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Author(s): Vazquez-Manassero, Margarita-Ana; Manassero-Mas, Maria-Antonia; Vazquez-Alonso, Angel | Abstract: An interdisciplinary approach to science education through history of art is proposed. The approach is innovative, as the artworks complement the history, philosophy and sociology of science contents to increase students’ interest and motivation. The approach integrates humanities and science education through history of art, which request interdisciplinary cooperation of the teachers of the school subjects involved with historical curriculum contents. The approach is elaborated through the case of Galileo's telescope, which provides specific features on the relationships between science and technology (scientific instrumentation applied to generate knowledge), nature of science, and science-technology-society relationships, where history and art meet each other. Further, history of art contributes some contemporary artworks on Galileo case that highlight all those relationships. The explicitness, perception, beauty and accessibility of the paintings may also be a key element to develop teachers’ and students’ interest and motivation in teaching and learning science through its integration with history of art. Finally, the interdisciplinary educational approach develops a teaching-learning sequence on the basis of Galileo's telescope to guide teaching the issue in science education through history of art. This didactic exemplification elaborates some aims, contents, resources and activities throughout the human, social, philosophical, artistic, scientific and historical aspects involved in the case of Galileo that teachers must adapt to specific subjects, degree and students.n

Science education researchers agree that meta-knowledge about science or nature of science (NoS) is a constitutive and relevant component of scientific literacy for all. This basic agreement contrasts with the important controversy about the most appropriate contents to represent NoS in the school curriculum, between the "consensus view" (so called in the literature), and its critics, who consider it an impoverishing reductionism, and propose broader conceptualizations. Starting from the three-world philosophical model about science, this study elaborates a conceptualization that allows to generate and justify the epistemic and non-epistemic interdisciplinary meta-knowledge about science from the conceptual model, assuming the consensus view and itscriticisms. From this framework, a flexible and open taxonomy is proposed, whose justification arises from its functionality to encompass the emergent categories of the conceptual model, as well as the previous proposalsfrom different authors. The taxonomy is organized through four basic aspects, each displaying multiple specific themes and sub-themes, articulated in a flexible and open way to admit new extensions and to facilitate the non-specialists, especially science teachers, easy understanding of the curriculum meta-cognitive contents., Los investigadores en didáctica de la ciencia coinciden en que los meta-conocimientos acerca de la ciencia o naturaleza de la ciencia (NdC) son un componente constitutivo y relevante de la alfabetización científica para todos. Este acuerdo básico contrasta con la importante controversia acerca de los contenidos más apropiados para representar NdC en el currículo escolar, entre la "visión de consenso", (así denominada en la literatura), y sus críticos, que la consideran un reduccionismo empobrecedor, y proponen conceptualizacionesmás amplias. Partiendo del modelo filosófico de los tres mundos sobre la ciencia, este estudio elabora una conceptualización sobre los meta-conocimientos interdisciplinarios de NdC, epistémicos y no epistémicos, que permite generar y justificar esos conocimientos de forma natural desde el modelo conceptual, e incorpora la visión de consenso y sus críticas. Desde este marco, se propone una taxonomía flexible y abierta, cuya justificación surge de su funcionalidad para englobar las categorías emergentes del modelo conceptual, así como las diversas propuestas anteriores de distintos autores. La taxonomía está formada por cuatro aspectos básicos,cada uno con múltiples temas y subtemas específicos, articulados de forma flexible y abierta para admitir nueva sextensiones y facilitar a los no especialistas, especialmente el profesorado de ciencias, una fácil comprensión de los contenidos meta-cognitivos del currículo.

The research tradition of critical thinking tests usually focuses on assessing a few thinking skills. Our assessment instruments for elementary students called "Challenges of thinking" evaluate the following thinking skills: classification, problem solving and logical reasoning. This instrument adopts a free-culture orientation, which means that the elaboration of the answers does not entails any prerequisites or specific knowledge of school curriculum. In particular, the instrument avoids the use of numbers and mathematical operations, which is a very frequent resource in the evaluation of thinking skills. Further, the items’ cognitive demand to achieve the correct answer focuses on each specific skill through presenting students’ authentic cognitive challenges for thinking, which relies on basic comprehension of short and simple texts and pictures and is independent of requirement or prior knowledge. Summing up, the design and content of assessment items meet the following criteria: • pose a thinking challenge, whose achievement is motivating or challenging for students. • the cognitive demand focuses at eliciting the skill which is designed for, and • the contents are easily readable, understandable, adequate and interesting for the age of the target students This paper aims to analyze the results of five items with a short-text and figurative format that were answered by grade-5 and grade-6 primary students to assess the impact of the improvement of the learning of thinking skills during a school year education, and for boys and girls. The research questions are: - How much does the learning of thinking skills improve in the final year of primary education? - How much does the boys’ and girls’ learning of thinking skills improve in the final year of primary education? To answer the research questions a sample of students enrolled in grades 5 and 6 answered the same five items that were anchored in the tests applied to both grades. The assessed thinking skills through the five questions are: classification (2 items), problem solving (1) and logical reasoning (2). The first item on classification has three questions to answer, while the remaining items display just one question. The dependent variables are thinking, defined as the sum of scores across all questions (range 0-7 points) and the single thinking skills, namely, classification (0-4 points), problem solving (0-1 point) and logical reasoning (0- 2 points). The comparisons of the scores will be evaluated using the statistical effect size, which will be computed to compare the following variables: grade (grade 5 vs. grade 6) and boys vs. girls, along each of the dependent variables. The work is now in process, looking for the results will be achieved to be presented in the final paper and at the conference, together with the assessment instruments.

Este estudio afronta el problema educativo de formar al profesorado de ciencias sobre cuestiones innovadoras de la enseñanza de la ciencia como son los temas de naturaleza de la ciencia y la tecnología, es decir, las cuestiones acerca de cómo la ciencia y la tecnología (CyT) validan su conocimiento y sus prácticas y cómo funcionan en el mundo actual. Se presenta el análisis del caso de un profesor en el máster de formación inicial de secundaria después de unas actividades de aprendizaje explícitas, reflexivas, basadas en el conocimiento didáctico del contenido acerca de la toma de decisiones científicas en investigaciones. Los efectos de la formación se evalúan a través de una metodología casi-experimental mediante un diseño pre- post-test que aplica un instrumento de evaluación estandarizado. Los resultados presentan los aspectos específicos donde el profesor mejoró más su comprensión, así como las reflexiones personales y las justificaciones cualitativas realizadas acerca de las respuestas y de los cambios producidos en su comprensión del tema. Finalmente, se discute la viabilidad y la generalización del modelo de formación inicial propuesto para el profesorado de ciencias.

This paper describes Spanish science teachers’ thinking about issues concerning the nature of science (NOS) and the relationships connecting science, technology, and society (STS). The sample consisted of 774 in-service and pre-service teachers. The participants responded to a selection of items from the Questionnaire of Opinions on Science, Technology & Society in a multiple response model. These data were processed to generate the invariant indices that are used as the bases for subsequent quantitative and qualitative analyses. The overall results reflect moderately informed conceptions, and a detailed analysis by items, categories, and positions reveals a range of positive and negative conceptions about the topics of NOS dealt with in the questionnaire items. The implications of the findings for teaching and teacher training on the themes of NOS are discussed.

The Relevance of Science Education project (ROSE) is an international comparative questionnaire-based programme of research that explores a range of affective factors of school science education from the perspective of learners. The project is aimed to know the learners’ views and perceptions which are relevant and necessary conditions for effective science education. The data reported here derive from the application of four ROSE questionnaires: My opinions about science and technology, My science classes, Me and the environmental challenges, and My future job. The results on these affective topics display a general positive attitude on science and environment, a clear reject of science and technology jobs, a prevalent self-actualization orientation on a future job, and some significant gender differences, as well as many other details. Keywords. Attitude evaluation, scientific and technological education, gender differences, image of science, attitudes toward the school science, environmental attitudes, job expectations., La relevancia de la educación científica (ROSE) es un programa internacional de investigación comparativa basado en un cuestionario que explora los factores afectivos de la educación científica desde la perspectiva de los que aprenden. El proyecto pretende conocer las opiniones y percepciones que constituyan condiciones relevantes y necesarias para un aprendizaje eficaz de las ciencias. Los datos expuestos proceden de cuatro escalas ROSE: mis opiniones sobre la ciencia y tecnología, mis clases de ciencias, los desafíos medioambientales y mi trabajo futuro. Los resultados en estos temas afectivos muestran una actitud positiva general hacia la ciencia y el medio ambiente, un rechazo claro de los trabajos de ciencia y de tecnología, una orientación principal hacia un trabajo futuro que ofrezca la autoactualización y diferencias de género significativas, así como otros detalles.

El curriculo, los materiales didacticos y las practicas de ensenanza y aprendizaje de la educacion cientifica tradicional abusan de los dos factores epistemicos sugeridos por el positivismo logico, la referencia empirica y el razonamiento logico, junto con su epitome el lenguaje matematico, que sostienen la verdad y la objetividad como valores esenciales de la ciencia. La consecuencia mas notable de esta abusiva orientacion positivista es la exclusion de otros valores incompatibles con ellos (factores sociales, culturales o afectivos), tildados como impropios o acientificos por oponerse a la objetividad de la ciencia, aunque sean didacticamente valiosos. Sin embargo, los analisis y las criticas filosoficas, sociologicas e historicas sobre el positivismo logico han enfatizado la presencia de los aspectos afectivos, actitudinales y emocionales, entre otros mas, en la construccion del conocimiento cientifico. Este estudio argumenta la necesidad de los factores actitudinales y afectivos como resortes imprescindibles para la didactica de la ciencia. En esta primera parte se revisan los argumentos de caracter didactico general y los retos actuales que tiene planteados la educacion cientifica a causa de la exclusion de los factores afectivos.Palabras claves: educacion cientifica; educacion emocional; motivacion; alfabetizacion cientifica y tecnologica; actitudes relacionadas con ciencia y tecnologia; naturaleza de la ciencia.In defence of the attitudes and emotions in science education (I): general evidences and argumentsThe traditional school science and technology curriculum, school textbooks and teaching and learning classroom practices abusively uses the two logical positivist epistemic factors, the empiric reference and the logical reasoning, together with its epitome the mathematical language, which sustain the truth and objectivity as if they were the essential values of science. This abusive domain of the epistemic factors produces a main remarkable consequence on science teaching: the exclusion of all those educational features that oppose them, such as the social, cultural or affective features of science and technology, as they are considered inappropriate, non-scientific and incompatible with the objectivity of science, though they may be educationally valuable. However, the multiple criticisms on logical positivism coming from the philosophical, sociological and historical analyses of science have highlighted the presence of the affective, attitudinal and emotional aspects, among others, on the construction of scientific knowledge. This paper argues for the recovering of the attitudinal and affective aspects as vital resources in science teaching and learning. This first part of the paper reviews the evidences and arguments coming from the general education and the current challenges that tackle science education, because of the neglect of affective factors.Keywords: school science; emotional education; motivation; scientific and technological literacy; attitudes to science and technology; nature of science.

Teachers’ educational beliefs are important because beliefs influence and guide teaching behavior and decisions within classrooms. In the case of science education, the role of beliefs is much more demanding, as science consists of a vast array of knowledge components (facts, laws and theories), but also an innovative and interdisciplinary set of historical, social and epistemological components that deeply permeate the former (contents “about” science).

In the last decades, a great amount of research has advocated innovating science education through teaching contents of the history, sociology, and philosophy of science in order for the students to get a reliable image of science, significant and relevant learning experiences, and higher interest and engagement in science. Given the embeddedness of techno-scientific systems in contemporary societies, the science-technology-society (STS) movement suggested the simple initiative of teaching science through making explicit the interrelationships between science, scientists, technology, and society to achieve these aims. Since then, the STS tradition has evolved and produced some conceptual variations. This paper deals with three of these variations that are currently the key areas of school science education research and teaching: “socio-scientific issues,” “scientific literacy for all,” and “nature of science.” As heirs of the STS tradition, these mottos embody, at the same time, a clear continuity with STS origins, and some discontinuities, which arise from the development of their own paradigms, adding original elements to the STS movement.

This study assesses teachers’ understanding of the science-technology-society (STS) and nature of science (NOS) issues in a large sample of secondary and high-school science teachers, encompassing preservice and in-service teachers. The teachers anonymously answered 15 pencil-and-paper items, whose responses were scaled through a new procedure into a set of invariant homogeneous indices. The overall results show globally neutral index scores, and the detailed examination of indices allowed the strengths and weaknesses of teachers’ beliefs to be identified. Unlike other studies, the picture emerging from the data about teachers’ understanding is more complex than the roughly negative profile usually emphasized in the literature, since appropriate beliefs coexist with some inappropriate beliefs. The comparison between preservice and in-service science teachers shows they do not significantly differ; thus, teaching experience is not decisive for the improvement of teachers’ understanding. The implications of the methodology and results for research, teacher training, and teaching of the nature of science and technology issues are discussed. The overall evaluation is essentially negative, because science teachers should exhibit better understanding of these issues since they directly affect their teaching practice. The results highlight the urgent need to bring science teachers up to date through training on the development of teaching STS-NOS topics in science curricula, as a means to improve the overall science teaching.

Resumen basado en el de la publicaión Resumen en inglés Se parte de informes anteriores sobre actitudes relacionadas con la ciencia y los principales logros y contribuciones a esta área a lo largo de las últimas décadas. El núcleo de las reflexiones que se revisan aquí: para definir más con más precisión los objetos de actitud en la ciencia, para obtener instrumentos de evaluación más válidos y confiables, los factores y variables correlacionadas con las actitudes, las contribuciones del movimiento Ciencia-Tecnología-Sociedad, y, como marco teórico, la atención a los modelos de actitudes sugeridos por la Psicología Social. Como una síntesis con el objetivo de ayudar a los investigadores y profesores de ciencias, se sugiere aquí una taxonomía de las actitudes relacionadas con la ciencia para mejorar la educación de las actitudes como una herramienta para lograr una alfabetización científica humanista en los estudiantes. ESP

Artificial and natural environments constitute an extensive educational resource in whose framework the basic experiences that contribute to the development process of human beings occur. These experiences are the source of previous knowledge that students bring to school and that are key for building scientific school learning. This article reports the results of a study that addresses out-of-school experiences related to science and technology, through the application of an inventory list to a sample of students who were in their last year of compulsory education. The results show a relatively low overall frequency of experiences, characterized by some qualitative and quantitative differences according to a few grouping variables such as gender, the choice of an elective science subject, and different scientific topics and disciplines. In spite of its importance for learning, the school curriculum often ignores students’ previous experiences. Finally, we discuss the relevance of these results for developing a more equitable science and technology curriculum, from a perspective of a universal, humanistic science education.

The scarce attention to assessment and evaluation in science education research has been especially harmful for Science-Technology-Society (STS) education, due to the dialectic, tentative, value-laden, and controversial nature of most STS topics. To overcome the methodological pitfalls of the STS assessment instruments used in the past, an empirically developed instrument (VOSTS, Views on Science-Technology-Society) have been suggested. Some methodological proposals, namely the multiple response models and the computing of a global attitudinal index, were suggested to improve the item implementation. The final step of these methodological proposals requires the categorization of STS statements. This paper describes the process of categorization through a scaling procedure ruled by a panel of experts, acting as judges, according to the body of knowledge from history, epistemology, and sociology of science. The statement categorization allows for the sound foundation of STS items, which is useful in educational assessment and science education research, and may also increase teachers’ self-confidence in the development of the STS curriculum for science classrooms.

Nota: resumen tomado de la revista Este trabajo estudia las actitudes y creencias de los estudiantes de todas las etapas educacionales sobre algunas características del conocimiento científico. Estas características son la naturaleza de los modelos científicos y los esquemas de clasificación, la provisionalidad en la ciencia, la naturaleza del método científico, la influencia social en el conocimiento científico y las controversias entre la comunidad científica. Los resultados muestran creencias complejas, diferentes y algunas veces contradictorias, e incoherentes. La naturaleza de los esquemas, la provisionalidad, el método y la explicación de los desacuerdos muestran altos ratios de actitudes científicas auténticas y adecuadas, mientras las respuestas sobre los modelos e influencias sociales en la ciencia parecen estar mal formadas. Desde un punto de vista educacional, este estudio ofrece un diagnóstico valorativo de las preconcepciones de los estudiantes que son tema clave para lograr un aprendizaje significativo de las ciencias en las características del conocimiento científico. Tambien se sugiere la necesidad de un profundo trabajo en estos aspectos en la escuela, así como un instrumento para alcanzar al alfabetización científica. Cataluña ESP