Course Information
This course provides opportunities to explore conceptual and methodological approaches to current research issues in science education. We will take the view that we learn about science through a variety of activities in and across many different sites, settings, and media. Research methods need to be combined and adapted to explore how we learn in classrooms and community settings, through language, visual representations, and multimedia. Among the sites of science learning we will consider are classrooms, school laboratories, fieldsite visits, science museums, online environments, and community institutions.
Because other courses (ED 750, ED 832, ED 833) focus on general learning theories, research on teaching, and technology in science education, we will consider these areas mainly as they relate to our central focus on science learning across sites, activities, and media. We will also focus on issues of how to design and conduct research across these different sites and media, and consider what the most important issues are for understanding science learning in each, looking at what is characteristic and distinctive about them.
Students will be encouraged to identify a type of setting, characteristic activity, and medium of learning or combination of media, and to outline applicable research questions and research methods to investigate them.
All readings will be made available in a CoursePack and/or online.
Outline of Topics and Readings