Michael L. Bentley

Epistemological undercurrents in scientists' reporting of research to teachers

Our investigation focused upon how scientists, from both a practical and epistemological perspective, communicated the nature and relevance of their research to classroom teachers. Six scientists were observed during presentations of “cutting-edge” research at a conference for science teachers. Following the conference, these scientists were interviewed to discern how each perceived the nature of science, technology, and society in relation to his particular research. Data were analyzed to determine the congruence and/or dissimilarity in how scientists described their research to teachers and how they viewed their research epistemologically. We found that a wide array of scientific methodologies and research protocols were presented and that all the scientists expressed links between their research and science–technology–society (STS) issues. When describing their research during interviews, the scientists from traditional content disciplines reflected a strong commitment to empiricism and experimental design, whereas engineers from applied sciences were more focused on problem-solving. Implicit in the data was a commitment to objectivity and the tacit assumption that science may be free of values and ethical assumptions. More dialogue is recommended between the scientific community, science educators, and historians/philosophers of science about the nature of science, STS, and curriculum issues.

Environmental and Science Education in Developing Nations: A Ghanaian Approach to Renewing and Revitalizing the Local Community and Ecosystems

Curriculum reform in environmental and science education now taking place in Ghana focuses on the community and ecosystems as the context of education. In Ghana, students conduct science investigations that include games, word searches, crossword puzzles, case studies, role play, debates, projects, and ecological profiles. This curriculum reflects an acknowledgement of the effect of conserving and protecting Ghanaian intergenerational knowledge and skills concerning the natural systems, including those of preserving ceremonies, personal expectations, narratives, beliefs, and values. The authors highlight these efforts to counter notions that Ghanaian education is still developing and to contrast the ideologies of seemingly developed educational landscapes in the United States. The authors argue that educational reform in the United States could benefit from an understanding of environmental and science education in seemingly developing nations.

Of Starting Points and Destinations: Teacher Education and the Nature of Science

We began by arguing that the nature of science is often misrepresented in K-12 and tertiary (college) science education programs. As a result, most students preparing to become elementary and middle school teachers come into the teacher education program with unexamined beliefs about the nature of science. Scholarship in the history, philosophy, and sociology of science, over the past thirty years, has led to a post-positivist or constructivist understanding of science. This is a dramatic shift from the 19th century perspective. Because schooling has not kept pace with this change in the foundational disciplines, and also because what teachers believe about the nature of science influences their instructional planning and how they interact with children, teacher education programs should make instruction related to the nature of science a high priority.

Toward Awakening Consciousness: A Response to EcoJustice Education and Science Education

In “Ecojustice Education for Science Educators,” Rebecca Martusewicz, John Lupinacci, and Gary Schnakenberg break new ground for the field of science education in relating long-known limits to our ability to understand the cosmos to those eternal mysteries they identify as the meaning of “sacred.” Our fundamental unawareness was well-understood by the medical researcher and gifted science writer, Lewis Thomas, who wrote that, “[t]he only solid piece of scientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are profoundly ignorant of nature” (1974, p. 58). Beginning with the premise of our fundamental inability to ever fully know, Martusewicz, Lupinacci, and Schnakenberg argue that to achieve a sustainable society in proper relation to the ecosystem, science educators will have to rethink the curriculum and adopt a different approach to instruction.