Cathleen C. Loving

Defining "Science" in a Multicultural World: Implications for Science Education

In todays schools there are often competing accounts of natural phenomena, especially when schools are located in multicultural communities. There are also competing claims about what counts as science. This article examines the definition of science put forward from multicultural perspectives in contrast to a universalist perspective on science; that is, the Standard Account. The article argues that good science explanations will always be universal even if indigenous knowledge is incorporated as scientific knowledge. What works best is still of interest to most, and although one may hate to use the word hegemony, Western science would co-opt and dominate indigenous knowledge if it were incorporated as science. Therefore, indigenous knowledge is better off as a different kind of knowledge that can be valued for its own merits, play a vital role in science education, and maintain a position of independence from which it can critique the practices of science and the Standard Account.

From the Summit of Truth to Its Slippery Slopes: Science Education's Journey Through Positivist-Postmodern Territory

This research seeks to justify the development of informed, balanced views regarding the positivist-postmodernist debate in science education. This is accomplished by clarifying origins and offering details on the current status of these two distinct positions. I attempt to illuminate what is an intense debate—but one often lacking focus and clear definitions. This is done by discussing (a) the origins of important stances, (b) problems with simplistic reductions to two extremes, (c) dubious extrapolations, and (d) perspectives for science education that strive for an even-handed approach to positions on the nature of science and the nature of learning in a multicultural society. Using both historical and philosophical interpretations of the issues, I conclude that current conceptions are oversimplified by some who promote extremes of both relativistic and strict hypothetico-deductive or inductive models related to what should be learned and what counts as science.

Experimental Comparison of Inquiry and Direct Instruction in Science.

There are continuing educational and political debates about ‘inquiry’ versus ‘direct’ teaching of science. Traditional science instruction has been largely direct but in the US, recent national and state science education standards advocate inquiry throughout K‐12 education. While inquiry‐based instruction has the advantage of modelling aspects of the nature of real scientific inquiry, there is little unconfounded comparative research into the effectiveness and efficiency of the two instructional modes for developing science conceptual understanding. This research undertook a controlled experimental study comparing the efficacy of carefully designed inquiry instruction and equally carefully designed direct instruction in realistic science classroom situations at the middle school grades. The research design addressed common threats to validity. We report on the nature of the instructional units in each mode, research design, methods, classroom implementations, monitoring, assessments, analysis and project findings.

The Religion-in-the-Science-Classroom Issue: Seeking Graduate Student Conceptual Change.

This study examines the extent to which science education graduate students enjoy a well-articulated position on the compatibility of science and religion and, as a result, are comfortable with their espoused views and plans for the role of religion in science classroom discussions. We were particularly interested in examining changes in student mental states as a legitimate form of conceptual change after a course intervention. This might be evidenced by the depth of understanding, level of reasoning, and degree of comfort with classroom application. The intervention first asked students to write a “talk back to the author” paper shortly after reading a provocative essay on the topic. This was followed by reading and discussing a variety of alternative views after which they wrote a more formal position paper on the science–religion topic. We first conducted a content analysis of both papers, developing separate concept maps of the overall class response in the first and second papers, noting changes in emphases. Adapting a current multidimensional model of conceptual change, we then developed an individual evaluation form based on categories that emerged in the class analysis, which were strikingly similar to the categories in the multidimensional model. These included ontological, epistemological, and social/affective dimensions of conceptual change. Both papers were scored in these three areas. The conceptual change for each student from talk-back to position paper was subsequently reported using individual graphs and citing text examples. Results showed conceptual change or improved mental state in all three categories for most students.

4. THE CARD EXCHANGE: INTRODUCING THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

The nature of science is an important though difficult subject to teach meaningfully and effectively to preservice teachers. To engage the students’ minds in this subject that many find obscure and esoteric, a good introduction is a necessity. This chapter presents a learning game called The Card Exchange which has been found effective in arousing student interest in the philosophy of science. The chapter presents a brief description of how the game is set up and played and how it relates to the authors’ instruction on the philosophy of science. The chapter includes a list of card statements. The statements as well as the text of the chapter have been revised and updated from an earlier publication (Cobern, 1991a). There are a number of thoughtful articles in the literature stressing the need for philosophically literate teachers of science at all school levels (e.g., Andersen, Harty & Samuel, 1986; Hodson, 1985; Martin, 1979) and for many years the textbooks used in science methods courses have contained at least some material on the philosophy and nature of science. Nevertheless, science educators have been concerned that an acceptable level of philosophical sophistication was not being reached within the ranks of science teachers, and consequently are concerned about views toward the nature of science promoted in the classroom (e.g., Schmansky & Kyle, 1986). DuschI (1988, p. 51) summarizes the classroom situation by saying that “the prevailing view of the nature of science in our classrooms reflects an authoritarian view; a view in which scientific knowledge is presented as absolute truth and as a final form.” This view has been called scientism. This is a problem first because as we learn more about the world views that students bring to the classroom we begin to understand how the scientistic view extinguishes students nascent interest in science (Cobern, 1991b; 1996). Secondly, those students who do accept the scientistic view are likely to become disenchanted with science at a later date as science fails to achieve the unrealistic expectations accompanying a scientism orientation. The challenge is how to teach the philosophy of science be taught to teachers with greater effectiveness?

Invoking Thomas Kuhn: What Citation Analysis Reveals about Science Education

This paper analyzes how Thomas Kuhns writings are used by others, especially science education researchers. Previous research in citation analysis is used to frame questions related to who cites Kuhn, in what manner and why. Research questions first focus on the variety of disciplines invoking Kuhn and to what extent Structure of Scientific Revolutions (SSR) is cited. The Web of Science database provides material from 1982 for this analysis. The science education literature is analyzed using back issues from 1985 of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching and Science Education. An article analysis reveals trends in terms of what Kuhnian ideas are most frequently invoked. Results indicate a wide array of disciplines from beekeeping to law cite Kuhn – especially generic citations to SSR. The science education journal analysis reveals pervasive use of the term ‘paradigm’, although use is quite varied. The two areas of research in science education most impacted by Kuhn appear to be conceptual change theory and constructivist epistemologies. Additional uses of Kuhn are discussed. The degree to which Kuhn is invoked in ways supporting the theoretical framework of citation analysis, whether his work is misappropriated, and the impact of Kuhn are discussed.

Science modelling in pre-calculus: how to make mathematics problems contextually meaningful

‘Use of mathematical representations to model and interpret physical phenomena and solve problems is one of the major teaching objectives in high school math curriculum’ (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, NCTM, Reston, VA, 2000). Commonly used pre-calculus textbooks provide a wide range of application problems. However, these problems focus students’ attention on evaluating or solving pre-arranged formulas for given values. The role of scientific content is reduced to provide a background for these problems instead of being sources of data gathering for inducing mathematical tools. Students are neither required to construct mathematical models based on the contexts nor are they asked to validate or discuss the limitations of applied formulas. Using these contexts, the instructor may think that he/she is teaching problem solving, where in reality he/she is teaching algorithms of the mathematical operations (G. Kulm (ed.), New directions for mathematics assessment, in Assessing Higher Order Thinking in Mathematics, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, 1994, pp. 221–240). Without a thorough representation of the physical phenomena and the mathematical modelling processes undertaken, problem solving unintentionally appears as simple algorithmic operations. In this article, we deconstruct the representations of mathematics problems from selected pre-calculus textbooks and explicate their limitations. We argue that the structure and content of those problems limits students’ coherent understanding of mathematical modelling, and this could result in weak student problem-solving skills. Simultaneously, we explore the ways to enhance representations of those mathematical problems, which we have characterized as lacking a meaningful physical context and limiting coherent student understanding. In light of our discussion, we recommend an alternative to strengthen the process of teaching mathematical modelling – utilization of computer-based science simulations. Although there are several exceptional computer-based science simulations designed for mathematics classes (see, e.g. Kinetic Book (http://www.kineticbooks.com/) or Gizmos (http://www.explorelearning.com/)), we concentrate mainly on the PhET Interactive Simulations developed at the University of Colorado at Boulder (http://phet.colorado.edu/) in generating our argument that computer simulations more accurately represent the contextual characteristics of scientific phenomena than their textual descriptions.

Recognizing and Solving Ethical Dilemmas in Diverse Science Classrooms

Ethics scholar Paul Wagner (1995) once said there are four great professions: medicine, law, “preachin” and “teachin.” If professional preparation programs for the first three are examined, one subject is common to all – ethics. It is standard for students in these professional schools to have explicit course work that requires them to identify and solve problems requiring ethical and moral decisions. Teaching has been described as “moral by nature” (Chang, 1994, p. 81), meaning the very essence of good teaching involves the ethical and moral development of young people. Teacher preparation programs, however, do not generally include explicit instruction involving the ethical dimensions of the classroom, nor do they provide opportunities for solving ethical dilemmas (McNeel, 1994). Perhaps those choosing the teaching profession are assumed to be moral and ethical by the fact of having chosen teaching. Unfortunately, the research suggests otherwise. In a recent study of elementary and secondary preservice teacher education students from freshmen to seniors, Cummings, Dyas, Maddux and Kochman (2001) found students seeking teaching credentials to have significantly lower moral reasoning scores than college students with other majors. The instrument used in the study, known as the Defining Issues Tests, or DIT (Rest, 1979) is a test of principled moral reasoning based on Kohlberg’s theory of cognitive-moral development. Principled moral reasoning, according to Cummings et al. (2001) is required for teachers to take a “ leadership role as moral agents in public schools” (p. 145). This level of moral reasoning requires the ability to shift from self-interest to concerns for equity, mutual respect and protection of rights. The