From Science Studies to Scientific Literacy: A View from the Classroom

The prospective virtues of using history and philosophy of science in science teaching have been pronounced for decades. Recently, a role for nature of science in supporting scientific literacy has become widely institutionalized in curriculum standards internationally. This short review addresses these current needs, highlighting the concrete views of teachers in the classroom, eschewing ideological ideals and abstract theory. A practical perspective highlights further the roles of history and philosophy—and of sociology, too—and even broadens their importance. It also indicates the relevance of a wide range of topics and work in Science Studies now generally absent from science educational discourse. An extensive reference list is provided.     

Symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and home learning environment (HLE): findings from a longitudinal study

The concept of “Home Learning Environment” (HLE) covers activities in a family providing intellectual stimulation for a child, such as reading to him or her or visiting libraries. Numerous studies have shown an association between HLE and children's cognitive development. In this longitudinal study, we focus on HLE as a predictor for children's behavioral development, namely, for later symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), controlling for relevant aspects like socioeconomic status (SES), or television viewing behavior. We analyzed the development of ADHD symptoms from kindergarten to the end of grade 2 and possible associations with HLE, SES, and television exposure, using a German community sample (N?=?924). Results indicated that ADHD symptoms were negatively and significantly correlated to HLE for all five measurement points as well as to SES (except T4) and to television exposure for T1 to T4. Observing later development, only early HLE but not SES or television exposure served as a significant predictor for ADHD symptoms at school, when age, sex, and ADHD symptoms in kindergarten were controlled for. A structural equation model showed that HLE acted as a mediator between SES and later ADHD symptoms. Our results highlight the importance of the concept of home learning environment also for children's behavioral development. As a consequence, parents should be supported in offering their children a more favorable learning environment.     

Report on a Boston University Conference December 7–8, 2012 on How Can the History and Philosophy of Science Contribute to Contemporary US Science Teaching?

This is an editorial report on the outcomes of an international conference sponsored by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) (REESE-1205273) to the School of Education at Boston University and the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University for a conference titled: How Can the History and Philosophy of Science Contribute to Contemporary US Science Teaching? The presentations of the conference speakers and the reports of the working groups are reviewed. Multiple themes emerged for K-16 education from the perspective of the history and philosophy of science. Key ones were that: students need to understand that central to science is argumentation, criticism, and analysis; students should be educated to appreciate science as part of our culture; students should be educated to be science literate; what is meant by the nature of science as discussed in much of the science education literature must be broadened to accommodate a science literacy that includes preparation for socioscientific issues; teaching for science literacy requires the development of new assessment tools; and, it is difficult to change what science teachers do in their classrooms. The principal conclusions drawn by the editors are that: to prepare students to be citizens in a participatory democracy, science education must be embedded in a liberal arts education; science teachers alone cannot be expected to prepare students to be scientifically literate; and, to educate students for scientific literacy will require a new curriculum that is coordinated across the humanities, history/social studies, and science classrooms.     

Significance: recognizing the value of research across national and linguistic boundaries

Internationalization of educational publishing promises fresh perspectives and new solutions—but not if US-based editors, reviewers, and readers fail to recognize the significance of research conducted outside the USA. This essay explores the concept of “significance” in the context of peer review of journal articles, and explains why US-based reviewers easily miss the social importance and the intellectual interest of research conducted elsewhere. It points to several steps that can be taken to increase publication of the full global range of educational scholarship.     

Towards fairer assessment

Drawing on the largest Australian collection and analysis of empirical data on multiple facets of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education in state schools to date, this article critically analyses the systemic push for standardized testing and improved scores, and argues for a greater balance of assessment types by providing alternative, inclusive, participatory approaches to student assessment. The evidence for this article derives from a major evaluation of the Stronger Smarter Learning Communities. The first large-scale picture of what is occurring in classroom assessment and pedagogy for Indigenous students is reported in this evaluation yet the focus in this article remains on the issue of fairness in student assessment. The argument presented calls for “a good balance between formative and summative assessment” (OECD, Synergies for Better Learning An International Perspective on Evaluation and Assessment, Pointers for Policy Development, 2013) at a time of unrelenting high-stakes, standardized testing in Australia with a dominance of secondary as opposed to primary uses of NAPLAN data by systems, schools and principals. A case for more “intelligent accountability in education” (O’Neill, Oxford Review of Education 39(1):4–16, 2013) together with a framework for analyzing efforts toward social justice in education (Cazden, International Journal of Educational Psychology 1(3):178–198, 2012) and fairer assessment make the case for more alternative assessment practices in recognition of the need for teachers’ pedagogic practice to cater for increased diversity.     

Casting the die before the die is cast: the importance of the home numeracy environment for preschool children

Mathematical competencies are important not only for academic achievement at school but also for professional success later in life. Although we know a lot about the impact of “Home Literacy Environment” on the development of early linguistic competencies, research on “Home Numeracy Environment” (HNE) and the assessment of its influence on the development of mathematical abilities is in its infancy. We still lack studies analysing this relationship and simultaneously controlling for other variables concerning the individual and the environment. Thus, in this article, we focussed on the development of mathematical competencies in a sample of 609 German children from the end of kindergarten until the end of Grade 1. In particular, we were interested in the role HNE plays in regard to this development while controlling for age, sex, intelligence, rapid naming, number span, linguistic competencies, kindergarten attendance and socioeconomic status. Moreover, HNE was compared between families with or without a history of mathematical disability. HNE was not only an important predictor of mathematical abilities at the end of kindergarten, but it also influenced the further development of mathematical competencies above and beyond its initial impact. Families with a history of dyscalculia provided a more unfavourable HNE than families with no such problems. Results are shown in a structural equation model, which highlights the importance of HNE. The findings indicate that those involved in policy and intervention should focus more on the learning environments in families to improve children's achievement.     

The Preschool Learning Assessment Device: An approach to the dynamic assessment of young children

This paper describes the Preschool Learning Assessment Device, a dynamic assessment approach appropriate for use with children between the ages of three through five years. The approach is related to Feuerstein’s Learning Potential Assessment Device and to a general dynamic assessment paradigm. Research information from two studies investigating this procedure is described, and a specific case example is provided.     

“The Scientific Method” as Myth and Ideal

“The Scientific Method” as it has been portrayed in popular and introductory contexts has been declared a myth. The variation that one finds in introductory presentations of “The Scientific Method” is explained by the fact that there is no canonical account among historians and philosophers of science. What, in particular, is wrong with “The Scientific Method”? This essay provides a fairly comprehensive survey of shortcomings of “The Scientific Method”. Included are corrections to several misconceptions that often accompany such presentations. Rather than treating “The Scientific Method” as a useful approximation or an ideal, the myth should be discarded. Lessons can be learned for introductory pedagogical contexts from considering the shortcomings of the myth.     

The PISA mathematics regime: knowledge structures and practices of the self

Within mathematics education research, the responses to the Programme for International Student Assessment’s (PISA’s) international testing regime tend to accept its framework and results as necessary points of reference, even when offering a critical reinterpretation or challenging national policy discourses based on PISA. In this article, we offer a different approach to the critique of PISA, drawing on theoretical tools provided by Bernstein and Foucault, to ask what the PISA regime achieves. Our understanding of this achievement encompasses both the production of knowledge structures and the production of students, teachers and other agents as subjects. We propose that the theoretical approach we offer provides a methodological entry point into analysis of the texts comprising the PISA mathematics regime. Analysis of a single PISA item is used to illustrate the insights that may be gained from such a theoretical lens. Such insights into the logic of PISA have the potential to allow us better to understand and hence contest the role that PISA and other large-scale assessment regimes may play in global and local policy discourses.     

The role of teacher behavior in adolescents’ intrinsic reading motivation

Given the weak intrinsic reading motivation of many adolescents on the one hand and the importance of this type of motivation for reading competence on the other hand, the aim of the present study is to identify the related role of teacher behavior. To pursue this aim, a secondary analysis was carried out on PISA 2009 data. More particularly, data of a subsample of 4,269 Flemish 15-year olds were examined by means of multilevel modeling. In line with self-determination theory, the results provide evidence for the significance of perceived autonomy-supportive, structured, and involved teacher behavior. Teacher involvement was most strongly associated with adolescents’ intrinsic reading motivation. Further, students’ perception of teachers’ autonomy support was particularly related to girls’ intrinsic reading motivation.     

Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Ideas About Scientific Practices

With the goal of producing scientifically literate citizens who are able to make informed decisions and reason critically when science intersects with their everyday lives, the National Research Council (NRC) has produced two recent documents that call for a new approach to K-12 science education that is based on scientific practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas. These documents will potentially influence future state standards and K-12 curricula. Teachers will need support in order to teach science using a practices based approach, particularly if they do not have strong science backgrounds, which is often the case with elementary teachers. This study investigates one cohort (n = 19) of preservice elementary teachers’ ideas about scientific practices, as developed in a one-semester elementary science teaching methods course. The course focused on eight particular scientific practices, as defined by the National Research Council’s A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas (2012). Participants’ written reflections, lesson plans and annotated teaching videos were analyzed in fine detail to better understand their ideas about what it means to engage in each of the practices. The findings suggest that preservice elementary teachers hold promising ideas about scientific practices (such as an emphasis on argumentation and communication between scientists, critical thinking, and answering and asking questions as the goal of science) as well as problematic ideas (including confusion over the purpose of modeling and the process of analysis, and conflating argumentation and explanation building). These results highlight the strengths and limitations of using the Framework (NRC 2012) as an instructional text and the difficulties of differentiating between preservice teachers’ content knowledge about doing the practices and their pedagogical knowledge about teaching the practices.     

Perception of Misbehavior: Understanding the Process of Labeling and the Role of Cultural Capital in the Disciplinary Process

Educators face multiple forms of misbehavior in the classroom on a regular basis. This ethnographic research project addresses the difficulties encountered by teachers in a high school setting, giving consideration to the decision-making process in determining whether to admonish students for misbehavior and whether to issue a referral to an administrator, which holds the possibility of more severe punishment. This research demonstrates the continuing importance of Labeling and Social Reproduction Theories in understanding the process of classroom management, emphasizing the importance of the teachers’ and administrators’ perception of whether the student demonstrates the acquisition and possession of cultural capital.     

Development and formative evaluation of multimedia case studies for Instructional Design and Technology students

This study describes the development of three case studies that included a combination of multimedia production and instructional design skills within a particular setting. These case studies incorporated real-life incidents from 47 professional instructional designers. These instructional designers described a total of 146 activities involving instructional design and/or multimedia production activities. Employing an emergent theme analysis approach, nine distinct themes developed from these activities and were included in the case studies. These themes included: Collaboration; Diffusion of Innovations; Formative Evaluation; Instructional Design; Interactive Instruction; Learner Analysis; Online Instruction; Technical Infrastructure; and Video Solutions. Fifty-seven Instructional Design and Technology graduate students evaluated the effectiveness of these case studies and considered the case studies as being valuable in furthering their understanding of related multimedia production and instructional design activities. The intent of these case studies was to enable Instructional Design and Technology students to comprehend the relationship between multimedia production and instructional design activities.     

Equity in education: The case of UNICEF and the need for participative debate

Equity is the most significant problem educators face. Very large inequities and inequalities persist in both education and society. Why? What can be done about them? While much has been written about these issues, progress is very slow and there is little agreement on why or what to do. While this article cannot resolve these questions, it raises five important issues concerning them: inter-agency contradictions concerning equity and global education policy; EFA and the MDGs; privatization and public-private partnerships; evidence-based policy; and the right to education. The article tackles the case of UNICEF, which has recently decided to focus its efforts on equity in education. In the conclusions which are drawn throughout, the article emphasizes the need for widespread, highly participative debates to answer the questions of why educators have made so little progress and what they can do to make more.     

Crafting an Occupational Identity: Learning the Precepts of Craftsmanship Through Apprenticeship

The term craftsmanship is associated with pre-industrial craft work with inferences to skilled artisanal manufacture of bespoke products. Apprenticeship learning is often perceived to be synonymous with learning craftsmanship. How then is the trait of craftsmanship through attainment of specific artisanal approaches conveyed and learnt through apprenticeship? This article presents and discusses processes imposed on and utilised by apprentices to attain precepts of artisanal approaches. The dispositional and skill elements of craftsmanship are proposed to be adopted through engagement with and development of craft and workplace specific approaches to contend with aspects of Pye’s (1968) conceptualisation of ‘workmanship of risk’ or the article’s proposed term of ‘artisanal approach of risk’.     

Do American and Korean education systems converge? Tracking school reform policies and outcomes in Korea and the USA

This study examines key school reform policies and outcomes of the USA and Korea over the past three decades from comparative perspectives. Since the two nations’ unique educational problems brought divergent educational reform paths—standardization versus differentiation, high-stakes testing versus individualized assessment, and centralization versus decentralization—the study tracks international policy benchmarking efforts and potential impact on educational convergence. The study employs mixed methods, including the content analysis of research and media documents and the trend analysis of TIMSS and PISA datasets. The results indicate that, despite significant changes in policy discourse, the gaps between Korea and the USA in student math achievement and school climates did not narrow. The policy lessons from these cases and the issues of international education benchmarking are discussed.     

Romanticism and Romantic Science: Their Contribution to Science Education

The unique contributions of romanticism and romantic science have been generally ignored or undervalued in history and philosophy of science studies and science education. Although more recent research in history of science has come to delineate the value of both topics for the development of modern science, their merit for the educational field has not been explored. Romanticism was not only an obvious historical period, but a particular state of mind with its own extraordinary emotional sensitivity towards nature. It is especially the latter which we hope to revisit and reclaim for science education. After discussing several key historical contributions, we describe nine characteristics of ‘Romantic Science’ in order to focus on six ideas/possibilities that we believe hold much value for transforming current science education: (1) the emotional sensitivity toward nature, (2) the centrality of sense experience, (3) the importance of “holistic experience”, (4) the importance of the notions of mystery and wonder, (5) the power of science to transform people’s outlook on the natural world, and (6) the importance of the relationship between science and philosophy. It is argued that in view of a pragmatist/utilitarian conception of school science prevalent today the aforementioned ideas (especially the notion of wonder and the poetic/non-analytical mode of knowledge), can provide food for thought for both science teachers and researchers seeking to work out an aesthetic conception, one that complements current approaches such as inquiry science and conceptual change.     

Designing Reading Comprehension Assessments for Reading Interventions: How a Theoretically Motivated Assessment Can Serve as an Outcome Measure

When designing a reading intervention, researchers and educators face a number of challenges related to the focus, intensity, and duration of the intervention. In this paper, we argue there is another fundamental challenge—the nature of the reading outcome measures used to evaluate the intervention. Many interventions fail to demonstrate significant improvements on standardized measures of reading comprehension. Although there are a number of reasons to explain this phenomenon, an important one to consider is misalignment between the nature of the outcome assessment and the targets of the intervention. In this study, we present data on three theoretically driven summative reading assessments that were developed in consultation with a research and evaluation team conducting an intervention study. The reading intervention, Reading Apprenticeship, involved instructing teachers to use disciplinary strategies in three domains: literature, history, and science. Factor analyses and other psychometric analyses on data from over 12,000 high school students revealed the assessments had adequate reliability, moderate correlations with state reading test scores and measures of background knowledge, a large general reading factor, and some preliminary evidence for separate, smaller factors specific to each form. In this paper, we describe the empirical work that motivated the assessments, the aims of the intervention, and the process used to develop the new assessments. Implications for intervention and assessment are discussed.     

Breaking the silence of exclusion: examining the complexities of teacher education for cultural diversity

This article is based on an in-depth case study that examined how a teacher education programme in New Zealand prepared pre-service teachers for cultural diversity (based on the author’s unpublished PhD thesis, Teacher Education for Cultural Diversity; conferred by Curtin University, June 2012). Framed within a critical constructivist inquiry paradigm, the primary research question explored how pre-service teachers were prepared to meet the learning needs of students in culturally diverse classrooms. The question was explored on four levels: curriculum, pedagogy, perceptions of effectiveness and diversity capacity. Empirical findings were reported thematically and highlighted the complexity of the issue. Key curriculum findings revealed variability in the depth of pre-service teacher preparation for cultural diversity and a conceptual development of sociocultural competence. Pedagogical findings reported three types of activity, namely dialogic activity, monologic activity and reflective activity and four types of social relationships, namely expert–novice, professional partnership, critical minority and silent minority. Findings on participant perceptions of effectiveness and diversity capacity are outlined, and limitations of the study are acknowledged. Three initial propositions on how to prepare the pre-service teachers for cultural diversity are proposed.