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It***********X********X************************************* * Reproductions Supplied by EDRS Are the Best That Can Be Made DOCUMENT RESUME ED 309 081 SE 050 737 AUTHOR Fensham, Peter, Ed. TITLE De7elopment and Dilemmas in Science Educat_Lon. REPORT NO ISBN-1-85000-351-3 PUB DATE 88 NOTE 334p.; Drawings and tables may not reproduce well. AVAILABLE FROMTaylor & Francis, Inc., 1900 Frost Rd., Suite 101, Bristol, PA 19007 ($25.00). PUB TYPE Books (010) -- Viewpoints (120) EDRS PRICE MF01 Plus Postage. PC Not Available from EDRS. DESCRIPTORS *Comparative Education; *Elementary School Science; Elementary Secondary Education; Epistemology; Foreign Countries; International Cooperation; Learning Theories; Physical Sciences; *Science and Society; Science Curriculum; *Science Education; *Science Education History; Science Instruction; Science Programs; *Secondary School Science; Teaching Methods; Techaology ABSTRACT This book, written by science educators from nine countries, provides a summary of the strengths and weaknesses in practices of science education in schools, and of research in science education. It points out a number of directions that are likely to lead to improvements in the teaching and learning of science if applied in the future. Topics discussed include:(1) the history of science education reform from an international perspective; (2) the epistemology of science education; (3) science teaching; (4) how children learn; (5) primary school science; (6) constructivism and science education; (7) language;(8) the role of laboratories in science education; (9) gender issues in science education; and (10) science, technology, and society. (CW) ************It***********x********X************************************* * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * from the original document. * *****************************************R***************************** The Falmer Press Contemporary Analysis in Education DEVELOPMENT AND DILEMMAS IN SCIENCE EDUCATION rimIlE111_ U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION OfFce of Educational Research andImprovement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERICI This document has been reproduce('as received from the Person Or organization onginattng tt F" Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality Potnts of view Or oprnronsslated .11 INS dOCU merit do not necessarily represent othcral OERI posttton or policy "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL IN MICROFICHE ONLY HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES 4-g INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." Edited by PETER FENSHAM Development and Dilemmas in Science Education ki CONTEMPORARY ANALYSIS IN EDUCATION SERIES General Editor: Philip Taylor 6 Education and Cultural Pluralism Edited by Maurice Craft 7 Language and Learning: An Interactional Perspective Edited by Gordon Wells and John Nicholls 8 Educational Research. Principles, Policies and Practico Edited by Marten Shipman 9Schoolingand Welfare Edited by Peter Ribbms 10Assessing Educational Achievement Edited by Desmond L. Nuttall 11 Education, Recession and the World Village Edited by Frederick M. Wirt and Grant Harman 12 Social Education: Principles and Practice Edited by Chris Brown, Clive Harber and Janet Strivens 13 Education and Society Today Edited by Anthony Hartnett and Michael Naish 14Education and Youth Edited by David Marsland 15 Economics and the Management of Education: Emerging Themes Edited by Hywel Thomas and Tim Simkins 16The Changing Primary School Edited by Roy Lowe 17 Mathematics in Primary Education Edited by Michael Preston 18The Primary School Teacher Edited by Sara Delamont 19Educating Teachers. Chang* the Nature of Pedagogical Knowledge Edited by John Smyth 20Political Education in Britain Edited by Clive Harber 21 Informal Primary Education Today: Essays and Studies Edited by Alan Blyth Language and Literacy in the Primary School Edited by Margaret Meek and Cohn Mills Contemporary Analysis in Education Series Development and Dilemmas in Science Education Edited by Peter Fensham The Falmer Press (A member of the Taylor & Francis Group) London New York Philadelphia r r- 0 USA The Fainter Press, Taylor & Francis Inc., 242 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA lc 106-1906 UK The Fa her Press, Fainter House, Barcombe, Lewes, East Sussex, BN8 5DL © Selection and editorial material copyright P. Fensham 1988 411 rights reserved No part of this publ cation may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmuted in a iyform or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording v otherwise, without permission in writing from the Publisher First published 1988 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Development and dilemmas in science education 1. Schools Curriculum subjects. Science IFenshatn, Peter J (Peter James),192 7 IISeries 507'.1 ISBN 1-85000-350-5 ISBN 1-85000-351-3 Pbk Typeset in 10/12 Bembo by Nlathematical Composition Setters Ltd, Salisbury, Wilts Printed in Great Britavi by Tay!or & Francis (Printeis) Ltd, Basingstoke G Contents General Editor's Preface Philip Taylor VII Foreword ix Chapter 1Familiar but Different: Some Dilemmas and New Directions in Science Education Peter J. Fel:sham 1 Chapter 2 What Counts as Science Education? Douglas A. Roberts 27 Chapter 3 Teachers in Science Education John R. Ba;-(1 55 Chapter 4 Learners in Science Education Richard E Gemstone 73 Chapter 5 What Children Bring to Light: Towards Understanding What the Primary School Science Learner Is Trying to Do Bonnie L. Shapiro 96 Chapter 6 Theory into Practice I Richard T White 121 Chapter 7 Theory into Practice II A Constructivist Approach to Curriculum Development Rosalind Driver 133 Chapter 8 Role of Language in Science Education V. G. Kulkarni 150 Chapter 9 Practical Work and Science Education I Suttee Klainin 169 Chapter 10 Practical Work and Science Education II Avi fiefstem 189 Chapter 11Gender and Science Education I Svein Sjoberg and Gunn These,: 218 1) COntentS Chapter 12 Gender and Science Education II Jane Butler Kahle 249 &taper 13 The Dilemma of Science, Technology and Society :Education Joan Solomon 266 Chapter 14 Broadening the Aims of Physics Education Harris AI. C. Eykelluf and Kotb Kortland 282 Notes on Contributors 306 Index 309 General Editor's Preface In what has come to be one of the most important tracts in education, fl'hat Know/edge .11o,t Herbert Spencer argued and urged that the knowledge of most worth is science.Its truths', he said, 'will bear on human conduct ten thousand years hence', and though it is hardly one hundred since he said that, there is little to suggest that he NN, ill be proved wrong. He went on to say that 'rational knowledge has an immense superiority over empirical knowledge' and because of its sheer rationality, he claimed science was the knowledge to learn He also gave other reasons including practical and social ones. Today then.- is no need to argue that Science should be seen along v ith mathematics and one's own language as a key subject of .hoohng. It has become self-evident. Even so there is much to be debated and discussed w hen it comes to Science Education which is the subject of this sharply acute, ably constructed and up-to-date reader. It really is a compendium of the best kind. informative, comprehensive and likely to be an important stimulus to rhoeght and action. It leaves little in di_ teaching of science at all levels unexamined One might hac expected such under Peter Fensham's able editorship. That he has actually achieved it must be a cause for great satisfaction among science educators everywhere and of sincere' congratulations to him and the many contributors whose work has made possible a book of great worth. Philip H. Taylor University of Birmingham, 1988 To Chitine whose support and tolerance made possible the encounters that have mated this book 1 0 Foreword In choosing authors for the chapters of this book I hada number of :Tacna in mind. Firstly, from my knowledge of .hem as persons or from their work and other writing,. I believed that they had important thingsto say about science education. Secondly, they respondedto the framework or description of the reality of science education I suggested for the bookand wh.ch I have argued for in the first chapter. Thirdly andas a zorollary of this sense of reality, they are science educators who, in theirOW, 11 ways, take the content of science seriously, see learners as active constructors cf scientific meaning, and/orhave recognized the importance of social context and effectas neglected aspects of science educition. Others could also have met these criteria but within the limits ofeditorial coherence I wanted a range of national contexts from whichthe chapters would be written. In the end, nin, suchcontexts are included and among these are India and Thailand. In my own numerous contacts withst,ence educators from both industrialized and less industrializedcountries I have been increas- ingly aware in the 1980s that some attic best organization,effective practice, and most original insights and innovationsare occurring in some of the latter countries. Even with the substantial efforts that UNESCOhas made over many years to pro %'idk. international communication in science education, the developments in science education in the secondgroup of countries (the world's majority) are much less well known than theyshould be. In inviting the authors I asked them to focus thch contributionon a particular theme although I knew full well that eachof them sees science education more holistically. The selection of these themes forthe chapters was, for me (and no doubt for the authors),a fragmenting of an interactive whole. To avoid the themes appearingto
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