SOME FEATURES OF TODAY`S SCIENCE EDUCATION

2008 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 4-6
Author(s):  
Vincentas Lamanauskas
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
School Science ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
School Level ◽  
Science Textbooks ◽  
Learning Content ◽  
Teaching Learning

Recently, the issues of science education have been exhaustively discussed. The questions of science education are debated at all levels. The today‘s situation in science education area puts forward set of problems to be indispensably solved. In this editorial such problematic aspects as qualification of science teachers, modernisation of system of preparation of science teachers in a context of the theory of constructivism, improvement of material resources of schools etc. Are shortly presented. It is stated that more attention it is necessary to give to school science textbooks and their effective usage in educational process. For example, in february 2007 an International Meeting of IOSTE on „Critical Analysis of School Science Textbook“ was organized in Hammamet (Tunisia). A lot of empirical results dealing with the anglysis of syllabuses and science textbooks were presented during the meeting. In Lithuania there are also some actual problems connected with school science textbooks, for example methodological level, quality of teaching /learning content, didactically well-founded visualisation etc. Such questions as scientific literacy, e-literacy, illiteracy, interests and motivation in science, quality of science education process at primary school level are the burning issues.

scholarly journals ELECTRONIC INFORMATION RESOURCES FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION

2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-34
Author(s):  
Gražina Lamanauskienė
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Information Resources ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Electronic Information ◽  
Electronic Resources ◽  
Electronic Information Resources ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Natural Science Education

It should be noticed that though the amount of information resources is constantly increasing, natural science education suffers from lack of electronic information sources. Moreover, in this case, the Lithuanian language is used extremely rarely. Presently, more and more teachers of natural sciences use the Internet, and therefore the popularity of electronic information resources is growing. However, the questions of how to evaluate the quality of similar resources and how to conceptually integrate those into the teaching/learning process arise. Legal and ethical aspects of using information found on the Internet are faced i.e. the problems of quotation, plagiarism and copyright are encountered. Connecting science education teachers to innovative electronic information resources is the subject of discussion. The growing number of electronic resources can make finding resources with high quality content. Electronic resources are not fully realized by science education teachers. Therefore, the main goal of this article is to introduce science teachers with the most popular digital resources. In this article the databases, e-libraries, e-journals and books, encyclopedias, most popular search engines for science teachers are presented. Key words: science education, electronic information resourcses, databases.

scholarly journals COMPARATIVE RESEARCH ON THE UNDERSTANDINGS OF NATURE OF SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY BETWEEN SCIENCE TEACHERS FROM SHANGHAI AND CHICAGO

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-108
Author(s):  
Jingying Wang ◽  
Ying Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Nature Of Science ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Curriculum Reform ◽  
Scientific Inquiry ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Science Inquiry ◽  
School Science ◽  
High School Science ◽  
K 12

Nature of science is considered to be an important component of scientific literacy, and understanding the nature of science is advocated as an important goal of science education. Scientific inquiry is regarded as the core of curriculum reform, which has become the consensus of the international K-12 science education, as well as a scientific direction for which educators have been striving over the last century. To compare the views of nature of science and scientific inquiry of teachers between China and United States, 90 high school science teachers from Shanghai and Chicago are chosen to do open-ended questionnaires and interviews. By conducting the sequential mixed method and using the empirical investigations of VNOS-D and VOSI-S, their different understandings mainly perform in the specific aspects of nature of science and scientific inquiry, cognitive stages, types and relationships etc. Overall, the level of American teachers’ views of nature of science and science inquiry are better than Chinese. Finally, some suggestions on Chinese science teachers’ education are proposed. Key words: epistemological belief in science, nature of science, scientific inquiry.

scholarly journals INTERCULTURAL LEARNING: CHALLENGES FOR CURRENT SCIENCE EDUCATION

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 532-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Bílek
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
School Science ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Content Standards ◽  
Technology Innovations ◽  
Learning Content ◽  
Job Selection ◽  
International Comparative

In the time of curricular reforms across the Europe another chance appeared towards increasing learners´ interest in science education, particularly in relation to the future job selection in the field of natural sciences and technology. Innovations in natural science instruction can be conducted in various ways, e.g. (Bílek & Klečková, 2006): (1) learners´ interest in natural sciences and their instruction (What am I interested in?; What would I like to learn?; What learning content should be learned?) – answers to these questions were discussed i.e. in the analysis of the international comparative study ROSE (Relevance of Science Education) (ROSE Project, 2018), (2) context of instruction (optimally – “school science”, application context, social context, personality context), (3) learning content (standards; Framework and School programmes; traditions; new topics) or (4) competences (key competences; “scientific literacy“; activities in natural science).

scholarly journals SCIENCE EDUCATION IN ITALY: CRITICAL AND DESIRABLE ASPECTS OF LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 685-696
Author(s):  
Virginia Brianzoni ◽  
Liberato Cardellini
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
School Science ◽  
School Students ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Intellectual Skills ◽  
Current Science

Science teaching plays an important role in the contemporary society, but nowadays, many high school students are often not interested in school science. The purpose of the study was to enhance the quality of teaching and to encourage learners to study science, making student learning more effective and meaningful. The opinions of different stakeholders was taken into account. In Italy, almost 200 participants, counting both teachers and students, answered a questionnaire concerning the following aspects of teaching and learning: situations, contexts, motives; basic concepts and topics; scientific fields and perspectives; qualification; methodical aspects. The results obtained showed the priorities and main gaps in current science education. In particular, scientific literacy should be essentially based on three concepts: the development of communication skills, the improvement of intellectual skills and the development of personality. Unfortunately the study has also highlighted that the approaches judged more effective are not really common in the current educational panorama. Key words: inquiry-based science, learning environment, PROFILES project, science education.

scholarly journals Integrating engineering in K-12 science education: spelling out the pedagogical, epistemological, and methodological arguments

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Senay Purzer ◽  
Jenny Patricia Quintana-Cifuentes
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Student Learning Outcomes ◽  
School Science ◽  
School Resources ◽  
Science And Engineering ◽  
Teaching Models ◽  
Engineering Design Process ◽  
Stem Literacy ◽  
K 12

AbstractThis position paper is motivated by recent educational reform efforts that urge the integration of engineering in science education. We argue that it is plausible and beneficial to integrate engineering into formal K-12 science education. We illustrate how current literature, though often implicitly, discusses this integration from a pedagogical, epistemological, or methodological argumentative stance. From a pedagogical perspective, a historically dominant argument emphasizes how engineering helps make abstract science concepts more concrete. The epistemological argument is centered on how engineering is inherently interdisciplinary and hence its integrative role in support of scientific literacy and more broadly STEM literacy is natural. From a methodological perspective, arguments focus on the engineering design process, which is compatible with scientific inquiry and adaptable to answering different types of engineering questions. We call for the necessity of spelling out these arguments and call for common language as science and engineering educators form a research-base on the integration of science and engineering. We specifically provide and discuss specific terminology associated with four different models, each effectively used to integrate engineering into school science. We caution educators against a possible direction towards a convergence approach for a specific type of integrating engineering and science. Diversity in teaching models, more accurately represents the nature of engineering but also allows adaptations based on available school resources. Future synthesis can then examine student learning outcomes associated with different teaching models.

Exploring Pre-service Science Teachers’ Perspectives on the Nature of Science: A Comparative Study Between China and Canada

2021 ◽  
pp. 209653112096678
Author(s):  
Guihua Zhang ◽  
Yuanrong Li ◽  
George Zhou ◽  
Sonia Wai-Ying Ho
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Science Education ◽  
Science Teacher ◽  
Nature Of Science ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Survey Design ◽  
Science Teacher Education ◽  
Teaching Behaviors ◽  
Preservice Science Teachers

Purpose: The Nature of Science (NOS) is an important component of scientific literacy. Science teachers’ Views of the Nature of Science (VNOS) directly affect their teaching behaviors. Therefore, it is of great significance to explore science teachers’ VNOS and find ways of improvement. This study was designed to comparatively investigate preservice science teachers’ VNOS between China and Canada. Design/Approach/Methods: The study employed a survey design to explore how Chinese and Canadian preservice science teachers understood the seven different aspects of NOS. Findings: Data showed that preservice science teachers in China and Canada both hold a modern view about science education. The level of Chinese and Canadian participants’ understanding of NOS was above the relatively naive level. Chinese teachers had better macro-understanding toward science education but their micro-mastery was insufficient. While the Canadian participants had a better understanding of the NOS than their Chinese counterparts. Originality/Value: Based on the research results and the experience of science education and teacher education in Canada, we suggested that there is a need to reconstruct the preservice science teacher education curriculum in China and promote the transformation in the science teacher educational system.

Quantitative and qualitative analysis of nutrition and food safety information in school science textbooks of India

2011 ◽  
Vol 71 (6) ◽  
pp. 725-735 ◽  
Author(s):  
GM Subba Rao ◽  
T Vijayapushapm ◽  
K Venkaiah ◽  
V Pavarala
Keyword(s):  
Food Safety ◽  
Nutrition Education ◽  
Safety Information ◽  
School Science ◽  
Urban Bias ◽  
High Agreement ◽  
Science Textbooks ◽  
Nutritional Needs ◽  
Central Board

Objective: To assess quantity and quality of nutrition and food safety information in science textbooks prescribed by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), India for grades I through X. Design: Content analysis. Methods: A coding scheme was developed for quantitative and qualitative analyses. Two investigators independently coded the data and inter-coder reliability was assessed using Cohen’s Kappa. The inferences were then reviewed by an expert group. Results: There was high agreement (Kappa = 0.89) between coders. Nutrition topics got > 10% pages in textbooks of grades I to VII, while they were omitted in subsequent grades. Food safety got a mere 1% of page allocation only in grades I to III books. Over 25% of biology illustrations related to nutrition in grades I, II and IV but not in others. Nutrition topics in textbooks beyond grade IV were repetitive and inconsistent. Some illustrations depicted uncommon foods and had urban bias. Conclusions: Nutrition and food safety content in science textbooks is low. Important topics such as nutritional needs during adolescence, obesity, unhealthy foods and food labelling are not covered. These findings provide direction for strengthening textbook content to promote nutrition education in schools.

BETTER LEARNING AND INCREASED MOTIVATION TO LEARN WITH MOBILE TECHNOLOGY (DEVICES): A PRELIMINARY STUDY

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 80-88
Author(s):  
Vincentas Lamanauskas ◽  
Violeta Slekiene ◽  
Gabriel Gorghiu ◽  
Costin Pribeanu
Keyword(s):  
Science Teachers ◽  
Mobile Technology ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Motivation To Learn ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Educational Potential

Mobile technology is now part of the everyday life of teachers and students and thus tends to become an inseparable part of the educational activities. Teachers and students are increasingly using mobile technologies in teaching and learning. Therefore, it is purposeful to responsibly integrate technologies into the educational process. However, technical and pedagogical support is necessary in order to facilitate both teacher and students’ understanding of this educational potential. Besides, it is still very little known and there is very little evidence about the effectiveness of the application of these technologies in the teaching/learning process. This research aims to explore the perceptions of Romanian and Lithuanian teachers regarding the use of mobile technologies in education. Keywords: motivation to learn, mobile technology, preliminary study, science education, science teachers.

Science education: too much of too little.

1990 ◽  
Vol 258 (6) ◽  
pp. S3 ◽  
Author(s):  
R L Malvin
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
School Children ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Scientific Productivity ◽  
College And University ◽  
The Subject ◽  
University Scientists ◽  
Read Number

By all measures attempted, scientific literacy of the American public is sadly wanting. The vast majority of our secondary school children and adults have no knowledge of most of the basic terms or concepts of science. The reasons for this shortcoming are many but prominent among them are sadly deficient texts, teachers untrained in the subject matter they teach, and college and university scientists who divorce themselves from the problem, although probably deploring it. Our institutions are no aid. They reward scientific productivity (read: number of papers published per year and research dollars), not teaching. Some suggested cures are production of better texts, training of science teachers in the field in which they teach, and, most importantly, involvement of scientists in the process. We must be willing to spend some of our time with secondary school pupils and their teachers. All will gain from the experience.

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