Critiques one widely held idea about sustainable development and advances an approach to thinking about issues of sustainable development and learning, including formal education. This approach employs a metaphor for possible human interactions with non-human nature that is derived from the world of financial management. (Author/MM)

Focuses on the way learning about genetics and evolution raises ideas that pupils and adults should relate to themselves whether what is learned helps reveal what science can and cannot say about human nature. Reviews the impact of informal learning after exploring the role and influence of informal learning channels. (Contains 79 references.)…

Discusses the philosophy of science and education, based on interviews with instructors at Wrigley Corners Outdoor Education Centre (Ontario). Uses hand feeding of chickadees as functional and metaphorical gateway for exploring importance of human contact with nature. Discusses how the personal transformative aspect of outdoor education challenges…

A non-anthropocentric view of humankind's relationship with nature is addressed in these essays which are a part of an ongoing series of working papers on technology. The first essay, "Extremist Conceptions of Man and Nature" by Eric Katz critiques three popular philosophies regarding nature and the environment that are believed to be…

Can science curricula truly cultivate morals and values towards nature? This is the question that is raised by Carolina Castano Rodriguez in her critique of the new Australian Science curriculum. In this response to Castano Rodriguez's paper we ask two questions relating to: the influence of curricula on the relationships of children and other…

Despite a near universal consensus among scientists regarding the perils of climate change for human civilizations, climate change has not emerged as a key issue among science educators. This position paper advocates for the centrality of climate change in science education. Using Polanyi's critique of market in capitalist societies, it positions…

In this commentary, I consider several theoretical and analytical aspects of Tang Wee Teo and Margery Osborne's case study. I begin by identifying structuralist and cultural themes in Tang Wee and Margery's theoretical model of human activity. Next, I offer an alternative interpretation for Tang Wee and Margery's reported findings in terms of the…

This article consists of two parts. The first one is to a large extent a commentary on John R. Staver's "Skepticism, truth as coherence, and constructivist epistemology: grounds for resolving the discord between science and religion?" The second part is a related overview of Islam's philosophy of knowledge and, to a certain degree, science. In…

This article presents the author's response to Hisham B. Ghassib's essay entitled "Where Does Creativity Fit into a Productivist Industrial Model of Knowledge Production?" Professor Ghassib's (2010) essay presents a provocative portrait of how the little science of the Babylonians, Greeks, and Arabs became the Big Science of the modern industrial…

Describes scientific thought as a type of goal-directed behavior and its product and discusses its nature in terms of that goal and means appropriate for achieving it. Discusses the Galilean-Newtonian paradigm, empiricism, the idea that scientific thought has philosophical foundations, and the scientific status of human sciences. (Author/JRH)

Understanding the nature of science is even more important than mastering its details, says Alan Leshner, Chief Executive Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in an interview with Educational Leadership. In this article, Leshner discusses the controversy about teaching evolution, and he asserts that demands to…

Defines the changes in the nature of biology during the past 50 years and relates biology to science education. Argues that biology curriculum should focus on human beings and the realities of life and living. (YDS)

Criticizes Hugh Lacey's use of the term "materialist" when describing materialist strategies used during structuralist explanation in scientific practice. Examines the grounds for supposing an affinity between these strategies and the growing subordination of human values to the attractions of technological transformations of nature.…

Argues that citizens need to recognize that science is a human social activity like any other. Calls for socially responsible science and a public mindful of its strengths and weaknesses. Explores two case studies of public construction of knowledge about controversial health-related issues to illustrate the problematic nature of public…

In this paper I respond to Ajay Sharma's "Portrait of a Science Teacher as a Bricoleur: A case study from India," by speaking to two aspects of the bricoleur: the subject and the discursive in relation to pedagogic perspective. I highlight that our subjectivities are negotiated based on the desires of the similar and competing discourses…