Toward Collegiality: Competing Viewpoints Among Teacher Educators

A series of recent speeches, articles, and books have outlined a radical perspective on physical education derived from critical theory, feminism, and postmodernism. This radical discourse has been particularly critical of what it describes as positivistic approaches to research and technocratic views of teaching and curriculum. This article outlines our concerns with this literature, including (a) polemical presentations and vitriolic language, (b) zero-sum arguments that polarize, (c) cartooning, (d) a lack of evidence to defend assertions, and (e) assumptions that it alone occupies high moral ground. We acknowledge that the radical literature has not only brought moral issues to the ongoing forum among physical educators but has also had a direct, positive influence on our work. Areas where we might engage in a collegial discourse include the nature of the subject matter called physical education, the basis underlying a moral perspective on professional work, and the nature of teaching skill development.     

后现代主义思潮视角中的教育反思

后现代主义思潮对主体性的解构、对同一性的消解、对理性主义的抨击等观点为研究和解决教育问题提供了一种新思维、新视角。教育应摒弃认识上的自我中心倾向，重新审视师生之间的关系，并谋求科学知识与人文知识、科学世界与生活世界的统一。     

Darwin’s Arguments in Favour of Natural Selection and Against Special Creationism

In many places in The Origin of Species, Darwin compares his own theory of Natural Selection favourably with Special Creationism which comes off as a bad second best. He does this using some version of the argument form known as ‘Inference to the Best Explanation’. The first part of this paper is methodological. It considers Whewell’s notion of consilience, that is, the way in which theories can get additional confirmation through unifying otherwise disparate and independent facts. Then it considers various forms of inference to the best explanation. The second part of the paper applies these methodological considerations to an analysis of some of the many passages in Origin where Darwin presents his case in favour of Natural Selection. This gives a far superior explanation of biological facts compared with Special Creationism which provides either an inferior explanation or no explanation at all. Contrary to the view that Creationism should not be taught, the passages from Darwin show at least that it should be understood if only to show that it offers no explanation of a wide range of obvious biological facts. As such the passages in Origin in which Darwin presents his case against Creationism can serve as a series of excellent exercises in getting students to think about Natural Selection as opposed to Creationism. For this reason alone they ought to be better known. In addition, Darwin’s point in these passages can only be understood using principles of scientific method, such as inference to the best explanation, which are essential in showing that Natural Selection is to be preferred to Creationism.     

The politics of teaching evolution,science education standards,and Being a creationist

This paper analyzes recent research conclusions regarding biology teacher attitudes toward evolution, and the variable implementation of evolution in the high schools nationwide. Berkman and Plutzer (2010. Evolution, creationism, and the battle to control America's classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press) conclude that due to a large portion of high school biology teachers compromising or downplaying evolution in the curriculum, the placement of evolution specific courses in biology teacher preparation programs will steer evolution deniers away from the field. In this paper, such arguments are situated in a larger historical and philosophical context of science education. By discussing recent sociological insight into the religiosity of education majors and education faculty, new questions are raised about student and teacher ontology, what this means for understanding science, the politics of science teacher education programs, and the epistemological and ethical limits of science education standards to dissolve Creationism. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 122–139, 2012     

Technology education and science education: Engineering as a case study of relationships

Technology education and science education are seen to be related in a particular fashion by many science educators, a relationship exemplified by the common pairing of the two areas in labels such as “Science-Technology-Society” and “Science and Technology Curriculum”. At the heart of this common science education perspective is a view of technology education as dependent on and subservient to science education. In this paper engineering, often seen by scientists as a form of applied science dependent on and subservient to science, is considered. An analysis of the arguments that engineering, far from being an applied science, is a unique way of knowing (that engineering has a unique epistemology) is used to consider the technology education view of the relationships between science education and technology education. It is suggested that science educators need to rethink their perceptions of this relationship if they are to understand the arguments of technology educators. Specializations: science education, teacher education.     

The Unbearable Lightness of Representing ‘Reality’ in Science Education: A response to Schulz

This article responds to Schulz's criticisms of an earlier paper published in Educational Philosophy and Theory. The purpose in this paper is to clarify and extend some of my earlier arguments, to indicate what is unfortunate (i.e. what is lost) from a non‐charitable, modernist reading of Lyotardian postmodernism (despite its weaknesses), and to suggest what new directions are emerging in science education from efforts to move beyond an either/or dichotomy of foundationalism and relativism.     

Lakatos’ Scientific Research Programmes as a Framework for Analysing Informal Argumentation about Socio‐scientific Issues

The purpose of this study is to explore how Lakatos’ scientific research programmes might serve as a theoretical framework for representing and evaluating informal argumentation about socio‐scientific issues. Seventy undergraduate science and non‐science majors were asked to make written arguments about four socio‐scientific issues. Our analysis showed that the science majors’ informal arguments were significantly better than the non‐science majors’ arguments. In terms of the resources for supporting reasons, we find that personal experience and scientific belief are the two categories that are generated most often in both groups of the participants. Besides, science majors made significantly greater use of analogies, while non‐science majors made significantly greater use of authority. In addition, both science majors and non‐science majors had a harder time changing their arguments after participating in a group discussion. In the study of argumentation in science, scholars have often used Toulmin’s framework of data, warrant, backing, qualifiers, claims, and rebuttal. Our work demonstrates that Lakatos’ work is also a viable perspective, especially when warrant and backing are difficult to discern, and when students’ arguments are resistant to change. Our use of Lakatos’ framework highlights how the ‘hard core’ of students’ arguments about socio‐scientific issues does, indeed, seem to be protected by a ‘protective belt’ and, thus, is difficult to alter. From these insights, we make specific implications for further research and teaching.     

The Unbearable Lightness of Representing 'Reality' in Science Education: A response to Schulz

This article responds to Schulz's criticisms of an earlier paper published in Educational Philosophy and Theory. The purpose in this paper is to clarify and extend some of my earlier arguments, to indicate what is unfortunate (i.e. what is lost) from a non-charitable, modernist reading of Lyotardian postmodernism (despite its weaknesses), and to suggest what new directions are emerging in science education from efforts to move beyond an either/or dichotomy of foundationalism and relativism.     

Postmodernism and the repoliticization of education

Postmodernism seriously questions the possibility of the modern project of education, because postmodern relativism seems to undermine the very possibility of justification, bothin and of education. Some educators have therefore concluded that postmodernism is the proclaimed end of education; others hold a more ambivalent stance. Educators in the critical tradition have especially criticized the depoliticizing tendencies of postmodernism.In this paper it is argued that postmodernism should not be understood as radical relativism, but as the articulation of a tension between contingency and commitment. The concern for radical plurality is identified as the typically postmodern commitment. It is argued that this commitment can also be characterized as a typically pedagogical commitment. Educators, therefore, have at least one strong reason to stay within postmodernism.In order to explore in what way postmodernism might contribute to the emancipatory interests of education, an overview is given of the feminist debate on postmodernism. This shows that the emancipatory potential of postmodernism can only be put into use by political means. The question the is, what a postmodern politics might look like. An answer to this question is found in the work of Richard Rorty, albeit that the theoretical hard core of his position — the separation between the public sphere and the private sphere — is criticized for its ideological charcter and its rather unpedagogical repercussions. After a reconstruction of the private-public-dichotomy has been given, three consequences for education are spelled out, all of which center around the conclusion that postmodernism inevitably leads to a repoliticization of education.     

Scaffolding Preservice Science Teachers' Evidence-Based Arguments During an Investigation of Natural Selection

In this qualitative case study, preservice science teachers (PSTs) enrolled in their advanced methods course participated in a complex, data-rich investigation based on an adapted version of the Struggle for Survival curriculum. Fundamental to the investigation was the use of the Galapagos Finches software and an emphasis on giving priority to evidence and constructing evidence-based arguments. The questions that guided the research were: (1) What is the nature of the scientific arguments developed by PSTs? (2) How do PSTs go about constructing scientific arguments (emphasis on processes and strategies)? (3) In what ways do the scaffolds embedded in the Galapagos Finches software influence the development of PSTs arguments? Two pairs of PSTs were selected for in-depth examination. The primary sources of data were the electronic artifacts generated in the Galapagos Finches software environment and the videotaped interactions of both pairs as they investigated the data set, constructed and revised their arguments, engaged in peer review sessions, and presented their arguments to the class at the end of the unit. Four major patterns emerged through analysis of the data. First, using the software, PSTs consistently constructed claims that were linked to evidence from the investigation. Second, although PSTs consistently grounded their arguments in evidence, they still exhibited a number of limitations reported in the literature. Third, the software served as a powerful vehicle for revealing PSTs knowledge of evolution and natural selection. Finally, the PSTs approach to the task had a strong influence on the way they used the software.     

Students’ Perception of Risk About Nanotechnology After an SAQ Teaching Strategy

We experimented with teaching nanotechnology in high school within the perspective of citizenship education in science by involving experts in nanotechnology, education, ethics and philosophy. After training, the students debated a Socially Acute Question (SAQ) that they elaborated during the various phases of instruction. The field of SAQs represents a French orientation for the teaching of SocioScientific Issues. We analyzed the interactions of students in the debate to determine their risk perception on nanotechnology. We compared and put their arguments into perspective using various analytical frameworks. We observed two contrasting argumentative tendencies: one reflecting a positivist view that involved an individualistic use of nanotechnology and science and one carrying a critical and humanistic vision of the use of nanotechnology and science.     

复杂性、科学与后现代思潮

复杂性科学与后现代主义思潮有着一定的关联。但是复杂性科学绝非后现代主义得以成立的科学基础。后现代主义思潮批判审视科学发展。把其中合乎自己思潮的东西拿过来为己所用。其中既有把其思想发挥的地方，也有大量误读的地方。复杂性科学可效仿后现代主义思潮，从后现代思潮发展中索取“为我所用”的东西，来推动对于复杂性思想在社会科学领域的应用研究。     

Dialectical Features of Students’ Argumentation: A Critical Review of Argumentation Studies in Science Education

This paper explores the challenges of using the Toulmin model to analyze students’ dialogical argumentation. The paper presents a theoretical exposition of what is involved in an empirical study of real dialogic argumentation. Dialogic argumentation embodies dialectical features — i.e. the features that are operative when students collaboratively manage disagreement by providing arguments and engaging critically with the arguments provided by others. The paper argues that while dialectical features cannot readily be understood from a Toulminian perspective, it appears that an investigation of them is a prerequisite for conducting Toulminian analysis. This claim is substantiated by a detailed review of five of the ten most significant papers on students’ argumentation in science education. This leads to the surprising notion that empirical studies in the argumentation strand — even those studies that have employed non-dialectical frameworks such as the Toulmin model — have implicitly struggled to come to terms with the dialectical features of students’ discourse. The paper finally explores how some scholars have worked to attend directly to these dialectical features; and it presents five key issues that need to be addressed in a continued scholarly discussion.     

Stones from Other Hills may Serve to Polish the Jade of this One: towards a neo‐comparative ‘learnology’ of education

This is a revised version of the 1998 Presidential address to the newly‐inaugurated British Association for International and Comparative Education (BAICE). The paper reviews the tension within the history of comparative education between qualitative, culturally‐focused studies and more positivist approaches. It explores the dangers, as well as the possibilities, inherent in the rapidly‐growing interest in comparative studies. It argues that the advent of postmodernism presents a new challenge for comparativists that requires culture to be accorded a central place in efforts to understand educational organisations and practices. Finally, the paper outlines the desirable characteristics of a ‘neo‐comparative’ education, of a comparative ‘learnology’ which integrates a range of different social science perspectives, and is both rigorous and radical.     

Developments in technical education

Abstract

The paper highlights the urgent and radical questions and problems which postmodernism poses for educational studies in general, and the philosophy of education in particular. First, it outlines and interrelates the legacies of modernism in social and cultural theory. Next, it describes the reactionary anti‐modernism of the Right, and contrasts this with traditionalism. It is argued that the current political and economic context of education is largely anti‐modernist, not traditionalist. The stirrings of radical doubts about modernism are described and contrasted with the antimodernism of the Right. A salient theme to this point is the variety of conceptions of the relationship between knowledge and power. Mature postmodernism is characterised centrally in terms of a reconceptualisation of that relationship. The metamorphosis of the concept of the self in postmodernism is described and related to new problems about ethics and a newly emerging importance for the aesthetic. Finally, the paper argues that while the fundamental issues for philosophy of education are unchanged ‐problems about instrumentalism and various issues of autonomy ‐ these are radically recast in postmodernism, and present new difficulties.     

SCIENCE AND NON-SCIENCE UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS’ CRITICAL THINKING AND ARGUMENTATION PERFORMANCE IN READING A SCIENCE NEWS REPORT

A scientifically literate person should be able to engage and critique science news reports about socioscientific issues from a variety of information sources. Such engagement involves critical thinking and argumentation skills to determine if claims made are justified by evidence and explained by reasonable explanations. This study explored university students’ critical thinking performance when they read science news reports. Undergraduate science/applied science (n??=??52) and non-science (n??=??52) majors were asked to select a science news report from Internet sources and then to read, critique, and make comments about its contents. The science and non-science majors’ comments and their quality were identified and assessed in terms of analyzing the argument elements—claims and warrants, counterclaims and warrants, rebuttals, qualifiers, and evidence. The results indicated there is significant difference in identifying and formulating evidence favoring science/applied science over non-science majors (p??p??相似文献   

论后现代主义对现代教育的影响

作为一种新兴的文化思潮,后现代主义以一种新的视角和思维方式来观察和解释世界,从而对人文社会科学领域产生了深刻的影响,教育领域亦不例外。后现代主义对科学理性的批判有助于我们重新认识教育的本质,对主体的解构有助于我们改革单一的教育培养模式,对现代知识的诘难有助于我们反思和改造现代课程体系,对差异性的强调有助于我们建立一种多向度、多视角的教育科学研究方法。     

Argumentation in Science Education: A Model-based Framework

The goal of this article is threefold: First, the theoretical background for a model-based framework of argumentation to describe and evaluate argumentative processes in science education is presented. Based on the general model-based perspective in cognitive science and the philosophy of science, it is proposed to understand arguments as reasons for the appropriateness of a theoretical model which explains a certain phenomenon. Argumentation is considered to be the process of the critical evaluation of such a model if necessary in relation to alternative models. Secondly, some methodological details are exemplified for the use of a model-based analysis in the concrete classroom context. Third, the application of the approach in comparison with other analytical models will be presented to demonstrate the explicatory power and depth of the model-based perspective. Primarily, the framework of Toulmin to structurally analyse arguments is contrasted with the approach presented here. It will be demonstrated how common methodological and theoretical problems in the context of Toulmin’s framework can be overcome through a model-based perspective. Additionally, a second more complex argumentative sequence will also be analysed according to the invented analytical scheme to give a broader impression of its potential in practical use.     

The Responsible Anarchist: Postmodernism and social change

In recent years, the adoption of postmodern theoretical perspectives within educational research has prompted strong critical reaction. For some critics (particularly Marxist researchers), the greatest fault of postmodernism is that it lacks an agenda for social change. This paper takes issue with this argument, and with four associated arguments: (1) that postmodernism disempowers those to whom it claims to give voice; (2) that it appeals only to intellectuals and has no practical value; (3) that it denies the possibility of the construction of a new social order; and (4) that it colludes with the status quo in its refusal to act. Addressing each of these points in turn, the author suggests that, contrary to the view of these critics, postmodernism offers a powerful force for social change, through the acceptance of uncertainty, the acknowledgement of diversity and the refusal to see concepts such as 'justice' or 'society' as fixed, or as governed by unassailable 'truths'.     

从后现代主义视域下赏析《看不见的人》

小说家拉尔夫.埃利森的代表作《看不见的人》,虽然不是创作于后现代主义小说高潮时期,但小说明显地带有很多后现代主义的写作特征。从后现代主义的角度对《看不见的人》进行分析,可以看出作者要反映的社会现象,以及当时人们对待生活的态度,揭示了人们在迷茫的世界中,积极寻找内心追求的渴望。