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World View, Culture, And Science Education, William W. Cobern

Scientific Literacy and Cultural Studies Project

In the last few years many science education policy documents, including those from Project 2000+, have noted the need for further knowledge and understanding of how people individually and as members of social and cultural groups learn and teach science. To this end science educators have studied cognitive development and mental capacity. They have explored the effectiveness of various instructional strategies. Among other things they have investigated the errors students make. However, what students believe about the physical world, belief rooted and nurtured in students' socio-cultural environments, has received far less attention. In a non-Western economically developing nation one speaks …

Behavioral Contracting: The Effects Of Metacontingency Contracting On Math Performance Of At-Risk Students, Vernard V. J. Jones

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of behavioral contracting in providing parents with a means of assisting their child with homework from school. Following the baseline condition, the subjects were introduced to the intervention [behavioral contracting including parent(s)] one at a time to provide a concurrent check between baseline and treatment conditions.

Six students from the Kentwood Public School District served as participants in the study. All participants were between eleven and thirteen years of age. Each participant was identified by the teacher as "at-risk" based on their sustained academic performance.

Four out of six participants …

Conceptualizations Of Nature And Scientific Literacy, Part I: Research Methodology, William W. Cobern, Adrienne T. Gibson

Scientific Literacy and Cultural Studies Project

If we may paraphrase and adapt from feminist scholars, there are voices of people that need to be heard if scholars intend to have a valid understanding of people and their behavior. The feminist scholars were of course seeking ways of making women’s voices heard but the importance of their work exceeds gender issues. It is important for restoring the image of people as persons rather than as objects of research. As we have undertaken it, the foundational perspective of worldview research is that one must hear from students and science teachers about themselves. We thus suggest it is important …

Cultural Constructivist Approach To The Teaching Of Evolution, William W. Cobern

Scientific Literacy and Cultural Studies Project

Educators typically think that one teaches evolution to develop students' conceptual understanding of evolution. It is assumed that if students understand evolution they will believe it. From a constructivist perspective it can be argued that understanding and belief, though related, are distinct concepts each of which is a potential goal for instruction. Though there are good reasons why belief should not be an instructional goal, achieving conceptual understanding requires that issues of belief be addressed. The point is that students are not likely to gain much understanding of something that they dismiss outright as unbelievable. What counts as believable for …

Alternative Constructions Of Science And Science Education, William W. Cobern

Scientific Literacy and Cultural Studies Project

I want to begin today with two short personal remarks. My field of research at home is the cultural study of science education. In other words, I am interested in what is commonly called the culture of science and how that becomes interpreted in science education by teacher and curriculum. I am interested in the variation of culture among American students, cultural variations grounded in family and community and brought to the classroom. I am interested in the cultural interactions that are precipitated by the meeting of cultures in the science classroom. In my current work I use worldview concepts …

Worldview Theory And Conceptual Change In Science Education, William W. Cobern

Scientific Literacy and Cultural Studies Project

Once again science education finds itself in the midst of reform. Reform documents are too numerous to mention by name but they all share the same view that Americans know far too little science. Durant (1990) noted that even the well educated often know little science. Of course every reform document by its very nature offers a solution. Many in the science education research community "see conceptual change as the emerging focus of science teaching" (Wandersee, 1993, p. 319) and thus focus their research interests here as well. To borrow warfare metaphors, conceptual change activities are tactical devices used to …