level. We thus intend to...     

网络用语——语言教育的盲点

如果有一天，你在学生的作文中看到这样的句子：“７４５６，TMD！大虾、菜鸟一块儿到偶的烘焙鸡上乱灌水，这些水桶真是BT！哥们儿用不着PMP，到底谁是好汉，光棍节过招。”一定会让你大吃一惊：这是什么话，我们的学生想说什么？这就是网络语言，一种伴随着互联网的普及，逐渐在网络空间中形成的一种自成体系的语言。它被越来越多的中国网民所使用着，并大有广泛普及之势头。网络是一个虚拟的世界，网络语言如果仅仅停留在网络空间，充其量只是一种术语而已。可它一旦深刻地影响了我们的学生，并迅速的渗入到现实生活，就不能不引起我…     

论理科教师科学本质教学行为的发展性评价

培养学生适当理解科学本质是科学教育的目标之一。实现这一目标的关键是理科教师具有相应的科学本质教学行为。理科教师科学本质教学行为可以从显性教学目标、具有认识论水平的教学主题、显性区别观察和推论、注重知识产生方式、反思性评价活动、评价性作业等六个方面进行发展性评价。发展性评价的实施主要在理科教师科学本质教学行为自我监控系统指导下进行。     

科学本质与大学物理教育

大学物理课程应把提高学生科学素养作为主要目标之一,其中对科学本质的理解是重要的也是最基本的内容,应该做到：树立正确的自然现和科学知识观;倡导探究式教学理念;改革课程评价方法;关注STS教育。     

Two Views About Explicitly Teaching Nature of Science

Our focus is on the effects that dated ideas about the nature of science (NOS) have on curriculum, instruction and assessments. First we examine historical developments in teaching about NOS, beginning with the seminal ideas of James Conant. Next we provide an overview of recent developments in philosophy and cognitive sciences that have shifted NOS characterizations away from general heuristic principles toward cognitive and social elements. Next, we analyze two alternative views regarding ‘explicitly teaching’ NOS in pre-college programs. Version 1 is grounded in teachers presenting ‘Consensus-based Heuristic Principles’ in science lessons and activities. Version 2 is grounded in learners experience of ‘Building and Refining Model-Based Scientific Practices’ in critique and communication enactments that occur in longer immersion units and learning progressions. We argue that Version 2 is to be preferred over Version 1 because it develops the critical epistemic cognitive and social practices that scientists and science learners use when (1) developing and evaluating scientific evidence, explanations and knowledge and (2) critiquing and communicating scientific ideas and information; thereby promoting science literacy.     

Embedding Nature of Science in Teaching About Astronomy and Space

Science teachers need an adequate understanding of nature of science (NOS) and the ability to embed NOS in their teaching. This collective case study aims to explore in-service science teachers’ conceptions of NOS and the embeddedness of NOS in their teaching about astronomy and space. Three science teachers participated in this study. All participants attended the NOS workshop based on an explicit-reflective approach. They were asked to respond to the Myths of Science Questionnaire on three different occasions, i.e., at the beginning and the end of the NOS workshop and a semester after the workshop. Classroom observation, interviews after teaching, and a collection of related documents were also employed to collect data. The data were analyzed using a constant comparative method. The results revealed two important assertions. First, science teachers’ conceptions of NOS are stable and resistant to change. However, an explicit-reflective approach employed in the NOS workshop, to some extent, promoted science teachers’ understanding and reasoning about NOS. Second, science teachers’ conceptions of NOS are not directly related to their classroom practices. With different degrees of NOS understanding, all participants taught NOS implicitly and missed most of the opportunities to address aspects of NOS embedded in the topics they taught. The implications of these findings are also discussed.     

Science Teaching and the Nature of Science (orig. 1965)

Science &; Education -     

Production of a Science Documentary and its Usefulness in Teaching the Nature of Science: Indirect Experience of How Science Works

In this study, we produced a documentary which portrays scientists at work and critically evaluated the use of this film as a teaching tool to help students develop an understanding of the nature of science. The documentary, “Life as a Scientist: People in Love with Caenorhabditis elegans, a Soil Nematode” encompasses the entire process of a scientific investigation by exploring the everyday life of a particular group of scientists. We explored the effectiveness of this documentary in teaching the nature of science by examining the epistemological views of college students toward science before and after viewing. In addition, we collected written responses from the students where they described which aspect of the nature of science they learned from the documentary. The scores of epistemological views toward science increased between the pretest and the posttest (p < 0.01) with the most significant increase being in their views of the role of social negotiation. In the written responses, approximately half of the students suggested that they had learned more about the role which cooperation and collaboration play in the development of scientific knowledge by watching the documentary. The documentary overall provides a valuable instructional context so that students are able to discuss and reflect on various aspects of nature of science within authentic scientific research.     

Teaching the Nature of Science Through the Millikan-Ehrenhaft Dispute

This article presents the results of a research project that investigated the extent to which the use of the historical episode of the Millikan-Ehrenhaft dispute over the existence of the elementary electric charge can improve students’ conceptions of specific aspects of the Nature of Science (NOS). A teaching programme containing seven hourly teaching units was designed and implemented. The teaching intervention was designed on the basis of an explicit form of teaching that was integrated into the scientific content and through the use of short stories. Students’ conceptions of specific aspects of NOS were documented in a questionnaire distributed before and after the class. The results showed that there was a significant statistical improvement in students’ conceptions of the aspects of NOS that had been selected for teaching.     

基于第一视角的车辆盲区视野重现

车辆 A 柱盲区和侧方盲区常常会给行车过程带来巨大安全隐患,而现有盲区解决方案大多以第三视角合成显示,因畸变过大及视角过小等原因难以在行车过程中使用。利用摄像头及相关图像处理方法,对车辆盲区部分以第一视角进行重现显示。首先在车辆外部安装一组摄像头,然后利用标定板得到相机内参,之后基于参数计算求得透视变换矩阵,对采集到的图像根据驾驶员视角作透视变换处理,最后利用全景合成算法拼接成一副全景图,借助显示设备将一幅没有盲区的画面实时显示给驾驶员。实验结果表明,该方法能有效消除车辆 A 柱及侧方盲区,适合在行车过程中使用,且处理速度满足实时性要求。     

Developing Understanding of the Nature of Science Within a Professional Development Program for Inservice Elementary Teachers: Project Nature of Elementary Science Teaching

Establishing literacy in science is often linked to building knowledge about the Nature of Science (NOS). This paper describes and evaluates an inservice program designed to build elementary teachers’ understanding of NOS and an awareness of how NOS impacts science classroom instruction. Data sources consisted of surveys, action research plan documentation and classroom observations. Program participants tended to demonstrate some gains in understanding more about NOS and they linked positive experiences in the program to the explicit and activity-based NOS instruction provided. Yet, participation in the professional development project might not have been equally beneficial for all teachers. The understanding of NOS may have been restricted to certain NOS aspects, and the demonstration of the participants’ understanding of NOS may have been short-lived with a somewhat limited impact on sustainable, long-term NOS-based classroom instruction. Implications for designing NOS related professional development programs and suggestions for improvements to further develop teacher understanding of NOS are discussed.     

Teaching With and About Nature of Science, and Science Teacher Knowledge Domains

The ubiquitous goals of helping precollege students develop informed conceptions of nature of science (NOS) and experience inquiry learning environments that progressively approximate authentic scientific practice have been long-standing and central aims of science education reforms around the globe. However, the realization of these goals continues to elude the science education community partly because of a persistent, albeit not empirically supported, coupling of the two goals in the form of ‘teaching about NOS with inquiry’. In this context, the present paper aims, first, to introduce the notions of, and articulate the distinction between, teaching with and about NOS, which will allow for the meaningful coupling of the two desired goals. Second, the paper aims to explicate science teachers’ knowledge domains requisite for effective teaching with and about NOS. The paper argues that research and development efforts dedicated to helping science teachers develop deep, robust, and integrated NOS understandings would have the dual benefits of not only enabling teachers to convey to students images of science and scientific practice that are commensurate with historical, philosophical, sociological, and psychological scholarship (teaching about NOS), but also to structure robust inquiry learning environments that approximate authentic scientific practice, and implement effective pedagogical approaches that share a lot of the characteristics of best science teaching practices (teaching with NOS).     

国外关于科学本质教学的研究

促进学生对科学本质的理解已成为科学教育的根本目标之一.科学本质阐明了科学所具有的基本特征,是人们对科学本质属性的正确认识.本文对国外关于科学本质的内涵、科学本质的教学内容与学习范畴、融入科学史的科学本质教学、科学探究及科学本质教学的研究等作了概述.     

科学本质的观点、内涵与教学

使学生认识科学的本质,并把它作为科学教育的重要目标,已成为国内外科学教育改革的趋势.文章论述了科学本质的观点、内涵与教学.