History Of Science Education Research Articles

A “Mastery Unapproached”

Abstract An almost ideal context for a case study on the development, use, and reception of multimodal material educational settings can be found in the works of Göttingen physicist Robert Wichard Pohl (1884–1976). From 1919 on, Pohl created an educational programme for introductory lectures on experimental physics, in which he demonstrated fundamental concepts and phenomena using simple yet meaningful experiments that were projected on the front wall of the lecture hall. With his teaching aids, technical infrastructure, and textbook, Pohl changed the teaching of physics at schools and universities in Germany and beyond. Pohl’s original devices are still part of the teaching collection used during introductory physics lectures. I will argue that teaching collections, as the material foundations for such “regimes of practices,” should be treated not as passive archives of objects but as dynamic, complex environments that allow new insights into the history of science teaching.

EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF HISTORY OF SCIENCE TEACHING ON SCIENCE PROCESS SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE OF SCIENCE CONCEPTS, AND ATTITUDES TOWARD SCIENCE

Although integrating the history of science (HOS) into teaching has long been recommended in science education research, studies have revealed conflicting results on its effectiveness. These are mainly due to the need for more studies in this context. Therefore, this research aimed to explore the impact of HOS teaching on science process skills, knowledge of science concepts, and attitudes toward science. In this research, a quasi-experimental research design was employed. The HOS was contextualized into the topic of the circulatory system. Two intact classes were chosen as the experimental group (EG) and the two others as the control group (CG). The EG students were involved in HOS activities during the treatment, while the CG students followed the curriculum-driven activities. The findings indicated that the impact of HOS education was evident, as students in the EG outperformed those in the CG in retaining knowledge of science concepts and demonstrating positive attitudes towards science. However, HOS education and curriculum-driven instruction have similarly impacted the development of science process skills. These results support the conceptual premise that HOS teaching is an alternative and a worthy way of supporting students’ scientific literacy. Keywords: attitudes toward science, experimental research, history of science teaching, science education, subject matter knowledge

The “invisible light”: Tracing its journey from scientific history to physics teaching

The history of science in teaching has been the subject of much discussion, analysis, practices and educational evaluations in recent decades. The objective is to present an important historical process of physics in the 19th century and to discuss its use and contribution to the understanding of the electromagnetic spectrum. The first part of the work describes the main experiments that led to the confirmation of the existence of 'invisible light', that is, radiations in the infrared and ultraviolet range. The second part explores how one of the original experiments concerning infrared radiation can be used to demonstrate and discuss the existence of radiation outside the visible spectrum. The proposal of the work is that these two dimensions, the historical approach and the accomplishment of pertinent experiments, are concatenated in the didactic exploration of this important content: the meaning of the unified electromagnetic spectrum and its important applications in people's daily lives.

O PROGRAMA DE PESQUISA DE MARTIN EGER: PRINCÍPIOS DA HERMENÊUTICA FILOSÓFICA NA EDUCAÇÃO EM CIÊNCIAS

ABSTRACT: This text begins with a theoretical research program that seeks to map the tradition of Philosophical Hermeneutics (PH) in Science Education (SE), producing syntheses of works by different authors who assumed the PH in SE. The objective is to present research programs that articulated PH and SE as we tailored our own research program based on them. We started with the research on the work of Martin Eger, one of the pioneers in this discussion in English, who proposed a Philosophy of Science Education (PSE). The justification for this program is that PH provides arguments for understanding the role of language, which contributes to facing the daily challenges of teachers in Natural Sciences teaching and learning. In this text, based on a brief discussion of PH as developed by Hans-Georg Gadamer, we have studied Martin Eger's work. Some of the concepts proposed by Gadamer, such as the hermeneutic circle and the expansion and fusion of horizons, as well as the triple hermeneutics, proposed by Eger, have supported the understanding of the language of Natural Sciences, thus undoing the separation between subject and object; in this way, students, teachers in training, professors and researchers in Education and Science Education, as well as scientists, can be seen as interpreters of the Natural Sciences. By bringing together the work of Natural Sciences and the work of art in a cascade of interpretations throughout the production of scientific knowledge and its learning by students, Eger's academic production provides arguments to understand the very history of Science Teaching, by rescuing paths and reviews. At the same time, it brings inspiration to think about the present.

“It Became All Right to Teach History of Science”: History of Science Education and the Introduction of General Education in Postwar Japan

“It Became All Right to Teach History of Science”: History of Science Education and the Introduction of General Education in Postwar Japan

How has Science Education changed over the last 100 years? An analysis using natural language processing

AbstractFor well over a century, the journal Science Education has been publishing articles about the teaching and learning of science. These articles represent more than just a repository of past work: they have the potential to offer insights into both the history of science education as well as well as the dynamics of field‐specific change. It can be difficult, however, for educators, researchers, reformers, and policymakers to grasp the nuances of over 100 years of scholarship given the overwhelming amount of textual material. To address this problem, we have used latent Dirichlet allocation, an automated machine‐learning algorithm from the field of natural language processing, to perform an automated literature review and classification of the corpus of work in Science Education. Using this technique, we have classified research in the journal into 21 distinct topics, falling into three thematic groups: science content topics, teaching‐focused topics, and student‐focused topics. We have also quantified the rise and fall of these topics and groups over time, and used them to begin to extract insight into the development of the field, including the effects of national policy changes on topics of interest to the research community, the interrelationships between different research topics, and the effects of intellectual cross‐pollination. Based on this analysis, we argue that this technique shows great promise for even larger‐scale analyses of educational literature and other textual data.

The History of Chemistry in Chemical Education

The role of history in science education has recently garnered wider interest owing to the heightened importance the Next Generation Science Standards (2012) has placed on conveying to students an understanding of the “nature of science.” This essay strives to set this development in historical context by examining the changing role of the history of chemistry in chemical education over the last century. It focuses on two specific episodes: Edgar Fahs Smith’s history of chemistry course at the University of Pennsylvania and James Bryant Conant’s ultimately unsuccessful program at Harvard for general science education. The essay then compares these two episodes to the current emphasis on teaching the “nature of science” to students, arguing that using history to teach the “nature of science” distorts history in a manner that undermines the professional values of historians and suggesting that collaboration between historians and science educators is possible only when the professional interests of both are preserved.

Research with Life Stories in the Production of the History of Science Education: The Photobiographical Device as a Resource for the Understanding of Social Experiences

The activation of diversified historical sources and methodological approaches have been requested to the production of a new socio-historical knowledge concerning the historical constitutions of the school subjects of science and biology. This approach allows the understanding of controversies and disputes about these subjects. The present paper aims to present and problematize the use of an investigative resource developed in the field of Social sciences and still unusual in the science education studies with historical perspectives: the photobiography. This device combines references from Sociology, History of Education and Curriculum. In the paper, the photobiography dialogues with a research on the social trajectory of a science teacher whose professional practices were in tune with the assumptions of the “Science Education Innovation Movement” of the 1960s and 1970. The photobiography device is used for triggering memories and the production of other meanings of science teaching at that milieu.

Abordagem das Leis de Mendel numa perspectiva histórico-filosófica no Curso de Licenciatura em Educação do Campo

O artigo propõe a inserção da história da ciência no ensino, numa perspectiva interdisciplinar, através de um trabalho com educandos do 8º período do curso de licenciatura em educação do campo, habilitação em ciências naturais. Numa roda de conversa perante uma abordagem epistemológica, as professoras orientaram para uma reflexão sobre as Leis de Mendel enquanto um paradigma amplamente presente no ensino de ciências. No decorrer da conversa, foi discutida a forma linear e dogmatizada que, muitas vezes a ciência é apresentada em seu ensino. Ressalta-se a validade da metodologia para a aprendizagem de conceitos científicos de forma significativa, crítica e ampla.

Instruments, objects, and collections as sources for the history of science education

A large number of Portuguese secondary schools have scientific collections, which are central elements for the memory and identity of the institutions that maintain them, and contribute to understanding the characteristics that over time have defined public secondary education in Portugal. However, this heritage is still largely unknown. This article draws attention to the historiographic debate surrounding the use of material sources in the history of science education, describing the relevance of natural history collections in Portuguese secondary schools as well as their vulnerability, considering the lack of a general policy or guidelines related to conservation.

Rosa Navarro-Haydon: Struggling for Locally Relevant Science Education in Puerto Rico. 1926-1966

Rosa Navarro-Haydon played a fundamental role during a critical turning point in the history of science education in Puerto Rico. This eminent scholar developed and implemented elementary-level science curricula for public schools, wrote and published science booklets, articles and textbooks and trained thousands of science teachers. Rosa Navarro-Haydon was one of the first scholars to engage in science communication activities in Puerto Rico, such as writing science magazine articles for the general public. Unfortunately, education and scientific communities are unaware of the countless professional contributions made by Rosa Navarro-Haydon and her life as a science educator pioneer in Puerto Rico.

Teaching History of Science in General Education Classrooms

Teaching History of Science can help students comprehend the concepts, impact students’ attitude towards science and improve public scientific literacy. However, due to curriculum and teaching load restrictions, teaching history of science did not efficiently link concept learning in general education classrooms. In this study, we applied history of science teaching in two courses from different fields: Biology and Psychology and reported how to connect history of science in students’ learning.

Instructors’ Rationales and Strategies for Teaching History of Science in Preservice Settings

This multiple-case study examined the rationales and instructional strategies for teaching history of science (HOS) of 16 instructors of a history of science course for undergraduate preservice teachers in the USA. Based on instructor syllabi, instructional materials, and instructor interviews, we conducted single-case and cross-case analyses to identify why they teach HOS (rationales), how they teach HOS (instructional strategies), and what possible relationships might underlie instructor rationales and their instructional strategy choices for teaching HOS. We found 10 rationales in three overarching categories (knowledge, skills, and attitudes) and 9 active-learning instructional strategies. Moreover, we found that instructors with skills rationales implemented active-learning instructional strategies, whereas instructors who only cited knowledge rationales relied only on lectures and reading discussions. We discuss implications and recommendations for the design of HOS courses.

When ‘we wish they knew’ meets ‘I want to know’

ABSTRACTThe tension between mandated curricula and students’ interests is evident throughout the history of science education. Societal expectations for student learning often lead to standards and curricula that leave little room for students to explore their own individual interests. Occasionally, however, an event can capture the interest of so many students that teachers feel compelled to respond. The Ebola outbreak of 2014 was such an event. This article discusses findings from a study of teacher decision-making; specifically, it explores how high school science teachers in the U.S. decided whether and how they should address Ebola during the 2014–2015 school year, when the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was at its peak. Approximately 2500 teachers of science responded to an online questionnaire that addressed their Ebola-specific instruction. In comparing the decisions of those who taught about Ebola and those who did not, the study found that teachers weighed various factors, in particular student interest but also curriculum standards, time, and availability of resources for teaching about Ebola. The article concludes with implications for future urgent health-related issues.

Retracing and rewriting Hooke’s Micrographia book for teaching history of science

The history of science is an important component to acquire for achieving scientific literacy. In this study, a collaborative activity was applied in which the students were presented with the historical context in which Robert Hooke lived and developed the first register of the microscopic world. Furthermore, the students explored the environment using a microscope made by themselves, employing PET bottles and lenses obtained from CD or DVD readers and, finally, they drew and described selected objects, and collaboratively rewrote a ‘new version’ of Hooke’s classical book ‘Micrographia’. The study was performed in a secondary school, with 12- to 15-year-old students, and the hypothesis was that the planned intervention could enlarge students’ perception of historical aspects of the scientific discovery of the microscopic world, to a greater extent than traditional classes involving lectures and textbooks. The comparison was evaluated using a quantitative tool, called the History-Word-Association test (HWAT), which aims to evaluate the general vision of students regarding the agents, historical period and sociocultural circumstance involved in the issue addressed. The students that participated in the planned didactic activity showed a significant improvement in identification and retention of ideas associated with the history of the discovery of the microscopic world.

Developing PK-12 Preservice Teachers' Skills for Understanding Data-Driven Instruction Through Inquiry Learning

ABSTRACTThis article offers a description of how empirical experiences through the use of procedural knowledge can serve as the stage for the development of hypothetical concepts using the learning cycle, an inquiry teaching and learning method with a long history in science education. The learning cycle brings a unique epistemology by way of using procedural knowledge (“knowing how”) to enhance construction of declarative knowledge (“knowing that”). The goal of the learning experience was to use the learning cycle to explore “high tech” and “low tech” approaches to concept development within the context of statistics. After experiencing both, students recognized the value of high and low tech approaches to instruction. Given that statistical literacy is essential for engaging in PK-12 education, we argue that providing experiences that help preservice teachers understand statistical concepts while modeling effective pedagogical practices will help prepare them for planning instruction and teaching statistics concepts in PK-12 classrooms. This article provides an example of how to meaningfully incorporate statistics into a nonstatistics course for preservice teachers. Empirical experiences prior to introduction of mathematical and hypothetical concepts are necessary pedagogical practice.

Popular Science in Eighteenth Century Almanacs: The Editorial Career of Henry Andrews of Royston, 1780–1820

English popular science was more than a mid-nineteenth century phenomenon, whether defined as practical, utilitarian and comprehensible knowledge, or as a nexus of ¡deas, rhetoric and practice. All these criteria were fulfilled in four Stationers’ Company almanacs for forty years by Henry Andrews, an astronomer, mathematician, astrologer and meteorologist. Andrews employed these as instruments for an extensive campaign in the history of science education devised to acquaint working class readers with the key figures, ideas and methodologies of science.

The discovery of X-rays diffraction: From crystals to DNA. A case study to promote understanding of the nature of science and of its interdisciplinary character

The advantages of introducing history of science topics into the teaching of science has been advocated by a large number of scholars within the science education community. One of the main reasons given for using history of science in teaching is its power to promote understanding of the nature of science (NOS). In this respect, the historical case of X-rays diffraction, from the discovery of Max von Laue (1912) to the first X-rays diffraction photographs of DNA (1953), is a case in point for showing that a correct experimental strategy and a favourable theoretical context are not enough to make a scientific discovery.

The social purpose of Rev. Richard Dawes who taught the philosophy of common things

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to consider why Richard Dawes (1793-1867) academic, college business manager and Church of England priest developed a curriculum in a nineteenth century English village school with which he sought to modify differences in social class and achieved outstanding results in student engagement and educational attainment.Design/methodology/approach– The approach is documentary. It uses books and internet scans of original documents. It locates Dawes's work in the social movements of early nineteenth century Britain and associates Dawes's activities with those of Kay-Shuttleworth who was administrator of the British government's first move to provide education for poor children.Findings– Dawes emphasised tolerance and secular teaching within a school system devoted to instilling Church of England doctrine. He based classroom teaching on things familiar to children and integrated subject content. He used science to encourage parents of “that class immediately above that of labourers” to send their children to his school to overcome class differences. For his system to be widely adopted he needed science teachers trained in his practical teaching methods. Initial government support for science in elementary schools was eroded by Church of England opposition to state intervention in education.Originality/value– Dawes's pedagogic achievements are well known in the history of science education; his secular teaching in a church school and his valiant attempt to use science as an instrument of social change, perhaps less so.

História da ciência e natureza da ciência: debates e consensos

Since at least the sixties of last century, there has been an on-going debate about the need to insert the History of Science in the curriculum of scientific subjects. The main point in the debate was related to the scientists’ technical formation, and an argumentative dilemma was raised in the following decade presenting a result in which both those for and those against the insertion had good argumentation to support their opinion. Nevertheless, since the appearance of Science Teaching, by Michael Matthews, in 1994, the argumentation in favor of the insertion of the History of Science in the teaching of scientific subjects has been conducted based on the importance given to the clarification of the Nature of Science. Such alteration on the level of the debate allowed the defenders of the insertion of the History of Science to show that the discussion does not relate only to the scientist’s technical formation, but also to the understanding of Science by scientists. The present article aims, firstly, at presenting a summary of the discussion mentioned. Then, our goal is to show that the closing of the discussion promoted in the literature on the teaching of Science in Brazil, between 1996 to 2010, a consensus about the importance of the insertion of the History of Science. So, we are presenting a bibliographical survey on some national journals; such survey allows us to conclude on the inexistence of argumentation against the importance of the discussion on the Nature of Science. Finally, we retake the initial discussion and show that, based on the bibliographical survey, contrary to the initial discussion about the insertion of the History of Science in teaching, which held both defenders and oppositionists, the discussion about the Nature of Science is marked by the consensus concerning its importance.