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     

Student Difficulties in Socio‐scientific Argumentation and Decision‐making Research Findings: Crossing the borders of two research lines

Students' poor argumentation in the context of socio‐scientific issues has become a concern in science education. Identified problems associated with student argumentation in socio‐scientific issues are misevaluation of evidence, naïve nature of science conceptualizations, and inappropriate use of value‐based reasoning. In this theoretical paper, the authors propose that incorporation of decision‐making research findings to argumentation research may help students overcome these problematic areas. For this aim, decision‐making research findings about value‐focused decision‐making framework and common heuristics have been discussed. Specifically, the authors propose that explicit teaching of argumentation research should provide students a decision‐making framework in which students can consider their values about a socio‐scientific issue and assess different alternatives as well as incorporate teaching about common heuristics. The authors believe that this incorporation is necessary for a quality student argumentation in socio‐scientific issues.     

Science Teachers' Inspiration for Teaching Socio‐scientific Issues: Disconnection with reform efforts

The need for the inclusion of socio‐scientific issues (SSI) into science curricula has been generally accepted, but relatively few science teachers have incorporated SSI into their courses. Most science teachers feel that their most important task by far is to teach the principles of science, and any substantive pedagogical changes represent a burden. Reformers and researchers often point out science teachers' lukewarm reactions to the reforms as a major barrier for educational changes but pay little attention to teachers' deeper values and inspirations. However, there are some teachers who address SSI out of their own personal initiative. Detailed case studies of four such teachers showed that although the teachers were aware of Science, Technology, Society or other reform efforts, they developed their own thrust and materials for SSI based on their own values, ideals, philosophies and personal concerns. This suggests that the current curriculum reforms (Science, Technology, Society, SSI, and Nature of Science) tend to suggest theoretical ideals, but do not effectively connect with teachers' deeper values and ideals.     

Assessing the unassessable: making learning visible in undergraduates’ experiences of scientific research

We suggest that academics involved in the provision of research experiences to undergraduate science students may benefit by reconceptualising these experiences as work-based learning. In particular, drawing on the widespread use of reflective practice in work-based learning allows for a more effective focus on process-related learning. We describe an empirical study involving the implementation of reflective blogs in which science students responded to prompt questions designed to focus their attention on how their project was progressing, the process of research and their own learning. The blogs reveal examples of students engaging in independent thinking, creative thinking and developing a sense of themselves as scientists, all qualities valued by supervisors. They also show how these combine as ‘wicked competences’ that allow students to address the complex problems and uncertainties of research. We identify characteristic patterns of reflection that indicate the exercise of such competences and suggest that these could be used as explicit evidence by academics making judgements for assessment purposes.     

Meaning‐making,adult learning and development: a model with implications for practice

Where the meaning of life can be found, and how people make meaning in their lives are age‐old questions pursued by philosophers, clergy, psychologists and educators. More recently, there has been a focus on the role of meaning‐making in learning and development in adulthood. Several writers have proposed that meaning‐making is what adult learning is all about, and a few have explicitly linked meaning‐making activity to development. First reviewed in this article are some of the basic understandings of meaning‐making advanced by classical and contemporary writers. Next, models of cognitive and ego development that directly link with meaning‐making are examined. Finally, a model of the relationship of meaning‐making to learning and development is presented and implications drawn for applying the model to adult education practice.     

Exploring high school students' use of theory and evidence in an everyday context: the role of scientific thinking in environmental science decision‐making

This study examined 10th‐grade students' use of theory and evidence in evaluating a socio‐scientific issue: the use of underground water, after students had received a Science, Technology and Society‐oriented instruction. Forty‐five male and 45 female students from two intact, single‐sex, classes participated in this study. A flow‐map method was used to assess the participants' conceptual knowledge. The reasoning mode was assessed using a questionnaire with open‐ended questions. Results showed that, although some weak to moderate associations were found between conceptual organization in memory and reasoning modes, the students' ability to incorporate theory and evidence was in general inadequate. It was also found that students' reasoning modes were consistent with their epistemological perspectives. Moreover, male and female students appear to have different reasoning approaches.     

Computer: The use of computer‐mediated communication in training students in group problem‐solving and decision‐making techniques

Abstract

A cost‐effectiveness analysis of training Army National Guard soldiers by audio teletraining technology was conducted. The trainees were n = 225 soldiers nationwide. About half of the trainees received training in a three‐week Unit Clerk Course through traditional residence training, and the remainder received the same instruction through audio teletraining. Objective performance data were collected from written tests on sixteen of the forty‐seven tasks taught. The percentage of trainees in the audio teletraining group that reached criterion (93%) on the first test was significantly higher (by statistical test) than the residence group (85%). In comparing costs, the audio teletraining group had lower training costs per trainee. Projected on an annual basis, the Army National Guard can save $292,404 per year through the use of audio teletraining for the Unit Clerk Course.     

Development of decision‐making skills and environmental concern through computer‐based,scaffolded learning activities

This article focuses on the development of decision‐making skills and environmental concern by 11‐ and 12‐year‐old students through computer‐based, scaffolded learning activities. The enacted activities provided necessary scientific information and allowed for the consideration of multiple aspects of the problem, the study of the effects of every possible solution and the formulation and balancing of criteria. The optimization strategy for decision making was adopted, because it allows for the development of compensatory thinking which is more relevant to actual situations of decision making. Twelve students participated in the pilot enactment of the proposed activities. Data collection relied on students’ reports and pre‐ and post‐ tests as well as a closed questionnaire designed to measure students’ environmental concern. The teaching intervention proved quite successful in enhancing the decision‐making skills of the participating children. Moreover, students’ performance on the environmental concern questionnaire correlated in interesting ways with the improvement of decision‐making skills.     

E‐learning and the transformation of social interaction in higher education

This article examines the way in which e‐learning is transforming the nature of social interaction in higher education. In this new educational environment, radical societal transitions and the opportunities afforded by modern communication technologies together produce formidable challenges. Significant as these challenges may be, concentration upon problems of a practical kind draws attention away from the more theoretical concerns in understanding e‐learning. By drawing together developments in social, educational and communicational theory and Gilly Salmon’s hands‐on approach to teaching and learning online, this article reveals some unintended consequences: e‐moderation and the use of e‐tivities may perpetuate the very conditions that limit our chances of dealing successfully with the challenges posed by e‐learning. While theory may muddle what might otherwise be communicated meaningfully to those in search of practical answers, theoretical developments provide concepts and frameworks that can be placed in the service of a critical understanding of e‐learning and the transformation of social interaction in higher education.     

Universality of Socio‐moral Development: a cross‐sectional study in Poland

The concept of friendship has had a great deal of attention within recent years from philosophers. However, this attention restricts itself to friendship between adults and rarely considers the issue of friendship between children. The issue of friendship and how we socialise with others ought to be an important concept for education, yet schools rarely take the forming, nurturing and nourishing of friendship beyond helping to deal with disputes between friends when they disrupt school life. I wish to argue that whilst friendship is critical to the development of character and can properly be seen as part of ‘an invitation to the moral life’, it also has value in and of itself as part of the flourishing life.     

Exploring Postcolonial and Feminist Issues: Rabbit‐Proof Fence in a Teaching Context

The discussion in this article focuses on representations in Doris Pilkington's Rabbit‐Proof Fence of trauma and reparation, and reflects on processes and strategies involved in teaching undergraduate students about these issues within literary contexts. The article discusses the practice of introducing students to new texts and areas of study, and demonstrates the positive learning outcomes deriving from inclusion of non‐canonical material linked to feminist and postcolonial theoretical and critical discussions. An earlier version of this paper, entitled ‘Rabbit‐Proof Fence: Text and Film’, was given at the Contemporary Women's Writing Network Inaugural Conference, ‘For Love or Money: Contemporary Women's Fiction in the Marketplace’, University of Bangor, April 2006.     

Lifelong learning trajectories: some voices of those ‘in transit’

This paper illustrates the social determinants of lifelong learning histories as uncovered in a largescale survey and interview analysis carried out as part of the ESRC Learning Society Programme, and previously reported in this journal. The statistical ‘determinants’ of adult participation in learning as described there, such as family background or gender, are examined here in terms of individual stories as well as theoretical models derived from earlier phases of this project. The two forms of data and their analyses appear to accord, suggesting perhaps that concepts of structure (determinants) and agency (choice) are not mutually incompatible in explaining patterns of adult learning. Choices are anyway made within subjective opportunity structures (which include notions of what is ‘appropriate’ for each person).     

Exploring the Development of Conceptual Understanding through Structured Problem‐solving in Physics

A study on the effect of a structured problem‐solving strategy on problem‐solving skills and conceptual understanding of physics was undertaken with 189 students in 16 disadvantaged South African schools. This paper focuses on the development of conceptual understanding. New instruments, namely a solutions map and a conceptual index, are introduced to assess conceptual understanding demonstrated in students’ written solutions to examination problems. The process of the development of conceptual understanding is then explored within the framework of Greeno’s model of scientific problem‐solving and reasoning. It was found that students who had been exposed to the structured problem‐solving strategy demonstrated better conceptual understanding of physics and tended to adopt a conceptual approach to problem‐solving.     

Team learning: through the relational dynamics of co‐operation and rivalry in team communities

This paper explores the constructive links between cooperation, rivalry, and learning within the structure of team communities. Drawing upon social learning theory and qualitative data from case studies conducted in Danish team‐based firms, the main purpose is to argue that both cooperation and rivalry are important triggers for mobilizing learning processes within and between teams. However, social learning theory tends to disregard the positive aspects of rivalry. Instead, the paper suggests that rivalry is often critical for learning to take place, and identifies four recurrent stories of rivalry as a trigger of learning based on two case studies of teamwork dynamics in firms. Consequently, this paper argues for the need to extend social learning theory beyond its rather harmonious learning perspective.     

Perceived Socio‐Economic Status and Social Inclusion in School: Interactions of Disadvantages

This paper is based on a study of 7,372 students in grades 5–10 (aged 11–16) in a representative sample of Norwegian compulsory schools. The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between students' reported socio‐economic status (SES) and their perceived social inclusion (SI) in school in the whole sample. We also considered separately a sub‐sample of students with additional social background disadvantages, i.e. children taken into public care and placed in a foster home or children's home, those whose parents have alcohol‐ or drug‐related problems, or students who are refugees and belonging to ethnic minority groups. For the sample as a whole, results showed a weak but significant relationship between SES and SI. In the disadvantaged sample, this relationship is stronger. These results suggest that additional social background disadvantages intensify the effects of SES on perceived social inclusion in school.     

Teaching Statistics Visually: A Quasi‐Experimental Evaluation of Teaching Chi‐Square through Computer Tutorials 1

This paper examines the effectiveness of computer graphic tutorials in explaining statistical concepts to undergraduates enrolled in two sections of criminal justice research methods. We demonstrated key concepts to a treatment group through a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and Macromedia Flash movies. The students’ statistical skills were measured through a test on mathematical calculation and multiple‐choice questions about chi‐square concepts. Both sections scored similarly on the skills test; however, the treatment group performed better on the conceptual questions. We discuss the implications for teaching methods and statistics and offer several resources that instructors can use in their courses.