Nov - Sept
November 21, 2014
Comparative Education Research: Approaches and Methods / edited by Mark Bray, Bob Adamson, Mark Mason.978-3-319-05594-7 (Online)
This book considers issues and challenges associated with research involving many different units of comparison: place, systems, time, cultures, etc
First edition is widely adopted as textbook in the comparative education modules in various universities internationally
First edition has already been translated into Chinese, Farsi, French, Italian, Japanese and Spanish and Russian and Turkish translations can also be anticipated in 2014
Approaches and methods in comparative education are of obvious importance, but do not always receive adequate attention. This second edition of a well-received book, containing thoroughly updated and additional material, contributes new insights within the longstanding traditions of the field.
A particular feature is the focus on different units of analysis. Individual chapters compare places, systems, times, cultures, values, policies, curricula and other units. These chapters are contextualised within broader analytical frameworks which identify the purposes and strengths of the field. The book includes a focus on intra-national as well as cross-national comparisons, and highlights the value of approaching themes from different angles. As already demonstrated by the first edition of the book, the work will be of great value not only to producers of comparative education research but also to users who wish to understand more thoroughly the parameters and value of the field.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-05594-7
Citizenship Pedagogies in Asia and the Pacific / edited by Kerry J. Kennedy, Wing On Lee, David L. Grossman.
978-94-007-0744-3 (Online)
How are students in Asia and the Pacific taught to be effective citizens? Following two successful volumes previously published in this series, Citizenship Education in Asia and the Pacific: Concepts and Issues and Citizenship Curriculum in Asia and the Pacific, this volume focuses on citizenship pedagogies that are promoted by governments in the region, advocated by scholars, and adapted in the schools and classrooms where citizenship education takes place every day. Thirteen case studies from diverse societies in Asia and the Pacific highlight the ways in which teachers and students think about, experience or plan for citizenship teaching and learning. Different methods – vignettes, student surveys, case studies and literature reviews – are used to portray these experiences, from both macro- and micro-analytic perspectives. The wide array of case studies provides rich information and insights into the realities and possibilities of pedagogies for citizenship across the region.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-007-0744-3
Crossing Borders in East Asian Higher Education / edited by Prof. David W. Chapman, William K. Cummings, Gerard A. Postiglione.978-94-007-0446-6 (Online)
This book examines issues that have emerged as higher education systems and individual institutions across East Asia confront and adapt to the changing economic, social, and educational environments in which they now operate. The book's focus is on how higher education systems learn from each other and on the ways in which they collaborate to address new challenges. The sub-theme that runs through this volume concerns the changing nature of cross-border sharing. In particular, the provision of technical assistance by more industrialized countries to lower and middle income countries has given way to collaborations that place the latter's participating institutions on a more equal footing. At the same time, there is a greater number of partnerships that link higher education systems in the East Asian region to one another. Even as boundaries become more porous and permeable, there is growing acceptance of the view that cross border collaboration, if done well, can offer mutually beneficial advantages on multiple levels. There is a new recognition that the intensified international sharing of ideas, strategies of learning, and students is not only of enormous value to systems and institutions but essential to their long term survival. To this end, the chapters in this volume examine various motivations, goals, mechanisms, outcomes and challenges associated with cross-border collaboration in higher education.Crossing Borders in East Asian Higher Education was awarded 1st place in the Annual Comparative and International Education Society's Higher Education SIG in the category Best in Book for 2009-2010 academic year.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-007-0446-6
Revisiting the Chinese Learner: Changing Contexts, Changing Education / edited by Carol K.K. Chan, Nirmala Rao.
978-90-481-3840-1 (Online)
This book examines teaching and learning in Chinese societies and advances understanding of ‘the Chinese learner’ in changing global contexts. Given the burgeoning research in this area, pedagogical shifts from knowledge transmission to knowledge construction to knowledge creation, wide-ranging social, economic and technological advances, and changes in educational policy, Revisiting the Chinese Learner is a timely endeavor.The book revisits the paradox of the Chinese learner against the background of these educational changes; considers how Chinese cultural beliefs and contemporary change influence learning; and examines how Chinese teachers and learners respond to new educational goals, interweaving new and old beliefs and practices. Contributors focus on both continuity and change in analyzing student learning, pedagogical practice, teacher learning and professional development in Chinese societies. Key emerging themes emphasize transcending dichotomies and transforming pedagogy in understanding and teaching Chinese learners. The book has implications for theories of learning, development and educational innovation and will therefore be of interest to scholars and educators around the world who are changing education in their changing contexts.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-90-481-3840-1
Teachers as Learners: Critical Discourse on Challenges and Opportunities / edited by Ora Kwo.
978-90-481-9676-0 (Online)
In movements of educational reform across the world, educators are forging new roles, identities and relationships. Leadership is of course vital, but needs to be rooted in a capacity for learning. This volume responds to some of the tensions and paradoxes typically associated with educational reform, presenting a critical discourse on teachers as learners. Contributing authors highlight a range of culturally related challenges that teachers should not face in isolation. Sustainable teachers’ learning ideally requires a collective engagement to turn challenges into opportunities in the quest for meaningful professional development. This book offers a vision of a new relationship among educational workers as a joint force of learners in a cross-boundary endeavour aimed at a renewed moral commitment to education.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-90-481-9676-0
Inequality in Education: Comparative and International Perspectives / edited by Donald B. Holsinger, W. James Jacob.
978-90-481-2652-1 (Online)
Inequality in Education: Comparative and International Perspectives is a compilation of conceptual chapters and national case studies that includes a series of methods for measuring education inequalities. The book provides up-to-date scholarly research on global trends in the distribution of formal schooling in national populations. It also offers a strategic comparative and international education policy statement on recent shifts in education inequality, and new approaches to explore, develop and improve comparative education and policy research globally. Contributing authors examine how education as a process interacts with government finance policy to form patterns of access to education services. In addition to case perspectives from 18 countries across six geographic regions, the volume includes six conceptual chapters on topics that influence education inequality, such as gender, disability, language and economics, and a summary chapter that presents new evidence on the pernicious consequences of inequality in the distribution of education. The book offers (1) a better and more holistic understanding of ways to measure education inequalities; and (2) strategies for facing the challenge of inequality in education in the processes of policy formation, planning and implementation at the local, regional, national and global levels.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-90-481-2652-1
Pedagogy and ICT Use: In Schools Around the World Findings from the IEA Sites 2006 Study / edited by Nancy Law, Willem J. Pelgrum, Tjeerd Plomp.
978-1-4020-8928-2 (Online)
The end of the last millennium was marked by rapid technological advances and deep changes in many aspects of human activity, often taken together as indicative of a shift into a ‘knowledge era’. Such changes have stimulated much discussion about the role and processes of education, and about the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in teaching and learning in this new era. Many policy documents relating to these themes have been published by international and regional organizations such as the European Commission, the European Roundtable of Industrialists, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), UNESCO and the World Bank. Numerous blueprints on education reform and on ICT in education have also been set out by various governments since the mid-1990s. These policy initiatives brought with them a variety of strategic implementation priorities that differ from country to country, depending on the socio-economic and political context. Such educational strategies may involve, amongst others, changes in curriculum and/or assessment at the system level, provision for ICT infrastructure, teacher professional development, and/or technical and pedagogical support for teachers. Given the deep technological, economic and policy changes that have taken place over the last decade, are there indications that pedagogical practices are changing as well? What impact is the pedagogical use of ICT making in schools around the world? What is the impact of the implementation of these policies on pedagogy and ICT use in classrooms? These are the questions that this book addresses through an analysis of the findings from SITES 2006, an international comparative study of pedagogy and ICT use conducted under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA).
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4020-8928-2
Citizenship Curriculum in Asia and the Pacific / edited by David L. Grossman, Wing On Lee, Kerry J. Kennedy.
978-1-4020-8745-5 (Online)
Based on case studies of 11 societies in the world’s most dynamic region, this book signals a new direction of study at the intersection of citizenship education and the curriculum. Following their successful volume, Citizenship Education in Asia and the Pacific: Concepts and Issues (published as No. 14 in this series), the editors, widely regarded as leaders in the field in the Asia-Pacific region, have gone beyond broad citizenship education frameworks to examine the realities, tensions and pressures that influence the formation of the citizenship curriculum. Chapter authors from different societies have addressed two fundamental questions: (1) how is citizenship education featured in the current curriculum reform agenda in terms of both policy contexts and values; and (2) to what extent do the reforms in citizenship education reflect current debates within the society? From comparative analysis of these 11 case studies the editors have found a complex picture of curriculum reform that indicates deep tensions between global and local agendas. On one hand, there is substantial evidence of an increasingly common policy rhetoric in the debates about citizenship education. On the other, it is evident that this discourse does not necessarily extend to citizenship curriculum, which in most places continues to be constructed according to distinctive social, political and cultural contexts. Whether the focus is on Islamic values in Pakistan, an emerging discourse about Chinese ‘democracy’, a nostalgic conservatism in Australia, or a continuing nation-building project in Malaysia – the cases show that distinctive social values and ideologies construct national citizenship curricula in Asian contexts even in this increasingly globalized era.This impressive collection of case studies of a diverse group of societies informs and enriches understanding of the complex relationship between citizenship education and the curriculum both regionally and globally.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4020-8745-5
Common Interests, Uncommon Goals: Histories of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies and its Members / edited by Vandra Masemann, Mark Bray, Maria Manzon
978-1-4020-6925-3 (Online)
The World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) was established in 1970 as an umbrella body which brought together five national and regional comparative education societies. Over the decades it greatly expanded, and now embraces three dozen societies.This book presents histories of the WCCES and its member societies. It shows ways in which the field has changed over the decades, and the forces which have shaped it in different parts of the world. The book demonstrates that while comparative education can be seen as a single global field, it has different characteristics in different countries and cultures. In this sense, the book presents a comparison of comparisons.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4020-6925-3
October 14, 2014
Series: International perspectives on early childhood education and development
Educational encounters: nordic studies in early childhood didactics / edited by Niklas Pramling, Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson. (978-94-007-1617-9 (Online))
Qualitative analyses of young children’s learning in natural settings are rare, so this new book will make educators sit up and pay attention. It lays out a Nordic, or continental European teaching and learning paradigm whose didactic framework is distinct from the Anglo-American system. This analysis, which features contributions and case studies from researchers in a range of subjects, is built on principles such as the learner’s perspective, establishing sufficient intersubjectivity, ‘pointing out’, and informing experience linguistically. After clarifying some historical background, the book discusses the contemporary emphasis in early childhood education on pedagogy/learning. What should ‘didactics’ mean in educating young children?The book examines the opportunities for learning that teachers provide for children in early childhood education, as well as how children respond to these opportunities. It presents empirical studies from a variety of naturalistic settings, including mathematics, making visual art, ecology, music, dance, literacy and story-telling, as well as learning about gender, morality and democracy. The authors seek to answer key questions about the processes involved in both teaching and learning. What challenges do teachers face as they try to expand children’s knowledge in various fields of learning? How do they respond to these challenges, and what can we learn about children’s corresponding uptake? What now requires further research? One key distinction in researching children’s learning is between studies that look at ‘process’ and those that analyze ‘product’. In the tradition of Piaget, Vygotsky and Werner, as well as Mercer and Valsiner’s more recent work, this book advocates the importance and relative rareness of the former type of study.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-007-1617-9
Educational research with our youngest: voices of infants and toddlers / edited by Eva Johansson, E. Jayne White. (978-94-007-2394-8 (Online))
Interpreting the voices of under three year olds is central to early childhood education. Yet entering into their life-worlds is fraught with challenges and unrealised possibilities. This ground-breaking book generates a dialogue about the multiple ways researchers have exploited a range of methods for approaching, accessing, understanding and interpreting infant voice. Each chapter explores the kinds of ethical considerations and dilemmas that may arise in this process. The book itself represents a chorus of international voices (researchers, children, teachers and parents), all adding to a discussion about various circumstances, dilemmas and possibilities involved in doing research with our youngest. This book is an essential read for researchers and teachers alike who seek to 'listen' and 'see' very young children with fresh ears and eyes.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-007-2394-8
Children, development and education: cultural, historical, anthropological perspectives / edited by Michalis Kontopodis, Christoph Wulf, Bernd Fichtner. (978-94-007-0243-1 (Online))
Historical anthropology is a revision of the German philosophical anthropology under the influences of the French historical school of Annales and the Anglo-Saxon cultural anthropology. Cultural-historical psychology is a school of thought which emerged in the context of the Soviet revolution and deeply affected the disciplines of psychology and education in the 20th century. This book draws on these two schools to advance current scholarship in child and youth development and education. It also enters in dialogue with other relational approaches and suggests alternatives to mainstream western developmental theories and educational practices.
This book emphasizes communication and semiotic processes as well as the use of artifacts, pictures and technologies in education and childhood development, placing a special focus on active subjectivity, historicity and performativity. Within this theoretical framework, contributors from Europe and the U.S. highlight the dynamic and creative aspects of school, family and community practices and the dramatic aspects of child development in our changing educational institutions. They also use a series of original empirical studies to introduce different research methodologies and complement theoretical analyses in an attempt to find innovative ways to translate cultural-historical and historical anthropological theory and research into a thorough understanding of emerging phenomena in school and after-school education of ethnic minorities, gender-sensitive education, and educational and family policy. Divided into two main parts, “Culture, History and Child Development”, and “Gender, Performativity and Educational Practice”, this book is useful for anyone in the fields of cultural-historical research, educational science, educational and developmental psychology, psychological anthropology, and childhood and youth studies.
This book presents interesting original research with a strong cultural dimension. It provides material for important theoretical innovations regarding the notions of practice, performativity, or subjectivity. It shows the relevance of historical approaches to the understanding of human cultural development and cultural practices, that may help students and researchers of education and psychology better understand their own constructed actuality.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-007-0243-1
Child perspectives and children's perspectives in theory and practice / Dion Sommer, Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson, Karsten Hundeide. (978-90-481-3316-1 (Online))
Recent decades have seen a growing emphasis, in a number of professional contexts, on acknowledging and acting on the views of children. This trend was given added weight by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified in 1990. Today, seeking the perspective of the child has become an essential process in all sorts of tasks, from framing new legislation to regulating professions.
This book answers the fundamental question of what it is that constitutes a ‘child perspective’, and how this might differ from the perspectives of children themselves. The answers to such questions have important implications for building progressive and developmental adult-child relationships. However, theoretical and empirical treatments of child perspectives and children’s perspectives are very diverse and idiosyncratic, and the standard reference work has yet to be written.
Thus, this work is an attempt to fill the gap in the literature by searching for and defining key formulations of potential child perspectives within parts of the so-called ‘new child paradigm’. This has been derived from childhood sociology, contextual-relational developmental psychology, interpretative humanistic psychology and developmental pedagogy. The highly experienced authors develop a comprehensive professional child perspective paradigm that integrates recent theory and empirical child research. With its clear presentation of underlying theories and suggested applications, this book illustrates a child-oriented understanding of specific relevance to both child-care and preschool educational practice.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-90-481-3316-1
Play and learning in early childhood settings: international perspectives \ edited by Ingrid Pramling-Samuelsson, Marilyn Fleer. (978-1-4020-8498-0 (Online))
This book provides the first ever cultural-historical study of the play of children from birth to 2 years of age in their early childhood education and care settings across 7 countries. Researchers from New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Hong Kong China, Japan, Sweden and USA present their investigations of the play activities of infants and toddlers in their early childhood settings. They examine the cultural construction of play in these different contexts through a cultural-historical analysis.
The book presents a review of the literature, drawing upon Vygotsky’s (1966) work to frame the review, followed by a critique of research and theory on play within the field of early childhood education. It provides case examples of play within specific countries, mostly using Barbara Rogoff’s (1998) 3 planes of analysis as a common approach for framing and analysing the data generated. It further examines how play has been enacted across countries and offers suggestions for future directions.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4020-8498-0
October 07, 2014
Series: International perspectives on early childhood education and development
Visual methodologies and digital tools for researching with young children: transforming visuality / edited by Marilyn Fleer, Avis Ridgway. (978-3-319-01469-2 (Online))
This book makes an original contribution to researching child-community development so that those with specific interests in early childhood education have new theoretical tools to guide their research practices. The book explicitly theorises the use of digital visual tools from a cultural-historical perspective. It also draws upon a range of post-structuralist concepts for moving research and scholarship forward. Examples of visual technologies from research in different cultural communities are foregrounded.In particular this book introduces contemporary methodologies for researching child and community development with a focus on visual methodology so the dynamics of development can be captured over time and analysed historically, culturally, socially, ecologically and psychologically through a range of iterative techniques. Visual technology was not freely available in Vygotsky’s time for example, and therefore potentially represents an extension of his genetic experimental approach to researching child development.
The book presents a range of methodological arguments about research into child and community development through which new conceptions for research centred on young children have been created. The authors of the chapters also discuss why a more holistic, dynamic and ethical view of research is needed for generating new knowledge about child development in a range of cultural contexts.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-01469-2
Transitions to school - international research, policy and practice / edited by Bob Perry, Sue Dockett, Anne Petriwskyj. (9789400773509 (Online))
This book provides an important compilation and synthesis of current work in transition to school research. The book focuses strongly on the theoretical underpinnings of research in transition to school. It outlines key theoretical positions and connects those to the implications for policy and practice, thereby challenging readers to re-conceptualize their understandings, expectations and perceptions of transition to school. The exploration of this range of theoretical perspectives and the application of these to a wide range of research and research contexts makes this book an important and innovative contribution to the scholarship of transition to school research. A substantial part of the book is devoted to detailed examples of transition to school practice. These chapters provide innovative examples of evidence-based practice and contribute in turn, to practice-based evidence. The book is also devoted to considering policy issues and implications related to the transition to school. It records a genuine, collaborative effort to bring together a range of perspectives into a Transition to School Position Statement that will inform ongoing research, practice and policy. The collaborative, research, policy and practice based development of this position statement represents a world-first.http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-007-7350-9
Lived spaces of infant-toddler education and care: exploring diverse perspectives on theory, research and practice / edited by Linda J. Harrison, Jennifer Sumsion (978-94-017-8838-0 (Online))
This book conceptualizes the ‘lived spaces’ of infant and toddler early education and care settings by bringing together international authors researching within diverse theoretical frameworks. It highlights diverse ways of understanding the experiences of very young children by exposing the ways that the authors are grappling with the unknown. The work explores broadly the construct and meanings of ‘lived spaces’ as relational spaces, interactional spaces, transitional spaces, curriculum spaces, or pedagogical spaces operating within the social, physical and temporal environment of infant-toddler education settings. The book invites interchange between and among diverse theories and approaches, and through this build new understandings of infants’ and toddlers’ experiences and interactions in early education and care settings. It also considers the implications of this work for policy and practice in infant and toddler education and care.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-017-8838-0
Developmental education for young children: concept, practice and implementation / Edited by Bert van Oers. (978-94-007-4617-6 (Online))
Developmental Education is an approach to education in school that aims at promoting children’s cultural development and their abilities to participate autonomously and well-informed in the cultural practices of their community. From the point of view of Cultural-historical Activity theory (CHAT), a play-based curriculum has been developed over the past decades for primary school, which presents activity contexts for pupils in the classroom that create learning and teaching opportunities for helping pupils with appropriating cultural knowledge, skills, and moral understandings in meaningful ways. The approach is implemented in numerous Dutch primary schools classrooms with the explicit intention to support the learning of both pupils and teachers. The book focuses especially on education of young children ( 4 – 8 years old) in primary school and presents the underpinning concepts of this approach, and chapters on examples of good practices in a variety of subject matter areas, such as literacy (vocabulary acquisition, reading, writing), mathematics, and arts. Successful implementation of Developmental Education in the classroom strongly depends on dynamic assessment and continuous observations of young pupils’ development. Strategies for implementation of both the teaching practices and assessment strategies are discussed in detail in the book.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-007-4617-6
Early childhood grows up: towards a critical ecology of the profession / edited by Linda Miller, Carmen Dalli, Mathias Urban (9789400727182 (Online))
Once the Cinderella of the education system, early years education has evolved into a much more substantially funded sector in which increasing demands are placed on staff at the same time as opportunities for their higher-level training and education have expanded. This book reflects the fact that these changes have fostered a good deal of debate about early years education and its practitioners, who have to explore fundamental questions such as whether or not their field of work is a profession at all. Two key arguments are presented. The first is that early years education has matured to the point that pedagogical and regulatory frameworks have been introduced and linked to a terminology of professionalism. The second argument, meanwhile, asserts that we need to imagine a new future for early years education marked by a ‘critical ecology’ of the profession. This is a future in which educators maintain an attitude of critical enquiry in all aspects of their role, assessing the genuine needs of the sector, factoring in the different political and cultural milieux that influence it, and acting to transform it.
In exploring the issues, this book begins by recording in detail the daily work of early years educators from six countries: Australia, England, Finland, Germany, New Zealand and Sweden. These case studies explore what it means to act professionally in a particular context; perceptions of what being a ‘professional’ in early childhood education means (including practitioners’ self perceptions and external perspectives); and common features of practice in each context. It moves on to analyse the wider socio-political forces that affect this day-to-day practice and recommends that practitioners act as transformative agents informed by the political and social realities of their time.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-007-2718-2
September 11, 2014
Models and Modeling in Science Education
Models and Modeling play key roles in the conduct of and education in science. The formation and testing of models is central to the processes of science and all learning , including that of science involves the formation and change of mental models. Teachers of science construct special models in order to support the learning of their students. An understanding of these processes and outcomes draws on a wide range of disciplines. The overall aim of this series is thus to focus attention on the roles of models and modeling in science and education by drawing together the insights of history and philosophy of science, cognitive psychology, and sociolinguistics, in the interpretation of the outcomes of documentary and empirical research.
Science Teachers’ Use of Visual Representations / edited by Billie Eilam, John K. Gilbert 978-3-319-06526-7 (Online)
This book examines the diverse use of visual representations by teachers in the science classroom. It contains unique pedagogies related to the use of visualization, presents original curriculum materials as well as explores future possibilities.The book begins by looking at the significance of visual representations in the teaching of science. It then goes on to detail two recent innovations in the field: simulations and slowmation, a process of explicit visualization. It also evaluates the way teachers have used different diagrams to illustrate concepts in biology and chemistry.
Next, the book explores the use of visual representations in culturally diverse classrooms, including the implication of culture for teachers’ use of representations, the crucial importance of language in the design and use of visualizations, and visualizations in popular books about chemistry. It also shows the place of visualizations in the growing use of informal, self-directed science education.
Overall, the book concludes that if the potential of visualizations in science education is to be realized in the future, the subject must be included in both pre-service and in-service teacher education. It explores ways to develop science teachers’ representational competence and details the impact that this will have on their teaching.
The worldwide trend towards providing science education for all, coupled with the increased availability of color printing, access to personal computers and projection facilities, has lead to a more extensive and diverse use of visual representations in the classroom. This book offers unique insights into the relationship between visual representations and science education, making it an ideal resource for educators as well as researchers in science education, visualization and pedagogy.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-06526-7
Multiple Representations in Biological Education / edited by David F. Treagust, Chi-Yan Tsui. 978-94-007-4192-8 (Online)
This new publication in the Models and Modeling in Science Education series synthesizes a wealth of international research on using multiple representations in biology education and aims for a coherent framework in using them to improve higher-order learning. Addressing a major gap in the literature, the volume proposes a theoretical model for advancing biology educators’ notions of how multiple external representations (MERs) such as analogies, metaphors and visualizations can best be harnessed for improving teaching and learning in biology at all pedagogical levels.The content tackles the conceptual and linguistic difficulties of learning biology at each level—macro, micro, sub-micro, and symbolic, illustrating how MERs can be used in teaching across these levels and in various combinations, as well as in differing contexts and topic areas. The strategies outlined will help students’ reasoning and problem-solving skills, enhance their ability to construct mental models and internal representations, and, ultimately, will assist in increasing public understanding of biology-related issues, a key goal in today’s world of pressing concerns over societal problems about food, environment, energy, and health. The book concludes by highlighting important aspects of research in biological education in the post-genomic, information age.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-007-4192-8
Models and Modeling: Cognitive Tools for Scientific Enquiry / edited by Myint Swe Khine, Issa M. Saleh. 978-94-007-0449-7 (Online)
The process of developing models, known as modeling, allows scientists to visualize difficult concepts, explain complex phenomena and clarify intricate theories. In recent years, science educators have greatly increased their use of modeling in teaching, especially real-time dynamic modeling, which is central to a scientific investigation. Modeling in science teaching is being used in an array of fields, everything from primary sciences to tertiary chemistry to college physics, and it is sure to play an increasing role in the future of education.Models and Modeling: Cognitive Tools for Scientific Enquiry is a comprehensive introduction to the use of models and modeling in science education. It identifies and describes many different modeling tools and presents recent applications of modeling as a cognitive tool for scientific enquiry.
The processes of modelling and the use of the resulting models to inform predictions play key roles in the nature of science and hence in science education, especially in inquiry-based approaches. Against a background of the philosophical basis for modelling and models, the implications for science education are explored. Well-designed and thoroughly classroom-tested schemes to support students in learning how to model are reviewed. Research into teachers’ understanding of models and their place in the nature of science are reviewed as are successful strategies for the further development of that knowledge. This book has a major contribution to make to the pre- and in-service education of elementary (primary) and high (secondary) school science teachers.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-007-0449-7
Visualization in Mathematics, Reading and Science Education / Linda M. Phillips, Stephen P. Norris, John S. Macnab 978-90-481-8816-1 (Online)
Visualizations—either self-created or external visual stimuli used as an aid to learning—are probably as old as learning itself. Yet surprisingly little research has been done either into how precisely they help us learn, or how to produce ones that are effective pedagogical tools. This volume, a comprehensive review of theory and research on the use of visualization in mathematics, science and reading, contrasts the two dominant theoretical paradigms of how people construct and interpret visualizations. However, the authors never lose sight of practical applications, providing frequent, accessible synopses of research findings in addition to succinct summaries of how the research affects practice. Written by a team with decades of experience in research and practice in the three subjects, the chapters show how cognitive psychology can enhance practical pedagogy, place visualizations in their proper historical context, and analyze in detail the effectiveness of paper-, computer- and video-based visualizations, with some surprising results. The book is published at a time when, it seems, there is no limit to the art of creating visualizations, as powerful computers make graphics ever more colorful and realistic and ‘interactivity’ is firmly established as a buzzword in the educational lexicon. The aim of the volume is to explore some central questions in the field, including how to evaluate visualizations and whether or not they can act as an aid to reading development, and to mathematics and science learning. The authors also point to potentially fruitful subjects for future research, and offer their own conclusions and recommendations. As the debate continues over the value of visualizations, with polarized arguments on the one hand lauding them and on the other dismissing them as gimmicks, this book introduces a voice of reason to the discussion that will be welcomed by psychologists and educationalists alike.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-90-481-8816-1
Multiple Representations in Chemical Education / edited by John K. Gilbert, David Treagust. 978-1-4020-8872-8 (Online)
Chemistry seeks to provide qualitative and quantitative explanations for the observed behaviour of elements and their compounds. Doing so involves making use of three types of representation: the macro (the empirical properties of substances); the sub-micro (the natures of the entities giving rise to those properties); and the symbolic (the number of entities involved in any changes that take place). Although understanding this triplet relationship is a key aspect of chemical education, there is considerable evidence that students find great difficulty in achieving mastery of the ideas involved. In bringing together the work of leading chemistry educators who are researching the triplet relationship at the secondary and university levels, the book discusses the learning involved, the problems that students encounter, and successful approaches to teaching. Based on the reported research, the editors argue for a coherent model for understanding the triplet relationship in chemical education.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4020-8872-8
Visualization: Theory and Practice in Science Education / edited by John K. Gilbert, Miriam Reiner, Mary Nakhleh. 978-1-4020-5267-5 (Online)
External representations (pictures, diagrams, graphs, concrete models) have always been valuable tools for the science teacher. The formation of personal, internal, representations – visualizations – from them plays a key role in all learning, especially in that of science. The use of personal computers and sophisticated software has expanded into the areas of simulation, virtual reality, and animation, and students now engage in the creation of models, a key aspect of scientific methodology. Several academic disciplines underlie these developments, yet act independently of each other, to the detriment of an attainment of what is possible. This book brings together the insights of practicing scientists, science education researchers, computer specialists, and cognitive scientists, to produce a coherent overview. It links presentations about the cognitive theory of representation and visualization, its implications for science curriculum design, and for learning and teaching in classrooms and laboratories.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4020-5267-5
Model Based Learning and Instruction in Science / edited by John J. Clement, Mary Anne Rea-Ramirez 978-1-4020-6494-4 (Online)
This book describes new, model based teaching methods for science instruction. It presents research that describes these new methods in a very diverse group of settings: middle school biology, high school physics, and college chemistry classrooms. Mental models in these areas such as understanding the structure of the lungs or cells, molecular structures and reaction mechanisms in chemistry, or causes of current flow in electricity are notoriously difficult for many students to learn. Yet these lie at the core of conceptual understanding in these areas. The studies focus on a variety of teaching strategies such as discrepant questioning, analogies, animations, model competition, and hands on activities. Five different levels of organization for teaching strategies are described, from those operating over months (design of the sequence of units in a curriculum) to those operating over minutes (teaching tactics for guiding discussion minute by minute).
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4020-6494-4
Visualization in Science Education / John K. Gilbert 978-1-4020-3613-2 (Online)
Visualization, meaning both the perception of an object that is seen or touched and the mental imagery that is the product of that perception, is believed to be a major strategy in all thought. It is particularly important in science, which seeks causal explanations for phenomena in the world-as-experienced. Visualization must therefore play a major role in science education. This book addresses key issues concerning visualization in the teaching and learning of science at any level in educational systems.
‘Visualization in Science Education’ draws on the insights from cognitive psychology, science, and education, by experts from Australia, Israel, Slovenia, UK, and USA. It unites these with the practice of science education, particularly the ever-increasing use of computer-managed modelling packages, especially in chemistry. The first section explores the significance and intellectual standing of visualization. The second section shows how the skills of visualization have been developed practically in science education. This is followed by accounts of how the educational value of visualization has been integrated into university courses in physics, genomics, and geology. The fourth section documents experimental work on the classroom assessment of visualization. An endpiece summarises some of the research and development needed if the contribution of this set of universal skills is to be fully exploited at all levels and in all science subjects.
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/1-4020-3613-2
