Saturday, December 6, 2008

Science Education Research Trends

Today I read a research paper on trends in science education research and I found some interesting points made by the authors....the interesting points are summarised below..

"During these five years (2003–2007), science educators showed most interest in research topics regarding student learning contexts, such as learning environment, reasoning, and the affective dimensions of science learning.

They showed increasing interest in research topics regarding student learning contexts and teaching, while student conceptions and conceptual change, as well as culture, social, and gender issues, received declining attention.

The reason for the declining trend of student conceptions and conceptual change observed in this study may relate to the mature development of this topic as a result of the many efforts in the field of science education in the past (e.g., Scoot, Asoko, &
Leach, 2007). The steps required to improve student conception learning and conceptual change, and/or to resolve further issues arising from the research into conception learning and conceptual change, may consider the students’ learning context. Thus, researchers have shifted their focus to the student learning context.
Moreover, the research topic of ‘Teaching’ may be an important way to improve and resolve the issues arising from conception learning and conceptual change research, and thus gained the third ranking in 2003–2007 (Table 12).

Nowadays, one important goal of science education is the preparation for future citizenship with the aim of enhancing
students’ ability to solve the problems arising from real life. Argumentation plays an
important role in solving real-life problems. Thus, researchers have highlighted the importance of argumentation in science education and have shifted their attention
from scientific conception learning to the issues of argumentation."

Ref: Lee, Min-Hsien, Wu, Ying-Tien and Tsai, Chin-Chung(2008)'Research Trends in Science Education from 2003 to 2007: A content analysis of publications in selected journals',International Journal of Science Education.