Values and how values are created in science education are an under-researched field, which is problematic given the importance of epistemic values to the nature of science. From a sociological perspective, values are experienced as emotionally infused ideas with the power to influence choices and actions in everyday situations such as learning…

Research about modeling emphasizes the importance of heterogeneity in science learning. At the same time, a growing body of scholarship seeks curricular pathways for epistemic and representational convergence. In response to this tension, we propose two constructs: heterogeneity-seeking curricula and commitments. Heterogeneity-seeking curricula…

There is an increasing demand in the field of science education for the incorporation of philosophical and sociological aspects that are related to the scientific enterprise in school curricula, to the extent that the incorporation of these aspects is now considered a necessity. Several of these aspects can be categorised within the framework of…

Several researches identified that many students find physics the most difficult science subject. The quest to find ways to make learning physics more meaningful and interesting has lasted for decades. Even with all the new strategies and pedagogies being used, many students still find the subject formidable. This study critically explored the…

Risk has now become a feature of science curricula in many industrialized countries. While risk is conceptualized within a number of different theoretical frameworks, the predominant model used in examination specifications is a utility model in which risk calculations are deemed to be objective through technical expert assessment and where the…

In this paper I examine the particular question of the meaning of the distinction between epistemic and non-epistemic values in the natural sciences and, if this would make sense, the possibility to transcend this distinction. I claim that the distinction between epistemic and non-epistemic values maintains its necessity as long as a certain sort…

This paper offers steps towards overcoming current fragmentation within sociocultural approaches by expansively reconstructing a broad dialectical view on human development and learning (drawing on Vygotsky's project) underwritten by ideology of social justice. The common foundation for sociocultural approaches is developed by dialectically…

The Answers in Genesis Creation Museum opened in May of 2007. During the opening day, a loosely affiliated group of scientists joined in a Rally for Reason as they termed it to protest the museum's potential effect on science in the United States. This paper discusses ethnographic data collected before and during the rally. Scientist narratives…

This study first offers a defence of the view that natural science has transcultural intellectual characteristics relevant to its educational purposes and examines those characteristics under their ontic, epistemic, and value-related aspects. While the epistemic domain has been most prominent in relation to the science curriculum and its reform,…

Suggests that modern science adopts materialist strategies toward relationships between empirical data and theory because of an elective affinity between such strategies and a certain outlook on the control of nature. Claims that, when the roles of social values and cognitive values are kept distinct, sound theory acceptance can still be…

Criticizes Hugh Lacey's use of the term "materialist" when describing materialist strategies used during structuralist explanation in scientific practice. Examines the grounds for supposing an affinity between these strategies and the growing subordination of human values to the attractions of technological transformations of nature.…

Suggests that Hugh Lacey's example of a clear-cut distinction between material and social constraints or possibilities in the Green Revolution is misleading. Proposes a material analysis of the control situation placed within the material framework of the social structure within which the control system is employed. (Author/WRM)

Lends further depth to arguments put forth by Hugh Lacey. Addresses the allegation made by the indigenous science movement that violence is evident in the control of nature because science is inherently violent--a charge which, if not refuted, undermines the claim that science is neutral. Considers the shortcomings of a school science curriculum…

Responds to criticisms of the previous article, "Scientific Understanding and the Control of Nature." Clarifies themes in the first article and reaffirms the significance of distinguishing between cognitive and social values to gain a better grasp of scientific understanding. (Author/WRM)

In this paper, the author considers the role of teaching values in science education as part of a move from teacher-centred pedagogy to student-centred pedagogy. Taking a constructivist-inspired position, he argues that, as part of their study of the use of scientific knowledge by society, students need to be given opportunities to make value…