The importance of place in indigenous science education

In this issue of Cultural Studies of Science Education, Mack and colleagues (Mack et al. 2011) seek to identify the necessary components of science education in Indigenous settings. Using a review of current research in informal science education in Indigenous settings, along with personal interviews with American educators engaged in these programs, the authors suggest some effective practices to use Indigenous ways of knowing to strengthen science programming. For the past 4 years, we have been interested in the importance of place in culturally relevant science education. We have explored the role of place and have used Gruenewald’s critical pedagogy of place (2003) to examine the importance of place in a variety of Indigenous contexts. In response to Mack and colleagues, in this paper we explore the importance of place as a means to reinhabituate Indigenous youth who live in urban, First Nation, and rural Costa Rican contexts.     

The republic of science education research

Conclusion In this paper I have tried to examine the possibility of a free and independent republic of science education in which all are committed to the pursuit of truth, freedom, quality and equality. The task will undoubtedly be a difficult one, given the constraints and the external forces which are likely to keep us in the wilderness. But the way to the promised land is, I believe, to develop individually and collectively, a commitment to questioning the justice as well as the effectiveness of what we are doing. To count as science education research, the work we do must contribute to the education of teachers. It must help sensitize teachers to the nature of the problems which confront them. It must help them to make professional judgments about what is justifiable, feasible and worth trying, given what we know of the effects of different strategies. And it must contribute to the development and refinement of the common-sense knowledge and pedagogical theories by means of which science educators make sense of the phenomena of science education and which guide their actions.     

Factors involved with qualitative syntheses: A new focus for research in science education

This article describes the nature of qualitative syntheses and reports such efforts as a new focus for research in science education. It uses Project Synthesis as conceived by Norris Harms as an example of a Qualitative Synthesis. It identifies four features for such research efforts: (1) They involve research teams structured to provide a variety of perspectives and viewpoints. (2) They involve a wide variety of data sources, including massive sets of data from a variety of sources and perspectives. Much of these data are qualitative and often gathered initially for a variety of purposes. (3) They include at least one conceptual scheme for accomplishing a synthesis. Most include a set of goals as one organizer and a set of critical incidents as another. Studies involving more than two such dimensions provide even more meaningful and useful synthesis. (4) They conclude with an analysis of meaning, a formulation of an overarching scheme, and a new model to be used for further thinking, research, and analysis. Such synthesis efforts also end with a set of recommendations for action and/or hypotheses to be tested.     

科学教育的现状及科学教育研究的意义

中国科学院院长路甬祥先生，于2000年6月10日在北京科学会党提出了在国内开展科学教育研究与实施的问题，引起了国内教育界，科技界的广泛关注，本在借鉴国外科学教育研究和实施经验的基础上，结合我国的科技发展水平，依据我国基础教育的实际，对我国开展科学教育的目的，意义进行探讨，意在为实施科学教育探寻理论基础。     

基于人本主义心理学的教育科学研究方法论

人本主义是西方心理学的主要研究取向之一,突出人的动机系统与高级需要的重要作用,关注人的本性、潜能、价值、创造力和自我实现.这种“以人为中心”的理论与教育作为培养人的活动的本质相契合,因而构成人本主义教育观的核心和基础,也是人本主义教育科学研究方法的核心和基础.本文在简要回顾人本主义心理学的基础上,提出构建基于人本主义心理学的教育科学研究方法的基本构想,并运用该方法分析我国教育界当前关注的一些重大理论问题.     

Aptitude-treatment interaction research in science education

Individual differences among learners constitute an important class of variables for research on instruction. Their study has been of interest because measures of these variables usually predict learning outcome. There is renewed interest in this fact today because aptitudes now often appear to interact with instructional outcomes, relating differently to learning outcomes under different instructional treatments. Practical interest for science educators stems from the possibility that such interactions may be used to adapt science instruction to fit different learners optimally. Aptitude-treatment interactions (ATI) have been the subject of many studies in recent years and a wide variety of ATI findings are now in hand establishing the existence of ATI as a phenomena. Continuing research in this area will hopefully lead toward improved theory and practice to explain and to use aptitude for science instructional purposes. This article identifies promising areas of ATI research as well as general methodological guidelines for interested science educators.     

Categorising computer science education research

The interdisciplinary nature of Computer Science Education as a field of study is a complicating factor when authors are choosing appropriate journals and conferences for publishing research results. This paper reports a survey of 42 such publications in order to identify the types of paper frequently accepted for publication in each. We review existing taxonomies developed for the general fields of Computer Science and Education, and from this starting point, we develop a novel faceted taxonomy, specifically aimed to help new researchers in the field understand what types of papers are published and where they appear. Our results confirm previous studies indicating the predominance of practice-based, technology-driven reports. We also observe certain differences in educational themes between those found in publications grounded in the Computer Science Education corpus and those emerging from more general Higher Education literature.     

Interdisciplinary science research and education

Science history shows us that interdisciplinarity is a spontaneous process that is intrinsic to, and engendered by, research activity. It is an activity that is done rather than an object to be designed and constructed. We examine three vignettes from the history of science that display the interdisciplinary process at work and consider the implications for education. We consider recent examples of interdisciplinary science education, including where interdisciplinarity involves students in authentic scientific research. We conclude that the reconciliation of research and education is a meaningful role for interdisciplinary practice in science education.     

Reframing quality and impact: The place of theory in education research

In March 2004, Stephen Ball and others presented a symposium at the conference of the British Educational Research Association (BERA) on the necessity of theory in educational research. Like Ball, I have observed that theory, not just social theory, is a difficult space and one that divides researchers (those comfortable with theory and those less so), within educational research. It is an aspect of educational research training that rarely receives the attention essential for ‘quality’ educational research. In the context of the contemporary research assessment exercises, it is worth reflecting on the relationship between research informed by social theory and expectations of quality and impact. In this paper I revisit the argument made by Ball and others for the necessity of theory, and discuss its role in framing research questions, informing analysis, and promoting reflexivity on the significance and relevance of research. I illustrate this process by discussing the ways theory can assist in the generation of research agendas and questions. I conclude the paper with an example of how a team of educational researchers from Australia, UK and New Zealand have made use of social theory to inform an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded project investigating the recontextualisation of health knowledge in schools.