Showing papers on "Science, technology, society and environment education published in 1991"

A history of ideas in science education : implications for practice

Abstract: By allowing key scientists, researchers, professors, and classroom teachers of science to speak for themselves through their published writings about what is best and needed for the field, Dr DeBoer presents a fascinating account of the history of science education in the United States from the middle of the 19th century to the present. The book relates how science first struggled to find a place in the school curriculum and recounts the many debates over the years about what that curriculum should be. In fact, many of what we consider modern ideas in science education are not new at all but can be traced to writings on education of one hundred years ago. The book is aimed at all those interested in science education: classroom teachers and science education leaders concerned about the historical justification of the goals and strategies proposed for the field. The book should be enjoyed not only by the researcher but also by anyone curious about just how curriculum is decided upon and implemented on a national scale.

Knowledges in Context

Abstract: Our projects begin by exploring the relationships between "citizens" and "sources"between members and groups of the public and that diverse body of institutions, knowledges, and disciplinary specialists that we term science. We ask questions such as: What do people mean by science? Where do they turn for scientific information and advice? What motivates them to do so? How do they relate this information or advice to everyday experience and to other forms of knowledge? We focus on the diverse encounters with science and expertise that typify everyday experience, a central analytical issue being the construction of authority. Some important prior points must be emphasized:

High-Tech Fantasies: Science Parks in Society, Science and Space

Abstract: Science parks are becoming established in increasing numbers in almost all parts of the world. Promoted as places on the frontiers of science where a new breed of scientist-entrepreneur invents a new future, extolled as high-status workplaces where a new style of employee and flexible labour process is in the making, they are seen as the potential saviours of local and national economies. High-Tech Fantasies criticises the divisive hype of science parks arguing that both the theory and practice are unproductive for the economy and for any socially progressive science and technology. Questioning responsibility, innovation and symbolism, the authors explore the mutual determination of society, science and space.

Science in the national curriculum

Abstract: Science in context science and the mathematics curriculum science and English science and technology science and the humanities science and the creative arts science, the person and the environment science and equal opportunities Key Stage 5 science and post-16 education.

Science, Technology and Society

Abstract: Courses offered by the Program in Science, Technology, and Society are listed under the subject code STS on the ExploreCourses web site (https://explorecourses.stanford.edu/search? q=STS&view=catalog&page=0&academicYear=&filter-termAutumn=on&filter-term-Winter=on&filter-term-Spring=on&filterterm-Summer=on&collapse=&filter-departmentcode-STS=on&filtercatalognumber-STS=on&filter-coursestatus-Active=on&filtercatalognumber-STS=on).

Science education and philosophy of science: congruence or contradiction?

Abstract: In this paper, we examine the goals and methods of science education from the standpoint of recent trends in the philosophy of science. Specifically, we consider the implications for science curricula and instruction of new perspectives on scientific knowledge, on the nature of evidence, and on how knowledge changes. We argue that much of science education remains mired in outmoded positivist assumptions, and suggest specific ways in which science instruction can promote a more appropriate epistemological attitude and provide a more accurate sense of the scientific enterprise.

A method to quantify major themes of scientific literacy in science textbooks

Abstract: Science textbooks are frequently used to convey a great deal of the information that students receive in science courses. They influence how science teachers organize the curriculum and how students perceive the scientific enterprise. An overreliance on these teaching aids often results in an overemphasis on terminology and vocabulary, and presents a false impression of the nature of science. As a result of their importance, a method was developed to assess the curricular emphasis in science textbooks. The procedure is explained in a 25-page manual to train researchers to determine the relative emphasis that has been given to (a) science as a body of knowledge, (b) science as a way of investigating, (c) science as a way of thinking, and (d) the interaction among science, technology, and society. Textbooks in the areas of life science, earth science, physical science, biology, and chemistry were used in the analyses. Interrater agreements of at least 80% and kappas of at least 0.73 were achieved in the content analyses among two experienced researchers and one science teacher who were given the training manual to learn the assessment procedure.

Science Education and Praxis: the Relationship of School Science to Practical Action

Abstract: (1991). Science Education and Praxis: the Relationship of School Science to Practical Action. Studies in Science Education: Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 43-79.

A quantitative analysis of high school chemistry textbooks for scientific literacy themes and expository learning aids

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the content of seven high school chemistry textbooks for curriculum balance and emphasis on the following aspects of scientific literacy: (a) science as a body of knowledge, (b) science as a way of investigating, (c) science as a way of thinking, and (d) the interaction among science, technology, and society. In addition, the number of textbook pages, vocabulary terms, pictures, questions, and problems at the end of the chapter were determined. The textbook is an important teaching aid in high school chemistry courses, which conveys some of the information that students receive and influences how students perceive this subject. The majority of chemistry textbooks we analyzed stress science as a body of knowledge, place some emphasis on science as a way of investigating, have practically eliminated science as a way of thinking, and devote very little text to the interaction among science, technology, and society. Furthermore, these are voluminous books that range in length from 466 to 729 pages, with as many as 60 questions per chapter.

Newspaper science, school science: friends or enemies?

Abstract: Learning through newspapers is considered an instance of informal science learning ‐ an area of learning which is notoriously difficult to assess, and its relationship with formal learning hard to unravel. It is argued that the science presented in newspapers can be of value in formal science education if used carefully and critically. From the other perspective, it is suggested that one of the aims of the science curriculum should be to develop in students both the will and the ability to study newspaper science with understanding and with healthy scepticism.

Science and Technology in History: An Approach to Industrial Development

Abstract: Introduction - science, technology and economic development mental capital - transfers of knowledge in 18th-century Europe science and technology in the British industrial revolution the scientific enterprise - institutions and the diffusion of knowledge in the 19th century technology, economic backwardness and industrialization - general schema industrialization - winners and losers technology, economic backwardness and industrialization - the case of Japan science, technology and imperialism - India China and beyond centre and periphery - science and technology in America and Australia 20th-century aftermaths - science, technology and economic development

Integrating the history and nature of science and technology in science and social studies curriculum

Abstract: The decade of the 1980s was a period of pressure for and movement towards educational reform. During the early 1980s, numerous reports focused attention on the failure of education in general, and science and mathematics education in particular, to prepare American students for the 21st century. These efforts, in turn, influenced calls for reform in the fields of science and social studies education. Several trends have particular relevance for the teaching of the history and nature of science and technology. First, there is a push for the general improvement of scientific literacy. Second, there is a resurgence of interest in history instruction. And third, the trend toward the integration of sciencetechnology-society themes into contemporary school programs. Authors such as Bertrand Russell and C. P. Snow addressed the importance of understanding science and society connections in their books The Impact of Science on Society (Russell, 1951) and The Two Cultures (Snow, 1962). These insights, however, had little influence on school programs. The situation in which individuals neither perceive nor understand connections between science and society is partially due to the fact that we do not teach about those connections. Presenting students with the historical influences of science on society and society on science could help fulfill the goal of citizenship.

Earth Science Misconceptions.

Abstract: Students of all ages (including college students and adults) have difficulty understanding the causes of the seasons. Students may not be able to understand the relative size, motion, and distance of the sun and the earth. (Sadler, 1987; Vosniadou, 1991) The explanation of the seasons in terms of the tilt of the earth requires students to engage in fairly complex spatial reasoning. Many students before and after instructions in earth science think that winter is colder than summer because the earth is farther from the sun in winter (Atwood & Atwood, 1996; Dove, 1998; Phillips, 1991; Sadler, 1998).

Educating the inquiring mind: The challenge for school science

Abstract: Science education - what's the matter? Alice through the microscope - the experience of school science lab-land and the real world the nature of science proper the student as scientist what are we teaching science for? priorities and opportunities.

Public Understanding of Science

Abstract: [Editor's introduction: The following are excerpts from three talks given at the conference "Policies and Publics for Science and Technology, " London, April 1990. They introduce a British research...

Dimensions of Hands-on Science

Abstract: BIOLOGY teachers have been bombarded with information regarding the need for hands-on science. Articles directed to biology teachers have been written on the subject (Leonard 1988). A blue ribbon panel authored a recent book on reform in biology and included a large section on the role laboratory instruction should play in biology classrooms (Fulfilling the Promise: Biology Education in the Nation's Schools, 1990). Recently, a new twist has been added, and the topic is called Hands-on/Minds-on science. Part of a recent issue of the Kappan was devoted to this very issue (Gough 1990). Padilla (1980) stated that many texts and programs use the term hands-on quite freely in order to sell their programs without regard to its real meaning. Like many terms in educational practice, these terms are not often used with a standard definition that has one meaning for all practitioners. What then do these terms mean? Are they sufficiently comprehensive and meaningful for the science teacher to find useful? In the process of answering these questions, we propose a new organization that is more comprehensive and useful than previous descriptions. If effective lab instruction is a goal, then clarity of these terms is necessary. In general, hands-on science is defined as any science lab activity that allows the student to handle, manipulate or observe a scientific process. Hofstein and Lunetta (1982) defined hands-on science laboratory activities as "contrived learning experiences in which students interact with materials to observe phenomena" (pp. 201-202). Hands-on science lab activities may be differentiated from other common methods of instruction, such as lecture and demonstration, by the criterion that students interact with materials. According to Hofstein and Lunetta, lab activities do not include demonstrations, museum visits or diffused field trips. A minds-on science activity includes the use of higher order thinking, such as problem solving, to the hands-on activity. Recent calls have been made to reform hands-on laboratory instruction in secondary biology. A distinguished panel of biology educators iterated the fact that current modes of biology laboratory instructional strategies have failed to meet the goals of laboratory instruction (Fulfilling the Promise: Biology Education in the Nation's Schools, 1990). This panel recommended that hands-on lab activities should be capable of producing "conceptual changes necessary for intellectual development and understanding" (p. 37). Higher level cognitive skill development was also stressed by the panel. Weiss (1987) reported that the use of hands-on lab activities by secondary teachers has dropped from 59 percent in 1977 to 39 percent in 1985-86. Recent researchers who reviewed popular high school biology textbooks revealed that the written lab activities of these texts are not capable of meeting the laboratory goals of problem solving and higher level inquiry (Lumpe & Scharmann, in press). It is evident that a clearer picture of the biology laboratory is needed so that reforms may be effectively employed.

Towards a Clearer Understanding of Students' Ideas about Science and Technology: An Exploratory Study.

Abstract: Our knowledge of students’ ideas about science and scientists has mainly come from studies which have used the draw‐a‐scientist test. This study used an alternative procedure and obtained results which suggest that students know more than the draw‐a‐scientist test reveals. This procedure appears to be both valid and reliable and thus there is a need for caution in the interpretation of research findings based solely on the draw‐a‐scientist technique.

Why is science hard to learn

Abstract: This paper argues that science's reputation as a ‘hard’ subject can be attributed to four intrinsic features of science and/or learners: that science knowledge provides, for many learners, insufficient ‘pay off’ for the effort involved in understanding; that learning science involves reconstructions of meaning; that the tension between science as consensually agreed knowledge and science as enquiry is confusing and eventually alienating for many learners; and because science is abstract. The reasons for a link between abstraction and difficulty are briefly explored. It is suggested that certain extrinsic features of science education, resulting from choices by science educators, exacerbate these intrinsic difficulties.