关于科学课程的价值

随着教育改革的不断深化，以及高考中将设置“综合课”的考试模式，综合的科学课程已成为教改的热点。本文着重从科学的统一性，适应教学的需要，教学与学生潜能的培养，心理学，以及教学与社会生产力的发展关系的诸方面对科学课程的价值进行了理论上的探讨。     

Constructivist approaches and the teaching of science

The teaching methods for science that developed in France from the 1970s onwards, in conjunction with various attempts to renew science teaching, were largely inspired by constructivism. Approaching epistemology as constructivists, the physicists interested in science education found in Piaget’s work a model child in tune with their own representation: a child who is active and curious, spontaneously attentive to objects and phenomena, working out concepts of the world, experimenting tirelessly, alive to contradictions, keen to be rational and intelligible, and so on. This article covers the beginnings of science-teaching theory in France, the development of research in that area and the renewed interest in constructivism by decision-makers and practitioners.     

科学史与科学教学的有效契合

在科学课程的教学中,利用科学史组织教学能极大地丰富科学课堂,对学生的科学素养的培养具有积极作用。     

Student teachers' attitudes toward science and science teaching

Attitudes toward science and science teaching are the subject of a mounting body of research on teachers. A widely used instrument developed by researchers in the United States appears to be relevant to the Australian context and was considered appropriate for measuring attitudes of preservice student teachers attending a College of Advanced Education in Brisbane. The findings suggest that much more effort needs to be concentrated on fostering desirable attitudes toward science and the teaching of science among future primary school teachers.     

History of science,individual development and science teaching

The existence of similarities between the ideas of modern students and those of early scientists have led to suggestions about how the history of science can be used to help students undergo similar transitions to those experienced by early generations of scientists. In this paper attention is focused not only on these similarities but also on some crucial differences between the processes and concepts or conceptual frameworks of these two groups of people. In the light of these similarities and differences some of the implications for producing and using historical material in the science classroom are discussed. Specializations: Physics education, concept development, history and philosophy of science and science teaching.     

Is science itself the cause of ineffective science teaching?

In her article “A Possible ‘Orality’ for Science?” (Interchange, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 227–244), Rampal argues that science can be made more relevant to students if its language is reformed and replaced by one that contains elements drawn from oral cultures. There is some point to this policy proposal, but it fails to note that the dispassionate and impersonal prose of science has its own function in the on-going practice of science. The real task for the teacher should not be reforming the language of science but rather using oral culture to lead students in the excitement of scientific theories and the joys of scientific research, bringing them in the end to a mastery of the prose style that the scientific community has found serves well its goal of increasing our knowledge of laws of nature.     

对科学教学实践的思考

本文以问卷调查为基本方法 ,了解中学师生对科学素养概念的认识 ,了解师生对我国现行物理课程及科学教育的评价 ;并对我国科学教学实践进行了思考 ,提出自己的一些观点。     

Constructivism: Sound theory for explicating the practice of science and science teaching

Critics praise applications of constructivism in science pedagogy, but they argue that constructivism is severely impaired and hopelessly flawed as a theory. Flawed theory should not be employed to explain innovative practice. My purposes are twofold. First and foremost, I present a case to support my own and others' assertions that constructivism is a sound theory with which to explain the practice of science and science pedagogy. In accomplishing my primary purpose, I also fulfill my secondary purpose, to respond to constructivism's critics. My argument is presented in three parts. In Part 1, I delineate the epistemological ground with a brief synopsis of the purpose, nature, and orientation of radical and social constructivism. I then offer a synthesis of their foundations. In Part 2, I offer a constructivist account of five long-standing epistemological issues, including truth, solipsism, experience, instrumentalism, and relativity. Truth is the center piece of the argument, and I show how constructivism avoids the root paradox by embracing truth as coherence. Next, constructivism is shown to be a rejection of solipsism. Then, an account of experience based in neurophysiological theory, emergent properties, and the brain as a parallel data-processing organ is provided to support constructivism's inside-out view of experience, in which meaning making occurs within individual minds and in communities of individuals. In the final segment of Part 2, I present a constructivist account of relativity which focuses on physicists' acceptance of relativity, its translation to constructivist epistemology, and constructivists' request for silence regarding ontology. Response to critics' objections are also presented at appropriate points throughout Part 2. In the third part, I present constructivism as an epistemological foundation for a cybernetic perspective of knowing. I then summarize the value of constructivism in explaining and interpreting the practice of science and science pedagogy. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 35: 501–520, 1998.     

Democratic science teaching: A role for the history of science

For John Dewey, democracy meant the opportunity and the ability to participate in the continuing conversation of the community. To participate effectively, education must free the intelligence to creatively reconstruct the community. Dewey traced logic back to its etymological roots in dialogue. The history of science is the history of a conversation of an international community. To participate in it effectively, students must free their intelligence. Logically, this is best done by creative and disciplined democratic classroom dialogue instead of the monologue common to so many schools. We recommend a dialogical model of science teaching.     

Definition in science teaching

Summary Definitions, I have suggested, have both a function and a form. The function pursued and the form used should depend on the situation and on the term being defined. In the situation described at the outset, Mr. Beta should probably have seen to it that a stipulation of some sort was given-just in order to get on with the task at hand. The stipulation might have been based upon a true reported definition-or it might not-depending on political considerations and the linguistic flexibility of the people concerned. Since no one involved could plausibly have been trying to embody a program in a definition of dough, a programmatic definition was not appropriate in that situation.Several different forms for a definition of dough might reasonably have been used, but in this case the old reliable classification form was probably best, because of its completeness, neatness, and brevity. Two reasonable alternatives are the equivalent-expression form and the range form. The synonym, example-nonexample, and operational forms were probably not appropriate.My main point is that there is not just one way to define. I hope that my delineation of some major possibilities and variations will help those who read this article to be flexible in handling problems of definition when they arise; and they arise more often than most people realize.An ealier draft of this article was presented at a colloquium at the University of Illinois in honor of Professor B. Othanel Smith at his retirement.