1,720,975 research outputs found
How do 16-17 year old school students engage with scientific research?
Get PDFOur article explores how 16-17 year old school students discuss contemporary scientific research and how they use their current school science knowledge in thinking through open research problems in biomedical science. Contemporary research problems (somewhat simplified) were presented to school groups of six participants who were tasked with discussing possible solutions. More specifically, they were asked to devise testable hypotheses and experiments to account for cell movements that form the embryonic spinal cord. An experienced researcher presented the problem and was available to answer student questions and to prompt them when they became stuck. Our analysis shows that fruitful discussions have the following three features: authoritative scaffolding encouraging elaboration, explanation, and use of pupil knowledge; willingness of participants to problematise and revise suggestions; and collective elaboration of ideas sufficient to stimulate new questions. Students drew on knowledge through dialogue which problematised their school knowledge and opened-up its difficulties in application to a research task. We suggest that an openness to new ways of thinking and uncertainty in learning science rather than the STEM ‘pipeline’ might attract more young people from minority groups into studying science at university and open up new pedagogic possibilities in addressing science research in schools
Innovations, challenges and future directions in nature of science research:Reflections from early career academics
Get PDFThere has been sustained research interest in the role of early career researchers in advancing the field and the challenges that they face. However, efforts to document lived experiences of researchers working in a specific research area within science education have been scarce. This paper considers the meaning of innovation in the context of nature of science (NOS) research, drawing from a collective reflection of five early career academics from different backgrounds. After discussing the sources of our motivation to innovate in NOS research, we identify four distinct pathways of innovation. These pathways include (1) delving into specific aspects of NOS in greater depth, (2) exploring the interface of NOS and other established research areas, and (3) using NOS to address pressing social issues, and (4) expanding the methodological repertoire of NOS research. We illustrate these four modes of research innovation using examples from our own work. Barriers to early-career innovation such as the absence of NOS in curricula and initial teacher education, the lack of time to engage with practitioners to develop and implement instructional resources, and the underrepresentation of diverse education systems in NOS research literature are discussed.</p
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Evaluating the impact of using film to engage with issues of social justice with a year 9 class
Get PDFSocial justice education is uniquely placed, and taught, within religious education. Within this context there is very limited research on the methods of teaching social injustice. This small-scale study aims to consider a unique perspective of teaching and learning within social justice, with a focus on vicarious learning, namely through film. We already contend that the authentic experience of religious people is most valuable when learning about religion in RE. Hence, I want to consider the link between the injustices faced by those in the LGBTQIA+ community and those who face racial discrimination, with Hollywood films as the main facilitator, with the hope that students can identify and work with themes of injustice
The Equity Compass and the Science Capital Teaching Approach: Teacher Tools to Support Critical Pedagogy
Get PDFScience can be understood and practised in different ways. Research shows that school science often celebrates particular ways of ‘doing science’, and while some forms of knowledge, skills and experiences have value within a classroom, others less so. In this chapter, we begin by presenting UK-based research on science participation and discuss the challenges young people experience in engaging with science. We explain the idea of ‘science capital’, which has been helpful to understand the varied participation in science, drawing attention to the issues of inequalities. We then outline two practical tools that can support teachers in developing more equitable teaching practice: the Equity Compass (a reflection tool with eight equity dimensions) and the Science Capital Teaching Approach (a pedagogic approach that focuses on broadening what and who counts as science, and supporting students in making meaningful connections with science and builds science capital). We conclude the chapter by discussing how implementing the two tools can support critical pedagogy
In defence of non-epistemic aspects of nature of science: insights from an intercultural approach to history of science
Get PDFThe focus of this article is to expand María del Mar Aragón, José Antonio Acevedo-Díaz and Antonio García-Carmona’s paper “Prospective Biology teachers’ understanding of the nature of science through an analysis of the historical case of Semmelweis and childbed fever” by focusing on the discussion about teaching non-epistemic aspects of NOS. This article will draw on my own research at secondary schools in London, U.K. to illustrate different possibilities to broaden this inclusion of non-epistemic aspects into school science through the use of an intercultural perspective to History of Science, that is, to how historical cases are employed to teach about NOS
(Science) teacher education in England: technical-rationality and depoliticisation of science education
No full textNeste editorial apresentarei um breve panorama das reformas e políticas educacionais relacionadas à formação e ao trabalho de professores na Inglaterra, prestando especial atenção em como elas vêm moldando, nas últimas décadas, a formação e o trabalho de professores de ciências no país baseados em uma perspectiva técnico-racional e apolítica. Como educadora científica atuante tanto na formação inicial quanto na formação contínua de professores na Inglaterra, me preocupo particularmente com o fato de que questões sociocientíficas e de justiça social cada vez mais complexas e interligadas tornaram-se a norma em todo o mundo nas últimas décadas, evidenciando a crescente complexidade das relações entre conhecimento e práticas científicas, desafios e injustiças sociopolíticas. No entanto, como busco examinar neste editorial, as políticas relacionadas aos professores de ciências na Inglaterra parecem permanecer enraizadas em uma perspectiva técnico-racional, frequentemente retratando a ciência e o trabalho dos professores de ciências – incluindo a sua formação – por meio de uma lente positivista, neutras, objetiva e desconectada de questões de poder, de cultura e das estruturas e práticas sociopolíticas.In this editorial, I will outline a brief overview of educational reforms and policies related to teacher education and work in England, paying special attention paid to how they have been shaping science teachers’ education and work in country through a technical-rational and apolitical perspective for the past decades. Of particular concern to me as a science educator working at both Initial Teacher Education and Continuous Professional Development levels in England is that increasingly complex and intertwined socio-scientific and social justice issues have become the norm across the world in the past decades, showcasing the growing complexity of the relationships between scientific knowledge and practices, socio-political challenges and injustices. However, as I will endeavour to show across this editorial, science teacher-related policies in England seems to remain rooted in a technical-rational perspective, often portraying science and science teachers’ work – including science teacher education – through a naïve positivist lens as neutral, objective, and disconnected from power, culture and socio-political structures and practices
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
The nature of chemistry through primary historical sources from colonial Brazil (1748-1855) : contributions from the history of mineral exploitation to the chemistry teaching
No full textOrientador: Silvia Fernanda de Mendonça FigueirôaDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de EducaçãoResumo: Em virtude do desafio atual de tornar o Ensino de Ciências interessante, abrangente e formador de cidadãos críticos, a presente investigação busca realizar uma reflexão a respeito da inserção da História e da Filosofia da Ciência (HFC) em atividades de Ensino de Química. Pretende-se discutir, a partir do ponto de vista do ensino da Natureza da Ciência (NOS), as potencialidades do estudo da História e da Filosofia da Ciência para o Ensino de Química, essencialmente relevantes para a elucidação de como se dá a gênese e o desenvolvimento dos conhecimentos e das práticas químicas. Com o objetivo de divulgar as possibilidades do trabalho, em sala de aula, com aspectos da Natureza da Química, essa investigação explorou, a partir de uma Pesquisa Histórica, e analisou, dentro do referencial do Ensino de Ciências e da HFC, diferentes fontes históricas primárias, produzidas no contexto da exploração mineral no período colonial brasileiro. Buscou-se apresentar e estimular a leitura, interpretação e análise de textos histórico-científicos, sob a luz da HFC e da NOS, visando um maior contato de professores e estudantes com aspectos e características do mundo científico e das práticas e conhecimentos químicos em um contexto brasileiro, através do estudo de uma das mais importantes atividades de exploração natural desenvolvida ao longo da História do BrasilAbstract: Due to the present challenge to transform Science Education into an interesting, comprehensive and capable of forming critical citizens process, this research aims to reflect about the insertion of History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) into Chemistry Teaching activities. The intention here is to discuss, from the teaching of the Nature of Science (NOS) perspective, the potential of History and Philosophy of Science for Chemistry Teaching, as these topics are essentially relevant to the elucidation of the genesis and the development of knowledge and practices related to Chemistry. In order to disseminate the possibilities of classroom practices related to the Nature of Chemistry, this research explored, by undertaking a Historical Research, and analyzed, within the framework of Science Teaching and HPS, several primary historical sources, produced in the context of mineral exploitation during the Brazilian colonial period. The objective here was to introduce and encourage reading, interpretation and analysis of historical-scientific texts, under the light of the HPS and the NOS, looking forward to approximate teachers and students to aspects and features of the scientific world and of chemical practices and knowledge in a Brazilian context, through the study of one of the most important natural exploitation activities developed throughout the Brazilian HistoryMestradoEnsino de Ciencias e MatematicaMestra em Ensino de Ciências e Matemátic
Exploring and implementing an intercultural model of history of science to teach about nature of science
Get PDFThe inclusion of Nature of Science (NOS) within science education has been advocated for decades and History of Science (HOS) has been employed, among other approaches, to facilitate the integration between learning about the processes of science (NOS) and its products (scientific content). Nonetheless, when investigating current science curricula and school science practices, we identify the use of very few and specific historical cases to teach about NOS, with less attention paid to making a more diversified set of histories available for science teachers and their students. This scenario and its possible effects on students’ views about scientific development were explored in this study through the development of an Exploratory phase at two comprehensive schools in London/U.K., involving five science teachers and their students (aged 12-15), and qualitative methods of data generation (lesson observations, interviews and open-ended questionnaires) and analysis. Findings highlighted students’ restricted view about who participates in scientific work (mainly male European scientists and Western communities) and an overreliance on evidence and experimentation as the main features of scientific work, whilst social and institutional aspects were peripheral to their understandings of science. In addition, school science practices that promote (e.g. explicit in-depth discussions, assessment and curricular flexibility) and those that hinder (e.g. implicit, illustrative and stand-alone approaches, focus on content and experimentation in official examinations) knowledge development about NOS and diversity in science were also identified. In a subsequent phase – Implementation – I investigated possibilities offered by an intercultural model of HOS for the teaching and learning about NOS from a broader and more culturally diverse perspective. Through collaborative work with one science teacher, ideas from the field of Global HOS were employed to integrate discussions about NOS and content in the form of four teaching and learning plans (TLPs) about topics from the year 8 (students aged 12-13) science curriculum in England. This experience, carried out during one school year, was analysed under a qualitative approach with the help of different methods of data generation (e.g. lesson observations, interviews, open-ended questionnaires, group mind maps, etc.). During this phase, the intercultural model of HOS fostered explicit discussions about NOS and content in a more integrated and dynamic style and the use of different culturally diverse histories of scientific development in the science lessons. This resulted in changes in students’ views about scientific communities, with a greater appreciation of the social and institutional dimensions of scientific work and their connection with epistemic aspects, and a broader understanding of participation and diversity in science. This collaborative work on the TLPs also impacted the participant teacher’s professional growth (in-development and in-practice) around the inclusion of NOS in his lessons and the use of whole-class discussions and planned questions as strategies to explore these ideas. In addition, his involvement with these TLPs also positively affected his self-perception as a teacher of subjects outside his specialism and his work on promoting these resources to other science teachers
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