Promoting Issues-based STSE Perspectives in Science Teacher Education: Problems of Identity and Ideology

Although science, technology, society and environment (STSE) education has gained considerable force in the past few years, it has made fewer strides in practice. We suggest that science teacher identity plays a role in the adoption of STSE perspectives. Simply put, issues-based STSE education challenges traditional images of a science teacher and science instructional ideologies. In this paper, we briefly describe the development of a multimedia documentary depicting issues-based STSE education in a teacher’s class and its subsequent implementation with 64 secondary student-teachers at a large Canadian university. Specifically, we set out to explore: (1) science teacher candidates’ responses to a case of issues-based STSE teaching, and (2) how science teacher identity intersects with the adoption of STSE perspectives. Findings reveal that although teacher candidates expressed confidence and motivation regarding teaching STSE, they also indicated decreased likelihood to teach these perspectives in their early years of teaching. Particular tensions or problems of practice consistently emerged that helped explain this paradox – including issues related to: control and autonomy; support and belonging; expertise and negotiating curriculum; politicization and action; and biases and ideological bents. We conclude our paper with a discussion regarding the lessons learned about STSE education, teacher identity and the role of multimedia case methods.     

Philosophy as Literature

How best to introduce philosophical ideas? Is the best and only way by studying the history of philosophy and its rational arguments and discussions? But can literature, usually hived off from philosophy, be used instead and can this be as effective as rational argument? This paper explores these questions. First it considers a text which introduces philosophy through the analysis of literature, in particular James Joyce's 'Araby', arguing that the traditional analytic approach employed by the text, by concentrating on epistemology, obscures other philosophical insights offered by Joyce. It then turns to French philosophy and literature and suggests that Sartre, Beauvoir and Camus by 'blurring' the analytic distinction between philosophy and literature have much to offer to the grasping and understanding of philosophical ideas and principles.     

Multi-media Case Methods in Pre-service Science Education: Enabling an Apprenticeship for Praxis

In recent years, teacher educators have looked to case methods as one means of bridging the theory-practice gap in university-based pre-service programs. This paper explores how case methods may be used to foster habits of praxis – that is, critical, reflective practice – that enable beginning teachers to adapt to the many diverse contexts they may encounter in the field. Our research used qualitative ethnographic methods to determine the efficacy of a case method designed to encourage critical analysis of a Year 8 science Optics lesson. Results suggest student teachers: (1) understood an associated analytical framework; (2) effectively analysed curriculum and pedagogy; and (3) exercised prudence in their assessment of the case. These findings tentatively indicate emerging habits of praxis. Notwithstanding such gains, we encourage designers of case-based curricula to: ensure case authenticity, protect subjects from critique and use multi-media case methods in conjunction with other approaches to promote habits of praxis.     

The knowledge audit: Meta-Matrix analysis

Knowledge Management Research & Practice - Knowledge management is a method for simplifying and improving the process of sharing, distributing, creating, and understanding organizational...     

How business students view corruption,and why this should concern us: insights from Lebanon,Romania and the United States

Tertiary Education and Management - When seeking to understand corruption in its ongoing temporal context, it is useful to consider business students. Because of their high numbers and the kinds of...     

Determinism and Underdetermination in Genetics: Implications for Students’ Engagement in Argumentation and Epistemic Practices

In the last two decades science studies and science education research have shifted from an interest in products (of science or of learning), to an interest in processes and practices. The focus of this paper is on students’ engagement in epistemic practices (Kelly in Teaching scientific inquiry: Recommendations for research and implementation. Sense Publishers, Rotterdam, pp 99–117, 2008), or on their practical epistemologies (Wickman in Sci Educ 88(3):325–344, 2004). In order to support these practices in genetics classrooms we need to take into account domain-specific features of the epistemology of genetics, in particular issues about determinism and underdetermination. I suggest that certain difficulties may be related to the specific nature of causality in genetics, and in particular to the correspondence between a given set of factors and a range of potential effects, rather than a single one. The paper seeks to bring together recent developments in the epistemology of biology and of genetics, on the one hand, with science education approaches about epistemic practices, on the other. The implications of these perspectives for current challenges in learning genetics are examined, focusing on students’ engagement in epistemic practices, as argumentation, understood as using evidence to evaluate knowledge claims. Engaging in argumentation in genetics classrooms is intertwined with practices such as using genetics models to build explanations, or framing genetics issues in their social context. These challenges are illustrated with studies making part of our research program in the USC.     

ASQ and ISPI: Mutual Opportunities for Influencing Global Performance

To help organizations get closer to their value objectives, a number of approaches and fields of practice have been developed. Two fields common in today's business environment are human performance technology (HPT) and quality. The recent publication of the Global State of Quality Research: Discoveries 2013 by the American Society for Quality provides customer‐ and practitioner‐related data and offers an opportunity to link the purposes, philosophies, research, and practices of quality and HPT.