Promoting Science Outdoor Activities for Elementary School Children: Contributions from a research laboratory

The purposes of the study were to analyse the promotion of scientific literacy through practical research activities and to identify children's conceptions about scientists and how they do science. Elementary school children were engaged in two scientific experiments in a marine biology research laboratory. A total of 136 students answered a questionnaire about their previous habits towards science and carried out the following actions: (1) a guided visit to the laboratory, (2) a brief presentation of the research theme, (3) the development of two experiments, and (4) a questionnaire about the experiments and science conceptions. The research methods included observation, document analysis, and content analysis of the answers to the questionnaires. Additionally, each visit was video recorded in order to design learning materials. The results revealed that most of the pupils were able to follow every stage of experimentation. However, some of them misinterpreted results and conclusions. One implication of the study is that this type of outdoor activity is extremely important to promote meaningful science learning in children, but more care should be taken in practical science activities so that children can overcome some common difficulties when performing scientific inquiry.     

Religious Beliefs: Their dynamics in two groups of life scientists

The assumption that scientific knowledge would bring an end to religious belief has challenged many scholars, particularly since such a belief persists even among those devoted to scientific activities. In this paper the occurrence and nature of religious belief in groups of life scientists working in the UK and Brazil is discussed in the context of their degree of training. Data obtained through one‐to‐one interviews went beyond mere yes/no answers to questions on belonging to a religion or believing in God. Categories were created to assess how open these scientists were with regard to the possibility of the supernatural. The results suggest that scientific training affected their religious belief and reduced the number of believers. Nevertheless there were scientists in both groups whose beliefs persisted.     

Matching Society Values: Students’ views of biotechnology

The rapid growth of biotechnology knowledge during the past decades has made it necessary to rethink the contents of the school curriculum and has provoked a consideration of the ethical and social issues related to the use of biotechnological applications. With the financial assistance of the European Union, the European Initiative for Biotechnology Education was set up to develop units for use in the member the countries, organize the translations of these between the many languages involved, organize in‐service courses for teachers, implement the materials in schools, as well as carrying out related research.

This paper gives some findings of Spanish researchers when identifying and exploring the different cultural contexts in which biotechnology teaching and learning is embedded, being mainly concerned with the emerging attitudes and values of the students regarding such issues. After gathering information through case studies during the implementation phase, a questionnaire was developed in an interactive way by teachers and researchers in various stages, based on what students said.

The results identify four main values: the “principle of the natural”, the “principle of the welfare”, the “principle of the technological solution” and the “principle of the individual decisions”. Their interaction and dichotomy are discussed, as well as the problems teachers face when having to deal with topics beyond those immediately related to science     

Reflecting on Scientists’ Activity Based on Science Fiction Stories Written by Secondary Students

In this article the authors resort to a qualitative analysis of the plot of science fiction stories about a group of scientists, written by two 11th‐grade Earth and Life Science students (aged 17), and to semi‐structured interviews, with the double purpose of diagnosing their conceptions of the nature of science (namely, as regards scientists’ activity), and discussing the potentialities of this methodology in terms of research and education in science. The adopted methodology proved particularly effective in diagnosing the students’ conceptions of scientists’ characteristics, scientific activity, and science–technology–society interactions. The limited content of certain conceptions and a certain lack of knowledge on the part of the students concerning the processes and the epistemology of science highlight the need to pay explicit attention in science classes to the nature of scientific activity. Some of the ideas brought up by the students clearly show the influence of stereotypes and catastrophic scenarios depicted in films, television programs, and books, revealing media’s limitations when divulging scientific and technological themes to the general public and stressing the need for the school to promote a critical debate about science and technology images conveyed by the media.     

Puntos de convergencia en la psicología histórico-cultural de lengua española: Una reflexión sobre los contenidos de esta monografía

Resumen

Se revisan en este artículo los avances en la conceptualización teórica, verificación empírica, en los problemas metodológicos y en el nivel de intervención y diseño, que se perfilan en las aportaciones españolas a la psicología histórico-cultural recogidas en esta monografía. Especialmente se resaltan: la redefinición del contexto externo de la representación y la comunicación; el sincretismo y los diversos procesos de mediación en la ZDP; las evidencias empíricas a favor del desarrollo cultural de las funciones superiores; los problemas metodológicos de aplicación de la ZDP para el diagnóstico y el diseño; y el diseño educativo desde una perspectiva de integración en sistemas culturales de actividad.     

ZPD y Zona Sincrética de Representación: el espacio instrumental de la mediación social

Resumen

Se propone en este artículo un modelo de conciencia y representation que actualiza la propuesta socio-cultural de la ZPD extendiendo conceptos poco elaborados de la psicología de Vygotski como el sincretismo, espacio semiológico, e instrumento psicológico. El modelo se defiende a partir de una revisión del desarrollo multigenético de la espacialidad de las funciones superiores: filogénesis, histórico-génesis, génesis defectológica, ontogénesis y microgénesis. Se postula desde ahí la existencia de una conciencia que opera en una zona fronteriza y mixta externa/interna, natural/cultural, de carácter simbiótico, social e instrumental que articula las conexiones funcionales intra y extracorticales en un sistema único y sincrético de la actividad mental y de la actividad externa. El modelo de Zona Sincrética de Representación (SZR) propuesto se aplica por último a un programa educativo y desde él se proponen unos principios de diseño.     

La influencia del entorno en la educación: la aportación de los modelos ecológicos

Resumen

El artículo presenta una panorámica de los procesos que han llevado a la relevancia de las investigaciones ecológicas sobre el entorno en la psicología, incluyendo los propios cambios masivos y acelerados sufridos por los entornos evolutivos actuales. Se señalan las características conceptuales y metodológicas de las principales tendencias, corrientes o enfoques en la operacionalización del entorno educativo y los problemas que se plantean de cara a una aplicación social y educativa de las investigaciones psicológicas sobre los entornos del desarrollo. Por último, se bace una propuesta para el desarrollo ulterior en el área.     

Tres pies al gato: significado,sentido y cultura cotidiana en la educación

Resumen

Se pasa revista en este artículo a los tres ejes que conforman la línea de investigación de los autores en psicología de la educación, a saber, considerar la arquitectura, no sólo cognitiva, sino instrumental y cultural, del significado; la necesidad de unir en la investigación y en el diseño educativo las vertientes de significado y de sentido que caracterizan el funcionamiento psicológico de los individuos, y que solo se articulan sobre la base de sistemas de actividad; por último, la necesidad de contemplar las formas de representación humanas menos formalizadas y desdeñadas hasta hace muy poco por la psicología de la educación: las denominadas bajo el epígrafe de conocimiento informal. En torno a estos tres ejes, se exponen ejemplos de investigación y de intervención que conforman lo que hemos denominado diseño cultural.