Gender and physics: feminist philosophy and science education

Physics education reform movements should pay attention to feminist analyses of gender in the culture of physics for two reasons. One reason is that feminist analyses contribute to an understanding of a ‘chilly climate’ women encounter in many physics university departments. Another reason is that feminist analyses reveal that certain styles of doing science are predominant in the culture of physics. I introduce recent philosophical work in social epistemology to argue that the predominance of certain styles of doing science is not good for science. Scientific communities would benefit from greater diversity in styles of doing science.

Crossing Borders and Changing Pedagogies: From Giroux and Freire to feminist theories of education

ABSTRACT We are living in times of change and uncertainty, where many groups are challenging existing structures. Challenges to education have come from postmodernists and poststructuralists, calling into question previously held beliefs and ideologies, and from people from a variety of cultural and ethnic groups, examining the relationship of the oppressed and the exploited to educational structures. Through consideration of the work of Henry Giroux and Paulo Freire, considered to be liberatory and radical, I will consider ways in which their work might inform feminist theory, but also consider how feminists in turn have built on their work, considering new levels of insight. I will call for feminist perspectives to be interwoven with the already rich and valuable ideas of educationists such as Paulo Freire and Henry Giroux to enable us all-women and men-to move towards a feminist pedagogy of change.     

学院教育背景下动漫人才能力培养途径探讨

通过对学院教育背景下动漫人才专业能力缺失的分析,论述了教学与行业需求相脱节这一普遍存在的现象,提出和实践了强化与业界的联系,建立多结构、多层次的办学格局,最终实现动漫人才专业能力优化的途径。     

Right-and left-brain approaches to death education

Some recent advances in the understanding of brain function are considered in terms of their potential impact on death education. The notion of right- and left-brain cognitive styles is examined in terms of the pedagogic impact it may have on an individual's capacity to understand and therefore be educated on the subject of death. The idea that the human brain (mind?) relates to death in two diametrically opposed ways is discussed and a holistic death educational format is proposed based on the synthesis of these two oppositional styles.     

Beyond access: special education in America

ABSTRACT

This paper seeks to examine the parallels between many aspects of conductive education and the conceptual framework of Feuerstein's theory of mediated learning. Conductive education is not a treatment administered to remedy some pathology, as is the case with many therapies, but rather a system of education aimed at developing the whole individual. How this process is achieved may be enlightened by reference to Feuerstein's model of mediated learning experience (MLE). Two key aspects of Feuerstein's theory are examined: first, structural cognitive modifiability (SCM), which maintains that every individual's cognitive structures are capable of modifiability, despite barriers of retardation ‐ very much in line with modern neuroscience and its model of the brain as a plastic and adaptable system; and secondly, mediation (MLE), which is the process whereby a more initiated individual acts as a mediator between culture and child and thereby directs the child into preparing an adequate response. A detailed examination with exemplars is then undertaken into the mediation of many different aspects of development, including the three essential mediation processes of intentionality and reciprocity, transcendence and meaning. Finally, the implications of Feuerstein's theory for models of research and evaluation are considered, particularly the need for more qualitative and interactional approaches which maintain ecological validity.     

Data-driven approaches to education governance and their implications

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability -     

Laughing to sexual education: feminist pedagogy of laughter as a model for holistic sex-education

This paper describes and analyses the ‘feminist pedagogy of laughter’ deployed in an original sex education presentation for college students, entitled Sexual Pleasure, Health, and Safety (SPHS). This work seeks to advance scholarship on liberatory education and humour in education by emphasising how we can use laughter to casually and joyfully deconstruct sexism, racism and heterosexism as they concern sexual stigma, violence, health and pleasure. This style of pedagogy also defuses discomfort around stigmatised topics and identities, disrupts oppressive norms about sex and bodies, and builds communities that enhance learning. We position the feminist pedagogy of laughter as a technique that may be replicated to empower participants to pursue sexual pleasure and wellbeing despite sexist, racist and heterosexist obstacles. Educators may apply the feminist pedagogy of laughter to create sex education lessons and curricula that participants can enjoy, learn from and apply in real life. The pedagogy may be especially useful in supporting high-impact lessons within the time constraints of university life.     

Science education for environmental awareness: approaches to integrating cognitive and affective domains

Science education has an important part in developing understanding of concepts that underpin environmental issues, leading potentially to pro‐environmental behaviour. However, science is commonly perceived negatively, leading to inappropriate and negative models of science that do not connect to people’s experiences. The article argues that the cognitive and affective domains need to be explicitly integrated in a science education that informs environmental education, as a sense of relationship is essential for environmental care and responsibility leading to informed action. The features of such approaches to science education are discussed through analysis of the impact of modern and constructive postmodern science education models on environmental education, and possible strategies for making connections between cognitive and affective domains are proposed. The analysis incorporates the development of positive approaches to science and environmental issues through teacher modelling of biophilic behaviour, active learning through constructivist pedagogy, the politicisation of science education to address social and environmental issues, suitable experiences of natural environments and living organisms, and science curricula that emphasise conceptual integration to demonstrate complex environmental effects, including the environmental consequences of human behaviour.     

Towards multidimensional approaches to early childhood science education

In this forum paper, I respond to issues raised by Kristina Andersson and Annica Gullberg in their article titled What is science in preschool and what do teachers have to know to empower children? (2012). I seek to continue the discussion begun with Andersson and Gullberg’s paper, by further exploring the questions they introduce to guide their paper: “What is science in preschool?” and “What do teachers have to know to empower children?” In particular, I elaborate on the value of drawing on multiple perspectives and different epistemological frameworks, and I argue for the need for a reconceptualized notion of science as a school discipline; one that acknowledges the multifaceted ways in which young children engage in science.