The sound of music: Constructing science as sociocultural practices through oral and written discourse

In this article, we examine the oral and written discourse processes in a high school physics class and how these discourse processes are related to sociocultural practices in scientific communities. Our theoretical framework is based on sociological and anthropological studies of scientific communities and ethnographies of classroom life. We review the use of discourse analysis as a methodological orientation in science education and provide a logic‐of‐inquiry framing how we used discourse analysis in our ethnographic research. Our ethnographic analysis showed that, through students' participation in creating scientific papers on the physics of sound, their appropriation of scientific discourse was related to the framing activities of the teachers and the social practices established over time in the classroom. Our textual analysis of the student papers focused on how they used evidence to make claims. We explore the lessons learned from participating in the classroom of these students. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 883–915, 1999     

Teaching the Nature of Science from a Philosophical Perspective

This paper draws attention to basic philosophical perspectives which are of theoretical and methodological interest for science education, general education and curriculum research. It focuses on potential contributions philosophy class can offer if philosophy education opens up for science and for a collaboration of teachers in the context of post-compulsory education. A central educational goal is to connect basic philosophical skills with any curricular intellectual practice. This implies the possibility of crossing disciplinary boundaries. Hence, the present paper questions the disciplinary rigidity of education and aims at bridging the artificial gap between teaching philosophy and teaching science in order to enrich the individual school subjects involved. Towards this end, this article sketches out a conceptual framework for the issue of interdisciplinarity with regard to philosophy and science in upper secondary school. This framework takes into account aspects of the nature of science (NOS), history and philosophy of science (HPS) and the critical thinking approach which have significant implications for teaching. It aims to facilitate a basic understanding of the significant positive impact philosophy could have on improving scientific literacy as well as decision-making in general. I set forth methods of cross-curricular teaching which can promote innovation in education as interdisciplinarity already does in research since there is growing appreciation of collaboration and partnership between philosophy and science.

     

School Chemistry: The Need for Transgression

Studies of the philosophy of chemistry over the past 15 years suggest that chemistry is a hybrid science which mixes scientific pursuits with technological applications. Dominant universal characterizations of the nature of science thus fail to capture the essence of the discipline. The central goal of this position paper is to encourage reflection about the extent to which dominant views about quality science education based on universal views of scientific practices may constrain school chemistry. In particular, we discuss how these predominant ideas restrict the development of chemistry curricula and instructional approaches that may better support the learning of the ideas and practices that studies of the philosophy of chemistry suggest are at the core of the discipline. Our analysis suggests that philosophical studies about the nature of chemistry invite us to transgress traditional educational boundaries between science and technology, inquiry and design, content and process, and to reconceptualize school chemistry as a paradigmatic techno scientific subject. To support these changes, chemical education researchers should expand the scope of their investigations to better understand how students and teachers reason about and engage in more authentic ways of chemical thinking and doing.     

Teleology as a tacit dimension of teaching and learning evolution: A sociological approach to classroom interaction in science education

Teleology has been described as an intuitive cognitive bias and as a major type of student conception. There is controversy regarding whether teleological explanations are a central obstacle to, are legitimate in, or are even supportive of science learning. However, interaction in science classrooms has not yet been investigated with regard to teleology. Consequently, this study addresses the question of how teleological explanations emerge in science classroom interactions about evolution and how teachers and students address emerging teleology. In this article, we introduce a theoretical and methodological framework drawing from the sociology of knowledge and systems theory, suggesting that this framework may enrich the understanding of knowledge construction and of social practices in the science classroom because it enables distinguishing between explicit and tacit knowledge. We investigated seven secondary school units about evolution and present data from four grade-12 classes in Germany, a country with very few creationists, to contrast two ways in which teleology is addressed. In the first type, the teachers combine intentional and need-based teleological explanations with aspects of scientific theories in an ambiguous way. Contrastingly, in the second type, the teachers construct a duality between correct mechanistic and incorrect teleological explanations by discrediting preceding scientific theories. In the discussion, we argue that the presented sociological approach can also be valuable in other science education contexts, such as creationism, the nature of science and socio-scientific issues, because classroom interaction involves tacit communication, such as a tacit epistemology, which are essential grounds for the students' knowledge construction.     

Science Education and the Nature of Nature: Bruno Latour's Ontological Politics

This article explores recent developments in the field of science and technology, and the work of Bruno Latour in particular, to problematize the nature of Nature in science education. Although science and technology studies, and the scholarship on science education alike, have become increasingly attentive to the antidemocratic habits of science as a way of knowing, less attention has been directed toward science's ontological commitments, and the politics that follow from a theory of Nature that is uniform, homogenous, and unchanging. Latour suggests that the Nature toward which scientific knowledge is directed serves as a transcendent authority with the potential to circumvent the democratic deliberations of a supposedly subjective social world. Rather than treating Nature as a social construct, Latour explores the methodological and political implications of a reality composed of plural worlds and multiple modes of being, and this article suggests that these theoretical tools offer exciting new possibilities in the field of educational case study research.     

Turning Crisis into Opportunity: Nature of Science and Scientific Inquiry as Illustrated in the Scientific Research on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome

Interviews with key scientists who had conducted research on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), together with analysis of media reports, documentaries and other literature published during and after the SARS epidemic, revealed many interesting aspects of the nature of science (NOS) and scientific inquiry in contemporary scientific research in the rapidly growing field of molecular biology. The story of SARS illustrates vividly some NOS features advocated in the school science curriculum, including the tentative nature of scientific knowledge, theory-laden observation and interpretation, multiplicity of approaches adopted in scientific inquiry, the inter-relationship between science and technology, and the nexus of science, politics, social and cultural practices. The story also provided some insights into a number of NOS features less emphasised in the school curriculum—for example, the need to combine and coordinate expertise in a number of scientific fields, the intense competition between research groups (suspended during the SARS crisis), the significance of affective issues relating to intellectual honesty and the courage to challenge authority, the pressure of funding issues on the conduct of research and the ‘peace of mind’ of researchers, These less emphasised elements provided empirical evidence that NOS knowledge, like scientific knowledge itself, changes over time. They reflected the need for teachers and curriculum planners to revisit and reconsider whether the features of NOS currently included in the school science curriculum are fully reflective of the practice of science in the 21st century. In this paper, we also report on how we made use of extracts from the news reports and documentaries on SARS, together with episodes from the scientists’ interviews, to develop a multimedia instructional package for explicitly teaching the prominent features of NOS and scientific inquiry identified in the SARS research.

西方教育管理理论中的人性考察与省思

西方教育管理理论发展过程经历了古典管理理论、行为科学管理理论、教育管理科学理论和后现代教育管理理论诸阶段,每一理论观点都隐涵着相应的人性观。研究表明古典管理理论中的科学管理思想与科层制理论对教育领导与管理行为影响至深,为教育领导与管理实践中非人性化思维与行为的出现“植入”了理论根基,急需在理论研究与实践探索中实现创新与超越。     

Korean Students' Perceptions of Scientific Practices and Understanding of Nature of Science

Korean students have shown relatively little interest and confidence in learning science, despite being ranked in the top percentile in international evaluations of academic achievement in science such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. Although research indicates a positive relationship between student perceptions of science and their science learning, this area has not been sufficiently explored in Korea. Particularly, even though both students' perceptions of scientific practice and their understanding of the nature of science (NOS) are influenced by their science learning experiences at schools, little research examines how this perception, understanding, and experience are related to one another. This study aimed to uncover Korean students' perceptions of school scientific practice through exploring their drawings, writings, and responses to questionnaires. Participants were 500 Korean students in 3rd, 7th, and 10th grades who were asked to complete an open-ended questionnaire. The results indicated that Korean students typically viewed school scientific practices as experimental activities or listening to lecture; and that most participants held an insufficient understanding of the NOS. Overall, no significant relationship emerged between students' perceptions of school scientific practice and their understanding of the NOS. Our findings highlight the need to help both teachers and students understand the potential breadth of school scientific practices, beyond simple ‘activity mania.’ This study also suggests that teachers must balance implicit and explicit instructional approaches to teaching about the NOS through scientific practices in school science contexts.     

Reconsidering the 'nature of science' as a curriculum component

Although the nature of science has long been seen as an important, indeed central, component of science education during this century, efforts to integrate an authentic view of the nature of science into the curriculum have often met with little success. Work in the field of science studies since the 1960s has compounded this difficulty by presenting educators with various competing, often conflicting, views of the essence of scientific inquiry. I discuss previous attempts to come to grips with this fundamental issue of how to deal with the competing views of science and suggest an alternative approach for integrating nature of science issues into the school science curriculum. What is needed is for educators to accept that no single nature of science exists and to develop curricula that help students understand instead the diverse, local practices that are found within and across scientific disciplines.     

Defining Computational Thinking for Mathematics and Science Classrooms

Science and mathematics are becoming computational endeavors. This fact is reflected in the recently released Next Generation Science Standards and the decision to include “computational thinking” as a core scientific practice. With this addition, and the increased presence of computation in mathematics and scientific contexts, a new urgency has come to the challenge of defining computational thinking and providing a theoretical grounding for what form it should take in school science and mathematics classrooms. This paper presents a response to this challenge by proposing a definition of computational thinking for mathematics and science in the form of a taxonomy consisting of four main categories: data practices, modeling and simulation practices, computational problem solving practices, and systems thinking practices. In formulating this taxonomy, we draw on the existing computational thinking literature, interviews with mathematicians and scientists, and exemplary computational thinking instructional materials. This work was undertaken as part of a larger effort to infuse computational thinking into high school science and mathematics curricular materials. In this paper, we argue for the approach of embedding computational thinking in mathematics and science contexts, present the taxonomy, and discuss how we envision the taxonomy being used to bring current educational efforts in line with the increasingly computational nature of modern science and mathematics.     

The integration of biodiversity education in the initial education of primary school teachers: four comparative case studies from Europe

In this article, we present results from an international research study on biodiversity education in pre‐service education of primary school teachers. The study was carried out between 2004–2006 in four teacher education institutions in Cyprus, England, Switzerland and Germany. We used document analyses and in‐depth interviews with 27 teacher educators and 22 student teachers to examine the integration of biodiversity into the pre‐service teacher education programmes, and the student teachers’ satisfaction with their respective education. In all teacher education institutions, aspects of biodiversity education were integrated mostly in the natural science modules which provided students at least with some information on the scientific aspects of biodiversity. Few modules included aspects of the controversial nature of biodiversity conservation in relation to economics, ethics, social and political concerns, and methodological approaches on how to deal with this. In the institutions in Cyprus, England and Germany the teaching focus was content‐oriented, whereas in Switzerland a situated method‐oriented approach was used. The student teachers in Switzerland felt more confident to teach about biodiversity in school. All interviewees thought it necessary to prepare primary school student teachers on how to address biodiversity in schools, and strategies on how best to achieve this are critically discussed.     

Science Teachers’ Misconceptions in Science and Engineering Distinctions: Reflections on Modern Research Examples

The aim of this exploratory study was to learn about the misconceptions that may arise for elementary and high school science teachers in their reflections on science and engineering practice. Using readings and videos of real science and engineering work, teachers’ reflections were used to uncover the underpinnings of their understandings. This knowledge ultimately provides information about supporting professional development (PD) for science teachers’ knowledge of engineering. Six science teachers (two elementary and four high school teachers) participated in the study as part of an online PD experience. Cunningham and Carlsen’s (Journal of Science Teacher Education 25:197–210, 2014) relative emphases of science and engineering practices were used to frame the design of PD activities and the analyses of teachers’ views. Analyses suggest misconceptions within the eight practices of science and engineering from the US Next Generation Science Standards in four areas. These are that: (1) the nature of the practices in both science and engineering research is determined by the long-term implications of the research regardless of the nature of the immediate work, (2) engineering and science are hierarchical, (3) creativity is inappropriate, and (4) research outcomes cannot be processes. We discuss the nature of these understandings among participants and the implications for engineering education PD for science teachers.     

‘We did see the lapwing’ – practising environmental citizenship in upper-secondary science education

This article explores factors that promote the practice of environmental citizenship in science education and aims to contribute to the development of the concept of practising environmental citizenship. We follow six Norwegian secondary students (aged 16–17) participating in a small-scale intervention study conducting an assignment on a socioscientific issue (SSI) in their local district. Our findings reveal that dealing with an SSI in real-world settings through out-of-school activities set in the students’ local district is important for practising environmental citizenship. This article also addresses the tensions between the practice of environmental citizenship and the cultural issues related to school science. Our findings reveal that tensions exist between working with ready-made-science, as students normally do, to deal with science-in-the-making through an SSI. This research discuss the practical implications of the concept of practising environmental citizenship in science.     

Space,relations, and the learning of science

In the literature on the situated and distributed nature of cognition, the coordination of spatial organization and the structure of human practices and relations is accepted as a fact. To date, science educators have yet to build on such research. Drawing on an ethnographic study of high school students during an internship in a scientific research laboratory, which we understand as a “perspicuous setting” and a “smart setting,” in which otherwise invisible dimensions of human practices become evident, we analyze the relationship between spatial configurations of the setting and the nature and temporal organization of knowing and learning in science. Our analyses show that spatial aspects of the laboratory projectively organize how participants act and can serve as resources to help the novices to participate in difficult and unfamiliar tasks. First, existing spatial relations projectively organize the language involving interns and lab members. In particular, spatial relations projectively organize where and when pedagogical language should happen; and there are specific discursive mechanisms that produce cohesion in language across different places in the laboratory. Second, the spatial arrangements projectively organize the temporal dimensions of action. These findings allow science educators to think explicitly about organizing “smart contexts” that help learners participate in and learn complex scientific laboratory practices.     

Science Education and the Material Culture of the Nineteenth-Century Classroom: Physics and Chemistry in Spanish Secondary Schools

Although a large number of Spanish secondary schools have preserved an important scientific heritage, including large scientific instrument collections, this heritage has never been officially protected. Their current state is very diverse, and although several research projects have attempted to initiate their recovery and use, their lack of coordination and wide range of methodological approaches has limited their impact. This paper presents a case-study integrated in a new project supported by the Catalan Scientific Instrument Commission (COMIC) whose final aim is the establishment of a research hub for the preservation, study and use of Spanish scientific instrument collections. Major aims in this project are promoting a better coordination of Spanish projects in this field, and furthering international research on science pedagogy and the material culture of science. The major focus of COMIC is currently the recovery of secondary school collections. This paper provides first, a historical account of the development of secondary education in Spain, and the contemporary establishment of physics and chemistry school collections. Second, we focus on a case-study of three Spanish schools (Valencia, Castellón, and Alicante). Finally, we provide a brief overview of current projects to preserve Spanish school collections, and discuss how COMIC can contribute to help to coordinate them, and to take a step forward interdisciplinary research in this context.     

Perceptions of assessment in a senior physics class

Students' responses to assessment tasks are likely to be affected by a range of factors including teaching approaches, the nature of the curriculum, the nature of the assessment task, socialising influences, and perceptions of the teacher's assessment objectives. This paper describes the perceptions of assessment practices held by senior physics students and their teacher in one Brisbane school. The nature and rationale for these practices were inferred from an examination of school documents. Congruences and dissonances between and within these indicators of physics assessment practices in the school are explored, with particular reference to gender. Specializations: science education, science teacher education, physics education.