Increasing Engagement and Understanding Using Interactive Planetarium Shows

Despite the popularity of astronomy in first year university, it has lagged behind many other disciplines in implementing modern pedagogical techniques designed to improve student engagement. To address this, over the past several years, the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at our university has employed an Audience Response System, the use of online interaction tools such as Twitter and MSN, the introduction of tutorials which include small-group activities, and the use of a planetarium with which we developed both instructor-led and student-led shows. Our goal in this study was to assess the effectiveness of the overall approach on students’ engagement and understanding, with a specific focus on the use of teaching planetaria. Data was collected using quantitative pre and post test questionnaires at three different stages of the course simultaneously during the tutorial and both types of planetarium shows. We also conducted 5 focus groups with approximately 10 participants in each to evaluate their perspectives on the various learning components of the course and how these influenced their engagement. Although analysis is not complete, quantitative data appears to demonstrate no significant knowledge or understanding differences between the various learning experiences. In focus groups, participants claimed to prefer teacher-directed activities such as class lecture and the tutorial to the student-led planetarium show, although several factors qualified these claims. Results are discussed in the context of literature that theorises contemporary schools are reproducing ‘knowledge consumers’ rather than knowledge producers, and the various economic and social factors influencing this

Constitutions of Nature by Teacher Practice and Discourse in Ontario Grade 9 and 10 Academic Science

This thesis presents an ethnographic study, based broadly on principles and methods of institutional ethnography, on the constitution of nature by nine Ontario Grade 9 and 10 Academic Science teachers. The intent of this methodological approach is to examine how the daily practice of participants works toward constituting nature in specific ways that are coordinated by the institution (Ontario public school and/or school science). Critical Discourse Analysis and general inductive analysis were performed on interview transcripts, texts related to teaching science selected by participants, and policy documents (i.e. curriculum; assessment policy) that coordinate science teacher practice. Findings indicate specific, dominant, and relatively uniform ontological and epistemological constitutions of nature. Nature was frequently constituted as a remote object, distant from and different than students studying it. More complex representations included constituting nature as a model, machine, or mathematical algorithm. Epistemological constitutions of nature were enacted through practices that engaged students in manipulating nature; controlling nature, and dominating nature. Relatively few practices that allow students to construct different constitutions of nature than those prioritized by the institution were observed. Dominant constitutions generally assume nature is simply the material to study, from which scientific knowledge can be obtained, with little ethical or moral consideration about nature itself, or how these constitutions produce discourse and relationships that may be detrimental to nature. Dominant constitutions of nature represent a type of objective knowledge that is prioritized, and made accessible to students, through science activities that attain a position of privilege in local science teacher cultures. The activities that allow students to attain the requisite knowledge of nature are collected, collated, and shared among existing science teachers. Activities are adapted to meet the knowledge requirements of the curriculum, which is institutionally coordinated by a system of management, based on accountability and performance. Thus, teachers come to see teaching practice that â worksâ as contained in those science activities that engage students in learning nature as a specific representation (model/machine) or through science methods that control students learning so that they arrive at the correct knowledge. This allows teachers to assess and evaluate studentsâ acquisition of the institutionally valued knowledge of nature. This system of coordination is sustained through discourse that enables teaching practices that aligns with institutional priorities of measuring performance, while at the same time, limiting teachers from being able to conceive of other teaching practices that might enable different constitutions of nature.Ph.D

Collegial Conversations at a Time of COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, citizens and social institutions have been called into action. Questions of the future of school and an appropriate educational response to the pandemic have been widely discussed and debated. As scholars of science education, subjects particularly relevant to educating about the virus and its transmission, we discuss the roles and responsibilities of science education during pandemic. The format of this paper is a dialogue. We discuss theoretical positions related to science education and the pandemic, inequalities and injustices, recent anti-Black racism protests, and concrete pedagogical responses. As our discussion progressed, we increasingly recognize teachers and students as crucial agents in developing community-grounded, critical place-based, educational responses, recognising and addressing injustices related to differential global and local realities experienced during the pandemic