Bourdieu,Department Chairs and the Reform of Science Education

Using the insights of the French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, this article considers the role of the science department chair in the reform of school science education. Using Bourdieu’s ‘thinking tools’ of ‘field’, ‘habitus’ and ‘capital’, we case study the work of two teachers who both actively pursue the teaching and learning of science as inquiry. One teacher, Dan, has been a department chair since 2000, and has actively encouraged his department to embrace science as inquiry. The other teacher, Leslie, worked for one year in Dan’s department before being transferred to another school where science teaching continues to be more traditional. Our work suggests that there are three crucial considerations for chairs seeking to lead the reform of science teaching within their department. The first of these is the development of a reform-minded habitus, as this appears to be foundational to the capital that can be expended in the leadership of reform. The second is an understanding of how to wield power and position in the promotion of reform. The third is the capacity to operate simultaneously and strategically within, and across, two fields; the departmental field and the larger science education field. This involves downplaying administrative logics, and foregrounding more inquiry-focused logics as a vehicle to challenge traditional science-teaching dispositions—the latter being typically dominated by concerns about curriculum ‘coverage’.     

西方小学科学课程发展的历史回顾与展望

自19世纪中叶起,西方小学科学课程发展经历了实物教学、自然学习和现代小学科学课程三种形态,教育目的从最初的促进个人心智发展到今天的促进个人-社会共同发展.进入21世纪,重视小学科学课程的基础性作用、构建平衡的科学课程将成为未来的重要发展方向.     

杜威的教育学理想

19世纪末到20世纪初是美国教育学科的构建时代,作为学科构建的最重要领航者,杜威的相关言说和行动,一方面是我们了解当时教育学科构建和发展样态不可或缺的资源,另一方面,也是我们检验当代教育学科发展变化的一种参照。杜威在其相关的三个重要文献中,以及在芝加哥大学创建教育系、实验学校和教育学院的实践中,体现了他对教育学科的基本看法和设想,即创建一种“统一的教育科学”。这是杜威赋予教育学的一种理想,然而这一理想在当时的种种现实条件下还难以实现。     

Career paths of department chairs: A national perspective

Department chairs in 101 Carnegie Council Research I and II and Doctorate-Granting I and II institutions were surveyed to describe their career movements prior to becoming chair, and the length of tenure as chair and the movement from the chair position that their two predecessors in the position of chair had made. Additional variables addressed were discipline, department size, chair's age and gender, the nature of departmental hiring practices, and whether chairs had previous administrative experience. The Biglan model of discipline classification was used to differentiate among disciplines. Sixty-five percent of chairs return to faculty status after their tenure as chair. However, gender, departmental hiring practices, and discipline all have significant effects on the likelihood that a chair will return to faculty status or go on to further administrative service.     

The ‘nature of science’ in the school curriculum: the great survivor

This paper explores the ways in which the ‘nature of science’ (NoS) has been interpreted, accommodated and justified within school curricula since science was first schooled in the mid-nineteenth century. It explores how different interpretations of ‘the NoS’ have been invoked by those seeking to reform school science education in response to wider political, economic or social concerns such as the demand to ‘humanise’ school science teaching, to increase the supply of qualified scientists or to promote scientific literacy. It offers some comments upon the implications of these interpretations for current attempts to promote the ‘NoS’ in school science education. The focus of attention is England and, to a lesser extent, the USA but the issues raised are of contemporary relevance to many other parts of the world.     

Asia Pacific science education in a knowledge society

Science education, since the end of the nineteenth century has been a formal vehicle to ensure the perpetuation of scientific knowledge necessary for general scientific literacy and the creation of a society of scientists. However, since then, beliefs about knowledge and knowing have changed from science being described as being just a pile of chronologically documented facts, through the dynamic growth of scientific knowledge as explained by Kuhn in his Structure of Scientific Revolutions, to the present twenty-first century concept of knowledge societies by which new scientific knowledge is being interpreted. Science education perspectives in relation to teacher education and pedagogies need to be frequently revisited. Indeed, many nations in the Asia-Pacific region are doing just that. How then is the teaching and learning of scientific knowledge in the region? This article will review and compare research related to science achievement, quality of science education and approaches to teaching science in the Asia-Pacific region in particular five nations, in an attempt to answer this question.     

Overlooked aspects in the education of science professionals: Mentoring,ethics, and professional responsibility

Science as profession is generally defined narrowly as research. Science education as preparation for a profession in research is usually perceived as course work and laboratory training, even though the necessary knowledge and skills to pursue a research career are more extensive and diverse and are learned in one-on-one interaction with mentors. A complete education of science professionals includes the values, ethical standards and conventions of the discipline since they are fundamental to the profession. Mentoring and education in the responsible conduct and reporting of research and in the ethical dimensions of science are among the professional responsibilities of scientists and need to be discussed as part of science education. Moreover, science as an enterprise is much more than research and includes a number of other components, including science teaching, science journalism, and science policy. Each of these contributes to the nature of science and its role in society.     

关于科学教育的几点思考

在中华传统教育思想的主导下，长期以来，无论是高等教育还是基础教育都一直存在着把科学教育片面理解为只是传播科学知识的教育，而忽视了更高层次的科学思想、科学方法和科学精神的培养教育的问题，这不仅与时代要求不相适应，而且对人才的培养极为不利。特别是加入WTO后，中国面临着全球性人才竞争的严峻挑战。因此，在当前的学校教育中，只有加快科学教育改革的进程，大力加强科学思想、科学方法和科学精神的教育，才能培养出具有创新精神和创造能力的高素质人才，为中华民族在21世纪的伟大复兴作出新的贡献。     

基于环境教育使命的高师地理科学专业建设与课程改革

环境教育经历了从单纯的环境教育到可持续发展教育、从渗透式课程到独立式课程、从绿色课程到绿色学校的发展历程。在肩负环境教育使命的背景下，高师地理科学专业建设和课程改革有着以下新的目标：一是满足为中学独立式环境教育培养专门师资的需要；二是为满足大学环境素质教育和中学渗透式环境教育需要积极建构绿色校选课程体系；三是通过加强围绕绿色课程改革和绿色科研厦其实践的地理科学重点专业建设，推动绿色大学的创建活动。     

Reforming Science Education: Part I. The Search for a Philosophy of Science Education

The call for reforms in science education has been ongoing for a century, with new movements and approaches continuously reshaping the identity and values of the discipline. The HPS movement has an equally long history and taken part in the debates defining its purpose and revising curriculum. Its limited success, however, is due not only to competition with alternative visions and paradigms (e.g. STS, multi-culturalism, constructivism, traditionalism) which deadlock implementation, and which have led to conflicting meanings of scientific literacy, but the inability to rise above the debate. At issue is a fundamental problem plaguing science education at the school level, one it shares with education in general. It is my contention that it requires a guiding “metatheory” of education that can appropriately distance itself from the dual dependencies of metatheories in psychology and the demands of socialization—especially as articulated in most common conceptions of scientific literacy tied to citizenship. I offer as a suggestion Egan’s cultural-linguistic theory as a metatheory to help resolve the impasse. I hope to make reformers familiar with his important ideas in general and more specifically, to show how they can complement HPS rationales and reinforce the work of those researchers who have emphasized the value of narrative in learning science. This will be elaborated in Part II of a supplemental paper to the present one. As a prerequisite to presenting Egan’s metatheory I first raise the issue of the need for a conceptual shift back to philosophy of education within the discipline, and thereto, on developing and demarcating true educational theories (essentially neglected since Hirst). In the same vein it is suggested a new research field should be opened with the express purpose of developing a discipline-specific “philosophy of science education” (largely neglected since Dewey) which could in addition serve to reinforce science education’s growing sense of academic autonomy and independence from socio-economic demands.     

Towards a pragmatic science in schools

This paper contrasts naive beliefs about the nature of science, with science as it appears from sociological and philosophical study, feminist critique and insights from multicultural education. I draw implications from these informed views to suggest how school science might be modified to project a pragmatic view of science to its students that allows students to know science and its relationships to themselves and society in multi-faceted ways. From these perspectives, pragmatic school science is situated within a values framework that questions how we know. Pragmatic school science also requires that the naive inductivist views that permeate school science inquiry methods at present be modified to recognise that observations and inquiry are guided by prior knowledge and values; that new knowledge is tentative; that some knowledge has high status, as it has been constructed consensually over a long period; but that even high status knowledge can be challenged. For implementation of these reforms, yet still to embrace the need for some students to appropriate understanding of discipline knowledge required for advanced science education, a broad set of aims is required.     

校外科技教育活动评价体系初探

校外科技教育活动和学校教育一样需要进行科学的评价,校外教育机构普遍缺乏教育活动的评价体系,即使在现有的不甚完善的评价体系中还存在明显的不尽合理的地方,这种状况将影响到校外教育的可持续发展。文章从校外教育机构本身、活动中的学生以及教师三个方面对校外科技教育的评价原则、评价指标、权重分配等作了一定的阐述。     

新世纪高校思想政治教育工作的多元理念与实践

21世纪是人才竞争、科技竞争的世纪,培养有理想、有道德、有文化、有纪律的社会主义事业建设者和接班人,以适应新世纪的挑战,是祖国和人民赋予高校光荣而艰巨的历史使命。当前,摆在我们面前的课题是如何进一步探索出适合高校特点、发挥高校优势,顺应时代要求的思想政治教育工作的有效途径。本文从教书育人的神圣职责、揭示个体社会化的历程真谛和反映高校特有规律三个方面探讨在新的世纪高校思想政治教育的理念与实践。     

高等教育学发展面临的主要问题

当前我国高等教育学的发展应着重探讨高等教育学的学科独立性,高等教育学和高等教育实践的关系以及中国高等教育学学派的形成等问题,以推动高等教育学发展成为自立、自为、成熟的学科。     

美国基础科学教育改革及其主要特点--兼谈加强我国科学教育研究

美国20世纪80年代中期以来开展的新一轮基础科学教育改革，是60年代科学教育改革的继续和深化。其基本特点蕴含着值得我国科学教育改革借鉴的丰富经验，如科学教育改革得到全社会的支持，尤其是科学界和企业界的大力支持；科学课程改革具有系统性和配套措施；科学教育改革高度重视科学探究和科学教育的普及；尤其值得我们重视的是，美国科学教育改革有大量的科学教育理论研究的支持。     

The Parallels Between Philosophical Inquiry and Scientific Inquiry: Implications for science education

The ‘community of inquiry’ as formulated by C. S. Peirce is grounded in the notion of communities of discipline‐based inquiry engaged in the construction of knowledge. The phrase ‘transforming the classroom into a community of inquiry’ is commonly understood as a pedagogical activity with a philosophical focus to guide classroom discussion. But it has a broader application. Integral to the method of the community of inquiry is the ability of the classroom teacher to actively engage in the theories and practices of discipline‐based communities of inquiry so as to become informed by the norms of the disciplines, not only to aspire to competence within the disciplines, but also to develop habits of self‐correction for reconstructing those same norms when faced with novel problems and solutions, including those in the classroom. This has implications for science education and the role of educational philosophy in developing students' ability to think scientifically. But it also has broader implications for thinking critically within all key learning areas. Here we concentrate on science education. We present the parallels between philosophical inquiry and scientific inquiry that need to be realised to promote and engage with scientific inquiry in the classroom. We also discuss the conflicts between philosophical inquiry and the way inquiry science in the classroom is portrayed in the education literature. Based on philosophical and historical perceptions of science as inquiry, a practical approach to implementation of scientific inquiry in the science classroom is presented.     

学校规训教育探析——基于福柯规训理论的视角

福柯通过对18世纪以来的学校教育中的规训权力及规训技术的系谱学考察,揭示了学校规训教育的发展历程,指出现代学校是一个典型的规训机构,既规范人的行为,也规训人的精神,其在使学校教育走向＂科学化＂、＂规范化＂的同时,也给学校教育的发展带来了一些不利影响。     

人文精神在初中科学教育中的体现

科学本身不只具有科学性,还具有一定的人文性,但是长期以来我国科学教育注重其科学性,忽略其人文性,导致在科学教育中过分注重基础知识技能的传授,忽视学生人文精神的培养。文章分析了在现代科学教育中体现人文精神的必然性,并在此基础上重点讨论了人文精神在初中科学教育中的体现,结合实际探讨了初中科学教育中进行人文精神教育的策略,包括制订包含人文精神的教学目标,挖掘科学教材的人文素材,改进课堂教学,培养学生的人文精神,倡导包括人文精神教育在内的完整的科学教育。     

美国教师教育大学化形成的路径研究

美国教师教育大学化形成的四种路径是:(1)从师范学校到教师学院再到大学教育学院,(2)从大学教育讲座制到教育系再到大学教育学院,(3)大学直接建立教育学院,(4)文理学院建立教育系。美国教师教育大学化的意义在于,确立了教师教育在综合性大学和文理学院中的独立地位,确立了教师教育在高等教育学术科层结构中的位置。     

中学理科教育中的科学人文精神

中学理科教育也具有人文精神的教育功能,在中学理科教育中教师应将科学教育与人文教育有机地结合起来,将人文精神的教育渗透于各科知识的传授过程中.教师在教学中可从科学的发展史和科学家的典型故事、从教材和学科特点、从美育功能入手,培养学生的科学人文精神.