Compatibility between cultural studies and conceptual change in science education: there is more to acknowledge than to fight straw men!

In this response, we attempt to clarify our position on conceptual change, state our position on mental models being a viable construct to represent learning, indicate important issues from the social cultural perspective that can inform our work on conceptual change and lastly comment on issues that we consider to be straw men. Above all we argue that there is no best theory of teaching and learning and argue for a multiple perspective approach to understanding science teaching and learning.

Young children's emotional practices while engaged in long‐term science investigation

In this article, the role of young children's emotional practices in science learning is described and analyzed. From the standpoint of performativity theory and social‐constructionist theory of emotion, it is argued that emotion is performative and the expression of emotion in the classroom has its basis in social relationships. Arising from these relationships is the emotional culture of the classroom that plays a key role in the development of classroom emotional rules as well as the legitimation of science knowledge. These relationships are reflected in two levels of classroom dialogue: talking about and doing science, and expressing emotions about science and its learning. The dynamics of the negotiations of classroom emotional rules and science knowledge legitimation may dispose students to act positively or negatively toward science learning. This analysis is illustrated in the experiences of a teacher and her students during a 3‐year ethnographic study of emotions in science teaching and learning. This research suggests the importance of the interrelationship between emotions and science learning and the notion that emotional practices can be powerful in nurturing effective and exciting science learning environments. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 693–719, 2004     

Science-based laboratory comprehension: an examination of effective practices within traditional,online and blended learning environments

An increase in online education is causing science educators to evaluate student cognitive understanding after completing virtual, computer-simulated laboratories. Online education has demonstrated comparable learning gains when analysed to those of the traditional classroom, but research is mixed when reviewing students’ ability to manipulate tangible laboratory equipment after participating in online experimentation. The question remains, are students who are exclusively enrolled in online science courses equipped with the cognitive ability to operate laboratory equipment within a physical laboratory? When considering the optimal learning environment for science majors, educators have discovered the blended classroom may provide the perfect opportunity to combine the benefits of face-to-face instruction and feedback with the reinforcement of scientific theory through technology integration. New advances in virtual education provide promising examples of enhancing the online classroom laboratory in all scientific disciplines. Further insight into the blended classroom has the potential to influence the field of education towards an optimal learning environment for science majors in colleges and universities.     

Researching balance between cognition and affect in science teaching and learning

This paper is based on findings from a three year collaborative action research project on classroom teaching and learning. The research, which involved 33 teachers, over two thousand students from six schools, and the authors, centred on exploring how various features of the classroom context influence teaching and learning processes. We interpret project findings as indicating the importance of balance between cognition and affect for effective teaching and learning. We advance the notion of challenge as a way of conceptualising this balance. Challenge comprises a cognitive/metacognitivedemand component and an affectiveinterest component. Nine major features of a teaching/learning event were found to interact to influence these cognitive and affective components of challenge. Specializations: Collaborative research on science teaching and learning; staff development and school improvement; quality of science education. Specializations: Learning and teaching science; pre-service teacher education. Specializations: teacher development in science education; technology education. Specializations: Science and teachnology curriculum, environmental education, educational disadvantage. Specializations: learning theory, probing of understanding, conceptual change.     

Learning in interactive science centres

The potential of informal sources of science learning to supplement and interact with formal classroom science is receiving increasing recognition and attention in the research literature. In this study, a phenomenographic approach was used to determine changes in levels of understanding of 27 grade 7 primary school children as a result of a visit to an interactive science centre. The results showed that most students did change their levels of understanding of aspects of the concept “sound”. The study also provides information which will be of assistance to teachers on the levels of understanding displayed by students on this concept. Specializations: informal science learning, science curriculum Specializations: science education, science teacher education, conceptual change, learning environments.     

Development of professional knowledge in learning to teach elementary science

The purpose of this research was to understand how preservice elementary teacher experiences within the context of reflective science teacher education influence the development of professional knowledge. We conducted a case analysis to investigate one preservice teacher's beliefs about science teaching and learning, identify the tensions with which she grappled in learning to teach elementary science, understand the frames from which she identified problems of practice, and discern how her experiences played a role in framing and reframing problems of practice. The teacher, Barbara, encountered tensions in thinking about science teaching and learning as a result of inconsistencies between her vision of science teaching and her practice. Confronting these tensions between ideals and realities prompted Barbara to rethink the connections between her classroom actions and students' learning and create new perspectives for viewing her practice. Through reframing, she was able to consider and begin implementing alternative practices more resonant with her beliefs. Barbara's case illustrates the value of understanding prospective teachers' beliefs, their experiences, and the relationship between beliefs and classroom actions. Furthermore, the findings underscore the significance of offering reflective experience as professionals early in the careers of prospective teachers. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 121–139, 1999     

Eye‐rollers,risk‐takers,and turn sharks: Target students in a professional science education program

In classrooms from kindergarten to graduate school, researchers have identified target students as students who monopolize material and human resources. Classroom structures that privilege the voice and actions of target students can cause divisive social dynamics that may generate cliques. This study focuses on the emergence of target students, the formation of cliques, and professors' efforts to mediate teacher learning in a Master of Science in Chemistry Education (MSCE) program by structuring the classroom environment to enhance nontarget students' agency. Specifically, we sought to answer the following question: What strategies could help college science professors enact more equitable teaching structures in their classrooms so that target students and cliques become less of an issue in classroom interactions? The implications for professional education programs in science and mathematics include the need for professors to consider the role and contribution of target students to the learning environment, the need to structure an equitable learning environment, and the need to foster critical reflection upon classroom interactions between students and instructors. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 819–851, 2006     

Book Reviews

Book Reviewed in this article: Teacher to Teacher Learning from Each Other , Eleanor Duckworth And The Experienced Teachers Group The Making of the Inclusive School Gary Thomas David Walker & Julie Webb Restructuring Schools, Restructuring Teachers: responding to change in the primary school Peter Woods Bob Jeffrey Geoff Troman & Mari Boyle Testing: friend or foe? Theory and practice assessment and testing Paul Black The Book Club Connection: literacy learning and classroom talk Susan I. Mcmahon & Taffy E. Raphael (Eds) Mathematics Teachers in Transition Elizabeth Fennema & Barbara Scott Nelson (Eds) Researching Race and Social Justice in Education: essays in honour of Barry Troyna Pat Sikes & Fazal Rizvi (Eds) Art and Art Education J. Jagodzinski Changing Multiculturalism Joe L. Kincheloe & Shirley R. Steinberg     

Creating relevant science through urban planning and gardening

The purpose of this article is to describe a community‐based science project that was coproduced with urban teenagers and to elaborate on my understanding of what it means to create a practicing culture of science learning. This understanding will be positioned in relation to various educationally relevant discourses and research on urban science education, concluding with an exploration of these questions: In what ways did an urban planning and community gardening project help to create a learning environment in which science was relevant? To whom was science relevant and toward what ends? It is argued that in a practicing culture of science learning, science was relevant because (a) it was created from participants' concerns, interests, and experiences inside and outside science, (b) it was an ongoing process of researching and then enacting ideas, and (c) it was situated within the broader community. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 860–877, 2001     

Teaching elementary science methods to women: A male professor's experience from two perspectives

This is an action research study using an N of one (a case study) from the theoretical stance of symbolic interaction. This study of one male science education professor's experience teaching elementary science methods to females is told from two perspectives: the perspective of the professor and of a female coresearcher. In this study, the coresearchers present their perspectives of studying the gender difference between the male professor and his female elementary science method students and the attempts he makes to implement gender inclusive pedagogy. Discussion focuses on what each has learned through this study of examining the professor's practice as he takes action to improve the teaching and learning in his science method classes predominately populated by women. A key implication from this study is the assertion that male science methods professors have a special obligation to break the cycle of inequity in science teaching and learning for females by taking action to foster a female-friendly classroom climate and to encourage females to become engaged in class conversations and activities. However, professors should be aware that both female and male elementary teachers socialized in a system privileging men may not value efforts, or may even actively resist efforts to promote gender-inclusive science education during science methods. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 35: 919–949, 1998.     

Reproductive and resistant pedagogies: The comparative roles of collaborative learning and feminist pedagogy in science education

The underrepresentation of women (and men of color) in science has motivated many science educators to develop innovate classroom pedagogies aimed at making science courses and curricula more attractive and inviting to all students. One dominant approach to reforming science education is to transform how students learn by implementing collaborative approaches to learning in the classroom. Feminist pedagogy is an alternative approach to science education reform that is concerned with transforming both how students of science learn and the science curriculum that students are expected to learn. This article first compares and contrasts collaborative learning and feminist pedagogy. It then addresses the implications and consequences of each for science education. The theoretical and epistemological foundations of each approach demonstrates that choosing a classroom pedagogy is not an apolitical act. Collaborative approaches to science education serve to reproduce the dominant discourse of existing science systems. In contrast, feminist pedagogy resists the dominant discourse and invites all students to learn science, but more important, it invites them also to critically analyze existing scientific systems and the relationship of those systems to power, oppression, and domination. J Res Sci Teach 35: 443–459, 1998.     

Doing phenomenology in science education: a research review

This article is a review of applications of phenomenology, as a philosophy of knowledge and qualitative research approach, to the field of science education (SE). The purpose is to give an overview of work that has been done as well as to assess it and discuss its possibilities of future development. We ask: what attempts for connecting phenomenology and SE do we find in the research literature, and what possible effects could such connections have for teaching and learning? In approaching this field we distinguish between three sources of phenomenological SE: (1) Goethe’s phenomenology of nature; (2) philosophical phenomenology; and (3) anthropological phenomenology. Existing research based on phenomenological approaches is categorised as phenomenology of SE, phenomenology in SE, and phenomenology and SE integrated. Research examples from each category are critically evaluated and discussed. Finally we discuss the question of the relevance of phenomenology to science teaching. Our review indicates that phenomenology has considerable potential as a method for investigating science learning as a holistic process. It also seems that phenomenology and SE meet most fruitfully when phenomenology is done in the classroom, that is, when it is turned into actual efforts for promoting learning.     

Science Teacher Learning of MBL-Supported Student-Centered Science Education in the Context of Secondary Education in Tanzania

Science teachers from secondary schools in Tanzania were offered an in-service arrangement to prepare them for the integration of technology in a student-centered approach to science teaching. The in-service arrangement consisted of workshops in which educative curriculum materials were used to prepare teachers for student-centered education and for the use and application of Microcomputer Based Laboratories (MBL)—a specific technology application for facilitating experiments in science education. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected to study whether the in-service arrangement impacted teacher learning. Teacher learning was determined by three indicators: (1) the ability to conduct MBL-supported student centered science lessons, (2) teachers’ reflection on those lessons and (3) students’ perceptions of the classroom environment. The results of the research indicate that the teachers’ were able to integrate MBL in their science lessons at an acceptable level and that they were able to create a classroom environment which was appreciated by their students as more investigative and open-ended.     

Promoting Self-Regulation in Science Education: Metacognition as Part of a Broader Perspective on Learning

The purpose of this article is to review recent research on self-regulated learning and discuss the implications of this research for science education. We draw on examples of self-regulated learning from the science education literature to summarise and illustrate effective instructional methods and the development of metacognitive understanding (Gunstone; 1999a; Rickey & Stacy, 2000; White & Mitchell, 1994). We also focus on the crucial role that metacognition plays in self-regulation (Baird & White, 1996; Nichols, Tippins, & Wieseman, 1997; White, 1998). We divide our discussion into two main parts. The first focuses on three components of self-regulated learning, including cognition, metacognition, and motivation. We relate these aspects of self-regulation to current practices in science education. The second section focuses on six general instructional strategies for improving self-regulation in the science classroom. We focus on the use of inquiry based learning, the role of collaborative support, strategy and problem solving instruction, the construction of mental models, the use of technology to support learning, and the role of personal beliefs such as self-efficacy and epistemological world views. These instructional strategies are selected because they reflect extensive research agendas over the last decade within the science education literature and are essential to metacognition and self-regulation (Butler & Winne, 1995; Gunstone, 1999b).     

Mandated curriculum change and a science department: A superficial language convergence?

This article investigates the introduction of a systemic curriculum change, the Essential Learnings curriculum framework, in the Australian state of Tasmania. Using Gee's [(2003). Language in the science classroom: Academic social languages as the heart of school-based literacy. In: R. Yerrick, & W.-M. Roth (Eds.), Establishing scientific classroom discourse communities: Multiple voices of teaching and learning research (pp. 19–37). Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates] six claims regarding the importance of language in science education, the responses of the science teachers within a secondary school to the curriculum reform were investigated. This research utilised a narrative methodology to elucidate the processes by which science teachers attempted to negotiate a sense of meaning for the reforms within their work context. Three particular challenges are highlighted for curriculum reformers. These challenges involve the potential for a linguistic distance between teachers and reformers, understanding the importance of the work context in teacher learning and the dangers of a superficial application of reform language to teacher practices. The article concludes by emphasising that the negotiation of a situated language can provide both teachers and reformers with both coherence and a common ownership of a reform, thus strengthening the potential for its implementation and institutionalisation.     

The relevance of “recent and relevant” experience

The importance of recent and relevant experience is being asserted for teacher educators though not others responsible for education policy and curriculum. The paper will review the “self evident” value of recent and relevant experience from the perspective of researcher/teacher educator returning to classroom teaching. The potential and implications for research on teaching and learning and the opportunities for more significant school experience in teacher education are outlined. Specializations: teacher education, science education, health education, curriculum evaluation and research.     

Learning environment,motivation, and achievement in high school science

In a study of the relationship between high school students' perceptions of their science learning environments and their motivation, learning strategies, and achievement, 377 students in 22 introductory science classrooms completed surveys in the fall and spring of their ninth‐grade year. Hierarchical linear regression was used to model the effects of variables at both the classroom and individual level simultaneously. High intraclass agreement (indicated by high parameter reliability) on all classroom environment measures indicated that students shared perceptions of the classroom learning environment. Controlling for other factors, shared perceptions that only the most able could succeed in science classrooms and that instruction was fast‐paced and focused on correct answers negatively predicted science achievement, as measured on a districtwide curriculum‐linked test. Shared perceptions that classrooms focused on understanding and independent thinking positively predicted students' self‐reported satisfaction with learning. Implications of these results for both teaching and research into classroom environments are discussed. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 347–368, 2003     

Beginning science teacher cognition and its origins in the preservice secondary science teacher program

The objectives of this study were to (a) identify the major tenets of a preservice secondary science education program as expressed by science education faculty, (b) identify knowledge structures that beginning secondary science teachers have constructed about the teaching and learning of science, and (c) identify the correlatives that exist between the first two objectives. The study was grounded in the postulates of teacher cognition in that teachers construct their own schema from their experiences in order to comprehend, plan for, and respond to the dynamics of their classroom. This qualitative study consisted of interviews and observations of beginning science teachers, interviews with science education faculty, and an analysis of the course syllabi of that faculty. Methods of single and cross-case analytic induction were combined to analyze the data. Based on the data, it may be concluded that aspects of the program, such as student-centered learning, cooperative learning, general pedagogical knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge, were adopted into the schema of the beginning teachers; the degree of adoption appeared to be linked to the individual's most significant learning experiences and the constraints of the school situation. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 34: 633–653, 1997.     

“But at school … I became a bit shy”: Korean immigrant adolescents’ discursive participation in science classrooms

In reform-based science curricula, students’ discursive participation is highly encouraged as a means of science learning as well as a goal of science education. However, Asian immigrant students are perceived to be quiet and passive in classroom discursive situations, and this reticence implies that they may face challenges in discourse-rich science classroom learning environments. Given this potentially conflicting situation, the present study aims to understand how and why Asian immigrant students participate in science classroom discourse. Findings from interviews with seven Korean immigrant adolescents illustrate that they are indeed hesitant to speak up in classrooms. Drawing upon cultural historical perspectives on identity and agency, this study shows how immigrant experiences shaped the participants’ othered identity and influenced their science classroom participation, as well as how they negotiated their identities and situations to participate in science classroom and peer communities. I will discuss implications of this study for science education research and science teacher education to support classroom participation of immigrant students.