Having performed research using approaches to learning and studying inventories and become familiar with the concepts they purport to measure, the authors were concerned that existing inventories might not capture the full range of "intentions" and "motivations" for learning that exist within populations of medical students. We used…

Health professions education is dealing with major transformations in light of the changing nature of the health care delivery system, including the use of technology for "just in time" delivery of care, evidence-based practice, personalized medical care and learning, as health professionals strive to integrate biomedical advances and clinical…

Patients' receptivity towards medical student participation has been examined predominantly from the patient and/or the medical student perspective. Few studies have investigated the preceptor's perspective. The study examined preceptors' experience with patients declining medical student participation in clinical care and identified…

This study explores elementary teachers' social understandings and employment of directives and politeness while facilitating inquiry science lessons prior and subsequent to their participation in a summer institute in which they were introduced to the scholarly literature on regulative discourse (directives used by teachers to regulate student…

Environment and environmental protection are on the forefront of political concerns globally. But how are the media and political discourses concerning these issues mirrored in the public more generally and in the discourses of school science students more specifically? In this study, we analyze the discourse mobilized in whole-class conversations…

We respond to Hwang and Kim and Yeo's critiques of the conceptual continuity framework in science education. First, we address the criticism that their analysis fails to recognize the situated perspective of learning by denying the dichotomy of the formal and informal knowledge as a starting point in the learning process. Second, we address the…

This project explores "conceptual continuity" as a framework for understanding students' native ways of understanding and describing. Conceptual continuity suggests that the relationship between the use of words in one genre and the scientific genre can exist at varying levels of association. This perspective can reveal the varied relationships…

In this response to Reis's and Zuss's responses to our meditation on the grotesque, we attempt to draw distinctions between positivist, empiricist, and realist (including grotesque realist) projects. We also, drawing on Bakhtin, consider the difference between dialogic and dialectic commentary.

What does it mean to understand science? This commentary extends Brown and Kloser's argument on the role of native language for science learning by exploring the meaning of understanding in school science and discusses the extent that science educators could tolerate adulterated forms of scientific knowledge. Taking the perspective of social…

In this rejoinder, I first provide a more detailed account of the discourse-focused professional development activities facilitated as part of the SMIT'N program, specifically addressing issues raised by van Zee with regard to the institute's overall format, goals and development strategies. Next, I resort to Peter Medawar's metaphorical view of…

One of the first places children encounter science and scientists is children's literature. Children's books about science and scientists have, however, received limited scholarly attention. By exploring the history of children's biographies of Marie Curie and Albert Einstein, the two most written about scientist in children's literature, this…

In approaching how the grotesque is--or should be--situated within contemporary science (biology) education practices, Weinstein and Broda undertake a passionate reclaim of an education that is at the same time scientific, critical, and liberatory. However legitimate, their work offers more than they probably could have anticipated: It exemplifies…

We review Brown and Kloser's article, "Conceptual continuity and the science of baseball: using informal science literacy to promote students science learning" from a Vygotskian cultural-historical and dialectic perspective. Brown and Kloser interpret interview data with student baseball players and claim that students' conceptual understanding…

I respond to Zeyer and Roth's ("Cultural Studies of Science Education," 2009) paper on their use of interpretive repertoire analysis to explicate Swiss middle school students' dialogic responses to environmental issues. I focus on the strategy of interpretive repertoire analysis, making sense of the stance Zeyer and Roth take with this analysis by…

I respond to Zeyer and Roth's (2009) "A Mirror of Society" by elaborating on how the idea of interpretive repertoires is grounded by education philosophy and sociology. Vernacular languages are carried forward collectively from individuals who lived during a particular period of time, inculcated as root metaphors, which frame our relationships…