In their articles, Ajay Sharma (Cult Stud Sci Educ, doi:10.1007/s11422-017-9835-z, 2017) and Noel Gough (Cult Stud Sci Educ, doi:10.1007/s11422-017-9834-0, 2017) shed light on the impact neoliberalism has on the teaching of science and suggest ways to ensure that science education remains critical and socially equitable. In this paper, I…

This article seeks to provide researchers and practitioners in laboratory education, particularly those involved in the curriculum design and implementation of teaching laboratories at university level, with a conceptual framework and a working model for an integrated assessment of learning domains, by attending to a more holistic approach to…

Considering the relevance of thermodynamics to the scientific discipline of chemistry and the curriculum of the Western school system, the philosophical system of Mario Bunge, particularly his ontology and epistemology, is used herein to analyze the presentation of the first law of thermodynamics in 15 school and university textbooks. The…

This study has been carried out to identify the relationship between the epistemological beliefs of student teachers and their metacognitive perceptions about the nature of science. The participants of the study totaled 336 student teachers enrolled in the elementary science education division of the department of elementary education at the…

Students can have great difficulty reading scientific texts and trying to cope with the professor in the classroom. Part of the reason for students' difficulties is that for a student taking a science gateway course the language, ontology and epistemology of science are akin to a foreign culture. There is thus an analogy between such a student and…

In a series of well-known papers, Chi and Slotta (M. T. H. Chi, 1992, 2005; M. T. H. Chi & J. D. Slotta, 1993; M. T. H. Chi, J. D. Slotta, & N. de Leeuw, 1994; J. Slotta & M. T. H. Chi, 2006; J. D. Slotta, M. T. H. Chi, & E. Joram, 1995) have contended that a reason for students' difficulties in learning physics is that students…

William Stephenson specifically developed Q methodology, or Q, as a means of measuring subjectivity. Q has been used to determine perspectives/views in a wide variety of fields from marketing research to political science but less frequently in education. In higher education, the author has used Q methodology to determine views about a variety of…

This paper is an analysis of inserting history and philosophy of science (HPS) in a physics undergraduate program at a Brazilian university. It is an examination of the approaches and methodologies adopted by professors of a History and Epistemology course. The course aims to have an explicit approach to HPS. The results suggest a concern of the…

Professionally developed and freely accessible through the Internet, scientific data maps have great potential for teaching and learning with data in the science classroom. Solving problems or developing ideas while using data maps of Earth phenomena in the science classroom may help students to understand the nature and process of science. Little…

This dissertation describes the teaching methods and educational philosophies of natural philosophy instructors at several of the colleges in colonial and early national North America. It finds two distinct approaches: the demonstrative, in which the instructor centers the course on visually engaging lecture-demonstrations, and the catechetical,…

This publication contains the papers presented at the 5th Annual Conference of National Academy for Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (NAIRTL) and the 9th Galway Symposium. Presenters from across Ireland and overseas share their perspectives. The theme of engagement touches on the very heart of what a "higher" education…

In the United States, the undergraduate general education curriculum by and large requires students take courses from the arts and humanities as well as the sciences in order to produce well-rounded or liberally educated individuals. This educational philosophy is in line with C. P. Snow's recommendation for increased communication between the…

Despite its frequent use, there is little understanding of the concept of differential among upper high school and undergraduate students of physics. As a first step to identify the origin of this situation and to revert it, we have done a historic and epistemological study aimed at clarifying the role and the meaning of the differential in…

Describes a project on labwork at upper secondary and undergraduate levels that was launched in 1996 and funded by the European Commission. Presents new research questions focusing on three objectives: (1) conceptual; (2) epistemological; and (3) procedural. (Contains 28 references.) (Author/YDS)

Addresses the influence that science and learning concepts have when teachers are submitted to assessment in an academic program. Reports changes shown by teachers in their epistemological and learning conceptions during the process of instruction. (Author/CCM)