Explores the crossroads between science education and environmental education and presents a framework for tapping environmental education's potential of biodiversity. Outlines a number of stepping stones for making biodiversity meaningful to learners. From the perspective of environmental education, the ill-defined nature of biodiversity is a…

Asks 12 conservation management experts by interview and 34 science teachers using questionnaires as to the essential underpinning concepts of biological conservation. Identifies 45 biological concepts as contributing to a good understanding of conservation management with the teachers emphasizing ecological concepts at the expense of fundamental…

Describes a study involving decision making and argumentation in the context of wetland environmental management by 11th grade students. Focuses on knowledge and skills needed to reach a decision in socio-scientific contexts and to identify them in classroom discourse. Explores using relevant knowledge to understand and make decisions about a…

Investigates small focus groups of teachers' preferences to integrate the topic of global climate change (GCC) into their science courses for 14-16-year-old students. Reports that science teachers preferred to maintain the integrity of the subject rather than be involved in extensive interdisciplinary teaching. (Contains 25 references.)…

Discusses the history of the relationship between science education and environmental education in Australian and international contexts and suggests that--given the on-going resistance to environmental education in schools, the static nature of science education practices, and declining student interest in studying traditional science…

Appraises a number of approaches to 'thinking globally' in environmental education with particular reference to popular assumptions about the universal applicability of Western science. Suggests that the contribution of Western science to understanding and resolving environmental problems might be enhanced by seeing it as one among many local…

Draws on the experience of the Pan-Canadian science curriculum development process as an example of the more general problem of integrating science and environmental education. Transforming structures and processes of school science to enable different teacher and student roles involves closing the gap between curriculum development and…

Describes the aims and structure of the Science Teacher Training in an Information Society (STTIS) project and sets the work reported in this issue of the journal in the context of the whole project. The project addressed general questions and challenges that the Information Society posed to science educators. (Author/MM)

Describes a study in which secondary school students were called upon to read and interpret documents containing images of real-time kinematics graphs specially designed to address common learning problems and minimize iconic difficulties. Makes suggestions regarding the acquisition of some specific capabilities that are needed to avoid…

Outlines the findings of the Science Teacher Training in an Information Society (STTIS) project concerned with describing the possible difficulties pupils have when reading science textbook pictures on energy. Concludes that reading science textbook pictures is not trivial for pupils and that teachers need to spend time and effort talking through…

Focuses on images of energy that may help to construct key scientific concepts. Analyzes interpretations given by students of documents containing images evoking ideas that are seldom visually explained within a theoretical semiotic frame. Confirms the utility of this frame and suggests some abilities needed for students to correctly interpret…

Focuses on difficulties students have in reading images and understanding a particular domain; e.g., optics and color. Concentrates on the extent to which teachers were conscious of such difficulties and what they suggested doing to avoid possible pitfalls. (Author/MM)

Compares the results of four studies made under the auspices of the Science Teacher Training in an Information Society (STTIS) project researching the difficulties students have in reading images. The studies are compared under such categories as pre-eminence of narrative readings, real-world versus symbolic elements, verbal elements, and…

Presents results of two teaching experiments at university level each involving five students. Attempts in the experiments to build on students' forms of energy language as well as to challenge its limitations. Describes student and teacher reasoning. Concludes that forms of energy language must be reformulated before it can be evaluated with…

Investigates the balance of scientific literacy themes in the Lebanese science curriculum in an attempt to determine whether or not this curriculum has the potential to prepare scientifically literate citizens. The Lebanese curriculum emphasizes the knowledge of science, investigative nature of science, and interactions of science, technology, and…