Trust in testimony: how children learn about science and religion

Many adult beliefs are based on the testimony provided by other people rather than on firsthand observation. Children also learn from other people's testimony. For example, they learn that mental processes depend on the brain, that the earth is spherical, and that hidden bodily organs constrain life and death. Such learning might indicate that other people's testimony simply amplifies children's access to empirical data. However, children's understanding of God's special powers and the afterlife shows that their acceptance of others' testimony extends beyond the empirical domain. Thus, children appear to conceptualize unobservable scientific and religious entities similarly. Nevertheless, some children distinguish between the 2 domains, arguably because a different pattern of discourse surrounds scientific as compared to religious entities.     

Effects of science teachers' epistemological beliefs in teaching

In recent years there has been a renewed interest in investigating teachers' beliefs in general, and science teachers' epistemological beliefs in particular. However, very few studies have investigated the effects of these epistemological beliefs in teaching. The purpose of this study was to test the hypotheses that teachers holding constructivist beliefs (a) are more likely to detect student alternative conceptions; (b) have a richer repertoire of teaching strategies; (c) use potentially more effective teaching strategies for inducing student conceptual change; (d) report more frequent use of effective teaching strategies: and (e) highly valuate these teaching strategies compared with teachers holding empiricist beliefs. Through the use of a three-part questionnaire consisting of critical incidents, direct questions about teacher strategies of conceptual change, and ratings of the use and importance of specific teaching strategies, data were obtained from 35 science teachers with different science backgrounds and teaching at different educational levels. Analysis of the data supported all five hypotheses. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for further research. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

An exploratory study of the knowledge base for science teaching

The purpose of this study was to describe the knowledge base of a group of science teachers in terms of their knowledge of the structure, function, and development of their disciplines, and their understanding of the nature of science. The study also aimed to relate the teachers' knowledge base to their level of education, years of teaching experience, and the class level(s) that they teach. Twenty inservice science teachers were selected to respond to a modified version of the Views on Science–Technology–Society (VOSTS) questionnaire to assess their understanding of the nature of science. The teachers then constructed concept maps and were interviewed. The concept maps were scored and the interviews analyzed to assess teachers' knowledge of the structure, function, and development of their disciplines. The teachers' knowledge base was found to be lacking in all respects. Teachers held several naive views about the nature of science and did not demonstrate adequate knowledge and understanding of the structure, function, and development of their disciplines. Moreover, the teachers' knowledge base did not relate to their years of teaching experience, the class level(s) that they teach, and their level of education. It was reasoned that teacher preparation programs are not helping teachers develop the knowledge base needed for teaching science. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 34: 673–699, 1997.     

A research base for new objectives of science teaching

A bright year 7 student was going through the usual steps that lead to the concept of density and its values for wood and brass and aluminium. After mensurating the volumes of cuboids of these materials he was observing the volume of liquid they displaced in a measuring cylinder. As he carefully pushed the wooden cuboid below the surface, I asked him, “Why do you have to push the wood down?” “Because it floats otherwise”, he replied. “Why didn't you have to push the aluminium down?” “Because there was not enough water to make it float”. “Tell me more”, I said. “Well, sir, you must have seen metal ships floating on the sea. If there's enough water, metal will float, but not in a little bit like this”. Just after describing for me how liquid acetone evaporated if it is placed on your skin, a first year university chemistry student with good test results was unable to give me any examples of a liquified gas. When pressed he muttered “Solids, liquids, gases” (A strangely immutable sequence that has neither evolutionary nor biblical support.) and said he thought the cO in a cylinder was probably liquid. Gases could be liquified by lowering the temperature, he said. On being asked to describe what would happen if he steadily cooled down the air in a space, he began by quoting, “Air molecules, being particles moving very rapidly with energy proportional to temperature”. As he cooled them down in thought, he held out his hands and slowed down the vibration of his fingers about a point in space. Finally, his fingers stopped and he said, “It's nothing”. “What do you mean, has it disappeared?” I said. “No”, he replied, but it's no longer a gas, and it's not a liquid or a solid. They are all just there suspended in space. It's no-thing”.     

Knowledge,beliefs and pedagogy: how the nature of science should inform the aims of science education (and not just when teaching evolution)

Lisa Borgerding’s work highlights how students can understand evolution without necessarily committing to it, and how learners may come to see it as one available way of thinking amongst others. This is presented as something that should be considered a successful outcome when teaching about material that many students may find incompatible with their personal worldviews. These findings derive from work exploring a cause célèbre of the science education community—the teaching of natural selection in cultural contexts where learners feel they have strong reasons for rejecting evolutionary ideas. Accepting that students may understand but not commit to scientific ideas that are (from some cultural perspectives) controversial may easily be considered as a form of compromise position when teaching canonical science prescribed in curriculum but resisted by learners. Yet if we take scholarship on the nature of science seriously, and wish to reflect the nature of scientific knowledge in science teaching, then the aim of science education should always be to facilitate understanding of, yet to avoid belief in, the ideas taught in science lessons. The philosophy of science suggests that scientific knowledge needs to be understood as theoretical in nature, as conjectural and provisional; and the history of science warns of the risks of strongly committing to any particular conceptualisation as a final account of some feature of nature. Research into student thinking and learning in science suggests that learning science is often a matter of coming to understand a new viable way of thinking about a topic to complement established ways of thinking. Science teaching should then seek to have students appreciate scientific ideas as viable ways of making sense of the currently available empirical evidence, but should not be about persuading students of the truth of any particular scientific account.     

Cognitive conflict: Its nature and use in the teaching of science

Summary The thrust of this article is that although different theories may share some of the same terminology they may differ considerably in the interpretation which they impose on it and, therefore, on the educational practices which they underwrite. Specifically a brief examination has been made here of the concept of cognitive conflict as it occurs in the theories of Bruner, Case and Piaget-Inhelder, and of the similarities and differences in classroom practices which arise from theoretical commitment.     

浅析如何改进当代大学英语教学的缺陷

以英语教学和心理学原理的结合为主线,通过分析大学英语教学的现状,介绍在英语教学中如何运用循环法和讲座法及其理论依据,旨在改进当代英语教学的缺陷,使学生能够学好英语.     

Preservice teachers' views of the nature of science during a postbaccalaureate science teaching program

The goals of this study were to determine preservice science teachers' views of the nature of science and to describe the changes in those views that occur during a teacher education program. Fifteen students in a postbaccalaureate secondary science teaching program at a large university participated in this study. The participants' views of science were ascertained by an investigator-developed survey and a follow-up interview administered before and after the university's science teaching methods sequence. Before entering the teaching program, the participants had a contemporary (i.e., postpositivist) view of scientific theory, knowledge, and the role of a scientist and a traditional (i.e., empiricist or positivist) view of scientific method. Initially, there was an equal number of traditional, mixed, and contemporary views of the different aspects of science. After completing the methods sequence, the number of contemporary views doubled and the number of mixed views decreased by more than half. The number of participants with an overall contemporary view of science rose from 2 to 7. Since there was little direct instruction about the nature of science, it is possible to make positive changes in preservice teachers' views of the nature of science in a teaching program in which contemporary teaching strategies such as conceptual change and cooperative learning are taught. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 34: 595–615, 1997.     

On the nature of teaching nature of science: Preservice early childhood teachers' instruction in preschool and elementary settings

This study explored whether early childhood preservice teachers' concerns about teaching nature of science (NOS) and their intellectual levels influenced whether and how they taught NOS at the preschool and primary (K‐3) levels. We used videotaped classroom observations and lesson plans to determine the science instructional practices at the preschool and primary levels, and to track whether and how preservice teachers emphasized NOS. We used the Stages of Concern Questionnaire (SOCQ) pre‐ and postinternship to determine concerns about NOS instruction, and the Learning Context Questionnaire (LCQ) to determine intellectual levels. We found that neither concerns about teaching NOS nor intellectual level were related to whether and how the preservice teachers emphasized NOS; however, we found that all preservice early childhood teachers began their internships with NOS concern profiles of “worried.” Two preservice teachers' NOS concerns profiles changed as a result of their internships; one to “cooperator” and one to “cooperator/improver.” These two preservice teachers had cooperating teachers who were aware of NOS and implemented it in their own science instruction. The main factors that hindered or facilitated teaching NOS for these preservice teachers were the influence of the cooperating teacher and the use of the science curriculum. The preservice teacher with the cooperating teacher who understood and emphasized NOS herself and showed her how to modify the curriculum to include NOS, was able to explicitly teach NOS to her students. Those in classrooms whose cooperating teachers did not provide support for NOS instruction were unable to emphasize NOS. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47:213–233, 2010     

论在计算机教学中如何促进道德素质教育

针对计算机使用中出现的道德问题，在计算机教学中应引导学生提高警惕，加强网络安全意识，正确对待网络，合理取舍网络信息，培养网络“环保意识”，进而提高学生的道德素质。     

In defense of modest goals when teaching about the nature of science

This article mentions briefly the long tradition of proposals for including historical and epistemological elements in science programs; it draws attention to some contemporary educational issues that hinge upon interpretations of the nature of science, especially constructivist proposals; it mentions the range of philosophical debate on the merits of constructivism; it examines one goal commonly advanced for teaching about the nature of science and suggests that this can amount to indoctrination; and, finally, it proposes a modest goal for such teaching. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 35: 161–174, 1998.     

Representations of nature of science in U.S. science standards: A historical account with contemporary implications

This study evaluated the representations of nature of science (NOS) in U.S. state science standards, and examined the changes in these representations from documents advanced in the 1980s through 2016. Drawing from the consensus perspective on NOS and prior studies focusing on the analysis of textual content, documents were inspected for 10 target NOS aspects: the empirical, tentative, inferential, creative, theory-driven, and social NOS, in addition to the myth of “The Scientific Method,” the nature of scientific theories and laws, and the social and cultural embeddedness of science. Ninety-eight state documents from 48 states were analyzed and multiple editions were collected from 34 states. Additionally, relevant materials from the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) were assessed for their coverage of the same NOS aspects. Collected materials were scored as whole documents, including over 11,000 pages of text in total, on each target aspect, which reflected the treatment (naïve vs. informed) of NOS in text and the manner of presentation (explicit vs. implicit). Overall, surprisingly, state standards documents have improved very little with respect to their NOS coverage over the last 30 years. NOS standards documents remain silent on a majority of key aspects of NOS, and the number of aspects showing explicit, informed representations has held constant. The NGSS performed well compared to many contemporary documents, but they failed to address all target NOS aspects in a desirable manner. Further analysis raised concerns with the degree that states fully adopt and disseminate standards in manner consistent with the NGSS despite stated intentions, which may negatively impact NOS coverage in instructional resources and classroom enactments. To improve NOS representations in standards, recognizing the role these documents play in shaping instructional materials and teaching in the science classroom, exemplars from analyzed materials were highlighted with informed and explicit representations of multiple aspects.     

Secondary science teachers' knowledge base when teaching science courses in and out of their area of certification

This study examined the similarities and differences in experienced secondary science teachers' planning, teaching, and reflecting on their teaching, when teaching in their science area of certification and when teaching in another science area. The study also focused on the influence of these teachers' content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge on their planning, teaching, and reflecting. Experienced teachers were observed and interviewed while teaching classes in their science area of certification, and in another science area they were teaching for the first or second time. Both similarities and differences in teaching were found in the two areas for all three teachers. For example, their planning and postlesson reflections were similar in both areas. In the interactive phase of teaching more differences were observed. Many aspects of their teaching resembled that of expert teachers in other studies. In the unfamiliar science area, the teachers sometimes acted like novice teachers. However, they were able to draw upon their pedagogical knowledge to provide a framework for their teaching in both science areas. Their wealth of pedagogical knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge for general science topics, seemed to sustain them in whatever content they were teaching. Recommendations for further study and implications for teacher education are discussed.     

Elementary teachers' epistemological and ontological understanding of teaching for conceptual learning

The purpose of this study was to examine the ways in which elementary teachers applied their understanding of conceptual learning and teaching to their instructional practices as they became knowledgeable about conceptual change pedagogy. Teachers' various ways to interpret and utilize students' prior ideas were analyzed in both epistemological and ontological dimensions of learning. A total of 14 in‐service elementary teachers conducted an 8‐week‐long inquiry into students' conceptual learning as a professional development course project. Major data sources included the teachers' reports on their students' prior ideas, lesson plans with justifications, student performance artifacts, video‐recorded teaching episodes, and final reports on their analyses of student learning. The findings demonstrated three epistemologically distinct ways the teachers interpreted and utilized students' prior ideas. These supported Kinchin's epistemological categories of perspectives on teaching including positivist, misconceptions, and systems views. On the basis of Chi's and Thagard's theories of conceptual change, the teachers' ontological understanding of conceptual learning was differentiated in two ways. Some teachers taught a unit to change the ontological nature of student ideas, whereas the others taught a unit within the same ontological categories of student ideas. The findings about teachers' various ways of utilizing students' prior ideas in their instructional practices suggested a number of topics to be addressed in science teacher education such as methods of utilizing students' cognitive resources, strategies for purposeful use of counter‐evidence, and understanding of ontological demands of learning. Future research questions were suggested. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 1292–1317, 2007