3:15pm – 4:15pm, Griffin Exhibit Hall
A135. Science Teachers' Views about Teaching Socioscientific Issues: Understandings, Experiences and Suggestions Ahmet Kilinc, [email protected]
Dilber Bahceci Umit Demiral Nagihan Tanik Baris Eroglu Kasim Yildirim Ozkan Gorgulu Ozlem Afacan
Mutlu Pinar Demirci Guler Arzu Sonmez
ABSTRACT: Current science teachers perceive a need to address Socio-Scientific Issues (SSI) positively. However, only a minority of them deals with these issues in their classrooms and not even they address SSI in any systematic manner. However, several case studies in which teachers were supported by an intensive in-service education displayed very satisfying results. At this point, we consider that determining current teachers’ understandings, experiences, and suggestions about teaching of SSI should be the first step towards creating productive in-service and/or preservice education opportunities. This paper addresses this issue. Fifty seven Turkish science teachers constituted the sample. Semi-structured interviews were conducted. In data analysis, Creswell’s content analysis approach was adopted. The results showed that most of the teachers believed SSI to be current and intriguing. However, they mostly used SSI in unplanned teaching activities perhaps because they did not possess knowledge as to how to teach these issues. We believe that macro changes are needed to provide them with the
opportunities to enhance their professional development. Even though providing comprehensive in-service education seems an effective solution, deep problems stemming from educational policies, as in Turkish context, restrict science teachers’ understandings and experiences about teaching of SSI.
A137. Understanding Research Paradigms: Trends in Science Education Research Sebastian P. Szyjka,[email protected]
ABSTRACT: This essay offers several insights regarding the principles of qualitative and quantitative methods, defining how they shape the empirical process as well as knowledge acquisition in social science research. A comprehensive discussion includes comparing the assumptions and techniques of each paradigm, as well as a description of their respective strengths and weaknesses in research. These paradigms are examined in terms of past trends in science education research, indicating that over the last several decades a shift in approach from the quantitative to qualitative has occurred. The central thesis of the essay contends that methodological decisions should be based in pragmatism, rather than a pre-existent set of philosophies or beliefs irrespective of context. Implications for research are discussed in terms of the findings of several science education content analysis studies, conveying that research methods often coincide with the collective interest of the masses, policy, educational reform or program developments.
A139. (Re)Examining Standards: Challenging Epistemological Assumptions of the National Education Science Standards
Jesse T. Bazzul, OISE University of Toronto, [email protected]
ABSTRACT: This paper attempts to turn a Foucauldian archaeological lens on the National Science Education Standards (NSES) (1996) and Benchmarks for Scientific Literacy (Benchmarks) (1993, 2009), specifically statements explicitly concerning history and nature of science. The broad research question at the heart of this analysis being: How does the discourse concerning the history and nature of science in the NSES characterize the basic
epistemological underpinnings of science? A secondary aim of this paper is to challenge the views of the history and nature of science in these policy documents put forth by Good & Shymansky (2001). This work follows the general methodology spirit of Michel Foucault's Archaeology to help flesh out the particular epistemological and historical views of science contained within the standards. This short analysis of the NSES and Benchmarks reveals a firm realist view of science, singular and unproblematic views of the history of science, and a demarcation of science from ‘other’ sociocultural views of the world.
A141. What Can We Learn About the Public's Understanding of the Nature of Science from a Popular, Open-access 'AskScience' Website?
Leigh S. Arino De La Rubia, Tennessee State University, [email protected]
ABSTRACT: This research study highlights the ways in which an informal science education website called AskScience can be used to study the public’s understanding of the nature of science. The audience for this online informal educational tool is a diverse group of international individuals, primarily anonymous in nature, who are interested in asking or answering scientific questions on the larger Reddit.com site. A series of three questions about the nature of science were posed to this online community, each as an open-ended query taken from the Views on the Nature of Science instrument (Lederman, et al., 2002). The responses to these and other questions
posed by other users in the areas of philosophy of science will be coded in accordance with both the VNOS instrument procedures and considering the unique nature of the website. Investigating the Reddit community’s views of the nature of science (and even epistemology) without the lens of ethnicity and race, but within the context of science field of study/formal training is a key goal of this research. The anonymous nature of Reddit becomes an advantage in this research study, removing one of the lenses that can unintentionally color data analysis and interpretation of results.
A143. What Makes Chemistry Unique? An Exploratory Study of Graduate Students' Conceptions Paulo A. Porto, Instituto de Química - Universidade de São Paulo (Brasil), [email protected] Anielli F. G. Lemes, Instituto de Química - Universidade de São Paulo (Brasil)
ABSTRACT: The aim of this work is to investigate the conceptions of ten chemistry graduate students about aspects of the philosophy of chemistry. In particular, we are interested in what the students characterize as peculiar to chemistry (in comparison with physics or biology), and in their position towards reductionism. In this qualitative research, graduate students from the five traditional areas of chemistry answered to a semi-structured interview. Results show that graduate students emphasized the macroscopic aspects of chemistry, without neglecting their relation with microscopic explanations. However, the precise nature of the processes that link the two "levels" of chemical knowledge was not clearly expressed by the interviewees. As to reductionism, different opinions were observed: some chemists agreed that chemistry can be reduced to physics, some rejected reduction arguing in terms of different ontologies, and some associated reductionist claims with the defense of
interdisciplinary approaches in science. These preliminary results suggest that the inclusion of philosophy of chemistry discussions in undergraduate and graduate courses could help chemists to develop more elaborate views about crucial aspects of that science.
Strand 14: Environmental Education