Logical positivism as a tool to analyse the problem of chemistry's lack of relevance in secondary school chemical education

Secondary school chemical education has a problem: namely, the seeming irrelevance to the pupils of chemistry. Chemical education prepares pupils for participation in society. Therefore, it must imply a model of society, of chemistry, and of the relation between them. In this article it is hypothesized that logical positivism currently offers this model. Logical positivism is a philosophy of science that creates a divide between science and society. It is therefore further hypothesized that the adoption of logical positivism causes chemistry's lack of relevance in chemical education. Both hypotheses could be confirmed by an analysis of a grade nine course.     

论基础科学课程与教学中"科学探究"的价值取向

“科学探究”或探究式科学教学是当前国际基础科学教学改革的重要话语之一。但是,20世纪60年代提倡的“科学探究”与90年代以来提倡的“科学探究”在价值取向上有重要区别:前者基于归纳主义或逻辑实证主义的科学观,后者基于建构主义的科学观。尽管美国一些重要的科学教育政策文献中不见“建构主义”一词,但其理论基础无疑是建构主义学习理论。     

科学合理性的二难困境对辩证法的回应

从科学的证实主义、证伪主义以及舍弃证实与证伪方法的非理性主义、新历史主义各流派都面临着二难困境，主要是由于科学哲学家选择科学合理性解释模式的单一化造成的，若用辩证观点来理解证实和证 伪、历史和逻辑、价值和理性之间的互补互斥的多元关系具有巨大的优越性。     

Why the South African NQF Failed: lessons for countries wanting to introduce national qualifications frameworks

This article examines the South African National Qualifications Framework as a case study of a particular approach to the design of qualifications frameworks, which revolves around the specification of learning outcomes separate from educational institutions or programmes. It shows how an outcomes-led qualifications framework was seen as a desirable policy intervention by educationalists and reformers across the political spectrum, as outcomes were thought to be a mechanism for improving the quality and quantity of education as well as its relevance to the economy and society, for increasing access to education, and for democratising education. All these claims are based on the idea that outcomes statements are transparent. The article demonstrates that outcomes-based qualifications cannot provide the clear, unambiguous, and explicit statements of competence that would be required for everyone to know what it is that the bearer of a qualification can do. This lack of transparency leads to a further specification of outcomes. This in turn leads to a downward spiral of specification, which never reaches transparency, and an upward spiral of regulations, which is also caught in the logical problem of the downward spiral of specification. This model is not just unnecessary, but could in fact undermine the provision of education. The article suggests that while this type of model appears attractive particularly to poor countries, it is in these countries that it is likely to do the most damage.     

质的研究范式与特殊教育研究:基于方法论的反思与倡议

社会科学研究正经历着从实证主义向建构主义的范式变迁.特殊教育研究长期以来较好地坚持了科学实证主义的传统,但新的范式的接受和应用较慢.本文从方法论的角度探讨了质的研究范式与特殊教育研究之间的关系,从价值追求、实践和理论发展三个方面提出当今特殊教育的发展需要质的研究方法;认为特殊教育的研究应该走向多元的研究范式,即在坚守实证科学精神的同时,纳入建构与人文主义的情怀,在进一步规范逻辑验证性质的量的研究的过程中,加强对归纳探索性质的质的研究范式的探索与运用.文章最后倡议:特殊教育研究者积极转变研究范式,加强行动研究、叙事研究和个案研究等质的方法的运用,藉此丰富特殊教育的实践,探索丰富多彩的、具有本土化特征的特殊教育理论与模式.     

Selection of Authentic Modelling Practices as Contexts for Chemistry Education

In science education, students should come to understand the nature and significance of models. In the case of chemistry education it is argued that the present use of models is often not meaningful from the students' perspective. A strategy to overcome this problem is to use an authentic chemical modelling practice as a context for a curriculum unit. The theoretical framework for this strategy is activity theory rooted in socio‐cultural theories on learning. An authentic chemical modelling practice is characterized by a set of motives for model development through a well‐defined modelling procedure using only relevant issue knowledge. The aim of this study was to explore, analyse, and select authentic chemical modelling practices for use in chemistry education. The suitability of the practices was reviewed by applying a stepwise procedure focused on criteria such as students' interest and ownership, modelling procedure, issue knowledge, and feasibility of the laboratory work in the classroom. It was concluded that modelling drinking‐water treatment and human exposure assessment are both suitable to serve as contexts, because both practices exhibit clear motives for model construction and the applied modelling procedures are in line with students' pre‐existing procedural modelling knowledge. The issue knowledge involved is consistent with present Dutch science curriculum, and it is possible to carry out experimental work in the classroom for model calibration and validation. The method described here to select and evaluate practices for use as contexts in chemistry education can also be used in other science domains.     

Positivism,Prejudice and Progress in the Sociology of Education: who's afraid of values?

This article is a response to Hammersley's allegations that my discussion of positivism and differentiation‐polarisation theory (d‐p), previously published in this journal, was misguided, incoherent and prejudiced against positivism. I refute those allegations by demonstrating that Hammersley has either misunderstood or misrepresented my position. Furthermore, by revealing inconsistencies in Hammersley's arguments about positivism and d‐p I expose his incoherencies and prejudices regarding the role of political values in social research. Finally and constructively, I suggest that the ‘enlightenment’ aspect of the ‘political arithmetic’ tradition has much to recommend it as a framework for progress in sociology of education.     

How common is the common good? Moving beyond idealistic notions of deliberative democracy in education

Assumptions based on deliberative democratic theory have dominated scholarship of democratic citizenship within political science and educational research. However, both fields have produced scholarship that raises questions regarding the efficacy of the deliberative model of democratic education. This article presents a critical synthesis that highlights the major trends of deliberative democratic theory from the field of political science, while making connections to education specific literature. The shift, away from idealistic notions toward a model of deliberative democracy that considers identity, group interests, and power differences within society, supports similar efforts to revisit democratic theory within civic education. The article concludes with recommendations for a revised, more realistic, conceptualization of civic education.     

Emancipation,equality and education: Rancière's critique of Bourdieu and the question of performativity

Jacques Rancière's work has had significant impact in philosophy and literary theory, but remains largely undiscussed in the field of education. This article is a review of the relevance of Rancière's work to education research. Rancière's argument about education emerges from his critique of Bourdieu, which states that Bourdieu reinforces inequality by presuming it as the starting point of his analysis. What is at stake is the question of performativity, and the means by which discourse has effects. This debate has implications for considering the basis of claims to truth in literary and social science discourse. Parallels are drawn between Judith Butler's and Rancière's portrayal of the relationship between discourse and subjection, as well as their attention to discursive ‘imitation’ in making inequality representable. The article concludes with a discussion of the problematic which Rancière's work suggests for education research.     

Science and its 'Other': Looking underneath 'woman' and 'science' for new directions in research on gender and science education

In this article, the author argues that, despite recent increases in the participation and achievement of girls in school science programmes, the problem of gender and science education has not been solved, but is simply re-emerging at other sites. The author argues that much of the published research on gender and science education reproduces, rather than solves, the problem, through the way in which it assumes, rather than examines, the two central terms of the problem. The author argues that, if the problem of gender and science education is produced via certain of the assumptions which underlie its two central terms - that is, 'gender' and 'science' - then its solution must involve the deconstruction of those terms. Part of the article begins this deconstruction. This is followed by an account of how this material might be used to design school science programmes which are capable of allowing young women to participate in science as women, rather than as 'substitute' men.     

逻辑实证主义对现代西方主流经济学的影响

在科学主义和数理逻辑形式主义影响下,物理学方法在社会科学研究中得到进一步扩张。逻辑实证主义通过对近代认识论进行批判地吸收和改造,在方法论上实现了实证主义的经验主义传统同现代逻辑分析方法一定程度的结合。科学理论构成思想的提出推动了经济学的形式化发展。实证原则方法论的确立对经济学可检验性提出了内在要求。在经济学数学化问题上应当采取科学的分析态度。     

奥斯丁分析法学理论的内在逻辑及其方法论基础

奥斯丁分析法学理论由三个逻辑层次构成,即命令理论、主权理论和功利主义理论。主权理论是命令理论的应然面,功利主义理论是主权理论的应然面。三个层次层层深入,环环相扣,但都以功利主义为逻辑原点。功利主义本身又存在一个应然的问题,即如何获得有关人类普遍行为趋向的知识。其解决有赖于经验主义和实证主义的哲学方法论。     

Toward Effective Teaching and Learning: stories of primary schools'environmental science interest and action

This article provides some stories of primary school teachers' and students' experiences of implementing new science teaching and learning strategies through an action research process that have also led to more environmental education occurring in the schools' curriculum. The stories have been constructed from the coordinators' journals, observations and interviews with the teachers and students in the schools. The teachers in the schools are consciously engaged in an action research-based model of curriculum change in science teaching and learning. The stories also acknowledge the critiques of critical theory in environmental education and the possibilities for a socially critical approach in environmental education within a context of the limited opportunities for both science and environmental education in primary schools.     

Theoretically and Practically Speaking,What is Needed in Diversity and Equity in Science Teaching and Learning?

This article discusses how issues of diversity and equity are addressed in the preparation of science teachers who are charged with teaching diverse students in schools. Highlighting examples from my own teaching and research and other studies in education, I frame this article in terms of a broad application of theory in science teacher preparation to classroom practices in order to address science achievement and equity for diverse students. I also discuss the relevance of my argument for in-service professional development.     

论科学划界的标准

在科学划界问题上,库恩用科学史的实例使人们认识到逻辑主义的科学划界的绝对标准之谬误;主张一个研究领域出现了范式是这个领域成为科学的充要条件,开创了历史主义的相对标准观。把这种相对主义推向极致,就导致费耶阿本德、劳丹、罗蒂等人的反对科学划界的标准消解观。相对标准观不能把占星术等从科学中排除出去,消解观和拉卡托斯的科学研究纲领方法论都让伪科学有生存的借口。之后的多元标准观越来越复杂,但未能给出令人满意的科学划界。本文把可证伪性、实质普遍性、一致性和超余内容性等巧妙地结合在一起,给出了一个规范性的对科学的定义。这个划界标准既是逻辑的、又是历史的,能够排除形而上学和伪科学,也能得出人们以为科学通常都具有的各种特性。     

What is ‘Agency’? Perspectives in Science Education Research

The contemporary interest in researching student agency in science education reflects concerns about the relevance of schooling and a shift in science education towards understanding learning in science as a complex social activity. The purpose of this article is to identify problems confronting the science education community in the development of this new research agenda and to argue that there is a need for research in science education that attends to agency as a social practice. Despite increasing interest in student agency in educational research, the term ‘agency’ has lacked explicit operationalisation and, across the varied approaches, such as critical ethnography, ethnographies of communication, discourse analysis and symbolic interactionism, there has been a lack of coherence in its research usage. There has also been argument concerning the validity of the use of the term ‘agency’ in science education research. This article attempts to structure the variety of definitions of ‘student agency’ in science education research, identifies problems in the research related to assigning intentionality to research participants and argues that agency is a kind of discursive practice. The article also draws attention to the need for researchers to be explicit in the assumptions they rely upon in their interpretations of social worlds. Drawing upon the discursive turn in the social sciences, a definition of agency is provided, that accommodates the discursive practices of both individuals and the various functional social groups from whose activities classroom practice is constituted. The article contributes to building a focused research agenda concerned with understanding and promoting student agency in science.     

Paradigm wars, dialogue or dance: is rapprochement possible and/or desirable?

In focusing on the Kincheloe and Tobin paper, ‘The Much Exaggerated Death of Positivism,’ this forum explores the hegemony of positivism in the professional practices of a group of educators whose research expertise lies in the fields of science education, mathematics education and leadership education. Responding to the first question, ‘What is your personal/professional experience of the hegemony of positivism?’, four key issues arise: is positivism part of the external world or is it within us (and thus what is our agency)?, the role of positivism as a driver of Western cultural imperialism, dualism as the chief logic of positivism, and the difficulty of responding to positivism from a pluralist perspective. The second question, ‘Is rapprochement between positivism and other paradigms possible and/or desirable without being re-colonised?’, raises a number of key issues that, although relatively new to science education, are of increasing interest to cultural studies researchers keen to embrace alternative research paradigms with which to create culturally inclusive science curricula. The discussants reveal their personal experiences of being marginalised by the hegemony of positivism and give voice to a range of opinions about how best to respond. The integral perspective of spiral dynamics is proposed as a model of paradigm evolution, our fundamental assumptions about modern progress are questioned, and the non-dualist logic of dialectics is explored as a more inclusive rationality for researchers. In the spirit of counter-hegemonic cultural studies, the discussants draw on their personal Buddhist and Hindu perspectives to open new doorways into complex ontological systems lying beyond the simplistic materialism of crypto-positivism. We are given a glimpse of powerful means of generating new insights into the emergent universe (within and without) that an evolving science endeavours to explain.     

COMENIUS: AN ALTERNATIVE

The present lack of humanity owing to onesidedly developed scientism or political oppression draws attention to the historical roots of the question. In spite of the great progress in science and technology, which started in the seventeenth century, man and the world began to be isolated from each other; a separation of disciplines and of various human activities that resulted in a separation of civilization and culture.

This paper offers an alternative, the one proposed by Jan Amos Comenius. He left us his conception of the moral and social relevance of science. His emphasis on the whole and on significant relationships, such as the relations between man and the world, between general education and specialized knowledge, between science and society, individual and society etc., raised further questions to be solved. Although limited in means and Utopian in its time, his system of universal all‐around education as a life‐long process, his goal of integrating creative human activities and his principles for a broad social reform based on the integration of theory, practice and chresis still gives food for thought today.     

Is Piaget's epistemic subject dead?

Niaz (1990) presents arguments in favor of the retention of Piaget's epistemic subject as a theoretical construct to guide research and practice in science education and psychology. The intent of this article is to point out the weaknesses of those arguments and to suggest that the weight of evidence argues against the existence of the logical thinker postulated by Piaget. Therefore, contrary to Niaz's conclusion that the acceptance of Piaget's epistemic subject will facilitate the development of cognitive theories with greater explanatory power, the conclusion is reached that Piaget's epistemic subject is dead and that continued acceptance of this aspect of Piagetian theory would be counterproductive.