A ‘Semantic’ View of Scientific Models for Science Education

In this paper I inspect a ‘semantic’ view of scientific models taken from contemporary philosophy of science—I draw upon the so-called ‘semanticist family’, which frontally challenges the received, syntactic conception of scientific theories. I argue that a semantic view may be of use both for science education in the classrooms of all educational levels, and for research and innovation within the discipline of didactics of science. I explore and characterise a model-based account of the nature of science, and derive some implications that may be of interest for our community.     

Examining the Effectiveness of Systematically-Designed Web-Based Instruction

The present study examines the effectiveness of using a Web interface for delivering multi-cultural education at a distance. More specifically, this study examines the pedagogical effectiveness of one unit of Web-based instruction on Examining Prejudice. Two research questions guided the investigators: (1) Are there significant gains between the pretest and the posttest for all subjects participating in the study? and (2) Are there significant differences between the mean scores of subjects approaching the information individually and of those working collaboratively?