2. – Programme for International
Student Assessment
– Organization for Economic Co-
operation Development
– Trends in International Mathematics
and Science Study
OECD
TIMSS
PISA
4. Diversity in Research in Science Education
Science education research is not
conducted within one paradigm because
there are too many fundamental
differences about the nature of science
education.
Indeed, science education research
is not quite a research paradigm there is
too much disagreement at a fundamental
level.
5. Science education research is characterized by the issues it
addresses and these include:
Diversity in Research in Science Education
Learning
Teaching
Educational Technology
Curriculum
Learning Environments
Teacher Education
Assessment and Evaluation
Equity
History and Philosophy of Science
6. Diversity in Research in Science Education
During the past 30 years, there has developed a great
diversity of types of research being conducted in science
education and there is a growing acceptance of these
different research genres, often borrowed from other
disciplines.
7. Olson, 2004 These studies have resulted
in a huge number of publications,
specifically international and
national reports, theses and
dissertations and edited books.
Few of these publications are
published in or conferences and
somehow these studies do not
have the necessary impact on the
science education community.
Diversity in Research in Science Education
11. WESTERN NATIONS
Status of science
teaching is declining.
Science teaching is no
longer a career of first
choice.
12. This scenario is a
problem because of the
ageing workforce of
science teachers and there
would be appear to be a
lack of well-qualified people
wishing to enter the science
teaching profession.
Research shows that the
results so far are mixed at best.
13. There is concerted action in
some countries to address this
problem by encouraging scientist
to teach after a very short period
of induction into profession.
There are problems with
replacing current teachers and
concerns about the viability of
subjects like physics in many
schools.
15. Linn (2003)
Research on the impact of
technology on teaching is of key
importance in terms of science texts
and lectures, science discussion and
collaboration, data collection and
representation, science visualization
and science simulation, and modeling.
Research on the Impact of Technology on Teaching
16. As the reviewed showed, there is an
increasing use of computers in schools but
more research is still needed to investigate
how students learn science with computers?
Similarly there is an increasing use of on-line
resources but how beneficial are these to
learning science and is it better to learn
science in a synchronous and asynchronous
manner with on-line resources? Similarly, there is
an increasing use of on-line resources but how
beneficial are these to learning science and is it
better to learn science in a synchronous and
asynchronous manner with on-line resources?
Research on the Impact of Technology on Teaching
18. Hand, Prain and Yore (2001)
Science education reforms
in a number of countries promote
a standards-based definition of
scientific literacy for all people
such that they can understand
science and apply the big ideas
to realistic problems and issues
involving science, technology,
society and environment.
19. Yore, Bisanz and Hand (2003)
Researchers are examining
the specific roles of reading and
writing in science education.
20. PISA is aimed at reading,
scientific, and mathematics
literacy and the testing is in
terms of mastery skills deemed
essential for daily life.
The result from TIMSS and
PISA studies have provided a
very strong incentive for each
nation’s government to look at
the status of science education.
21. As indicated in the
Scientific American article, it is
not all obvious that revision of
science curricula in an attempt to
increase scores as measured by
TIMSS is an optimum way to
direct our energies in science
education.
22. In almost every nation,
there is a desire to ensure
that high levels of scientific
literacy among school-aged
youth and TIMSS data do
not necessarily provide this
evidence.
24. Most research in science
education is on the practice of
teaching and learning, together
with assessment, evaluation
and teacher education; there is
less on philosophical issues.
Research interest in Science Education
25. Children’s understanding and learning of scientific
phenomena (Miller, Leach and Osborne, 2000;
Wandersee, Mintze and Novak, 1994)
Conceptual change research ( Duit and
Treagust, 2003, Hewson, 1996)
Constructivist views of learning/teaching
(Fensham, Gunstone and White, 1994)
Nature of science (McCommas, 1998)
26. Perception studies – classroom environment,
attitude (Fraser, 1994)
Assessment/Evaluation (Tamir, 1998)
Scientific literacy (Yore, Bisanz and Hand, 2003)
Equity and gender issues in science
(Baker, 1998, Rennie, Parker and Fraser,
1996)
27. Science teacher education (Abell, 2000;
Anderson and Mitchener, 1994)
History and Philosophy of science
(Duschl, 1994)
29. We must ask
ourselves what lasting
and significant influences
are we having in related
academic domains?
As a domain,
science
education research grows
by its own activities and also
by being open to outside
influences.
30. Influencing Policy and Practice
Certainly, they produced a lot of good
research in a range of high quality journals
that are recognized by the science education
international community.
One way that this research in science
education can have more influence is by
writing not only for ourselves, but also in
groups for other domain.
31. “A desired outcome is to influence the
political process in education by our
research, but my experience tells me
that this is rarely the case or at least
not in the short term. Indeed, to the
best of my knowledge most researchers
in science education do not write for
journals outside science education
involved with educational policy…”