Often characterized by people’s excitement, interest and motivation to engage in activities that promote learning about the natural and physical world, this strand focuses on motivation to learn science, and the emotional engagement, curiosity, and willingness to persevere through complicated scientific ideas and procedures over time. People with an interest in science are likely to be motivated learners, seeking out challenges and difficulty, use effective learning strategies, and make use of feedback to develop their knowledge. Individuals are empowered to make their own choices to become involved in science-based experiences or choices about what subject matter to pursue.
Strand 2: Understanding Science Knowledge
Encompassing content knowledge, science learning includes the use and interpretation of scientific explanations of the natural world. More than discrete facts, learners must understand interrelations between concepts and use them to build and critique scientific arguments.
Strand 3: Engaging in Scientific Reasoning
People learn the knowledge and skills to build and refine models and explanations, design and analyze investigations, and construct and defend arguments with evidence. This also includes recognizing when there is insufficient or inappropriate evidence to draw a conclusion, and determining what kind of additional data are needed.
Strand 4: Reflecting on Science
Understanding that science is a way of knowing, and related to understanding how knowledge is constructed and how ideas change. Scientific knowledge is dynamic as new evidence emerges and theories are reevaluated through a process of social engagement in scientific discourse. For laypeople and scientists alike, this provides a critical stance for an informed citizenry in political debate and public policy.
Strand 5: Engaging in Scientific Practice
Despite the stereotype of the lone scientist, science is largely a social endeavor. Participation in the scientific community requires knowledge of language, tools and core values as scientists come together to achieve a greater understanding of a scientific problem. By participating in opportunities for doing science that allow for exploration, learners in informal settings can develop an appreciation for how scientific progress is made, as well as gain greater facility with the language of science, such as “hypothesis,” “experiment,” and “control.”
Strand 6: Identifying with the Scientific Enterprise
Through experiences in informal environments, people may come to see themselves as capable of doing science, and for young people, considering careers in the STEM fields. For those who do not become professional scientists, it is important that they identify themselves as being comfortable with, knowledgeable about, or interested in science, in order to pursue hobbies, take informed policy positions, or draw on science when it seems to be appropriate. Identity develops over a lifetime, and may fluctuate as more or less salient according to the encounters and environments in which an individual lives.
Goals related to the content, practices and nature of science knowledge are also taught in formal schooling (strands 2-5, above). The LSIE report attempts to recognize affective outcomes (strands 1 and 6) to include fostering interest, excitement, and the development of a personal identity linked to science knowledge. Yet these goals may still not adequately encompass the unique characteristics of ISE, and some argue that there are other outcomes and complexities not reflected within those defined by this committee. Opportunity for deeply looking, thinking, and wondering (Duke, 2010), implications of cultural contexts and personal history (Kisiel & Anderson, 2010), as well as many research and evaluation questions and methodologies (Kisiel & Anderson, 2010; Shouse et al., 2010) are just some of the elements that will need to be further reflected upon within ISE.
Learning Science in Informal Environments: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12190
courtesy of Cathy Regan, Education Director at the Museum of Natural History.
Here are the other books she shared with us:
Gutwill and Allen, Group Inquiry at Science Museum Exhibits, 2010
Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience, 1992. There is a new edition of this that came out in the last couple months.
Fenichel and Schweinbruber, Surrounded by Science, 2010. This is available online - http://www.nap.edu/catalog.
No comments:
Post a Comment