Research in Science Teaching and Learning: A Human Constructivist View

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the nature of research efforts in science education and how research can contribute to the improvement of classroom practice. The 20-year period following the launch of Sputnik saw remarkable change in research activities of science educators. The establishment of the first journal that was entirely devoted to research reports in the field and the rapid expansion of graduate programs producing M.S. and Ph.D. recipients with the research skills necessary to tackle significant problems in science teaching and learning were among the most important events in 1963. After reviewing the research reports of this era, one is struck by the extent to which empirical work was driven by the demands of curriculum reform and instructional innovation. These in turn reflected the national commitment to “catch up”with Soviet advances in the military, technological, and scientific arenas. In contrast to the assumptions of many science teachers, it is now clear that learners develop a set of well-defined ideas about natural objects and events even before they arrive at the classroom door.

[1]  J. Mintzes,et al.  Understanding cellular respiration: An analysis of conceptual change in college biology , 1994 .

[2]  Joseph D. Novak,et al.  Learning How to Learn , 1984 .

[3]  M. G. Jones,et al.  The concept map as a research and evaluation tool: Further evidence of validity , 1994 .

[4]  Joel J. Mintzes,et al.  Naive Theories in Biology: Children's Concepts of the Human Body. , 1984 .

[5]  J. Minstrell.  Explaining the ’’at rest’’ condition of an object , 1982 .

[6]  S. Cole.  Making Science: Between Nature and Society , 1992 .

[7]  Joseph D. Novak,et al.  A theory of education , 1977 .

[8]  Joseph D. Novak.  A Summary of Research in Science Education - 1972. , 1973 .

[9]  John J. Clement,et al.  A conceptual model discussed by Galileo and used intuitively by physics students , 1983 .

[10]  H. Gardner.  The mind's new science: a history of the cognitive revolution , 1985 .

[11]  M. Chi,et al.  The Nature of Expertise , 1988 .

[12]  R. Driver,et al.  Pupils and Paradigms: a Review of Literature Related to Concept Development in Adolescent Science Students , 1978 .

[13]  G. Hunter,et al.  Science sequence and enrollments in the secondary schools of the United States , 1941 .

[14]  Mike U. Smith.  Knowledge Structures and the Nature of Expertise in Classical Genetics , 1990 .

[15]  J. Novak,et al.  The interplay of scientific epistemological views, learning strategies, and attitudes of college students , 1993 .

[16]  Joseph Nussbaum,et al.  Pupils' understanding of the particulate nature of matter: A cross‐age study , 1981 .

[17]  James H. Wandersee,et al.  Identifying Critical Junctures in Learning in a College Course on Evolution. , 2007 .

[18]  Mary W. Arnaudin,et al.  Biology from the Learner's Viewpoint: A Content Analysis of the Research Literature. , 1989 .

[19]  J. Novak,et al.  Educational Psychology: A Cognitive View , 1969 .

[20]  T. Kuhn,et al.  The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. , 1964 .

[21]  Mary W. Arnaudin,et al.  What Research Says: The Cardiovascular System: Children's Conceptions and Misconceptions. , 1986 .

[22]  D. Ausubel.  The psychology of meaningful verbal learning. , 1963 .

[23]  W. G. Perry.  Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years: A Scheme. Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series. , 1970 .

[24]  S. Engel.  Thought and Language , 1964 .

[25]  J. Darrell Barnard,et al.  The lecture‐demonstration versus the problem‐solving method of teaching a college science course , 1942 .

[26]  J. Novak,et al.  A Twelve-Year Longitudinal Study of Science Concept Learning , 1991 .

[27]  Joel J. Mintzes,et al.  Students' alternative conceptions of the human circulatory system: A cross-age study , 1985 .

[28]  J. Mintzes,et al.  The concept map as a research tool: Exploring conceptual change in biology , 1990 .

[29]  Joseph Nussbaum,et al.  Junior high school pupils' understanding of the particulate nature of matter: An interview study , 1978 .

[30]  Francis D. Curtis,et al.  Book Review: Second Digest of Investigations in the Teaching of Science , 1931 .

[31]  J. Mintzes.  The A-T Approach 14 Years Later-- A Review of Recent Research. , 1975 .

[32]  J. Novak,et al.  An assessment of children's concepts of the earth utilizing structured interviews , 1976 .

[33]  L. Taylor.  SCIENCE IN GENERAL EDUCATION AT THE COLLEGE LEVEL. , 1940, Science.

[34]  Frederick Thomas Howard.  Complexity of Mental Processes in Science Testing , 1943 .

[35]  E. Glasersfeld.  Cognition, Construction of Knowledge, and Teaching , 1989 .

[36]  J. Novak.  Learning Theory Applied to the Biology Classroom , 1980 .

[37]  Stephen Toulmin,et al.  Human Understanding, Volume I: The Collective Use and Evolution of Concepts , 1977 .

[38]  James H. Wandersee,et al.  Meaningful Learning in Science , 1997 .

[39]  ‘‘Aristotelian’’ was given as the answer, but what was the question? , 1985 .

[40]  J. Mintzes,et al.  Knowledge restructuring in the life sciences: A longitudinal study of conceptual change in biology , 1997 .