Synopses & Reviews
Researchers agree that schools construct a particular image of science, in which some characteristics are featured while others end up in oblivion. The result is that although most children are likely to be familiar with images of heroic scientists such as Einstein and Darwin, they rarely learn about the messy, day-to-day practice of science in which scientists are ordinary humans. Surprisingly, the process by which this imagination of science in education occurs has rarely been theorized. This is all the more remarkable since great thinkers tend to agree that the formation of images -- imagination -- is at the root of how human beings modify their material world. Hence this process in school science is fundamental to the way in which scientists, being the successful agents in/of science education, actually create their own scientific enterprise once they take up their professional life. One of the first to examine the topic, this book takes a theoretical approach to understanding the process of imagining science in education. The authors utilize a number of interpretive studies in both science and science education to describe and contrast two opposing forces in the imagination of science in education: epicization and novelization. Currently, they argue, the imagination of science in education is dominated by epicization, which provides an absolute past of scientific heroes and peak discoveries. This opens a distance between students and today's scientific enterprises, and contrasts sharply with the wider aim of science education to bring the actual world of science closer to students. To better understand how to reach this aim, the authors offer a detailed look at novelization, which is a continuous renewal of narratives that derives from dialogical interaction. The book brings together two hitherto separate fields of research in science education: psychologically informed research on students' images of science and semiotically informed research on images of science in textbooks. Drawing on a series of studies in which children participate in the imagination of science in and out of the classroom, the authors show how the process of novelization actually occurs in the practice of education and outline the various images of science this process ultimately yields.
Synopsis
Preface.- INTRODUCTION: Imagination, Epicization, and Novelization in Science Education.- PART I: EPICS OF SCIENCE IN SCIENCE EDUCATION.- 1. The Heroes of Science.- 2. What Scientific Heroes Are (Not) Doing.- PART II: A NEED FOR NOVELIZED IMAGES OF SCIENCE.- 3. Science as One Form of Human Knowing.- 4. Science as Dynamic Practice.- PART III: TOWARD NOVELIZATION IN/OF SCIENCE EDUCATION.- 5. Scientific Literacy in the Wild.- 6. Translations of Scientific Practice.- 7. Place and Chronotope.- PART IV: NOVELIZING DISCOURSE IN SCIENCE EDUCATION.- 8. Science Education for Sustainable Development.- 9. Novelizing Native and Scientific Discourse.- 10. Fullness of Life as a Minimal Novelizing Unit.- CODA: Novelizing the Novelized Image of Science in Education.- References.- Index.
Synopsis
One major aim of science education is to introduce students to the natural sciences. This aim is reflected in the literal images of science in textbooks and curriculum materials featuring scientists, their instruments, their modes of communication (e.g., graphs), and their objects of study. Despite massive research on the representation of science process versus science content, it remains problematic for science educators to counter the static image of science. Remarkably, previous research on images of science in science education has not yet taken a close look on imagination as a sociocultural process. The big idea of this book is to do so through the lens of Bakhtin's literary theory on imagination. Accordingly, the novel is the only developing genre, which, for Bakhtin, derives from the fact that it is dialogical. It is a genre-in-the-making, and, for this reason, an appropriate means to represent science-in-the-making. The epic, for Bakhtin, is a genre that is well defined and finished. It is appropriate for presenting heroic stories.
Synopsis
This book shows in detail how in textbooks and other curriculum materials epics of science are constructed. In this process the heroes of science emerge in monologic manner backed up by variety of textual and graphical resources. Scrutinizing science education through this lens, in turn, opens up a need for a different pedagogy, one that allows students to participate themselves in the construction of images of the natural sciences. The resulting kind of science education is dialogic, that is, full of tensions and contradictions that are characteristic of novels. As a result, the emerging discourse about science is novelizing rather than epicizing. It reflects a dialogic imagination of science yielding what we may call novelized images of science. Such images of science are reflecting today's natural sciences by allowing students to become part of their construction process and, in turn, to create spaces where the natural sciences become part of students' daily life. Accordingly, this book paves new ground for introducing students to the natural sciences through novelized images of science. As such, this book is a resource for both researchers and educators who have a stake in rethinking science education in ways that matter to the lives of students in today's knowledge societies.
Synopsis
This book offers a theoretical examination of the process of imagining science in education, describing the opposing concepts of epicization and novelization. The authors argue that novelization can help bring the working world of science alive for students.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Imagination, Epicization, and Novelization in Science Education Part A: