In defence of non-epistemic aspects of nature of science: insights from an intercultural approach to history of science

Cultural Studies of Science Education - The focus of this article is to expand María del Mar Aragón, José Antonio Acevedo-Díaz and Antonio García-Carmona’s paper...     

Building consensus views or interrogating metanarratives? Musings on teaching the nature of science

This article is a response to María del Mar Aragón, José Antonio Acevedo-Díaz and Antonio García-Carmona’s article, which investigated pre-service teachers’ understandings of epistemic and non-epistemic aspects of the nature of science (NOS) based on the historical case study of Ignaz Semmelweis and childbed fever. We situate the study in contemporary mainstream debates on teaching NOS and argue that science educators ought to focus on conveying specific aspects of NOS in-depth, instead of covering a general check list of NOS tenets in their classrooms. Furthermore, we argue that there are multiple ways of narrating the story of science, the protagonist of science classrooms, and that educators should also be conscious of the metanarratives regarding science that get conveyed in their narratives.

     

Ridden,Phil & Heldsinger,Sandy (2014) What teachers need to know about assessment and reporting acer Press (Victoria & Eurospan,London) isbn 978‐1‐74286‐111‐1 160 pp £25.95 http://www.isbs.com/collections/acer‐press/products/9781742861111

Teachers involved in literacy and numeracy testing will find in this book a valuable support to understand the why, how and what to assess. It is an informative volume that will give you practical information, guidance and deep understanding of what is behind a test. A must for Australian teachers, it is a great help for general practitioners and a valuable tool for the international audience. I suggest you borrow a copy if this book seems relevant. Jesús García Laborda     

DeVillar,Robert A et al ed (2013) Transforming education Peter Lang (New York & Bern) isbn 978‐1‐4331‐2037‐4 280 pp £25 (paper & e‐book; boards £96) http://www.peterlang.com/download/datasheet/77946/datasheet_312038.pdf

This book looks at how key areas of education are currently being revised all over the world—thus leading the reader to understand the new paradigms of the early 21^st century. It is a welcome volume that is a must for those genuinely interested in observing how education evolves internationally. If the content of this book could be relevant to you, I recommend that you arrange to borrow a copy for a while in order to decide. Jesús García Laborda     

Fischer,Frank et al (2013) Grand challenges in technology enhanced learning Springer (Berlin) isbn 978‐3‐319‐01666‐5 79 pp £44.99 http://www.springer.com/education+%26+language/learning+%26+instruction/book/978‐3‐319‐01666‐5

The world of education progresses by succeeding in its own challenges. This attractive volume excels in suggesting key issues that will need to be addressed in the next years by researchers, teachers and students. If you think the content of this book may be relevant, I recommend that you buy a copy for your own use. Jesús García Laborda     

Setting the normative boundaries: crucial epistemological benchmarks in comparative education

Historians of comparative education have ordinarily viewed the development of that field as having progressed in stages, from impressionistic traveller tales to systematic investigations, with each stage eclipsing the previous one in rigour and acceptability. In this essay, I show that this common ‘Darwinian’ view is simplistic and distorts the real development of comparative education. Rather than in stages, I contend that the field has developed within three epistemological streams: positivist, relativist, and historical functionalist. These streams, each shaped over many decades, continue to be alive and well and delineate the field’s normative boundaries. Indeed, comparativists differ markedly in defining the field, because their definitions arise out of whichever particular epistemological stream they embrace. What we need is a definition that encompasses all normative streams, and the one that I propose is: comparative education is the application of the intellectual tools of history and the social sciences to understanding international issues of education.     

Griffin,Patrick & Care,Esther ed (2015) Assessment and teaching of 21st century skills Springer (Berlin) isbn 978‐94‐017‐9395‐7 310 pp €99.99 (ebook €83.29) http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978‐94‐017‐9395‐7

While learning methods and approaches have changed dramatically in the 21^st century, assessment—especially standardised testing—has remained almost untouched. This volume presents a collection of papers on an innovative approach to collaborative testing. It describes the theoretical framework of an international project and reflects on a challenging perspective of what learning and teaching mean today and will mean tomorrow. If the book sounds likely to be close to your needs, I strongly suggest you buy a copy. Jesús García Laborda     

Refracting schoolgirls: pedagogical intra-actions producing shame

This article contributes to the discussion of gender inequality in schools with the central theme tracing ways that pedagogical affect im/mobilises agency. I argue that what I call ‘the schoolgirl affect’, as distinctly gendered pedagogical practices in schools, constitute a schoolgirl body that refracts capacity for action in particular ways. Karen Barad's theorising of performativity allows me to move away from a definition of what schoolgirl success is and rather discuss ways successful schoolgirls are co-constructed. Using filmed testimonial accounts of former Australian schoolgirls, I attempt to understand how practices of shaming inhibit interest and in fact stultify these students in a myriad of ways. I consider if shame when recognised as materially discursive results in a complex affirmative repositioning that is productive of agency. I interrogate ways that the shame/interest pendulum may affectively constitute schoolgirls, influence ethical educational practices and impact the life trajectories of these particular schoolgirls.     

Towards a sociolinguistics of superdiversity

The notion of ‘superdiversity’ has engaged scholars beyond the field of sociolinguistics. In this paper we propose to shift the gaze to the linguistic, focusing on the ways in which the new diversity becomes the site of negotiations over linguistic resources, and to widen the scope of debate. The ways in which people negotiate access to resources in increasingly diverse societies are changing. Looking at these phenomena through a sociolinguistic lens is key to a developed understanding of superdiverse societies. García proposes the term ‘translanguaging’ to refer to the multiple discursive practices in which multilingual speakers engage in order to make sense of their worlds. Translanguaging goes beyond code-switching, but incorporates it. García points out that multilinguals translanguage to include and facilitate communication with others, but also to construct deeper understandings. Translanguaging includes but extends what others have called language use and language contact among multilinguals. Rather than focusing on the language itself, translanguaging makes it apparent that there are no clear-cut boundaries between the languages of bilinguals. This paper draws on sociolinguistic ethnographic research projects which investigate the linguistic practices of children and young people in and around complementary (community-language) schools, to argue that multilingual young people in English cities access a wide range of semiotic resources in ways which are not bounded as ‘languages’. In developing a sociolinguistics of superdiversity we should look closely at practices of translanguaging, and consider the histories, geographies, and discourses which shape them.     

Thouësny,Sylvie & Bradley,Linda ed (2011) Second language teaching and learning with technology (Research‐publishing.net,Dublin) isbn 978‐1‐908416‐00‐1 217 pp Free of charge http://research‐publishing.net/publication/978‐1‐908416‐00‐1.pdf

This ten chapter volume intends to approach a number of current issues “from well‐established web‐based learning environments to mobile learning, through current web 2.0 applications such as blogs, which foster intercultural contexts and/or diverse means of computer‐mediated interaction”. In this sense, the valuable book aims to enable readers to gain a deep understanding of the field and to provide research procedures and processes to facilitate the learning of foreign languages through the use of information technology. If you expect the content of this book to be relevant to you, I recommend that you buy a copy for your own use. Jesús García Laborda     

Thouësny,Sylvie & Bradley,Linda ed (2011) Second language teaching and learning with technology (Research‐publishing.net,Dublin) isbn 978‐1‐908416‐00‐1 217 pp Free of charge http://research‐publishing.net/publication/978‐1‐908416‐00‐1.pdf

This ten‐chapter volume aims to approach a number of current issues “from well‐established web‐based learning environments to mobile learning, through current web 2.0 applications such as blogs, which foster intercultural contexts and/or diverse means of computer‐mediated interaction”. In this sense, this valuable book aims to enable readers to gain a deep understanding of the field and to provide research procedures and processes to facilitate the learning of foreign languages through the use of information technology. If the content of this book is likely to be important to you, I recommend you buy a copy. Jesús García Laborda     

Students’ awareness of science teachers’ leadership,attitudes toward science,and positive thinking

There appears to be a complex network of cognitive and affective factors that influence students’ decisions to study science and motivate their choices to engage in science-oriented careers. This study explored 330 Taiwanese senior high school students’ awareness of their science teacher’s learning leadership and how it relates to the students’ attitudes toward science and positive thinking. Initial results revealed that the optimism of positive thinking is highly and positively correlated with the future participation in science and learning science in school attitudes toward science and self-concept in science. Moreover, structural equation modelling (SEM) results indicated that the subscale of teachers’ leadership with idealised influence was the most predictive of students’ attitudes toward science (β = .37), and the leadership with laissez-faire was predictive of students’ positive thinking (β = .21). In addition, the interview results were consistent with the quantitative findings. The correlation and SEM results indicate some of the associations and potential relationships amongst the motivational and affective factors studied and students’ attitudes toward and intentions to study science, which will increase their likelihood of future involvement in science careers.     

A Sociologist Teaches History: Some Epistemological and Pedagogical Reflections

This article discusses the concept of historical sociology in relation to the teaching of a module on an undergraduate degree in Education Studies at a university in the United Kingdom. The module examines the history of education policy in England from 1870 until the present day. Drawing upon comparisons with Social Foundations of Education programs in the United States, I examine some key epistemological and pedagogical issues raised by the interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning followed within the module in which we combine historical and sociological perspectives as a means to understand the evolution of the English education system. In particular, using Bernstein's concept of the pedagogic device as an analytical framework, I consider the epistemological congruence of sociology and history as the contributory disciplines of the undergraduate module. From a discussion of the concept of historical sociology, I conclude that although sociology and history are distinct subjects, they share a large amount of analytical ground that thus facilitates the interdisciplinary approach pursued within the module. Following that, I examine some pedagogical issues that have arisen in my experience of teaching upon the module and I discuss how I have addressed these. I conclude the article by making comparisons to relevant examples from pedagogical practices in Social Foundations of Education programs in the United States.     

Opening Teachers’ Minds to Philosophy: The crucial role of teacher education

Abstract

Why has the ‘Philosophy for Children’ movement failed to make significant educational inroads in Australia, given the commitment and ongoing efforts of philosophers and educators alike who have worked hard in recent decades to bring philosophy to our schools? In this article we single out one factor as having particular importance, namely, that, on the whole, teachers consider philosophical inquiry to be futile. We argue that the explanation rests with teachers’ underlying epistemological beliefs and that openness to philosophy depends upon teachers being disposed to engage in the practices of reason-giving and reason evaluation, being aware of the epistemic value of such practices and, concomitantly, having highly developed reasoning skills. Drawing on both anecdotal evidence and wide-ranging research from within cognitive psychology, we go on to make a case for change within teacher education programmes.     

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF PISA’S ASSESSMENT ON SCIENTIFIC LITERACY

The OECD “Programme for International Student Assessment” or (PISA) is one of the largest-scale international efforts that have been launched to assess students’ scientific literacy. Such an international assessment would likely exert a profound impact on the science education policies of the participating countries/regions, including Hong Kong. This paper sets out to examine critically how scientific literacy has been assessed by PISA through analyzing its assessment frameworks and released sample items. It was found that the PISA 2000 and 2003 assessments of science have used a narrower definition of scientific literacy, as compared to that of PISA 2006 and what scientific literacy was construed for science education. However, even PISA 2006 appears to be more valid in its assessment framework, its validity was also called into question when the sample items for the trial study were examined. Knowledge about science was found largely about the processes of science, rather than the nature of science as described in the assessment framework. Besides, it intertwined with knowledge of science in a hidden manner. The application of knowledge of science in novel, real-life situations was also jeopardized because of the issue of curricular relevance. Besides these major problems, the article has discussed the problems with the concept of scientifically investigable questions and identifying research question of an investigation. Overall, the findings raised concern over what the PISA’s measure of scientific literacy actually means.     

Recapitulating the History of Sickle-Cell Anemia Research

This paper provides an argument in favor of a specific pedagogical method of using the history of science to help students develop more informed views about nature of science (NOS) issues. The paper describes a series of lesson plans devoted to encouraging students to engage, unbeknownst to them, in similar reasoning that led scientists to understand sickle-cell anemia from the perspective of multiple subdisciplines in biology. Students pursue their understanding of a ‘mystery disease’ by means of a series of open-ended problems that invite them to discuss it from the perspective of anatomy, physiology, ecology, evolution, and molecular and cell biology. Throughout this unit, instructors incorporate techniques that invite students to explicitly and reflectively discuss various NOS issues with reference to this example and more generally. It is argued on the grounds of constructivist tenets that this pedagogy has substantial advantages over more implicit approaches. The findings of an empirical study using an open-ended survey and follow-up, semi-structured interviews to assess students’ pre- and post-instruction NOS conceptions support the efficacy of this approach.     

Nuevas aportaciones a la Hipótesis de Interdependencia Lingüística de escolares bilingües

Resumen

La Hipótesis de Interdependencia Lingüística ha alcanzado un importante apoyo empírico al ser evaluada con éxito tanto en los programas de inmersión lingüística como en los programas de mantenimiento de la lengua familiar. Contrariamente, no existen evaluaciones en situaciones de fuerte desequilibrio entre lenguas en contacto en las que la lengua familiar de los escolares carece de un tratamiento específico. Nuestra investigación se sitúa en esta última perspectiva. Contextualizada en la Franja Oriental de Aragón, donde las lenguas en contacto (castellano y catalán) coexisten en condiciones de fuerte desequilibrio a favor de la primera de ellas y donde una mayoría de la población escolar tiene el catalán como lengua propia pero recibe toda la ense?anza en castellano. En base a estas premisas, en el artículo se hace un análisis comparativo entre la competencia lingüística, en catalán y en castellano, de estos escolares y sus homólogos de Catalunya y del Aragón monolingüe. Los resultados muestran una relación de interdependencia entre el conocimiento de una y otra lengua que corrobora la mencionada hipótesis.     

Sardonic science? The resistance to more humanistic forms of science education

Resistance to more humanistic forms of science education is an endemic and persistent feature of university scientists as well as school science teachers. This article argues that science education researchers should pay more attention to its origins and to the subtleties of its stubborn influence. The paper explores some of the imperatives which dominate the continuing practices of teachers; the linkages between school and university science; and re-considers the relationships between learning science, learning to do science and learning about science. It draws on recent, prominent publications, as well as neglected and rather more contentious material, to underline the unhelpfully narrow view of science held by those who defend the traditional disciplinary influences of biology, chemistry and physics. Suggestions are made as to where those of a more radical and determined disposition should direct their attention in the interests of improved education, vital scientific progress as well as human survival. It is argued that university science must change in order to ensure that teachers better help their students to learn, do and appreciate science.