Rethinking Science Education

A volume in Science & Engineering Education SourcesSeries Editor Calvin S. Kalman Concordia UniversityThis book presents a philosophy of science education as a research field as well asits value for curriculum instruction and teacher pedagogy. It seeks to re-think scienceeducation as an educational endeavour by examining why past reform efforts havebeen only partially successful including why the fundamental goal of achievingscientific literacy after several reform waves has proven to be so elusive. Theidentity of such a philosophy is first defined in relation to the fields of philosophyphilosophy of science and philosophy of education. It argues that educational theorycan support teacher's pedagogical content knowledge and that history philosophy andsociology of science should inform and influence pedagogy. Some case studies areprovided which examine the nature of science and the nature of language to illustratewhy and how a philosophy of science education contributes to science education reform. It seeks to contribute in general tothe improvement of curriculum design and science teacher education. The perspective to be taken on board is that to teachscience is to have a philosophical frame of mind-about the subject about education about one's personal teacher identity.