Epistemological Foundations of School Science

Based on a synthesis of contributions from differentauthors, we present a theoreticalframework that provides some foundations for schoolscience, and we define someresearch problems. We start from what is already knownabout students' models andcognition in order to construct proposals of didacticalintervention. The cognitive modelof science, developed in the philosophy of science throughstudying scientists' activity,has allowed us to propose an analogous model for schoolscience in which experimentationand language play the key roles. We emphasise the relativeindependence of school scienceand scientists' science.     

21世纪采矿学的发展与展望

依据目前我国乃至世界采矿科学的现状和发展趋势,展望未来21世纪采矿业的发展,阐述自己对采矿学的发展方向及其对采矿工程教育教学的建议.     

对环境学专业使用《环境学概论》教材的体会

对环境学专业在使用《环境学概论》时 ,应如何取舍和补充教材内容进行了讨论。并指出了教材中存在的某些问题     

Science: Access for All Pupils

Sections 3 and 4 of the 1988 Education Reform Act include science as one of the compulsory core subjects in the National Curriculum and empower the Secretary of State to specify attainment targets, programmes of study, and assessment arrangements for science for children of compulsory school age. The Science Working Group appointed to advise the Secretaries of State on science reported in June and its recommendations for attainment targets, programmes of study and statements of attainment were published in August alongside the science proposals of the Secretaries of State for Education and Science and for Wales, in Science for Ages 5 to 16 . Alan Jones, head, physical science department, Trent Polytechnic, Paul Denley, south west regional project officer, Secondary Science Curriculum Review, and Christopher Butcher, senior lecturer, Trent Polytechnic, discuss the report.     

On the Commodification of Science: The Programmatic Dimension

The article is a partial result of a wider research project, in which the commodification of science is interpreted, from one point of view, as a facet of the rise of neoliberalism, and from another, as a set of processes, classified according to a three-category taxonomy. Only one of the taxonomy’s categories is dealt with in this article, the one that concerns the processes that affect the programme of scientific research. First a sketch is presented of the historical background and the periodization of the most relevant epoch for the study of the commodification of science, namely, the one from the end of World War II to the present. The periodization is expressed in the notions of Golden Years science and neoliberal science. The ensuing sections have the aims: to show that, in Golden Years science, the processes shaping research programmes did not include commodification; to characterize the period of transition of the 70 s; to describe the processes of commodification that have impact on the research programmes of neoliberal science; to discuss criticisms that have been levelled against them, as well as proposals for better ways of conducting scientific practices, and their implications for science education (which are of the same nature as that of Science & Education’s editorial line); and finally, to bring to light the differences between developed and emerging countries as far as the commodification of science is concerned.     

The Pendulum as Presented in School Science Textbooks of Greece and Cyprus

When we refer to scientific knowledge, we, implicitly or explicitly, refer to its three components, namely its conceptual framework, its methodological principles and its cultural aspects. The pendulum is a topic of science teaching and learning where all three of these aspects can be examined with the aim of gaining a holistic appreciation of the transformation of a natural phenomenon into a phenomenon of the physical sciences and how this can then be recontextualized into a topic of school science learning. The main objective of this study is to examine whether this richness of the pendulum as a topic of teaching is revealed in the school science textbooks in Greece and Cyprus, for both primary and secondary education. We will use an analytical mapping instrument in order to determine, whether the pendulum is introduced at some grade level and, if so, in what context. We will then use an interpretive instrument, which relies on taxonomy of science curricula into traditional, innovative and constructivist programs, in order to attach meaning to the analysis. Finally, we will formulate a series of proposals in relation to the educational value of the simple pendulum at the Greek and Cypriot gymnasium level.     

Implementing State Standards for Science Education: What District Policy Makers Make of the Hoopla

Premised on the assumption that school districts play an important role in the implementation of state and federal policy, this article explores the districts' response to state science standards. Adopting a cognitive perspective on the implementation process, the authors examine the ideas about science education that district policy makers construct from science standards. Our analysis illuminates how the ideas about reforming science education that district policy makers come to understand from new science standards contribute to these standards being adapted at the district level in ways that miss or misrepresent their core intent. The article identifies prominent patterns in district policy makers' understandings of the science reforms. Based on this analysis, the authors argue that a cause of implementation failure, rarely examined in the literature, concerns the ways in which local implementers miss or misconstrue the intent of policy proposals. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach: 37: 401–425, 2000     

Feyerabend on Science and Education

This article offers a sympathetic interpretation of Paul Feyerabend's remarks on science and education. I present a formative episode in the development of his educational ideas—the ‘Berkeley experience'—and describe how it affected his views on the place of science within modern education. It emerges that Feyerabend arrived at a conception of education closely related to that of Michael Oakeshott and Martin Heidegger—that of education as ‘releasement’. Each of those three figures argued that the purpose of education was not to induct students into prevailing norms and convictions, but rather to initiate them into the ‘civilized inheritance of mankind’. I conclude that interpreting Feyerabend's educational ideas within this conception of education as releasement lends a new coherence to his remarks on science and education, in a way that renders certain of his political proposals—such as the ‘separation of science and the state'—both more coherent and more compelling.     

谈俄罗斯行政法和行政法学的历史发展

研究俄罗斯联邦行政立法的历史发展,了解俄罗斯联邦行政法的主要内容,有助于我们端正行政法学研究的方向,为我国行政法治建设思考理论依据和可行方案。本文拟研究三大问题:一是苏联解体前的俄罗斯联邦行政法和行政法学,二是苏联解体后的俄罗斯联邦行政法和行政法学,三是俄罗斯联邦行政法和行政法学的发展趋势。     

论高职院校计算机专业教学模式改革

本文针对高职院校计算机专业教学的现状,结合现代教育理论和教育目标,分析了高职院校计算机专业教学中存在的问题,提出了对计算机专业课程教学改革的几点建议。     

Science and schooling for students with LD: a discussion of the symposium

In this summative discussion, we respond to Crockett's proposals about supporting science in the schoolhouse, and we summarize and reflect on the perspectives of the commentators. Overall, they identify discussion points in issues of science in schooling, implementation of scientific practices, teacher training and professional development, and issues in educational administration and leadership. We agree with Crockett and the commentators that intensive efforts in all these areas must be made to strengthen the role of science in the schoolhouse.     

大学科研队伍应当成为中国冲击诺贝尔科学奖的先锋队

中国在自然科学领域如数学、生命科学、化学、物理学等领域已经取得举世瞩目的成就,但是,与发达国家相比,中国在科学研究中仍然存在一些诸如急于求成和担心失败、过分强调研究条件、缺少合作等亟待解决的问题。中国科学家应当在正确研究方法指引下,通过不懈努力,在自然科学领域取得辉煌成就并获得诺贝尔科学奖。大学是优秀人才聚集的地方,为自然科学研究创造了一支活力较强、敢于创新的人才队伍,发挥着既是培养科学家的摇篮,又是科学研究主力军的作用。大学科学研究队伍应当成为中国冲击诺贝尔科学奖的先锋队。     

Success in Science Learning and Preservice Science Teaching Self-Efficacy

This study examined relationships between conceptual understanding, self-efficacy, and outcome expectancy beliefs as preservice teachers learned science in a constructivist-oriented methods class. Participants included 49 preservice elementary teachers. Analysis revealed that participants increased in self-efficacy, outcome expectancy, and conceptual understanding. Engaging preservice teachers in hands-on, minds-on activities and discussion were important contributors. Participants reported that they would be inclined to teach from a constructivist perspective in the future. One implication from this study is that increasing the quantity of science content courses that preservice elementary teachers are required to take may not be sufficient to overcome their reluctance to teach science if some of their learning does not take place in a constructivist environment. In our teaching, we have tried to integrate pedagogy with learning science content.     

The Nature of Scientific Practice and Science Education

There is, broadly speaking, an agreement within the international science education community that comprehension of the nature of science (NOS) should be a key element in the scientific literacy of citizens. During the last few decades, several didactic approaches have emerged concerning what and how to teach NOS. Also, one of the basic objectives of science education is for students to become familiar with the skills typical of scientific practice; however, there is little reference to their need to also acquire meta-knowledge about scientific practice (i.e., an understanding of the nature of scientific practice). Among other reasons, this may be due to NOS being essentially identified in most of the predominant proposals with the nature of scientific knowledge. But why not plan the teaching of science to be in tune with real scientific practice for students to learn about the nature of scientific practice at the same time as they are learning science? The answer to this question has given rise to a proposal grounded in ten essential pedagogical principles for the teaching and learning of science in secondary school. These are the principle of formulating questions, the principle of creativity and imagination, the principle of experimentation, the principle of procedural diversity, the principle of errors as opportunity, the principle of modeling, the principle of cooperation and teamwork, the principle of argumentation and discussion, the principle of communication, and the principle of evaluation. The purpose of this article is to present the justification and fundaments of these principles.     

成都市完善科技投融资体系的对策建议

基于对成都市科技投融资体系的现状和存在问题的分析,提出完善成都市科技投融资体系的基本思路和对策建议：要改进财政科技投入方式,优化投入结构;加大引导和支持力度,推动企业科技投入;完善风险投资体系;拓宽资本市场融资渠道;加强科技投融资中介机构建设。     

History and Philosophy of Science as a Continuation of Science by Other Means

History and philosophy of science can serve the function of investigating scientific questions that are excluded by science itself. Because many things need to be protected from questioning and criticism in specialist science, its demonstrated effectiveness is also unavoidably accompanied by a loss of knowledge and a degree of dogmatism. History and philosophy of science can ameliorate this situation by working as a shadow discipline complementing specialist science in the production of knowledge about nature. In this enterprise the connection between philosophy of science and history of science is essential, since the questions that get consigned to the realm of philosophy are often, and not accidentally, the same ones buried in the historical record of past science. Some examples are given illustrating the complementary mode of history and philosophy of science, and its relations to other modes of study in history of science and philosophy of science are also examined.     

以高校科技档案管理促进教师科研能力对策研究

文章论述了高校科技档案管理对高校教师科研能力提升具有促进作用的基础之上,分析了目前高校科技档案管理的现状,并提出了相应的措施和对策。     

The Teaching of Mathematics and Science in the Reform of the Secondary School

It will be our purpose in this article to develop a few considerations on the way in which the teaching of mathematics and more generally the teaching of science is dealt with in the proposals for reform of the upper secondary school, on the problems arising as a consequence thereof, and on the debate that scientific associations have been carrying out on this matter. Our point of departure will be the prospectus (Appendix 1) which presents the references relevant to mathematics and sciences in the various drafts.     

Parents' Attitudes Towards Science and their Children's Science Achievement

Although countries worldwide are emphasizing the importance of science education for technological development and global economic competition, comparative findings from standardized international student assessments reveal a huge gap in science scores between developed and developing countries. Certain developed economies too have made little progress in raising science achievement over the past decade. Despite school improvement being placed high on the policy agenda, the results of such actions have been poor. Therefore, there is a need to explore additional ways in which science achievement can be enhanced. This study focuses on the family and examines whether parents' attitudes towards science (how much they value science and the importance they place on it) can influence their children's science achievement. Individual- and school-level data are obtained from the Program for International Student Assessment 2006 survey for 15 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and non-OECD countries. Hierarchical linear modelling is employed to estimate the equations. The findings indicate that parents' attitudes towards science have a positive and statistically significant effect on science achievement, after controlling for other important student- and school-level variables. Moreover, students from poor backgrounds appear to benefit from more positive parental science attitudes as much as students from high socioeconomic status, such that equality of student achievement is not affected. This study recommends that schools and teachers encourage parents to play a more pro-active role in their children's science education, as well as educate parents about the importance of science and strategies that can be adopted to support their children's science learning.