In this paper, the authors advocate the use of narrative (fictional written text) as a way of making science meaningful and accessible. They note that conventional scientific language can be off-putting to learners, but that content delivered through a story or narrative format can be more familiar and more memorable. This paper will be of interest to ISE educators exploring different modes of science engagement.
Dorion’s research, exploring the use of drama in science teaching, puts forth the concept of mime and role-play to help students to explore abstract scientific models. In addition, drama may support visualization of complex models. Drama can also change the dynamics within classroom talk and support a sense of community amongst students fostered by collaboration, social interaction, and fun.
This paper will be of value to ISE professionals interested in designing communication strategies to influence visitor behaviour. The author draws on persuasive communication theory to discuss the design and delivery of messages to target behaviours. This study reflects on the difficulties encountered during a process of identifying and prioritising behaviours to target in zoo contexts.
Presence of authoritative sources in the learning environment could mediate students’ refinement of scientific understanding from everyday knowledge to theoretical knowledge, deconstructed knowledge, reconstructed knowledge, and reflexive knowledge. For effective meaning-making in science the dialectical process needs both abstract knowledge and a meaningful context: meaning made of, for, with authoritative sources.
To meet the challenge of facilitating STEM learning in the future, the authors reflect on 20 years of past research to formulate and propose a new unit of analysis—the Total Life of a person—and three attendant concepts: knowledgeability, the disposition of a d´ebrouillard/e, and the collective nature of knowledgeability.
Cross-country student achievement data rank the United States near the bottom when comparing affluent nations. This international ranking is often cited as cause for school reforms. The author of this paper examines PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) mathematics data to explore the relationship between widening economic inequalities in the United States and its international performance on standardized tests. The author suggests that structural economic inequalities may have a larger influence than schools on student performance.
The relevance of this study to ISE educators lies primarily in the theoretical ideas about what the researchers call “transformative experience” in science education. A transformative experience was defined as one in which students are engaged and actively applying science concepts in their everyday life in new and meaningful ways; it is taking what is learned through formal science instruction and integrating it into everyday life so that students understand the world in a new way.
In this study, the authors consider the pros and cons of providing structures that focus inquiry at exhibits. Their research examined visitor behaviors with and without specific prompts at an exhibit. They found that the provision of additional materials and textual explanations limited visitor engagement at the exhibit to the express purpose defined by the added materials/text. Without the additional props, visitors were more exploratory and inventive in their uses of the exhibits; however, in these cases visitors often did not focus on a particular conceptual idea that the exhibit developers
Collaborations between schools and ISIs potentially offer powerful learning opportunities, yet assessing the varying needs and perspectives of each partner is not always easy. In this research, Mosian presents an open and honest account of a collaborative project and provides a valuable insight into the important stages of effective collaboration.
In this paper the author proposes a theory of development that integrates society, institutional practice and the child's activity. The goal is to inform efforts to create more developmentally supportive settings and opportunities for children. The proposed theory focuses on the everyday practices of children that take place in specific institutional settings (e.g., schools, afterschools, families) reflecting dominant cultural-societal views and arrangements. The paper provides a theoretical lens that could be of interest to educators who are seeking to understand how the particular
This study analyzes the impact of the wonderment questions of students on the teacher and student discourse in the classroom. It also points out that handling the different types of questions is a challenge for both the ISE professionals and the schoolteachers; this is particularly true because the “wonderment” types of questions are encouraged and expected in informal learning settings.
Science is often seen by students to be a body of incontrovertible facts. If, however, we emphasise the methods in which scientific ideas and explanations are exchanged, challenged and negotiated, students may come to understand the rich and dynamic patterns of science, and thus find it more engaging. The Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) approach tries to do just this by scaffolding students in using different forms of language to engage in inquiry leading to the generation and defence of a science dispute. This paper may be of particular interest to ISE practitioners who are involved in