Tom Bryce

Tough acts to follow: the challenges to science teachers presented by biotechnological progress

The public controversies associated with biotechnological progress (genetic modification, cloning, and so forth) increasingly impact upon biology teaching in school; teachers find themselves engaged in discussions with pupils on value‐laden issues deriving from the social and ethical implications of the ‘new science’. The research described in this paper focused upon the thinking of a sample of 41 biology teachers as they endeavoured to implement the first year of the new Scottish Advanced Higher Biology course and to face the challenges associated with these controversies. Following questionnaire returns, the investigation employed semistructured, in‐depth interviews with 10 teachers and, separately, with their 61 pupils (17–18 years of age) and was part of a medium‐term to long‐term evaluation of a university summer school that had endeavoured to update these teachers on recent biotechnological advances. While teachers were found to be fairly positively disposed to handling discussion of such contentious matters, they were none‐too‐clear as to its precise merits and functions; many lack confidence in handling discussion. The research indicates that much needs to be tackled by way of professional development for science teachers now engaged in dimensions new to science teaching.

Post-structuralism and policy research in education

This paper critically examines some of the challenges to policy research in education posed by post-modernist and post-structuralist thinking. It starts by characterizing those modernist and structuralist assumptions which have been subject to attack, but suggests that they are still very much in the ascendancy in the official discourse of educational research (as expressed, for example, by the National Educational Research Forum). Thereafter, key features of the assault represented by the work of Foucault, Derrida and Lyotard are outlined and an account of their destabilizing effect on intellectual work, for individuals and institutions, is offered. Several possible responses are considered. It is argued that policy research poses particular problems because, notwithstanding the messiness of the policy process, there must always come a point of closure on options: decisions cannot be delayed until the epistemological status of educational research is resolved. Researchers must find ways of negotiating the shifting configurations in the relationship between research, policy and practice. This will require both theoretical sophistication and robust engagement with issues that matter to practitioners.

Encouraging conceptual change : the use of bridging analogies in the teaching of action-reaction forces and the 'at rest' condition in physics

The qualitative study described in this paper examined the effectiveness of bridging analogies intended to bring about conceptual change as part of a constructivist approach to teaching about action–reaction forces in the ‘at rest’ condition in physics. Twenty‐one 15‐year‐old students were involved in the investigation with subgroups previously exposed to different information regarding forces, weight and the accepted cause of the reaction force, in simple physical arrangements, including objects on tables. In‐depth ‘think aloud’ interviews were used to track each student’s conceptual status as they worked with bridging analogies and transcript coding was carried out using open and axial coding (as in a grounded theory methodology). The findings showed that the bridging analogies were effective in engaging students with the idea of action–reaction forces; students were adept in mapping each of the analogies to the target concept and using them to generate and refine their causal theories for the reaction force. There was evidence to suggest that, for some students, bridging analogies were more effective in bringing about conceptual change than didactic teaching. Their use extends beyond illustrative purposes and supports the development of meta‐cognitive skills.

Socio-scientific issues in science education : implications for the professional development of teachers

This paper offers a critique of existing models of continuing professional development (CPD) courses for science teachers in the light of recent thinking about the nature of the subject (in particular, the arguments associated with ‘post‐normal science’) and the challenges presented by the teaching of controversial socio‐scientific issues (especially topics like bio‐technology and genetic modification). An analysis of the outcomes and limitations of an ‘up‐date/top‐down’ kind of CPD is used to argue that future forms of effective CPD must involve teachers in reflecting on the scientific, the social and the pedagogical dimensions to ‘new science’, and the relationships between them in the interests of improved classroom learning.

Cultural Mediation of Children's Cosmologies : A longitudinal study of the astronomy concepts of Chinese and New Zealand children

These longitudinal studies investigated the cultural mediation of children’s thinking about the Earth using an interview technique designed to elicit responses from children from all “levels” of their conceptual organization (intuitive, cultural, and scientific). Close scrutiny of the research literature in this field reveals that some strategies used in the past to probe children’s ideas have been influenced by the background of the interviewer, either in the design of their questions or in the use made of concrete props (e.g., of the Earth’s shape). This has tended to obscure the degree of cultural influence in those interviewed. Central to the current research was the development of an interview method (“instrument attunement”) that was flexible, culturally adaptable, and could be tuned to the response level of the child. The participants included 129 boys and 113 girls from China, and 217 boys and 227 girls from New Zealand. The methodology utilizing observational astronomy led into discussion of the motion and shape of the Earth, Sun and Moon. Surprisingly, the development of children’s concepts was found to be remarkably similar within the three main ethnic groups (Han, New Zealand European and New Zealand Maori) in the two cultures (China and New Zealand). Cases of cultural mediation were detected using the new methodology but these could be assimilated into a common taxonomy of cosmological concepts for all participants.

Knowledge Restructuring in the Development of Children’s Cosmologies

The development of children’s cosmologies was investigated over a 13‐year period, using multi‐modal, in‐depth interviews with 686 children (217 boys, 227 girls from New Zealand and 129 boys, 113 girls from China), aged 2–18. Children were interviewed while they observed the apparent motion of the Sun and Moon, and other features of the Earth; drew their ideas of the shape and motion of the Earth, Moon and Sun, and the causes of daytime and night‐time; then modelled them using play‐dough; which led into discussion of related ideas. These interviews revealed that children’s cosmologies were far richer than previously thought and surprisingly similar in developmental trends across the two cultures. There was persuasive evidence of three types of conceptual change: a long‐term process (over years) similar to weak restructuring; a medium‐term process (over months) akin to radical restructuring; and a dynamic form of conceptual crystallisation (often in seconds) whereby previously unconnected/conflicting concepts gel to bring new meaning to previously isolated ideas. The interview technique enabled the researchers to ascertain children’s concepts from intuitive, cultural, and scientific levels. The evidence supports the argument that children have coherent cosmologies that they actively create to make sense of the world rather than fragmented, incoherent “knowledge‐in‐pieces”.

Scholarship, Research and the Evidential Basis of Policy Development in Education

The starting point for this paper is the ongoing debate about the relation between research and policy in education. Recent developments in England and Scotland are reviewed in the context of political and academic arguments about the nature and function of research activity. The defensiveness of the research community in the face of professional and political attacks is examined critically. A case study of the Higher Still programme is used to illustrate the complexity of the relationships between evidence, ideology, values and professional practice. It is argued that the research community needs to become more politically sophisticated and to advance a clearer vision of its social function in advanced democratic societies if its potential contribution to educational development is to be realised. The dangers of a retreat to a narrow empirical role are highlighted.

Conceptual coherence revealed in multi-modal representations of astronomy knowledge

The astronomy concepts of 345 young people were studied over a 10‐year period using a multi‐media, multi‐modal methodology in a research design where survey participants were interviewed three times and control subjects were interviewed twice. The purpose of the research was to search for evidence to clarify competing theories on conceptual coherence versus knowledge‐in‐pieces, distinguishing between coherence as revealed in the representational systems at any particular stage in a young person’s development and the changes evident in mental growth thereafter. Thus five research questions concerned with the elements and structure of understanding were investigated: (1) conceptual coherence shown as patterns of high correlation of concept representations between the media used to assess subjects’ understanding within a survey, as well as (2) coherence revealed as consistency of representation of those concepts across media and modalities; (3) enhanced conceptual understanding and skill through repeated interviews across (longitudinal) surveys, as young people develop their knowledge; (4) cultural similarity in subjects’ representations of basic static concepts (e.g. the shape of the Earth); and (5) improved understanding of basic dynamic concepts (e.g. the motion of the Earth) and complex dynamic concepts (e.g. seasons and eclipses), through “knowledge‐skill compounding”. The research findings supported conceptual coherence and rejected the counter argument of knowledge‐in‐pieces (at an alpha level of .05). Further research is recommended to replicate current research in cultures other than those of China and New Zealand studied here to confirm the view that cognition and knowledge are inherently coherent in young people.

The novice-expert continuum in astronomy knowledge

The nature of expertise in astronomy was investigated across a broad spectrum of ages and experience in China and New Zealand. Five hypotheses (capable of quantification and statistical analysis) were used to probe types of expertise identified by previous researchers: (a) domain-specific knowledge-skill in the use of scientific vocabulary and language and recognising relationships between concepts in linguistic and schematic forms; (b) higher-order theory in terms of conceptual structure and enriched scientific knowledge and reasoning; with an expectation of cultural similarity. There were 993 participants in all, age 3–80 years, including 68 junior school pupils; 68 pre-school pupils; 112 middle-school students; 109 high-school students; 79 physics undergraduates; 60 parents; 136 pre-service primary teachers; 131 pre-service secondary teachers; 72 primary teachers; 78 secondary teachers; 50 amateur astronomers and astronomy educators; and 30 astronomers and physicists; with approximately equal numbers of each group in both cultures; and of boys and girls in the case of children. For them, the methodology utilised Piagetian interviews with three media (verbal language, drawing, play-dough modelling), and for adults a questionnaire inviting responses in writing and drawing was used. The data from each group were categorised into ordinal scales and then analysed by means of Kolmogorov–Smirnov two-sample tests. The findings supported the hypotheses with evidence of all forms of expertise increasing with experience in both cultures (α level 0.05). The relative gains, overlaps and deficits in expertise across the novice-expert continuum are explored in detail.

Gender Effects in Children’s Development and Education

This paper attempts to clarify several lines of research on gender in development and education, inter‐relating findings from studies on intuitive/informal knowledge with those from research on achievements and attitudes in science. It acknowledges the declining proportions of male teachers world‐wide and examination successes which indicate a reversal of educational disadvantage from female to male; as well as the recent evidence on the effects of the gender of teachers upon student success. An empirical contribution to the literature is offered, drawing from the gender‐related findings from research on children’s cosmologies in China and New Zealand with 346 boys and 340 girls (of whom 119 boys and 121 girls participated in the current study). The investigation focused on children’s concepts of the motion and shape of the Earth through observational astronomy and gave children opportunities to express their ideas in several modalities. The in‐depth interviews allowed children to share their meanings with gender differences becoming apparent (e.g. girls’ superior ability to visually represent their cosmologies and boys’ greater awareness of gravity). However, these differences were not universal across genders or cultures and marked similarities were apparent both in the content of children’s responses and in their reasoning processes. By comparing boy/girl cosmological concept categories and by tracking their developmental trends by age, statistical evidence revealed the extent of the similarities within and across these diverse cultures. The findings reinforce those from the authors’ knowledge restructuring and cultural mediation studies and provide support for the view that boys and girls have similar, holistic‐rather‐than‐fragmented, cosmologies which have features in common across cultures and ethnic groups.