Environment in the science curriculum: The politics of change in the Pan-Canadian science curriculum development process

This paper draws on the experience of the Pan-Canadian science curriculum development process as an instance of the more general problem of integrating science and environmental education. It problematizes the issue of incorporation of social and environmental dimensions within the science curriculum in terms of both policy and practice. The agenda of environmental education, as eco-philosophical and eco-political, provides a radically different base from which to explore the impact of change on science teachers and schools. Thus, the very idea of environmental education as an educational policy goal must be examined in light of conflicting agendas of science and environmental education. This paper argues that transforming structures and processes of school science to enable different teacher and student roles involves closing the gap between curriculum (policy) development and professional development as well as reconceptualizing science education, but from more overtly open moral value and political perspectives than have been considered in the literature of science education.     

Social control as a factor in science curriculum change

The contemporary school science curriculum may be regarded as the end‐product of a smooth evolutionary process or as the outcome of a series of decisions made by powerful individuals. The latter view is taken here and an attempt is made to interpret those decisions in terms of the vested interests of the decision makers. Attention is drawn to the need to scrutinize all proposals for science curriculum reform for underlying socio‐political motivation.     

Junior high school science transformed: analysing a science curriculum policy change

In response to a governmental initiative associated with expanding the technological infrastructure of its economy, the Canadian province of Alberta undertook extensive revision of its secondary school science programme, starting in 1986. This paper is about the junior high school programme (Grades 7‐9, ages about 12‐15). The subject matter configuration was changed from a ‘layer‐cake’ design to a ‘coordinated’ design. The objectives were broadened to include three mandated curriculum emphases, distributed evenly across the 18 units of the three‐year programme. The paper examines these and other features of the development and implementation of this reasonably successful curriculum policy.     

影响科学认识的因素研究

社会需求是促进科学认识发展的首要因素，社会历史文化及宗教对科学认识具有促进和制约双重作用。人类认识能力是科学认识的基础，科学自身发展水平和科学认识手段限制着科学认识，学科分化对科学认识具有制约作用，非意识后果对科学认识提出了新的挑战。弄清楚这些问题能为人类解决科学发展中面临的困境寻求一条出路。     

School subjects,subject communities and curriculum change: the social construction of economics in the school curriculum

The place of economics in the curriculum in England and Wales provides a lens through which we may view the ways in which the curriculum as a whole is fought over and remains shifting terrain. Conceived of as social movements, school subject communities are made up of competing factions giving rise to contest and conflict both within themselves and with other subjects. A social constructionist perspective, such as Goodson's, would suggest that the form and content of the curriculum are outcomes of such ongoing struggle, involving the interplay of power and control that reflect deep‐rooted traditions. Bernstein's notions of school subjects imply complex interplay of official and pedagogic agents in determining their fates as singulars, regions or generic entities. The rise and fall of economics lay substantially outside the control of its subject community and the social movements within it. At post‐16, a search for new content and pedagogies seemed to take little heed of its curricular market position. During the compulsory phase, the emergence of sub‐factions interested in vocational rather than economics education ensured its consignment to cross‐curricular theme status and relative oblivion in the post‐1988 National Curriculum.     

Narrative in the science curriculum

Internationally, science curricula make specific demands on students for the achievement of some level of scientific literacy. The details of what this means, and how it is to be achieved, have often been left for the teacher to elaborate. This paper argues thatnarrative, as a valued component of scientific literacy, offers a structure that allows scientific concepts to be (1) more easily integrated into other conceptual understandings, (2) more easily recalled, (3) more easily ordered and structured in the mind, and (4) an important component of the what it means to be a Self. The paper ends with practical suggestions for the use of narratives in the science classroom. Specializations: language and science, science for nurses, narrative and science education.     

中学物理探究性教学现状及其影响因素的调查

就中学物理教学中开展探究性教学情况进行了调查研究,以湖北省、山东省部分中学物理教师为主要研究对象,以问卷调查为主要方法,根据中学物理教师探究性教学的切身体会和所掌握的中学物理教师开展探究性教学的第一手资料,探寻影响中学物理课程开展探究性教学的制约因素,为探究性教学在中学顺利、深入地开展提出建议。     

Relationships between metaphors,beliefs, and actions in a context of science curriculum change

This study is an interpretive investigation of Sarah, a first-time teacher of middle- and high-school science who, because of high levels of disruption, was unable to establish and maintain environments favorable to learning. Sarah reflected on her roles as a teacher and identified facilitating learning, management, and assessment as salient, each being associated with defining metaphors and belief sets. Sarah's efforts to improve her teaching began with the construction of a new metaphor, the social director, for her role as manager. She developed coherence between the new metaphor and beliefs about constructivism, teaching, and learning. Sarah then managed her class in accordance with the social director metaphor and, although improvements were apparent, some students were uncooperative. Sarah then changed her metaphor for assessment from the teacher being a fair judge to the teacher looking through a window into a student's mind, an opportunity for students to show what is known. When this metaphor guided Sarah's assessment practices the learning environment improved appreciably. Although the development of new metaphors was a significant part of the process of reconceptualizing her roles as a science teacher, Sarah could not have improved the quality of teaching and learning without substantial assistance from her colleagues and school administrators.     

Language science in the tertiary curriculum

The goal of linguistics has been in dispute since its origin as a scientific discipline. The situation remains confused and consequently the curricular position of linguistics is ambiguous. An examination of the historical reasons for this indicates the following conclusions: At the time when language was first proposed as a subject for scientific study the natural sciences were still dominated by the mechanical model of Newtonian physics; this attitude of mind has inhibited the development of linguistics.Further development ought logically to depend on the harmonisation of linguistics with modern scientific concepts, such as relativity, probability, system and field. Such a move would constitute in part a new goal for linguistics. If such an innovation is admitted, those areas where language study overlaps with other subjects, e.g. psychology, logic and anthropology, provide natural exit points for a study of language and the epistemology of science.Linguistics is therefore capable of serving as a foundational discipline in a liberal arts curriculum. Its particular claim to assume this role lies in the fact that language is the object of both humanistic and scientific study. Hence to give linguistics a more central role in the tertiary curriculum offers a fundamental educational benefit in narrowing the cultural gap between the arts and science, and it is worth considering a change of emphasis in the curriculum to achieve this end.The aim of this paper is not to suggest detailed changes but to stimulate discussion of this consideration.     

Towards an indigenous science curriculum

The recent development of a national science curriculum in Māori opened up space to contest whose knowledge and whose ways of knowing are included. This paper outlines the background to the curriculum development work in Aotearoa New Zealand with respect to the indigenous Māori people and science education. Concern is expressed about the fitting of one cultural framework into another and questions are raised about the approach used in the development of the science curriculum. Further research in the area of language, culture and science education is discussed along with how Māori might move forward in the endeavour of developing a curriculum that reflects Māori culture and language. This paper forms part of an MEd thesis. For a fuller analysis of the development of “Te Tauākī Marautanga Pūtaiao: He Tauira” (Draft National Science Curriculum in Māori) see McKinley (1995) in the references. See alsoSAMEpapers 1995 (Hamilton, New Zealand: Centre for Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, University of Waikato).     

Referents for changing a science curriculum: A case study of one teacher's change in beliefs

This interpretive investigation of curricular change involved Karl, a middle school science teacher. Initially, he made sense of his and student roles in terms of objectivism and the teacher having control. When Karl had opportunities to observe the teaching of a colleague he began to consider changes in his teaching. The referents used to frame alternative teacher and student roles were students having greater autonomy for their actions and constructivism. However, constraints, such as shortage of time and beliefs of colleagues and students favored the retention of traditional practices. Although Karl's commitment to change was sufficiently strong to ensure that changes would be attempted, old belief sets and associated practices, restraints, and new belief sets and associated practices co-existed in a dialectical relationship. Effecting meaningful change necessitated teacher learning and sustaining of new equilibria between a complex array of interacting sociocultural factors.     

Realising the school science curriculum

Abstract

This article identifies historical, pedagogical and epistemological problems which distance the school science curriculum from social questions, and issues of social justice more specifically. Drawing on a critical realist approach it addresses these problems and aims to demonstrate that social justice lies at the heart of inquiry in science in schools.     

新课程中教师角色定位的转换

传统教师角色已无法适应新课程的要求，教师要与新课程同行，就应实现角色转换，必须成为学生学习和品质发展的促进者、共同建构学习的参与者、教师群体的合作者、课程的研究者和开发者。