Science Education in a Secular Age

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Long, David E.

2013-01-01

A college science education instructor tells his students he rejects evolution. What should we think? The scene unfolds in one of the largest urban centers in the world. If we are surprised, why? Expanding on Federica Raia's (2012) first-hand experience with this scenario, I broaden her discussion by considering the complexity of science education…

A Longitudinal Study of Implementing Reality Pedagogy in an Urban Science Classroom: Effects, Challenges, and Recommendations for Science Teaching and Learning

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Borges, Sheila Ivelisse

Statistics indicate that students who reside in forgotten places do not engage in science-related careers. This is problematic because we are not tapping into diverse talent that could very well make scientific strides and because there is a moral obligation for equity as discussed in Science for all (AAAS, 1989). Research suggests that one of the reasons for this disparity is that students feel alienated from science early on in their K--12 education due to their inability to connect culturally with their teachers (Tobin, 2001). Urban students share an urban culture, a way of knowing and being that is separate from that of the majority of the teacher workforce whom have not experienced the nuances of urban culture. These teachers have challenges when teaching in urban classrooms and have a myriad of difficulties such as classroom management, limited access to experienced science colleagues and limited resources to teach effectively. This leads them to leaving the teaching profession affecting already high teacher attrition rates in urban areas (Ingersol, 2001). In order to address these issues a culturally relevant pedagogy, called reality pedagogy (Emdin, 2011), was implemented in an urban science classroom using a bricolage (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005) of different theories such as social capital (Bourdieu, 1986) and critical race theory (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995), along with reality pedagogy to construct a qualitative sociocultural lens. Reality pedagogy has five tools, which are cogenerative dialogues, coteaching, cosmopolitanism, context, and content. In this longitudinal critical ethnography a science teacher in an alternative teaching certification program was supported for two years as she implemented the tools of reality pedagogy with her urban students. Findings revealed that the science teacher enacted four racial microaggressions against her students, which negatively affected the teacher-student relationship and science teaching and learning. As the

Urban fifth graders' connections-making between formal earth science content and their lived experiences

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Brkich, Katie Lynn

2014-03-01

Earth science education, as it is traditionally taught, involves presenting concepts such as weathering, erosion, and deposition using relatively well-known examples—the Grand Canyon, beach erosion, and others. However, these examples—which resonate well with middle- and upper-class students—ill-serve students of poverty attending urban schools who may have never traveled farther from home than the corner store. In this paper, I explore the use of a place-based educational framework in teaching earth science concepts to urban fifth graders and explore the connections they make between formal earth science content and their lived experiences using participant-driven photo elicitation techniques. I argue that students are able to gain a sounder understanding of earth science concepts when they are able to make direct observations between the content and their lived experiences and that when such direct observations are impossible they make analogies of appearance, structure, and response to make sense of the content. I discuss additionally the importance of expanding earth science instruction to include man-made materials, as these materials are excluded traditionally from the curriculum yet are most immediately available to urban students for examination.

The ethics of smart cities and urban science.

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Kitchin, Rob

2016-12-28

Software-enabled technologies and urban big data have become essential to the functioning of cities. Consequently, urban operational governance and city services are becoming highly responsive to a form of data-driven urbanism that is the key mode of production for smart cities. At the heart of data-driven urbanism is a computational understanding of city systems that reduces urban life to logic and calculative rules and procedures, which is underpinned by an instrumental rationality and realist epistemology. This rationality and epistemology are informed by and sustains urban science and urban informatics, which seek to make cities more knowable and controllable. This paper examines the forms, practices and ethics of smart cities and urban science, paying particular attention to: instrumental rationality and realist epistemology; privacy, datafication, dataveillance and geosurveillance; and data uses, such as social sorting and anticipatory governance. It argues that smart city initiatives and urban science need to be re-cast in three ways: a re-orientation in how cities are conceived; a reconfiguring of the underlying epistemology to openly recognize the contingent and relational nature of urban systems, processes and science; and the adoption of ethical principles designed to realize benefits of smart cities and urban science while reducing pernicious effects.This article is part of the themed issue 'The ethical impact of data science'. © 2016 The Author(s).

Preparing students for higher education and careers in agriculture and related fields: An ethnography of an urban charter school

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Henry, Kesha Atasha

This study explored the preparation of students for higher education and careers in agriculturally-related fields at an urban charter high school. The data were collected through interviews, observations, and field notes. The data were analyzed by qualitative methodology with phenomenology as the theoretical framework. Findings indicated that administrators thought it was important to incorporate agricultural science courses into urban school curricula. They stated that agricultural science courses gave urban students a different way of looking at science and helped to enhance the science and technology focus of the school. Further, agricultural science courses helped to break urban students' stereotypes about agriculture and helped to bring in more state funding for educational programs. However they thought that it was more challenging to teach agricultural science in urban versus rural schools and they focused more on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) related careers. The students had mixed views about higher education and careers in agriculture. This was based on their limited knowledge and stereotypes about agricultural majors and career options. The students highlighted several key reasons why they chose to enroll in agricultural science courses. This included the benefits of dual science credits and the ability to earn an associate degree upon successful completion of their program. Students also loved science and appreciated the science intensive nature of the agricultural courses. Additionally, they thought that the agricultural science courses were better than the other optional courses. The results also showed that electronic media such as radio and TV had a negative impact on students' perceptions about higher education and careers in agriculturally-related fields. Conclusions and recommendations are presented.

Regaining the Edge in Urban Education: Mathematics and Sciences.

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Gallon, Dennis P., Ed.

In order to remain competitive in the world economy, the United States must develop and improve mathematics and science education. Given that the future workforce in this country will be comprised largely of women and minorities, groups traditionally not entering mathematics and science careers, special recruitment and retention efforts must be…

Ivestigating Earth Science in Urban Schoolyards

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Endreny, Anna; Siegel, Donald I.

2009-01-01

The Urban Schoolyards project is a two year partnership with a university Earth Science Department and the surrounding urban elementary schools. The goal of the project was to develop the capacity of elementary teachers to teach earth science lessons using their schoolyards and local parks as field sites. The university personnel developed lessons…

Rural/Urban Disparities in Science Achievement In Post-Socialist Countries: The Evolving Influence of Socioeconomic Status

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Erica L. Kryst

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Disparities in educational outcomes exist between students in rural areas as compared to students in urban settings. While there is some evidence that these rural disparities are present in eastern Europe, little is known about young peoples’ lives in the rural areas of this region. This paper presents an analysis of science achievement by location (rural v. urban using all available waves of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS. We examined the eighth grade data from five countries: Lithuania, Romania, the Russian Federation, Hungary, and Slovenia. Findings demonstrated that students attending rural schools had significantly lower science scores and that the rural disadvantage grew between 1995 and 2011 in some countries, but became non-significant in others. Overall, family socioeconomic status played an important role in determining the educational outcomes of rural students. The implications of these findings are explored in relation to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO 2015 Education for All goals.

Learning to teach science for social justice in urban schools

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Vora, Purvi

This study looks at how beginner teachers learn to teach science for social justice in urban schools. The research questions are: (1) what views do beginner teachers hold about teaching science for social justice in urban schools? (2) How do beginner teachers' views about teaching science for social justice develop as part of their learning? In looking at teacher learning, I take a situative perspective that defines learning as increased participation in a community of practice. I use the case study methodology with five teacher participants as the individual units of analysis. In measuring participation, I draw from mathematics education literature that offers three domains of professional practice: Content, pedagogy and professional identity. In addition, I focus on agency as an important component of increased participation from a social justice perspective. My findings reveal two main tensions that arose as teachers considered what it meant to teach science from a social justice perspective: (1) Culturally responsive teaching vs. "real" science and (2) Teaching science as a political act. In negotiating these tensions, teachers drew on a variety of pedagogical and conceptual tools offered in USE that focused on issues of equity, access, place-based pedagogy, student agency, ownership and culture as a toolkit. Further, in looking at how the five participants negotiated these tensions in practice, I describe four variables that either afforded or constrained teacher agency and consequently the development of their own identity and role as socially just educators. These four variables are: (1) Accessing and activating social, human and cultural capital, (2) reconceptualizing culturally responsive pedagogical tools, (3) views of urban youth and (4) context of participation. This study has implications for understanding the dialectical relationship between agency and social justice identity for beginner teachers who are learning how to teach for social justice. Also

Urban special education policy and the lived experience of stigma in a high school science classroom

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Hale, Chris

2015-12-01

In this paper, I provide a window into the lived experience of a group of urban high school science students confronted with the stigma associated with special education, disability, and academic failure and present tools to understanding the ideological forces and institutional structures that undermine the ability of schools to create a culture of care and inclusion of children with disabilities. With the purpose of understanding the context of these students' tainted social status within the school community, I draw connections between the ideological bipolarity and ambiguity of federal and state special education law and the lack of moral commitment at the local level to including and protecting the rights of children with disabilities in New York City schools. An important element of this paper is an exploration of a decade of neoliberal reform in the New York City Department of Education and the meticulously documented failure of New York City's special education system to provide mandated services, adequately include special education students, and generally protect the rights of children with disabilities. I conclude that the ableism embedded in special education law and a lack of meaningful enforcement renders special education regulations intangible to administrators whereas neoliberal performance benchmarks are extremely salient due to the dire consequences for schools of not meeting them.

Potentialities beyond deficit perspectives: globalization, culture and urban science education in the Bronx

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Pitts, Wesley

2011-03-01

The major focus of this ethnographic study is devoted to exploring the confluence of global and local referents of science education in the context of an urban chemistry laboratory classroom taught by a first-generation Filipino-American male teacher. This study investigates encounters between the teacher and four second-generation immigrant female students of color, as well as encounters among the four students. The pervasive spread of neoliberal ideology of accountability and sanctions both globally and locally, particularly in public high schools in the Bronx, New York City fuel situations for teaching and learning science that are encoded with the referents of top-down control. In the face of theses challenges, classroom participants must become aware of productive ways to build solidarity and interstitial culture across salient social boundaries, such as age, gender, ethnicity and role, to create and sustain successful teaching and learning of chemistry. Empirical evidence for solidarity was guided by physical and verbal displays of synchrony, mutual focus, entrainment, and emotional energy, body gestures, and prosody markers. This study shows that classroom participants used a combination of prosody markers to appropriate resources to decrease breaches in face-to-face encounters and, at the same time, create and sustain participation and solidarity to successfully complete an acid-base experiment.

Urban School Leadership for Elementary Science Education: Meeting the Needs of English Language Learners

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Alarcon, Maricela H.

2012-01-01

Science education reform and state testing accountability call upon principals to become instructional leaders in science. Specifically, elementary school principals must take an active role in science instruction to effectively improve science education for all students including English Language Learners. As such, the research questioned posed…

Moving Towards a New Urban Systems Science

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Peter M. Groffman; Mary L. Cadenasso; Jeannine Cavender-Bares; Daniel L. Childers; Nancy B. Grimm; Morgan Grove; Sarah E. Hobbie; Lucy R. Hutyra; G. Darrel Jenerette; Timon McPhearson; Diane E. Pataki; Steward T. A. Pickett; Richard V. Pouyat; Emma Rosi-Marshall; Benjamin L. Ruddell

2016-01-01

Research on urban ecosystems rapidly expanded in the 1990s and is now a central topic in ecosystem science. In this paper, we argue that there are two critical challenges for ecosystem science that are rooted in urban ecosystems: (1) predicting or explaining the assembly and function of novel communities and ecosystems under altered environmental conditions and (2)...

Urban school leadership for elementary science education: Meeting the needs of English Language Learners

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Alarcon, Maricela H.

Science education reform and state testing accountability call upon principals to become instructional leaders in science. Specifically, elementary school principals must take an active role in science instruction to effectively improve science education for all students including English Language Learners. As such, the research questioned posed in this study centered on How are elementary school principals addressing the academic needs of Latino Spanish-speaking English language learners within science education? This study employed a qualitative research design to identify the factors contributing to the exemplary performance in science, as measured by the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS), for English Language Learner students in three high poverty bilingual elementary schools based on a multiple case study. As part of the data collection process, interviews were conducted with three school principals, three science academic support teachers, and two 5th grade bilingual teachers. Additionally, observations were acquired through school principal shadowing. The findings revealed four attributes necessary for effective instructional leadership in science education. First, Positive School Culture was defined as the core that linked the other three instructional leadership attributes and thus increased their effectiveness. Second, Clear Goals and Expectations were set by making science a priority and ensuring that English language learners were transitioning from Spanish to English instruction by the fifth grade. Third, Critical Resourcing involved hiring a science academic support teacher, securing a science classroom on campus, and purchasing bilingual instructional materials. Fourth, principal led and supported Collaboration in which teachers met to discuss student performance based data in addition to curriculum and instruction. These research findings are vital because by implementing these best practices of elementary school principals, educators

Urban Morphometrics: Towards a Science of Urban Evolution

OpenAIRE

Dibble, Jacob; Prelorendjos, Alexios; Romice, Ombretta; Zanella, Mattia; Strano, Emanuele; Pagel, Mark; Porta, Sergio

2015-01-01

Urban theorists, social reformists and philosophers have considered the city as a living organism since Plato. However, despite extraordinary advancements in evolutionary biology, now being used to explain social and cultural phenomena, a proper science of evolution in cities has never been established since Geddes' work at the dawn of the Town Planning discipline. Commencing in the tradition of Urban Morphology, this research develops and validates a statistically reliable and universally ap...

Science Education for Empowerment and Social Change: A Case Study of a Teacher Educator in Urban Pakistan.

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Zahur, Rubina; Barton, Angela Calabrese; Upadhyay, Bhaskar Raj

2002-01-01

Discusses the purpose of science education for children of the very poor classes in caste-oriented developing countries such as Pakistan. Presents a case study of one teacher educator whose beliefs and practices sharply deviated from the norm--she believes that science education ought to be about empowering students to make physical and political…

Science education for empowerment and social change: a case study of a teacher educator in urban Pakistan

Science.gov (United States)

Zahur, Rubina; Calabrese Barton, Angela; Upadhyay, Bhaskar Raj

2002-09-01

In this manuscript we focus on the question, 'What should be the purpose of science education for children of the very poor class in caste-oriented developing countries such as Pakistan?' In other words, in a country where the literacy rate hovers around 10 per cent for the poorest segment of society and where there is no expectation that children will complete primary school, of what importance is primary science education and to what end should it be offered in schools? We begin a conversation around this question by presenting, in this manuscript, a case study of one teacher educator whose beliefs and practices sharply deviate from the norm - she believes science education ought to be about empowering students to make physical and political changes in their community. In particular, using the rich, contextual interview and observational data generated through case study, we show how Haleema's (pseudonym) orientation to science teacher education are buttressed by three fundamental beliefs: that low levels of literacy and school achievement among poor children have as much to do with poor families' lack of power/influence on the purposes and processes of schooling as it has to do with opportunities and resources; that school science can begin to address inequalities in power by fostering a kind of scientific literacy among children that leads to individual and community empowerment around health and environmental issues, the very science-related issues that divide quality of life and opportunity for poor families; and that teacher education programmes can play a role in transforming a society's views about how science and scientific practices might play a role in bringing communities together to effect change for the better.

Supporting new science teachers in pursuing socially just science education

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Ruggirello, Rachel; Flohr, Linda

2017-10-01

This forum explores contradictions that arose within the partnership between Teach for America (TFA) and a university teacher education program. TFA is an alternate route teacher preparation program that places individuals into K-12 classrooms in low-income school districts after participating in an intense summer training program and provides them with ongoing support. This forum is a conversation about the challenges we faced as new science teachers in the TFA program and in the Peace Corps program. We both entered the teaching field with science degrees and very little formal education in science education. In these programs we worked in a community very different from the one we had experienced as students. These experiences allow us to address many of the issues that were discussed in the original paper, namely teaching in an unfamiliar community amid challenges that many teachers face in the first few years of teaching. We consider how these challenges may be amplified for teachers who come to teaching through an alternate route and may not have as much pedagogical training as a more traditional teacher education program provides. The forum expands on the ideas presented in the original paper to consider the importance of perspectives on socially just science education. There is often a disconnect between what is taught in teacher education programs and what teachers actually experience in urban classrooms and this can be amplified when the training received through alternate route provides a different framework as well. This forum urges universities and alternate route programs to continue to find ways to authentically partner using practical strategies that bring together the philosophies and goals of all stakeholders in order to better prepare teachers to partner with their students to achieve their science learning goals.

Globalisation and science education: Rethinking science education reforms

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Carter, Lyn

2005-05-01

Like Lemke (J Res Sci Teach 38:296-316, 2001), I believe that science education has not looked enough at the impact of the changing theoretical and global landscape by which it is produced and shaped. Lemke makes a sound argument for science education to look beyond its own discourses toward those like cultural studies and politics, and to which I would add globalisation theory and relevant educational studies. Hence, in this study I draw together a range of investigations to argue that globalisation is indeed implicated in the discourses of science education, even if it remains underacknowledged and undertheorized. Establishing this relationship is important because it provides different frames of reference from which to investigate many of science education's current concerns, including those new forces that now have a direct impact on science classrooms. For example, one important question to investigate is the degree to which current science education improvement discourses are the consequences of quality research into science teaching and learning, or represent national and local responses to global economic restructuring and the imperatives of the supranational institutions that are largely beyond the control of science education. Developing globalisation as a theoretical construct to help formulate new questions and methods to examine these questions can provide science education with opportunities to expand the conceptual and analytical frameworks of much of its present and future scholarship.

Urban school leadership for elementary science instruction: Identifying and activating resources in an undervalued school subject

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Spillane, James P.; Diamond, John B.; Walker, Lisa J.; Halverson, Rich; Jita, Loyiso

2001-10-01

This article explores school leadership for elementary school science teaching in an urban setting. We examine how school leaders bring resources together to enhance science instruction when there appear to be relatively few resources available for it. From our study of 13 Chicago elementary (K-8) schools' efforts to lead instructional change in mathematics, language arts, and science education, we show how resources for leading instruction are unequally distributed across subject areas. We also explore how over time leaders in one school successfully identified and activated resources for leading change in science education. The result has been a steady, although not always certain, development of science as an instructional area in the school. We argue that leading change in science education involves the identification and activation of material resources, the development of teachers' and school leaders' human capital, and the development and use of social capital.

An Examination of Black Science Teacher Educators' Experiences with Multicultural Education, Equity, and Social Justice

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Atwater, Mary M.; Butler, Malcolm B.; Freeman, Tonjua B.; Carlton Parsons, Eileen R.

2013-12-01

Diversity, multicultural education, equity, and social justice are dominant themes in cultural studies (Hall in Cultural dialogues in cultural studies. Routledge, New York, pp 261-274, 1996; Wallace 1994). Zeichner (Studying teacher education: The report of the AERA panel on research and teacher education. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, pp 737-759, 2005) called for research studies of teacher educators because little research exists on teacher educators since the late 1980s. Thomson et al. (2001) identified essential elements needed in order for critical multiculturalism to be infused in teacher education programs. However, little is known about the commitment and experiences of science teacher educators infusing multicultural education, equity, and social justice into science teacher education programs. This paper examines twenty (20) Black science teacher educators' teaching experiences as a result of their Blackness and the inclusion of multicultural education, equity, and social justice in their teaching. This qualitative case study of 20 Black science teacher educators found that some of them have attempted and stopped due to student evaluations and the need to gain promotion and tenure. Other participants were able to integrate diversity, multicultural education, equity and social justice in their courses because their colleagues were supportive. Still others continue to struggle with this infusion without the support of their colleagues, and others have stopped The investigators suggest that if science teacher educators are going to prepare science teachers for the twenty first century, then teacher candidates must be challenged to grapple with racial, ethnic, cultural, instructional, and curricular issues and what that must mean to teach science to US students in rural, urban, and suburban school contexts.

Highly qualified does not equal high quality: A study of urban stakeholders' perceptions of quality in science teaching

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Miranda, Rommel Joseph

teaching and often failed to display the characteristics which urban stakeholders hold as evidence of high quality in science teaching. Thus, the criteria for "highly qualified" prescribed by policy makers and politicians do not necessarily translate into effective science teaching in urban settings. These findings emphasize the importance of stakeholder involvement in the design of educational reform initiatives.

Bridging Theory and Practice: Using Hip-Hop Pedagogy as a Culturally Relevant Approach in the Urban Science Classroom

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Adjapong, Edmund S.

2017-01-01

This dissertation explores the context of urban science education as it relates to the achievement and engagement of urban youth. This study provides a framework for Hip-Hop Pedagogy, an approach to teaching and learning anchored in the creative elements of Hip-Hop culture, in STEM as an innovative approach to teaching and learning demonstrates…

Differences between urban and rural hedges in England revealed by a citizen science project.

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Gosling, Laura; Sparks, Tim H; Araya, Yoseph; Harvey, Martin; Ansine, Janice

2016-07-22

Hedges are both ecologically and culturally important and are a distinctive feature of the British landscape. However the overall length of hedges across Great Britain is decreasing. Current challenges in studying hedges relate to the dominance of research on rural, as opposed to urban, hedges, and their variability and geographical breadth. To help address these challenges and to educate the public on the importance of hedge habitats for wildlife, in 2010 the Open Air Laboratories (OPAL) programme coordinated a hedge-focused citizen science survey. Results from 2891 surveys were analysed. Woody plant species differed significantly between urban and rural areas. Beech, Holly, Ivy, Laurel, Privet and Yew were more commonly recorded in urban hedges whereas Blackthorn, Bramble, Dog Rose, Elder and Hawthorn were recorded more often in rural hedges. Urban and rural differences were shown for some groups of invertebrates. Ants, earwigs and shieldbugs were recorded more frequently in urban hedges whereas blowflies, caterpillars, harvestmen, other beetles, spiders and weevils were recorded more frequently in rural hedges. Spiders were the most frequently recorded invertebrate across all surveys. The presence of hard surfaces adjacent to the hedge was influential on hedge structure, number and diversity of plant species, amount of food available for wildlife and invertebrate number and diversity. In urban hedges with one adjacent hard surface, the food available for wildlife was significantly reduced and in rural hedges, one adjacent hard surface affected the diversity of invertebrates. This research highlights that urban hedges may be important habitats for wildlife and that hard surfaces may have an impact on both the number and diversity of plant species and the number and diversity of invertebrates. This study demonstrates that citizen science programmes that focus on hedge surveillance can work and have the added benefit of educating the public on the importance of

The nature of culturally responsive pedagogy in two urban African American middle school science classrooms

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Bondima, Michelle Harris

This ethnographic in nature study explores how two middle school science teachers who have classes populated by urban African Americans teach their students and how their students perceive their teaching. Since urban African American students continue to perform lower than desired on measures of science achievement, there is an urgent need to understand what pedagogical methodologies assist and hinder urban African American students in achieving higher levels of success in science. A pedagogical methodology that theorists posit assists subordinated school populations is culturally responsive pedagogy. Culturally responsive pedagogy is defined as a teaching methodology concerned with preparing students to question inequality, racism, and injustice. Teachers who use culturally responsive pedagogy respect the culture students bring to the class, and require that the teachers willingly do whatever is necessary to educate students (Nieto, 2000). The teacher participants were two female African Americans who were identified by their school supervisors as being highly effective with urban African American students. The researcher presented the teachers in separate case studies conducted over a data collection period of nine months. Data were collected by participant observation, interviews, and artifact collection. Data were analyzed by application of grounded theory techniques. Findings of the teachers' (and the students') beliefs about pedagogy that both assisted and hindered the students' performance in science were reported in a rich and nuanced storytelling manner based on multiple perspectives (teachers', students', and the researcher's). Pedagogical methodologies that the teachers used that assisted their students were the use of cultural metaphors and images in science and applications of motivational techniques that encouraged a nurturing relationship between the teacher and her students. Pedagogical methodologies that hindered students varied by teacher

Bridging Theory and Practice: Using Hip-Hop Pedagogy As A Culturally Relevant Approach In The Urban Science Classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Adjapong, Edmund S.

This dissertation explores the context of urban science education as it relates to the achievement and engagement of urban youth. This study provides a framework for Hip-Hop Pedagogy, an approach to teaching and learning anchored in the creative elements of Hip-Hop culture, in STEM as an innovative approach to teaching and learning demonstrates the effect that Hip-Hop Pedagogy, as a culturally relevant approach to teaching has on teaching and learning in an urban science classroom. This study establishes practical tools and approaches, which were formed from by theory and research that transcend the traditional monolithic approaches to teaching science. Participants in this study are middle school students who attend an urban school in one of the largest school systems in the country. This research showed that as result of utilizing Hip-Hop pedagogical practices, students reported that they developed a deeper understanding of science content, students were more likely to identify as scientists, and students were provided a space and opportunities to deconstruct traditional classroom spaces and structures.

Women and girls in science education: Female teachers' and students' perspectives on gender and science

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Crotty, Ann

Science is a part of all students' education, PreK-12. Preparing students for a more scientifically and technologically complex world requires the best possible education including the deliberate inclusion and full contributions of all students, especially an underrepresented group: females in science. In the United States, as elsewhere in the world, the participation of girls and women in science education and professional careers in science is limited, particularly in the physical sciences (National Academy of Sciences [NAS], 2006). The goal of this research study is to gain a better understanding of the perspectives and perceptions of girls and women, both science educators and students, related to gender and participation in science at the time of an important course: high school chemistry. There is a rich body of research literature in science education that addresses gender studies post---high school, but less research that recognizes the affective voices of practicing female science teachers and students at the high school level (Bianchini, Cavazos, & Helms, 2000; Brown & Gilligan, 1992; Gilligan, 1982). Similarly, little is known with regard to how female students and teachers navigate their educational, personal, and professional experiences in science, or how they overcome impediments that pose limits on their participation in science, particularly the physical sciences. This exploratory study focuses on capturing voices (Brown & Gilligan, 1992; Gilligan, 1982) of high school chemistry students and teachers from selected urban and suburban learning communities in public schools in the Capital Region of New York State. Through surveys, interviews, and focus groups, this qualitative study explores the intersection of the students' and teachers' experiences with regard to the following questions: (1) How do female chemistry teachers view the role gender has played in their professional and personal lives as they have pursued education, degree status, and

Urban High School Teachers' Beliefs Concerning Essential Science Teaching Dispositions

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Miranda, Rommel

2012-01-01

This qualitative study addresses the link between urban high school science teachers' beliefs about essential teaching dispositions and student learning outcomes. The findings suggest that in order to help students to do well in science in urban school settings, science teachers should possess essential teaching dispositions which include…

Science teaching in science education

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Callahan, Brendan E.; Dopico, Eduardo

2016-06-01

Reading the interesting article Discerning selective traditions in science education by Per Sund , which is published in this issue of CSSE, allows us to open the discussion on procedures for teaching science today. Clearly there is overlap between the teaching of science and other areas of knowledge. However, we must constantly develop new methods to teach and differentiate between science education and teaching science in response to the changing needs of our students, and we must analyze what role teachers and teacher educators play in both. We must continually examine the methods and concepts involved in developing pedagogical content knowledge in science teachers. Otherwise, the possibility that these routines, based on subjective traditions, prevent emerging processes of educational innovation. Modern science is an enormous field of knowledge in its own right, which is made more expansive when examined within the context of its place in society. We propose the need to design educative interactions around situations that involve science and society. Science education must provide students with all four dimensions of the cognitive process: factual knowledge, conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge, and metacognitive knowledge. We can observe in classrooms at all levels of education that students understand the concepts better when they have the opportunity to apply the scientific knowledge in a personally relevant way. When students find value in practical exercises and they are provided opportunities to reinterpret their experiences, greater learning gains are achieved. In this sense, a key aspect of educational innovation is the change in teaching methodology. We need new tools to respond to new problems. A shift in teacher education is needed to realize the rewards of situating science questions in a societal context and opening classroom doors to active methodologies in science education to promote meaningful learning through meaningful teaching.

Navigating role forces and the aesthetic|authentic caring dialectic: a novice urban science teacher's developmental trajectory

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Rivera Maulucci, Maria S.

2010-09-01

Examining role forces and resources available to new teachers is crucial to understanding how teachers use and expand cultural, social, and symbolic resources and how they engage teaching for social justice and caring in urban science education. This critical narrative inquiry explores three levels of story. First, the narratives explore my role as a district science staff developer and my efforts to leverage district resources to improve students' opportunities to learn science. Second, the narratives explore the ways in which a novice science teacher, Tina, navigated role forces and the aesthetic|authentic caring dialectic in a high poverty, urban school. A third level of narrative draws on sociological theories of human interaction to explore role forces and how they shaped Tina's developmental trajectory. I describe how Tina expanded cultural, social, and symbolic resources to enact her teaching role.

Hip-Hop as a Resource for Understanding the Urban Context: A Review of Christopher Edmin's--Science Education for the Hip-Hop Generation, Sense Publishers, Rotterdam, 2010

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Bryan

2010-01-01

This review explores Edmin's "Science education for the hip-hop generation" by documenting how he frames hip-hop as a means to access urban student culture. He argues that hip-hop is more than a mere music genre, but rather a culture that provides young people with ways of connecting to the world. Two primary ideas emerged as central to…

Urban Fifth Graders' Connections-Making between Formal Earth Science Content and Their Lived Experiences

Science.gov (United States)

Brkich, Katie Lynn

2014-01-01

Earth science education, as it is traditionally taught, involves presenting concepts such as weathering, erosion, and deposition using relatively well-known examples--the Grand Canyon, beach erosion, and others. However, these examples--which resonate well with middle- and upper-class students--ill-serve students of poverty attending urban schools…

Urban Is Floating Face down in the Mainstream: Using Hip-Hop-Based Education Research to Resurrect "The Urban" in Urban Education

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Irby, Decoteau J.

2015-01-01

Throughout this article, I argue that within the mainstream field of urban education, "the urban" is floating face down, lifeless, and devoid of significant meaning. "City" and "urban" function as taken-for-granted variables that stand in the rightful place of rich explanations, based in theory and evidence, of the…

Museums, zoos, and gardens: how formal-informal partnerships can impact urban students' performance in science.

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Weinstein, Meryle; Whitesell, Emilyn Ruble; Schwartz, Amy Ellen

2014-12-01

Informal science education institutions (ISEIs) are critical partners in public science education, as they support the science efforts of school systems by providing authentic opportunities for scientific inquiry. This study reports findings from an evaluation of urban advantage (UA), a collaboration between the New York City Department of Education and eight ISEIs designed to improve science education in New York City (NYC) middle schools. Now in its 10th year, the program harnesses the resources and expertise of NYC's ISEIs to (a) enhance the science content knowledge of middle school science teachers, (b) develop teachers' skills at using inquiry-based approaches in their classrooms, and (c) improve the science achievement of middle school students. We examine whether the UA program has led to increased student achievement on the eighth-grade New York State standardized science exam for students in participating schools; in supplemental analyses, we examine the effects on longer term (ninth-grade) outcomes. We use a difference-in-differences framework with school fixed effects to estimate the impact of attending a UA school in eighth grade on science achievement. Our key outcome is performance on New York State's eighth-grade intermediate-level science assessment; longer term outcomes include enrollment at specialized science, technology, engineering, and math high schools as well as taking and passing the high school (Regents) science exams. We find that attending a UA school increases student performance on the eighth-grade science exam by approximately 0.05 SD, and there is some evidence of small effects on Regents taking and passing rates. © The Author(s) 2014.

The effectiveness of a head-heart-hands model for natural and environmental science learning in urban schools.

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Jagannathan, Radha; Camasso, Michael J; Delacalle, Maia

2018-02-01

We describe an environmental and natural science program called Nurture thru Nature (NtN) that seeks to improve mathematics and science performance of students in disadvantaged communities, and to increase student interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers. The program draws conceptual guidance from the Head-Heart-Hands model that informs the current educational movement to foster environmental understanding and sustainability. Employing an experimental design and data from seven cohorts of students, we find some promising, albeit preliminary, indications that the program can increase students' science knowledge and grades in mathematics, science and language arts. We discuss the special adaptations that environmental and sustainability education programs need to incorporate if they are to be successful in today's resource depleted urban schools. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Equity, the Arts, and Urban Education: A Review

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Kraehe, Amelia M.; Acuff, Joni B.; Travis, Sarah

2016-01-01

This review examines empirical studies of educational equity in and through the arts with broad implications for urban education. It extends the literature by (a) describing the interrelated spaces of urban education and the arts, (b) integrating knowledge of arts education across formal and informal learning environments, and (c) examining the…

Citizen Science and the Urban Ecology of Birds and Butterflies - A Systematic Review.

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Wang Wei, James; Lee, Benjamin P Y-H; Bing Wen, Low

2016-01-01

Citizen science has gained widespread currency as a tool for ecological research over the past decade. However, in the discipline of urban ecology, the existing contributions and future potential of citizen science engagement, specifically in terms of knowledge gain, have not yet been comprehensively explored. Here, we present a systematic review of published work on the urban ecology of birds and butterflies in relation to their use of citizen science data between 2005 and 2014. We compared the number of studies that used citizen science data to the number of studies that could potentially have employed data derived from citizen science. The take-up rates of citizen science data were 21% and 26% for birds and butterflies respectively. Most studies that employed citizen science used volunteer-derived data as primary data, and adopted Collegial, Collaborative and Contributional engagement modes to the exclusion of Contractual and Co-created arrangements. There was no evidence that citizen science studies investigated a different organismal scale (community vs. species) compared to the urban ecology literature. For both taxa, citizen science contributions were lower than expected compared to their representation in the urban ecology literature for studies on species-environment relationships at landscape and micro-environment scales, as well as behavioural ecology in general. Other research topics that could benefit from further citizen science involvement include breeding studies and guild analyses for birds, and multi-taxa studies for butterflies. Promising models of citizen science engagement for urban ecology are highlighted in relation to their thematic foci and methodological detail, and a number of research questions that could be productively addressed using citizen science are identified. The dynamics of contemporary engagement between citizen science and urban ecology described by this review could inform the design and refinement of urban ecology

Race, Class, and Cultural Reproduction: Critical Theories in Urban Education

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Elaine M. Walker

2003-11-01

Full Text Available In spite of decades of reform attempts urban education remains an intractable policy issue for educators. National and state level data continue to show disparities in educational achievement and attainment between students from affluent and poor urban communities. If past policies have not proven to be effective in substantially improving urban educational systems the question is why? In this paper the argument is raised that urban educational policies lack sound epistemological grounding. Policies are divorced from an understanding of the “urban problematic”. Functionalist in orientation these policies have for the most part sought to “fix” urban schools by focusing on micro-ecological issues. In this paper three theoretical perspectives are explored for their potential contribution to inform research and policy on urban educational issues. The three perspectives are: 1 class theories 2 critical race theory and 3 cultural reproduction theories.

An Ecological Examination of an Urban Sixth Grade Physical Education Class

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James, Alisa R.; Collier, Douglas

2011-01-01

Background: There are several factors that influence teaching urban physical education. Violence, poverty and irrelevant curricula influence the teaching-learning environment in urban physical education. One approach to urban physical education is to look carefully at the ecology that exists within an urban physical education class. This ecology…

Exploring the Potential and Complexity of a Critical Pedagogy of Place in Urban Science Education

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Schindel Dimick, Alexandra

2016-01-01

What does it mean to engage in critical pedagogy of place in formal science education? Although Gruenewald's (2003a) theoretical construct of a critical pedagogy of place has been heavily cited, there is nonetheless a lack of empirical research on critical pedagogy of place, particularly within formal science education. This paper provides a case…

Using the Urban Environment to Engage Youths in Urban Ecology Field Studies

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Barnett, Michael; Lord, Charles; Strauss, Eric; Rosca, Camelia; Langford, Heather; Chavez, Dawn; Deni, Leah

2006-01-01

Recent science education reform proponents explicitly put forward the idea that all students, regardless of culture, gender, race, or socioeconomic status, are capable of understanding and doing science. To address this need, the authors have developed and implemented a field-based urban ecology science program to engage traditionally…

Rural/Urban Disparities in Science Achievement in Post-Socialist Countries: The Evolving Influence of Socioeconomic Status

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Kryst, Erica L.; Kotok, Stephen; Bodovski, Katerina

2015-01-01

Disparities in educational outcomes exist between students in rural areas as compared to students in urban settings. While there is some evidence that these rural disparities are present in eastern Europe, little is known about young peoples' lives in the rural areas of this region. This paper presents an analysis of science achievement by…

Science in the city: Urban trees, forests, and people

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Kathleen L. Wolf

2016-01-01

The article, intended for professional and manager audiences, is an overview of current research in urban forestry. Topics include tree science, forest risks, forest management and assessment, ecosystem services, and urban socio-ecological systems (including governance and stewardship).

Citizen Science and the Urban Ecology of Birds and Butterflies — A Systematic Review

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Wang Wei, James; Lee, Benjamin P. Y-H.; Bing Wen, Low

2016-01-01

Citizen science has gained widespread currency as a tool for ecological research over the past decade. However, in the discipline of urban ecology, the existing contributions and future potential of citizen science engagement, specifically in terms of knowledge gain, have not yet been comprehensively explored. Here, we present a systematic review of published work on the urban ecology of birds and butterflies in relation to their use of citizen science data between 2005 and 2014. We compared the number of studies that used citizen science data to the number of studies that could potentially have employed data derived from citizen science. The take-up rates of citizen science data were 21% and 26% for birds and butterflies respectively. Most studies that employed citizen science used volunteer-derived data as primary data, and adopted Collegial, Collaborative and Contributional engagement modes to the exclusion of Contractual and Co-created arrangements. There was no evidence that citizen science studies investigated a different organismal scale (community vs. species) compared to the urban ecology literature. For both taxa, citizen science contributions were lower than expected compared to their representation in the urban ecology literature for studies on species-environment relationships at landscape and micro-environment scales, as well as behavioural ecology in general. Other research topics that could benefit from further citizen science involvement include breeding studies and guild analyses for birds, and multi-taxa studies for butterflies. Promising models of citizen science engagement for urban ecology are highlighted in relation to their thematic foci and methodological detail, and a number of research questions that could be productively addressed using citizen science are identified. The dynamics of contemporary engagement between citizen science and urban ecology described by this review could inform the design and refinement of urban ecology�

Doing Better: Illuminating a Framework of Equitable Science Pedagogy through a Cross- Case Analysis of Urban High School Science Teachers

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Sheth, Manali J.

Students of color are routinely asked to participate in science education that is less intellectually rich and self-affirming. Additionally, teachers have trouble embarking on professional growth related to issues of equity and diversity in science. The purpose of this dissertation research is to develop a multi-dimensional framework for equitable science pedagogy (ESP) through analyzing the efforts and struggles of high school science teachers. This study is grounded in a conceptual framework derived from scholarship in science education, multicultural education, critical science studies, and teacher learning. The following questions guide this research: 1) What visions and enactments emerge in teachers' practices towards equitable science pedagogy? 2) How are teachers' practice decisions towards ESP influenced by their personal theories of race/culture, science, and learning and sociocultural contexts? 3) Why are there consistencies and variances across teachers' practices? This study employs a qualitative multiple case study design with ethnographic data collection to explore the practices of three urban high school science teachers who were identified as being committed to nurturing the science learning of students of color. Data include over 120 hours of classroom observation, 60 hours of teacher interviews, and 500 teacher- and student-generated artifacts. Data analysis included coding teachers' practices using theory- and participant generated codes, construction of themes based on emergent patterns, and cross-case analysis. The affordances and limitations of the participants' pedagogical approaches inform the following framework for equitable science pedagogy: 1) Seeing race and culture and sharing responsibility for learning form foundational dimensions. Practices from the other three dimensions--- nurturing students' identities, re-centering students' epistemologies, and critiquing structural inequities---emerge from the foundation. As emergent practices

Urban Education: A Model for Leadership and Policy

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Gallagher, Karen Symms, Ed.; Goodyear, Rodney, Ed.; Brewer, Dominic, Ed.; Rueda, Robert, Ed.

2011-01-01

Many factors complicate the education of urban students. Among them have been issues related to population density; racial, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity; poverty; racism (individual and institutional); and funding levels. Although urban educators have been addressing these issues for decades, placing them under the umbrella of "urban…

Towards a truer multicultural science education: how whiteness impacts science education

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Le, Paul T.; Matias, Cheryl E.

2018-03-01

The hope for multicultural, culturally competent, and diverse perspectives in science education falls short if theoretical considerations of whiteness are not entertained. Since whiteness is characterized as a hegemonic racial dominance that has become so natural it is almost invisible, this paper identifies how whiteness operates in science education such that it falls short of its goal for cultural diversity. Because literature in science education has yet to fully entertain whiteness ideology, this paper offers one of the first theoretical postulations. Drawing from the fields of education, legal studies, and sociology, this paper employs critical whiteness studies as both a theoretical lens and an analytic tool to re-interpret how whiteness might impact science education. Doing so allows the field to reconsider benign, routine, or normative practices and protocol that may influence how future scientists of Color experience the field. In sum, we seek to have the field consider the theoretical frames of whiteness and how it might influence how we engage in science education such that our hope for diversity never fully materializes.

Analysis of Performance Differences among Students in Urban and Non-urban Centers Based on Compulsory Secondary Education Special Awards

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Rocío Chao-Fernández

2015-09-01

Full Text Available This research analyzes how the teaching-learning contexts (urban and non-urban of four provinces and their different towns influence the school performance of Galician students who apply for the compulsory secondary education (ESO, in Spanish special award. The sample is of 1,212 students who have finished the 4th level of ESO with an average score greater than or equal to 9 between 2008 and 2012. For such purpose, we made a comparative analysis using independent samples with Levene’s test through the SPSS V. 22.0.0.0 statistical package. The results indicate that, out of the 12 scores (Galician, Spanish, foreign language, Mathematics and Social Sciences, Geography and History and a test to choose from different options (Physics and Chemistry, Biology and Geology, Latin, Music, Technology and Arts, students from urban schools get better results in 10 of them (83.33%, with significant differences in 6 subjects.

Taking an active stance: How urban elementary students connect sociocultural experiences in learning science

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Upadhyay, Bhaskar; Maruyama, Geoffrey; Albrecht, Nancy

2017-12-01

In this interpretive case study, we draw from sociocultural theory of learning and culturally relevant pedagogy to understand how urban students from nondominant groups leverage their sociocultural experiences. These experiences allow them to gain an empowering voice in influencing science content and activities and to work towards self-determining the sciences that are personally meaningful. Furthermore, tying sociocultural experiences with science learning helps generate sociopolitical awareness among students. We collected interview and observation data in an urban elementary classroom over one academic year to understand the value of urban students' sociocultural experiences in learning science and choosing science activities.

Understanding adolescent student perceptions of science education

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Ebert, Ellen Kress

This study used the Relevance of Science Education (ROSE) survey (Sjoberg & Schreiner, 2004) to examine topics of interest and perspectives of secondary science students in a large school district in the southwestern U.S. A situated learning perspective was used to frame the project. The research questions of this study focused on (a) perceptions students have about themselves and their science classroom and how these beliefs may influence their participation in the community of practice of science; (b) consideration of how a future science classroom where the curriculum is framed by the Next Generation Science Standards might foster students' beliefs and perceptions about science education and their legitimate peripheral participation in the community of practice of science; and (c) reflecting on their school science interests and perspectives, what can be inferred about students' identities as future scientists or STEM field professionals? Data were collected from 515 second year science students during a 4-week period in May of 2012 using a Web-based survey. Data were disaggregated by gender and ethnicity and analyzed descriptively and by statistical comparison between groups. Findings for Research Question 1 indicated that boys and girls showed statistically significant differences in scientific topics of interest. There were no statistical differences between ethnic groups although. For Research Question 2, it was determined that participants reported an increase in their interest when they deemed the context of the content to be personally relevant. Results for Research Question 3 showed that participants do not see themselves as youthful scientists or as becoming scientists. While participants value the importance of science in their lives and think all students should take science, they do not aspire to careers in science. Based on this study, a need for potential future work has been identified in three areas: (a) exploration of the perspectives and

Science education through informal education

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Kim, Mijung; Dopico, Eduardo

2016-06-01

To develop the pedagogic efficiency of informal education in science teaching, promoting a close cooperation between institutions is suggested by Monteiro, Janerine, de Carvalho, and Martins. In their article, they point out effective examples of how teachers and educators work together to develop programs and activities at informal education places such as science museums. Their study explored and discussed the viability and relevancy of school visits to museums and possibilities to enhance the connection between students' visits in informal contexts and their learning in schools. Given that students learn science by crossing the boundaries of formal and informal learning contexts, it is critical to examine ways of integrated and collaborative approach to develop scientific literacy to help students think, act and communicate as members of problem solving communities. In this forum, we suggest the importance of students' lifeworld contexts in informal learning places as continuum of Monteiro, Janerine, de Carvalho, and Martins' discussion on enhancing the effectiveness of informal learning places in science education.

A Review of the Electronic Coursework Efforts of the University of Nebraska-Omaha in the Earth System Science Education Alliance

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Shuster, R. D.; Grandgenett, N.

2007-12-01

The University of Nebraska at Omaha has been a state leader in helping Nebraska teachers embrace earth systems science education, with a special emphasis in online coursework. UNO was one of the initial members in the Earth Systems Science Education Alliance (ESSEA) and has offered three different ESSEA courses, with a total of 167 students having taken ESSEA courses at UNO for graduate credit. UNO is currently involved in expanding its earth system science courses, modules, and educational research. We are also integrating these courses into several degree programs, including a Masters of Science in Education, a new Middle School Endorsement, a Certificate in Urban Education, and the Graduate Program for the Department of Geography/Geology. UNO is beginning to examine teacher content learning and science reasoning within its coursework. Feedback surveys from earlier ESSEA offerings already indicate a strongly positive perception of the courses by the teachers enrolled in the coursework. Project impact has been documented in teacher projects, quotes, and lessons associated with the coursework activities. We will describe the UNO earth system science efforts (emphasizing ESSEA coursework), and describe past efforts and teacher perceptions, as well as new strategies being undertaken to more closely examine content learning and science reasoning impact with course participants. We will also describe online course modules being developed within the UNO online course efforts, including one on the global amphibian crisis, and also the impact of urbanization on a local native prairie environment.

Does science education need the history of science?

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Gooday, Graeme; Lynch, John M; Wilson, Kenneth G; Barsky, Constance K

2008-06-01

This essay argues that science education can gain from close engagement with the history of science both in the training of prospective vocational scientists and in educating the broader public about the nature of science. First it shows how historicizing science in the classroom can improve the pedagogical experience of science students and might even help them turn into more effective professional practitioners of science. Then it examines how historians of science can support the scientific education of the general public at a time when debates over "intelligent design" are raising major questions over the kind of science that ought to be available to children in their school curricula. It concludes by considering further work that might be undertaken to show how history of science could be of more general educational interest and utility, well beyond the closed academic domains in which historians of science typically operate.

Career education attitudes and practices of K-12 science educators

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Smith, Walter S.

A random sample of 400 K-12 science educators who were members of the National Science Teachers Association were surveyed regarding their attitude toward and practice of career education in their science teaching. These science teachers rejected a narrowly vocational view, favoring instead a conception of career education which included self-perception, values analysis, and vocational skills objectives. The science educators affirmed the importance of career education for a student's education, asserted career education ought to be taught in their existing science courses, and expressed a willingness to do so. Fewer than one-third of the science teachers, however, reported incorporating career education at least on a weekly basis in their science lessons. The major impediment to including more career education in science teaching was seen to be their lack of knowledge of methods and materials relevant to science career education, rather than objections from students, parents, or administrators; their unwillingness; or their evaluation of career education as unimportant. Thus, in order to improve this aspect of science teaching, science teachers need more concrete information about science career education applications.

Young African American children constructing identities in an urban integrated science-literacy classroom

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Kane, Justine M.

This is a qualitative study of identities constructed and enacted by four 3rd-grade African American children (two girls and two boys) in an urban classroom that engaged in a year-long, integrated science-literacy project. Juxtaposing narrative and discursive identity lenses, coupled with race and gender perspectives, I examined the ways in which the four children saw and performed themselves as students and as science students in their classroom. Interview data were used for the narrative analysis and classroom Discourse and artifacts were used for the discursive analysis. A constructivist grounded theory framework was adopted for both analyses. The findings highlight the diversity and richness of perspectives and forms of engagement these young children shared and enacted, and help us see African American children as knowers, doers, and talkers of science individually and collectively. In their stories about themselves, all the children identified themselves as smart but they associated with smartness different characteristics and practices depending on their strengths and preferences. Drawing on the children's social, cultural, and ethnolinguistic resources, the dialogic and multimodal learning spaces facilitated by their teacher allowed the children to explore, negotiate, question, and learn science ideas. The children in this study brought their understandings and ways of being into the "lived-in" spaces co-created with classmates and teacher and influenced how these spaces were created. At the same time, each child's ways of being and understandings were shaped by the words, actions, behaviors, and feelings of peers and teacher. Moreover, as these four children engaged with science-literacy activities, they came to see themselves as competent, creative, active participants in science learning. Although their stories of "studenting" seemed dominated by following rules and being well-behaved, their stories of "sciencing" were filled with exploration, ingenuity

Leadership that promotes teacher empowerment among urban middle school science teachers

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Howard-Skipper, Joni

In this study, the focus was on determining leadership strategies that promote teacher empowerment among urban middle school science teachers. The purpose of the paper was to determine if leadership strategies are related to teacher empowerment. The emphasis was on various forms of leadership and the empowerment of teachers in context in restructuring the democratic structure. An effective leadership in science education entails empowering others, especially science teachers. In this regard, no published studies had examined this perspective on empowering teachers and school leadership. Therefore, this study determined if a relationship exists between leadership strategy actions and teacher empowerment. The significance of the study is to determine a relationship between leadership strategies and teacher empowerment as a positive approach toward developing successful schools. Empowerment is essential for implementing serious improvements. Empowering others in schools must form a major component of an effective principal's agenda. It is becoming clearer in research literature that complex changes in education sometimes require active initiation. For this study, a quantitative methodology was used. Primary data enabled the research questions to be answered. The reliability and validity of the research were ensured. The results of this study showed that 40% of the administrators establish program policies with teachers, and 53% of teachers make decisions about new programs in schools. Furthermore, the findings, their implications, and recommendations are discussed.

Fermilab Friends for Science Education | Welcome

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Fermilab Friends for Science Education FFSE Home About Us Join Us Support Us Contact Us Fermilab Friends for Science Education photo Fermilab Friends for Science Education supports innovative science education programs at Fermilab. Its mission is to: Enhance the quality of precollege science education in

Examining the social and scientific roles of invention in science education

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Calabrese-Barton, Angela

1998-03-01

I have been drawn to the construct of “invention” and “inventive acts” because in my research involving how homeless children construct science and the self-in-science, an overwhelming theme has been the multiple ways in which self-identity in science has been described by the children through a language of invention. Using post-modern feminism and science and technologies studies, I examine the multiple uses and definitions of “invention” in science in order to develop a theory of invention and inventive acts around the themes: invention as a social act, invention as a recursive and socially linked process, and embodied agency. I use this framework to examine the construct of “invention” in two different case studies involving the science education of urban homeless children. Finally, I link this discussion of invention and inventive acts with current international reform initiatives revolving around constructivist science teaching and learning.

Action Research Using Entomological Research to Promote Hands-On Science Inquiry in a High-Poverty, Midwest Urban High School

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Stockmann, Dustin

The purpose of this mixed-methods action research study was to examine to what extent entomological research can promote students' hands-on learning in a high-poverty, urban, secondary setting. In reviewing the literature, the researcher was not able to find a specific study that investigated how entomological research could promote the hands-on learning of students. The researcher did find evidence that research on learning in a secondary setting was important to student growth. It should also be noted that support was established for the implementation of hands-on science inquiry in the classroom setting. The study's purpose was to aid educators in their instruction by combining research-based strategies and hands-on science inquiry. The surveys asked 30 students to rate their understanding of three basic ideas. These core ideas were entomological research, hands-on science inquiry, and urban studies. These core ideas provided the foundation for the study. The questionnaires were based on follow-up ideas from the surveys. Two interview sessions were used to facilitate this one-on-one focus. Because the study included only 30 student participants, its findings may not be totally replicable. Further study investigating the links between entomological research and hands-on science learning in an urban environment is needed.

Urban Environmental Education for Global Transformation Initiatives - Integrating Information and Communication Systems for Urban Sustainability in 2050.

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Chaudhari, K.

2017-12-01

The Urban population of developing countries is predicted to rise from one third in 1990 to over 50% by 2025. In 1950 the world's total urban population was 734 million, of whom 448 million were living in developed countries and remaining 286 were in developing region. The total population on earth is predicted to increase by more than one billion people within the next 15 years, reaching 8.5 billion in 2030, and to increase further to 9.7 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100. Looking at the ever increasing urbanization.In 2016, an estimated 54.5 per cent of the world's populations inhabited in urban region. By 2030, urban areas are projected to shelter 60 per cent of people worldwide and one in every three people will live in cities with at least half a million inhabitants.On the basis of these figures and other global trends, it would appear that Africa and Asia will have the highest share of world's urban growth in next 25 years, resulting consideration rise of large number of metropolitan cities and towns. Therefore issues related to urban climate change will be important for socio economic development for urban transformation through environmental sustainability.The information and communication systems plays an important role in achieving the social sustainability through environmental sustainability for urban transformation. This presentation aims to start the Global initiatives on the problem identifications in environment education for global transformation, education for socio-economic and environmental sustainability due to urbanization in 2050 to investigate problems related to social-economic risks and management issues resulting from urbanization to aid mitigation planning in globalized world and to educate scientists and local populations to form a basis for sustainable solutions in environment learning.The presentation aims to assess the potential of information and communication technology for environment education,both within different

Citizen Science as a Tool for Augmenting Museum Collection Data from Urban Areas

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Dakota M. Spear

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Museum collections are critical to contemporary biological research, but museum acquisitions have declined in recent decades, hampering researchers' ability to use collections to assess species responses to habitat modification, urbanization, and global climate change. Citizen science may be a key method to bolster museum collections data, particularly from urban regions, where ongoing data collection is critical to our understanding of ecosystem dynamics in a highly modified and variable landscape. In this study, we compare data collected as part of the citizen-science project Reptiles and Amphibians of Southern California (RASCals, hosted on the platform iNaturalist (www.inaturalist.org, to data in the VertNet database (www.vertnet.org, which houses millions of museum collection records from over 250 natural-history collections, for four focal species, including a native lizard of conservation concern that has declined with urbanization, a native lizard that is widespread in urban areas, and two invasive aquatic species. We compared numbers of VertNet records over time to modern RASCals records, and the number of records collected from urban, suburban, and protected areas from both databases. For all species, citizen-science records were generated much more rapidly than museum records. For three of our four focal species, RASCals participants over 27 months documented from 70 to 750% more records than were added to the VertNet database after 1990. For the urban-tolerant southern alligator lizard, RASCals participants collected nearly 45 times more modern urban records than are contained in the VertNet database. For all other species, the majority of RASCals records were collected within suburban or other highly modified landscapes, demonstrating the value of citizen science for collecting data within urban and suburban ecosystems. As new museum acquisitions decline, citizen-science projects like RASCals may become critical to the maintenance

Games in Science Education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Magnussen, Rikke

2014-01-01

, 2007). Some of these newer formats are developed in partnerships between research and education institutions and game developers and are based on learning theory as well as game design methods. Games well suited for creating narrative framework or simulations where students gain first-hand experience......This paper presents a categorisation of science game formats in relation to the educational possibilities or limitations they offer in science education. This includes discussion of new types of science game formats and gamification of science. Teaching with the use of games and simulations...... in science education dates back to the 1970s and early 80s were the potentials of games and simulations was discussed extensively as the new teaching tool ( Ellington et al. , 1981). In the early 90s the first ITC -based games for exploration of science and technical subjects was developed (Egenfeldt...

Post-Secondary Education and Rural-Urban Migration

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Synge, J.

1974-01-01

This study examined education and career plans of Scottish rural youth who entered post-secondary education in order to determine the extent to which the educational system offers rural youth not only specific training but only entry to the urban labour market. (Author/RK)

Globalization and Science Education

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Bencze, J. Lawrence; Carter, Lyn; Chiu, Mei-Hung; Duit, Reinders; Martin, Sonya; Siry, Christina; Krajcik, Joseph; Shin, Namsoo; Choi, Kyunghee; Lee, Hyunju; Kim, Sung-Won

2013-06-01

Processes of globalization have played a major role in economic and cultural change worldwide. More recently, there is a growing literature on rethinking science education research and development from the perspective of globalization. This paper provides a critical overview of the state and future development of science education research from the perspective of globalization. Two facets are given major attention. First, the further development of science education as an international research domain is critically analyzed. It seems that there is a predominance of researchers stemming from countries in which English is the native language or at least a major working language. Second, the significance of rethinking the currently dominant variants of science instruction from the perspectives of economic and cultural globalization is given major attention. On the one hand, it is argued that processes concerning globalization of science education as a research domain need to take into account the richness of the different cultures of science education around the world. At the same time, it is essential to develop ways of science instruction that make students aware of the various advantages, challenges and problems of international economic and cultural globalization.

Is Religious Education Compatible with Science Education?

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Mahner, Martin; Bunge, Mario

1996-01-01

Addresses the problem of the compatibility of science and religion, and its bearing on science and religious education, challenges the popular view that science and religion are compatible or complementary. Discusses differences at the doctrinal, metaphysical, methodological, and attitudinal levels. Argues that religious education should be kept…

Introducing Hands-on, Experiential Learning Experiences in an Urban Environmental Science Program at a Minority Serving Institution

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Duzgoren-Aydin, N. S.; Freile, D.

2013-12-01

STEM education at New Jersey City University increasingly focuses on experiential, student-centered learning. The Department of Geoscience/Geography plays a significant role in developing and implementing a new Urban Environmental Science Program. The program aims at graduating highly skilled, demographically diverse students (14 % African-American and 18% Hispanic) to be employed in high-growth Earth and Environmental Science career paths, both at a technical (e.g. B.S.) as well as an educational (K-12 grade) (e.g. B.A) level. The core program, including the Earth and Environmental Science curricula is guided by partners (e.g. USDA-NRCS). The program is highly interdisciplinary and 'hands-on', focusing upon the high-tech practical skills and knowledge demanded of science professionals in the 21st century. The focus of the curriculum is on improving environmental quality in northern NJ, centering upon our urban community in Jersey City and Hudson County. Our Department is moving towards a more earth system science approach to learning. Most of our courses (e.g., Earth Surface Processes, Sedimentology/Stratigraphy, Earth Materials, Essential Methods, Historical Geology) have hands-on laboratory and/or field components. Although some of our other courses do not have formal laboratory components, research modules of many such courses (Geochemistry, Urban Environmental Issues and Policy and Environmental Geology) involve strong field or laboratory studies. The department has a wide range of analytical and laboratory capacities including a portable XRF, bench-top XRD and ICP-MS. In spring 2013, Dr. Duzgoren-Aydin was awarded $277K in Higher Education Equipment Leasing Fund monies from the University in order to establish an Environmental Teaching and Research Laboratory. The addition of these funds will make it possible for the department to increase its instrumentation capacity by adding a mercury analyzer, Ion Chromatography and C-N-S analyzer, as well as updating

Science Teaching in Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Callahan, Brendan E.; Dopico, Eduardo

2016-01-01

Reading the interesting article "Discerning selective traditions in science education" by Per Sund, which is published in this issue of "CSSE," allows us to open the discussion on procedures for teaching science today. Clearly there is overlap between the teaching of science and other areas of knowledge. However, we must…

Safety Education and Science.

Science.gov (United States)

Ralph, Richard

1980-01-01

Safety education in the science classroom is discussed, including the beginning of safe management, attitudes toward safety education, laboratory assistants, chemical and health regulation, safety aids, and a case study of a high school science laboratory. Suggestions for safety codes for science teachers, student behavior, and laboratory…

Producing "science/fictions" about the rural and urban poor: Community-based learning at a medical college in South India

Science.gov (United States)

Arur, Aditi Ashok

This dissertation is an ethnographic case study of a community-based teaching program (CBTP) in public health at a medical college in South India that explored how the CBTP produced particular ways of seeing and understanding rural and urban poor communities. Drawing from critical, feminist, and postcolonial scholars, I suggest that the knowledge produced in the CBTP can be understood as "science/fictions", that is, as cultural texts shaped by transnational development discourses as well as medical teachers' and students' sociospatial imaginations of the rural and urban poor. I explored how these science/fictions mediated medical students' performative actions and interactions with a rural and an urban poor community in the context of the CBTP. At the same time, I also examined how knowledge produced in students' encounters with these communities disrupted their naturalized understandings about these communities, and how it was taken up to renarrativize science/fictions anew. Data collection and analyses procedures were informed by critical ethnographic and critical discourse analysis approaches. Data sources includes field notes constructed from observations of the CBTP, interviews with medical teachers and students, and curricular texts including the standardized national textbook of public health. The findings of this study illustrate how the CBTP staged the government and technology as central actors in the production of healthy bodies, communities, and environments, and implicitly positioned medical teachers and students as productive citizens of a modern nation while rural and urban poor communities were characterized sometimes as empowered, and at other times as not-yet-modern and in need of reform. However, the community also constituted an alternate pedagogical site of engagement in that students' encounters with community members disrupted students' assumptions about these communities to an extent. Nevertheless, institutionalized practices of assessment

Is Christian Education Compatible With Science Education?

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, Michael

Science education and Christian education are not compatible if by Christian education one means teaching someone to be a Christian. One goal of science education is to give students factual knowledge. Even when there is no actual conflict of this knowledge with the dogmas of Christianity, there exists the potential for conflict. Another goal of science education is to teach students to have the propensity to be sensitive to evidence: to hold beliefs tentatively in light of evidence and to reject these beliefs in the light of new evidence if rejection is warranted by this evidence. This propensity conflicts with one way in which beliefs are often taught in Christian education: namely as fundamental dogmas, rather than as subject to revision in the light of the evidence.

Ecology in Urban Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Letitia K.; Ryan, Michael

In this course guide to the teaching of urban ecology, six learning activities on the following topics are outlined: (1) city location and growth; (2) an in-depth study of New Orleans; (3) city shape and structure; (4) size and spacing of cities; (5) cities with special functions; (6) local community study. Educational objectives for each activity…

Factors Influencing Postsecondary Education Enrollment Behaviors of Urban Agricultural Education Students

Science.gov (United States)

Esters, Levon T.

2007-01-01

The purpose of this study was to identify the factors that influenced the postsecondary education enrollment behaviors of students who graduated from an urban agricultural education program. Students indicated that parents and/or guardians had the most influence on their decisions to enroll in a postsecondary education program of agriculture.…

Preparing the Successful Urban Music Educator: The Need for Preservice and In-Service Development

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Steven Armon; Denson, Gregory Lamar

2015-01-01

The January 1970 Music Educators Journal's "Special Report: Facing the Music in Urban Education" included the article "Recommendations for Teacher Education Programs." This article contained seven recommendations to prepare successful future urban music educators. As two urban music educators, we examine how "MEJ"…

The Burden of Urban Education: Public Schools in Massachusetts, 1870-1915.

Science.gov (United States)

Lazerson, Marvin

Confronted by a rapidly changing urban-industrial society, Massachusetts educators undertook reforms between 1870 and 1915 to make the public school a more relevant institution. Kindergarten, manual training, vocational education, evening schools, and citizenship education represented answers to problems arising from industrialism and urbanism.…

Making Philosophy of Science Education Practical for Science Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Janssen, F. J. J. M.; van Berkel, B.

2015-04-01

Philosophy of science education can play a vital role in the preparation and professional development of science teachers. In order to fulfill this role a philosophy of science education should be made practical for teachers. First, multiple and inherently incomplete philosophies on the teacher and teaching on what, how and why should be integrated. In this paper we describe our philosophy of science education (ASSET approach) which is composed of bounded rationalism as a guideline for understanding teachers' practical reasoning, liberal education underlying the why of teaching, scientific perspectivism as guideline for the what and educational social constructivism as guiding choices about the how of science education. Integration of multiple philosophies into a coherent philosophy of science education is necessary but not sufficient to make it practical for teachers. Philosophies are still formulated at a too abstract level to guide teachers' practical reasoning. For this purpose, a heuristic model must be developed on an intermediate level of abstraction that will provide teachers with a bridge between these abstract ideas and their specific teaching situation. We have developed and validated such a heuristic model, the CLASS model in order to complement our ASSET approach. We illustrate how science teachers use the ASSET approach and the CLASS model to make choices about the what, the how and the why of science teaching.

Romanticism and Romantic Science: Their Contribution to Science Education

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Hadzigeorgiou, Yannis; Schulz, Roland

2014-01-01

The unique contributions of romanticism and romantic science have been generally ignored or undervalued in history and philosophy of science studies and science education. Although more recent research in history of science has come to delineate the value of both topics for the development of modern science, their merit for the educational field…

Science education and everyday action

Science.gov (United States)

McCann, Wendy Renee Sherman

2001-07-01

This dissertation addresses three related tasks and issues in the larger field of science education. The first is to review of the several uses of "everydayness" at play in the science education literature, and in the education and social science literatures more generally. Four broad iterations of everydayness were found in science education, and these were traced and analyzed to develop their similarities, and contradictions. It was concluded that despite tendencies in science education research to suppose a fundamental demarcation either between professional science and everyday life, or between schools and everyday life, all social affairs, including professional science and activity in schools, are continuous with everyday life, and consist fundamentally in everyday, ordinary mundane actions which are ordered and organized by the participants to those social activities and occasions. The second task for this dissertation was to conduct a naturalistic, descriptive study of undergraduate-level physics laboratory activities from the analytic perspective of ethnomethodology. The study findings are presented as closely-detailed analysis of the students' methods of following their instructions and 'fitting' their observed results to a known scientific concept or principle during the enactment of their classroom laboratory activities. Based on the descriptions of students' practical work in following instructions and 'fitting'. The characterization of school science labs as an "experiment-demonstration hybrid" is developed. The third task of this dissertation was to synthesize the literature review and field study findings in order to clarify what science educators could productively mean by "everydayness", and to suggest what understandings of science education the study of everyday action recommends. It is argued that the significance of the 'experiment-demo hybrid' characterization must be seen in terms of an alternate program for science education research, which

Preparing informal science educators perspectives from science communication and education

CERN Document Server

2017-01-01

This book provides a diverse look at various aspects of preparing informal science educators. Much has been published about the importance of preparing formal classroom educators, but little has been written about the importance, need, and best practices for training professionals who teach in aquariums, camps, parks, museums, etc. The reader will find that as a collective the chapters of the book are well-related and paint a clear picture that there are varying ways to approach informal educator preparation, but all are important. The volume is divided into five topics: Defining Informal Science Education, Professional Development, Designing Programs, Zone of Reflexivity: The Space Between Formal and Informal Educators, and Public Communication. The authors have written chapters for practitioners, researchers and those who are interested in assessment and evaluation, formal and informal educator preparation, gender equity, place-based education, professional development, program design, reflective practice, ...

Using and Developing Measurement Instruments in Science Education: A Rasch Modeling Approach. Science & Engineering Education Sources

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Xiufeng

2010-01-01

This book meets a demand in the science education community for a comprehensive and introductory measurement book in science education. It describes measurement instruments reported in refereed science education research journals, and introduces the Rasch modeling approach to developing measurement instruments in common science assessment domains,…

Fostering Science Club: Creating a Welcoming Extra-Curricular Science Inquiry Space for ALL Learners that Seeks to Close the Science Experience Gap in a Predominantly Minority Urban Community

Science.gov (United States)

Mayfield, K. K.

2017-12-01

BackgroundTo minority adolescents in urban centers science inquiry seems like an engagement completed by others with specialized skills (Alkon & Agyeman, 2012). When scientists teach science classes those spaces and pedagogy are underwritten by the science teachers' beliefs about how science happens (Southerland, Gess-Newsome & Johnston, 2002). Further, scientific inquiry is often presented as the realm of upperclass whiteness (Alkon & Agyeman, 2012; Mayfield, 2014). When science educators talk about the achievement gaps between raced and classed learners, accompanying that gap is also a gap in science experience. My high school students in a postindustrial school district: attend a school under state takeover (the lowest 5/5 rating (MA Executive Office of Education, 2017)); have a student body that is 70% Latinx; and 96% of whom receive Free and Reduced Lunch (a Federal marker of a family below the poverty line). Annual Yearly Progress is a goal set by state and federal governments for school populations by race, ability, and language. In 2016, the site has failed to make its goals for special education, black, hispanic, white, and English as a Second Language populations. As a high poverty district there is a paucity of extracurricular science experiences. This lack of science extensions make closing standardized test gaps difficult. Geoscience Skills & FindingsThis after school program does not replicate deficit narratives that keep certain bodies of students away from science inquiry (Mayfield, 2015; Ogbu, 1987). Instead, Science Club uses an array of student-centered science (physics, math, arts, chemistry, biology) projects to help students see themselves as citizen scientists who lead explorations of their world. We meet 1.5 hours a week in a 30 week school year. Science club helps students feel like powerful and capable science inquirers with 80% girls in attendance, and uses science experiments to cultivate essential inquiry skills like: Observation

Urban Early Childhood Teachers' Attitudes towards Inclusive Education

Science.gov (United States)

Hsieh, Wu-Ying; Hsieh, Chang-Ming

2012-01-01

This study investigated the relationship between urban early childhood teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education and personal characteristics, professional background, and programme context. Questionnaires were completed by teachers (n = 130) who taught preschool children in primarily low-income, urban neighbourhoods. Attitude ratings were…

Science-Technology-Society (STS): A New Paradigm in Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Mansour, Nasser

2009-01-01

Changes in the past two decades of goals for science education in schools have induced new orientations in science education worldwide. One of the emerging complementary approaches was the science-technology-society (STS) movement. STS has been called the current megatrend in science education. Others have called it a paradigm shift for the field…

Crowdfunding for Elementary Science Educators

Science.gov (United States)

Reese, Jessica; Miller, Kurtz

2017-01-01

The inadequate funding of science education in many school districts, particularly in underserved areas, is preventing elementary science educators from realizing the full potential of the "Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS"). Yet many elementary science teachers may be unaware that millions of dollars per year are…

Rural–Urban Disparity in Students’ Academic Performance in Visual Arts Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nana Afia Amponsaa Opoku-Asare

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Rural–urban disparity in economic and social development in Ghana has led to disparities in educational resources and variations in students’ achievement in different parts of the country. Nonetheless, senior high schools (SHSs in rural and urban schools follow the same curriculum, and their students write the same West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE, which qualifies them to access higher education in Ghana’s public universities. Urban SHSs are also recognized nationwide as good schools where students make it to university. Moreover, performance patterns with regard to admission of SHS graduates into university also vary between rural and urban schools; consequently, some parents do everything to get their children in urban SHSs, even consenting to placement in visual arts, a program deemed appropriate only for academically weak students. This study therefore adopted the qualitative-quantitative research approach with interview, observation, and questionnaire administration to investigate the critical factors that affect academic performance of SHS students, particularly those in visual arts as case study. Findings from six public SHSs in Kumasi—two each in rural, peri-urban, and urban areas—revealed that urban schools perform better than rural and peri-urban schools because they attract and admit junior high school graduates with excellent Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE grades, have better infrastructure, more qualified teachers, prestigious names, and character that motivate their students to do well. This suggests that bridging the rural–urban gap in educational resources could promote quality teaching and learning, and thereby raise academic achievement for SHS students in Ghana.

Science Specialists or Classroom Teachers: Who Should Teach Elementary Science?

Science.gov (United States)

Levy, Abigail Jurist; Jia, Yueming; Marco-Bujosa, Lisa; Gess-Newsome, Julie; Pasquale, Marian

2016-01-01

This study examined science programs, instruction, and student outcomes at 30 elementary schools in a large, urban district in the northeast United States in an effort to understand whether there were meaningful differences in the quality, quantity and cost of science education when provided by a science specialist or a classroom teacher. Student…

Educating for biodiversity conservation in urban parks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guerra, M. C.

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This article is intended to propose a procedure for learning about biodiversity in urban parks, as a contribution for educating conservation of natural resources. The procedure was named “Diagnosis of biodiversity conservation status in urban parks”. It comprises for stages describing the physic, geographic, socio-historic, and cultural study of the park as well as a taxonomic inventory of species, its distribution, presence in Cuba, and menaces they are subjected to. This facilitates to carry out educative activities. The introduction of the procedure is thought of from an ethno-biological and interdisciplinary perspective for training students in biological, geographical, historical, cultural and ethnological procedures, seeking a holistic approach to environment. The effectiveness of the proposal was appraised by accounting the experience of a class at “Casino Campestre” park in Camagüey City. Key words: biodiversity, urban parks, procedures, conservation training

Exploring social networks of municipal science education stakeholders in Danish Science Municipalities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

von der Fehr, Ane

development in the science and technology industry. Therefore, much effort has been invested to improve science education. The importance of school external stakeholders in development of education has been an increasingly emphasised, also in the field of science education. This has led to a growing focus......Science education development is a field of many interests and a key interest is recruitment of students who wish to pursue an education in science. This is an urgent societal demand in Denmark as well as internationally, since highly skilled science graduates are needed for the continuous...... involved in science education development. These municipal science education networks (MSE networks) were identified as important for development of science education in the SM project. Therefore, it was a key interest to explore these networks in order to investigate how the central stakeholders affected...

Development of a replicable process for translating science into practical health education messages.

Science.gov (United States)

Tyus, Nadra C; Freeman, Randall J; Gibbons, M Christopher

2006-09-01

There has been considerable discussion about translating science into practical messages, especially among urban minority and "hard-to-reach" populations. Unfortunately, many research findings rarely make it back in useful format to the general public. Few innovative techniques have been established that provide researchers with a systematic process for developing health awareness and prevention messages for priority populations. The purpose of this paper is to describe the early development and experience of a unique community-based participatory process used to develop health promotion messages for a predominantly low-income, black and African-American community in Baltimore, MD. Scientific research findings from peer-reviewed literature were identified by academic researchers. Researchers then taught the science to graphic design students and faculty. The graphic design students and faculty then worked with both community residents and researchers to transform this information into evidence-based public health education messages. The final products were culturally and educationally appropriate, health promotion messages reflecting urban imagery that were eagerly desired by the community. This early outcome is in contrast to many previously developed messages and materials created through processes with limited community involvement and by individuals with limited practical knowledge of local community culture or expertise in marketing or mass communication. This process may potentially be utilized as a community-based participatory approach to enhance the translation of scientific research into desirable and appropriate health education messages.

Perceived barriers to online education by radiologic science educators.

Science.gov (United States)

Kowalczyk, Nina K

2014-01-01

Radiologic science programs continue to adopt the use of blended online education in their curricula, with an increase in the use of online courses since 2009. However, perceived barriers to the use of online education formats persist in the radiologic science education community. An electronic survey was conducted to explore the current status of online education in the radiologic sciences and to identify barriers to providing online courses. A random sample of 373 educators from radiography, radiation therapy, and nuclear medicine technology educational programs accredited by the Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiologic Technology and Joint Review Committee on Educational Programs in Nuclear Medicine Technology was chosen to participate in this study. A qualitative analysis of self-identified barriers to online teaching was conducted. Three common themes emerged: information technology (IT) training and support barriers, student-related barriers, and institutional barriers. Online education is not prevalent in the radiologic sciences, in part because of the need for the clinical application of radiologic science course content, but online course activity has increased substantially in radiologic science education, and blended or hybrid course designs can effectively provide opportunities for student-centered learning. Further development is needed to increase faculty IT self-efficacy and to educate faculty regarding pedagogical methods appropriate for online course delivery. To create an excellent online learning environment, educators must move beyond technology issues and focus on providing quality educational experiences for students.

Scientists Interacting With University Science Educators

Science.gov (United States)

Spector, B. S.

2004-12-01

Scientists with limited time to devote to educating the public about their work will get the greatest multiplier effect for their investment of time by successfully interacting with university science educators. These university professors are the smallest and least publicized group of professionals in the chain of people working to create science literate citizens. They connect to all aspects of formal and informal education, influencing everything from what and how youngsters and adults learn science to legislative rulings. They commonly teach methods of teaching science to undergraduates aspiring to teach in K-12 settings and experienced teachers. They serve as agents for change to improve science education inside schools and at the state level K-16, including what science content courses are acceptable for teacher licensure. University science educators are most often housed in a College of Education or Department of Education. Significant differences in culture exist in the world in which marine scientists function and that in which university science educators function, even when they are in the same university. Subsequently, communication and building relationships between the groups is often difficult. Barriers stem from not understanding each other's roles and responsibilities; and different reward systems, assumptions about teaching and learning, use of language, approaches to research, etc. This presentation will provide suggestions to mitigate the barriers and enable scientists to leverage the multiplier effect saving much time and energy while ensuring the authenticity of their message is maintained. Likelihood that a scientist's message will retain its authenticity stems from criteria for a university science education position. These professors have undergraduate degrees in a natural science (e.g., biology, chemistry, physics, geology), and usually a master's degree in one of the sciences, a combination of natural sciences, or a master's including

Assessment in Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Rustaman, N. Y.

2017-09-01

An analyses study focusing on scientific reasoning literacy was conducted to strengthen the stressing on assessment in science by combining the important of the nature of science and assessment as references, higher order thinking and scientific skills in assessing science learning as well. Having background in developing science process skills test items, inquiry in its many form, scientific and STEM literacy, it is believed that inquiry based learning should first be implemented among science educators and science learners before STEM education can successfully be developed among science teachers, prospective teachers, and students at all levels. After studying thoroughly a number of science researchers through their works, a model of scientific reasoning was proposed, and also simple rubrics and some examples of the test items were introduced in this article. As it is only the beginning, further studies will still be needed in the future with the involvement of prospective science teachers who have interests in assessment, either on authentic assessment or in test items development. In balance usage of alternative assessment rubrics, as well as valid and reliable test items (standard) will be needed in accelerating STEM education in Indonesia.

An Initial Formulation. Research, Diagnosis and Development in Urban Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Gappert, Gary

Described in this report are factors which affect and/or limit urban educational research and dimensions of cities which should be considered in making social and organizational research in urban education more relevant. Some of these considerations are learning, institutional and management deficits, the lack of a total systems perspective on the…

Ethiopian Journal of Education and Sciences

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The Ethiopian Journal of Education and Sciences focuses on publishing articles relating to education and sciences. It publishes ... The objective is to create forum for researchers in education and sciences. ... AJOL African Journals Online.

Augmented Reality for Science Education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brandt, Harald; Nielsen, Birgitte Lund; Georgsen, Marianne

Augmented reality (AR) holds great promise as a learning tool. So far, however, most research has looked at the technology itself – and AR has been used primarily for commercial purposes. As a learning tool, AR supports an inquiry-based approach to science education with a high level of student...... involvement. The AR-sci-project (Augmented Reality for SCIence education) addresses the issue of applying augmented reality in developing innovative science education and enhancing the quality of science teaching and learning....

Graduate Experience in Science Education: the development of a science education course for biomedical science graduate students.

Science.gov (United States)

Markowitz, Dina G; DuPré, Michael J

2007-01-01

The University of Rochester's Graduate Experience in Science Education (GESE) course familiarizes biomedical science graduate students interested in pursuing academic career tracks with a fundamental understanding of some of the theory, principles, and concepts of science education. This one-semester elective course provides graduate students with practical teaching and communication skills to help them better relate science content to, and increase their confidence in, their own teaching abilities. The 2-h weekly sessions include an introduction to cognitive hierarchies, learning styles, and multiple intelligences; modeling and coaching some practical aspects of science education pedagogy; lesson-planning skills; an introduction to instructional methods such as case studies and problem-based learning; and use of computer-based instructional technologies. It is hoped that the early development of knowledge and skills about teaching and learning will encourage graduate students to continue their growth as educators throughout their careers. This article summarizes the GESE course and presents evidence on the effectiveness of this course in providing graduate students with information about teaching and learning that they will use throughout their careers.

An educational ethnography of teacher-developed science curriculum implementation: Enacting conceptual change-based science inquiry with Hispanic students

Science.gov (United States)

Brunsell, Eric Steven

An achievement gap exists between White and Hispanic students in the United States. Research has shown that improving the quality of instruction for minority students is an effective way to narrow this gap. Science education reform movements emphasize that science should be taught using a science inquiry approach. Extensive research in teaching and learning science also shows that a conceptual change model of teaching is effective in helping students learn science. Finally, research into how Hispanic students learn best has provided a number of suggestions for science instruction. The Inquiry for Conceptual Change model merges these three research strands into a comprehensive yet accessible model for instruction. This study investigates two questions. First, what are teachers' perceptions of science inquiry and its implementation in the classroom? Second, how does the use of the Inquiry for Conceptual Change model affect the learning of students in a predominantly Hispanic, urban neighborhood. Five teachers participated in a professional development project where they developed and implemented a science unit based on the Inquiry for Conceptual Change model. Three units were developed and implemented for this study. This is a qualitative study that included data from interviews, participant reflections and journals, student pre- and post-assessments, and researcher observations. This study provides an in-depth description of the role of professional development in helping teachers understand how science inquiry can be used to improve instructional quality for students in a predominantly Hispanic, urban neighborhood. These teachers demonstrated that it is important for professional development to be collaborative and provide opportunities for teachers to enact and reflect on new teaching paradigms. This study also shows promising results for the ability of the Inquiry for Conceptual Change model to improve student learning.

Science and Society - Problems, issues and dilemmas in science education

CERN Multimedia

2001-01-01

Next in CERN's series of Science and Society speakers is Jonathan Osborne, Senior Lecturer in Science Education at King's College London. On Thursday 26 April, Dr Osborne will speak in the CERN main auditorium about current issues in science education in the light of an ever more science-based society. Jonathan Osborne, Senior Lecturer in Science Education at King's College London. Does science deserve a place at the curriculum high table of each student or is it just a gateway to a set of limited career options in science and technology? This question leads us to an important change in our ideas of what science education has been so far and what it must be. Basic knowledge of science and technology has traditionally been considered as just a starting point for those who wanted to build up a career in scientific research. But nowadays, the processes of science, the analysis of risks and benefits, and a knowledge of the social practices of science are necessary for every citizen. This new way of looking at s...

Fermilab Education Office: Science Adventures

Science.gov (United States)

Search The Education Office: Science Adventures Adventure Catalog Search for Adventures Calendar Class Facebook Group. Contact: Science Adventures Registrar, Education Office Fermilab, MS 777, P.O. Box 500 it again." Opportunities for Instructors The Education Office has openings for instructors who

Science Education: The New Humanity?

Science.gov (United States)

Douglas, John H.

1973-01-01

Summarizes science education trends, problems, and controversies at the elementary, secondary, and higher education levels beginning with the Physical Science Study Committee course, and discusses the present status concerning the application of the Fourth Revolution to the education system. (CC)

Science Education: Issues, Approaches and Challenges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shairose Irfan Jessani

2015-06-01

Full Text Available In today’s global education system, science education is much more than fact-based knowledge. Science education becomes meaningless and incomprehensible for learners, if the learners are unable to relate it with their lives. It is thus recommended that Pakistan, like many other countries worldwide should adopt Science Technology Society (STS approach for delivery of science education. The purpose of the STS approach lies in developing scientifically literate citizens who can make conscious decisions about the socio-scientific issues that impact their lives. The challenges in adopting this approach for Pakistan lie in four areas that will completely need to be revamped according to STS approach. These areas include: the examination system; science textbooks; science teacher education programs; and available resources and school facilities.

Remodeling Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Hestenes, David

2013-01-01

Radical reform in science and mathematics education is needed to prepare citizens for challenges of the emerging knowledge-based global economy. We consider definite proposals to establish: (1) "Standards of science and math literacy" for all students. (2) "Integration of the science curriculum" with structure of matter,…

"Hold up..do pigs eat bacon?!" An investigation of science instruction for urban Black youth and the need for a culturally considerate response

Science.gov (United States)

Ridgeway, Monica Lynn

As a critical race ethnography, this dissertation attempts to foreground the richness of Black urban youth culture during and around science classroom instruction. Ironically, during an era of much diversity rhetoric in the United States, the culture of urban Black youth is rarely reflected in mainstream public school culture. I attempt to explicate such a worldview compassionately and authentically for both insiders and outsiders of the lived experiences of Black America. Education in the United States can be damning for Black youth who do not fit the mainstream mold, and several authors have provided detailed critique of mechanisms that shape, direct, and marginalize outliers to the successful academic cultural model. The U.S. through this lens is experiencing an opportunity gap, not an achievement gap--one which equitable educational experience can best be viewed through the richness of critical ethnographic methods. This methodical approach allowed me as a researcher to listen to marginalized voices and to incorporate lived interactions with youth, their parents, and community stakeholders all committed to provide support for the today's youth. As a Black female science educator, I explore the evidence for reform impact as I examine in school experiences and science teaching of culturally relevant pedagogies for urban, working-class and poor families of color in grades six-eight who participated in a Western New York academic enrichment program. Findings suggest that skepticism of reform efforts and new pedagogical approaches existed for all stakeholders aforementioned, but that students were the most amenable and responsive to alternative educational approaches. Specific recommendations for engaging students in inquiry processes are given for teachers, institutions, parents and students on the basis of videotaped lessons, interviews, and instructional artifacts. Implications include the recommendations that educators working with youth of color need to be

Nurture thru Nature: Creating Natural Science Identities in Populations of Disadvantaged Children through Community Education Partnership

Science.gov (United States)

Camasso, Michael J.; Jagannathan, Radha

2018-01-01

In this article we describe the development, implementation, and some of the early impacts of Nurture thru Nature (NtN), an American after-school and summer program designed to introduce elementary school students in disadvantaged, urban public schools to natural science and environmental education. The program, which began operations in 2010 as a…

Advancing alternate tools: why science education needs CRP and CRT

Science.gov (United States)

Dodo Seriki, Vanessa

2018-03-01

Ridgeway and Yerrick's paper, Whose banner are we waving?: exploring STEM partnerships for marginalized urban youth, unearthed the tensions that existed between a local community "expert" and a group of students and their facilitator in an afterschool program. Those of us who work with youth who are traditionally marginalized, understand the importance of teaching in culturally relevant ways, but far too often—as Ridgeway and Yerrick shared—community partners have beliefs, motives, and ideologies that are incompatible to the program's mission and goals. Nevertheless, we often enter partnerships assuming that the other party understands the needs of the students or community; understands how in U.S. society White is normative while all others are deficient; and understands how to engage with students in culturally relevant ways. This forum addresses the underlying assumption, described in the Ridgeway and Yerrick article, that educators—despite their background and experiences—are able to teach in culturally relevant ways. Additionally, I assert based on the finding in the article that just as Ladson-Billings and Tate (Teach Coll Rec 97(1):47-68, 1995) asserted, race in the U.S. society, as a scholarly pursuit, was under theorized. The same is true of science education; race in science education is under theorized and the use of culturally relevant pedagogy and critical race theory as a pedagogical model and analytical tool, respectively, in science education is minimal. The increased use of both would impact our understanding of who does science, and how to broaden participation among people of color.

Multicultural Science Education and Curriculum Materials

Science.gov (United States)

Atwater, Mary M.

2010-01-01

This article describes multicultural science education and explains the purposes of multicultural science curricula. It also serves as an introductory article for the other multicultural science education activities in this special issue of "Science Activities".

Democratizing science and technology education: Perspectives from the philosophy of education

Science.gov (United States)

Pierce, Clayton Todd

This study examines conceptualizations of science and technology and their relation to ideas of democratic education in the history of philosophy of education. My genealogical analysis begins by tracing the anti-democratic emergence of ideas and values of science and technology that have evolved through ancient and modern periods within the philosophy of education and continue to shape the ways science and technology are understood and treated in educational settings. From my critical engagement with Plato's Republic and Rousseau's Emile, I argue that anti-democratic structures and values have been embedded in philosophy of education through Plato's educational theory of techne and Rousseau's pedagogical theory that involves science and technology as important educational force. Following this theme, I analyze the work of John Dewey and Herbert Marcuse and their shared project for democratizing science and technology through education. Through a critical comparison of both theorists' models, I suggest that each provides positive legacies for philosophy of education to draw upon in rethinking the intersection of science, technology, and education: a strong model for understanding public problems associated with a highly technological and scientific society and a reconstructive framework for values and sensibilities that demands a new value relationship to be developed between humans and science and technology. Finally, I situate my critique and assessment of this history in the philosophy of education within the current science and technology education reform movement in the United States. I claim that the official models of science and technological literacy and inquiry, as constructed by the National Academy of Sciences and a host of governmental policies, shape science and technology education with a decidedly neo-liberal focus and purpose. In response to this anti-democratic movement I offer an alternative position that utilizes a counter-epistemology to the

Environmental challenges threatening the growth of urban agriculture in the United States.

Science.gov (United States)

Wortman, Sam E; Lovell, Sarah Taylor

2013-09-01

Urban agriculture, though often difficult to define, is an emerging sector of local food economies in the United States. Although urban and agricultural landscapes are often integrated in countries around the world, the establishment of mid- to large-scale food production in the U.S. urban ecosystem is a relatively new development. Many of the urban agricultural projects in the United States have emerged from social movements and nonprofit organizations focused on urban renewal, education, job training, community development, and sustainability initiatives. Although these social initiatives have traction, critical knowledge gaps exist regarding the science of food production in urban ecosystems. Developing a science-based approach to urban agriculture is essential to the economic and environmental sustainability of the movement. This paper reviews abiotic environmental factors influencing urban cropping systems, including soil contamination and remediation; atmospheric pollutants and altered climatic conditions; and water management, sources, and safety. This review paper seeks to characterize the limited state of the science on urban agricultural systems and identify future research questions most relevant to urban farmers, land-use planners, and environmental consultants. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

The Impact of High School Science Teachers' Beliefs, Curricular Enactments and Experience on Student Learning during an Inquiry-Based Urban Ecology Curriculum

Science.gov (United States)

McNeill, Katherine L.; Pimentel, Diane Silva; Strauss, Eric G.

2013-01-01

Inquiry-based curricula are an essential tool for reforming science education yet the role of the teacher is often overlooked in terms of the impact of the curriculum on student achievement. Our research focuses on 22 teachers' use of a year-long high school urban ecology curriculum and how teachers' self-efficacy, instructional practices,…

Data quality in citizen science urban tree inventories

Science.gov (United States)

Lara A. Roman; Bryant C. Scharenbroch; Johan P.A. Ostberg; Lee S. Mueller; Jason G. Henning; Andrew K. Koeser; Jessica R. Sanders; Daniel R. Betz; Rebecca C. Jordan

2017-01-01

Citizen science has been gaining popularity in ecological research and resource management in general and in urban forestry specifically. As municipalities and nonprofits engage volunteers in tree data collection, it is critical to understand data quality. We investigated observation error by comparing street tree data collected by experts to data collected by less...

Making Philosophy of Science Education Practical for Science Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Janssen, F. J. J. M.; van Berkel, B.

2015-01-01

Philosophy of science education can play a vital role in the preparation and professional development of science teachers. In order to fulfill this role a philosophy of science education should be made practical for teachers. First, multiple and inherently incomplete philosophies on the teacher and teaching on what, how and why should be…

Improving Science and IT Literacy by Providing Urban-Based Environmental Science Research Opportunities

Science.gov (United States)

Cuff, K. E.; Corazza, L.; Liang, J.

2007-12-01

A U.C. Berkeley-based outreach program known as Environmental Science Information Technology Activities has been in operation over the past four years. The primary aim of the program is to provide opportunities for grades 9 and 10 students in diverse East San Francisco Bay Area communities to develop deeper understandings of the nature and conduct of science, which will increase their capacity to enroll and perform successfully in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses in the future. Design of the program has been informed by recent research that indicates a close relationship between educational activities that promote the perception of STEM as being relevant and the ability to foster development of deeper conceptual understandings among teens. Accordingly, ESITA includes an important student-led environmental science research project component, which provides participants with opportunities to engage in research investigations that are directly linked to relevant, real-world environmental problems and issues facing their communities. Analysis of evidence gleaned from questionnaires, interviews with participants and specific assessment/evaluation instruments indicates that ESITA program activities, including after-school meetings, summer and school year research projects, and conference preparations and presentations has provided students with high-quality inquiry science experiences that increased their knowledge of STEM and IT concepts, as well as their understanding of the nature of the scientific enterprise. In addition, the program has achieved a high degree of success in that it has: enhanced participants' intellectual self-confidence with regard to STEM; developed deeper appreciation of how scientific research can contribute to the maintenance of healthy local environments; developed a greater interest in participating in STEM-related courses of study and after school programs; and improved attitudes toward STEM. Overall

Fiscal Policy in Urban Education. A Volume in Research in Education Fiscal Policy and Practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Roellke, Christopher, Ed.; Rice, Jennifer King, Ed.

This volume focuses on school finance challenges in large urban school districts, fiscal accountability in these schools, and the fiscal dimensions of urban school reform. The 12 papers are (1) "School Finance and Urban Education Reform" (Christopher Roellke and Jennifer King Rice); (2) "Can Whole-School Reform Improve the…

Science Education Notes.

Science.gov (United States)

School Science Review, 1982

1982-01-01

Discusses: (1) the nature of science; (2) Ausubel's learning theory and its application to introductory science; and (3) mathematics and physics instruction. Outlines a checklist approach to Certificate of Extended Education (CSE) practical assessment in biology. (JN)

Science education ahead?

Science.gov (United States)

1999-01-01

In spite of the achievements and successes of science education in recent years, certain problems undoubtedly remain. Firstly the content taught at secondary level has largely remained unchanged from what had been originally intended to meet the needs of those who would go on to become scientists. Secondly the curriculum is overloaded with factual content rather than emphasizing applications of scientific knowledge and skills and the connections between science and technology. Thirdly the curriculum does not relate to the needs and interests of the pupils. A recent report entitled Beyond 2000: Science Education for the Future, derived from a series of seminars funded by the Nuffield Foundation, attempts to address these issues by setting out clear aims and describing new approaches to achieve them. Joint editors of the report are Robin Millar of the University of York and Jonathan Osborne of King's College London. The recommendations are that the curriculum should contain a clear statement of its aims, with the 5 - 16 science curriculum seen as enhancing general `scientific literacy'. At key stage 4 there should be more differentiation between the literacy elements and those designed for the early stages of a specialist training in science; up to the end of key stage 3 a common curriculum is still appropriate. The curriculum should be presented clearly and simply, following on from the statement of aims, and should provide young people with an understanding of some key `ideas about science'. A wide variety of teaching methods and approaches should be encouraged, and the assessment approaches for reporting on students' performance should focus on their ability to understand and interpret information as well as their knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas. The last three recommendations in the report cover the incorporation of aspects of technology and the applications of science into the curriculum, with no substantial change overall in the short term but a

CTE's Role in Urban Education

Science.gov (United States)

Hyslop, Alisha; Imperatore, Catherine

2013-01-01

Education in the United States is facing a crisis of completion and performance, both at the secondary and postsecondary levels, with high dropout rates and a significant number of students ill-prepared for further education and careers. These problems are even more acute in America's urban schools. Today's CTE is on the cutting edge of…

Language experience narratives and the role of autobiographical reasoning in becoming an urban science teacher

Science.gov (United States)

Rivera Maulucci, Maria S.

2011-06-01

One of the central challenges globalization and immigration present to education is how to construct school language policies, procedures, and curricula to support academic success of immigrant youth. This case-study compares and contrasts language experience narratives along Elena's developmental trajectory of becoming an urban science teacher. Elena reflects upon her early language experiences and her more recent experiences as a preservice science teacher in elementary dual language classrooms. The findings from Elena's early schooling experiences provide an analysis of the linkages between Elena's developing English proficiency, her Spanish proficiency, and her autobiographical reasoning. Elena's experiences as a preservice teacher in two elementary dual language classrooms indicates ways in which those experiences helped to reframe her views about the intersections between language learning and science learning. I propose the language experience narrative, as a subset of the life story, as a way to understand how preservice teachers reconstruct past language experiences, connect to the present, and anticipate future language practices.

Science Education - Deja Vu Revised.

Science.gov (United States)

Walsh, John

1982-01-01

Summarizes views expressed and issues raised at the National Convocation on Precollege Education in Mathematics and Science and another meeting to establish a coalition of affiliates for science and mathematics education. (DC)

Reforming Science Education: Part II. Utilizing Kieran Egan's Educational Metatheory

Science.gov (United States)

Schulz, Roland M.

2009-04-01

This paper is the second of two parts and continues the conversation which had called for a shift in the conceptual focus of science education towards philosophy of education, with the requirement to develop a discipline-specific “philosophy” of science education. In Part I, conflicting conceptions of science literacy were identified with disparate “visions” tied to competing research programs as well as school-based curricular paradigms. The impasse in the goals of science education and thereto, the contending views of science literacy, were themselves associated with three underlying fundamental aims of education (knowledge-itself; personal development; socialization) which, it was argued, usually undercut the potential of each other. During periods of “crisis-talk” and throughout science educational history these three aims have repeatedly attempted to assert themselves. The inability of science education research to affect long-term change in classrooms was correlated not only to the failure to reach a consensus on the aims (due to competing programs and to the educational ideologies of their social groups), but especially to the failure of developing true educational theories (largely neglected since Hirst). Such theories, especially metatheories, could serve to reinforce science education’s growing sense of academic autonomy and independence from socio-economic demands. In Part II, I offer as a suggestion Egan’s cultural-linguistic theory as a metatheory to help resolve the impasse. I hope to make reformers familiar with his important ideas in general, and more specifically, to show how they can complement HPS rationales and reinforce the work of those researchers who have emphasized the value of narrative in learning science.

Symposium 1: Challenges in science education and popularization of Science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ildeo de Castro Moreira

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Science education and popularization of science are important elements for social inclusion. The Brazil exhibits strong inequalities regarding the distribution of wealth, access to cultural assets and appropriation of scientific and technological knowledge. Each Brazilian should have the opportunity to acquire a basic knowledge of science and its operation that allow them to understand their environment and expand their professional opportunities. However, the overall performance of Brazilian students in science and math is bad. The basic science education has, most often, few resources and is discouraging, with little appreciation of experimentation, interdisciplinarity and creativity. Beside the shortage of science teachers, especially teachers with good formation, predominate poor wage and working conditions, and deficiencies in instructional materials and laboratories. If there was a significant expansion in access to basic education, the challenge remains to improve their quality. According to the last National Conference of STI, there is need of a profound educational reform at all levels, in particular with regard to science education. Already, the popularization of science can be an important tool for the construction of scientific culture and refinement of the formal teaching instrument. However, we still lack a comprehensive and adequate public policy to her intended. Clearly, in recent decades, an increase in scientific publication occurred: creating science centers and museums; greater media presence; use of the internet and social networks; outreach events, such as the National Week of CT. But the scenario is shown still fragile and limited to broad swathes of Brazilians without access to scientific education and qualified information on CT. In this presentation, from a general diagnosis of the situation, some of the main challenges related to education and popularization of science in the country will address herself.

Innovation in Science Education - World-Wide.

Science.gov (United States)

Baez, Albert V.

The purpose of this book is to promote improvements in science education, world-wide, but particularly in developing countries. It is addressed to those in positions to make effective contributions to the improvement of science education. The world-wide role of science education, the goals of innovative activities, past experience in efforts to…

Feyerabend on Science and Education

Science.gov (United States)

Kidd, Ian James

2013-01-01

This article offers a sympathetic interpretation of Paul Feyerabend's remarks on science and education. I present a formative episode in the development of his educational ideas--the "Berkeley experience"--and describe how it affected his views on the place of science within modern education. It emerges that Feyerabend arrived at a…

SSMA Science Reviewers' Forecasts for the Future of Science Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Jinks, Jerry; Hoffer, Terry

1989-01-01

Described is a study which was conducted as an exploratory assessment of science reviewers' perceptions for the future of science education. Arrives at interpretations for identified categories of computers and high technology, science curriculum, teacher education, training, certification, standards, teaching methods, and materials. (RT)

Listening to their voices: Exploring mathematics-science identity development of African American males in an urban school community

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Kimi Leemar

experiences impact mathematics-science identity development. The goal of the study seeks to inform educational, psychological and sociological theory about how urban adolescent African American males understand, develop and make use of their mathematics and science knowledge. Finally, this work seeks to inform mathematics and science educational research to include identity theory, beyond a personal or individual identity perspective, but also to include relational, collective, and material identity components to understand how the culture of mathematics and science within and outside of K-12 public schooling impacts African American males in an endeavor to become learners of mathematics and science.

Fermilab Friends for Science Education | Join Us

Science.gov (United States)

Fermilab Friends for Science Education FFSE Home About Us Join Us Support Us Contact Us Join Us improving science (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education. Your donation allows us to membership dues allow us to create new, innovative science education programs, making the best use of unique

Basic science right, not basic science lite: medical education at a crossroad.

Science.gov (United States)

Fincher, Ruth-Marie E; Wallach, Paul M; Richardson, W Scott

2009-11-01

This perspective is a counterpoint to Dr. Brass' article, Basic biomedical sciences and the future of medical education: implications for internal medicine. The authors review development of the US medical education system as an introduction to a discussion of Dr. Brass' perspectives. The authors agree that sound scientific foundations and skill in critical thinking are important and that effective educational strategies to improve foundational science education should be implemented. Unfortunately, many students do not perceive the relevance of basic science education to clinical practice.The authors cite areas of disagreement. They believe it is unlikely that the importance of basic sciences will be diminished by contemporary directions in medical education and planned modifications of USMLE. Graduates' diminished interest in internal medicine is unlikely from changes in basic science education.Thoughtful changes in education provide the opportunity to improve understanding of fundamental sciences, the process of scientific inquiry, and translation of that knowledge to clinical practice.

Hands-on science: science education with and for society

OpenAIRE

Costa, Manuel F. M., ed. lit.; Pombo, José Miguel Marques, ed. lit.; Vázquez Dorrío, José Benito, ed. lit.

2014-01-01

The decisive importance of Science on the development of modern societies gives Science Education a role of special impact. Society sets the requirements rules and procedures of Education defining what concepts and competencies citizens must learn and how this learning should take place. Educational policies set by governments, elected and or imposed, not always reflects the will and ruling of Society. The School as pivotal element of our modern educational system must look ...

Transforming Elementary Science Teacher Education by Bridging Formal and Informal Science Education in an Innovative Science Methods Course

Science.gov (United States)

Riedinger, Kelly; Marbach-Ad, Gili; McGinnis, J. Randy; Hestness, Emily; Pease, Rebecca

2011-01-01

We investigated curricular and pedagogical innovations in an undergraduate science methods course for elementary education majors at the University of Maryland. The goals of the innovative elementary science methods course included: improving students' attitudes toward and views of science and science teaching, to model innovative science teaching…

Fermilab Friends for Science Education | Programs

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Fermilab Friends for Science Education FFSE Home About Us Join Us Support Us Contact Us Programs Donors Board of Directors Board Tools Calendar Join Us Donate Now Get FermiGear! Education Office Search photo Fermilab Friends for Science Education, in partnership with Fermilab and area educators, designs

The nature of science in science education: theories and practices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Maria Morais

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The article is based on results of research carried out by the ESSA Group (Sociological Studies of the Classroom centred on the inclusion of the nature of science (metascience on science education. The results, based on analyses of various educational texts and contexts – curricula/syllabuses, textbooks and pedagogic practices – and of the relations between those texts/contexts, have in general shown a reduced presence and low conceptualization of metascience. The article starts by presenting the theoretical framework of the research of the ESSA Group which was focused on the introduction of the nature of science in science education. It is mostly based on Ziman’s conceptualization of metascience (1984, 2000 and on Bernstein’s theorization of production and reproduction of knowledge, particularly his model of pedagogic discourse (1990, 2000 and knowledge structures (1999. This is followed by the description of a pedagogical strategy, theoretically grounded, which explores the nature of science in the classroom context. The intention is to give an example of a strategy which privileges a high level learning for all students and which may contribute to a reflection about the inclusion of the nature of science on science education. Finally, considerations are made about the applicability of the strategy on the basis of previous theoretical and empirical arguments which sustain its use in the context of science education.

New concepts of science and medicine in science and technology studies and their relevance to science education.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Hsiu-Yun; Stocker, Joel F; Fu, Daiwie

2012-02-01

Science education often adopts a narrow view of science that assumes the lay public is ignorant, which seemingly justifies a science education limited to a promotional narrative of progress in the form of scientific knowledge void of meaningful social context. We propose that to prepare students as future concerned citizens of a technoscientific society, science education should be informed by science, technology, and society (STS) perspectives. An STS-informed science education, in our view, will include the following curricular elements: science controversy education, gender issues, historical perspective, and a move away from a Eurocentric view by looking into the distinctive patterns of other regional (in this case of Taiwan, East Asian) approaches to science, technology, and medicine. This article outlines the significance of some major STS studies as a means of illustrating the ways in which STS perspectives can, if incorporated into science education, enhance our understanding of science and technology and their relationships with society. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier B.V.

New concepts of science and medicine in science and technology studies and their relevance to science education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hsiu-Yun Wang

2012-02-01

Full Text Available Science education often adopts a narrow view of science that assumes the lay public is ignorant, which seemingly justifies a science education limited to a promotional narrative of progress in the form of scientific knowledge void of meaningful social context. We propose that to prepare students as future concerned citizens of a technoscientific society, science education should be informed by science, technology, and society (STS perspectives. An STS-informed science education, in our view, will include the following curricular elements: science controversy education, gender issues, historical perspective, and a move away from a Eurocentric view by looking into the distinctive patterns of other regional (in this case of Taiwan, East Asian approaches to science, technology, and medicine. This article outlines the significance of some major STS studies as a means of illustrating the ways in which STS perspectives can, if incorporated into science education, enhance our understanding of science and technology and their relationships with society.

Project of international science-education center and integration problems of nano science education in far eastern region of Asia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Plusnin, N I; Lazarev, G I

2008-01-01

Some conception of international science-education center on nano science in Vladivostok is presented. The conception is based on internal and external prerequisites. Internal one is high intellectual potential of institutes of Russian Academy of Sciences and universities of Vladivostok and external one is need of countries of Far Eastern region of Asia in high level manpower. The conception takes into account a specific distribution of science and education potential between Russian Academy of Sciences and Russian universities and a specific their dislocation in Vladivostok. First specific dictates some similarity of organization structure and function of international science-education center to typical science-education center in Russia. But as for dislocation of the international science-education center in Vladivostok, it should be near dislocation of institutes of Far Eastern Brunch of Russian Academy of Sciences in Vladivostok, which are dislocated very compactly in suburb zone of Vladivostok

Guidelines for Building Science Education

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Metzger, Cheryn E. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Rashkin, Samuel [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Huelman, Pat [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

2015-11-01

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) residential research and demonstration program, Building America, has triumphed through 20 years of innovation. Partnering with researchers, builders, remodelers, and manufacturers to develop innovative processes like advanced framing and ventilation standards, Building America has proven an energy efficient design can be more cost effective, healthy, and durable than a standard house. As Building America partners continue to achieve their stretch goals, they have found that the barrier to true market transformation for high performance homes is the limited knowledge-base of the professionals working in the building industry. With dozens of professionals taking part in the design and execution of building and selling homes, each person should have basic building science knowledge relevant to their role, and an understanding of how various home components interface with each other. Instead, our industry typically experiences a fragmented approach to home building and design. After obtaining important input from stakeholders at the Building Science Education Kick-Off Meeting, DOE created a building science education strategy addressing education issues preventing the widespread adoption of high performance homes. This strategy targets the next generation and provides valuable guidance for the current workforce. The initiative includes: • Race to Zero Student Design Competition: Engages universities and provides students who will be the next generation of architects, engineers, construction managers and entrepreneurs with the necessary skills and experience they need to begin careers in clean energy and generate creative solutions to real world problems. • Building Science to Sales Translator: Simplifies building science into compelling sales language and tools to sell high performance homes to their customers. • Building Science Education Guidance: Brings together industry and academia to solve problems related to

Engaged Learning and Youth Interest in STEM Careers: A Science Museum Exhibit on Air Pollution and Urban Sustainability

Science.gov (United States)

Stuart, A. L.

2012-12-01

Enrollments in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curricula currently lag workforce needs. Participation of women and minorities in STEM careers also remains low despite efforts to improve their representation in these fields. We discuss the development and evaluation of a science museum exhibit aimed at stimulating interest of middle school children (particularly girls) in STEM careers. The exhibit was designed to teach science, while addressing two factors identified as limiting the interest of girls in STEM fields — perceived lack of social relevance and lack of female role models. Further, it was designed to apply best practices in science education, including inquiry-based learning and interdisciplinary content. The exhibit was developed through collaboration between students and faculty researchers at the University of South Florida and science education and evaluation specialists at the Museum of Science and Industry of Tampa. A few stages of formative and summative assessment, including focus group discussions, visitor observation, and surveys were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the exhibit to educational project goals. The installed exhibit is focused on teaching content related to interactions between air pollution, urban design, and human health. The approximately 25 square foot exhibit space involves four different types of components. A three-dimensional model of a city, with underlying dynamic computer simulations, allows visitors to interactively explore relationships between city design, air pollution and exposures. A computer game, with quiz questions requiring user decisions on personal to community behavior, provides visual feedback regarding impacts on air pollution. Traditional panels with graphics and text, including results of current research, display integrative scientific content with open-ended questions to stimulate discussion. Finally, personal profiles highlight the diverse family, work, and social lives

Exploring the contexts of urban science classrooms: Cogenerative dialogues, coteaching, and cosmopolitanism

Science.gov (United States)

Emdin, Christopher

The body of work presented in this dissertation is a response to the reported association between poor outcomes in science achievement and students of color in urban schools. By presenting counterexamples to the cultural motif that urban students of color perform poorly in science, I argue that poor achievement cannot be traced to a group of people but can be linked to institutions promoting subject delivery methods that instill distaste for science and compel students to display an illusion of disinterest in school. There are two major goals of this study. First, I plan to demonstrate how plans of action generated by coteachers and cogenerative dialogue groups can coalesce under the ethos of making science and schooling accessible to populations that are traditionally marginalized from science achievement. My second aim is to develop mechanisms for transforming science learning contexts into cosmopolitan learning communities that develop student success in science. Through a three-year ethnographic study of physics and chemistry classrooms in a high school in New York City, I present explorations of the culture and context of the urban classroom as a chief means to meet my goals. In my research, I find that obstacles to identity development around science can be tied to corporate understandings of teaching and learning that are amenable to local efforts toward change. This change is facilitated through the use of transformative tools like cogenerative dialogues, coteaching, and cosmopolitanism. Through the application of these research tools, I uncover and investigate how various misalignments that present themselves in physics and chemistry classrooms serve as signifiers of macro issues that permeate science classrooms from larger fields. By utilizing cogenerative dialogues as a tool for investigating both micro enactments within classrooms and the macro structures that generate these enactments, I show how students and teachers can work together as co

Who Decided College Access in Chinese Secondary Education? Rural-Urban Inequality of Basic Education in Contemporary China

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jian

2016-01-01

This paper investigates the rural-urban inequalities in basic education of contemporary China. The China Education Panel Survey (2013-2014) (CEPS) was utilized to analyze the gaps between rural and urban inequality in junior high schools in terms of three domains, which include the equalities of access, inputs, and outcomes. From the sociocultural…

University Science and Mathematics Education in Transition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skovsmose, Ole; Valero, Paola; Christensen, Ole Ravn

configuration poses to scientific knowledge, to universities and especially to education in mathematics and science. Traditionally, educational studies in mathematics and science education have looked at change in education from within the scientific disciplines and in the closed context of the classroom....... Although educational change is ultimately implemented in everyday teaching and learning situations, other parallel dimensions influencing these situations cannot be forgotten. An understanding of the actual potentialities and limitations of educational transformations are highly dependent on the network...... of educational, cultural, administrative and ideological views and practices that permeate and constitute science and mathematics education in universities today. University Science and Mathematics Education in Transition contributes to an understanding of the multiple aspects and dimensions of the transition...

Educational Technology Classics: The Science Teacher and Educational Technology

Science.gov (United States)

Harbeck, Richard M.

2015-01-01

The science teacher is the key person who has the commitment and the responsibility for carrying out any brand of science education. All of the investments, predictions, and expressions of concern will have little effect on the accomplishment of the broad goals of science education if these are not reflected in the situations in which learning…

The feasibility of educating trainee science teachers in issues of science and religion

Science.gov (United States)

Poole, Michael

2016-06-01

This article reflects on Roussel De Carvalho's paper `Science initial teacher education and superdiversity: educating science teachers for a multi-religious and globalized science classroom'. It then offers suggestions for making some of the ambitious goals of the science-and-religion components of the science initial teacher education project more manageable.

Hip-hop as a resource for understanding the urban context

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Bryan

2010-06-01

This review explores Edmin's "Science education for the hip-hop generation" by documenting how he frames hip-hop as a means to access urban student culture. He argues that hip-hop is more than a mere music genre, but rather a culture that provides young people with ways of connecting to the world. Two primary ideas emerged as central to his work. First, he contends that students develop communal relationships and collective identities based on the common experiences expressed in hip-hop. Second, he identifies how the conscious recognition of institutional oppression serves a central feature in urban schools. Emdin's rich, and personal call for a greater understanding of hip-hop culture provides the text with an unmatched strength. He skillfully uses personal narratives from his own experience as well as quotes and references from hip-hop songs to make the nuances of hip hop transparent to science educators. Conversely, the limitation of this text is found in its unfulfilled promise to provide pragmatic examples of how to engage in a hip-hop based science education. Emdin's work is ultimately valuable as it extends our current knowledge about urban students and hip-hop in meaningful ways.

Education science and biological anthropology.

Science.gov (United States)

Krebs, Uwe

2014-01-01

This contribution states deficits and makes proposals in order to overcome them. First there is the question as to why the Biological Anthropology--despite all its diversifications--hardly ever deals with educational aspects of its subject. Second it is the question as to why Educational Science neglects or even ignores data of Biological Anthropology which are recognizably important for its subject. It is postulated that the stated deficits are caused by several adverse influences such as, the individual identity of each of the involved single sciences; aspects of the recent history of the German Anthropology; a lack of conceptual understanding of each other; methodological differences and, last but not least, the structure of the universities. The necessity to remedy this situation was deduced from two groups of facts. First, more recent data of the Biological Anthropology (e.g. brain functions and learning, sex specificity and education) are of substantial relevance for the Educational Science. Second, the epistemological requirements of complex subjects like education need interdisciplinary approaches. Finally, a few suggestions of concrete topics are given which are related to both, Educational Science and Biological Anthropology.

Reading Urban Environment by Photo: A Critical Tool for Socio ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Reading Urban Environment by Photo: A Critical Tool for Socio-Cultural Analyzing. ... Science, Technology and Arts Research Journal ... In the last decades usage of photos in landscape and urban design grow noticeably; yet applying it in architectural research or education for discovering social determinations needs more ...

Trends in Educational Inequality in Different Eras (1940-2010)--A Re-Examination of Opportunity Inequalities in Urban-Rural Education

Science.gov (United States)

Chunling, Li

2015-01-01

Based on national sampling survey data from 2006, 2008, and 2011, the author uses the Mare educational transition model to systematically examine changing trends in inequalities in urban-rural educational opportunities at all educational stages from 1940 to 2010. Through a comparative analysis of five birth year groups, inequalities in urban-rural…

Research trends and issues in informal science education

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Pinthong, Tanwarat; Faikhamta, Chatree

2018-01-01

Research in informal science education (ISE) become more interesting area in science education for a few decades. The main purpose of this research is to analyse research articles in 30 issues of top three international journals in science education; Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Science Education, and the International Journal of Science Education. The research articles during 2007 and 2016 were reviewed and analysed according to the authors' nationality, informal science education's research topics, research paradigms, methods of data collection and data analysis. The research findings indicated that there were 201 published papers related to informal science education, successfully submitted by 469 authors from 27 different countries. In 2008, there was no article related to informal science education. Statistical analyses showed that authors from USA are the most dominant, followed by UK and Israel. The top three ISE's research topics most frequently investigated by the researchers were regarding students' informal learning, public understanding in science, and informal perspectives, policies and paradigms. It is also found that theoretical framework used in informal science education which is becoming more strongly rooted is in a mix of the sociocultural and constructivist paradigms, with a growing acceptance of qualitative research methods and analyses.

Improving science literacy and education through space life sciences

Science.gov (United States)

MacLeish, M. Y.; Moreno, N. P.; Tharp, B. Z.; Denton, J. J.; Jessup, G.; Clipper, M. C.

2001-01-01

The National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) encourages open involvement by scientists and the public at large in the Institute's activities. Through its Education and Public Outreach Program, the Institute is supporting national efforts to improve Kindergarten through grade twelve (K-12) and undergraduate education and to communicate knowledge generated by space life science research to lay audiences. Three academic institution Baylor College of Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine and Texas A&M University are designing, producing, field-testing, and disseminating a comprehensive array of programs and products to achieve this goal. The objectives of the NSBRI Education and Public Outreach program are to: promote systemic change in elementary and secondary science education; attract undergraduate students--especially those from underrepresented groups--to careers in space life sciences, engineering and technology-based fields; increase scientific literacy; and to develop public and private sector partnerships that enhance and expand NSBRI efforts to reach students and families. c 2001. Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Shifting Geography of Urban Education

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Freeman, Eric

2010-01-01

Poverty in the United States is migrating far beyond the urban core and transforming the suburbs into places increasingly stratified by income, wealth, opportunity, and education. Census data from the 2005 American Community Survey reveal new patterns of income inequality, residential mobility, and spatial segregation that make the suburbs less of…

INTERACTION BETWEEN HUMAN BEING AND URBAN CULTURE SPACE: ONE OF THE MOTIVATIONS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION INTERNATIONALISATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hu Liang Cai

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Introduction: the objective of this paper is to deeply and clearly explain the internationalisation of higher education from the aspect of the integration of human being with urban cultural space. Materials and Methods: the methods used in the research are mainly analytical and descriptive ones enabling to show how the integration of human being and urban cultural space promote and influence the internationalisation of higher education. Results: the motivation for the internationalisation of higher education is closely interrelated with that of urbanisation. Besides the economic and political incentives, modern urban culture, caused by globalisation, also plays a very important role in encouraging higher education internationalisation. Discussion and Conclusions: the appearance of higher education internationalisation is mediated by the alteration of the existing environment of urban culture space against the background of city internationalisation. Human beings’ need for self-assurance in urban culture space helps to stimulate the internationalisation of higher education, and human beings promote the development of modern culture space and their separation in urban culture space accelerates the development of higher education. From the perspective of higher education internationalisation, to sort out the cultural motivation for higher education and find its suitable form for the city’s internationalisation is crucial for adjusting the orientation and guaranteeing the efficacy of higher education internationalisation. From the aspect of human beings’ development, the separation between urban space and human beings caused by the city’s ongoing internationalisation is a pressing problem to be solved. From the aspect of the construction of urban culture space, as an important means of retaining human beings’ equilibrium, urban culture promotes the internationalisation of higher education.

Capitalizing on Crisis: Venture Philanthropy's Colonial Project to Remake Urban Education

Science.gov (United States)

Lipman, Pauline

2015-01-01

This article focuses on the increased power of venture philanthropy to shape education in urban communities of color in the USA. The author situates venture philanthropy's expanded influence in urban school districts in the nexus of urban disinvestment, neoliberal governance, wealth concentration, and economic crisis. The author argues that…

76 FR 11765 - Education Research and Special Education Research Grant Programs; Institute of Education Sciences...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-03-03

... DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Education Research and Special Education Research Grant Programs; Institute of Education Sciences; Overview Information; Education Research and Special Education Research.... SUMMARY: The Director of the Institute of Education Sciences (Institute) announces the Institute's FY 2012...

Deconstructing Teacher Quality in Urban Early Childhood Education

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Young, Jemimah L.; Butler, Bettie Ray; Dolzhenko, Inna N.; Ardrey, Tameka N.

2018-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to deconstruct the extant scholarship on quality in early childhood education and to emphasize the importance of extending the literature to explore the potential influence that a teachers' educational background may have on kindergarten readiness for African American children in urban early learning settings.…

Concepts of matter in science education

CERN Document Server

Sevian, Hannah

2013-01-01

Bringing together a wide collection of ideas, reviews, analyses and new research on particulate and structural concepts of matter, Concepts of Matter in Science Education informs practice from pre-school through graduate school learning and teaching and aims to inspire progress in science education. The expert contributors offer a range of reviews and critical analyses of related literature and in-depth analysis of specific issues, as well as new research. Among the themes covered are learning progressions for teaching a particle model of matter, the mental models of both students and teachers of the particulate nature of matter, educational technology, chemical reactions and chemical phenomena, chemical structure and bonding, quantum chemistry and the history and philosophy of science relating to the particulate nature of matter. The book will benefit a wide audience including classroom practitioners and student teachers at every educational level, teacher educators and researchers in science education.

Student questions in urban middle school science communities of practice

Science.gov (United States)

Groome, Meghan

This dissertation examines student questions within three Communities of Practice (CoP), all urban middle school science environments. The study analyzed student questions from a sociocultural perspective and used ethnographic research techniques to detail how the CoP's shaped questions in the classroom. In the first study, two case study girls attempted to navigate questioning events that required them to negotiation participation. Their access to participation was blocked by participation frameworks that elevated some students as "gatekeepers" while suppressing the participation of others. The next two studies detail the introduction of written questioning opportunities, one into a public middle school classroom and the other into an informal classroom. In both studies, students responded to the interventions differently, most notable the adoption of the opportunity by female students who do not participate orally. Dissertation-wide findings indicate all students were able to ask questions, but varied in level of cognitive complexity, and the diagnostic interventions were able to identify students who were not known to be "target students", students who asked a high number of questions and were considered "interested in science". Some students' roles were as "gatekeepers" to participation of their peers. Two out of three teachers in the studies reported major shifts in their teaching practice due to the focus on questions and the methods used here have been found to be effective in producing educational research as well as supporting high-need classrooms in prior research. In conclusion, these studies indicate that social factors, including participation frameworks, gender dynamics, and the availability of alternative participation methods, play an important role in how students ask science-related questions. It is recommended that researchers continue to examine social factors that reduce student questions and modify their teaching strategies to facilitate

Not Driven by High-Stakes Tests: Exploring Science Assessment and College Readiness of Students from an Urban Portfolio Community High School

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Fleshman, Robin Earle

science readiness. Data from the transcripts of two graduating classes were analyzed and the interview transcripts were coded and analyzed as well. Analysis of qualitative data revealed key findings: (1) the school's Habits of Mind, authentic scientific inquiry, self-regulated learning triggers and strategies, and teacher feedback practices driven by an ethic of care supported students' science learning and portfolio assessment; and (2) the cyclical and extensive portfolio processes of writing, revision, and submission well prepared alumni for college science laboratory work and coursework, to a certain extent, but not for the traditional assessments administered in college science courses. Analysis of quantitative data revealed that, if based solely on the City University of New York's Regents score criteria for college readiness, the majority of students from these two graduating classes studied would not have been considered college ready even though all participants, including interviewed alumni, believed the school prepared them for college. The majority of these students, however, were transitioning to college readiness based on their Regents-level science and mathematics coursework. Findings of this study have implications for science assessment, professional development in science, education policy reform, and high school partnerships with CBOs and postsecondary institutions as they pertain to college and college science readiness for students of color in urban portfolio community high schools.

Science, Worldviews, and Education

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Gauch, Hugh G., Jr.

2009-01-01

Whether science can reach conclusions with substantial worldview import, such as whether supernatural beings exist or the universe is purposeful, is a significant but unsettled aspect of science. For instance, various scientists, philosophers, and educators have explored the implications of science for a theistic worldview, with opinions spanning…

Fermilab Friends for Science Education | Support Us

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Fermilab Friends for Science Education FFSE Home About Us Join Us Support Us Contact Us Support Us improving science (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education. Your donation allows us to Testimonials Our Donors Board of Directors Board Tools Calendar Join Us Donate Now Get FermiGear! Education

75 FR 13265 - National Board for Education Sciences

Science.gov (United States)

2010-03-19

... DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION National Board for Education Sciences AGENCY: Institute of Education Sciences, Department of Education. ACTION: Notice of an open meeting. SUMMARY: This notice sets forth the schedule and proposed agenda of an upcoming meeting of the National Board for Education Sciences. The...

75 FR 53280 - National Board for Education Sciences

Science.gov (United States)

2010-08-31

... DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION National Board for Education Sciences AGENCY: Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. ACTION: Notice of an open meeting. SUMMARY: This notice sets forth the schedule and proposed agenda of an upcoming meeting of the National Board for Education Sciences. The...

The Nature of Science and Science Education: A Bibliography

Science.gov (United States)

Bell, Randy; Abd-El-Khalick, Fouad; Lederman, Norman G.; Mccomas, William F.; Matthews, Michael R.

Research on the nature of science and science education enjoys a long history, with its origins in Ernst Mach's work in the late nineteenth century and John Dewey's at the beginning of the twentieth century. As early as 1909 the Central Association for Science and Mathematics Teachers published an article - A Consideration of the Principles that Should Determine the Courses in Biology in Secondary Schools - in School Science and Mathematics that reflected foundational concerns about science and how school curricula should be informed by them. Since then a large body of literature has developed related to the teaching and learning about nature of science - see, for example, the Lederman (1992)and Meichtry (1993) reviews cited below. As well there has been intense philosophical, historical and philosophical debate about the nature of science itself, culminating in the much-publicised Science Wars of recent time. Thereferences listed here primarily focus on the empirical research related to the nature of science as an educational goal; along with a few influential philosophical works by such authors as Kuhn, Popper, Laudan, Lakatos, and others. While not exhaustive, the list should prove useful to educators, and scholars in other fields, interested in the nature of science and how its understanding can be realised as a goal of science instruction. The authors welcome correspondence regarding omissions from the list, and on-going additions that can be made to it.

Fermilab Friends for Science Education | About Us

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Fermilab Friends for Science Education FFSE Home About Us Join Us Support Us Contact Us About Us national leader in precollege science education. From the first Summer Institute for Science Teachers held year over 37,000 students, and 2,500 teachers participated in programs through the Education Office

BIBLIOGRAPHY ON URBAN EDUCATION, SUPPLEMENT TO BIBLIOGRAPHY ON DISADVANTAGED.

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Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA. Graduate School of Education.

THIS BIBLIOGRAPHY LISTS MATERIAL ON VARIOUS ASPECTS OF URBAN EDUCATION. APPROXIMATELY 220 UNANNOTATED REFERENCES ARE PROVIDED TO DOCUMENTS FROM 1961 TO 1965. JOURNALS, BOOKS, AND REPORTS ARE LISTED. SUBJECT AREAS INCLUDED ARE FAMILY ENVIRONMENT, CULTURALLY DEPRIVED, LOW ACHIEVERS, DROPOUTS, AND DESEGREGATED EDUCATION. (TC)

Being, becoming, and belonging: Improving science fluency during laboratory activities in urban education

Science.gov (United States)

Pitts, Wesley

The research presented in this dissertation uses authentic ethnography, augmented by video and conversational analysis, to investigate the teaching and learning of chemistry across boundaries of difference in an urban high school. A coordinated set of theoretical lenses from cultural sociology and sociology of emotion is used to deploy and analyze these methods. All four students highlighted in this study are Black and/or Latino females from working class income families. They identify as second-generation Americans either of African American of Caribbean heritage or Latina of Latin American or Caribbean heritage. The students achieved mild to moderate success in a tenth-grade level chemistry class. Their chemistry teacher is a first-generation immigrant middle-aged male who would ethnically be considered Filipino-American. The focal fields of this research occur in Regents chemistry laboratory classes in a small secondary inner city high school in the Bronx, New York City, and associated cogenerative dialogues. One of the major premises of this study is that learning is a form of cultural enactment (i.e., production, reproduction, and transformation). Culture (schema and practices) enacted by students and teachers in one field can be enacted successfully in another field because fields are surrounded by porous boundaries. Accordingly, participants use resources to meet their goals (e.g., learn chemistry), in so doing, create interstitial culture that becomes part of the structure of the field and resources for learning. A priority was to examine how learning and teaching of science is enacted when students and their teachers are able to coparticipate in culturally adaptive ways and use their capital successfully. A key implication is the need for teachers and students to be aware of cultural encounters that afford positive emotional energy and solidarity. The important point here is to minimize encounters that create negative emotional energy. What we learned from

Preparing Future Secondary Computer Science Educators

Science.gov (United States)

Ajwa, Iyad

2007-01-01

Although nearly every college offers a major in computer science, many computer science teachers at the secondary level have received little formal training. This paper presents details of a project that could make a significant contribution to national efforts to improve computer science education by combining teacher education and professional…

Emphasizing Morals, Values, Ethics, and Character Education in Science Education and Science Teaching

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Chowdhury, Mohammad

2016-01-01

This article presents the rationale and arguments for the presence of morals, values, ethics and character education in science curriculum and science teaching. The author examines how rapid science and technological advancements and globalization are contributing to the complexities of social life and underpinning the importance of morals, values…

Building a Global Ocean Science Education Network

Science.gov (United States)

Scowcroft, G. A.; Tuddenham, P. T.; Pizziconi, R.

2016-02-01

It is imperative for ocean science education to be closely linked to ocean science research. This is especially important for research that addresses global concerns that cross national boundaries, including climate related issues. The results of research on these critical topics must find its way to the public, educators, and students of all ages around the globe. To facilitate this, opportunities are needed for ocean scientists and educators to convene and identify priorities and strategies for ocean science education. On June 26 and 27, 2015 the first Global Ocean Science Education (GOSE) Workshop was convened in the United States at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography. The workshop, sponsored by the Consortium for Ocean Science Exploration and Engagement (COSEE) and the College of Exploration, had over 75 participants representing 15 nations. The workshop addressed critical global ocean science topics, current ocean science research and education priorities, advanced communication technologies, and leveraging international ocean research technologies. In addition, panels discussed elementary, secondary, undergraduate, graduate, and public education across the ocean basins with emphasis on opportunities for international collaboration. Special presentation topics included advancements in tropical cyclone forecasting, collaborations among Pacific Islands, ocean science for coastal resiliency, and trans-Atlantic collaboration. This presentation will focus on workshop outcomes as well as activities for growing a global ocean science education network. A summary of the workshop report will also be provided. The dates and location for the 2016 GOES Workshop will be announced. See http://www.coexploration.net/gose/index.html

Artificial Intelligence and Science Education.

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Good, Ron

1987-01-01

Defines artificial intelligence (AI) in relation to intelligent computer-assisted instruction (ICAI) and science education. Provides a brief background of AI work, examples of expert systems, examples of ICAI work, and addresses problems facing AI workers that have implications for science education. Proposes a revised model of the Karplus/Renner…

Leadership, Responsibility, and Reform in Science Education.

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Bybee, Rodger W.

1993-01-01

Regards leadership as central to the success of the reform movement in science education. Defines leadership and introduces a model of leadership modified from the one developed by Edwin Locke and his associates. Provides an overview of the essential qualities of leadership occurring in science education. Discusses reforming science education and…

Data Mining Tools in Science Education

OpenAIRE

Premysl Zaskodny

2012-01-01

The main principle of paper is Data Mining in Science Education (DMSE) as Problem Solving. The main goal of paper is consisting in Delimitation of Complex Data Mining Tool and Partial Data Mining Tool of DMSE. The procedure of paper is consisting of Data Preprocessing in Science Education, Data Processing in Science Education, Description of Curricular Process as Complex Data Mining Tool (CP-DMSE), Description of Analytical Synthetic Modeling as Partial Data Mining Tool (ASM-DMSE) and finally...

Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education (CUERE)

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Federal Laboratory Consortium — The Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education (CUERE) at UMBC was created in 2001 with initial support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and...

Contesting the City: Neoliberal Urbanism and the Cultural Politics of Education Reform in Chicago

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Lipman, Pauline

2011-01-01

This article examines the intertwining of neoliberal urbanism and education policy in Chicago. Drawing on critical studies in geography, urban sociology and anthropology, education policy, and critical analyses of race, the author argues that education is constitutive of material and ideological processes of neoliberal restructuring, its…

Science Identity in Informal Education

Science.gov (United States)

Schon, Jennifer A.

The national drive to increase the number of students pursuing Science Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) careers has brought science identity into focus for educators, with the need to determine what encourages students to pursue and persist in STEM careers. Science identity, the degree to which students think someone like them could be a scientist is a potential indicator of students pursuing and persisting in STEM related fields. Science identity, as defined by Carlone and Johnson (2007) consists of three constructs: competence, performance, and recognition. Students need to feel like they are good at science, can perform it well, and that others recognize them for these achievements in order to develop a science identity. These constructs can be bolstered by student visitation to informal education centers. Informal education centers, such as outdoor science schools, museums, and various learning centers can have a positive impact on how students view themselves as scientists by exposing them to novel and unique learning opportunities unavailable in their school. Specifically, the University of Idaho's McCall Outdoor Science School (MOSS) focuses on providing K-12 students with the opportunity to learn about science with a place-based, hands-on, inquiry-based curriculum that hopes to foster science identity development. To understand the constructs that lead to science identity formation and the impact the MOSS program has on science identity development, several questions were explored examining how students define the constructs and if the MOSS program impacted how they rate themselves within each construct. A mixed-method research approach was used consisting of focus group interviews with students and pre, post, one-month posttests for visiting students to look at change in science identity over time. Results from confirmatory factor analysis indicate that the instrument created is a good fit for examining science identity and the associated

Fermilab Friends for Science Education | Contact Us

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Fermilab Friends for Science Education FFSE Home About Us Join Us Support Us Contact Us Contact Us Science Education P.O Box 500, MS 777 Batavia, IL 60510-5011 (630) 840-3094 * fax: (630) 840-2500 E-mail : Membership Send all other communications to: Susan Dahl, President Fermilab Friends for Science Education Box

Seven place-conscious methods to stimulate situational interest in science teaching in urban environments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bølling, Mads; Hartmeyer, Rikke; Bentsen, Peter

2018-01-01

. The data consisted of transcribed interviews with 4 experienced teachers and 11 pupils. The interviews were elicited by films showing group work in science teaching in urban environments: a parking lot, a green public park and a zoo. We conducted individual interviews with science teachers, while......In this study, we explored how teachers can take advantage of a ‘place’ in urban environments outside the school and thereby stimulate pupils’ situational interest in science teaching. Drawing on the Sophos research method, we conducted a single case study including film-elicited interviews...... places; (3) alignment between the environment and task; (4) integrating minimal cultivated places; (5) providing a science perspective on everyday places; (6) disseminating historical or cultural knowledge of places; and (7) surprises. Starting from a discussion drawing on studies that explored triggers...

Factors Affecting the Retention of First-career and Second-career Science Teachers in Urban High Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Rak, Rosemary C.

The turnover of high school science teachers is an especially troubling problem in urban schools with economically disadvantaged students. Because high teacher turnover rates impede effective instruction, the persistence of teacher attrition is a serious concern. Using an online survey and interviews in a sequential mixed-methods approach, this study investigates the perceptions of high school science teachers regarding factors that contribute to their employment decisions. The study also compares first-career and second-career science teachers' perceptions of retention and attrition factors and identifies conditions that urban school leaders can establish to support the retention of their science teachers. A purposeful sample of 138 science teachers from urban area New England public high schools with 50% or more Free and Reduced Price Lunch-eligible students participated in the survey. Twelve survey respondents were subsequently interviewed. In accord with extant research, this study's results suggest that school leadership is essential to fostering teacher retention. The findings also reveal the importance of autonomy, professional community, and adequate resources to support science instruction. Although mentoring and induction programs receive low importance ratings in this study, career-changers view these programs as more important to their retention than do first-career science teachers. Second-career interviewees, in particular, voice the importance of being treated as professionals by school leaders. Future research may examine the characteristics of mentoring and induction programs that make them most responsive to the needs of first-career and second-career science teachers. Future studies may also investigate the aspects of school leadership and professional autonomy that are most effective in promoting science teacher retention. Keywords: career-changers; school leaders; science teachers; second-career teachers; teacher retention; teacher turnover

The Role of Outdoor Art in Urban Environmental Education

Science.gov (United States)

Filippelli, G. M.; Kesling, M.; Ryan, T.; Fraser, J.; McDonald, F.; Rollings, A.; Miss, M.; Kanpetch, B.; Trueblood, M.

2015-12-01

Finding ways to engage youth in inadvertent learning about nature and the environment is challenging, particularly in urban areas where environmental literacy is profoundly limited by access to safe and representative spaces. Termed the Nature Deficit Disorder, the lack of contact and connection between people and their environment leads to a less than holistic approach to environmental management at the personal and governmental levels. One of the challenges is developing ways to engage youth in science learning not by bringing them indoors to a science museum but rather by taking the science museum outdoors. Funded by the NSF Informal Science Learning program, we launched a collaborative between scientists and artists to understand the nature and impact of environmental learning through outdoor art and science programming, called StreamLines. Launched in 2014 and now near full deployment, the program is part of a bigger initiative in Indianapolis (Reconnecting to Our Waterways) to embrace the multiple waterways that traverse the city as a valuable community and health resource. This collaborative is designed to function on multiple levels. An Artist and Scientists Roundtable engages practitioners in regular conversations supplemented by external readings to share how practitioners use concepts and tools from the "opposite" side to inform their work and scholarship. Physical installations of iconic art at individual sites reflect the environmental conditions at individual sites are designed as tools for explicit and implicit learning and exploration about the environment. Music, poetry, and dance programming developed for individual sites portray cogent characteristics of place and are meant to allow visitors to see how artists engage with and draw from the environment for inspiration. A research approach unpins all of these efforts, utilizing a set of different sample populations to explore environmental education and potential advocacy after interactions with

Restrictions and Countermeasures of Rural Vocational Education in Urban-rural Integration

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

2012-01-01

Developing rural vocational education is of great significance to urban-rural integration: developing rural vocational education is helpful to cultivating new farmers for construction of new socialist countryside,favorable to improving farmers’ ability of finding jobs and starting undertaking, and beneficial to transfer of rural surplus labor and acceleration of urbanization. Restrictions on development rural vocational education mainly include: low value cognition of society and social assessment of rural vocational education; out of balance of cost and expected return of rural vocational education; the quality of supply of rural vocational education failure to satisfy demand of socio-economic development; imperfect rural vocational education system. In view of these,following countermeasures and suggestions are put forward: strengthen propaganda and guidance to build environment of public opinion for rural vocational education; push forward rural vocational compulsory education system to lay social foundation for rural vocational education; reinforce policy support to assist in building rural vocational education system; improve education system to build overall framework of rural vocational education; perfect laws and regulations to establish system and norm for development of rural vocational education.

The Archetypes and Philosophical Motivations of Urban Elementary Physical Educators

Science.gov (United States)

Culp, Brian

2011-01-01

Brookfield (1990), Brown (2002) and Weiner (2006) have advocated for the study of teachers' philosophies as integral to understanding motivation for teaching in urban settings. The purpose of this study investigates the teaching philosophies of 13 experienced urban elementary physical educators. Content analysis of the data collected from teachers…

Augmented Reality in Science Education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Birgitte Lund; Brandt, Harald; Swensen, Hakon

Augmented reality (AR) holds great promise as a learning tool. However, most extant studies in this field have focused on the technology itself. The poster presents findings from the first stage of the AR-sci project addressing the issue of applying AR for educational purposes. Benefits and chall......Augmented reality (AR) holds great promise as a learning tool. However, most extant studies in this field have focused on the technology itself. The poster presents findings from the first stage of the AR-sci project addressing the issue of applying AR for educational purposes. Benefits...... and challenges related to AR enhancing student learning in science in lower secondary school were identified by expert science teachers, ICT designers and science education researchers from four countries in a Delphi survey. Findings were condensed in a framework to categorize educational AR designs....

General Atomics Sciences Education Foundation Outreach Programs

Science.gov (United States)

Winter, Patricia S.

1997-11-01

Scientific literacy for all students is a national goal. The General Atomics (GA) Foundation Outreach Program is committed to playing a major role in enhancing pre-college education in science, engineering and new technologies. GA has received wide recognition for its Sciences Education Program, a volunteer effort of GA employees and San Diego science teachers. GA teacher/scientist teams have developed inquiry-based education modules and associated workshops based on areas of core competency at GA: Fusion -- Energy of the Stars; Explorations in Materials Science; Portrait of an Atom; DNA Technology. [http://www.sci-ed-ga.org]. Workshops [teachers receive printed materials and laboratory kits for ``hands-on" modules] have been presented for 700+ teachers from 200+ area schools. Additional workshops include: University of Denver for Denver Public Schools; National Educators Workshop; Standard Experiments in Engineering Materials; Update '96 in Los Alamos; Newspapers in Education Workshop (LA Times); American Chemical Society Regional/National meetings, and California Science Teachers Association Conference. Other outreach includes High School Science Day, school partnerships, teacher and student mentoring and the San Diego Science Alliance [http://www.sdsa.org].

Symposium 3 - Science Education “Leopoldo de Meis”: The Critical Importance of Science Education for Society

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bruce Albert

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Symposium 3 - Science Education “Leopoldo de Meis” Chair: Wagner Seixas da Silva, Universidade Federal do Rio de JaneiroAbstract:Three ambitious goals for science education:1. Enable all children to acquire the problem-solving, thinking, and communication skills of scientists – so that they can be productive and competitive in the new world economy.2. Generate a “scientific temper” for each nation, with scientifically trained people in many professions, ensuring the rationality and the tolerance essential for a democratic society.3. Help each nation generate new scientific knowledge and technology by casting the widest possible net for talent.My preferred strategy for the United States:1. Science education should have a much larger role in all school systems, but only if this science education is of a different kind than is experienced in most schools today.2. Making such a change will require a redefinition of what we mean by the term  “science education”.3. To create continually improving education systems, we will need much more collaborative, effective, and use-inspired education research - research that is focused on real school needs and that integrates the best school teachers into the work.4. Our best teachers need to have a much larger voice in helping to steer our national and state policies, as well as in our local school systems!

EDUCATION SYSTEMS AND ACADEMIC SATISFACTION: A Study on Rural and Urban Students of Traditional Vs Open Education System in India

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shashi SINGH,

2012-07-01

Full Text Available A satisfaction and dissatisfaction level within an individual influences the motivation level and his/her performance throughout the life. When an individual is satisfied with his/her work, he/she gets pleasure and feels motivated. Obtaining satisfaction from their education system is very important for students as this will lead to better learning possibilities. This paper aims to compare the level of academic satisfaction among the students of Traditional Education System and Open Education System. This paper also investigates academic satisfaction of urban and rural based students and comparing them over traditional (Urban: 110; Rural: 90, and open (Urban: 80; Rural: 71 education system. Statistical tests demonstrate that there is significant difference in the level of academic satisfaction among the students of Open Education System (OES and Traditional Education System (TES.

Trends of Science Education Research: An Automatic Content Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Yueh-Hsia; Chang, Chun-Yen; Tseng, Yuen-Hsien

2010-01-01

This study used scientometric methods to conduct an automatic content analysis on the development trends of science education research from the published articles in the four journals of "International Journal of Science Education, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Research in Science Education, and Science Education" from 1990 to 2007. The…

An Evaluation of the Science Education Component of the Cross River State Science and Technical Education Project

Science.gov (United States)

Ekuri, Emmanuel Etta

2012-01-01

The Cross River State Science and Technical Education Project was introduced in 1992 by edict number 9 of 20 December 1991, "Cross River State Science and Technical Education Board Edit, 20 December, 1991", with the aim of improving the quality of science teaching and learning in the state. As the success of the project depends…

Urban runoff management information/education products. Version 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1993-02-01

The catalog contains information and education material related to urban runoff, stormwater and construction activities. The material has been categorized by information media. The purpose of the catalog is to showcase existing efforts, transfer information, attempt to avoid duplication and to provide a resource list for future activity. Also, it can be used as an educational guide for school systems

Constructivism in Science and Science Education: A Philosophical Critique

Science.gov (United States)

Nola, Robert

This paper argues that constructivist science education works with an unsatisfactory account of knowledge which affects both its account of the nature of science and of science education. The paper begins with a brief survey of realism and anti-realism in science and the varieties of constructivism that can be found. In the second section the important conception of knowledge and teaching that Plato develops in the Meno is contrasted with constructivism. The section ends with an account of the contribution that Vico (as understood by constructivists), Kant and Piaget have made to constructivist doctrines. Section three is devoted to a critique of the theory of knowledge and the anti-realism of von Glaserfeld. The final section considers the connection, or lack of it, between the constructivist view of science and knowledge and the teaching of science.

Science in General Education

Science.gov (United States)

Read, Andrew F.

2013-01-01

General education must develop in students an appreciation of the power of science, how it works, why it is an effective knowledge generation tool, and what it can deliver. Knowing what science has discovered is desirable but less important.

Policies for Compulsory Education Disparity Between Urban and Rural Areas in China

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Bao Chuanyou

2006-01-01

An important function of public policies is to distribute public resources rationally.But for a long time.our public policies have been SO"city-oriented"that public resources are allocated unfairly and majority of high-quality education resources are concentrated in cities.This has already led to a serious unbalanced development in compdsory education and to a tremendous gap in conditions in schools--running and enrollment chances fur the school-age children between rural and urban areas.which tend to be enlarged.The unbalanced development in compulsory education has not only blocked the realization of public interest and equity of compulsory education but also restricted the harmonious social and economic development between urban and rural areas.It iS necessary to look into Public policies that have influence on the division of public resources and criticize them rationally.These policies include land institutions,tax systems,social security systems,policies for the input of compulsory education,and policies for teachers,etc.New policies should be made to distribute public resources fairly and rationally,narrowing the gap in compulsory education between urban and rural areas.

Reforming Science Education: Part I. The Search for a Philosophy of Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Schulz, Roland M.

2009-04-01

The call for reforms in science education has been ongoing for a century, with new movements and approaches continuously reshaping the identity and values of the discipline. The HPS movement has an equally long history and taken part in the debates defining its purpose and revising curriculum. Its limited success, however, is due not only to competition with alternative visions and paradigms (e.g. STS, multi-culturalism, constructivism, traditionalism) which deadlock implementation, and which have led to conflicting meanings of scientific literacy, but the inability to rise above the debate. At issue is a fundamental problem plaguing science education at the school level, one it shares with education in general. It is my contention that it requires a guiding “metatheory” of education that can appropriately distance itself from the dual dependencies of metatheories in psychology and the demands of socialization—especially as articulated in most common conceptions of scientific literacy tied to citizenship. I offer as a suggestion Egan’s cultural-linguistic theory as a metatheory to help resolve the impasse. I hope to make reformers familiar with his important ideas in general and more specifically, to show how they can complement HPS rationales and reinforce the work of those researchers who have emphasized the value of narrative in learning science. This will be elaborated in Part II of a supplemental paper to the present one. As a prerequisite to presenting Egan’s metatheory I first raise the issue of the need for a conceptual shift back to philosophy of education within the discipline, and thereto, on developing and demarcating true educational theories (essentially neglected since Hirst). In the same vein it is suggested a new research field should be opened with the express purpose of developing a discipline-specific “philosophy of science education” (largely neglected since Dewey) which could in addition serve to reinforce science education�

What Is "Agency"? Perspectives in Science Education Research

Science.gov (United States)

Arnold, Jenny; Clarke, David John

2014-01-01

The contemporary interest in researching student agency in science education reflects concerns about the relevance of schooling and a shift in science education towards understanding learning in science as a complex social activity. The purpose of this article is to identify problems confronting the science education community in the development…

Close Encounters with the Turbulent Environment of Urban Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Jefferson, Arthur; Levey, Richard

1978-01-01

In order to improve the quality of urban education, public school educators must be joined by the public, legislators, business leaders, and social planners. These individuals will need to understand public policy priorities, as well as the social, economic, and political forces which define our present environment. (Author/GC)

Do learners really know best? Urban legends in Education

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kirschner, Paul A.; Van Merriënboer, Jeroen

2018-01-01

This article takes a critical look at three pervasive urban legends in education about the nature of learners, learning, and teaching and looks atwhat educational and psychological research has to say about them. The three legends can be seen as variations on one central theme, namely, that it is

Contestation and possibilities: Experiences in the 'other' urban classrooms

Science.gov (United States)

Grimes, Nicole K.

The research presented in this dissertation is a response to the general lack of research conducted in independent urban schools. In my work, I present varied vignettes that aim to provide a glimpse into the lifeworlds of students within such schools and how they too struggle to learn science. There are two major goals of this study. First, I encourage readers to rethink current conceptions of urban schooling and redefine what it means to be an urban learner. Secondly, I intend to demonstrate how the cogenerated action plans of coteachers and cogenerative dialogue groups can serve to make science accessible to students whom are diagnosed and placed in mainstreamed educational settings. The idea is to show that by transforming science learning contexts into cosmopolitan learning communities, students can become successful in science. Through a three-year ethnographic study of middle science classrooms in an independent school in New York City, I present explorations of the culture and context of the independent urban classroom as a chief means to meet my stated goals. By utilizing cogenerative dialogues and coteaching, I show how students and teachers can work together as co-researchers and coteachers that engage in a dual process of creating structures that support science success.

Applying Clustering Methods in Drawing Maps of Science: Case Study of the Map For Urban Management Science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Abuei Ardakan

2010-04-01

Full Text Available The present paper offers a basic introduction to data clustering and demonstrates the application of clustering methods in drawing maps of science. All approaches towards classification and clustering of information are briefly discussed. Their application to the process of visualization of conceptual information and drawing of science maps are illustrated by reviewing similar researches in this field. By implementing aggregated hierarchical clustering algorithm, which is an algorithm based on complete-link method, the map for urban management science as an emerging, interdisciplinary scientific field is analyzed and reviewed.

[Re]considering queer theories and science education

Science.gov (United States)

Fifield, Steve; Letts, Will

2014-06-01

We take Mattias Lundin's Inviting queer ideas into the science classroom: studying sexual education from a queer perspective as a point of departure to explore some enduring issues related to the use of queer theories to interrogate science education and its practices. We consider the uneasy, polygamous relationship between gay and lesbian studies and queer theories; the border surveillance that characterizes so much of science [education]; the alluring call of binaries and binary thinking; the `all' within the catchcry `science for all'; and the need to better engage the fullness of science and the curriculum, in addition to noting silences around diverse sexes, sexualities, and desires. We catalogue some of the challenges that persist in this work, and offer thoughts about how to work with and against them to enact a more just and compelling science education.

Space Life Sciences Research and Education Program

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Coats, Alfred C.

2001-01-01

Since 1969, the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), a private, nonprofit corporation, has worked closely with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to advance space science and technology and to promote education in those areas. USRA's Division of Space Life Sciences (DSLS) has been NASA's life sciences research partner for the past 18 years. For the last six years, our Cooperative Agreement NCC9-41 for the 'Space Life Sciences Research and Education Program' has stimulated and assisted life sciences research and education at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) - both at the Center and in collaboration with outside academic institutions. To accomplish our objectives, the DSLS has facilitated extramural research, developed and managed educational programs, recruited and employed visiting and staff scientists, and managed scientific meetings.

Response to science education reforms: The case of three science education doctoral programs in the United States

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Gwekwerere, Yovita Netsai

Doctoral programs play a significant role in preparing future leaders. Science Education doctoral programs play an even more significant role preparing leaders in a field that is critical to maintaining national viability in the face of global competition. The current science education reforms have the goal of achieving science literacy for all students and for this national goal to be achieved; we need strong leadership in the field of science education. This qualitative study investigated how doctoral programs are preparing their graduates for leadership in supporting teachers to achieve the national goal of science literacy for all. A case study design was used to investigate how science education faculty interpreted the national reform goal of science literacy for all and how they reformed their doctoral courses and research programs to address this goal. Faculty, graduate students and recent graduates of three science education doctoral programs participated in the study. Data collection took place through surveys, interviews and analysis of course documents. Two faculty members, three doctoral candidates and three recent graduates were interviewed from each of the programs. Data analysis involved an interpretive approach. The National Research Council Framework for Investigating Influence of the National Standards on student learning (2002) was used to analyze interview data. Findings show that the current reforms occupy a significant part of the doctoral coursework and research in these three science education doctoral programs. The extent to which the reforms are incorporated in the courses and the way they are addressed depends on how the faculty members interpret the reforms and what they consider to be important in achieving the goal of science literacy for all. Whereas some faculty members take a simplistic critical view of the reform goals as a call to achieve excellence in science teaching; others take a more complex critical view where they question

The Feasibility of Educating Trainee Science Teachers in Issues of Science and Religion

Science.gov (United States)

Poole, Michael

2016-01-01

This article reflects on Roussel De Carvalho's paper "Science initial teacher education and superdiversity: educating science teachers for a multi-religious and globalized science classroom" (EJ1102211). It then offers suggestions for making some of the ambitious goals of the science-and-religion components of the science initial teacher…

Education as a means of smooth rural‐urban migration: some ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper models the impact of education on rural‐urban migration in selected villages of Ethiopia. Level of education is found to be significant in triggering ruralurban migration even after accounting for its indirect effect on migration through earnings differential. This may support the argument that education changes the ...

A Comparison of Education and Child-Rearing Practices in British Colonial Africa and Urban America

Science.gov (United States)

Ongiri, Daniel O.

1976-01-01

Describes the practices and ideologies held in common by the African Colonial System of education and the Urban American Educational System. Africans' resistance to the internalization of European values and solutions to the educational dilemmas of urban black families are described. (Author/AM)

Qualitative exploration of centralities in municipal science education networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

von der Fehr, Ane; Sølberg, Jan

2016-01-01

This article examines the social nature of educational change by conducting a social network analysis of social networks involving stakeholders of science education from teachers to political stakeholders. Social networks that comprise supportive structures for development of science education ar...... of science education, especially if they are aware of their own centrality and are able to use their position intentionally for the benefit of science education.......This article examines the social nature of educational change by conducting a social network analysis of social networks involving stakeholders of science education from teachers to political stakeholders. Social networks that comprise supportive structures for development of science education...... are diverse and in order to understand how municipal stakeholders may support such development, we explored four different municipal science education networks (MSE networks) using three different measures of centrality. The centrality measures differed in terms of what kind of stakeholder functions...

Scientism and Scientific Thinking. A Note on Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Gasparatou, Renia

2017-11-01

The move from respecting science to scientism, i.e., the idealization of science and scientific method, is simple: We go from acknowledging the sciences as fruitful human activities to oversimplifying the ways they work, and accepting a fuzzy belief that Science and Scientific Method, will give us a direct pathway to the true making of the world, all included. The idealization of science is partly the reason why we feel we need to impose the so-called scientific terminologies and methodologies to all aspects of our lives, education too. Under this rationale, educational policies today prioritize science, not only in curriculum design, but also as a method for educational practice. One might expect that, under the scientistic rationale, science education would thrive. Contrariwise, I will argue that scientism disallows science education to give an accurate image of the sciences. More importantly, I suggest that scientism prevents one of science education's most crucial goals: help students think. Many of my arguments will borrow the findings and insights of science education research. In the last part of this paper, I will turn to some of the most influential science education research proposals and comment on their limits. If I am right, and science education today does not satisfy our most important reasons for teaching science, perhaps we should change not just our teaching strategies, but also our scientistic rationale. But that may be a difficult task.

Communicating Ocean Sciences College Courses: Science Faculty and Educators Working and Learning Together

Science.gov (United States)

Halversen, C.; Simms, E.; McDonnell, J. D.; Strang, C.

2011-12-01

As the relationship between science and society evolves, the need for scientists to engage and effectively communicate with the public about scientific issues has become increasingly urgent. Leaders in the scientific community argue that research training programs need to also give future scientists the knowledge and skills to communicate. To address this, the Communicating Ocean Sciences (COS) series was developed to teach postsecondary science students how to communicate their scientific knowledge more effectively, and to build the capacity of science faculty to apply education research to their teaching and communicate more effectively with the public. Courses are co-facilitated by a faculty scientist and either a K-12 or informal science educator. Scientists contribute their science content knowledge and their teaching experience, and educators bring their knowledge of learning theory regarding how students and the public make meaning from, and understand, science. The series comprises two university courses for science undergraduate and graduate students that are taught by ocean and climate scientists at approximately 25 universities. One course, COS K-12, is team-taught by a scientist and a formal educator, and provides college students with experience communicating science in K-12 classrooms. In the other course, COSIA (Communicating Ocean Sciences to Informal Audiences), a scientist and informal educator team-teach, and the practicum takes place in a science center or aquarium. The courses incorporate current learning theory and provide an opportunity for future scientists to apply that theory through a practicum. COS addresses the following goals: 1) introduce postsecondary students-future scientists-to the importance of education, outreach, and broader impacts; 2) improve the ability of scientists to communicate science concepts and research to their students; 3) create a culture recognizing the importance of communicating science; 4) provide students and

An Applied Mereology of the City: Unifying Science and Philosophy for Urban Planning.

Science.gov (United States)

Epting, Shane

2016-10-01

Based on their research showing that growing cities follow basic principles, two theoretical physicists, Luis Bettencourt and Geoffrey West, call for researchers and professionals to contribute to a grand theory of urban sustainability. In their research, they develop a 'science of the city' to help urban planners address problems that arise from population increases. Although they provide valuable insights for understanding urban sustainability issues, they do not give planners a manageable way to approach such problems. I argue that developing an applied mereology to understand the concept of 'city identity' gives planners a theoretical device for addressing urban affairs, including ethical concerns. In turn, I devise a model of city identity to show how a 'philosophy of the city' contributes to a grand theory of urban sustainability.

How Integration Matters: An Alternative Vision for Urban Education in an Era of the Market

Science.gov (United States)

Johnston, Joseph B.

2016-01-01

The widespread assumption in the United States today is that traditional urban public schools are failing. Market-based solutions, particularly charter schools, are seen as the way to improve urban education. How then can we understand a large urban district where educational actors have furthered a locally popular alternative vision? This article…

Education sciences, schooling, and abjection: recognizing difference and the making of inequality?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas Popkewitz

2008-08-01

Full Text Available Schooling in North America and northern Europe embodies salvation themes. The themes are (revisions of Enlightenments' projects about the cosmopolitan citizen and scientific progress. The emancipatory principles, however, were never merely about freedom and inclusion. A comparative system of reason was inscribed as gestures of hope and fear. The hope was of the child who would be the future cosmopolitan citizen; the fears were of the dangers and dangerous people to that future. The double gestures continue in contemporary school reform and its sciences. American progressive education sciences at the turn of the 20th century and contemporary school reform research are examined to understand their different cultural theses about cosmopolitan modes of life and the child cast out as different and abjected. Today's cosmopolitanism, different from that in the past, generates principles about the lifelong learner and its cosmopolitan hope of inclusion. The inclusionary impulse is expressed in the phrase "all children can learn". The child who stands outside of the unity of "all children" is disadvantaged and urban. School subject research in music at the turn of the 20th century and today's mathematics education are exemplars of the inscriptions of hope and fears in the sciences of education. The method of study is a history of the present. It is a strategy of resistance and counter praxis by making visible what is assumed as natural and inevitable in schooling.

Science and the Ideals of Liberal Education

Science.gov (United States)

Carson, Robert N.

This article examines the influence of mathematics and science on the formation of culture. It then examines several definitions of liberal education, including the notion that languages and fields of study constitute the substrate of articulate intelligence. Finally, it examines the linkages between science, scientific culture, liberal education, and democracy, and proposes that science cannot be taught merely as a body of facts and theories, but must be presented to students as integral with cultural studies. The use of a contextualist approach to science education is recommended.

Preparing new Earth Science teachers via a collaborative program between Research Scientists and Educators

Science.gov (United States)

Grcevich, Jana; Pagnotta, Ashley; Mac Low, Mordecai-Mark; Shara, Michael; Flores, Kennet; Nadeau, Patricia A.; Sessa, Jocelyn; Ustunisik, Gokce; Zirakparvar, Nasser; Ebel, Denton; Harlow, George; Webster, James D.; Kinzler, Rosamond; MacDonald, Maritza B.; Contino, Julie; Cooke-Nieves, Natasha; Howes, Elaine; Zachowski, Marion

2015-01-01

The Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Program at the American Museum of Natural History is a innovative program designed to prepare participants to be world-class Earth Science teachers. New York State is experiencing a lack of qualified Earth Science teachers, leading in the short term to a reduction in students who successfully complete the Earth Science Regents examination, and in the long term potential reductions in the number of students who go on to pursue college degrees in Earth Science related disciplines. The MAT program addresses this problem via a collaboration between practicing research scientists and education faculty. The faculty consists of curators and postdoctoral researchers from the Departments of Astrophysics, Earth and Planetary Sciences, and the Division of Paleontology, as well as doctoral-level education experts. During the 15-month, full-time program, students participate in a residency program at local urban classrooms as well as taking courses and completing field work in astrophysics, geology, earth science, and paleontology. The program targets high-needs schools with diverse populations. We seek to encourage, stimulate interest, and inform the students impacted by our program, most of whom are from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds, about the rich possibilities for careers in Earth Science related disciplines and the intrinsic value of the subject. We report on the experience of the first and second cohorts, all of whom are now employed in full time teaching positions, and the majority in high needs schools in New York State.

The Globalization of Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Deboer, George

2012-02-01

Standards-based science education, with its emphasis on clearly stated goals, performance monitoring, and accountability, is rapidly becoming a key part of how science education is being viewed around the world. Standards-based testing within countries is being used to determine the effectiveness of a country's educational system, and international testing programs such as PISA and TIMSS enable countries to compare their students to a common standard and to each other. The raising of standards and the competition among countries is driven in part by a belief that economic success depends on a citizenry that is knowledgeable about science and technology. In this talk, I consider the question of whether it is prudent to begin conversations about what an international standards document for global citizenship in science education might look like. I examine current practices to show the areas of international agreement and the significant differences that still exist, and I conclude with a recommendation that such conversations should begin, with the goal of laying out the knowledge and competencies that international citizens should have that also gives space to individual countries to pursue goals that are unique to their own setting.

OUT-OF-SCHOOL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS NETWORK AS THE PART OF URBAN SUSTEM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MERYLOVA I. O.

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Summary. Formulation of the problem. Abstract. Formulation of the problem. The solution of urban development problems of an extensive and accessible network of out-of-school educational institutions, the formation of proposals for the placement of out-of-school institutions in the structure of the building and functional and planning features of the organization of territories of out-of-school institutions has systemically character. The system approach involves studying not only the internal functional structure of the territory, buildings and structures, but also the analysis of the connections of out-of-school institutions with all urban buildings, with industrial enterprises and research organizations, with a network of public service institutions and with other educational establishments. Article purpose: to analyze theoretical research in the field of urban planning, which should be taken into account when developing principles and methods for optimizing the network of out-of-school educational institutions. Conclusions. The research found that the systematic approach implies relation of out-of-school educational institutions with all urban environment, as well as with industrial enterprises and research organizations, with a network of public service institutions and, most importantly, with other educational establishments. The formation of a network of out-of-school educational institutions directly depends on the tendency of the development of social-pedagogical programs and the reform of the educational sector as a whole. The main system properties of a network of out-of-school educational institutions were determined. It was found that the cooperation of the resources of out-of-school and general education institutions is one of the effective ways to develop continuing education. In the state programs of educational reform is noted that the cooperation of the resources between the out-of-school institutions and general educational

Urban Environmental Education: Leveraging Technology and Ecology to Engage Students in Studying the Environment

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Barnett, Michael; Vaughn, Meredith Houle; Strauss, Eric; Cotter, Lindsey

2011-01-01

In this paper, we describe the outcomes of the first year of an intensive, urban ecology focused, summer program for urban high school youth. Students in our program conduct scientific investigations of their urban ecosystems while exploring potential career options in science and technology fields. In conducting their investigations, the students…

Current Status of Regulatory Science Education in Faculties of Pharmaceutical Science in Japan.

Science.gov (United States)

Tohkin, Masahiro

2017-01-01

I introduce the current pharmaceutical education system in Japan, focusing on regulatory science. University schools or faculties of pharmaceutical science in Japan offer two courses: a six-year course for pharmacists and a four-year course for scientists and technicians. Students in the six-year pharmaceutical course receive training in hospitals and pharmacies during their fifth year, and those in the four-year life science course start research activities during their third year. The current model core curriculum for pharmaceutical education requires them to "explain the necessity and significance of regulatory science" as a specific behavior object. This means that pharmacists should understand the significance of "regulatory science", which will lead to the proper use of pharmaceuticals in clinical practice. Most regulatory science laboratories are in the university schools or faculties of pharmaceutical sciences; however, there are too few to conduct regulatory science education. There are many problems in regulatory science education, and I hope that those problems will be resolved not only by university-based regulatory science researchers but also by those from the pharmaceutical industry and regulatory authorities.

Science Instructors' Perceptions of the Risks of Biotechnology: Implications for Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Gardner, Grant Ean; Jones, M. Gail

2011-01-01

Developing scientifically literate students who understand the socially contextualized nature of science and technology is a national focus of science education reform. Science educators' perceptions of risks and benefits of new technologies (such as biotechnology) may shape their instructional approaches. This study examined the perceived risk of…

Imaginative science education the central role of imagination in science education

CERN Document Server

Hadzigeorgiou, Yannis

2016-01-01

This book is about imaginative approaches to teaching and learning school science. Its central premise is that science learning should reflect the nature of science, and therefore be approached as an imaginative/creative activity. As such, the book can be seen as an original contribution of ideas relating to imagination and creativity in science education. The approaches discussed in the book are storytelling, the experience of wonder, the development of ‘romantic understanding’, and creative science, including science through visual art, poetry and dramatization. However, given the perennial problem of how to engage students (of all ages) in science, the notion of ‘aesthetic experience’, and hence the possibility for students to have more holistic and fulfilling learning experiences through the aforementioned imaginative approaches, is also discussed. Each chapter provides an in-depth discussion of the theoretical background of a specific imaginative approach (e.g., storytelling, ‘wonder-full’ s...

On the way to a philosophy of science education

Science.gov (United States)

Schulz, Roland M.

This Thesis argues the case that a philosophy of science education is required for improving science education as a research field as well as curriculum and teacher pedagogy. It seeks to re-think science education as an educational endeavor by examining why past reform efforts have been only partially successful, including why the fundamental goal of achieving scientific literacy after several "reform waves" has proven to be so elusive. The identity of such a philosophy is first defined in relation to the fields of philosophy, philosophy of science, and philosophy of education. Considering science education as a research discipline it is emphasized a new field should be broached with the express purpose of developing a discipline-specific "philosophy of science education" (largely neglected since Dewey). A conceptual shift towards the philosophy of education. is needed, thereto, on developing and demarcating true educational theories which could in addition serve to reinforce science education's growing sense of academic autonomy and independence from socio-economic demands. Two educational metatheories are contrasted, those of Kieran Egan and the Northern European Bildung tradition, to illustrate the task of such a philosophy. Egan's cultural-linguistic metatheory is presented for two primary purposes: it is offered as a possible solution to the deadlock of the science literacy conceptions within the discipline; regarding practice, examples are provided how it can better guide the instructional practice of teachers, specifically how it reinforces the work of other researchers in the History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) reform movement who value narrative in learning science. Considering curriculum and instruction, a philosophy of science education is conceptualized as a "second order" reflective capacity of the teacher. This notion is aligned with Shulman's idea of Pedagogical Content Knowledge. It is argued that for educators the nature of science learning

Science education policy for emergency, conflict, and post-conflict: An analysis of trends and implications for the science education program in Uganda

Science.gov (United States)

Udongo, Betty Pacutho

This study analyzes the impact of armed conflicts on the development of education policy and particularly science education program in Uganda. Since independence from the British colonial rule, Uganda has experienced a series of armed conflicts, with the most devastating being the 21 years of conflict in Northern Uganda. The research study was guided by the following questions: (1) What is the level of government funding towards improving science education program in Uganda? (2) Have recent initiatives, such as free Primary and Secondary education, compulsory science, and 75% sponsorship for science-based courses, had a measurable impact on the proportion of students from the conflict-affected regions who enter tertiary institutions to pursue science and technology programs? (3) To what extent do the Ugandan Education Policy and, in particular, the Science Education Policy effectively address the educational needs of students affected by armed conflicts? The study employed a mixed method design where both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed. Quantitative data were obtained from a comprehensive search of policy documents and content analysis of literature on education policy, science education programs, and impact of conflicts on educational delivery. Qualitative data were obtained from surveys and interviews distributed to policy makers, central government and the local government officials, teachers, and students from the war-ravaged Northern Uganda. Analysis of policy documents and respondents' views revealed that Uganda does not have a science education policy, and the present education policy does not fully address the educational needs of students studying in conflict-affected regions. It was further observed that fewer students from the conflict-affected regions qualify for government scholarship to study science courses in higher institutions of learning. The study recommended the following policy interventions: (a) affirmative

Promoting Science in Secondary School Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Chiovitti, Anthony; Duncan, Jacinta C; Jabbar, Abdul

2017-06-01

Engaging secondary school students with science education is crucial for a society that demands a high level of scientific literacy in order to deal with the economic and social challenges of the 21st century. Here we present how parasitology could be used to engage and promote science in secondary school students under the auspice of a 'Specialist Centre' model for science education. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Special Education Teachers' Nature of Science Instructional Experiences

Science.gov (United States)

Mulvey, Bridget K.; Chiu, Jennifer L.; Ghosh, Rajlakshmi; Bell, Randy L.

2016-01-01

Special education teachers provide critical science instruction to students. However, little research investigates special education teacher beliefs and practices around science in general or the nature of science and inquiry in particular. This investigation is a cross-case analysis of four elementary special education teachers' initial…

Local alliance building for urban science education

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1994-09-01

Leaders from nationally recognized sponsors of teacher education partnerships, the US DOE, university leaders, the New York State Department of Education and past and present teacher researchers gathered at Brookhaven National Laboratory in August 1994. Their mission was (1) to consider the unique aspects that research experiences provide for teachers and their students and (2) to discuss the value of systemic changes to the teacher preparation process to include such experiences. Presentations by participants and small-group discussion sessions led to an action plan and recommendations for disseminating materials addressing these issues nationally. Concluding remarks labeled the issues discussed as critical to the systemic change in the teacher preparation process. By sharing this document, additional interest and feedback will be generated, as will commitments to this philosophy.

Science Education and Public Outreach Forums (SEPOF): Providing Coordination and Support for NASA's Science Mission Directorate Education and Outreach Programs

Science.gov (United States)

Mendez, B. J.; Smith, D.; Shipp, S. S.; Schwerin, T. G.; Stockman, S. A.; Cooper, L. P.; Peticolas, L. M.

2009-12-01

NASA is working with four newly-formed Science Education and Public Outreach Forums (SEPOFs) to increase the overall coherence of the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) program. SEPOFs support the astrophysics, heliophysics, planetary and Earth science divisions of NASA SMD in three core areas: * E/PO Community Engagement and Development * E/PO Product and Project Activity Analysis * Science Education and Public Outreach Forum Coordination Committee Service. SEPOFs are collaborating with NASA and external science and education and outreach communities in E/PO on multiple levels ranging from the mission and non-mission E/PO project activity managers, project activity partners, and scientists and researchers, to front line agents such as naturalists/interpreters, teachers, and higher education faculty, to high level agents such as leadership at state education offices, local schools, higher education institutions, and professional societies. The overall goal for the SEPOFs is increased awareness, knowledge, and understanding of scientists, researchers, engineers, technologists, educators, product developers, and dissemination agents of best practices, existing NASA resources, and community expertise applicable to E/PO. By coordinating and supporting the NASA E/PO Community, the NASA/SEPOF partnerships will lead to more effective, sustainable, and efficient utilization of NASA science discoveries and learning experiences.

Improving science education for sustainable development

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Eijck, van M.W.; Roth, W.-M.

2007-01-01

In recent issues of noteworthy journals, natural scientists have argued for the improvement of science education [1–4]. Such pleas reflect the growing awareness that high-quality science education is required not only for sustaining a lively scientific community that is able to address global

Fermilab Friends for Science Education | Tree of Knowledge

Science.gov (United States)

Fermilab Friends for Science Education FFSE Home About Us Join Us Support Us Contact Us Tree of Testimonials Our Donors Board of Directors Board Tools Calendar Join Us Donate Now Get FermiGear! Education precollege science education programs. Prominently displayed at the Lederman Science Center is the lovely

Alleviating Praxis Shock: Induction Policy and Programming for Urban Music Educators

Science.gov (United States)

Shaw, Julia T.

2018-01-01

An integral part of a teacher learning continuum ranging from preservice education to professional development for experienced educators, new teacher induction holds particular potential to effect change in urban education. Accordingly, this article offers recommendations for induction-related policy and programming capable of supporting beginning…

Wisconsin Earth and Space Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Bilbrough, Larry (Technical Monitor); French, George

2003-01-01

The Wisconsin Earth and Space Science Education project successfilly met its objectives of creating a comprehensive online portfolio of science education curricular resources and providing a professional development program to increase educator competency with Earth and Space science content and teaching pedagogy. Overall, 97% of participants stated that their experience was either good or excellent. The favorable response of participant reactions to the professional development opportunities highlights the high quality of the professional development opportunity. The enthusiasm generated for using the curricular material in classroom settings was overwhelmingly positive at 92%. This enthusiasm carried over into actual classroom implementation of resources from the curricular portfolio, with 90% using the resources between 1-6 times during the school year. The project has had a positive impact on student learning in Wisconsin. Although direct measurement of student performance is not possible in a project of this kind, nearly 75% of participating teachers stated that they saw an increase in student performance in math and science as a result of using project resources. Additionally, nearly 75% of participants saw an increase in the enthusiasm of students towards math and science. Finally, some evidence exists that the professional development academies and curricular portfolio have been effective in changing educator behavior. More than half of all participants indicated that they have used more hands-on activities as a result of the Wisconsin Earth and Space Science Education project.

Rethinking Educational Spaces: A Review of Literature on Urban Youth and Social Media

Science.gov (United States)

Kidd, Terry T.; Carpenter, B. Stephen, II

2014-01-01

This paper serves as an exploration into the landscape of social media use in educational research as it relates to urban youth in the United States. Initially, a social and learning context is provided that situates the implications social media may have for urban youth within formal and informal educational spaces. The paper offers a discussion…

The Role of Critical Thinking in Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, Luis Fernando

2017-01-01

This review aims to respond various questions regarding the role of Critical Thinking in Science Education from aspects concerning the importance or relevance of critical thinking in science education, the situation in the classroom and curriculum, and the conception of critical thinking and fostering in science education. This review is specially…

The New England Space Science Initiative in Education (NESSIE)

Science.gov (United States)

Waller, W. H.; Clemens, C. M.; Sneider, C. I.

2002-12-01

Founded in January 2002, NESSIE is the NASA/OSS broker/facilitator for education and public outreach (E/PO) within the six-state New England region. NESSIE is charged with catalyzing and fostering collaborations among space scientists and educators within both the formal and informal education communities. NESSIE itself is a collaboration of scientists and science educators at the Museum of Science, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and Tufts University. Its primary goals are to 1) broker partnerships among space scientists and educators, 2) facilitate a wide range of educational and public outreach activities, and 3) examine and improve space science education methods. NESSIE's unique strengths reside in its prime location (the Museum of Science), its diverse mix of scientists and educators, and its dedicated board of advisors. NESSIE's role as a clearinghouse and facilitator of space science education is being realized through its interactive web site and via targeted meetings, workshops, and conferences involving scientists and educators. Special efforts are being made to reach underserved groups by tailoring programs to their particular educational needs and interests. These efforts are building on the experiences of prior and ongoing programs in space science education at the Museum of Science, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Tufts University, and NASA.

Science and Sanity in Special Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Dammann, James E.; Vaughn, Sharon

2001-01-01

This article describes the usefulness of a scientific approach to improving knowledge and practice in special education. Of four approaches to knowledge (superstition, folklore, craft, and science), craft and science are supported and implications for special education drawn including the need to bridge the gulf between research knowledge and…

Developing Intercultural Science Education in Ecuador

Science.gov (United States)

Schroder, Barbara

2008-01-01

This article traces the recent development of intercultural science education in Ecuador. It starts by situating this development within the context of a growing convergence between Western and indigenous sciences. It then situates it within the larger historical, political, cultural, and educational contexts of indigenous communities in Ecuador,…

Smart City: thinking About Urban Intelligence

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Romano Fistola

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Anticipating future urban settings where technologies enable actions and interactions among individuals unimaginable only a few years ago, has always been one of the  research topics most interesting of the urban sciences although probably not sufficiently considered in the town planning field, in the last twenty years.The acceleration towards these issues, which can be generally identified with the name Smart City, has been strong also because of the recent calls of the European Community and the Italian Ministry of Education and Research. In this important change, supported by a number of technology companies, devices and media, it seems experience a discontinuity in the theoretical definition of the processes involved in structuring and management of the Smart City. Numerous investigations on this topic seem to be developed away from urban sciences and away from the main subject area of interest: the urban planning. In this paper we attempt to bring back the dynamics of development of the Smart Cities in their natural site of theoretical development, by recovering operational approaches and methodological references related to the study of the relationship between new technologies and changes inside the urban system, never really considered in order to envisage a new process of urban and regional planning.

Physical Education and Academic Performance in Urban African American Girls

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Bo

2017-01-01

This study was designed to examine urban African American girls' participation in physical education and its association with academic performance. One hundred eighty four participants completed questionnaires assessing moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and learning engagement in physical education while their academic performance was based…

Inquiry-based science education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Østergaard, Lars Domino; Sillasen, Martin Krabbe; Hagelskjær, Jens

2010-01-01

Inquiry-based science education (IBSE) er en internationalt afprøvet naturfagsdidaktisk metode der har til formål at øge elevernes interesse for og udbytte af naturfag. I artiklen redegøres der for metoden, der kan betegnes som en elevstyret problem- og undersøgelsesbaseret naturfagsundervisnings......Inquiry-based science education (IBSE) er en internationalt afprøvet naturfagsdidaktisk metode der har til formål at øge elevernes interesse for og udbytte af naturfag. I artiklen redegøres der for metoden, der kan betegnes som en elevstyret problem- og undersøgelsesbaseret...

African Journal of Educational Studies in Mathematics and Sciences

African Journals Online (AJOL)

African Journal of Educational Studies in Mathematics and Sciences. ... Studies in Mathematics and Sciences (AJESMS) is an international publication that ... in the fields of mathematics education, science education and related disciplines.

Does science matter?

CERN Multimedia

Broad, W J

2003-01-01

"...there are new troubles in the peculiar form of paradise that science has created, as well as new questions about whether it has the popular support to meet the future challenges of disease, pollution, security, energy, education, food, water and urban sprawl" (1 page).

van Eijck and Roth's utilitarian science education: why the recalibration of science and traditional ecological knowledge invokes multiple perspectives to protect science education from being exclusive

Science.gov (United States)

Mueller, Michael P.; Tippins, Deborah J.

2010-12-01

This article is a philosophical analysis of van Eijck and Roth's (2007) claim that science and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) should be recalibrated because they are incommensurate, particular to the local contexts in which they are practical. In this view, science maintains an incommensurate status as if it is a "fundamental" basis for the relative comparison of other cultural knowledges, which reduces traditional knowledge to a status of in relation to the prioritized (higher)-status of natural sciences. van Eijck and Roth reject epistemological Truth as a way of thinking about sciences in science education. Rather they adopt a utilitarian perspective of cultural-historical activity theory to demonstrate when traditional knowledge is considered science and when it is not considered science, for the purposes of evaluating what should be included in U.S. science education curricula. There are several challenges for evaluating what should be included in science education when traditional knowledges and sciences are considered in light of a utilitarian analysis. Science as diverse, either practically local or theoretically abstract, is highly uncertain, which provides opportunities for multiple perspectives to enlarge and protect the natural sciences from exclusivity. In this response to van Eijck and Roth, we make the case for considering dialectical relationships between science and TEK in order to ensure cultural diversity in science education, as a paradigm. We also emphasize the need to (re)dissolve the hierarchies and dualisms that may emerge when science is elevated in status in comparison with other knowledges. We conclude with a modification to van Eijck and Roth's perspective by recommending a guiding principle of cultural diversity in science education as a way to make curriculum choices. We envision this principle can be applied when evaluating science curricula worldwide.

Voices of successful science teachers in an urban diverse single gender girls' school

Science.gov (United States)

Malhan, Jyoti

This research study was conducted as a qualitative case study of four successful science teachers of female students in a diverse, title 1, urban, public girls' school. The study was designed to hear the 'muted' voices of successful science teachers concerning their beliefs and practices when they effectively provide learning opportunities for female students of color in their classrooms. Ethic of Care, equity pedagogy and culturally responsive pedagogy, created the theoretical framework for interpretation of the powerful narratives and storytelling that influenced this group of successful teachers. Data were collected by conducting in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Constant comparative method and narrative analysis were used to code and categorize the data. Analysis was conducted after each interview to discover emergent themes. Teachers conducted member checks throughout the process. The findings from the study yielded the following: (1) teachers had a passion for science and incorporated ongoing scientific developments and real-life examples and applications in their teaching, (2) teachers adopted a caring, concerned, and student-centered approach to teaching, (3) teachers acknowledged certain benefits to a single-sex girls education which included fewer distractions, increased confidence and comfort level of students, (5) teachers built relationships with students that encouraged students to engage with rigorous course content and meet higher expectations for performance. Themes that emerged included: care, culturally responsive pedagogy and culturally relevant curriculum.

Initial teacher education and continuing professional development for science teachers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dolin, Jens; Evans, Robert Harry

2011-01-01

Research into ways of improving the initial education and continuing professional development of science teachers is closely related to both common and unique strands. The field is complex since science teachers teach at different educational levels, are often educated in different science subjects......, and belong to various cultures, both educationally and socially. Section 1 presents a review of the research literature across these dimensions and looks at the knowledge, skills and competences needed for teaching science, specific issues within science teacher education, and strategies for educating...... and developing science teachers....

SPORTS SCIENCES AND MULTICULTURALISM - EDUCATIONAL AND PROFESSIONAL IMPACT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Danica Pirsl

2012-09-01

Full Text Available The aim of the paper is to familiarize the sports sciences educators to the pedagogic concept and professional benefits and awareness of multicultural education if implemented in sports sciences curricula, especially in the efforts to obtain international transparency through sports science literature writing and publishing. Data Sources were textbook chapters and articles searched through the archives of Diversity Digest and Academic Medicine for the years 2000 to 2005 with the key words multiculturalism, diversity, cultural competence, education, and learning. Synthesized data were used to present a rational argument for the inclusion of a critical pedagogy into the field of sports science education. The infrastructure in the professional field of sports sciences, review of the literature on critical multicultural theory and pedagogy and the potential cognitive and intellectual implications of diversity and multicultural education were analyzed. Conclusions/Recommendations focus on possible various and creative strategies for implementing a multicultural agenda in sports sciences curricula and on the analysis of the associated benefits and outcomes of such educational strategies.

Trends of Science Education Research: An Automatic Content Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Yueh-Hsia; Chang, Chun-Yen; Tseng, Yuen-Hsien

2010-08-01

This study used scientometric methods to conduct an automatic content analysis on the development trends of science education research from the published articles in the four journals of International Journal of Science Education, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Research in Science Education, and Science Education from 1990 to 2007. The multi-stage clustering technique was employed to investigate with what topics, to what development trends, and from whose contribution that the journal publications constructed as a science education research field. This study found that the research topic of Conceptual Change & Concept Mapping was the most studied topic, although the number of publications has slightly declined in the 2000's. The studies in the themes of Professional Development, Nature of Science and Socio-Scientific Issues, and Conceptual Chang and Analogy were found to be gaining attention over the years. This study also found that, embedded in the most cited references, the supporting disciplines and theories of science education research are constructivist learning, cognitive psychology, pedagogy, and philosophy of science.

Persuasion and Attitude Change in Science Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Koballa, Thomas R., Jr.

1992-01-01

Persuasion is presented as it may be applied by science educators in research and practice. The orientation taken is that science educators need to be acquainted with persuasion in the context of social influence and learning theory to be able to evaluate its usefulness as a mechanism for developing and changing science-related attitudes. (KR)

The Particulate Nature of Matter in Science Education and in Science.

Science.gov (United States)

Vos, Wobbe de; Verdonk, Adri H.

1996-01-01

Discusses ideas about the particulate nature of matter and assesses the extent to which these represent a compromise between scientific and educational considerations. Analyzes relations between the particulate nature of matter in science and science education in an attempt to understand children's inclination to attribute all kinds of macroscopic…

What is `Agency'? Perspectives in Science Education Research

Science.gov (United States)

Arnold, Jenny; Clarke, David John

2014-03-01

The contemporary interest in researching student agency in science education reflects concerns about the relevance of schooling and a shift in science education towards understanding learning in science as a complex social activity. The purpose of this article is to identify problems confronting the science education community in the development of this new research agenda and to argue that there is a need for research in science education that attends to agency as a social practice. Despite increasing interest in student agency in educational research, the term 'agency' has lacked explicit operationalisation and, across the varied approaches, such as critical ethnography, ethnographies of communication, discourse analysis and symbolic interactionism, there has been a lack of coherence in its research usage. There has also been argument concerning the validity of the use of the term 'agency' in science education research. This article attempts to structure the variety of definitions of 'student agency' in science education research, identifies problems in the research related to assigning intentionality to research participants and argues that agency is a kind of discursive practice. The article also draws attention to the need for researchers to be explicit in the assumptions they rely upon in their interpretations of social worlds. Drawing upon the discursive turn in the social sciences, a definition of agency is provided, that accommodates the discursive practices of both individuals and the various functional social groups from whose activities classroom practice is constituted. The article contributes to building a focused research agenda concerned with understanding and promoting student agency in science.

An analysis of factors that influence secondary science teachers in an urban school district in South Texas to remain in the teaching profession

Science.gov (United States)

Montoya, Bonnie

This quantitative study is an examination of personal and professional factors that contribute to science teachers continuing to teach science in an urban area in South Texas despite the growing demands of the profession. This study examines why teachers in general leave the profession but focuses on what factors influenced these teachers to stay. Personal retention factors measured included being an effective teacher and positive rapport with students. Professional retention factors included administrative support and adequate time to meet professional obligations. There are 149 secondary science teachers in this large urban school district. Data was gathered from 109 of these educators to analyze factors personal and professional factors in regards to why these teachers remain in the field. For the purposes of this study a secondary science teacher will be any teacher who teaches science in grades 6-12, which is considered middle (6 through 8) and high school (9 through 12) in this area. The data for this quantitative study was collected by a paper survey (N=109) that was distributed at a professional learning session at the beginning of the school year. A Principal Component Analysis was run followed by three multiple regression analyses of the pertinent components to determine if there is any relationship between the demographics of the participants and personal and professional factors that cause these teachers to remain in the field. The results of this study will contribute to the literature regarding teacher education and theory that examines teacher practice affecting change. The results showed that professional factors like the amount of resources and the quality of those resources to assist teachers with job efficacy mattered as much as the personal factors such as positive teaching experience and an intrinsic sense of being an effective educator. Further implications of this study include an exploration of Generalist certifications at the middle grades

When Nature of Science Meets Marxism: Aspects of Nature of Science Taught by Chinese Science Teacher Educators to Prospective Science Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Wan, Zhi Hong; Wong, Siu Ling; Zhan, Ying

2013-01-01

Nature of science (NOS) is beginning to find its place in the science education in China. In a study which investigated Chinese science teacher educators' conceptions of teaching NOS to prospective science teachers through semi-structured interviews, five key dimensions emerged from the data. This paper focuses on the dimension, "NOS content…

[Regulatory science: modern trends in science and education for pharmaceutical products].

Science.gov (United States)

Beregovykh, V V; Piatigorskaia, N V; Aladysheva, Zh I

2012-01-01

This article reviews modern trends in development of new instruments, standards and approaches to drugs safety, efficacy and quality assessment in USA and EU that can be called by unique term--"regulatory science" which is a new concept for Russian Federation. New education programs (curricula) developed by USA and EU universities within last 3 years are reviewed. These programs were designed in order to build workforce capable to utilize science approach for drug regulation. The principal mechanisms for financing research in regulatory science used by Food and Drug Administration are analyzed. There are no such science and relevant researches in Russian Federation despite the high demand as well as needs for the system for higher education and life-long learning education of specialists for regulatory affairs (or compliance).

A Mathematics and Science Trail

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Kathy Horak; Fuentes, Sarah Quebec

2012-01-01

In an attempt to engage primary-school students in a hands-on, real-world problem-solving context, a large urban district, a mathematics and science institute housed in a college of education, and a corporate sponsor in the southwest United States, joined forces to create a mathematics and science trail for fourth- and fifth-grade students. A…

Agricultural Education in an Urban Charter School: Perspectives and Challenges

Science.gov (United States)

Henry, Kesha A.; Talbert, Brian Allen; Morris, Pamala V.

2014-01-01

Urban school districts are viable recruitment sources for higher education in agriculture and have the ability to play a significant role in efforts to increase agricultural education program numbers at the secondary level. Secondary school increases should lead to growth in agricultural college enrollments across the country. Increasing…

The influence of secondary science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge, educational beliefs and perceptions of the curriculum on implementation and science reform

Science.gov (United States)

Bonner, Portia Selene

2001-07-01

Science education reform is one of the focal points of restructuring the educational system in the United States. However, research indicates a slow change in progression towards science literacy among secondary students. One of the factors contributing to slow change is how teachers implement the curriculum in the classroom. Three constructs are believed to be influential in curriculum implementation: educational beliefs, pedagogical knowledge and perception of the curriculum. Earlier research suggests that there is a strong correlation between teachers' educational beliefs and instructional practices. These beliefs can be predictors of preferred strategies employed in the classroom. Secondly, teachers' pedagogical knowledge, that is the ability to apply theory and appropriate strategies associated with implementing and evaluating a curriculum, contributes to implementation. Thirdly, perception or how the curriculum itself is perceived also effects implementation. Each of these constructs has been examined independently, but never the interplay of the three. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the interplay of teachers' educational beliefs, pedagogical content knowledge and perceptions of a science curriculum with respect to how these influence curriculum implementation. This was accomplished by investigating the emerging themes that evolved from classroom observations, transcripts from interview and supplementary data. Five high school biology teachers in an urban school system were observed for ten months for correspondence of teaching strategies to the curriculum. Teachers were interviewed formally and informally about their perceptions of science teaching, learning and the curriculum. Supplementary material such as lesson plans, course syllabus and notes from classroom observations were collected and analyzed. Data were transcribed and analyzed for recurring themes using a thematic matrix. A theoretical model was developed from the emerging

Synergetic Use of Crowdsourcing for Environmental Science Research, Applications and Education

Science.gov (United States)

Nair, U. S.; Thau, D.

2015-12-01

Environmental science research and applications often utilize information that is not readily available or routinely collected by government agencies. Whereas, the quality and quantity of environmental monitoring data is continually improving (e. g., spectral and spatial resolution of satellite imagery) contextual information needed to effectively utilize the data is sparse. Examples of such contextual information include ground truth data for land cover classification, presence/absence of species, prevalence of mosquito breeding sites and characteristics of urban land cover. Often, there are no agencies tasked with routine collection of such contextual information, which could be effectively collected through crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing of such information, that is useful for environmental science research and applications, also provide opportunities for experiential learning at all levels of education. Appropriately designed crowdsourcing activity can be transform students from passive recipients of information to generators of knowledge. Multiple examples of synergistic use of crowdsourcing, developed by the Public Environmental Education and Research Apps (PEERA) group, at the University of Alabama in Huntsville will be presented. One example is crowdsourcing of land use and land cover (LULC) data using Open Data Kit (ODK) and associated analysis of satellite imagery using Google Earth Engine (GEE). Implementation of this activity as inquiry based learning exercise, for both middle school and for pre-service teachers will be discussed. Another example will detail the synergy between crowdsourcing for biodiversity mapping in southern India and environmental education. Other crowdsourcing activities that offer potential for synergy between research and public education will also be discussed.

Urban Pre-Service K-6 Teachers' Conceptions of Citizenship and Civic Education: Weighing the Risks and Rewards

Science.gov (United States)

Marri, Anand R.; Michael-Luna, Sara; Cormier, Maria Scott; Keegan, Patrick

2014-01-01

To effectively help urban pre-service teachers to provide civic education opportunities in their future classrooms, teacher educators should know how urban pre-service teachers themselves conceptualize citizenship and civic engagement. Through the research question--how do urban K-6 pre-service teachers currently enrolled in an urban education…

Levinas and an Ethics for Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Blades, David W.

2006-01-01

Despite claims that STS(E) science education promotes ethical responsibility, this approach is not supported by a clear philosophy of ethics. This paper argues that the work of Emmanuel Levinas provides an ethics suitable for an STS(E) science education. His concept of the face of the Other redefines education as learning from the other, rather…

A partnership-based model for embedding employability in urban planning education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Neale Blair

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a partnership-based model for embedding employability in urban planning education. The model is based on the author’s experiences of implementing an international project which supported the development of employability skills in urban and regional planning education in Malawi. Since independence, urban planners have typically trained outside the country, attending university in the UK and other Commonwealth countries. More recently, the paradigm has shifted towards in-country education delivered by academic staff cognisant with the opportunities and challenges of development in Malawi. There remains, though, a gap between graduate knowledge of the subject and the skills necessary to pursue a professional career in the sector. Although there is no consensus yet on the meaning of employability in the literature, lessons from the project indicate that academic–public–private collaboration helps incorporate in curriculum skills that employers anticipate. Applicability of these principles is however context dependent, particularly in the emerging economy context where institutional capacity may be less developed compared to elsewhere.

Integrating technology into radiologic science education.

Science.gov (United States)

Wertz, Christopher Ira; Hobbs, Dan L; Mickelsen, Wendy

2014-01-01

To review the existing literature pertaining to the current learning technologies available in radiologic science education and how to implement those technologies. Only articles from peer-reviewed journals and scholarly reports were used in the research for this review. The material was further restricted to those articles that emphasized using new learning technologies in education, with a focus on radiologic science education. Teaching in higher education is shifting from a traditional classroom-based lecture format to one that incorporates new technologies that allow for more varied and diverse educational models. Radiologic technology educators must adapt traditional education delivery methods to incorporate current technologies. Doing so will help engage the modern student in education in ways in which they are already familiar. As students' learning methods change, so must the methods of educational delivery. The use of new technologies has profound implications for education. If implemented properly, these technologies can be effective tools to help educators.

Engineering and science education for nuclear power

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1986-01-01

The Guidebook contains detailed information on curricula which would provide the professional technical education qualifications which have been established for nuclear power programme personnel. The core of the Guidebook consists of model curricula in engineering and science, including relevant practical work. Curricula are provided for specialization, undergraduate, and postgraduate programmes in nuclear-oriented mechanical, chemical, electrical, and electronics engineering, as well as nuclear engineering and radiation health physics. Basic nuclear science and engineering laboratory work is presented together with a list of basic experiments and the nuclear equipment needed to perform them. Useful measures for implementing and improving engineering and science education and training capabilities for nuclear power personnel are presented. Valuable information on the national experiences of IAEA Member States in engineering and science education for nuclear power, as well as examples of such education from various Member States, have been included

Promoting Pre-college Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, R. L.

1999-11-01

The Fusion Education Program, with support from DOE, continues to promote pre-college science education for students and teachers using multiple approaches. An important part of our program is direct scientist-student interaction. Our ``Scientist in a Classroom'' program allows students to interact with scientists and engage in plasma science activities in the students' classroom. More than 1000 students from 11 schools have participated in this exciting program. Also, this year more than 800 students and teachers have visited the DIII--D facility and interacted with scientists to cover a broad range of technical and educational issues. Teacher-scientist interaction is imperative in professional development and each year more than 100 teachers attend workshops produced by the fusion education team. We also participate in unique learning opportunities. Members of the team, in collaboration with the San Diego County Office of Education, held a pioneering Internet-based Physics Olympiad for American and Siberian students. Our teamwork with educators helps shape material that is grade appropriate, relevant, and stimulates thinking in educators and students.

Resonance – Journal of Science Education | News

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education. Website Reviews. Articles in Resonance – Journal of Science Education. Volume 4 Issue 8 August 1999 pp 91-93 Website Reviews. Website Review · Harini Nagendra · More Details Fulltext PDF ...

Urbanism in Educational Thought: Mobilizing the Teacher through Diversity and Community.

Science.gov (United States)

Hennon, Lisa

Recent American educational research focuses on the differences between urban and nonurban schools. Ideas such as "inner city" are taken as self-evident and are imposed as a way to achieve a more just and equitable national system of schooling. The urban environment is singled out as violent. This essay takes the position that the…

Play with Science in Inquiry Based Science Education

OpenAIRE

Andrée, Maria; Lager-Nyqvist, Lotta; Wickman, Per-Olof

2011-01-01

In science education students sometimes engage in imaginary science-oriented play where ideas about science and scientists are put to use. Through play, children interpret their experiences, dramatize, give life to and transform what they know into a lived narrative. In this paper we build on the work of Vygotsky on imagination and creativity. Previous research on play in primary and secondary school has focused on play as a method for formal instruction rather than students’ spontaneous info...

Enviro-HIRLAM in Studies of Urban and Aerosol Impacts on Metropolitan Areas: Science-Education Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Mahura, Alexander; Nuterman, Roman; Mazeikis, Adomas; Gonzalez-Aparicio, Iratxe; Ivanov, Sergey; Palamarchuk, Julia

2014-05-01

To attract more perspective young scientists (and especially, MSc and PhD students) for advanced research and development of complex and modern modelling systems, a specific approach is required. It should allow within a short period of time to evaluate personal background levels, skills, capabilities, etc. To learn more about new potential science-oriented developers of the models, it is often not enough to look into the personal resume. Thus, a special event such as Young Scientist Summer School (YSSS) can be organized, where young researchers could have an opportunity to attend not only relevant lectures, but also participate in practical exercises allowing to solidify lecture materials. Here, the practical exercises are presented as independent small-scale (having duration of up to a week) research projects or studies oriented on specific topics of YSSS. Developed approach was tested and realized during 2008 and 2011 YSSS events held and organized in Zelenogorsk, Russia (by NetFAM et al.; http://netfam.fmi.fi/YSSS08) and Odessa, Ukraine (by MUSCATEN et al.; http://atmos.physic.ut.ee/~muscaten/YSSS/1info.html), respectively. It has been refined for the new YSSS (Jul 2014) to be organized by the COST Action EuMetChem. The main focus of all these YSSSs was/is on the integrated modelling of meteorological and chemical transport processes and impact of chemical weather on numerical weather prediction and climate modelling. During previous YSSSs some of such projects - "URBAN: The Influence of Metropolitan Areas on Meteorology", "AEROSOL: The Impact of Aerosols Effects on Meteorology", and "COASTAL: The Coastal & Cities Effects on Meteorology" - were focused on evaluation of influence of metropolitan areas on formation of meteorological and chemical fields above urban areas (such as Paris, France; Copenhagen, Denmark, and Bilbao, Spain) and surroundings. The Environment - HIgh Resolution Limited Area Model (Enviro-HIRLAM) was used and modifications were made taking

Voices of Successful Science Teachers in an Urban Diverse Single Gender Girls' School

Science.gov (United States)

Malhan, Jyoti

2016-01-01

This research study was conducted as a qualitative case study of four successful science teachers of female students in a diverse, title 1, urban, public girls' school. The study was designed to hear the 'muted' voices of successful science teachers concerning their beliefs and practices when they effectively provide learning opportunities for…

Urban Water and Riverine Quality: Participatory Science in Singapore

Science.gov (United States)

Higgitt, D. L.

2011-12-01

Singapore is a highly urbanised environment experiencing tropical monsoon hydrological regimes. A heavily engineered fluvial system has been developed over time to provide efficient drainage and reduce the area subject to flood risk. However, recent interest in ecosystem-based approaches to river management and the enhancement of the aesthetic and ecological 'quality' of riverine landscape, coupled with concerns about climate change, has challenged the prevailing engineering view. This is reflected in the Public Utility Board (PUB) ABC Waters Programme, which also seeks to develop community interest in riverine environments and engagement with water-related concerns. As part of a programme developing participatory GIS (PGIS) with school and university students, we have undertaken applications involving participant observation, reporting and analysis of water quality data and habitat quality based on a simplified version of the UK Environment Agency's River Habitat Survey. From an educational perspective, there is evidence that these PGIS initiatives raise environmental awareness and enhance geospatial thinking, particularly in relation to catchment management concepts. The extent to which participant-derived data can contribute to a citizen science of urban water quality and hence deliver some aspects of the community engagement sought after by the authorities, is a topic of debate.

Finding Meaningful Roles for Scientists in science Education Reform

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, Brenda

Successful efforts to achieve reform in science education require the active and purposeful engagement of professional scientists. Working as partners with teachers, school administrators, science educators, parents, and other stakeholders, scientists can make important contributions to the improvement of science teaching and learning in pre-college classrooms. The world of a practicing university, corporate, or government scientist may seem far removed from that of students in an elementary classroom. However, the science knowledge and understanding of all future scientists and scientifically literate citizens begin with their introduction to scientific concepts and phenomena in childhood and the early grades. Science education is the responsibility of the entire scientific community and is not solely the responsibility of teachers and other professional educators. Scientists can serve many roles in science education reform including the following: (1) Science Content Resource, (2) Career Role Model, (3) Interpreter of Science (4) Validator for the Importance of Learning Science and Mathematics, (5) Champion of Real World Connections and Value of Science, (6) Experience and Access to Funding Sources, (7) Link for Community and Business Support, (8) Political Supporter. Special programs have been developed to assist scientists and engineers to be effective partners and advocates of science education reform. We will discuss the rationale, organization, and results of some of these partnership development programs.

Resonance – Journal of Science Education | Indian Academy of ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education. R K Varma. Articles written in Resonance – Journal of Science Education. Volume 3 Issue 8 August 1998 pp 8-13. On Science Education and Scientific Research · R K Varma · More Details Fulltext PDF ...

Multicultural education, pragmatism, and the goals of science teaching

Science.gov (United States)

El-Hani, Charbel Niño; Mortimer, Eduardo Fleury

2007-07-01

In this paper, we offer an intermediate position in the multiculturalism/universalism debate, drawing upon Cobern and Loving's epistemological pluralism, pragmatist philosophies, Southerland's defense of instructional multicultural science education, and the conceptual profile model. An important element in this position is the proposal that understanding is the proper goal of science education. Our commitment to this proposal is explained in terms of a defense of an ethics of coexistence for dealing with cultural differences, according to which social argumentative processes—including those in science education—should be marked by dialogue and confrontation of arguments in the search of possible solutions, and an effort to (co-)live with differences if a negotiated solution is not reached. To understand the discourses at stake is, in our view, a key requirement for the coexistence of arguments and discourses, and the science classroom is the privileged space for promoting an understanding of the scientific discourse in particular. We argue for "inclusion" of students' culturally grounded ideas in science education, but in a sense that avoids curricular multicultural science education, and, thus, any attempt to broaden the definition of "science" so that ideas from other ways of knowing might be simply treated as science contents. Science teachers should always take in due account the diversity of students' worldviews, giving them room in argumentative processes in science classrooms, but should never lose from sight the necessity of stimulating students to understand scientific ideas. This view is grounded on a distinction between the goals of science education and the nature of science instruction, and demands a discussion about how learning is to take place in culturally sensitive science education, and about communicative approaches that might be more productive in science classrooms organized as we propose here. We employ the conceptual profile model to

Motivational orientations of urban- and rural-based RNs: implications for staff development educators.

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Armstrong, M L; Clark, D W; Stuppy, D J

1995-01-01

Part of professional development is influencing RNs to return for an undergraduate degree, a challenge for the staff development educator. Expanding on earlier research using Boshier's Educational Participation Scale to reveal motivational orientations, the authors queried 5 groups of RNs who were enrolled in BSN education between 1990 and 1992 (N = 235) and living in rural and urban areas of Texas. There were no significant differences of overall motivational orientations, yet RN students living in rural areas scored higher in professional knowledge (P = 0.03) whereas urban-based RN students scored higher in compliance with authority (P = 0.02). Specific marketing and educational strategies are discussed.

Simulations as Scaffolds in Science Education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Renken, Maggie; Peffer, Melanie; Otrel-Cass, Kathrin

This book outlines key issues for addressing the grand challenges posed to educators, developers, and researchers interested in the intersection of simulations and science education. To achieve this, the authors explore the use of computer simulations as instructional scaffolds that provide...... strategies and support when students are faced with the need to acquire new skills or knowledge. The monograph aims to provide insight into what research has reported on navigating the complex process of inquiry- and problem-based science education and whether computer simulations as instructional scaffolds...

Modern Publishing Approach of Journal of Astronomy & Earth Sciences Education

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Slater, Timothy F.

2015-01-01

Filling a needed scholarly publishing avenue for astronomy education researchers and earth science education researchers, the Journal of Astronomy & Earth Sciences Education - JAESE published its first volume and issue in 2014. The Journal of Astronomy & Earth Sciences Education - JAESE is a scholarly, peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing original discipline-based education research and evaluation, with an emphasis of significant scientific results derived from ethical observations and systematic experimentation in science education and evaluation. International in scope, JAESE aims to publish the highest quality and timely articles from discipline-based education research that advance understanding of astronomy and earth sciences education and are likely to have a significant impact on the discipline or on policy. Articles are solicited describing both (i) systematic science education research and (ii) evaluated teaching innovations across the broadly defined Earth & space sciences education, including the disciplines of astronomy, climate education, energy resource science, environmental science, geology, geography, agriculture, meteorology, planetary sciences, and oceanography education. The publishing model adopted for this new journal is open-access and articles appear online in GoogleScholar, ERIC, and are searchable in catalogs of 440,000 libraries that index online journals of its type. Rather than paid for by library subscriptions or by society membership dues, the annual budget is covered by page-charges paid by individual authors, their institutions, grants or donors: This approach is common in scientific journals, but is relatively uncommon in education journals. Authors retain their own copyright. The journal is owned by the Clute Institute of Denver, which owns and operates 17 scholarly journals and currently edited by former American Astronomical Society Education Officer Tim Slater, who is an endowed professor at the University of Wyoming and

Musicking in the City: Reconceptualizing Urban Music Education as Cultural Practice

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Gaztambide-Fernandez, Ruben A.

2011-01-01

Descriptions of the urban contemporary format remain strongly grounded on the assumption that it is based on musical styles associated with African Americans, such as R&B, soul, hip hop, rap, and reggae. Even for the most progressive educators, to speak of urban music is to refer to a narrow set of musical genres associated with the umbrella term…

Cultural, Social and Political Perspectives in Science Education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

This book presents a collection of critical thinking that concern cultural, social and political issues for science education in the Nordic countries. The chapter authors describe specific scenarios to challenge persisting views, interrogate frameworks and trouble contemporary approaches to resea......This book presents a collection of critical thinking that concern cultural, social and political issues for science education in the Nordic countries. The chapter authors describe specific scenarios to challenge persisting views, interrogate frameworks and trouble contemporary approaches...... to researching teaching and learning in science. Taking a point of departure in empirical examples from the Nordic countries the collection of work is taking a critical sideways glance at the Nordic education principles. Critical examinations target specifically those who are researching in the fields of science...... conditions and contexts in science education. The different chapters review debates and research in teacher education, school teaching and learning including when external stakeholders are involved. Even though the chapters are contextualized in Nordic settings there will be similarities and parallels...

The Viability of Distance Education Science Laboratories.

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Forinash, Kyle; Wisman, Raymond

2001-01-01

Discusses the effectiveness of offering science laboratories via distance education. Explains current delivery technologies, including computer simulations, videos, and laboratory kits sent to students; pros and cons of distance labs; the use of spreadsheets; and possibilities for new science education models. (LRW)

Game based learning for computer science education

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schmitz, Birgit; Czauderna, André; Klemke, Roland; Specht, Marcus

2011-01-01

Schmitz, B., Czauderna, A., Klemke, R., & Specht, M. (2011). Game based learning for computer science education. In G. van der Veer, P. B. Sloep, & M. van Eekelen (Eds.), Computer Science Education Research Conference (CSERC '11) (pp. 81-86). Heerlen, The Netherlands: Open Universiteit.

Resonance – Journal of Science Education | Indian Academy of ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education; Search. Search. Resonance – Journal of Science Education. Title. Author. Keywords. Category. Fulltext. Submit. Resonance – Journal of Science Education. Current Issue : Vol. 23, Issue 4. Current Issue Volume 23 | Issue 4. April 2018. Home · Volumes & Issues ...

Using design science in educational technology research projects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susan M. Chard

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Design science is a research paradigm where the development and evaluation of a technology artefact is a key contribution. Design science is used in many domains and this paper draws on those domains to formulate a generic structure for design science research suitable for educational technology research projects. The paper includes guidelines for writing proposals using the design science research methodology for educational technology research and presents a generic research report structure. The paper presents ethical issues to consider in design science research being conducted in educational settings and contributes guidelines for assessment when the research contribution involves the creation of a technology artefact.

Joe L. Kincheloe: Embracing criticality in science education

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Bayne, Gillian U.

2009-09-01

This article reviews significant contributions made by Joe L. Kincheloe to critical research in science education, especially through a multimethodological, multitheoretical, and multidisciplinary informed lens that incorporates social, cultural, political, economic, and cognitive dynamics—the bricolage. Kincheloe's ideas provide for a compelling understanding of, and insights into, the forces that shape the intricacies of teaching and learning science and science education. They have implications in improving science education policies, in developing actions that challenge and cultivate the intellect while operating in ways that are more understanding of difference and are socially just.

Defining Integrated Science Education and Putting It to Test

OpenAIRE

Åström, Maria

2008-01-01

The thesis is made up by four studies, on the comprehensive theme of integrated and subject-specific science education in Swedish compulsory school. A literature study on the matter is followed by an expert survey, then a case study and ending with two analyses of students' science results from PISA 2003 and PISA 2006. The first two studies explore similarities and differences between integrated and subject-specific science education, i.e. Science education and science taught as Biology, Chem...

Global reproduction and transformation of science education

Science.gov (United States)

Tobin, Kenneth

2011-03-01

Neoliberalism has spread globally and operates hegemonically in many fields, including science education. I use historical auto/ethnography to examine global referents that have mediated the production of contemporary science education to explore how the roles of teachers and learners are related to macrostructures such as neoliberalism and derivative sensibilities, including standards, competition, and accountability systems, that mediate enacted curricula. I investigate these referents in relation to science education in two geographically and temporally discrete contexts Western Australia in the 1960s and 1970s and more recently in an inner city high school in the US. In so doing I problematize some of the taken for granted aspects of science education, including holding teachers responsible for establishing and maintaining control over students, emphasizing competition between individuals and between collectives such as schools, school districts and countries, and holding teachers and school leaders accountable for student achievement.

Science Education at Arts-Focused Colleges

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Oswald, W. Wyatt; Ritchie, Aarika; Murray, Amy Vashlishan; Honea, Jon

2016-01-01

Many arts-focused colleges and universities in the United States offer their undergraduate students coursework in science. To better understand the delivery of science education at this type of institution, this article surveys the science programs of forty-one arts-oriented schools. The findings suggest that most science programs are located in…

Science Education Research vs. Physics Education Research: A Structural Comparison

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Akarsu, Bayram

2010-01-01

The main goal of this article is to introduce physics education research (PER) to researchers in other fields. Topics include discussion of differences between science education research (SER) and physics education research (PER), physics educators, research design and methodology in physics education research and current research traditions and…

Everyday science & science every day: Science-related talk & activities across settings

Science.gov (United States)

Zimmerman, Heather

To understand the development of science-related thinking, acting, and learning in middle childhood, I studied youth in schools, homes, and other neighborhood settings over a three-year period. The research goal was to analyze how multiple everyday experiences influence children's participation in science-related practices and their thinking about science and scientists. Ethnographic and interaction analysis methodologies were to study the cognition and social interactions of the children as they participated in activities with peers, family, and teachers (n=128). Interviews and participant self-documentation protocols elucidated the participants' understandings of science. An Everyday Expertise (Bell et al., 2006) theoretical framework was employed to study the development of science understandings on three analytical planes: individual learner, social groups, and societal/community resources. Findings came from a cross-case analysis of urban science learners and from two within-case analyses of girls' science-related practices as they transitioned from elementary to middle school. Results included: (1) children participated actively in science across settings---including in their homes as well as in schools, (2) children's interests in science were not always aligned to the school science content, pedagogy, or school structures for participation, yet children found ways to engage with science despite these differences through crafting multiple pathways into science, (3) urban parents were active supporters of STEM-related learning environments through brokering access to social and material resources, (4) the youth often found science in their daily activities that formal education did not make use of, and (5) children's involvement with science-related practices can be developed into design principles to reach youth in culturally relevant ways.

Scientists and Science Education: Working at the Interface

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DeVore, E. K.

2004-05-01

"Are we alone?" "Where did we come from?" "What is our future?" These questions lie at the juncture of astronomy and biology: astrobiology. It is intrinsically interdisciplinary in its study of the origin, evolution and future of life on Earth and beyond. The fundamental concepts of origin and evolution--of both living and non-living systems--are central to astrobiology, and provide powerful themes for unifying science teaching, learning, and appreciation in classrooms and laboratories, museums and science centers, and homes. Research scientists play a key role in communicating the nature of science and joy of scientific discovery with the public. Communicating the scientific discoveries with the public brings together diverse professionals: research scientists, graduate and undergraduate faculty, educators, journalists, media producers, web designers, publishers and others. Working with these science communicators, research scientists share their discoveries through teaching, popular articles, lectures, broadcast and print media, electronic publication, and developing materials for formal and informal education such as textbooks, museum exhibits and documentary television. There's lots of activity in science communication. Yet, the NSF and NASA have both identified science education as needing improvement. The quality of schools and the preparation of teachers receive national attention via "No Child Left Behind" requirements. The number of students headed toward careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is not sufficient to meet national needs. How can the research community make a difference? What role can research scientists fulfill in improving STEM education? This talk will discuss the interface between research scientists and science educators to explore effective roles for scientists in science education partnerships. Astronomy and astrobiology education and outreach projects, materials, and programs will provide the context for

Space Science Education Resource Directory

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Christian, C. A.; Scollick, K.

The Office of Space Science (OSS) of NASA supports educational programs as a by-product of the research it funds through missions and investigative programs. A rich suite of resources for public use is available including multimedia materials, online resources, hardcopies and other items. The OSS supported creation of a resource catalog through a group lead by individuals at STScI that ultimately will provide an easy-to-use and user-friendly search capability to access products. This paper describes the underlying architecture of that catalog, including the challenge to develop a system for characterizing education products through appropriate metadata. The system must also be meaningful to a large clientele including educators, scientists, students, and informal science educators. An additional goal was to seamlessly exchange data with existing federally supported educational systems as well as local systems. The goals, requirements, and standards for the catalog will be presented to illuminate the rationale for the implementation ultimately adopted.

The nanny in the schoolhouse: the role of femme-Caribbean identity in attaining success in urban science classrooms

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Grimes, Nicole K.

2013-06-01

A growing body of teacher identity-based research has begun to embrace that the development of self-understanding about being a teacher is critical to learning how to teach. Construction of a professional teacher identity requires much more beyond mere content, skills and a foundational pedagogy. It also includes an intersection of the personal and professional self, which gives way to the emergence of multiple identities in the classroom. An educator's gender, nationality, language and interests among other tenets all permeate the classroom field and coexist alongside the professional role identity. This paper aims to use narrative as a way to discuss how science educators can mediate holding several identities in the classroom in order to create an environment characterized by successful teaching and learning. Drawing from an array of sociocultural theoretical perspectives, complementary constructs of identity by Jonathan Turner (Face to face: toward a sociological theory of interpersonal behavior. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, 2002) and Amartya Sen (Identity and violence: the illusion of destiny. W. W. Norton, New York, 2006), George Lakoff's (Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1980) work on metonymy, and David Bloome's (2005) theorization of the power of caring relationships, I explore the ways in which my Black female Caribbean identity has transformed the science classroom field and created positive resonance for some of my privileged White students who have Caribbean caretakers at home. To begin, I unpack how Afro-Caribbean immigration to urban centers in the United States continues to produce childcare occupational opportunities in places like New York City. Being a first generation Trinidadian immigrant, my many identities have structured my science teaching praxis and consequently transformed the way my students learn science. A significant part of this paper is a reflexive account of experiences (primarily dialogue

Earth Science Education in Morocco

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Bouabdelli, Mohamed

1999-05-01

The earth sciences are taught in twelve universities in Morocco and in three other institutions. In addition there are three more earth science research institutions. Earth science teaching has been taking place since 1957. The degree system is a four-year degree, split into two two-year blocks and geology is taught within the geology-biology programme for the first part of the degree. 'Classical' geology is taught in most universities, although applied geology degrees are also on offer in some universities. Recently-formed technical universities offer a more innovative approach to Earth Science Education. Teaching is in French, although school education is in Arabic. There is a need for a reform of the curriculum, although a lead is being taken by the technical universities. A new geological mapping programme promises new geological and mining discoveries in the country and prospects of employment for geology graduates.

Preparing Science Teachers: Strong Emphasis on Science Content Course Work in a Master's Program in Education

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Ajhar, Edward A.; Blackwell, E.; Quesada, D.

2010-05-01

In South Florida, science teacher preparation is often weak as a shortage of science teachers often prompts administrators to assign teachers to science classes just to cover the classroom needs. This results is poor preparation of students for college science course work, which, in turn, causes the next generation of science teachers to be even weaker than the first. This cycle must be broken in order to prepare better students in the sciences. At St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, Florida, our School of Science has teamed with our Institute for Education to create a program to alleviate this problem: A Master of Science in Education with a Concentration in Earth/Space Science. The Master's program consists of 36 total credits. Half the curriculum consists of traditional educational foundation and instructional leadership courses while the other half is focused on Earth and Space Science content courses. The content area of 18 credits also provides a separate certificate program. Although traditional high school science education places a heavy emphasis on Earth Science, this program expands that emphasis to include the broader context of astronomy, astrophysics, astrobiology, planetary science, and the practice and philosophy of science. From this contextual basis the teacher is better prepared to educate and motivate middle and high school students in all areas of the physical sciences. Because hands-on experience is especially valuable to educators, our program uses materials and equipment including small optical telescopes (Galileoscopes), several 8-in and 14-in Celestron and Meade reflectors, and a Small Radio Telescope installed on site. (Partial funding provided by the US Department of Education through Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program grant P120A050062.)

Resonance – Journal of Science Education | Indian Academy of ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education. Kathy Ceceri. Articles written in Resonance – Journal of Science Education. Volume 16 Issue 9 September 2011 pp 879-880 Personal Reflections. Five Things I Learned from Richard Feynman About Science Education · Kathy Ceceri · More Details Fulltext PDF ...

Cultural, Social and Political Perspectives in Science Education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

conditions and contexts in science education. The different chapters review debates and research in teacher education, school teaching and learning including when external stakeholders are involved. Even though the chapters are contextualized in Nordic settings there will be similarities and parallels...... that will be informative to the international science education research community.......This book presents a collection of critical thinking that concern cultural, social and political issues for science education in the Nordic countries. The chapter authors describe specific scenarios to challenge persisting views, interrogate frameworks and trouble contemporary approaches...

Sputnik's Impact on Science Education in America

Science.gov (United States)

Holbrow, Charles H.

2007-04-01

The launch of Sputnik, the world's first artificial Earth orbiting satellite, by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957 was a triggering event. Before Sputnik pressure had been rising to mobilize America's intellectual resources to be more effective and useful in dealing with the Cold War. Sputnik released that pressure by stirring up a mixture of American hysteria, wounded self-esteem, fears of missile attacks, and deep questioning of the intellectual capabilities of popular democratic society and its educational system. After Sputnik the federal government took several remarkable actions: President Eisenhower established the position of Presidential Science Advisor; the House and the Senate reorganized their committee structures to focus on science policy; Congress created NASA -- the National Aeronautics and Space Agency -- and charged it to create a civilian space program; they tripled funding for the National Science Foundation to support basic research but also to improve science education and draw more young Americans into science and engineering; and they passed the National Defense Education Act which involved the federal government to an unprecedented extent with all levels of American education. I will describe some pre-Sputnik pressures to change American education, review some important effects of the subsequent changes, and talk about one major failure of change fostered by the national government.

Derivation and Implementation of a Model Teaching the Nature of Science Using Informal Science Education Venues

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Spector, Barbara S.; Burkett, Ruth; Leard, Cyndy

2012-01-01

This paper introduces a model for using informal science education venues as contexts within which to teach the nature of science. The model was initially developed to enable university education students to teach science in elementary schools so as to be consistent with "National Science Education Standards" (NSES) (1996) and "A Framework for…

PROGNOSIS OF VISUALIZATION USAGE IN THE SCIENCE EDUCATION PROCESS

OpenAIRE

Bilbokaite, Renata

2016-01-01

Future education depends on many external exogenous factors - society evolution, technologic progress, teachers’ opinion and their ability to organize the education process. Science education is difficult for many students but the progress of the society definitely correlated with achievements of science. This highlights the importance of teaching biology, chemistry, physics, geography and mathematics at school. Visualization helps students to learn science education but at the moment teacher...

Connecting Urban Students with Engineering Design: Community-Focused, Student-Driven Projects

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Parker, Carolyn; Kruchten, Catherine; Moshfeghian, Audrey

2017-01-01

The STEM Achievement in Baltimore Elementary Schools (SABES) program is a community partnership initiative that includes both in-school and afterschool STEM education for grades 3-5. It was designed to broaden participation and achievement in STEM education by bringing science and engineering to the lives of low-income urban elementary school…

Education and Training in Forensic Science: A Guide for Forensic Science Laboratories, Educational Institutions, and Students. Special Report.

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US Department of Justice, 2004

2004-01-01

Forensic science provides scientific and foundational information for investigators and courts, and thus plays a crucial role in the criminal justice system. This guide was developed through the work of the Technical Working Group on Education and Training in Forensic Science (TWGED) to serve as a reference on best education and training practices…

Resonance journal of science education

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Resonance journal of science education. May 2012 Volume 17 Number 5. SERIES ARTICLES. 436 Dawn of Science. The Quest for Power. T Padmanabhan. GENERAL ARTICLES. 441 Bernoulli Runs Using 'Book Cricket' to Evaluate. Cricketers. Anand Ramalingam. 454 Wilhelm Ostwald, the Father of Physical Chemistry.

Resonance journal of science education

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Resonance journal of science education. February 2012 Volume 17 Number 2. SERIES ARTICLES. 106 Dawn of Science. Calculus is Developed in Kerala. T Padmanabhan. GENERAL ARTICLES. 117 Willis H Carrier: Father of Air Conditioning. R V Simha. 139 Refrigerants For Vapour Compression Refrigeration. Systems.

The Black Swans of Agricultural Education: A Glimpse into the Lived Experiences That Shape Urban Agricultural Educators' Meaning in Work

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Roberts, Richie; Ramsey, Jon W.

2017-01-01

Urban agricultural educators face a number of unique challenges in performing their job duties. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to understand the essence of urban agricultural educators' meaning in their work by exploring their lived experiences. In this study, the essence emerged in the form of a metaphor: A Black Swan. The black swan…

Joint Science Education Project: Learning about polar science in Greenland

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Foshee Reed, Lynn

2014-05-01

The Joint Science Education Project (JSEP) is a successful summer science and culture opportunity in which students and teachers from the United States, Denmark, and Greenland come together to learn about the research conducted in Greenland and the logistics involved in supporting the research. They conduct experiments first-hand and participate in inquiry-based educational activities alongside scientists and graduate students at a variety of locations in and around Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, and on the top of the ice sheet at Summit Station. The Joint Committee, a high-level forum involving the Greenlandic, Danish and U.S. governments, established the Joint Science Education Project in 2007, as a collaborative diplomatic effort during the International Polar Year to: • Educate and inspire the next generation of polar scientists; • Build strong networks of students and teachers among the three countries; and • Provide an opportunity to practice language and communication skills Since its inception, JSEP has had 82 student and 22 teacher participants and has involved numerous scientists and field researchers. The JSEP format has evolved over the years into its current state, which consists of two field-based subprograms on site in Greenland: the Greenland-led Kangerlussuaq Science Field School and the U.S.-led Arctic Science Education Week. All travel, transportation, accommodations, and meals are provided to the participants at no cost. During the 2013 Kangerlussuaq Science Field School, students and teachers gathered data in a biodiversity study, created and set geo- and EarthCaches, calculated glacial discharge at a melt-water stream and river, examined microbes and tested for chemical differences in a variety of lakes, measured ablation at the edge of the Greenland Ice Sheet, and learned about fossils, plants, animals, minerals and rocks of Greenland. In addition, the students planned and led cultural nights, sharing food, games, stories, and traditions of

Sensory Science Education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Otrel-Cass, Kathrin

2018-01-01

little note of the body-mind interactions we have with the material world. Utilizing examples from primary schools, it is argued that a sensory pedagogy in science requires a deliberate sensitization and validation of the senses’ presence and that a sensor pedagogy approach may reveal the unique ways...... in how we all experience the world. Troubling science education pedagogy is therefore also a reconceptualization of who we are and how we make sense of the world and the acceptance that the body-mind is present, imbalanced and complex....

Discovering Science Education in the USA

Science.gov (United States)

Teaching Science, 2014

2014-01-01

Science is amazing for many reasons. One of them is its immeasurable size as a subject, and the breadth of its application. From nanotech to astrophysics, from our backyards to the global arena, science links everything and everyone on Earth. Our understanding of science--and science education--needs to be just as diverse and all-encompassing.…

The paradox of un/making science people: practicing ethico-political hesitations in science education

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Wallace, Maria F. G.

2018-03-01

Over the years neoliberal ideology and discourse have become intricately connected to making science people. Science educators work within a complicated paradox where they are obligated to meet neoliberal demands that reinscribe dominant, hegemonic assumptions for producing a scientific workforce. Whether it is the discourse of school science, processes of being a scientist, or definitions of science particular subjects are made intelligible as others are made unintelligible. This paper resides within the messy entanglements of feminist poststructural and new materialist perspectives to provoke spaces where science educators might enact ethicopolitical hesitations. By turning to and living in theory, the un/making of certain kinds of science people reveals material effects and affects. Practicing ethicopolitical hesitations prompt science educators to consider beginning their work from ontological assumptions that begin with abundance rather than lack.

Principles of Professionalism for Science Educators. National Science Teachers Association Position Statement

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National Science Teachers Association (NJ1), 2010

2010-01-01

Science educators play a central role in educating, inspiring, and guiding students to become responsible, scientifically literate citizens. Therefore, teachers of science must uphold the highest ethical standards of the profession to earn and maintain the respect, trust, and confidence of students, parents, school leaders, colleagues, and other…

High-Poverty Urban High School Students' Plans for Higher Education: Weaving Their Own Safety Nets

Science.gov (United States)

Cilesiz, Sebnem; Drotos, Stephanie M.

2016-01-01

This qualitative study investigates high-poverty urban high school students' views of and plans regarding higher education, using Bourdieu's theory of reproduction in education as theoretical framework. Interview data from 76 students from six high-poverty urban schools in a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States were analyzed using…

Resonance – Journal of Science Education | Indian Academy of ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education. Bala Iyer. Articles written in Resonance – Journal of Science Education. Volume 21 Issue 3 March 2016 pp 203-205 Editorial. Editorial · Bala Iyer · More Details Fulltext PDF. Resonance – Journal of Science Education. Current Issue : Vol. 23, Issue 4. Current ...

Some Aspects of Science Education in European Context

Science.gov (United States)

Naumescu, Adrienne Kozan; Pasca, Roxana-Diana

2008-01-01

Some up-to-date problems in science education in European context are treated in this paper. The characteristics of science education across Europe are presented. Science teachers' general competencies are underlined. An example of problem-solving as teaching method in chemistry is studied in knowledge based society. Transforming teacher practice…

Development and Implementation of Science and Technology Ethics Education Program for Prospective Science Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Rhee, Hyang-yon; Choi, Kyunghee

2014-05-01

The purposes of this study were (1) to develop a science and technology (ST) ethics education program for prospective science teachers, (2) to examine the effect of the program on the perceptions of the participants, in terms of their ethics and education concerns, and (3) to evaluate the impact of the program design. The program utilized problem-based learning (PBL) which was performed as an iterative process during two cycles. A total of 23 and 29 prospective teachers in each cycle performed team activities. A PBL-based ST ethics education program for the science classroom setting was effective in enhancing participants' perceptions of ethics and education in ST. These perceptions motivated prospective science teachers to develop and implement ST ethics education in their future classrooms. The change in the prospective teachers' perceptions of ethical issues and the need for ethics education was greater when the topic was controversial.

History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science in Science Education: Results from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Hsingchi A.; Sshmidt, William H.

Throughout the history of enhancing the public scientific literacy, researchers have postulated that since every citizen is expected to have informal opinions on the relationships among government, education, and issues of scientific research and development, it is imperative that appreciation of the past complexities of science and society and the nature of scientific knowledge be a part of the education of both scientists and non-scientists. HPSS inclusion has been found to be an effective way to reach the goal of enhancing science literacy for all citizens. Although reports stated that HPSS inclusion is not a new educational practice in other part of the world, nevertheless, no large scale study has ever been attempted to report the HPSS educational conditions around the world. This study utilizes the rich data collected by TIMSS to unveil the current conditions of HPSS in the science education of about forty TIMSS countries. Based on the analysis results, recommendations to science educators of the world are provided.

African Indigenous science in higher education in Uganda

Science.gov (United States)

Akena Adyanga, Francis

This study examines African Indigenous Science (AIS) in higher education in Uganda. To achieve this, I use anticolonial theory and Indigenous knowledge discursive frameworks to situate the subjugation of Indigenous science from the education system within a colonial historical context. These theories allow for a critical examination of the intersection of power relations rooted in the politics of knowledge production, validation, and dissemination, and how this process has become a systemic and complex method of subjugating one knowledge system over the other. I also employ qualitative and autoethnographic research methodologies. Using a qualitative research method, I interviewed 10 students and 10 professors from two universities in Uganda. My research was guided by the following key questions: What is African Indigenous Science? What methodology would help us to indigenize science education in Uganda? How can we work with Indigenous knowledge and anticolonial theoretical discursive frameworks to understand and challenge the dominance of Eurocentric knowledge in mainstream education? My research findings revealed that AIS can be defined in multiple ways, in other words, there is no universal definition of AIS. However, there were some common elements that my participants talked about such as: (a) knowledge by Indigenous communities developed over a long period of time through a trial and error approach to respond to the social, economic and political challenges of their society. The science practices are generational and synergistic with other disciplines such as history, spirituality, sociology, anthropology, geography, and trade among others, (b) a cumulative practice of the use, interactions with and of biotic and abiotic organism in everyday life for the continued existence of a community in its' totality. The research findings also indicate that Indigenous science is largely lacking from Uganda's education curriculum because of the influence of colonial and

Resonance – Journal of Science Education | News

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education. Deepak Nandi. Articles written in Resonance – Journal of Science Education. Volume 23 Issue 2 February 2018 pp 197-217 General Article. Thymus: The site for Development of Cellular Immunity · Shamik Majumdar Sanomy Pathak Deepak Nandi · More Details ...

Global Reproduction and Transformation of Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Tobin, Kenneth

2011-01-01

Neoliberalism has spread globally and operates hegemonically in many fields, including science education. I use historical auto/ethnography to examine global referents that have mediated the production of contemporary science education to explore how the roles of teachers and learners are related to macrostructures such as neoliberalism and…

NASA Earth Science Education Collaborative

Science.gov (United States)

Schwerin, T. G.; Callery, S.; Chambers, L. H.; Riebeek Kohl, H.; Taylor, J.; Martin, A. M.; Ferrell, T.

2016-12-01

The NASA Earth Science Education Collaborative (NESEC) is led by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies with partners at three NASA Earth science Centers: Goddard Space Flight Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Langley Research Center. This cross-organization team enables the project to draw from the diverse skills, strengths, and expertise of each partner to develop fresh and innovative approaches for building pathways between NASA's Earth-related STEM assets to large, diverse audiences in order to enhance STEM teaching, learning and opportunities for learners throughout their lifetimes. These STEM assets include subject matter experts (scientists, engineers, and education specialists), science and engineering content, and authentic participatory and experiential opportunities. Specific project activities include authentic STEM experiences through NASA Earth science themed field campaigns and citizen science as part of international GLOBE program (for elementary and secondary school audiences) and GLOBE Observer (non-school audiences of all ages); direct connections to learners through innovative collaborations with partners like Odyssey of the Mind, an international creative problem-solving and design competition; and organizing thematic core content and strategically working with external partners and collaborators to adapt and disseminate core content to support the needs of education audiences (e.g., libraries and maker spaces, student research projects, etc.). A scaffolded evaluation is being conducted that 1) assesses processes and implementation, 2) answers formative evaluation questions in order to continuously improve the project; 3) monitors progress and 4) measures outcomes.

Ten Decades of the Science Textbook: A Revealing Mirror of Science Education Past and Present.

Science.gov (United States)

Lynch, Paddy P.; Strube, Paul D.

1985-01-01

Indicates that trends in science education can be examined by examining science textbook content. Suggests that a historical overview is important and pertinent to contemporary thinking and contemporary problems in science education. (Author/JN)

European Meteorological Society and education in atmospheric sciences

Science.gov (United States)

Halenka, T.; Belda, M.

2010-09-01

EMS is supporting the exchange of information in the area of education in atmospheric sciences as one of its priority and organizing the educational sessions during EMS annual meetings as a good occasion for such an exchange. Brief thought will be given to the fate of the series of International Conferences on School and Popular Meteorological and Oceanographic Education - EWOC (Education in Weather, Ocean and Climate) and to the project oriented basis of further cooperation in education in atmospheric sciences across Europe. Another tool of EMS is the newly established and developed EDU portal of EMS. In most European countries the process of integration of education at university level was started after Bologna Declaration with the objective to have the system where students on some level could move to another school, or rather university. The goal is to achieve the compatibility between the systems and levels in individual countries to have no objections for students when transferring between the European countries. From this point of view EMS is trying to provide the information about the possibility of education in meteorology and climatology in different countries in centralised form, with uniform shape and content, but validated on national level. In most European countries the necessity of education in Science and Mathematics to achieve higher standard and competitiveness in research and technology development has been formulated after the Lisboa meeting. The European Meteorological Society is trying to follow this process with implication to atmospheric sciences. One of the important task of the EMS is the activity to promote public understanding of meteorology (and sciences related to it), and the ability to make use of it, through schools and more generally. One of the elements of EMS activity is the analysis of the position of atmospheric science in framework of curricula in educational systems of European countries as well as in more general sense, the

Effectiveness of place-based science curriculum projects situated in Hawaiian and Western cultural institutions at an urban high school in Hawai'i

Science.gov (United States)

Kuwahara, Jennifer Leslie Hoof

Place-based education is a multidisciplinary and experiential approach to learning that utilizes a local environment or community. This study examined the influences of place attachment and cultural affiliation in the school on student experience and learning in a place-based science course, as well as the course's potential influence on environmentally responsible behaviors. The participants attended an urban high school on O'ahu, Hawai'i. By understanding student reaction to experience in both Western- and Hawaiian-centered classes, this study contributes to the literature on place-based education in relation to how differences in cultural affiliation in a school setting can have varying impacts on place attachment, science literacy, and environmental responsibility. A comparative case study was conducted with students enrolled in the Hawaiian Academy and non-academy students. Analysis of a pre- and post-survey and science content assessments, student documents, field notes, and interview transcripts suggested place-based science has both similar and different impacts on students depending on cultural affiliation within the school. Students in the Hawaiian Academy, as a whole, showed stronger science literacy and environmental responsibility than students in the non-Hawaiian Academy class. However, non-Hawaiian Academy students showed increased place attachment in a spiritual sense. Reactions from both groups suggest a need for smaller learning communities that promote a unity of knowledge rather than distinct courses and disciplines.

Towards Science Education for all: Teacher Support for Female ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Towards Science Education for all: Teacher Support for Female Pupils in the Zimbabwean Science Class. ... Annals of Modern Education ... One hundred female pupils studying sciences at either Ordinary or Advanced level, and 10 science teachers from 10 selected secondary schools in one province in Zimbabwe, ...

Engineering and science education for nuclear power

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mautner-Markhof, F.

1988-01-01

Experience has shown that one of the critical conditions for the successful introduction of a nuclear power programme is the availability of sufficient numbers of personnel having the required education and experience qualifications. For this reason, the introduction of nuclear power should be preceded by a thorough assessment of the relevant capabilities of the industrial and education/training infrastructures of the country involved. The IAEA assists its Member States in a variety of ways in the development of infrastructures and capabilities for engineering and science education for nuclear power. Types of assistance provided by the IAEA to Member States include: Providing information in connection with the establishment or upgrading of academic and non-academic engineering and science education programmes for nuclear power (on the basis of curricula recommended in the Agency's Guidebook on engineering and science education for nuclear power); Expert assistance in setting up or upgrading laboratories and other teaching facilities; Assessing the capabilities and interest of Member States and their institutions/organizations for technical co-operation among countries, especially developing ones, in engineering and science education, as well as its feasibility and usefulness; Preparing and conducting nuclear specialization courses (e.g. on radiation protection) in various Member States

Effectively using urban landscapes to teach biodiversity and echohydrology for introductory environmental science classes

Science.gov (United States)

Pondell, C.; van Doorn, A.; MacAvoy, S. E.

2017-12-01

Urban environments offer students interesting opportunities to explore and examine how human modified landscapes influence biodiversity, nutrient cycling, and water quality. Students demanding applied field experiences from their undergraduate environmental science (ENVS) programs can be well served in urban settings. Here, we present strategies for integrating urban areas into the undergraduate field experience. Urban locations provide an opportunity for a different type of local "field-work" than would otherwise be available. In the intro level undergraduate ENVS class, we use our campus, the surrounding neighborhood and city as well as a nearby National Park for field exercises. Here we share lesson plans for field activities that can be completed with incoming undergraduate students, and show how these activities help students gain quantitative and investigative competency.

Increasing Resilience Through Engagement In Sea Level Rise Community Science Initiatives.

Science.gov (United States)

Chilton, L. A.; Rindge, H.

2017-12-01

Science literate and engaged members of the public, including students, are critical to building climate resilient communities. USC Sea Grant facilitates programs that work to build and strengthen these connections. The Urban Tides Community Science Initiative (Urban Tides) and the Youth Exploring Sea Level Rise Science Program (YESS) engage communities across the boundaries of public engagement, K-12 education, and informal education. YESS is an experiential sea level rise education program that combines classroom learning, field investigations and public presentations. Students explore sea level rise using a new curricula, collect their own data on sea level rise, develop communication products, and present their findings to city governments, researchers, and others. Urban Tides engages community members, informal education centers, K-12 students, and local government leaders in a citizen science program photo- documenting extreme high tides, erosion and coastal flooding in Southern California. Images provide critical information to help calibrate scientific models used to identify locations vulnerable to damage from future sea level rise. These tools and information enable community leaders and local governments to set priorities, guidelines, and update policies as they plan strategies that will help the region adapt. The program includes a mobile app for data collection, an open database to view photos, a lesson plan, and community beach walks. Urban Tides has led to an increase in data and data-gathering capacity for regional scientists, an increase in public participation in science, and an increase in ocean and climate literacy among initiative participants. Both of these programs bring informed and diverse voices into the discussion of how to adapt and build climate resilient communities. USC Sea Grant will share impacts and lessons learned from these two unique programs.

Science in early childhood education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Broström, Stig

2015-01-01

Bildung Didaktik, and a learning approach based on a Vygotskian cultural-historical activity theory. A science-oriented dynamic contextual didactical model was developed as a tool for educational thinking and planning. The article presents five educational principles for a preschool science Didaktik......Based on an action research project with 12 preschools in a municipality north of Copenhagen the article investigates and takes a first step in order to create a preschool science Didaktik. The theoretical background comprises a pedagogical/didactical approach based on German critical constructive....... Several problems are discussed, the main being: How can preschool teachers balance children’s sense of wonder, i.e. their construction of knowledge (which often result in a anthropocentric thinking) against a teaching approach, which gives children a scientific understanding of scientific phenomena....

Science Education Research Trends in Latin America

Science.gov (United States)

Medina-Jerez, William

2018-01-01

The purpose of this study was to survey and report on the empirical literature at the intersection of science education research in Latin American and previous studies addressing international research trends in this field. Reports on international trends in science education research indicate that authors from English-speaking countries are major…

Resonance – Journal of Science Education | News

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education. Film Review. Articles in Resonance – Journal of Science Education. Volume 22 Issue 3 March 2017 pp 317-318 Film Review. The Untold Story of NASA's Trailblazers: Hidden Figures sheds light on the contributions of black women to the US Space Race.

Students' Attitudes towards Interdisciplinary Education: A Course on Interdisciplinary Aspects of Science and Engineering Education

Science.gov (United States)

Gero, Aharon

2017-01-01

A course entitled "Science and Engineering Education: Interdisciplinary Aspects" was designed to expose undergraduate students of science and engineering education to the attributes of interdisciplinary education which integrates science and engineering. The core of the course is an interdisciplinary lesson, which each student is…

A university system's approach to enhancing the educational mission of health science schools and institutions: the University of Texas Academy of Health Science Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. Maximilian Buja

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Background: The academy movement developed in the United States as an important approach to enhance the educational mission and facilitate the recognition and work of educators at medical schools and health science institutions. Objectives: Academies initially formed at individual medical schools. Educators and leaders in The University of Texas System (the UT System, UTS recognized the academy movement as a means both to address special challenges and pursue opportunities for advancing the educational mission of academic health sciences institutions. Methods: The UTS academy process was started by the appointment of a Chancellor's Health Fellow for Education in 2004. Subsequently, the University of Texas Academy of Health Science Education (UTAHSE was formed by bringing together esteemed faculty educators from the six UTS health science institutions. Results: Currently, the UTAHSE has 132 voting members who were selected through a rigorous, system-wide peer review and who represent multiple professional backgrounds and all six campuses. With support from the UTS, the UTAHSE has developed and sustained an annual Innovations in Health Science Education conference, a small grants program and an Innovations in Health Science Education Award, among other UTS health science educational activities. The UTAHSE represents one university system's innovative approach to enhancing its educational mission through multi- and interdisciplinary as well as inter-institutional collaboration. Conclusions: The UTAHSE is presented as a model for the development of other consortia-type academies that could involve several components of a university system or coalitions of several institutions.

PARRISE, Promoting Attainment of Responsible Research and Innovation in Science Education, FP7 : Rethinking science, rethinking education

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Knippels, M.C.P.J.; van Dam, F.W.

The PARRISE (Promoting Attainment of Responsible Research & Innovation in Science Education) project aims at introducing the concept of Responsible Research and Innovation in primary and secondary education. It does so by combining inquiry-based learning and citizenship education with

The Implications for Science Education of Heidegger's Philosophy of Science

Science.gov (United States)

Shaw, Robert

2013-01-01

Science teaching always engages a philosophy of science. This article introduces a modern philosophy of science and indicates its implications for science education. The hermeneutic philosophy of science is the tradition of Kant, Heidegger, and Heelan. Essential to this tradition are two concepts of truth, truth as correspondence and truth as…

Introductory Comments on Philosophy and Constructivism in Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Matthews, Michael R.

This article indicates something of the enormous influence of constructivism on contemporary science education. The article distinguishes educational constructivism (that has its origins in theories of children's learning), from constructivism in the philosophy of science (usually associated with instrumentalist views of scientific theory), and from constructivism in the sociology of science (of which the Edinburgh Strong Programme in the sociology of scientific knowledge is the best known example). It notes the expansion of educational constructivism from initial considerations of how children come to learn, to views about epistemology, educational theory, ethics, and the cognitive claims of science. From the learning-theory beginnings of constructivism, and at each stage of its growth, philosophical questions arise that deserve the attention of educators. Among other things, the article identifies some theoretical problems concerning constructivist teaching of the content of science.

Moving Beyond Concepts: Getting Urban High School Students Engaged in Science through Cognitive Processes

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Renu

In order to maintain its global position, the United States needs to increase the number of students opting for science careers. Science teachers face a formidable challenge. Students are not choosing science because they do not think coursework is interesting or applies to their lives. These problems often compound for adolescents in urban areas. This action research investigated an innovation aimed at engaging a group of adolescents in the science learning process through cognitive processes and conceptual understanding. It was hoped that this combination would increase students' engagement in the classroom and proficiency in science. The study was conducted with 28 juniors and sophomores in an Environmental Science class in an urban high school with a student body of 97% minority students and 86% students receiving free and reduced lunch. The study used a mixed-methods design. Instruments included a pre- and post-test, Thinking Maps, transcripts of student discourse, and a two-part Engagement Observation Instrument. Data analysis included basic descriptives and a grounded theory approach. Findings show students became engaged in activities when cognitive processes were taught prior to content. Furthermore it was discovered that Thinking Maps were perceived to be an easy tool to use to organize students' thinking and processing. Finally there was a significant increase in student achievement. From these findings implications for future practice and research are offered.

Student Empowerment in an Environmental Science Classroom: Toward a Framework for Social Justice Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Dimick, Alexandra Schindel

2012-01-01

Social justice education is undertheorized in science education. Given the wide range of goals and purposes proposed within both social justice education and social justice science education scholarship, these fields require reconciliation. In this paper, I suggest a student empowerment framework for conceptualizing teaching and learning social…

Education in the nuclear sciences at Japanese universities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takashima, Y.

1990-01-01

Though there are 430 government and private universities in Japan, only a limited number of them have the department associated with nuclear science education. And the education is one-sided to government universities because mainly of financial problem. Nuclear engineering departments are installed at only 7 big universities. In addition, there are 3 institutes associated with a nuclear reactor. In these facilities, education on reactor physics, radiation measurement, electromagnetics and material sciences are conducted. For education on safety handling of radioactive materials, 10 radioisotope centers and 7 radiochemistry laboratories attached to big government universities act an important role. Almost all of the financial support for the above nuclear education come from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. However, some other funds are introduced by the private connection of professors

Cultural, Social and Political Perspectives in Science Education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

education research to question whether conventional research approaches, foci and theoretical approaches are sufficient in a world of science education that is neither politically neutral, nor free of cultural values. Attention is not only on the individual learner but on the cultural, social and political......This book presents a collection of critical thinking that concern cultural, social and political issues for science education in the Nordic countries. The chapter authors describe specific scenarios to challenge persisting views, interrogate frameworks and trouble contemporary approaches...... to researching teaching and learning in science. Taking a point of departure in empirical examples from the Nordic countries the collection of work is taking a critical sideways glance at the Nordic education principles. Critical examinations target specifically those who are researching in the fields of science...

Science Teacher Identity and Eco-Transformation of Science Education: Comparing Western Modernism with Confucianism and Reflexive "Bildung"

Science.gov (United States)

Sjöström, Jesper

2018-01-01

This forum article contributes to the understanding of how science teachers' identity is related to their worldviews, cultural values and educational philosophies, and to eco-transformation of science education. Special focus is put on "reform-minded" science teachers. The starting point is the paper "Science education reform in…

Resonance – Journal of Science Education | News

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education. Face to Face. Articles in Resonance – Journal of Science Education. Volume 13 Issue 1 January 2008 pp 89-98 Face to Face. Viewing Life Through Numbers · C Ramakrishnan Sujata Varadarajan · More Details Fulltext PDF. Volume 13 Issue 3 March 2008 pp ...

Resonance – Journal of Science Education | News

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Logo of the Indian Academy of Sciences. Indian Academy of Sciences. Home · About ... Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education; Volume 3; Issue 12. Pictures at an Exhibition – A ... Vivek S Borkar1. Department of Computer Science and Automation, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012, India ...

IS THE INQUIRY-BASED SCIENCE EDUCATION THE BEST?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Milan Kubiatko

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The science education is fighting with a relatively big problem. Many academicians, teachers and also laic society are still perceiving difficulty in understanding of concepts from science subject and lack of interest about this group of subjects. In the past the teaching process was very formal focused on the memorizing of the facts without any deeper understanding of the processes in the nature. Pupils and students knew all definitions about concepts in the science subjects, but practical application was on the low level. The academicians, teachers and other people interested in the science education were eager to change system of education.

Primary science education: Views from three Australian States

Science.gov (United States)

Jeans, Bruce; Farnsworth, Ian

1992-12-01

This paper reports an empirical study of science education in Australian primary schools. The data show that, while funding is seen as a major determinant of what is taught and how it is taught, teacher-confidence and teacher-knowledge are also important variables. Teachers are most confident with topics drawn from the biological sciences, particularly things to do with plants. With this exception there is no shared body of science education knowledge that could be used to develop a curriculum for science education. There was evidence that most teachers see a need for a hands-on approach to primary science education involving the use of concrete materials. A substantial proportion of teachers agree that some of the problems would be alleviated by having a set course together with simple, prepared kits containing sample learning experiences. Any such materials must make provision for individual teachers to capitalise on critical teaching incidents as they arise and must not undermine the professional pride that teachers have in their work.

The Elwha Science Education Project (ESEP): Engaging an Entire Community in Geoscience Education

Science.gov (United States)

Young, R. S.; Kinner, F.

2008-12-01

Native Americans are poorly represented in all science, technology and engineering fields. This under- representation results from numerous cultural, economic, and historical factors. The Elwha Science Education Project (ESEP), initiated in 2007, strives to construct a culturally-integrated, geoscience education program for Native American young people through engagement of the entire tribal community. The ESEP has developed a unique approach to informal geoscience education, using environmental restoration as a centerpiece. Environmental restoration is an increasingly important goal for tribes. By integrating geoscience activities with community tradition and history, project stakeholders hope to show students the relevance of science to their day-to-day lives. The ESEP's strength lies in its participatory structure and unique network of partners, which include Olympic National Park; the non-profit, educational center Olympic Park Institute (OPI); a geologist providing oversight and technical expertise; and the Lower Elwha Tribe. Lower Elwha tribal elders and educators share in all phases of the project, from planning and implementation to recruitment of students and discipline. The project works collaboratively with tribal scientists and cultural educators, along with science educators to develop curriculum and best practices for this group of students. Use of hands-on, place-based outdoor activities engage students and connect them with the science outside their back doors. Preliminary results from this summer's middle school program indicate that most (75% or more) students were highly engaged approximately 90% of the time during science instruction. Recruitment of students has been particularly successful, due to a high degree of community involvement. Preliminary evaluations of the ESEP's outcomes indicate success in improving the outlook of the tribe's youth towards the geosciences and science, in general. Future evaluation will be likewise participatory

Science teacher identity and eco-transformation of science education: comparing Western modernism with Confucianism and reflexive Bildung

Science.gov (United States)

Sjöström, Jesper

2018-03-01

This forum article contributes to the understanding of how science teachers' identity is related to their worldviews, cultural values and educational philosophies, and to eco-transformation of science education. Special focus is put on `reform-minded' science teachers. The starting point is the paper Science education reform in Confucian learning cultures: teachers' perspectives on policy and practice in Taiwan by Ying-Syuan Huang and Anila Asghar. It highlights several factors that can explain the difficulties of implementing "new pedagogy" in science education. One important factor is Confucian values and traditions, which seem to both hinder and support the science teachers' implementation of inquiry-based and learner-centered approaches. In this article Confucianism is compared with other learning cultures and also discussed in relation to different worldviews and educational philosophies in science education. Just like for the central/north European educational tradition called Bildung, there are various interpretations of Confucianism. However, both have subcultures (e.g. reflexive Bildung and Neo-Confucianism) with similarities that are highlighted in this article. If an "old pedagogy" in science education is related to essentialism, rationalist-objectivist focus, and a hierarchical configuration, the so called "new pedagogy" is often related to progressivism, modernism, utilitarianism, and a professional configuration. Reflexive Bildung problematizes the values associated with such a "new pedagogy" and can be described with labels such as post-positivism, reconstructionism and problematizing/critical configurations. Different educational approaches in science education, and corresponding eco-identities, are commented on in relation to transformation of educational practice.

Science is for me: Meeting the needs of English language learners in an urban, middle school science classroom through an instructional intervention

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Joseph A.

2011-12-01

This study involved an intervention in which I explored how the multimodal, inquiry-based teaching strategies from a professional development model could be used to meet the educational needs of a group of middle school students, who were refugees, newly arrived in the United States, now residing in a large urban school district in the northeastern United States, and learning English as a second language. This group remains unmentioned throughout the research literature despite the fact that English Language Learners (ELLs) represent the fastest growing group of K-12 students in the United States. The specific needs of this particular group were explored as I attempted daily to confront a variety of obstacles to their science achievement and help to facilitate the development of a scientific discourse. This research was done in an effort to better address the needs of ELLs in general and to inform best practices for teachers to apply across a variety of different cultural and linguistic subgroups. This study is an autoethnographic case study analysis of the practices of the researcher, working in a science classroom, teaching the described group of students.

Science school and culture school: improving the efficiency of high school science teaching in a system of mass science education.

Science.gov (United States)

Charlton, Bruce G

2006-01-01

Educational expansion in western countries has been achieved mainly by adding years to full-time education; however, this process has probably reduced efficiency. Sooner or later, efficiency must improve, with a greater educational attainment per year. Future societies will probably wish more people to study science throughout high school (aged c. 11-19 years) and the first college degree. 'Science' may be defined as any abstract, systematic and research-based discipline: including mathematics, statistics and the natural sciences, economics, music theory, linguistics, and the conceptual or quantitative social sciences. Since formal teaching is usually necessary to learn science, science education should be regarded as the core function of high schools. One standard way to improve efficiency is the 'division of labour', with increased specialization of function. Modern schools are already specialized: teachers are specialized according to age-group taught, subject matter expertise, and administrative responsibilities. School students are stratified by age and academic aptitude. I propose a further institutional division of school function between science education, and cultural education (including education in arts, sports, ethics, social interaction and good citizenship). Existing schools might split into 'science school' and 'culture school', reflected in distinct buildings and zones, separate administrative structures, and the recruitment of differently-specialized teaching personnel. Science school would be distinguished by its focus on education in disciplines which promote abstract systematic cognition. All students would spend some part of each day (how much would depend on their aptitude and motivation) in the 'science school'; experiencing a traditional-style, didactic, disciplined and rigorous academic education. The remainder of the students' time at school would be spent in the cultural division, which would focus on broader aspects, and aim to generate

Exploring Secondary Science Teachers' Perceptions on the Goals of Earth Science Education in Taiwan

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Chun-Yen; Chang, Yueh-Hsia; Yang, Fang-Ying

2009-01-01

The educational reform movement since the 1990s has led the secondary earth science curriculum in Taiwan into a stage of reshaping. The present study investigated secondary earth science teachers' perceptions on the Goals of Earth Science Education (GESE). The GESE should express the statements of philosophy and purpose toward which educators…

The kids at Hamilton Elementary School: Purposes and practices for co-opting science

Science.gov (United States)

Ortiz, Loaiza

The purpose of this study was to explore youth's purposes and motivations for engaging in science through the lens of science practices. The construct of science practices allowed me to see science in youths' lives in a holistic way, shaped by social, political, historical, economic and cultural forces. The framework for understanding urban youths' science practices is grounded in the intersections of critical and feminist theory, sociocultural learning theories, especially as applied in research in urban science education, and recent work in critical literacy studies. As I explored the answers to my research questions---(1) When 5th grade youth, living in predominantly Latino communities struggling with urban poverty, engage in science how and why do they co-opt science in ways that result in changes in participation in science? (2) What are the science practices that facilitate youths' coopting of science? And how are those practices framed by context (school, out-of-school), content (LiFE curriculum), and funds of knowledge? (3) In what ways are science practices expressions of youths' scientific literacy? And (4) In what ways do youth use science practices as tools for expressing identities and agency?---I engaged in feminist ethnography with embedded case studies. Data were collected in 2004 in school and in out of school settings. I recorded numerous informal conversations, interviews, and observations both during after-school and students' regular science and non-science classes. Findings describe how and why students co-opted science for purposes that make sense for their lives. These purposes included gaining and activating resources, building and maintaining social relationships, bridging home and school knowledge, positioning themselves with authority, and constructing science identities. Findings also explored what practices facilitated youth's co-opting of science. I highlighted three practices: making ideas public, storytelling and prioritizing and

Informal science education: lifelong, life-wide, life-deep.

Science.gov (United States)

Sacco, Kalie; Falk, John H; Bell, James

2014-11-01

Informal Science Education: Lifelong, Life-Wide, Life-Deep Informal science education cultivates diverse opportunities for lifelong learning outside of formal K-16 classroom settings, from museums to online media, often with the help of practicing scientists.

Southern Africa Journal of Education, Science and Technology ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Southern Africa Journal of Education, Science and Technology: Journal Sponsorship. Journal Home > About the Journal > Southern Africa Journal of Education, Science and Technology: Journal Sponsorship. Log in or Register to get access to full text downloads.

Searching for Meaning in Science Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Berkheimer, Glenn D.; McLeod, Richard J.

1979-01-01

Discusses how science programs K-16 should be developed to meet the modern objectives of science education and restore its true meaning. The theories of Phenix and Ausubel are included in this discussion. (HM)

Encountering Science Education's Capacity to Affect and Be Affected

Science.gov (United States)

Alsop, Steve

2016-01-01

What might science education learn from the recent affective turn in the humanities and social sciences? Framed as a response to Michalinos Zembylas's article, this essay draws from selected theorizing in affect theory, science education and science and technology studies, in pursuit of diverse and productive ways to talk of affect within science…

Girls' Attitudes Towards Science in Kenya

Science.gov (United States)

Chetcuti, Deborah A.; Kioko, Beriter

2012-07-01

This study investigated girls' attitudes towards science in Kenya. It was carried out with 120 girls from four secondary schools in the Eastern province of Kenya. These were an urban single-sex (SS) and co-educational (Co-Ed) school and a rural SS and Co-Ed school. Different schools were chosen in order to explore whether there are any differences in attitudes in SS and Co-Ed schools and in schools in rural and urban areas. The methodology included the use of both questionnaires and focus group interviews. The main aim was to gain insight into the extent and depth of students' attitudes towards science. The findings of the study showed that the majority of Kenyan girls who participated in the study have a favourable attitude towards science. Girls in SS schools were found to have a more favourable attitude than those in Co-Ed schools, while girls in rural area schools were found to find science more relevant than those in urban schools. It emerged from this study that the attitudes of Kenyan girls are influenced by their perceptions of the relevance of science, enjoyment of studying science, perceptions of the suitability of science for a career, and their perceptions of subject difficulty.

SunDial: embodied informal science education using GPS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Megan K. Halpern

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Science centers serve a number of goals for visitors, ideally providing experiences that are educational, social, and meaningful. This paper describes SunDial, a handheld application developed for families to use at a science center. Inspired by the idea of geocaching, the high-tech treasure hunting game that utilizes GPS technologies, SunDial asks families to use a single handheld device to locate and participate in a series of learning modules around the museum. Observations of 10 families suggest that it supports rich informal science education experiences, provides insights about families’ interaction patterns around and with single handheld devices, and demonstrates the value of navigation as an educational experience. Further, using recently released guidelines for Informal Science Education (ISE experiences to inform the design process proved valuable, tying features of the technology to educational and social goals, and giving evidence that explicit reference to these guidelines can improve ISE experiences and technologies.

Resonance – Journal of Science Education | News

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)