Vasilis Koulaidis

Science teachers' philosophical assumptions : how well do we understand them?

The need for a re‐examination of science teachers’ philosophical assumptions, as argued in this paper, is based on an overview of the body of the relevant literature. This overview suggests a lack of explicit specification of the philosophical position which has been taken into account in the development of most of the instruments employed in eliciting science teachers’ views about philosophy of science. It is further argued that this tendency appears to stem from the fact that most of the studies fail to recognize the existence of conflicting philosophical models of science. An analysis of the issues involved is proposed.

Towards an Analysis of Visual Images in School Science Textbooks and Press Articles about Science and Technology

This paper aims at presenting the application of a grid for the analysis of the pedagogic functions of visual images included in school science textbooks and daily press articles about science and technology. The analysis is made using the dimensions of content specialisation (classification) and social-pedagogic relationships (framing) promoted by the images as well as the elaboration and abstraction of the corresponding visual code (formality), thus combining pedagogical and socio-semiotic perspectives. The grid is applied to the analysis of 2819 visual images collected from school science textbooks and another 1630 visual images additionally collected from the press. The results show that the science textbooks in comparison to the press material: a) use ten times more images, b) use more images so as to familiarise their readers with the specialised techno-scientific content and codes, and c) tend to create a sense of higher empowerment for their readers by using the visual mode. Furthermore, as the educational level of the school science textbooks (i.e., from primary to lower secondary level) rises, the content specialisation projected by the visual images and the elaboration and abstraction of the corresponding visual code also increases. The above results have implications for the terms and conditions for the effective exploitation of visual material as the educational level rises as well as for the effective incorporation of visual images from press material into science classes.

Constructing social representations of science and technology: the role of metaphors in the press and the popular scientific magazines

This paper aims to reveal the social representations about the nature and the evolution of Space-Science & Astronomy, Genetics & Biotechnology, Natural Sciences and Engineering & Informatics, through analyzing active (i.e., original and creative) metaphors found in 2303 technoscientific articles published in four Greek daily newspapers and two popular scientific magazines. The analysis showed that all metaphors concerning the nature of the four disciplinary fields can be clustered into four superordinate categories that juxtapose these fields to: (1) a construct; (2) a supernatural process; (3) an activity extending the frontiers of knowledge; (4) a dipole of promise and/or scare. The most frequently employed category is that representing technoscience as an activity extending the frontiers of knowledge. Furthermore, the evolution of the four disciplines is mainly represented as a violent process. Each discipline though, seems to be characterized by combinations of different categories of metaphors. Therefore each discipline evokes different social representations.

Teaching the topic of the particulate nature of matter in prospective teachers’ training courses

This article presents an attempt to improve teaching‐learning strategies for science as addressed by prospective teachers in the Department of Primary Education of the University of Athens. The aim of the proposed strategy is twofold: to promote the constructivist aspect in science teaching‐learning and to improve prospective teachers’ knowledge in the particulate nature of matter. Prospective teachers were confronted with pupils’ ideas about matter and its transformations as they are described and explained by the molecular theory of matter. They were asked to evaluate pupils’ explanations about the states of matter and changes of state as if they were the pupils’ actual teachers. Moreover, they were asked to discuss the origins of pupils’ conceptions and to propose appropriate interventions for classroom activities. The results show that prospective teachers share a number of misconceptions with pupils’ and that when they ‘act as real teachers’ they willingly revise their relevant ideas and accept a mor...

Young pupils’ ideas about the microscopic nature of matter in three different European countries

This study looks at the ideas which children have of the particulate model of matter, at the time they start formal science in school. Pupils aged about eleven in three European countries‐‐Greece, Portugal and the UK‐‐were studied using word association tests. In the UK and Portugal the children had received no teaching of the particulate model; in Greece the pupils had received one year of introductory science, containing some teaching of the particulate model. Key words associated with the particulate model were investigated as free associations. In Portugal and the UK there was little or no evidence of particulate ideas in the pupils’ responses. In the Greek data particulate ideas were more in evidence. There were other clear differences in the data from the three countries. Educational and research implications of the findings are discussed.

A pedagogical analysis of science textbooks: How can we proceed?

This paper discusses some of the available frameworks for the pedagogical analysis of school science textbooks. First, it distinguishes between (a) studies which focus on elements of textbooks, such as the content, vocabulary, illustrations used, and the teaching methods promoted; and (b) those which consider the principles that organize the content and the form of presentation. In attempting to consider the sorts of principles that may be used in the studies categorised under (b), two crucial issues are discussed. The first issue refers to the relationship between scientific knowledge and school knowledge, which, as the relevant literature suggests, might not be conceived merely as a simplified “casting” of the scientific structure, but rather should be understood as a complex social process. The second issue explicitly addresses the nature of the pedagogic relationship and the place of the pedagogic text within it. Recent views about the nature of knowledge, it is argued, would suggest a reconceptualisation of the teaching activity, and indicate a model according to which the three elements of the teaching situation-the content, the pupil and the teacher—are seen as being (re)constituted in their articulation within and through the text(book). Thus, for example, what is to be a competent pupil in this approach is a function of the text. On the basis of these considerations, three approaches to the analysis of science textbooks are discussed: the socio-cognitive, the sociolinguistic and the socio-epistemic. The relative merits of the third approach are considered, and some examples are used from Greek science textbooks.

An International Study of Prospective Teachers’ Initial Teaching Conceptions and Concerns: the case of teaching ‘combustion’

SUMMARY An important task of science teachers should be to take pupils’ (pre)conceptions and learning difficulties into account and to negotiate about the meanings of specific concepts. In this context, teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge plays an important role. This article presents an international study of Dutch, Finnish, English and Greek pre-service teachers’ conceptions and concerns of how to teach the concept of combustion. The prospective science teachers were invited to prepare a lesson about this concept for pupils of junior secondary school level. The prospective teachers were not allowed to consult any textbook. Research data were obtained from audio-taped semi-structured interviews with the prospective teachers. In addition, their written lesson plans and their answers to an accompanying questionnaire were collected and analysed. The results reveal a number of important characteristics of prospective teachers’ views and concerns regarding the teaching of combustion. The implications of t...

Children's Models of the Ozone Layer and Ozone Depletion.

The views of forty primary students about ozone and its depletion were recorded through individual, semi-structured interviews. The data analysis resulted in the formation of a limited number of models concerning the distribution and role of ozone in the atmosphere, the ozone depletion process, and the consequences of ozone depletion. Childrens models involve a variety of alternative conceptions which indicate the presence of a number of different target obstacles; that is, critical factors constraining childrens understanding and thus preventing the construction of adequate models. Five target obstacles were identified: (1) the lack of conceptual distinction between ultraviolet and other forms of solar radiation; (2) the lack of the absorption mechanism of ultraviolet rays by ozone; (3) the conceptualisation of the atmosphere as an entirely homogeneous mixture of its constituent gases; (4) the non-localisation of the ozone layer around the earth; and (5) the lack of interpretation of the ozone hole as a decrease in the concentration of ozone. The identification of those target obstacles constitutes the first step for the design and evaluation of appropriate teaching aims and material.

Pupils’ Ideas on Conservation during Changes in the State of Water

Abstract The aim of this paper is to explore both the qualitative and quantitative dimensions of pupils’ ideas relevant to conservation during the changes occurring in the physical state of water. For the study of these ideas a questionnaire was developed and applied to a large sample of primary and secondary students. The items of the questionnaire concern the phenomena of evaporation, boiling and condensation. The analysis of the data showed that qualitative understanding precedes quantitative. The latter is achieved by pupils of 14‐15 years old. Furthermore, our analysis showed that pupils acquire the school science view at an earlier age than that suggested in previous literature.

The socio-epistemic constitution of science and technology in the Greek press: an analysis of its presentation

This paper aims to analyze the way in which the Greek press treats the socio-epistemic constitution of science and technology. By “socio-epistemic constitution” we mean the following dimensions: (a) techno-scientific methodology, (b) the social organization of the techno-scientific endeavor, and (c) the interactions of science and technology with other public spheres. Our methodology is based on a content analysis of a sample consisting of 1,867 relevant articles from four national Greek newspapers. The analysis showed that although there is a constant flow of techno-scientific articles, the internal aspects (methodology and internal organization) of science and technology become apparent in only a small minority of these articles. By contrast, external relationships, mainly with politics and economics, are emphasized by focusing on the positive social impact of the techno-scientific endeavor. In general, the Greek press makes a positive contribution to the advancement of the public understanding of science and technology, as the prominent presentation of some of their socio-epistemological components forms a realistic “post-academic” image of these two areas.