Session Information
ERG SES C 14, Scientific knowledge
Parallel Paper Session
Contribution
After 1980s, there were huge reform efforts in science education in American education and in these reform efforts, the importance of scientific literacy, teaching history of science, nature of science and science-technology-society themes were the main elements (Bybee et al., 1991). Similar concepts can be seen as the former elements of the latest Turkish National Science and Technology Education Curriculum (MONE, 2005). For instance, according to the curriculum, nature of science is an important aspect of science education and it should be taught in science courses.
History of science is an important subdomain of nature of science; it examines how social, cultural and historical factors affect the development science (McComas, 2002) and its instruction is a way for students to understand the nature of science (Howe, 2009). History of science can not be left out from intellectual education and should be taught in every level of the education and it could be introduced in the form of legends and anecdotes in primary school to promote children’s imagination and in higher levels. Moreover, it should be introduced as story telling, biographies of scientists and as “something that is alive” with the help of historical experiments (Rosell & Vilumara, 2010). According to Brush (1989), when teaching history of science, the role of the teacher is crucial, yet, most science teachers have little or no training in the history of science. Moreover, science deals with important philosophical questions which are often ignored in textbooks and which are best discussed in their historical settings (Brush, 1989).
It can be concluded that history of science is a way to obtain more understanding of nature of science and it should be a part of science courses. In the light of the information above, the aim of this study is to investigate the history of science content in Turkish science and technology course textbooks which are prepared by the Turkish Ministry of National Education. The goals of this study are: a) What is the amount of the historical content in grade 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 science and technology course textbooks?; b) What is the quality of the historical content in grade 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 science and technology course textbooks?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Brush, S. G. (1989). History of science and science education. Interchange 20(2), 60-70. Bybee, R.W., Powell, J.C., Ellis, J.D., Giese, J.R., Parisi, L. and Singleton, L. (1991). Integrating the history and nature of science and technology in science and social studies curriculum. Science Education, 75(1), 143-155. Howe, E. (2009). Henry david thoreau, forest succession & the nature of science: a method for curriculum development. The American Biology Teacher, 71(7), 397-404. McComas, W. F. (2002). The nature of science in science education rationales and strategies. London: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Ministry Of National Education – Head Council of Education and Morality, (2005). Primary education science and technology curriculum program and guide, Ankara: Management Office of Government Books. Rosell, A.R., Vilumara, P.G. (2010). Antoni quintana-mari (1907-1998): a pioneer of the use of history of science in science education. Science & Education, 19(9), 925-929. Weber, R.P., (1985). Basic content analysis. Sage Publications, USA.
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