Drawing Nature of Science in Pre-service Science Teacher Education: Epistemic Insight Through Visual Representations

Developing pre-service science teachers’ epistemic insight remains a challenge, despite decades of research in related bodies of work such as the nature of science (NOS) in science education. While there may be numerous aspects to this problem, one critical element is that the NOS is a meta-concept that demands higher-order cognitive skills. One possible strategy to facilitate pre-service teachers’ understanding of epistemic aspects of science is visualisation. Visual representations of objects and processes can be tools for developing and monitoring understanding. Although the NOS and visualisation literatures have been studied extensively, the intersection of these bodies of literatures has been minimal. Incorporating visual tools on the NOS in teacher education is likely to facilitate teachers’ learning, eventually impacting their students’ learning of the NOS. The objective of this paper is to illustrate how the visual tools of scientific knowledge and practices aspects of the NOS can be integrated in science teacher education in order to develop pre-service teachers’ epistemic insight. The paper presents an empirical study that incorporated visual tools about the NOS in primary science teacher education. Data on 14 pre-service teachers’ are presented along with in-depth case studies of 3 pre-service teachers illustrating the influence of the teacher education intervention. The qualitative analysis of visual representations before and after the intervention as well as verbal data suggests that there was improvement in pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the NOS. Implications for future research on visualisation of the NOS are discussed.     

科学中的权威与权威的科学：默顿传统科学社会学中的科 …

科学中权威的存在是一个不争的事实,权威的科学成了一个默认的预设。科学 的权威与权威的 科学权威问题研究的不同层面。本文拟通过对墨顿传科学社会学关于科学权威问题研究进行深度和广度的分析,揭示科学权威的完整内涵。     

Adaptations and Continuities in the Use and Design of Visual Representations in US Middle School Science Textbooks

Visual representations are ubiquitous in modern‐day science textbooks and have in recent years become an object of criticism and scrutiny. This article examines the extent to which changes in representations in textbooks published in the USA over the past six decades have invited those critiques. Drawing from a correlational analysis of a corpus of 34 US middle school physical science textbooks, continuities are established with respect to the purposes that most textbook images serve and the numbers of schematic representations that are used. Changes are observed in the overall total number of representations in textbooks and in the proportion of representations that are photographic. Interpretive cases of individual representations over time are presented to further illustrate the continuities and changes that have taken place. Specifically, high‐fidelity images, such as photographs, are shown permeating or replacing schematic and explanatory images in the interest of promoting familiarization to students. This shifting emphasis toward familiarization is discussed as a specific cause for concern about quality and utility of representations in modern‐day US science textbooks.     

External Visual Representations in Science Learning: The case of relations among system components

The present paper reports on a study that examined whether practical work can be said to have affective outcomes, and if so in what sense. The term ‘affective’ is used here to refer to the emotions, or feelings, engendered amongst pupils towards school science in general, or one of the sciences in particular. The study is based on 25 multi‐site case studies that employed a condensed fieldwork strategy. Data were collected, using tape‐recorded interviews and observational field notes, in a sample of practical lessons undertaken in English comprehensive (non‐selective) schools during Key Stages 3 and 4 (ages 11–14 years and 15–16 years, respectively). The findings suggest that whilst practical work generates short‐term engagement, it is relatively ineffective in generating motivation to study science post compulsion or longer‐term personal interest in the subject, although it is often claimed to do so. This suggests that those involved with science education need to develop a more realistic understanding of the limitations of practical work in the affective domain.     

Conditions for the Effectiveness of Multiple Visual Representations in Enhancing STEM Learning

Visual representations play a critical role in enhancing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning. Educational psychology research shows that adding visual representations to text can enhance students’ learning of content knowledge, compared to text-only. But should students learn with a single type of visual representation or with multiple different types of visual representations? This article addresses this question from the perspective of the representation dilemma, namely that students often learn content they do not yet understand from representations they do not yet understand. To benefit from visual representations, students therefore need representational competencies, that is, knowledge about how visual representations depict information about the content. This article reviews literature on representational competencies involved in students’ learning of content knowledge. Building on this review, this article analyzes how the number of visual representations affects the role these representational competencies play during students’ learning of content knowledge. To this end, the article compares two common scenarios: text plus a single type of visual representations (T+SV) and text plus multiple types of visual representations (T+MV). The comparison yields seven hypotheses that describe under which conditions T+MV scenarios are more effective than T+SV scenarios. Finally, the article reviews empirical evidence for each hypothesis and discusses open questions about the representation dilemma.     

壮族仪式剪纸的视觉特质与文化表征

壮族仪式剪纸是壮族祭祀仪式活动中的重要物品,其题材内容乃基于人们对神仙体系的想象,具有简洁写实、稚拙粗犷、色彩主观、多维时空等艺术风格和视觉特征。通过田野考察,运用艺术人类学文化阐释的研究方法,从仪式剪纸的题材类型入手,探讨了壮族仪式剪纸的视觉特征,进而揭示其图像中所蕴含的文化思想。     

Theorising Learning in Science Through Integrating Multimodal Representations

Research in Science Education - There is growing interest in the construct of “transduction”, first introduced by (Kress, Cope and Kalantzis (eds), Multiliteracies: Literacy learning...     

Attitudes of Biology Teachers Towards Learner-Generated External Visual Representations

Research in Science Education - Several studies have shown that learner-generated external visual representations (LGVRs) play a vital role for learning scientific concepts and processes. However,...     

科玄论战述评

产生于中西文化大交汇与大碰撞背景下的科玄论战在中国现代思想史上具有承上启下、继往开来的意义,尽管论战双方的哲学基础各有优劣,但他们都代表着资产阶级改良派的利益。     

Why the Difference Between Explanation and Argument Matters to Science Education

Contributing to the recent debate on whether or not explanations ought to be differentiated from arguments, this article argues that the distinction matters to science education. I articulate the distinction in terms of explanations and arguments having to meet different standards of adequacy. Standards of explanatory adequacy are important because they correspond to what counts as a good explanation in a science classroom, whereas a focus on evidence-based argumentation can obscure such standards of what makes an explanation explanatory. I provide further reasons for the relevance of not conflating explanations with arguments (and having standards of explanatory adequacy in view). First, what guides the adoption of the particular standards of explanatory adequacy that are relevant in a scientific case is the explanatory aim pursued in this context. Apart from explanatory aims being an important aspect of the nature of science, including explanatory aims in classroom instruction also promotes students seeing explanations as more than facts, and engages them in developing explanations as responses to interesting explanatory problems. Second, it is of relevance to science curricula that science aims at intervening in natural processes, not only for technological applications, but also as part of experimental discovery. Not any argument enables intervention in nature, as successful intervention specifically presupposes causal explanations. Students can fruitfully explore in the classroom how an explanatory account suggests different options for intervention.     

The Cultural Argument for Understanding Nature of Science

Understanding Nature of Science (NOS) is a central component of scientific literacy, which is agreed upon internationally, and consequently has been a major educational goal for many years all over the globe. In order to justify the promotion of an adequate understanding of NOS, educators have developed several arguments, among them the cultural argument. But what is behind this argument? In order to answer this question, C. P. Snow’s vision of two cultures was used as a starting point. In his famous Rede Lecture from 1959, he complained about a wide gap between the arts and humanities on the one hand and sciences on the other hand. While the representatives of the humanities refer to themselves as real intellectuals, the scientists felt rather ignored as a culture, despite the fact that their achievements had been so important for Western society. Thus, Snow argued that as these intellectual cultures were completely different from each other, a mutual understanding was impossible. The first European Regional IHPST Conference took up the cultural view on science again. Thus, the topic of the conference “Science as Culture in the European Context” encouraged us to look at the two cultures and to figure out possibilities to bridge the gap between them in chemistry teacher education. For this reason, we put together three studies—one theoretical and two independent research projects (one dealing with creativity in science, the other with scientific laws and theories) which contribute to our main research field (promoting an understanding of NOS)—in order to address the cultural argument for understanding science from an educational point of view. Among the consented tenets of what understanding NOS implies in an educational context, there are aspects which are associated mainly with the humanities, like the tentativeness of knowledge, creativity, and social tradition, whereas others seem to have a domain-specific meaning, like empirical evidence, theories and laws, and the role of technology. Thus, the cultural argument for understanding science invites us not only to consider domain-specific concepts but also to reflect on similarities between science and the humanities by way of examples.     

“科玄之战”的价值之思

20世纪初在中国思想文化界发生的"科玄之战"一直受到学界关注,然而人们较为重视的是科学能否指导人生观及由此引发的西方科学主义与中国传统文化的冲突如何消解,至于论战事件的内容及形式对我国现实社会民主制度建设与科学文化发展,对中华民族文化主体意识的真正觉醒和社会全面进步所具有的现实意义,还有许多方面值得深入研究与探讨,面向21世纪的中国仍然需要完成在科学与文化的融合中实现社会全面进步的历史使命。     

图尔敏论证模型在科学教育中的研究进展

基于论证的科学教学活动注重证据的收集与获取、强调社会交互过程的知识建构,已经成为西方科学教育的关注焦点之一。近年来出现的一些基于实证的教学研究过程及结果更是凸显了论证教学在科学教育中的重要地位以及可行性。本文在介绍图尔敏论证模型的基础上,对其在科学教育中的相关研究进展进行了阐述,并提出了后续的研究方向。     

Exploration and Authority in Science Learning Environments: an International Study

Summaries

English

Scales derived from student responses were used to describe the science learning environments of 14‐year‐old students in 14 different countries. It was found that the best science achievement occured in countries which combined exploratory and authoritarian teaching styles. Within countries, exploratory teaching styles were again associated with high science‐achievement, although the relationship was less strong. These results suggest that some science teachers might improve their pupils’ performance if they adopted more exploratory teaching styles. But no firm conclusions can be reached until the results have been replicated in an experimental study.     

Effects of Argument Scaffolding and Source Credibility on Science Text Comprehension

This study investigated the effects of argument scaffolding and source credibility on science text comprehension. Eighty-seven college students were randomly assigned to an argument scaffolding activity, or no scaffolding, and read 2 science texts, attributed to a high- or a low-credibility source. The argument-scaffolding group recalled less text-based information but generated more knowledge-based inferences than did the no-scaffolding group. High source credibility enhanced readers’ text-based recall but had little effect on knowledge-based inferences or situation models. Overall, results suggest that argumentation facilitates deeper text comprehension and better argument understanding, while at the same time reducing the effect of source credibility on text processing.     

Using Multi-Modal Representations to Improve Learning in Junior Secondary Science

There is growing research interest in both the challenges and opportunities learners face in trying to represent scientific understanding, processes and reasoning. These challenges are increasingly well understood by researchers, including integrating verbal, visual and mathematical modes in science discourse, and making strong conceptual links between classroom experiences and diverse 3D and 2D representations. However, a matching enhanced pedagogy of representation-rich learning opportunities, including their theoretical justification, is much less clearly established. Our paper reports on part of a three-year project to identify practical and theoretical issues entailed in developing a pedagogical framework to guide teacher understanding and practices to maximize representational opportunities for learners to develop conceptual understandings in science.