This text celebrates the fact that science-technology-society (STS) has come of age in schools. STS science reform has been nurtured worldwide by the political economics of science and technology today and by heightened public concern for an environment at risk. Reform means changing the orthodox teaching of science from a monolithic, socially sterile rhetoric of conclusions to a culturally relevant study of scientific facts and principles connected to the political, economic, technological and ethical realities of the communities where students live. This volume offers an internationally diverse collection by educational leaders, including Peter Fensham, David Layton, Hilary Rose, Herb Thier, Bill Williams and John Ziman. The book is divided into five parts. Part 1 describes the roots of STS education, clarifying the current debate between supporters of STS and those of traditional science teaching. Part 2 examines the pragmatic heart of STS, projects and programmes as they actually exist in classrooms. The authors of part 3 consider the cultural aspects of science education and argue that STS successfully addresses such problems as the public understanding of science in Western countries and the challenge of teaching science in non-Western communities. Part 4, "Gender Questions and STS", analyses the reasons women often feel alienated from existing "valid and neutral" science, and considers gender anomalies and enigmas both inside and outside the classroom. Part 5 gives emphasis to research into STS education by reviewing and critically discussing the research itself, as well as describing innovations where learning, teaching and researching form a coherent whole. This text should be useful for pre-service graduate courses in secondary science education and science curriculum design; secondary schools science educators; and professors and researchers of science education.

STS education : international perspectives on reform

The attrition of females studying physics after high school is a growing concern to the science education community. Most undergraduate science programs require introductory physics coursework. Thus, success in introductory physics is usually necessary for students to progress to higher levels of science study. Success also influences attitudes; if females are well prepared, feel confident, and do well in introductory physics, they may be inclined to study physics further. This quantitative study using a hierarchical linear model focused on determining factors from high school physics preparation (content, pedagogy, and assessment) and the affective domain that predicted female and male performance in introductory university physics. The data analyzed came from 1973 introductory university physics surveys that included variables used as controls for student demographic and academic background characteristics. The results highlight high school physics and affective experiences that differentially predicted female and male performance. These experiences include learning requirements, long-written problems, cumulative tests/quizzes, father's encouragement, and family's belief that science leads to a better career. There were also factors that had a similar effect on female and male performance among which mathematics preparation was the overall strongest predictor of university physics performance. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed91:847–876, 2007

Gender differences in introductory university physics performance: The influence of high school physics preparation and affective factors

This article presents findings from a study that (a) established a series of criteria for assessing the equity of gender representation in foreign language (FL) textbooks, (b) applied the criteria to a number of Russian-language textbooks in order to compare them on this basis as a case study, and (c) considered the criteria as a basis for the examination of gender representation in FL textbooks in general The study hypothesized that (a) a series of sound criteria would yield information concerning the equity of gender representation of textbooks examined and demonstrate that recent textbooks were more equitable than textbooks published 10 or 20 years ago, and that (b) textbooks written by women or by a team of authors including at least one woman would be more equitable in terms of gender representation than textbooks written only by men The analysis identifies areas of greatest inequity in gender representation by examining the data for each criterion across all the textbooks examined

Gender Representation in Foreign Language Textbooks: A Case Study of Textbooks of Russian

This paper is concerned with issues affecting equity in science education for girls and boys. In the paper the results of an investigation into the recently published (1998–2000) series of textbooks entitled Lower Secondary Science for Brunei Darussalam are presented. In the first part of the paper, background issues of continuing gender inequality in science education and of the nature and scope of textbook analyses are outlined. Then the representation of males and females in both illustrations and text in the Bruneian textbooks is discussed. From this analysis a picture emerges of the extent to which science is portrayed as a pursuit of equal appropriateness for both boys and girls. The paper concludes with a consideration of the implications of the findings presented within the wider context of gender and education in Brunei.

Science textbooks for lower secondary schools in Brunei: issues of gender equity

This paper considers the emotional impact of miscarriage and the support that is needed and/or offered after such an event. Use is made of primary and secondary data. The primary data was obtained using qualitative methods, that is, in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Gender differences are considered, but the main focus is on women's experience.

Geoffrey Walford

Papers

The masculine face of science