This book extends and unifies recent debate and research about science education in several disparate fields, including philosophy of science, cognitive psychology and motivation theory. Through an approach based on the personalization of learning and the politicization of the curriculum and classroom, it shows how the complex goal of critical scientific literacy can be achieved by all students, including those who traditionally underachieve in science or opt out of science education at the earliest opportunity. Current thinking in situated cognition and learning through apprenticeship are employed to build a sociocultural learning model based on a vigorous learning community, in which the teacher acts as facilitator, co-learner and anthropologist. Later chapters describe how these theoretical arguments can be translated into effective classroom practice through a coherent inquiry-oriented pedagogy, involving a much more critical and wide-ranging use of hands-on and language-based learning than is usual in science education.
Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgements
1 In pursuit of scientific literacy
2 Towards a personalized science
3 The significance of prior knowledge in science and learning
4 Constructivist approaches to teaching and learning science
5 The paradox of constructivism
6 Prioritizing the affective
7 Exploring some social dimensions of learning
8 Science education as enculturation
9 Problems of assimilation and exclusion
10 Authenticity in science and learning
11 Walking the line: enculturation without assimilation
12 Exploring and developing personal understanding through practical work
13 Exploring and developing personal understanding through language
14 Making it work: the role of the teacher
References
Index
