Education Commons^™

The Tower Builders: A Consideration Of Stem, Stse And Ethics In Science Education, Astrid Steele, Christine R. Brew, Brenda R. Beatty

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The call for the integration of ethical considerations in the teaching of science is now firmly on the agenda. Taking as illustrative a science lesson in a pre-service teacher class, the authors consider the roles of STSE (science, technology, society and environment) and the increasingly influential heavily funded STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education initiatives. The origins and foci of both initiatives are discussed, as are their disparate ontological foundations. The use of Habermas’ knowledge theories in conjunction with ethical frameworks is posited as a way of considering both STSE and STEM perspectives and their implications for strengthening science …

The Influence Of An Activity-Based Explicit Approach On The Turkish Prospective Science Teachers’ Conceptions Of The Nature Of Science, Suat Celik, Samih Bayrakceken

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of an activity-based explicit nature of science (NOS) instruction undertaken in the context of a “Science, Technology and Society” course on the prospective science teachers’ (PSTs’) understandings of NOS. In this course, social science based inquiry activities were used to as a context to lead reflection and explicit discussions and project based learning approach (PBL) was used to model an active student centred NOS teaching and learning. Participants were 36 senior PSTs. An adopted form of VNOS questionnaire along with semi-structured interviews was used to assess participants’ conceptions before and …

University-School Partnerships: Pre-Service And In-Service Teachers Working Together To Teach Primary Science., John Daniel Kenny

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper reports on a partnership approach preparing pre-service primary teachers to teach science. Partnerships involving pre-service teachers and volunteer in-service colleagues were formed to teach science in the classroom of the colleague, with support from the science education lecturer. Each pre-service teacher collaboratively planned and delivered a sequence of at least six science lessons over six weeks.

An earlier paper reported on how the program affected the confidence of the pre-service teachers. Over three iterations, 61 in-service teachers from 23 local schools participated.

In this paper the data from the colleague teachers and principals who participated is explored. The …