The third of the eight Millennium Development Goals is to promote gender equality and empower women. This article discusses the factors that are associated with 31 female higher education students' choices and aspirations to pursue education and careers in mathematics and science-related fields. The analysis is based on semistructured interviews.…

This text offers an educational perspective on the challenges surrounding the implementation of integration (and interdisciplinarity) of mathematics and sciences and technology (M-S&T) in education and in the initial training of secondary school teachers. We find that the core nature of scientific and school disciplines in initial teacher…

Analyzes provincial trends in gender-differentiated participation and performance of students in technology-intensive courses in British Columbia public secondary education at a time in Canadian history when competence and confidence with a range of technologies are essential for full cultural participation. Represents a step towards the…

Sketches out the argumentative strategies used by three 17-year-old boys to interpret the disagreement presented to them. Shows that they were inclined to adduce current ideas about science--framed according to a realist, empiricist epistemology--but that there are grounds for thinking that high school students would be capable of actualizing…

Investigates the effects of inquiry activities on a dynamic geometry environment designed to confront students with contradictions and uncertainties. Characterizes epistemological, didactic, and cognitive aspects of the activities. Analyzes the interplay among these three aspects, students' investigations, and their explanations. (Author/KHR)

Introduces the project "Rekindling Traditions" which illustrates one modest way of addressing the underrepresentation of Aboriginal people in careers related to science, a situation that arises from a colonial type of science education. Integrates Western science content into a local community's Aboriginal Science. (Contains 85 references.)…

Explains a proposal for society to be the driver for scientific literacy and the need to understand the roots of persistent difficulty in incorporating useful knowledge into the secondary school curriculum. Discusses changes taking place in the economy, the idea of enlisting industry as an ally to legitimate alternative forms of knowledge, and…

Provides a brief overview of Canada as a country, education in Canada, and the study of technology in Canada at the secondary school level. Examines courses offered under the name of technology and considers the question of making the study of technology a requirement for secondary school graduation. (Author/KHR)

Describes technology education on a province-by-province basis. Groups various approaches to technology education into three categories and summarizes them. Provides illustrative examples and focuses on the objectives of the curriculum, the way the content of the program is structured, and recent developments. (Author/KHR)

Discusses the importance of classroom-based research on student learning in technology and ways in which this learning can be enhanced. Describes some fruitful areas of classroom-based research that could inform technology curriculum development. (Author/KHR)

Presents tools for objectifying technological education as it has been approached in the form of disciplines for French children ages 11-15 since 1960. Characterizes provisionally stabilized disciplines and identifies their historical development. Identifies four distinct methods that give evidence of the instability affecting the framework of…

Clarifies the goals of technology education from a political perspective. Presents founding program choices of the discipline and teaching method problems involved in constructing the discipline. Outlines reflections on the idea of curricular matrices and points out the necessity for some re-examinations of curriculum theory. (Author/KHR)

Demonstrates the case of technology education in British Colombia and discusses its invulnerability of teachers to curriculum reform. Draws on historical and survey data related to school practices and Ministry of Education enrollment data disaggregated by sex. Casts these data into a politics of curriculum framework informed by the work of…

Reports on the third of a line of investigations that examine pre-service teachers' conceptions of nature of science (NOS) and the translation of those conceptions into classroom practice. Delineates the effectiveness of an intervention designed to facilitate pre-service teachers' inclusion of NOS in their classroom teaching. (Author/MM)

Addresses some of the problems inherent both in traditional didactic science teaching and in approaches based on theories of conceptual change. Argues for helping students to acquire a better understanding of science (through an anthropological approach) and a better understanding of themselves as learners and science initiates. (Author/MM)