Pedagogy And The Practice Of Science

Studies examining the ways in which the training of engineers and scientists shapes their research strategies and scientific identities.

How Science Works provides student and practising teachers with a comprehensive introduction to one of the most dramatic changes to the secondary science curriculum. Underpinned by the latest research in the field, it explores the emergence and meaning of How Science Works and reviews major developments in pedagogy and practice. With chapters structured around three key themes - why How Science Works, what it is and how to teach it – expert contributors explore issues including the need for curriculum change, arguments for scientific literacy for all, school students’ views about science, what we understand about scientific methods, types of scientific enquiry, and, importantly, effective pedagogies and their implications for practice. Aiming to promote discussion and reflection on the ways forward for this new and emerging area of the school science curriculum, it considers: teaching controversial issues in science argumentation and questioning for effective teaching enhancing investigative science and developing reasoned scientific judgments the role of ICT in exploring How Science Works teaching science outside the classroom. How Science Works is a source of guidance for all student, new and experienced teachers of secondary science, interested in investigating how the curriculum can provide creativity and engagement for all school students.

How Science Works provides student and practising teachers with a comprehensive introduction to one of the most dramatic changes to the secondary science curriculum. Underpinned by the latest research in the field, it explores the emergence and meaning of How Science Works and reviews major developments in pedagogy and practice. With chapters structured around three key themes - why How Science Works, what it is and how to teach it – expert contributors explore issues including the need for curriculum change, arguments for scientific literacy for all, school students’ views about science, what we understand about scientific methods, types of scientific enquiry, and, importantly, effective pedagogies and their implications for practice. Aiming to promote discussion and reflection on the ways forward for this new and emerging area of the school science curriculum, it considers: teaching controversial issues in science argumentation and questioning for effective teaching enhancing investigative science and developing reasoned scientific judgments the role of ICT in exploring How Science Works teaching science outside the classroom. How Science Works is a source of guidance for all student, new and experienced teachers of secondary science, interested in investigating how the curriculum can provide creativity and engagement for all school students.

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.

In the science classroom, there are some ideas that are as difficult for young students to grasp as they are for teachers to explain. Forces, electricity, light, and basic astronomy are all examples of conceptual domains that come into this category. How should a teacher teach them? The authors of this monograph reject the traditional separation of subject and pedagogic knowledge. They believe that to develop effective teaching for meaningful learning in science, we must identify how teachers themselves interpret difficult ideas in science and, in particular, what supports their own learning in coming to a professional understanding of how to teach science concepts to young children. To do so, they analyzed trainee and practising teachers’ responses to engaging with difficult ideas when learning science in higher education settings. The text demonstrates how professional insight emerges as teachers identify the elements that supported their understanding during their own learning. In this paradigm, professional awareness derives from the practitioner interrogating their own learning and identifying implications for their teaching of science. The book draws on a significant body of critically analysed empirical evidence collated and documented over a five-year period involving large numbers of trainee and practising teachers. It concludes that it is essential to ‘problematize’ subject knowledge, both for learner and teacher. The book’s theoretical perspective draws on the field of cognitive psychology in learning. In particular, the role of metacognition and cognitive conflict in learning are examined and subsequently applied in a range of contexts. The work offers a unique and refreshing approach in addressing the important professional dimension of supporting teacher understanding of pedagogy and critically examines assumptions in contemporary debates about constructivism in science education.

This edited volume focuses on the reform and research of STEM education from international perspectives considering the sociocultural perspectives of different educational contexts. It shows the impact of political and cultural contexts on the reform of science education.

Expertise, Pedagogy and Practice takes as its focus recent work on situated and embodied cognition, the concepts of expertise, skill and practice, and contemporary pedagogical theory. This work has made important steps towards overcoming traditional intellectualist and individualist models of cognition, group interaction and learning, but has in turn generated a number of important questions about the shape of a model that emphasizes learning and interaction as situated and embodied. Bringing together philosophers, cognitive scientists and education theorists, the collection asks and explores a variety of different questions. Can a group learn? Is expertise distributed? How can we make sense of a normative dimension of expertise or skill? How situation-specific is expertise? How can groups shape or generate expert practice? Through these lenses, this collection advances a more experientially holistic approach to the characterisation and growth of human expertise. This book was originally published as a special issue of Educational Philosophy and Theory.

This book discusses how we can inspire today’s youth to engage in challenging and productive discussions around the past, present and future role of animals in science education. Animals play a large role in the sciences and science education and yet they remain one of the least visible topics in the educational literature. This book is intended to cultivate research topics, conversations, and dispositions for the ethical use of animals in science and education. This book explores the vital role of animals with/in science education, specimens, protected species, and other associated issues with regards to the role of animals in science. Topics explored include ethical, curriculum and pedagogical dimensions, involving invertebrates, engineering solutions that contribute to ecosystems, the experiences of animals under our care, aesthetic and contemplative practices alongside science, school-based ethical dialogue, nature study for promoting inquiry and sustainability, the challenge of whether animals need to be used for science whatsoever, reconceptualizing museum specimens, cultivating socioscientific issues and epistemic practice, cultural integrity and citizen science, the care and nurturance of gender-balanced curriculum choices for science education, and theoretical conversations around cultivating critical thinking skills and ethical dispositions. The diverse authors in this book take on the logic of domination and symbolic violence embodied within the scientific enterprise that has systematically subjugated animals and nature, and emboldened the anthropocentric and exploitative expressions for the future role of animals. At a time when animals are getting excluded from classrooms (too dangerous! too many allergies! too dirty!), this book is an important counterpoint. Interacting with animals helps students develop empathy, learn to care for living things, engage with content. We need more animals in the science curriculum, not less. David Sobel, Senior Faculty, Education Department, Antioch University New England