This paper provides a systematic review of instruments that have the potential to measure the quality of project-based science and technology (S&T) learning environments in elementary school. To this end, a comprehensive literature search was undertaken for the large field of S&T learning environments. We conducted a horizontal bottom-up…

Over the last two decades, science educators and science education researchers have grown increasingly interested in utilising insights from the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) to inform their work and research. To date, researchers in science education have focused on two applications: results of sociological studies of science have been…

Contemporary policy statements from government and reforms to science curricula in schools emphasise the importance of educating a scientifically literate public for democratic participation in science and technology. While such an aspiration is seemingly uncontentious and appears consistent with progressive educational thinking, the reality of…

In this paper I consider a role for risk understanding in school science education. Grounds for this role are described in terms of current sociological analyses of the contemporary world as a "risk society" and recent public understanding of science studies where science and risk are concerns commonly linked within the wider community. These…

This article surveys historical scholarship on science education over the last 15 years and lays out a map of the different approaches to writing about this topic found in a variety of disciplines and fields. The hope is to provide scholars interested in science education past and present a better understanding of how this enterprise has…

The first section of this article examines a range of definitions of biotechnology. This analysis demonstrates that teachers' choices will determine their view of biotechnology, as positioned along a traditional-modern, axis, and provides examples of the tensions that these differing positions create. A further section argues that in order for…

Addresses the need for a public understanding of science. Presents both an historical perspective and a current view of the public's understanding of science. Reviews international examples of adult science programs and discusses the need for adult scientific literacy. (ML)

Provides a review of the range of innovative science activities in India. Points out some of the parallels with science and science education issues in India and in other countries. Offers perspectives on the state of nonformal science for the public and reforms of science in the schools of India. (ML)

Reconceptualizes a cultural perspective for science education that offers an account of life in a science classroom by characterizing students' experiences as crossing borders between subcultures. Contains 160 references. (DDR)

Reviews the history of Studies in Science Education and critiques the role of this journal from a personal perspective as well as from knowledge of the Australian context for science education. Discusses directions for the future. Contains 30 references. (DDR)

Reports research based on the scientific issues of a claim of missing matter in the universe and a possible link between injections of vitamin K into newborn babies and the subsequent development of childhood cancer. Contains 64 references. (DDR)

Illustrates various aspects of science studies that might be of interest to science educators. Discusses science and technology studies, science education, manufacture of knowledge, representation practices, and theory and method. Concludes that working across the current boundaries would help establish forms of discourse that allow for continuous…

Argues that "connective specialization" could be the basis for a science curriculum that would provide people with the capabilities they will need throughout their working lives in the next century. Claims that science teachers need to see science in its relationship to other subjects and fields of study and that they must initiate…

Describes British teenagers' (n=138) knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes toward biotechnology with particular reference to food production. Concludes that more than half the teenagers were familiar with the term "biotechnology," but most lacked detailed knowledge of the subject. Teens rated formal schooling in science as an important…

Discusses the development of a science curriculum that will enable students to apply what they have learned to the problems inherent to their generation as times and technologies change. Focuses on students still in school, trainees and workers in industry, and adults. (CCM)