From conceptual development to science education: a psychological point of view

A theoretical framework based on cognitive/developmental research is described. It is argued that science learning is a gradual process during which initial conceptual structures based on children's interpretations of everyday experience are continuously enriched and restructured. Conceptual change also involves increased metaconceptual awareness, cognitive flexibility, and theoretical coherence. Some of the implications of this research for the development of science curricula and for instruction are discussed. It is also argued that while cognitive/developmental research can provide us with important information about the process of learning science, it does not provide much information about the external, environmental variables that can facilitate cognitive performance and conceptual change. What is needed in the future is the development of a theory of learning that bridges science education and cognitive/developmental research. Such a theory should specify the mechanisms that can take an individual from one level of cognitive performance to the next and relate them to situational and cultural factors.     

学习环境研究取向的考察与探析:来自文化哲学视角

当前学习环境研究主要有四种不同取向,即聚焦于"个体外部或内部"的心理学取向、聚焦于"实践共同体"的人类学取向、聚焦于"个体发展与环境关系"的生态学取向和聚焦于"技术与工具"的科技哲学取向。这四种取向都揭示了学习环境的基本内涵,但是由于缺乏明确的"文化"意识,缺乏人与文化同一的思维,没有深入到教育情境中人的学习与环境的同一性层面,没能揭示和把握住环境与人的学习之间的内在关系。学习环境研究应确立"整合"的理念,开辟新的研究取向——文化哲学取向。     

信息时代教师专业知能发展及评价研究

在教育信息化的境域中,教师专业知能的发展与评价可依据发展性评价理念,以图谱评量系统为平台,绘制个人专业发展路线图,并以此为蓝本在行动学习中实现教师专业发展与知能评价的整合。     

A developmental perspective on day care

Issues surrounding early day care become clarified when brought within a developmental perspective. Day care is examined in the context of normal developmental issues. A series of questions emerges. How does development commonly unfold in the context of nondisrupted parental care? How is development organized; what are major sequences of development and, especially, how does one phase build upon and set the stage for others? What is required of social partners to promote optimal development? How does this change with age? In brief, what do infants need from the social environment, and how do they typically get it in the context of the family? One then asks questions concerning day care. For example, what kinds of arrangements are and are not generally compatible with infant needs and under what circumstances? A developmental perspective also provides a framework for organizing findings from day care research and even suggests strategies for intervention research. While not fully explicit, Belsky's review (in this issue) provides a valuable service by introducing developmental concepts to the day care discussion. In the present paper this viewpoint is elaborated.     

Teaching Young Children Science: Three Key Points

Many early childhood teachers report lacking confidence to teach science. Today, science education is defined as “doing science”, as opposed to memorization of facts (Seefeldt & Galper, 2002). This paper discusses developmentally appropriate practices in the context of teaching science. Knowledge of child development, individual differences and the role of children’s socio-cultural context are explicitly discussed. The use of questioning and the 5 Es (engaging, exploring, explaining, elaborating, evaluating) instructional model are also discussed. A sample science lesson is provided to model the use of 5 Es and questioning strategies.     

A Quest for the Holy Grail in the New Millennium: In Search of a Unified Theory of Cognitive Development

Our reply emphasizes the benefits of cooperation between researchers in developing a comprehensive model of cognitive development that considers the constraints of human brain structures and the interplay of general laws of development and individual differences in developmental pathways within the context of social and cultural environments.     

Toward a science for and of the people: promoting civil society through the application of developmental science

Applied developmental science (ADS) is scholarship that seeks to advance the integration of developmental research with actions-policies and programs-that promote positive development and/or enhance the life chances of vulnerable children and families. Through this integration ADS may become a major means to foster a science for and of the people. It may serve as an exemplar of the means through which scholarship, with community collaboration, may contribute directly to social justice. In so doing, ADS helps shift the model of amelioration, prevention, or optimization research from one demonstrating efficacy to one promoting outreach. When this contribution occurs in the context of university-community partnerships, ADS may serve also as a model of how higher education may engage policy makers, contribute to community capacity to sustain valued programs, and maintain and perpetuate civil society through knowledge-based, interinstitutional systems change.     

Context matters in child and family policy

The traditional model of translation from basic laboratory science to efficacy trials to effectiveness trials to community dissemination has flaws that arise from false assumptions that context changes little or matters little. One of the most important findings in developmental science is that context matters, but this fact is not sufficiently taken into account in many translation efforts. Studies reported in this special issue highlight both the potential of systematic interventions in parenting, peer relations, and social-cognitive skills training, and the problems that will be encountered in trying to bring these interventions to a community context. It is advocated that developmental scientists start from within the community context itself so that translation to policy is only a small step. It is also advocated that this research be conducted through rigorous community randomized controlled trials.     

A case study on the formation and sharing process of science classroom norms

The teaching and learning of science in school are influenced by various factors, including both individual factors, such as member beliefs, and social factors, such as the power structure of the class. To understand this complex context affected by various factors in schools, we investigated the formation and sharing process of science classroom norms in connection with these factors. By examining the developmental process of science classroom norms, we identified how the norms were realized, shared, and internalized among the members. We collected data through classroom observations and interviews focusing on two elementary science classrooms in Korea. From these data, factors influencing norm formation were extracted and developed as stories about norm establishment. The results indicate that every science classroom norm was established, shared, and internalized differently according to the values ingrained in the norms, the agent of norm formation, and the members’ understanding about the norm itself. The desirable norms originating from values in science education, such as having an inquiring mind, were not established spontaneously by students, but were instead established through well-organized norm networks to encourage concrete practice. Educational implications were discussed in terms of the practice of school science inquiry, cultural studies, and value-oriented education.     

Commentary: Studying and Testing the Positive Youth Development Model: A Tale of Two Approaches

Interest in promoting positive development among children and adolescents has always been a focus of developmental science. Historically, many researchers framed this interest using a deficit model that sought to optimize positive development by reducing problems. In the context of the articles in this special section, the author discuss a different conception of positive youth development that has emerged across the past 25 years, one that capitalizes on human plasticity and tests a strength‐based model (instead of a deficit one). This model seeks to identify the process that could enhance the attributes of young people that are valued by them and others (e.g., parents, peers, teachers, mentors, coaches, and faith leaders), as compared to processes that reduce or prevent undesirable characteristics.     

Criteria for evaluating the significance of developmental research in the twenty-first century: force and counterforce

Since its birth approximately 100 years ago, the field of child development has undergone fluctuations in the criteria used to determine which research topics are more or less worthy of study. The purpose of this paper is to identify the forces that influence how developmental research is prioritized and evaluated and how these influences are changing as we enter the new millennium. We do so by considering the developmental researcher in context and suggest that there will be increasing pressure to use new criteria when assessing the significance of twenty-first-century developmental science. We review the three most commonly used forms of research validity--internal, external, and ecological--and then identify new research validities that we believe are likely to play increasingly important roles in the next millennium. We also argue that many developmental scientists will increasingly be pressured by forces that are external to the traditional research environment and that these forces will shape the ways in which the significance of developmental research is evaluated.     

The DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN CAPACITY IN MALAWI: THE ROLE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Faced with accelerating poverty, the Malawi government has re-awakened its commitment to the development of human capacity and the role of development in this context. This paper explores the relationship between development and science and technology. It goes on to review the country’s science and technology needs and how these justify taking developmental action. It concludes that strategies designed to increase access to education should not be limited to the primary sector, but should also include secondary curricula and university science and technology programmes. Drawing on the arguments in the article and personal experience, the authors suggest promoting the development of human capacity in Malawi by creating special “science schools” in the secondary sector and increasing the number of scholarships for university science students.     

Identifying pathways of teachers’ PCK development

This paper describes a method of analysing teacher growth in the context of science education. It focuses on the identification of pathways in the development of secondary school teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) by the use of the interconnected model of teachers’ professional growth (IMTPG).The teachers (n = 12) participated in a one-year action research project focused on their individual concerns related to teaching science. The use of the IMTPG revealed that teachers use different pathways of learning to develop different aspects of their PCK. For each PCK component, three distinct pathways could be identified, two of which clearly were associated with professional growth. When examining these two pathways in detail, it was found that (1) teachers learned about new instructional strategies and assessment methods mostly through literature reviews and discussions with peers and (2) teachers who analyzed and reflected on student learning as it happened in their classrooms developed understandings that helped them to select and apply instructional strategies to further promote student learning. Both the analytical method as well as the identification of the different developmental pathways help to better understand teacher development in the context of classroom practices.     

Assessment of Practical Work in Ireland: A critique

Proponents of science, technology and society (STS) education advocate a literacy grounded in the context of ethical, individual and social responsibility. Accordingly, STS programs and themes have been designed and developed in an effort to interpret science and technology as complex socially embedded enterprises, and to promote the development of a critical, scientifically and technologically literate citizenry capable of understanding STS issues, empowered to make informed and responsible decisions, and able to act upon those decisions. This paper posits that STS is a desirable and commendable goal. However, many dilemmas arise when educators begin to seriously address issues of power, knowledge, decision‐making, and responsible action in the science curriculum. In particular, this paper is a case study of an elementary teacher involved in STS education, with her grade three‐four class. The real‐life event or issue that triggers the STS curriculum unit is the school's septic tank overload. In describing this case, the author examines the potential power and problems of STS education.     

Estimating Individual Developmental Functions: Methods and Their Assumptions

This article introduces developmentalists to methods for estimating individual developmental functions from longitudinal data in a multilevel analysis. Quantitative growth curve models for estimating the developmental functions from various types of longitudinal data are discussed in the context of both an investigator's assumptions about individual development on the attribute and the design characteristics of the prospective study. General linear and inherently nonlinear models that estimate population, individual, and prototypic growth curves are illustrated and contrasted when they are fit to speech development data.     

Friendships in Children with Developmental Disabilities

Studies of friendships in children with developmental disabilities have evolved primarily from the research on children with typical development. As a result, the theories, definitions, and difficulties in measuring friendship have also been carried over to the research on children with developmental disabilities. Children with developmental disabilities, however, present unique issues that warrant consideration. Special consideration should be given to measurement issues, developmental level, the etiology or type of disability of the child, the experience and context of the child with the disability, and individual characteristics. Given these considerations, we make some suggestions for the study of friendships in atypical children.     

Friendships in Children with Developmental Disabilities

Studies of friendships in children with developmental disabilities have evolved primarily from the research on children with typical development. As a result, the theories, definitions, and difficulties in measuring friendship have also been carried over to the research on children with developmental disabilities. Children with developmental disabilities, however, present unique issues that warrant consideration. Special consideration should be given to measurement issues, developmental level, the etiology or type of disability of the child, the experience and context of the child with the disability, and individual characteristics. Given these considerations, we make some suggestions for the study of friendships in atypical children.     

Building Bridges for Those Under Bridges: A Lesson in Civility

Four questions are presented: What are the historical roots of motor development; How can motor development be characterized; How should motor development be conceptualized; and How should motor development be organized? A brief history presents the psychological roots of motor development and emphasizes the individual researchers who have created the area of motor development since the 1960s. Motor development is characterized as a composite of the researchers, knowledge, application of knowledge, systems for delivering knowledge, and graduate programs in motor development. Motor development should be a perspective rather than a structure or subdiscipline. All courses in human movement should be taught from a developmental perspective, research should be done within the appropriate subdiscipline, and some of that research should be developmental. Motor development will be best served if researchers align with scientists within the subdisciplines and share developmental information in cross-disciplinary groups.     

The Louisville Twin Study: developmental synchronies in behavior

The Louisville Twin Study includes nearly 500 pairs of twins and their siblings who have participated in a longitudinal study of mental development, beginning in infancy and extending to adolescence. The results show that individual differences beginning in infancy and extending to adolescence. The results show that individual differences in intelligence progressively stabilized by school age, and each child followed a distinctive pattern of spurts and lags in mental development. Monozygotic twins became increasingly concordant over ages and matched each other closely for developmental trends. By contrast, dizygotic twins regressed to an intermediate level of concordance, comparable with that found for siblings and parent-offspring sets. A comprehensive home assessment was performed to identify the home/family variables that contributed to mental development. The overall results pointed to a strong developmental thrust in the growth of intelligence, which was principally guided by an intrinsic genetic ground plan. Qualitative features of home and family did, however, add significantly to prediction of offspring IQ. The results are interpreted in the context of Waddington's developmental model, and some recent advances in neurobiology and genetics are surveyed for their implications for developmental behavior genetics.     

Multiple Aims in the Development of a Major Reform of the National Curriculum for Science in England

In the context of a major reform of the school science curriculum for 14–16‐year‐olds in England, we examine the aims ascribed to the reform, the stakeholders involved, and the roles of differing values and authority in its development. This reform includes an emphasis on socioscientific issues and the nature of science; curriculum trends of international relevance. Our analysis identifies largely ‘instrumental’ aims, with little emphasis on ‘intrinsic’ aims and associated values. We identify five broad categories of stakeholders focusing on different aims with, for example, a social, individual, political, or economic emphasis. We suggest that curriculum development projects reflecting largely social and individual aims were appropriated by other stakeholders to serve political and economic aims. We argue that a curriculum reform body representing all stakeholder interests is needed to ensure that multiple aims are considered throughout the curriculum reform process. Within such a body, the differentiated character of the science teaching community would need to be represented.