Pre-service biology teachers’ perceptions on the instruction of socio-scientific issues in the curriculum

The work presented here represents a preliminary attempt to address the role of teachers in supporting students’ learning on socio-scientific issues (SSI) by characterising pre-service biology teachers’ perceptions and adaptation of curriculum and identifying factors that serve to mediate this process. A hundred and two undergraduate pre-service biology teachers took part in this study over the course of one semester. The teacher candidates (72% female) completed a questionnaire comprising Likert-type and open-ended questions. The results indicated that the teacher candidates perceived a need to address SSI positively. Pre-service teachers had moderate personal teaching efficacy beliefs related to teaching about SSI. They also identified the lack of instructional time and the unavailability of relevant materials as the primary obstacles hindering the teaching of SSI. The implications for teacher education and the design of curriculum materials with respect to SSI are discussed.     

Science education — I: The spirit of science

In these two essays we explore the questions: what are the essential features of a workable context for science education? What are the givens, the “of courses,” the “fundamental dispositions” toward science and toward education necessary — or at least sufficient — to provide a fertile ground upon which a functional approach to science education can be established? In the present essay it is argued first that science education must reflect that science is a way of thinking — in fact, more comprehensively, a way of being; and second, and that the fundamentally antiauthoritarian spirit of science must be reconciled with education, with its built-in tendency to be authoritarian.     

Antecedent factors influencing ethics-related social and socio-scientific learning enjoyment

This study investigates how affective dispositions influencing students’ moral judgments can both shape their response to individual enjoyment from learning ethics (IE-LE) and predict their individual enjoyment from learning socio-scientific issues (IE-LSSI). Tenth-grade participants from southern Taiwan (n?=?770) responded to survey items that support four subscales: science classroom, news media, IE-LE and IE-LSSI. Structural equation modelling analyses of these subscales found them to be empirically separable, structurally reliable and valid for investigating how students’ affective and self-related cognitive responses can predict their self-evaluated state of IE-LE and IE-LSSI. Viewed from the impact contribution of science classroom and news media, learning enjoyment plays a pivotal role in igniting and sustaining students’ personal attention when discussing IE-LE and IE-LSSI in the classroom. The implication of this study is that by encouraging students to think ethically about issues of science and allowing them to investigate SSI-related issues from a variety of news media sources within the classroom context, teachers can provide opportunity for students to explore science issues that may be well connected to their personal enjoyment of ethics and sense of freedom to learn within a science-related classroom environment.     

实现真正的STEM教育:来自科学实践哲学视角的理解

STEM教育作为一种重要的科学教育理念,包含注重打破学科壁垒的整合教育、强调面向真实世界的情境教育以及培养问题解决能力的循证教育三重意蕴。然而,当前STEM教育的大规模发展使其陷入了功利化倾向与复制式扩张的困境之中,需要来自科学实践哲学视角的深度反思以指引其未来发展方向。在科学实践哲学的考察视域内,STEM教育是一种从沉思科学到干预科学的介入性科学实践,是一种从科学作品到科学过程的地方性科学实践。未来STEM教育的真正实现需要准确把握“开放式终结”的意涵并全面理解“实验室生活”。     

Understandings of current environmental issues: Turkish case study in six teacher education colleges

The purpose of this study is to profile future science teachers’ understandings of current environmental issues in the context of an education reform in Turkey. Knowledge base and understandings of elementary and secondary prospective science teachers about biodiversity, carbon cycle, global warming and ozone layer depletion were targeted in the study. Questionnaire surveys developed for this purpose were adapted and used in this investigation. The questionnaires were administered to 360 participants in six universities. Analysis involved frequencies, percentages and comparing means for students majoring in elementary and secondary science teaching. Analysis of variance for differences among majors and responses to different issues are also included. Findings are compared and contrasted with the previous research in other countries. The study has implications for the prospective preparation of teachers and the future of environmental literacy movement in Turkey.     

‘Schools are no longer merely educational institutions’: the rhetoric of social efficiency in Ontario education, 1931–1935

This article examines educational rhetoric in Ontario, Canada, during the Great Depression. It notes how the government, through the Annual Reports of the Minister of Education, and the College of Education, through its journal, The School, espoused themes of social efficiency regarding educational ideas and policies. The Depression struck schools hardest between 1932 and 1935 in Ontario, providing cause and context for reflection and reform in pedagogy. While social efficiency remained within the educational discourse of the province, the notion was problematised in Ontario as the province began to shake off the worst of the economic Depression.     

Understanding the Nature of Scientific Enterprise (NOSE) through a Discourse with Its History: The Influence of an Undergraduate ‘History of Science’ Course

An appropriate understanding of the nature of the scientific enterprise (NOSE) is a key element of scientific literacy and can arguably be influenced through an exploration of the history of science. An elective, undergraduate History of Science course was organized in the form of small-group discussion-based inquiries into the history of science from ancient to modern times. Group discussions focused on STATEMENTS OF CRITICAL SIGNIFICANCE (SOCS) prepared by individual students on assigned readings prior to each class meeting. Small-group discussions were followed by a synthesis, facilitated by the instructor, of points raised in SOCS and other ideas central to the reading. The overarching goal of these activities was to help students see the multifaceted nature of the scientific enterprise in the context of social, political, cultural, and religious milieu of the time period and the geographic setting within which specific scientific activities and developments took place. The impact of this course on student understanding of the NOSE was assessed through the use of VIEWS ON SCIENCE-TECHNOLOGY-SOCIETY (VOSTS) instrument administered as pre- and post-test. Qualitative data regarding student understanding of the NOSE were furnished by the final exam on the NOSE written in the form of SOCS at the end of semester. Results based on four semesters of the course offering indicate modest gains in student understanding of specific aspects of the NOSE. They are discussed, along with the usefulness of small-group, discussion-based inquiries into the history of science as a way of enhancing scientific literacy during undergraduate science education.     

加强“科学记录”教学的具体策略

“科学记录”作为科学教育活动的一个环节,是学生科学探究活动的过程及结果的书面呈现,显示着学生亲历科学过程所留下的印迹。教师对学生“记录”的认真解读,不仅是对学生为了完成探究目标而进行努力的肯定。更是对学生劳动成果的尊重。善于教给学生恰当的记录方法是培养学生科学素养的需要。     

Educational Television: “Let's Explore Science”

This study provides a historical overview of the development of the instructional television as a tool within the context of science education. The technology was traced from its beginning as experiments in public service broadcasting by universities and television networks, though closed circuit, cable, and commercially produced science-related programming. The use of the technology as a teaching tool is examined in terms of the concept of scientific literacy and the means by which instructional television helped to accomplish the goals of scientific literacy.     

The Motion Picture in Science Education: “One Hundred Percent Efficiency”

This study provides a historical overview of the development of the motion picture as a tool within the context of science education. The technology was traced from its beginning as a silent motion picture through its current manifestation in videotapes and videodiscs. The use of the technology as a teaching tool is examined in terms of the concept of scientific literacy and the means by which the motion picture helped to accomplish the goals of scientific literacy.     

How Chinese students’ scientific competencies are influenced by their attitudes?

ABSTRACT

In recent years, research on students’ scientific competencies has generated much discussion. According to the PISA 2015 Assessment and Analytical Framework, both scientific competencies and attitudes towards science – interest in science, valuing scientific approaches to enquiry (or epistemological beliefs about science), and environmental awareness – are integral aspects of scientific literacy. However, few studies have focused on the relationships between them. This article examines how students’ scientific competencies are affected by their attitudes. Based on a theoretical analysis, the present study argues that the three attitudinal factors have a direct impact on scientific competencies, interest has an immediate influence on the other two attitudes, and epistemological beliefs are directly affected by environmental awareness. To test this hypothesis, a model was constructed to verify such relationships. PISA 2015 assessment instruments were used for data collection. The participants were 25,658 students from different parts of China, containing Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was employed for data analysis. The results confirmed our hypothesis. The way in which Chinese students’ attitudes affected their scientific competencies did not differ (to a statistically significant level) by gender or district. The limitations and implications of this research are discussed below.     

试论中国科学教育的发展路径——基于科学文化视角

科学文化是科学教育的灵魂,当代中国的科学教育必须确立传承科学文化的基本价值取向。为此,就要丰富科学教育的科学文化内涵,开展科学文化素质教育,以传递科学的理性和实证精神,凸显科学的人文价值,强调科学的怀疑和批判精神。开展科学文化素质教育的基本途径是构建基于科学文化的科学教育体系,即重新定位科学教育目标,追求多元化的科学文化素养;丰富科学课程的科学文化内涵,构建融入式HPS课程体系;提升课堂教学的科学文化品位,注重建构与对话的学习方式。