Presents and recommends the rationale for a primary science curriculum characterized by reduced content, breadth and balance, and a focus on investigative activities. Contains 128 references. (DDR)

Traces the curriculum changes in science in junior technical schools in the 1960s. Focuses on one episode of curriculum change to illustrate how curriculum and cultural change are mediated by educational actors who employ the rhetorics and reforms which emanate from their society to pursue agendas within their workplace and locality. Contains 52…

Uses teachers' autobiographies and action research as data sources to present an argument for valuing subjective, reflective knowledge based on Habermas's category of cognitive interest of emancipatory knowing. Explores the process of personal empowerment and proposes a model of change that includes disturbance, alternatives, confidence, and…

Explores the extent to which environmental and social issues related to technology are being addressed in the teaching of technology studies. Describes the development of an instrument designed to measure teachers' attitudes towards environmental and societal issues and investigate the extent to which such issues are actually taught in practice.…

Discusses some of the available frameworks for the pedagogical analysis of school science textbooks. Discusses three approaches to the analysis of science textbooks: the sociocognitive, the sociolinguistic, and the socioepistemic. Considers the relative merits of the third approach using some examples from Greek science textbooks. Contains 18…

Explores the development of partnerships in science teacher education as an example of the workings of the human element in the teacher education process. Concludes that the success of new experiments with partnership will depend ultimately upon the success of the human rather than the structural relationships established. Contains 39 references.…

Explores the congruence of Palestine science teachers' beliefs about knowledge and learning with the recent constructivist/conceptual change epistemological basis of science education and the factors that influence these beliefs. Results indicate that only a small percentage of Palestinian teachers subscribe to the recent views of learning and…

Investigates the relationship between students' views of the nature of scientific knowledge and their own learning of physics, and the evolution of this relationship over time. Uses two intensive case studies to illustrate students' views over time. Discusses the changes in students' views concerning the nature of scientific knowledge and the…

Examines how chemistry/science textbooks from different countries and written at different levels of education deal with physical and chemical change. Results indicate that the ideas concerning the teaching and learning of physical and chemical change evident in textbooks are not complete and textbooks seldom justify the content they cover in…

Reports on a study that investigated the impact of a science teaching and learning program on families of children attending an Australian child care center. Findings indicate that science-based discussions in everyday family contexts were common among families during the program and that parents gained greater insights into specific aspects of…

Outlines the background of the curriculum development work in Aotearoa, New Zealand, with respect to the indigenous Maori people and science education. Expresses concern about the fitting of one cultural framework into another and raises questions about the approach used in the development of the science curriculum. Discusses implications for…

Examines relationships between structural characteristics of students' concept maps about chemical equilibrium and independent measures of their achievement in chemistry. Results indicate significant relationships between multidimensional scaling coordinates and test scores of recall of knowledge and its application and also reveal structural…

Describes a project in which discussions were held between agriculturalists and elementary teachers in order to provide an opportunity for the participants to examine the ways in which science is developed and used in an occupational context integral to the community. Examines the views of science and school science expressed by the participants.…

Analyzes Australian students' public and private statements to themselves and their peers collected in the course of a multiyear study of teacher management of communication in cooperative learning groups. Data reflect how students perceived and responded to subtle features in the public enactment of the curriculum, the task, and the setting…

Evaluates the introduction of in-class cooperative learning in a large lecture college physics sequence. Results indicate that cooperative learning sessions helped the students achieve at a higher level than expected. Concludes that in-class cooperative learning addressed student concerns about the learning environment and was perceived as an…