University of Malta. Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Educational Research
Abstract
Given the lack of exploratory orientation of science education in most
of the Mediterranean countries, Science Centres could enrich our efforts to teach
the investigative nature of science more effectively. This study aims at presenting
a grid for analyzing the pedagogical implications of the exhibits’ design in a
science centre. The construction of the grid is based on the theoretical notions of
classification, formality and framing. The representational modes employed in a
science centre (e.g. written language, formatting and layout of written text, twoand
three-dimensional representations, lighting, etc) contribute to the modulation
of the levels of classification, formality and framing. In order to illustrate the
potential of the grid, we used it to analyze some of the exhibits of the ‘Gaia’
Environmental Centre in Greece. The results demonstrated that science is
presented as a specialized body of knowledge (strong classification), in this case,
expressed in vernacular and realistic codes (low formality) and consisting of
elements that can be discovered through active personal involvement (weak
framing). These results show that the design of a science centres’ exhibits can
potentially allow students to have access to the cognitive landscape of the
specialized scientific knowledge by removing the barriers of the specialized
expressive codes and by treating them as active explorers.peer-reviewe