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| About the book |
This book takes stock of where we are in science education research, and considers where we ought now to be going. It explores how and whether the research effort in science education has contributed to improvements in the practice of teaching science and the science curriculum. It contains contributions from an international group of science educators. Each chapter explores a specific area of research in science education, considering why this research is worth doing, and its potential for development. Together they look candidly at important general issues such as the impact of research on classroom practice and the development of science education as a progressive field of research. The book was produced in celebration of the work of the late Rosalind Driver. All the principal contributors to the book had professional links with her, and the three sections of the book focus on issues that were of central importance in her work: research on teaching and learning in science; the role of science within the school curriculum and the nature of the science education we ought to be providing for young people; and the achievements of, and future agenda for, research in science education. |
| About the authors |
John Leach taught chemistry and science in British high schools before starting work as a researcher at the University of Leeds, where he is now Professor of Science Education and co-ordinator of the Learning in Science Research Group. Jonathan Osborne has worked in science education for the past 25 years, first as a teacher and then as a local authority advisor. He is now a Senior Lecturer in science education at King's College London. |
| Table of contents |
Acknowledgements Introduction Part one: Researching teaching and learning science Why things fall: evidence and warrants for belief in a college astronomy course Designing teaching situations in the secondary school Formative assessment and science education: a model and theorizing National evaluation for the improvement of science teaching Learning to teach science in the primary school Managing science teachers' development Status as the hallmark of conceptual learning Analysing discourse in the science classroom Part two: Reviewing the role and purpose of science in the school curriculum Providing suitable content in the 'science for all' curriculum Interesting all children in 'science for all' Making the nature of science explicit Shifting the paradigm on 'science for all' Science, views about science, and pluralistic science education Renegotiating the culture of school science Part three: Researching science education Research programmes and the student science learning literature Goals, methods and achievements of research in science education Didactics of science the forgotten dimension in science education research? Policy, practice and research the case of testing and assessment Notes on contributors Index. |
