Prompted by the ongoing debate among science educators over ‘nature of science’, and its importance in school and university curricula, this book is a clarion call for a broad re-conceptualizing of nature of science in science education. The authors draw on the ‘family resemblance’ approach popularized by Wittgenstein, defining science as a cognitive-epistemic and social-institutional system whose heterogeneous characteristics and influences should be more thoroughly reflected in science education. They seek wherever possible to clarify their developing thesis with visual tools that illustrate how their ideas can be practically applied in science education. The volume’s holistic representation of science, which includes the aims and values, knowledge, practices, techniques, and methodological rules (as well as science’s social and institutional contexts), mirrors its core aim to synthesize perspectives from the fields of philosophy of science and science education. The authors believe that this more integrated conception of nature of science in science education is both innovative and beneficial. They discuss in detail the implications for curriculum content, pedagogy, and learning outcomes, deploy numerous real-life examples, and detail the links between their ideas and curriculum policy more generally.
This is the first book to blend a justification for the inclusion of the history and philosophy of science in science teaching with methods by which this vital content can be shared with a variety of learners. It contains a complete analysis of the variety of tools developed thus far to assess learning in this domain. This book is relevant to science methods instructors, science education graduate students and science teachers.
This edited volume brings closer two contemporary science education research areas: Nature of Science (NOS) and Social Justice (SJ). It starts a dialogue on the characteristics of NOS for SJ with the purpose of advancing the existing discussion and creating new avenues for research. Using a variety of approaches and perspectives, the authors of the different chapters engage in a dialogue on the construct of NOS for SJ, its characteristics, as well as ways of addressing it in science classrooms. Issues addressed are related to why a school science aiming at SJ should address NOS; what NOS-related content, skills and attitudes form the basis when aiming at SJ; and how school science can address NOS for SJ. Through a set of theoretical and empirical chapters, the authors suggest answers, but they also pose new questions on what NOS for SJ can mean, and what issues need to be taken into consideration in future research and practice. Chapter “Nature of Science for Social Justice: Why, What and How?” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com
This book is based on presentations at the International Science Education Conference (ISEC) 2014. It showcases a selection of the best papers by researchers and science teachers from the Asia-Pacific region, North America and the United Kingdom. Centered on the theme of “Pushing the boundaries – Investing in our future”, they pursue new ways of helping learners appreciate the diversity and changes in science that result from a globalised world facing complex and diverse environmental and technological issues. The chapters touch on various themes in science education that explore and investigate issues of scientific literacy, societal challenges and affect, and teacher professional development. Its comprehensive themes make it a valuable textbook for graduate students of master’s and Ph.D. programs. It also appeals to pre-service and in-service teachers as a resource on innovative pedagogical practices and creative methods of professional development. With a selection that emphasises the research-practice nexus in education research, it serves as an introductory handbook for teachers to connect with the current issues facing science education.
This book offers a comprehensive introduction to Nature of Science (NOS), one of the most important aspects of science teaching and learning, and includes tested strategies for teaching aspects of the NOS in a variety of instructional settings. In line with the recommendations in the field to include NOS in all plans for science instruction, the book provides an accessible resource of background information on NOS, rationales for teaching these targeted NOS aspects, and – most importantly – how to teach about the nature of science in specific instructional contexts. The first section examines the why and what of NOS, its nature, and what research says about how to teach NOS in science settings. The second section focuses on extending knowledge about NOS to question of scientific method, theory-laden observation, the role of experiments and observations and distinctions between science, engineering and technology. The dominant theme of the remainder of the book is a focus on teaching aspects of NOS applicable to a wide variety of instructional environments.
This edited volume brings forth intriguing, novel and innovative research in the field of science education. The chapters in the book deal with a wide variety of topics and research approaches, conducted in various contexts and settings, all adding a strong contribution to knowledge on science teaching and learning. The book is comprised of selected high-quality studies that were presented at the 11th European Science Education Research Association (ESERA) Conference, held in Helsinki, Finland from 31 August to 4 September, 2015. The ESERA science education research community consists of professionals with diverse disciplinary backgrounds from natural sciences to social sciences. This diversity provides a rich understanding of cognitive and affective aspects of science teaching and learning in this volume. The studies in this book will invoke discussion and ignite further interest in finding new ways of doing and researching science education for the future and looking fo r international partners for both science education and science education research. The twenty-five chapters showcase current orientations of research in science education and are of interest to science teachers, teacher educators and science education researchers around the world with a commitment to evidence-based and forward-looking science teaching and learning.
This book offers a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the epistemology of science. It not only introduces readers to the general epistemological discussion of the nature of knowledge, but also provides key insights into the particular nuances of scientific knowledge. No prior knowledge of philosophy or science is assumed by The Nature of Scientific Knowledge. Nevertheless, the reader is taken on a journey through several core concepts of epistemology and philosophy of science that not only explores the characteristics of the scientific knowledge of individuals but also the way that the development of scientific knowledge is a particularly social endeavor. The topics covered in this book are of keen interest to students of epistemology and philosophy of science as well as science educators interested in the nature of scientific knowledge. In fact, as a result of its clear and engaging approach to understanding scientific knowledge The Nature of Scientific Knowledge is a book that anyone interested in scientific knowledge, knowledge in general, and any of a myriad of related concepts would be well advised to study closely.
This book argues that modelling should be a component of all school curricula that aspire to provide ‘authentic science education for all’. The literature on modelling is reviewed and a ‘model of modelling’ is proposed. The conditions for the successful implementation of the ‘model of modelling’ in classrooms are explored and illustrated from practical experience. The roles of argumentation, visualisation, and analogical reasoning, in successful modelling-based teaching are reviewed. The contribution of such teaching to both the learning of key scientific concepts and an understanding of the nature of science are established. Approaches to the design of curricula that facilitate the progressive grasp of the knowledge and skills entailed in modelling are outlined. Recognising that the approach will both represent a substantial change from the ‘content-transmission’ approach to science teaching and be in accordance with current best-practice in science education, the design of suitable approaches to teacher education are discussed. Finally, the challenges that modelling-based education pose to science education researchers, advanced students of science education and curriculum design, teacher educators, public examiners, and textbook designers, are all outlined.
This book offers a comprehensive overview of research at interface between History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science (HPSS) and Science Teaching in Ibero-America. It contributes to research on contextualization of science for students, teachers and researchers, and explains how to use different episodes of history of science or different themes of philosophy of science in regular science classes through diverse pedagogical approaches. The chapters in this book discuss a wide range of topics under different methodological, epistemological and didactic approaches, reflecting the richness of research developed in Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries, Latin America, Spain and Portugal. The book contains chapters about historical events, topics of philosophy and sociology of science, nature of science, applications of HPSS in the classroom, instructional materials for students and teacher training courses and curriculum.
This book synthesizes theoretical perspectives, empirical evidence and practical strategies for improving teacher education in chemistry. Many chemistry lessons involve mindless “cookbook” activities where students and teachers follow recipes, memorise formulae and recall facts without understanding how and why knowledge in chemistry works. Capitalising on traditionally disparate areas of research, the book investigates how to make chemistry education more meaningful for both students and teachers. It provides an example of how theory and practice in chemistry education can be bridged. It reflects on the nature of knowledge in chemistry by referring to theoretical perspectives from philosophy of chemistry. It draws on empirical evidence from research on teacher education, and illustrates concrete strategies and resources that can be used by teacher educators. The book describes the design and implementation of an innovative teacher education project to show the impact of an intervention on pre-service teachers. The book shows how, by making use of visual representations and analogies, the project makes some fairly abstract and complex ideas accessible to pre-service teachers.
Reconceptualizing STEM Education explores and maps out research and development ideas and issues around five central practice themes: Systems Thinking; Model-Based Reasoning; Quantitative Reasoning; Equity, Epistemic, and Ethical Outcomes; and STEM Communication and Outreach. These themes are aligned with the comprehensive agenda for the reform of science and engineering education set out by the 2015 PISA Framework, the US Next Generation Science Standards and the US National Research Council’s A Framework for K-12 Science Education. The new practice-focused agenda has implications for the redesign of preK-12 education for alignment of curriculum-instruction-assessment; STEM teacher education and professional development; postsecondary, further, and graduate studies; and out-of-school informal education. In each section, experts set out powerful ideas followed by two eminent discussant responses that both respond to and provoke additional ideas from the lead papers. In the associated website highly distinguished, nationally recognized STEM education scholars and policymakers engage in deep conversations and considerations addressing core practices that guide STEM education.
