Shifting Paradigms in Secondary Science Classrooms: Teaching and Learning from an Ecological Perspective

Abstract

This paper explores ecological learning theory and how it disrupts the present understanding of knowledge, intelligence, and the individual. In the education system, intelligence is seen as the basic capacity for competence; reasoning, as the activity that generates competence (St. Julien, 2000, p. 254). The common language here points to the Cartesian idea that knowledge is something that is outside the individual and that intelligence is an attribute within the individual that allows them to make use of this knowledge. Educational practices are built upon these assumptions that something must be done to the student to help them acquire and apply this knowledge. Ecological learning theory's fundamental understanding of intelligence breaks away from this paradigm and offers a very different understanding of cognition and intelligence. Moving the focus of education from studying about the world towards being part of the world means that a completely different way is needed to understand knowledge and learning (Davis, Sumara and Luce-Kapler, 2000). This means the definition of what learning is has burst open to incorporate many experiences and interactions compared to the traditional narrow definition of learning. From this frame, we will explore the implications for teachers and students in a secondary science classroom.