Missing concordance between knowledge and efficacy among Danish science teacher students regarding education for sustainable development

We conducted a nation-wide survey of Danish science teacher students specializing in science subjects, in order to investigate their knowledge, attitude and self-efficacy on central aspects of education for sustainable development. Our study finds, in accordance with previous publications, a high degree of positive attitude towards the importance of teaching sustainability, and a significant positive correlation between self-efficacy and self-assessed knowledge about the topics in the survey. However, in our study both self-efficacy and self-assessed knowledge correlate negatively with actual knowledge, indicating that some of our participants are subject to an overinflated self-assessment while others may underestimate their proficiency within the topics. In cognitive psychology, this phenomenon is known as the Dunning-Kruger effect, and we discuss its implications for how best to ensure quality in education for sustainable development in our schools.

Book review: The science communication challenge. Truth and disagreement in democratic knowledge societies

The Science Communication Challenge by Gitte Meyer, a Danish science communication scholar with a previous career in science journalism, is a collection of essays on the interrelationships among science, society and politics in modern knowledge societies. The book is valuable as it contributes to the important debate on the “whys” (instead of the “hows”) of science communication and its (long term) impact on science and society. However, it does not present explicit solutions to the questions in focus but rather reads as a large patchwork of ideas, theories and concepts which require readers to have at least some basic knowledge.

The first-year experience of non-traditional students in Danish science and engineering university programmes

To understand student drop-out from university, research must explore students’ first-year experiences and the challenges they encounter. This article analyses the first-year experiences of non-traditional students in Danish science and engineering university programmes. Focusing on identity theory and the framework of integration processes provided by Tinto, the article presents the challenges experienced by students from non-academic backgrounds and by students with ethnic minority backgrounds. The analysis presents four themes that are experienced as particularly challenging for the students: (1) a strong career focus which is hard for the students to maintain in their transition into university; (2) how the students from some non-academic backgrounds encounter the challenges they meet with limited resources; (3) how they spend time and resources on their family and how this affects their integration in the programme; and (4) the process of academic and social integration are particularly challenging as they require students to submit themselves to the cultural expectations of their studies, which can be hard to understand for students from families with no prior experiences of academia. The article discusses how these experiences can be understood within an identity framework.

From the preserves of the educated elite to virtually everywhere: A content analysis of Danish science news in 1999 and 2012

In an attempt to qualify changes to science news reporting due to the impact of the Internet, we studied all science news articles published in Danish national newspapers in a November week in 1999 and 2012, respectively. We find the same amount of science coverage, about 4% of the total news production, in both years, although the tabloids produce more science news in 2012. Online science news also received high priority. Journalists in 2012 more often than in 1999 make reference to scientific journals and cite a wider range of journals. Science news in 2012 is more international and politically oriented than in 1999. Based on these findings, we suggest that science news, due partly to the emergence of online resources, is becoming more diverse and available to a wider audience. Science news is no longer for the elite but has spread to virtually everywhere in the national news system.

Reception and Early Use of the Periodic System: The Case of Denmark

In this essay I examine how the periodic system or table was introduced in Denmark in the late nineteenth century, how it was used in chemical textbooks, and the way it was developed by a few of the country’s scientists. Danish chemists had in the period an international orientation, which helped them in getting acquainted with Mendeleev’s system and appreciating its strength. The main reason they felt the system to be attractive was its predictive force, especially its prediction of new elements and ability to accommodate new chemical knowledge. I pay particular attention to the work of Hans Peter Jørgen Julius Thomsen (1826–1909), which is an important example of “neo-Proutean” attempts to understand the periodic system in terms of internally structured atoms. Moreover, I direct attention to Mendeleev’s connection to Danish science by way of his membership in the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. Thomsen’s speculations of composite atoms as the ultimate cause of the periodicity of the elements were vindicated by the new developments in atomic theory. A semi-quantitative explanation was offered by Niels Bohr (1885–1962) in 1913, and in subsequent refinements of his atomic model he came close to an explanation of the entire periodic system. The essay briefly considers Bohr’s work on the periodic system in its local context, including its relation to the earlier ideas of Thomsen. In order to appreciate how the periodic system of the elements was received in Denmark, it will be helpful to provide some basic information of the country’s chemical landscape. In the period here considered, approximately 1870–1920, Denmark was a small country, scientifically and culturally almost completely dominated by its capital, Copenhagen. As far as chemical research and education was concerned, the most important institutions were the University of Copenhagen, the Polytechnical College, the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural College, and the Pharmaceutical College, all located in Copenhagen. Although the number of chemists grew rapidly during this period, only a few of them were trained at the University and even fewer had an interest in the more theoretical aspects of the chemical sciences.

Engagerande samtal i det naturvetenskapliga klassrummetInquiry based dialouge in science classroom

This study focuses on classroom communication within an inquiry-based science education (IBSE) program, called NTA (Naturvetenskap och Teknik för Alla). The overall aim of the study is to highlight the ways in which productive and engaging conversations are conducted in the classroom. We have analysed the work within the unit ”The Chemistry of food” and the theme testing of fat in food in grade five and six in a Swedish and a Danish science classroom. We have used video cameras and mp3-players to follow the classroom interaction. Our findings indicate that the classroom communication was focused on everyday science content and that the introduction and the summary of the theme were very important for the pupils’ possibilities to productive disciplinary engagement.

More than "mountain guides" of science: a questionnaire survey of professional science communicators in Denmark

This article sums up key results of a web-based questionnaire survey targeting the members of the Danish Science Journalists' Association. The association includes not only science journalists but also other types of science communicators. The survey shows that science communicators have a nuanced and multidimensional view on science communication, science, and technology. Science communicators are thus more than the "mountain guides" of science, as a recent definition describes it. The survey respondents are not just interested in helping the public at large to a wider recognition of scientific knowledge, but also want to contribute to democratic debate and social legitimisation of science and technology. The respondents exhibit a certain amount of optimism in relation to science and technology, yet also take a sceptical stance when confronted with overly positive statements regarding science and technology. Finally they have a predominantly social constructivist perception of science and technology when it comes to external relations to society, while they lean towards a hypothetical-deductive science understanding when it concerns the internal dynamics of science

Between understanding and appreciation. Current science communication in Denmark

In this paper I use the concepts “understanding of science” and “appreciation of science” to analyze selected case studies of current science communication in Denmark. The Danish science communication system has many similarities with science communication in other countries: the increasing political and scientific interest in science communication, the co-existence of many different kinds of science communication, and the multiple uses of the concepts of understanding vs. appreciation of science. I stress the international aspects of science communication, the national politico-scientific context as well as more local contexts as equally important conditions for understanding current Danish science communication.