Encouraging a “Romantic Understanding” of Science: The Effect of the Nikola Tesla Story

The purpose of this paper is to discuss and apply the notion of romantic understanding by outlining its features and its potential role in science education, to identify its features in the story of Nikola Tesla, and to describe an empirical study conducted to determine the effect of telling such a story to Grade 9 students. Elaborated features of the story are the humanization of meaning, an association with heroes and heroic qualities, the limits of reality and extremes of experience, a sense of wonder, and a contesting of conventions and conventional ideas. The study demonstrates the learning benefits of encouraging a romantic understanding through a story that is structured explicitly around the identified features, in this instance in the context of the production and transmission of alternating current electricity. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of journal entries showed that the group of students who were encouraged to understand the concept of alternating current romantically (the experimental group) became more involved with both the content and the context of the story than a comparison group of students who were taught the concept explicitly, without a context (the control group). The students in the experimental group also performed statistically better on a science-content test taken 1?week and again 8?weeks after the indicated teaching intervention. This finding, along with the content analyses of students?? journals, provided evidence of romantic understanding of the science content for those students who listened to the Tesla story.     

The “Species” Concept as a Gateway to Nature of Science

The nature of science (NOS) is a primary goal in school science. Most teachers are not well-prepared for teaching NOS, but a sophisticated and in-depth understanding of NOS is necessary for effective teaching. Some authors emphasize the need for teaching NOS in context. Species, a central concept in biology, is proposed in this article as a concrete example of a means for achieving increased understanding of NOS. Although species are commonly presented in textbooks as fixed entities with a single definition, the concept of species is a highly discussed one in the science and the philosophy of biology. A multitude of species concepts exist, reflecting both the views and interests of researchers and their utility in different organism groups. The present study serves to address the following questions: How do textbooks in Norwegian primary and lower secondary schools present the concept of species? Can inquiries into the concept of “species” serve to highlight aspects of NOS? A review of the available literature on species and species concepts in school is also performed. In the schoolbooks, the biological species concept is commonly used as the main definition, whereas the morphological species concept is represented by additional remarks of similarity. The potential and pitfalls of using the species concept for teaching NOS are discussed, with NOS being discussed both as a family resemblance concept and as a consensus list. Teacher education is proposed as a starting point for inducing a more sophisticated view of biology into schools.     

What Kind of a Girl Does Science? The Construction of School Science Identities

A view of science as a culturally‐mediated way of thinking and knowing suggests that learning can be defined as engagement with scientific practices. How students engage in school science is influenced by whether and how students view themselves and whether or not they are the kind of person who engages in science. It is therefore crucial to understand students' identities and how they do or do not overlap with school science identities. In this paper, we describe four middle school African American girls' engagement with science. They were selected in the 7th grade because they expressed a fondness for science in school or because they had science‐related hobbies outside of school. The data were collected from the following sources: interviews of students, their parents and their teachers; observations in science classes; journal writing; and focus groups. These girls' stories provide us with a better understanding of the variety of ways girls choose to engage in science and how this engagement is shaped by their views of what kind of girl they are. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 441–458, 2000.     

The effect of a ‘Science,Technology and Society’ course on prospective teachers’ conceptions of the nature of science

The aim of this study is to assess prospective teachers’ views of some aspects of the nature of science (NOS) and the effects of a “Science, Technology and Society” (STS) course embedded with scientific investigation (SI) on these views. A questionnaire consisting of 13 items was given to 212 prospective teachers enrolled in a STS course before and after teaching. During the semester, participants were engaged in a specially designed pilot SI combined with explicit NOS instruction. Majority of the participants held traditional views of the target NOS aspects at beginning of the study. After the course there were significant changes in the conceptions of prospective teachers in majority target aspects of NOS as the results of a Sign test indicate. We suggest that the more suitable SI, performed in an active learning environment, related to target aspects of NOS must be selected to develop the more constructivist views about the NOS.     

The pedagogy of argumentation in science education: science teachers’ instructional practices

ABSTRACT

Argumentation has been a prominent concern in science education research and a common goal in science curriculum in many countries over the past decade. With reference to this goal, policy documents burden responsibilities on science teachers, such as involving students in dialogues and being guides in students’ spoken or written argumentation. Consequently, teachers’ pedagogical practices regarding argumentation gain importance due to their impact on how they incorporate this practice into their classrooms. In this study, therefore, we investigated the instructional strategies adopted by science teachers for their argumentation-based science teaching. Participants were one elementary science teacher, two chemistry teachers, and four graduate students, who have a background in science education. The study took place during a graduate course, which was aimed at developing science teachers’ theory and pedagogy of argumentation. Data sources included the participants’ video-recorded classroom practices, audio-recorded reflections, post-interviews, and participants’ written materials. The findings revealed three typologies of instructional strategies towards argumentation. They are named as Basic Instructional Strategies for Argumentation, Meta-level Instructional ?St??rategies for ?Argumentation, and Meta-strategic Instructional ?St??rategies for ?Argumentation. In conclusion, the study provided a detailed coding framework for the exploration of science teachers’ instructional practices while they are implementing argumentation-based lessons.     

Elementary school children’s understanding of science: The implementation of an extracurricular science intervention

The promotion of students’ achievement and competence in the so-called STEM disciplines is one cornerstone of current educational research and practice. In particular, as early as elementary school, the fostering of an adequate understanding of science is a normative goal of science education. It facilitates students’ science learning and enables them to understand the nature and development of scientific knowledge. Based on the relevance of the promotion of young children’s understanding of science, a corresponding science intervention was recently developed and successfully evaluated in a first study under highly controlled conditions. The goal of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of this intervention when implemented in practice. One hundred seventeen third- and fourth-grade students and 10 trained course instructors participated in this study. We applied a randomized block design with waitlist control groups and repeated measures. The results revealed that children assigned to the intervention compared with children assigned to the waitlist control group showed better inquiry-related methodological competencies (a better understanding of the scientific inquiry cycle and experimentation strategies) and a higher need for cognition. The findings point to the successful implementation of the intervention and are compared with the results of the first study.     

Integrating art into science education: a survey of science teachers’ practices

ABSTRACT

Numerous case studies suggest that integrating art and science education could engage students with creative projects and encourage students to express science in multitude of ways. However, little is known about art integration practices in everyday science teaching. With a qualitative e-survey, this study explores the art integration of science teachers (n?=?66). A pedagogical model for science teachers’ art integration emerged from a qualitative content analysis conducted on examples of art integration. In the model, art integration is characterised as integration through content and activities. Whilst the links in the content were facilitated either directly between concepts and ideas or indirectly through themes or artefacts, the integration through activity often connected an activity in one domain and a concept, idea or artefact in the other domain with the exception of some activities that could belong to both domains. Moreover, the examples of art integration in everyday classroom did not include expression of emotions often associated with art. In addition, quantitative part of the survey confirmed that integration is infrequent in all mapped areas. The findings of this study have implications for science teacher education that should offer opportunities for more consistent art integration.     

Towards a More Authentic Science Curriculum: The contribution of out‐of‐school learning

In many developed countries of the world, pupil attitudes to school science decline progressively across the age range of secondary schooling while fewer students are choosing to study science at higher levels and as a career. Responses to these developments have included proposals to reform the curriculum, pedagogy, and the nature of pupil discussion in science lessons. We support such changes but argue that far greater use needs to be made of out‐of‐school sites in the teaching of science. Such usage will result in a school science education that is more valid and more motivating. We present an “evolutionary model” of science teaching that looks at where learning and teaching take place, and draws together thinking about the history of science and developments in the nature of learning over the past 100 years or so. Our contention is that laboratory‐based school science teaching needs to be complemented by out‐of‐school science learning that draws on the actual world (e.g., through fieldtrips), the presented world (e.g., in science centres, botanic gardens, zoos and science museums), and the virtual worlds that are increasingly available through information technologies.     

Discussion of Socio‐scientific Issues: The role of science knowledge

This paper considers the relationship between science knowledge and the ability to engage in reasoned discussion of the social consequences of science. Through a study of over 200 school students aged 14–16 we show that the ability to engage in reasoned discussion of applications of gene technology is strongly influenced by the ability to recognize key issues, and that ability to recognize key issues requires some understanding of the relevant science. It is also influenced by the specificity of the context under discussion and personal experience. The requisite scientific knowledge base is relatively modest and can be effectively taught through brief teaching interventions that are well designed and contextualized. The implications for classroom practice are considered     

The impact of a cryogenics‐based enrichment programme on attitude towards science and the learning of science concepts

This study explores the impact of a cryogenics‐based enrichment programme, which involves demonstrations that use liquid nitrogen, on attitudes towards science and the learning of science concepts. The findings presented in this paper are based on a sample of 214 fifth‐grade students from two schools in Singapore who had their enrichment lesson in a subzero‐temperature science centre. Overall, the students viewed science as more enjoyable and acquired more interest in wanting to pursue science careers after experiencing the cryogenics‐based enrichment programme, but no remarkable and conclusive change was detected in their perceptions of the social implications of science. Significant knowledge gains were also detected among the participants. The programme did not have any differential impact on students of either gender and from two learning streams, both cognitively and affectively.     

The effects of reform: Have teachers really lost their sense of professionalism?

In this article, we reflect upon what research and other evidence tells us about the effects of many years of sustained, centrally initiated government reforms upon teachers’ work, lives and effectiveness. It is important to note that whilst the general intentions of school reform are almost always to improve standards of teaching, learning and achievement in increasingly unstable and turbulent economic and socially fragmented environments, their singular and cumulative effects are not always perceived to be efficacious or beneficial by those whose responsibility it is to enact them. In other words, reform may not always lead to renewal. As we approach the end of the first decade of this century, then, it is important to take stock of what, in some countries, have been 20 years of root and branch reform in schools, in pre-service teacher training (aka education) and in teachers’ conditions of work. Whilst the specifics of reform efforts differ in pace and in the ways they are managed in different countries, the general direction is the same.