Learning from each other: what social studies can learn from the controversy surrounding the teaching of evolution in science

This article addresses the need for researchers to move beyond discipline-specific approaches to research and practice and offers an example of how interdisciplinary understandings can increase knowledge in respective disciplines. The specific focus of the article is the shared challenges of broaching controversy in science and social studies classrooms. Although there is much that social studies teachers can learn about the teaching of controversial public issues from the challenges science educators face in teaching evolutionary theory, and vice versa, the two literature bases have little overlap. Through this example of broaching curricular controversy in the classroom, the author argues that content instruction can be improved by increasing awareness of research and practice in other disciplines.     

Science teacher orientations and PCK across science topics in grade 9 earth science

ABSTRACT

While the literature is replete with studies examining teacher knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), few studies have investigated how science teacher orientations (STOs) shape classroom instruction. Therefore, this research explores the interplay between a STOs and the topic specificity of PCK across two science topics within a grade 9 earth science course. Through interviews and observations of one teacher’s classroom across two sequentially taught, this research contests the notion that teachers hold a single way of conceptualising science teaching and learning. In this, we consider if multiple ontologies can provide potential explanatory power for characterising instructional enactments. In earlier work with the teacher in this study, using generic interview prompts and general discussions about science teaching and learning, we accepted the existence of a unitary STO and its promise of consistent reformed instruction in the classroom. However, upon close examination of instruction focused on different science topics, evidence was found to demonstrate the explanatory power of multiple ontologies for shaping characteristically different epistemological constructions across science topics. This research points to the need for care in generalising about teacher practice, as it reveals that a teacher’s practice, and orientation, can vary, dependent on the context and science topics taught.     

Researching balance between cognition and affect in science teaching and learning

This paper is based on findings from a three year collaborative action research project on classroom teaching and learning. The research, which involved 33 teachers, over two thousand students from six schools, and the authors, centred on exploring how various features of the classroom context influence teaching and learning processes. We interpret project findings as indicating the importance of balance between cognition and affect for effective teaching and learning. We advance the notion of challenge as a way of conceptualising this balance. Challenge comprises a cognitive/metacognitivedemand component and an affectiveinterest component. Nine major features of a teaching/learning event were found to interact to influence these cognitive and affective components of challenge. Specializations: Collaborative research on science teaching and learning; staff development and school improvement; quality of science education. Specializations: Learning and teaching science; pre-service teacher education. Specializations: teacher development in science education; technology education. Specializations: Science and teachnology curriculum, environmental education, educational disadvantage. Specializations: learning theory, probing of understanding, conceptual change.     

Towards coherent science and technology education

The integration of science and technology education has been a topic of worldwide debate. However, the focus of the debate has been too much on the degree of integration of subjects at the expense of such important but related issues as the nature of the constituting disciplines, educational levels (state, school, classroom), and the objects of integration. Integration should be seen from the perspective of curricular coherence. Coherent science and technology education (CSTE) should pay attention both to uninterrupted learning on the part of students and to the nature of the constituting disciplines. This paper describes a study exploring CSTE practice in nine junior‐secondary schools in the Netherlands. It recommends a framework to promote CSTE by stakeholders at the state, school, and classroom levels.     

OPERATIONALIZING IDENTITY IN ACTION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF DIRECT VERSUS PROBABILISTIC MEASURES OF CURRICULAR ROLE IDENTITY FOR INQUIRY-BASED SCIENCE TEACHING

Teachers’ curricular role identities are those dimensions of their professional identities concerned with the use of curriculum materials. In a previous study, we developed and tested a survey instrument designed to measure preservice elementary teachers’ development of curricular role identity for science teaching through their use of science curriculum materials. In this follow-up study, a revised version of the survey was administered to a second group of preservice elementary teachers in the same science methods course, and data were analyzed within and across years. Results from this study suggest that preservice teachers articulated important similarities and differences between the curricular role identities for science teaching they attributed to themselves and to more experienced elementary teachers. Over time, they were often able to begin to appropriate the curricular role identities for science teaching that they attributed to more experienced elementary teachers. However, findings from the second survey administration also suggest that preservice teachers’ curricular role identities for science teaching are more stable when characterized by their actual curriculum design practices than when characterized by comparative, probabilistic means. These findings have important implications for science teacher education and curriculum development, as well as the operationalization of curricular role identity in education research.     

Developmentally-based insights for science teaching

From where should science teaching derive its inspiration? It is suggested here that if we are to have sustainable, rational progress in science teaching then practice must be theoretically based. Working from this position, Piaget's theory is examined for its teaching implications. Ten implications are derived and, in a second section of the paper, are used to generate a coherent program of classroom practice and research.     

The role of classroom research projects in the preparation of science teachers

Research undertaken by educational researchers based in universities has not had the desired impact on the practices of classroom science teachers. Yet Goodlad (1990) has argued that if teaching is to be recognised as a profession there is a great need for the marrying of the knowledge of the practitioner with that of the researcher. Student teachers might learn to respect the potential for such a union by undertaking minor classroom research projects during their teacher preparation programs. This paper discusses the role of research projects in pre-service teacher preparation with reference to an inquiry conducted with teacher education students. Specializations: science education, teacher learning and preparation, teaching thinking.     

Problem solving in science and technology education

Both science and technology education have a commitment to teaching process; investigations or scientific method in science, design in technology, and problem solving in both areas. The separate debates in science and technology education reveal different curricular emphases in processes and content, reflecting different goals, and pedagogic and educational research traditions. This paper explores these differences and argues that each curriculum area can learn from the other. Despite the interest in processes, problem solving remains neglected in each area, particularly with respect to empirical accounts of student problem-solving activities and the supporting pedagogy. This paper draws on the situated learning and social constructivist literature to provide insights into problem solving in technology education. The research reported here, gives accounts of the problem-solving strategies of English secondary school students. These strategies represent their responses to technology activities and the learning environment created by teachers.     

Teaching and learning science in linguistically diverse classrooms

In this paper we reflect on the article, Science education in a bilingual class: problematising a translational practice, by Zeynep Ünsal, Britt Jakobson, Bengt-Olav Molander and Per-Olaf Wickman (Cult Stud Sci Educ, doi: 10.1007/s11422-016-9747-3). In their article, the authors present the results of a classroom research project by responding to one main question: How is continuity between everyday language and the language of science construed in a bilingual science classroom where the teacher and the students do not speak the same minority language? Specifically, Ünsal et al. examine how bilingual students construe relations between everyday language and the language of science in a class taught in Swedish, in which all students also spoke Turkish, whereas the teacher also spoke Bosnian, both being minority languages in the context of Swedish schools. In this forum, we briefly discuss why close attention to bilingual dynamics emerging in classrooms such as those highlighted by Ünsal et al. matters for science education. We continue by discussing changing ontologies in relation to linguistic diversity and education more generally. Recent research in bilingual immersion classroom settings in so-called “content” subjects such as Content and Language Integrated Learning, is then introduced, as we believe this research offers some significant insights in terms of how bilingualism contributes to knowledge building in subjects such as science. Finally, we offer some reflections in relation to the classroom interactional competence needed by teachers in linguistically diverse classrooms. In this way, we aim to further the discussion initiated by Ünsal et al. and to offer possible frameworks for future research on bilingualism in science education. In their article, Ünsal et al. conclude the analysis of the classroom data by arguing in favor of a translanguaging pedagogy, an approach to teaching and learning in which students’ whole language repertoires are used as valuable resources for constructing meaning and for developing academic competences in the language of instruction. This is a conclusion that we support wholeheartedly and an educational practice that we hope to promote with this forum discussion.     

Aboriginal studies and the science curriculum: Affective outcomes from a curriculum intervention

The study of Aboriginal culture in schools is supported by an increasing number of educators and government committees. However, in the absence of substantial research evidence, it has been difficult to propose justifiable curricular recommendations. The results of this exploratory study suggest that student attitudes towards Aborigines and Aboriginal culture can be improved by a science program which features an Aboriginal Studies component. Further, it is suggested that there is scope for the development of up-to-date curriculum materials and more comprehensive studies. Specializations: science education, teaching thinking. Specializations: science education, curriculum theory and design, teacher development.     

A case study on the formation and sharing process of science classroom norms

The teaching and learning of science in school are influenced by various factors, including both individual factors, such as member beliefs, and social factors, such as the power structure of the class. To understand this complex context affected by various factors in schools, we investigated the formation and sharing process of science classroom norms in connection with these factors. By examining the developmental process of science classroom norms, we identified how the norms were realized, shared, and internalized among the members. We collected data through classroom observations and interviews focusing on two elementary science classrooms in Korea. From these data, factors influencing norm formation were extracted and developed as stories about norm establishment. The results indicate that every science classroom norm was established, shared, and internalized differently according to the values ingrained in the norms, the agent of norm formation, and the members’ understanding about the norm itself. The desirable norms originating from values in science education, such as having an inquiring mind, were not established spontaneously by students, but were instead established through well-organized norm networks to encourage concrete practice. Educational implications were discussed in terms of the practice of school science inquiry, cultural studies, and value-oriented education.     

Bringing science into the classroom by basing craft on research

In response to Crockett's analysis of the relation of science and the instruction of students with learning disabilities, we discuss reasons why teaching in special education is infrequently affected by science and research, and we propose a model of naturalistic decision making and make recommendations for bridging the gap between research and practice based on that model. By building an extensive experiential base in using effective practices, we propose that teachers can become experts at the craft of applying research-based methods. Bringing science into the classroom by basing craft on research in this way represents one promising alternative for improving outcomes for students with and without learning disabilities.     

A review of teacher development reforms in Indonesian secondary science: The effectiveness of practical work in biology

Science teaching in Indonesia has undergone major reforms since independence. This paper examines the role of practical activities in secondary science from an international perspective and contrasts this with a developing country perspective. In examining major curriculum and teacher training reforms in Indonesia, continuing influences on science education from industrialised countries are acknowledged; however, nlike many other developing countries, Indonesia has essentially implemented curriculum and teacher training reforms using a pool of overseas trained senior teachers and locally trained personnel. A number of research studies on biology practical work in Indonesia suggest that practical activities in biology are more effective in enhancing student cognitive achievement, science process skills and problem solving abilities than traditional didactic classroom approaches.     

Risk and school science education

In this paper I consider a role for risk understanding in school science education. Grounds for this role are described in terms of current sociological analyses of the contemporary world as a ‘risk society’ and recent public understanding of science studies where science and risk are concerns commonly linked within the wider community. These concerns connect with support amongst many science educators for the goal of science education for citizenship. From this perspective scientific literacy for decision making on contemporary socioscientific issues is central. I argue that in such decision making, risk understanding has an important role to play. I examine some of the challenges its inclusion in school science presents to science teachers, review previous writing about risk in the science education literature and consider how knowledge about risk might be addressed in school science. I also outline the varying conceptions of risk and suggest some future research directions that would support the inclusion of risk in classroom discussions of socioscientific issues.     

Doing phenomenology in science education: a research review

This article is a review of applications of phenomenology, as a philosophy of knowledge and qualitative research approach, to the field of science education (SE). The purpose is to give an overview of work that has been done as well as to assess it and discuss its possibilities of future development. We ask: what attempts for connecting phenomenology and SE do we find in the research literature, and what possible effects could such connections have for teaching and learning? In approaching this field we distinguish between three sources of phenomenological SE: (1) Goethe’s phenomenology of nature; (2) philosophical phenomenology; and (3) anthropological phenomenology. Existing research based on phenomenological approaches is categorised as phenomenology of SE, phenomenology in SE, and phenomenology and SE integrated. Research examples from each category are critically evaluated and discussed. Finally we discuss the question of the relevance of phenomenology to science teaching. Our review indicates that phenomenology has considerable potential as a method for investigating science learning as a holistic process. It also seems that phenomenology and SE meet most fruitfully when phenomenology is done in the classroom, that is, when it is turned into actual efforts for promoting learning.     

Creating a dialogic environment for transformative science teaching practices: towards an inclusive education for science

Abstract

This paper focuses on the design and application of a teacher training strategy to promote the inclusive education of students with disabilities in the science classroom, through the creation of adult learning environments grounded on the principles of dialogic learning. Participants of the workshop proposal consisted of a group of twelve teachers who were working at various educational levels. Teacher teams proposed and implemented in their classroom, innovative, inclusive science-learning activities about a topic of their choice. Data were collected from interviews with teachers five months after the courses, teachers’ portfolios about their practice during implementation of such sequences, and researchers’ observations. The data suggest that it is possible to stimulate a gradual transformation of teaching practices through a teacher training proposal that promotes self-awareness and critical reflection, situated in the creation of meaning and a willingness to change in the spirit of solidarity and social action. We found elements to recommend the incorporation of these innovations at the curricular and practical level for teacher training schools and for in-service teacher development programmes in Mexico and elsewhere.     

Planning and Doing in Professional Teaching Practice. A Study with Early Childhood Education Teachers Working with ICT (3–6 years)

Planning is one of the professional tasks teachers have to carry out before their direct action in the classrooms. This planning is closely interrelated to the way teachers teach. The question about how and why teachers reach their decisions in their pre-class planning is a classical one in the research into curricular design and development. The aim of this paper will therefore be to establish whether there is a relationship between curricular planning and curricular practices, studying how nine early childhood education teachers using an ICT resource plan their actions and execute them. For the research, we obtained video recordings of classroom practices and interviewed the teachers just before they went into class. By applying qualitative data analysis, we have been able to identify the elements taken into consideration when the teachers make decisions in lesson, their conceptions about ICT, and the types of activity that are held in all the classes. The results confirm the conclusions reached by previous studies on the relationships between planning and doing, in the sense that the activities, understood to be teaching strategies, are the ones that link the design of what is to be done and direct action. Likewise, the results ratify prior research on the role of materials and resources as aspects that teachers can rely on for support in the management and presentation of classroom tasks and content. The introduction of ICT does not modify the teachers’ curricular planning and development.     

Talking about science: An interpretation of the effects of teacher talk in a high school science classroom

This paper builds on research in science education, secondary education, and sociolinguistics by arguing that high school classrooms can be considered speech communities in which language may be selectively used and imposed on students as a means of fostering academic speech community identification. To demonstrate the ways in which a high school teacher's language use may encourage subject area identification, the results of an interactionist analysis of data from a 2-year ethnographic study of one high school chemistry classroom are presented. Findings indicate that this teacher's uses of language fell into three related categories. These uses of language served to foster identification with the academic speech community of science. As a result of the teacher's talk about science according to these three patterns, students developed or reinforced particular views of science. In addition, talking about science in ways that fostered identity with the discipline promoted the teacher as expert and built classroom solidarity or community. These results are discussed in light of sociolinguistic research on classroom competence and of the assertions of science educators regarding social and ideologic implications of language use in science instruction.     

Metaphors as global markers for teachers' beliefs about the nature of science

In this paper, we report an analysis of metaphors used by three science teachers in their classroom discourse and consider the implications of this research for the image of science that students are likely to construct. Teacher beliefs about the nature of science are implicit and entrenched and may be contrary to both contemporary philosophies of science and constructivist theory. We argue that the presence of metaphors such ateaching as a journey, knowledge as object andteacher as pathfinder in teachers' classroom discourse signify the implicit existence of a powerful objectivist epistemology that governs teachers' pedagogies. If students are to construct contemporary views of the nature of science and if constuctivist pedagogy is to develop in the science classroom then science teachers need to reflect on their use of these role-determining objectivist metaphors.