Restructuring Science Education

Restructuring Science Education (1990)

by R A Duschl

Results 1 - 10 of 34

Enhancing the quality of argumentation in school science

by Jonathan Osborne, Sibel Erduran, Shirley Simon - Journal of Research in Science Teaching , 2004

"... The research reported in this paper focussed on the design of learning environments that support the teaching and learning of argumentation in a scientific context. The research took place over two years between 1999 and 2001 in junior high schools in the greater London area. The research was conduc ..."

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The research reported in this paper focussed on the design of learning environments that support the teaching and learning of argumentation in a scientific context. The research took place over two years between 1999 and 2001 in junior high schools in the greater London area. The research was conducted in two phases. In the first developmental phase, working with a group of 12 science teachers, the main emphasis was to develop sets of materials and strategies to support argumentation in the classroom and to assess teachers ‘ development with teaching argumentation. Data were collected by videoing and audio recording the teachers attempts to implement these lessons at the beginning and end of the year. During this phase, analytical tools for evaluating the quality of argumentation were developed based on Toulmin‘s argument pattern. Analysis of the data shows that there was significant development in the majority of teachers use of argumentation across the year. Results indicate that the pattern of use of argumentation is teacher specific, as is the nature of the change. In the second phase of the project, teachers taught the experimental groups a minimum of nine lessons which involved socioscientific or scientific argumentation. In addition, these teachers taught similar lessons to a control group at the beginning and end of the year. Here the emphasis lay on assessing the progression in student capabilities with argumentation. Hence data were collected from several lessons of two groups of students engaging in argumentation. Using a framework for evaluating the nature of the discourse and its quality, the findings show that there was an improvement in the quality of students ‘ argumentation. In addition, the research offers methodological developments for work in this field.

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Views on the nature of science questionnaire: Towards a valid and meaningful assessment of learners’ conceptions of the nature of science

by Norm G. Lederman, Fouad Abd-el-khalick, Y L. Bell, Renée S. Schwartz - Journal of Research in Science Teaching , 2000

"... Abstract: Helping students develop informed views of nature of science (NOS) has been and continues to be a central goal for kindergarten through Grade 12 (K–12) science education. Since the early 1960s, major efforts have been undertaken to enhance K–12 students and science teachers ’ NOS views. Ho ..."

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Abstract: Helping students develop informed views of nature of science (NOS) has been and continues to be a central goal for kindergarten through Grade 12 (K–12) science education. Since the early 1960s, major efforts have been undertaken to enhance K–12 students and science teachers ’ NOS views. However, the crucial component of assessing learners ’ NOS views remains an issue in research on NOS. This article aims to (a) trace the development of a new open-ended instrument, the Views of Nature of Science Questionnaire (VNOS), which in conjunction with individual interviews aims to provide meaning-ful assessments of learners ’ NOS views; (b) outline the NOS framework that underlies the development of the VNOS; (c) present evidence regarding the validity of the VNOS; (d) elucidate the use of the VNOS and associated interviews, and the range of NOS aspects that it aims to assess; and (e) discuss the usefulness of rich descriptive NOS profiles that the VNOS provides in research related to teaching and learning about NOS. The VNOS comes in response to some calls within the science education community to go back to developing standardized forced-choice paper and pencil NOS assessment instruments designed for mass administrations to large samples. We believe that these calls ignore much of what was learned from research on teaching and learning about NOS over the past 30 years. The present state of this line of research

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The influence of history of science courses on students’ conceptions of the nature of science. Unpublished doctoral dissertation

by Fouad Abd-el-khalick, Norman G. Lederman , 1998

"... Abstract: This study (a) assessed the influence of three history of science (HOS) courses on college students ’ and preservice science teachers ’ conceptions of nature of science (NOS), (b) examined whether participants who entered the investigated courses with a conceptual framework consistent with ..."

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Abstract: This study (a) assessed the influence of three history of science (HOS) courses on college students ’ and preservice science teachers ’ conceptions of nature of science (NOS), (b) examined whether participants who entered the investigated courses with a conceptual framework consistent with contemporary NOS views achieved more elaborate NOS understandings, and (c) explored the aspects of the participant HOS courses that rendered them more ‘‘effective’ ’ in influencing students ’ views. Participants were 166 undergraduate and graduate students and 15 preservice secondary science teachers. An open-ended questionnaire in conjunction with individual interviews, was used to assess participants’ pre- and postinstruction NOS views. Almost all participants held inadequate views of several NOS aspects at the outset of the study. Very few and limited changes in participants ’ views were evident at the conclusion of the courses. Change was evident in the views of relatively more participants, especially preservice science teachers, who entered the HOS courses with frameworks that were somewhat consistent with current NOS views. Moreover, explicitly addressing certain NOS aspects rendered the HOS courses relatively more effective in enhancing participants ’ NOS views. The results of this study do not lend empirical support to the intuitively appealing assumption held by many science educators that coursework in HOS will necessarily enhance students ’ and preservice science teachers ’ NOS views. However, explicitly

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2000: Influence of a reflective explicit activity-based approach on elementary teachers’ conceptions of nature of science

by Valarie L. Akerson, Fouad Abd-el-khalick, Norman G. Lederman - Journal of Research in Science Teaching

"... Abstract: This study assessed the influence of a reflective, explicit, activity-based approach to nature of science (NOS) instruction undertaken in the context of an elementary science methods course on pre-service teachers ’ views of some aspects of NOS. These aspects included the empirical, tentat ..."

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Abstract: This study assessed the influence of a reflective, explicit, activity-based approach to nature of science (NOS) instruction undertaken in the context of an elementary science methods course on pre-service teachers ’ views of some aspects of NOS. These aspects included the empirical, tentative, subjec-tive (theory-laden), imaginative and creative, and social and cultural NOS. Two additional aspects were the distinction between observation and inference, and the functions of and relationship between scientif-ic theories and laws. Participants were 25 undergraduate and 25 graduate preservice elementary teachers enrolled in two sections of the investigated course. An open-ended NOS questionnaire coupled with indi-vidual interviews was used to assess participants ’ NOS views before and at the conclusion of the course. The majority of participants held naive views of the target NOS aspects at the beginning of the study. Dur-ing the first week of class, participants were engaged in specially designed activities that were coupled with explicit NOS instruction. Throughout the remainder of the course, participants were provided with structured opportunities to reflect on their views of the target NOS aspects. Postinstruction assessments in-dicated that participants made substantial gains in their views of some of the target NOS aspects. Less sub-stantial gains were evident in the case of the subjective, and social and cultural NOS. The results of the present study support the effectiveness of explicit, reflective NOS instruction. Such instruction, nonethe-

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Placing the history and philosophy of science on the curriculum: A model for the development of pedagogy

by Martin Monk, Jonathan Osborne - Science Education , 1997

"... ABSTRACT: This article focuses on two of the principal issues for science curriculum developers who wish to introduce the history and philosophy of science into the teaching of science—the jus-tification for, and the placement of, historical materials within teachers ’ schemes of work. First, it is ..."

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ABSTRACT: This article focuses on two of the principal issues for science curriculum developers who wish to introduce the history and philosophy of science into the teaching of science—the jus-tification for, and the placement of, historical materials within teachers ’ schemes of work. First, it is argued that the history and philosophy of science must have a rationale that is integral to, and con-sistent with, teachers ’ main aims to have any chance of being considered for inclusion in a program of study. Second, the justification must point to places in schemes of work where the inclusion of history of science will directly contribute to students learning of science concepts and satisfy that principal objective. A new model for the inclusion of such material is proposed that directly ad-dresses both children’s alternative frameworks and the historical and sociocultural context of the discovery. It is argued that this model offers potential for improved learning of the concepts of sci-

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Defining versus describing the nature of science: A pragmatic analysis for classroom teachers and science educators

by Mike U. Smith, Lawrence C. Scharmann - Science Education , 1999

"... ABSTRACT: There appears to be an almost universal commitment among science educators to promote the goal of student understanding of the nature of science. Recent disagreements among philosophers of science and between philosophers and other groups such as scientists and science educators about the ..."

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ABSTRACT: There appears to be an almost universal commitment among science educators to promote the goal of student understanding of the nature of science. Recent disagreements among philosophers of science and between philosophers and other groups such as scientists and science educators about the nature of science, however, leave classroom teachers in a quandry: If experts disagree about the nature of science, how should we decide what to teach students? In this article, the authors first reconsider what level of understanding of the nature of science students should experience so that they can become both intelligent consumers of scientific information and effective local and global citizens. Second, based on an analysis of the literature, it appears that there is a general agreement among science education stakeholders regarding a set of descriptors that can be used to judge which questions or fields of study are more scientific or less scientific than others. Therefore, we propose that most precollege teachers should attempt to teach students how to use these descriptors to judge the relative merits of knowledge claims instead of teaching a set of rules that attempt to demarcate science completely from nonscience. Finally, we suggest two classroom activities based on this proposal and draw some implications for

Teaching students "Ideas-aboutscience": Five dimensions of effective practice

by Hannah Bartholomew, Jonathan Osborne, Mary Ratcliffe - Science Education , 2004

"... ABSTRACT: In this paper, we report work undertaken with a group of 11 UK teachers over a period of a year to teach aspects of the nature of science, its process, and its practices. The teachers, who taught science in a mix of elementary, junior high, and high schools, were asked to teach a set of “i ..."

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ABSTRACT: In this paper, we report work undertaken with a group of 11 UK teachers over a period of a year to teach aspects of the nature of science, its process, and its practices. The teachers, who taught science in a mix of elementary, junior high, and high schools, were asked to teach a set of “ideas-about-science ” for which consensual support had been established using a Delphi study in the first phase of the project. Data were collected through field notes, videos of the teachers ’ lessons, teachers ’ reflective diaries, and instruments that measured their understanding of the nature of science and their views on the role and value of discussion in the classroom. In this paper, drawing on a sample of the data we explore the factors that afforded or inhibited the teachers ’ pedagogic performance in this domain. Using these data, we argue that there are five critical dimensions that distinguish and determine a teacher’s ability to teach effectively about science. Whilst these dimensions are neither mutually independent nor equally important, they serve as a valuable analytical tool for evaluating and explaining the success, or otherwise, that individual teachers of science have when confronted with teaching aspects about science. In addition, we argue that they are an important means of identifying salient aspects of pedagogy for initial and in-service train-