Mijung Kim

Rethinking the ethics of scientific knowledge: A case study of teaching the environment in science classrooms

In this paper we argue that scientific literacy ought to be rethought in that it involves ethics as its core element. Considering the fact that science education has addressed ethical dilemmas of Science, Technology, Society and Environment (STSE) issues, it is worthwhile to question what the ethics of scientific knowledge mean in terms of their implications in modern society where knowledge generally is separated from action and thereby from the responsibility for knowing. We draw on the concept of integrity of knowing to analyze knowledge about the environment in Korean sixth—grade science classrooms. Examining the notion of immediate coping and ConfucianCheng, we differentiate ‘knowing about ethics’ and ‘knowing ethically’ with respect to STSE issues. We challenge the notion of knowing, suggesting instead that there is not only knowing about but knowingin andfor action. Participatory scientific literacy ought to aim for the latter form of knowing. This understanding of ethics and scientific literacy could help science educators bring forth the responsibility for knowledge in science classrooms by encouraging students to become active and responsible concerning STSE issues.

Argumentation as/in/for dialogical relation: a case study from elementary school science

Argumentation as a form of introducing children to science has received increasing attention over the past decade. Argumentation tends to be studied and theorized through the lens of individual speakers, who contribute to a conversation by means of opposing statements. M.M. Bakhtin and L.S. Vygotsky independently proposed a very different approach by suggesting that dialogical relations inherently and irreducibly embody argumentation. From this position, dialogical relations allow children to individualize argumentation. In this study, we show how the dialogical framework provides a very different, collective perspective on children’s argumentation in problem-solving processes in elementary science classrooms.

Development of mathematical concepts in children's learning geometry: a Vygotskian, body-centered approach

Pedagogical theories often posit the source of conceptual development in the literacy of an individual child or teacher and therefore suggest instructional strategies or instructional models based on (frequently unquestioned) presuppositions about the learning process. These theories give little attention to the real conditions that make the (real-time) communication of an idea possible in the first place. In this study, we extend the Vygotskian approach to literacy and word-meaning to give the body a central role in conceptual development. We exemplify the claims that: (a) the body constitutes the mediating hub that translates, in an ongoing manner, the experience of the world (objects) and the word in communication; and (b) the body constitutes the mediating hub that generates a new meaning unit of the word. We conclude that a body-centered framework helps understand the labour that increases the embodied resources for translating the sound-word-meaning.