ABSTRACT. In the last decades, much research has been done in relation to teacher professional development (TPD) and criteria for effective TPD have been developed. One of the main concerns in professional development is that the PD instructors are (only) researchers at the university and do not hold or maintain an everyday link or connection to the ordinary classroom practice at the school level they are meant to help develop. It is evident from the literature that there is an identified gap between research and practice. In the context of the EU-project mascil, this paper addresses in what ways teacher facilitators can diminish the gap between research and practice in TPD, focusing on inquiry based learning (IBL). This was addressed by looking deeply at case studies from two different countries, Norway and Romania, in which we applied the cascade model by involving ordinary teachers as facilitators: Researchers from both countries are working closely with a group of teachers, who in turn work closely with their own colleagues. We argue that the gap may be diminished by applying the cascade model in this particular way. First, we analyze teacher growth during the mascil project in relation to IBL, using Clark and Hollingsworth's interconnected model for teacher change and growth. Then we highlight the significance of the external domain, with emphasis on the facilitator concept and teachers as facilitators. Despite the differences in the country context, we found similarities in the emerging features with regard to advantages and disadvantages of using teachers as facilitators. In particular, the combination of teachers in school and researchers from the university (didacticians) turns out to be an advantage. In this paper we argue that despite of differences in systemic support between the two countries, using teachers as facilitators might be a core feature of effective TPD.

ABSTRACT. Research has indicated that there might be a gap between preschool teachers' general description of technology and what can be found in their preschool activities. This study investigate this further and look for possible reasons for it if it exist. The study was conducted in the form of research circles in two Swedish municipalities with 19 technology-minded preschool teachers. A mixed research design was used. The starting point for mapping the preschool teachers' descriptions of technology was an established questionnaire that placed technology into five categories. Following this, the teachers independently documented events at their preschools that they assessed as technology activities. Based on the five technology categories, the teachers indicated which categories they considered best described the technology in the event. The findings were that the most commonly chosen category in the questionnaire was technology as a “solution to a problem", with the second most common category being the "process in which artefacts develop". The categories "artefacts" and “application of artefacts" received very weak responses. This picture was reinforced in discussions with the preschool teachers about how they reasoned when responding to the questionnaire, thereby providing a more comprehensive overview of their ideas about technology. However, in their everyday examples, some activities relate to identifying artefacts, using technical terms and the children’s attempts to use the artefacts. There are also examples of a "process in which artefacts develop" and "solution to a problem", especially in activities with the older children. The preschool teachers said that the children had to be introduced to the artefacts, including their names and functions, before moving on to more advanced levels of technology description. There is thus a distinction between the preschool teachers' descriptions of technology and their practices, where they themselves provide relevant explanations for the gap.

ABSTRACT. As participants of a global society, we should keep ourselves educated about the current environmental issues that affect us all. In order to solve many of the issues currently facing forests worldwide, as well as to move toward a global, sustainable society, it is important for children to learn about vegetation succession. While experiencing concepts first-hand can deepen one’s understanding of knowledge learned from textbooks, vegetation succession occurs over a long period of time, making it a difficult match for this type of learning. As such, devising an effective way for children to experience interactive learning about vegetation succession will qualitatively improve their environmental education.

For this study, we developed a forest management game in which learners can experience related concepts in a virtual environment. This system allows users to experience vegetation succession by managing forests where this succession has occurred over hundreds of years.

A prototype system was developed and evaluated as an effective component of early-stage learning support for the management of forests in virtual environments. Some limitations, however, included that it was difficult for learners to discover the hierarchy of relationships among plants, ideal state of the forest, and the overall importance of forest management. Following, the system was revised to address and remedy all three of these limitations.

Through evaluation results, we confirm that this system is effective for learners to independently discover the importance of forest management, as well as to understand forest hierarchies and its ideal state.

Within the context of environmental education, we introduced the following game as a learning support system for children’s environmental education. In this paper, we present the proposed learning support system. We describe the contents of the current system and the results of our evaluation.

ABSTRACT. It is becoming increasingly important for K-12 teachers to introduce their students to concepts of digital citizenship, which involves the responsible use of technology in a community. This paper discusses strategies for introducing digital citizenship to high school teachers as part of a graduate course for teachers regarding information and digital literacies. The strategies include the use of online resources to introduce the content, an assignment in which teachers create a digital podcast on digital citizenship for use in their own classroom, and an assignment in which teachers discuss digital citizenship using Flipgrid (http://www.flipgrid.com) a tool that creates a kind of electronic discussion board using video segments. The paper also discusses outcomes of instruction, using teachers' podcasts and video posts as a source of data for investigating two key questions: (1) after their introduction to digital citizenship, what are teachers' major concerns regarding teaching it? (2) what solutions do teachers recommend regarding their concerns?

In Spring, 2017, a total of 18 practicing teachers took the course as part of a Master's degree option in Curriculum and Instruction at a university in the United States. Of these, 17 agreed to participate in the study; 14 were women and 3 were men. All participants had bachelor’s degrees and teaching credentials. Their subjects taught included art, business, English, history / social science, Spanish, computer science, mathematics, and science. Their prior teaching experience averaged 8 years, and it ranged from 2 to 16 years.

The paper identifies themes in teachers' digital products using Ribble's nine elements of digital citizenship (Ribble, 2012) as a framework. The presentation will include excerpts of teachers’ Flipgrid posts and podcasts to illustrate outcomes of this approach. We provide recommendations and resources with the hope of contributing to international discussion regarding teacher training and professional development related to digital citizenship.

ABSTRACT. The aim of the study is to determine prospective science teachers’ views of science and technology via science-fiction stories. 58 prospective science teachers in second grade were participated in the study. 13 science-fiction stories written by the participants were examined with different aspects. The stories were written in the “Science, Technology and Society” course. Case study as a qualitative design was used in the study. The data gathered from the study were analyzed by content analysis. The storyline, scientific and technological concepts, the nature of science aspects and ethical points were examined during the analysis of the stories. Also, “Science-Fiction Stories Assessment Rubric” developed by Tatli (2017) was used in the analysis of the stories. The items in the rubric was categorized as “adequate”, “average” and “inadequate”. The results showed that storylines, grammar and the construction of the story were mostly adequate. Furthermore, the scientific and technological concepts and the accordance with the scientific facts were found to be adequate in the stories. However, the relationship between the concepts and scientific theories were not fully explained in most of the stories. It was found that the relationship between science and society were involved in the stories adequately. On the other hand, there was inadequate reference to the relationship between science and technology. The creative and imaginative parts of the stories were found to be inadequate. The stories were mostly about biology and physics. The scientific concepts in the stories were generally adequate, however, the technological terms were found to be low. Also, all of the nature of science aspects (except for the tentative nature of science as well as the theories and laws in science) were included in the stories. Stories involved ethical points that are important for scientific studies. Some implications were drawn from the results of the study.

ABSTRACT. Biodiversity Conservation is a transnational theme present in different social spaces. In a context in which some of our actions may, at the same time, be beneficial or harmful to environment, given its complexity, tensions can emerge and pervade the daily lives of citizens. Decisions taken individually or collectively, comprise, in general, different levels and require a more complex view in the dialectical way of overcoming these contradictions. In this process, our values and practices related to biodiversity conservation become a key part of our decision making. Understanding the conservation meanings shared by individuals that have some relation with the natural environment can contribute to educational programs of institutions that considered themselves as an important locus for biodiversity conservation. This work aims to investigate how citizens understand the term conservation in a situation of visiting an institution dedicated to biodiversity conservation. For this, we applied questionnaires, using ZooWise App, to 478 randomly selected visitors of 05 zoos and aquariums in Brazil, Portugal and Germany. Considering the polysemy of the term biodiversity conservation, data analysis points to the occurrence of a limited conceptual repertoire by zoo visitors, which can be considered as an obstacle to discuss conservation. It is important, in this scenario, to understand about how to proximate the institutional discourse on conservation to the discourse expressed by publics, increasing the shared conceptual repertoire. By understanding the range of possible meanings that can be attributed to conservation, it may become clearer to the subject which of these meanings he/she feels motivated to engage with.

ABSTRACT. Conservation of Biodiversity is a recurring theme in many social spaces. In the political, academic or educational spheres, many are actions and spaces that aim at optimized conditions of the natural environment. Zoos and aquariums are considered as fundamental institutions for conservation of biodiversity, then, it is relevant to question the role of zoos and aquariums in conservation education. In this scenario, this research seeks to understand how the meanings and practices aimed at the conservation of biodiversity developed by professionals of zoological institutions are highlighted. It is also intended to list elements, assumptions and characteristics present in zoological expositions that can optimize public understanding of science about biodiversity conservation, as well as promote possible engagements. Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) is the theoretical framework used in this research. The methodological approach adopted is based on discourse analysis, followed by analysis of expansive learning cycles. Data collection was conducted with 09 interviews with staff and photographic register of 03 Brazilian zoos expositive discourse. In initial analysis, it is possible to interpret that the discourses presented by staff distanced themselves from those manifested by zoo and aquarium exhibitions, especially with regard to the ontological and epistemological dimensions of biodiversity conservation. It occurs by several reasons, but an important contradiction to be overcome is between discourse simplification vs discourse complexification, as well as between transmission of information vs engagement. In this context, a relevant challenge for science education could be to allow a collective construction of the multiplicity of meanings of the term biodiversity conservation, considering their contradictions, when discussing the social, ethical and cultural implications of educational actions.

ABSTRACT. Based on the theoretical concept of modes of address, this work sought to understand the aesthetic and pedagogical strategies of the television show Tito’s Chest (episode "Ants") produced to communicate science themes to deaf child aged from 3 to 8 years. The program works with a ludic-symbolic scheme of representation of the child. From this conception of spectator, the program introduces the anthill theme to present the environment of the ants, where they live, what names and signals and the functions of each one within this environment. With a quiz at the end of the program, the child is invited to participate in addition to systematizing the content intended by the producers.

ABSTRACT. The language used in science is very different from the language of everyday life (Shaw, 2002), and it is emphasized that most students are having difficulty in learning science due to the lack of familiarity with science language(Fang, 2006; Maskill, 1988; Miller, 2009). In the view that a language is a body of massive knowledge and consists of numerous words and connections between them(Miller, 1991), the science language has a specific word-link structure that is different from everyday words. It is important to help students form a well-organized and consistent word-link structure(Koponen & Pehkonen, 2010). Two important things at this point are information about the prior word-link structure that students already have before learning (Gussarsky & Gorodetsky, 1988), and about differences from the ideal structure. In this study, based on these linguistic research results, we tried to derive the experimental results about how familiar the secondary school students are with the science language. For these, five scientific terms, force, motion, mass, gravity, and speed, which are important concepts in physics, especially mechanics, were selected and used as research subjects. We extracted adjacent words of each terms in the science textbook corpus, and investigated association words by word association test. As a result, there was big difference between the results of the students' word associations and the words of connected and high centrality from the science textbooks corpus. This is in contrast to the results of previous studies on the everyday language, which is an experimental proof that students are not familiar with the science language. That is to say, this shows one of the reasons that secondary science students have difficulty understanding with science language and difficulty communicating with science textbooks or science teachers.

ABSTRACT. Learning science is challenging for many young learners. The concepts are difficult and the subject has a language of its own to master. This is enough of a challenge when teachers and learners are working in a shared first language but, when they may all be trying to engage with the subject in a language in which they may not have high levels of proficiency, there is the potential for confusion and lack of understanding. This is the situation in classrooms in many parts of the world but particularly in African countries with a colonial heritage and extensive use, even in a post-colonial context, of a colonial language (often English) as a language of instruction. This presentation considers the use of language in South African science classrooms, drawing on a larger scale review of research over the last 15 years in that multicultural setting. This is an active issue and an important, but usually negative, influence on science learning. There is a belief in many countries that effective engagement with STEM subjects in school provides opportunities for learners to move into STEM careers and, in turn this leads to greater economic prosperity for them personally and for their country. The situation in South Africa is complex in terms of the policy environment and how that impacts on schools. There are tensions about the choice of language of instruction and implementation of the language-in-education policy. There are also tensions between that policy and policies for curriculum and assessment. Schools need to work to develop their ways of resolving these tensions. In particular, there is some confusion about whether and how to use home languages in creative ways to support science learning. The presentation analyses the policy environment and how this impacts on pedagogy in the classroom.

ABSTRACT. We are standing at a crucial point in Western, techno-scientific culture. Faced with profound changes affecting the Earth systems at a global scale, current narratives of technological innovation seek to assuage the urgency of the problems through new and creative solutions. Yet, as Hannah Arendt envisaged already half a century ago,“for the first time in history all peoples on earth have a common present”, even if “this common present is not based on a common past and does not in the least guarantee a common future” (1968, p. 83). More than coincidentally, this growing awareness has brought to the fore the need for new narratives of development, to ensure equity and a diversity of views and modes of living on our shared Planet. A common response in science education has emphasised the progressive enculturation into the subculture of science, weeding out cultural beliefs and misconceptions as well as risk and uncertainty to favour the acquisition of consolidated scientific knowledge. Conversely, an eco-reflexive and eco-transformative education, which draws upon a variety of theoretical contributions and practical approaches, is proposed. This round-table in three parts seeks to explore the potential of such a view within the field of Science and Technology Education. Part A focuses on different models of teaching and education, which take into consideration the global, socio-environmental challenges. Part B addresses the ontological shift from being spectators to active participants in the global environment; taking the lead from Colucci-Gray and Camino (2016), discussion will focus on what methodologies characterise this mode of learning. Part C addresses – based on Sjöström & Eilks (2018) and with further elaboration – a relational and critical Vision III of ST literacy and education. How can it be understood, which are its implications for teaching and ‘knowing-being-doing’ and for the whole educational system?

ABSTRACT. It is assumed that science and technology have a distinctive role in the contemporary society. Beyond that, scientific knowledge has been taken as pivotal for individuals to participate in democratic decisions in such society. Paradoxically, it has been pointed out the decrease in interest in scientific career and unsatisfactory outcomes in international assessments in scientific subjects all over the world, which leads us to question the model of science we have today and consequently our educational system, especially science education. It seems to exist an increasingly gap between those who produce knowledge/science (and are entitled to participate in democratic decisions) and those who (should) consume science/knowledge (aiming to participate in those decisions). In this perspective, the criteria of truth are assumed to be exclusively methodological (as a procedure that guarantee reliability for the process of knowing something in general, possessed by very restrict groups of people). This has its origin, in our standpoint, in a dualist worldview, which splits all that exists into an ephemeral world of human things and an essential (and immutable) world of non-human things. In this way, science would be par excellence the true key to the essence of the reality, while all other forms of knowledge are, beforehand, considered mistakes. Drawing on a Vygotskian perspective, we aim to offer steps to overcome the split between methodological and ideological dimensions of knowledge production. We conceptualize human development in a concrete and historical perspective, without postulating any ontological break (or dualism) between human activity (what includes knowing, transforming, and becoming human) and an outside reality (whose core is essentially ahistorical), grasping the ideo-methodo-logical dimension of knowledge production (rooted on the very nature of the reality, as the totality of the historical process) and what means to “use” scientific knowledge to participate in democratic decisions.

ABSTRACT. This paper report on complex relations between students’ achievements and interest in science. Part of the evidence indicate the need for more detailed analyses of the affective domain in science education research. Since 2016 there has been an initiative to plan for an international research study concerned with this. The study is called the Relevance of Science Education (ROSE) study and has been carried out once before in many countries all over the world. In this paper some key developments will be reported. During two years’ time, a new international research network has been established with colleagues participating in over 30 countries. A new and updated questionnaire will be presented and future directions, pointed out by earlier studies indicate gender, age, progression, transition, recruitment, teacher perspectives and relations between interest and experience as important continuations. This development is framed by theoretical perspectives like youth culture, identity and media theory with the aim to provide empirical data in discussions about the teaching and learning of science in and outside school.

ABSTRACT. The present study seeks to redefine the concept of science education according to the complexity theory compared to other two competing theories called agency and structure theories. The theoretical framework of this study was the classification study of Roth. For this study, the comparative analysis approach was selected from a variety of methodologies in philosophy of education. To fulfill the research goal, first the agency and structure paradigms are introduced as the competing paradigm and the strengths and weaknesses of each paradigm is presented in details. In a general and simple classification, the connectivism theory could be presented as a response to the former visions including knowledge transfer and structuralism. According to the connectivism attitude the knowledge is neither transferred nor constructed or produced. Knowledge is developed and reinforced during the relationships between the individuals and communities in the networks. Science education in the complexity theory is explained as the competitor for the mentioned theories with regard to the critiques against agency and structure attitudes. The complex system theory says that science education is the process of two related practices of teaching and learning which establish a context for emergence of science at the classroom level. In this view, structure plays a fundamental role in science education so that emergence of science is made possible within the structure.

ABSTRACT. In this proposal, we examine the long-term effect produced by the mathematisation of natural philosophy in the teaching of physics. The aim of the study is to understand how specific forms of scientific explanation are privileged in the training of pre-service physics teachers. More specifically, our analysis focuses on the genetic process through which undergraduate physics students come to master patterns of privileging in the social plane of the physics classroom. Drawing on the writings of James Wertsch, we approach scientific explanations as cultural tools. From this perspective, any account of natural phenomena involves an irreducible tension between people and textual resources in the form of explanation (written or spoken). Based on Vygotsky’s genetic method, we turned to a particular component of a Brazilian program of physics education that represents students’ first opportunity to lecture physics, exposing scientific ideas and explaining natural phenomena to their peers. A total of fifty-four hours of lectures and group discussions were video recorded and a few episodes were selected and transcribed for analysis. Relying on Vygotsky’s general genetic law of cultural development, we looked at the genetic transitions from intermental to intramental functioning as they are manifested in professor-student interaction. The results of our discourse analysis showed that the use of explanations of unification type is much greater than the use of causal explanations. In addition, when causal explanations emerge, the professor tends to send implicit messages to the whole class of what kind of explanation is more suitable for the teaching of physics.

ABSTRACT. In the present information-rich society, it is important to adapt approaches to teaching and learning to characteristics of this society. We believe that digital tools adapted to learning goals combined with socio-cultural thinking are promising approaches to meet future challenges. Connectivism is a learning theory where social-constructivistic approaches meet today’s information- and communication technology-rich society. Individuals taking part in the learning process can be described as nodes in a learning network. Today this landscape of nodes is accessible for all through internet, and knowledge is a result of extracting information and self-organized participation. Participating students in such an approach are active and seen as resources rather than passive listeners, and knowledge on extracting information, critical judgment and ability to make connections in the network of information is more important than remembering facts (Siemens, 2005). Inquiry based teaching and teachers scaffolding students in their meaning-making related to science subject matter knowledge is also important. In this symposium, we will bring together three different approaches to these cross-subject challenges. We will present literature reviews, and empirical data from three different research groups working with augmented reality in lower secondary school, geographical information technology (GIT) in field courses within eight different university disciplines, and from classroom studies on science teacher students using GIT. The analyses from the three presentations are based on several methods, such as questionnaires, interviews with students and lectures, students' written reflections, and recorded dialogues between students. Our results suggest that students value the use of such technology for learning; that the facilitator role of the teacher is important; and that subject matter knowledge is very important in order to be able to produce relevant content for learning with GIT.

ABSTRACT. Critical thinking is fundamental to 21st century learning. and has thus become an important part of the Technology Curricula in many countries. Critical thinking involves analysing and synthesising information and draws on the ability to examine, analyse, interpret and evaluate. An important task for teachers is to support young children in developing these abilities. Students in a Swedish Teacher Education Programme for Primary School were given an assignment inspired by the concept of disruptive technologies (Barlex, Givens, & Steeg, 2016). The task was to choose one out of nine disruptive technologies and search for information about them. The list was created using technologies that are likely to have a significant effect on the students’ lives in a not too distant future. Based on the information found, the students were to make a critical analysis of the technology they had chosen. This paper will show the design of this assignment, show some results and analyse the shortcomings of the project. A thematic analysis was made of the assignment texts produced by 126 students. The analysis shows that some of the suggested technologies were chosen more often than others. Autonomous cars were on top, although robots in elderly care were the most frequently chosen technology among female students. The students performed well in searching and collecting data from different sources. They found articles with pros and cons for their chosen disruptive technology. However, the students showed an ability to collect and structure information about the pros and cons of their chosen technology, but they had difficulties in examining, critically analysing, interpreting and evaluating the information they had found. We conclude that they need more support and help in developing their critical thinking skills.

ABSTRACT. Globally education is construed as a conduit for creating awareness for sustainability education. This paper reports on a case study within a technology education module, namely processing of polymers at a particular university. An education for sustainability lens was infused into the content of the plastic section of the polymer module. This qualitative interpretative study used a case study design. Mezirow, theory on transformative learning and the authors’ model of hands on, minds on and hearts on approach framed the study. One hundred PSTTs who were enrolled for the module in 2015 were purposively selected to participate in the study. Data was generated in three stages using photo journal and reflective diary. For the purpose of this paper, data from the reflective diary was used. Written permission to conduct this research project was obtained from the Edgemond university (pseudonym) ethics committee. Data was subjected to content analysis using Mezirow, theory on transformative learning and the authors’ model of hands on, minds on and hearts on approach. The findings revealed that problem based learning allowed ninety PSTTs to be conscious of their roles as agents of change in the communities they worked in; they became aware of power or social capital they have as future teachers and their civic responsibility towards the community. The second finding was that 10 PSTTs have a rigid view of what learning entails, where it should occur as well as the role of teachers and schools. These 10 PSTTs are unable to experience or see learning as a transformative process that links their thoughts , actions emotions, beliefs to new forms of realities. These finding have implication for the pedagogy used to infuse ESD within the curriculum.

ABSTRACT. The present article aims to analyze the implications of digital video production as a learning situation in the teaching of natural science - biology, in the classroom. The approach of this research is qualitative, guided by an exploratory bias and the case study design. Thirty students from a public school of a city at the state of São Paulo – Brazil - participated in this study. At the time the study was performed, the Biology teacher attended a necessary curricular component of the in-service teacher training program Specialization in the Teaching of Natural Science at the University of São Paulo, the Media and Scientific Literacy. The production created in this teaching process articulates media and scientific literacy issues. Therefore, approaching scientific content through the making of digital videos triggers a teaching/learning process that should favor a dialogical interaction between different contexts and various fields of knowledge. This method supports the development of a respectful behavior concerning all persons involved in the process, and it also allows the insertion of this media in the classroom, what enables the media literacy, and an increasingly democratic social participation and critical view of media. This approach also contributes to the teachers´ elaboration of the didactic materials which meanings emerge from negotiations with the students.

ABSTRACT. Increasingly globalized and networked societies raise fundamental questions about the role of education and potential of digital technology to open up for students’ learning science. Introducing digital devices and Internet to classrooms, the access to information in science education has increased dramatically over the last few decades. Navigating and assessing information sources is central to the processes of scientific and knowledgebuilding discourse, and the public’s understanding of and effective engagement with media of all kinds. In this symposium we seek to illuminate how traditional forms of schooling are being challenged and transformed as digital media is integrated in current science education practices.

The first paper, Attention in a hyperconnected science classroom - insights from the Beyond Technology project, is concerned with the role of attention in a digitised Danish 8th-grade science classroom. The observations and analyses highlight that the entanglements between students and the digital materials they access and produce are redefining attention and shape the flow of accessing and engaging with information.

The second paper, Using evidence encountered online in a classroom dialogue – accountable to school science, not disciplinary knowledge?, deals with with the introduction of controversy mapping in grade 11 science class in Sweden. Examples are provided to illustrate how fragments of scientific evidence encountered online are recirculated by students engaged in talk being accountable to the learning community and to accepted standards of reasoning.

The third paper, Re-negotiating the biology curriculum: digital media challenges in biology education, illuminates how the integration of digital media in Swedish upper secondary biology education, may challenge an already established school practice and open up for expansion of the biology curriculum. Data from a two year design-based collaboration suggests tensions with regard to e.g. what ‘counts’ as school biology and what  roles are made available for teachers and students.

ABSTRACT. This symposium considers the impact of a range of ways in which drama (in different forms) can be effectively used to engage students in thinking about scientific subject matter. Each paper in turn considers how the particular approach reported on impacts on conceptual development. For each paper, too, there are also additional ways that learning is augmented (not just scientific understanding). As Neelands and Goode (2004) suggests, we are proposing to consider 1. What kinds of drama conventions are used; 2. How the drama conventions are used; 3. The ways that drama extends learning beyond just the scientific.

The first paper considers how tableau can support scientific understanding that centres around concepts related to the solar system. The second paper illustrates how Mantle of the Expert (MoTE) can support understanding principles about properties of matter and the solar system. The third paper describes how enactments of biological structures can help students understand the internal and external structure of cells. The fourth paper contrasts specifically how role-play can be used by either science or drama specialist teachers to promote understanding of science.

In terms of demonstrating what may be achieved beyond learning scientific concepts, the first paper mentions the augmentation of reading, comprehension and social behaviour; the second paper highlights how inquiry skills, technological skills, improved motivation and thinking like a scientist can also be enhanced; the third paper also suggests that inquiry learning is supported by drama and finally the fourth paper emphasizes how drama ‘border objects’ may be helpful in linking thinking about scientific concepts and pedagogies of drama and science.

ABSTRACT. The aim of this study is to contribute to an increased understanding of how changes in the learning environment can influence students’ motivation in school. The research was conducted in a Swedish primary school in which the learning environments for science have been developed during the last year and the teachers have had in-service training regarding science education. Data has been collected in the form of students’ questionnaires, which were answered by the students every month. Data has also been collected by student interviews in focus groups at the end of the year of the development work. Motivation has proven to be closely related to feelings of competence; autonomy and relatedness and students’ questionnaire as well as the semi-structured interviews included questions about feelings in relation to the school, to the new teaching and learning environment and to science and technology in general. Results presented here show that students like to be in School and appreciate science and technology. Younger students like science and technology compare to other subject to a greater degree than older students do. Students also reports that the usually are doing well in Science. Preliminary results from the interviews show that students express feelings of relatedness to their school. Students also expressed experiences of autonomy especially in relation to programming. Conclusions are that the programs seems to have contributed to students feeling of competence, autonomy and sense of belonging in school.

ABSTRACT. Particularly since many children in early childhood education (ECE) (education for children from birth to 8 years) do not yet write, teachers and researchers tend to use children’s drawings to assess their developing science learning. Previous studies show that children’s choices on what to include in their drawings are affected by local cultures of what constitutes a good representation. However, there is a lack of studies that focus on the teacher perspective, in terms of why and how they include drawing activities in their science teaching. Further, there are currently no studies that compare the role of drawings in science teaching across ECE sectors. The study is part of a larger study which aims to to advance our understanding of how to bridge science teaching across ECE sectors (preschool, preschool class, early primary school). Here, our specific aim is to examine how educational cultures of different ECE sectors interact with teacher’s objectives for using children’s drawings in science activities. We use Activity Theory to analyse field data (notes, photos, videos) from science activities that include children’s drawings, as well as recordings from group discussions with teachers. First, we focus on the relation between the purpose of the activity, the tools used, the local educational culture, and the outcome of each activity. Second, we compare our results across ECE sectors. Our preliminary results indicate that the purpose of drawing activities vary across sectors. In preschool, children’s drawings may serve to tell stories, while in early primary school, drawings may serve as a part of observation practice or to display children’s understandings of science concepts. The results are discussed in relation to children’s transitions between educational cultures, and whether teachers should explicitly scaffold scientific drawing in ECE.

ABSTRACT. We intend to present our study-research-action developed within the research line D.I.A.N. (Debates and Investigations about Animals and Society). That is the animal rights and environmental strand of initiative JOANINHA (Joy, Observe, Analyze, and Narrate: Inquiries on Nature, Humanities, and Arts), and intended for early childhood (between the ages of 2 and 6) of Stand of Science [Banca da Ciência], an interdisciplinary Brazilian science outreach project focussed on socioscientific activism. Through this project, we have presented activities to discuss science and interspecies ethics with 5-years-old ones at a kindergarten setting, on a low-income community at São Paulo, by proposing playful activities to the children. Situated on Cultural Studies of Science Diffusion, the Stand of Science understands the science as an established cultural practice, which should be approached upon its ethical, cultural, social and politics impacts. We will present the activities performed in our third workshop day to approach some moral disengagement that children had presented previously. A boy had said the alligator was gluttonous because they eat fish; however, we are not because we are person. Therefore, the third activity day aimed to discuss the differences between the sharks and humans food chain, the sea pollution and if it is right to trap sharks in an aquarium. We make up an interactive dialogue, a song and a play with masks to discuss that issues. Children could observe the ‘prescientific’ world using it as material of idealization as well as scientific construction. Through fantasy and ludic resources, we sought to stimulate the critical thinking with regards to human-animal relationship.

ABSTRACT. My dissertation project investigates efforts for integration of people that migrated to Sweden through educational activities in 'nature'. In these, adults and children is supposed to learn about Swedish nature within nature in order to enable integration. My interest is to understand how knowledge and certain activities in 'nature' are discursively attached to integration to Swedish society.

Drawing on a Foucauldian view of power as a productive force with material effects, this paper consider how the spaces 'nature' and 'urban' are constructed in this kinds of projects. Space is seen as a construction of plural interrelations and are constantly being made (Massey 2005). This also constructs expectations on what bodies and practices that belongs or not in these spaces (Puwar 2004). Being in 'nature' is discursively attached to culturally elevated modern ideas in Sweden, e.g., romantic emotions towards a pure and aesthetic nature, healthy and active lifestyles, consumption and industry for example as tourism and equipment's and ideas about sustainability. All these views are directed to an supposed 'natural nature', predominantly from a western, middle class and urban perspective (Frykman and Löfgren 1979, Ideland 2016). And, these are things that people can be learned.

In Civil society's educational integration projects in nature I found a recurring narrative of difference targeting certain urban areas in relation to the space of 'Swedish nature'. Here, 'the urban' seems to be a non-neutral space permeated with problems of inequality while 'the nature' seems to be a neutral space where people can meet and change. In the paper, I will critically scrutinize constructions of space that is used in efforts for integration through nature.

ABSTRACT. Collective action of the students-citizens related with socioscientific issues (SSI) is an excellent way for the development of competencies, such as problem solving, critical thinking, communication, collaboration and scientific literacy. Taking this into account, this study aims to know how a collective action related with the pollution of one local river contributes to students’ motivation, interest and learning. The research reported in this study is qualitative, adopting an interpretative orientation. Twenty one students participated in this study. They attended two 8th grade classes in middle school. The school belonged to a rural area of the country. The data sources used in this study were the interactions among pupils during the lessons, group interview, at the end of the study, and written documents produced by the participants. The analysis took place through asking questions and using the constant comparison method. The results show that the activities developed by the students, related with the SSI, had a positive impact in students’ motivation and interest to learn science. In addition, the activities allowed students to develop their competencies for informed action. The results also show that the collective action, carried out by the students through the newspaper and theatre, had a positive impact on the local community.

ABSTRACT. This presentation will focus one result of a study that followed groups of teachers within an Erasmus+-partnership. The teachers conducted an interdisciplinary teaching about complex and controversial issues, including socioscientific issues. Five schools, with students aged 12-16 years, in five different countries (Croatia, Poland, Italy, Sweden and Turkey) were involved. Through focus groups and participant observation, the study explored potential tensions that emerged during the enactment of the interdisciplinary teaching. Results show a variety of emerging tensions that might cause didactical dilemmas. The tensions are anchored both at different level, both concerning different types of curriculum goals and related to politics and religion, as well as those at the classroom level and at levels in between. One purpose of the study was to contribute to pre- and in-service teacher training and this resulted in a basis for a discussion tool. This tool is a didactic model aimed to raise awareness about both possibilities and potential negative consequences with different positions in didactical dilemmas. By means of abductive analysis, the empirical results of the study formed a basis for a model with four quadrant matrixes. In these matrixes, different tentative positions in didactical dilemmas are illuminated by fictional teachers that express statements about their position.

ABSTRACT. Although there is a substantial consensus about the benefits of bringing together history, philosophy, and sociology of science and science education at basic education, recent research shed light on the challenges of implementing pedagogical strategies supported by HPSS in the everyday life of schools. Also, the educational research points out that there is some detachment between teachers practices and curriculum questions/theorization. From the answers to a semi-structured interview carried out with four teachers from quite different realities in Brazil, we discussed the strategies carried out by them to implement HPSS in science classes and, also, their conceptions of curriculum. Our results reinforce some previous studies’ results and suggest the importance of the discussion of Curricular Theory in teacher formation. Furthermore, raises some possibilities for Science Education Research in everyday life of schools.

ABSTRACT. For more than ten years we created a three years preservice preschool teacher education program for students with childhood education and more than three years of working experience from preschool. The students worked at preschool and came one day a week to the university campus for lessons and practical activities but were also reading textbooks, looking at films and participating in group exercises. During a 10 weeks course in science and technology students wrote four texts with reflection on the literature and the exercises they did at the campus. They were also commenting each other’s texts. Their theoretical knowledge of science was used in the placement course where they should create activities in science at the preschool. Their written reports should describe the activities, how they are connected to pedagogical theories in science and children’s learning. The students’ reflection and placement reports were investigated with Doll’s 4R’s as quality markers which were created to notice the importance of other people and experiences, the use of different perspectives and different contexts for constructing knowledge. The impact of the students’ earlier experience from preschool on children’s and their own learning were assessed. Preliminary results show that the reflections were of high quality, often showing their experience from preschool especially in their comments to the other students. However, placement reports were more often describing only the activities and less reflection about their previous experience of working in preschool and children’s learning. The task for the placement report was less open compared to the texts of reflection. Therefore, it is necessary to create exercises which make it possible to follow the students’ development to become professional teachers. This can be done by forming tasks with open questions where students have the possibility to make reflections on their experiences and to promote their professional thinking.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this research is to explore aspects of a college instructor’s (Noor) life history in relation to his current instructional priorities. Noor has been actively revising his courses (in an Industrial biotechnology program) to a pedagogical framework developed by the second author and referred to as JustAct (Author 2, 2017). JustAct focuses on engaging students in considering relationships among Science, Technology, Societies and Environments (STSE) by conducting their own research and taking actions to address social and environmental harms linked to powerful groups’ influences on fields of science and technology (e.g. energy drinks). Outside the JustAct pedagogical framework, attention to social and environmental stewardship is seldom given significant attention in science and technology courses offered at the college. Through the JustAct framework, Noor sought to compensate for those exclusions and so we became particularly interested in understanding how he made meanings of his current pedagogical orientations in relation to his life history. A major finding reveals that meanings that Nurul gave to his practices were intrinsically connected to embodied ways of being, knowing and valuing nature, science and science education. It seems that those embodied meanings reaffirmed his commitments to JustAct principles and possibly increased his ability to navigate structural constraints of his work context. We end with considering how through attuning ourselves to the “seemingly mundane corporeal aspects of our performances and representations” (Alsop, 2011, p. 611), we may begin to explore what it means for teachers and students “to live fully and freely within their daily practices” (p. 612).

ABSTRACT. In the last decades several active pedagogical technics have been used for STEM education, mainly in the labs. The development of Social Networks Analysis (SNA) tools has brought contributions to the comprehension of collaboration ways in these learning environments. The most of these analyses are made in digital platforms from the online courses. However, we can do it for face to face activities too. A map of collaboration in the STEM activities can provide information to planning best ways for learning by teachers and learning process designers. The Namelab (Knowledge Networks Design Lab) has been developing research methodologies where these SNA tools can supply information for the development of learning processes. This article intends to do an analysis of the "Six Thinking Hats" (6TH) pedagogical technic applying in the Brazilian School (11th grade). The networks that emerge from “6TH” have human and no human actors. The human actors were formed by students and a teacher. Everybody exchange information face to face and teacher still has a core role (HUB) like a mentor. But, there are other non-human actors that play roles as strong as teacher in the learning network when we use the 6TH. The smartboard when joined with “padlet app” (SBP) can play a core role in the learning process. It is a hub that allows the information exchange among all students. In the traditional classroom the blackboard had one way direction. The teachers put information on the blackboard to students can see and understand ideas. The SBP is a multidirectional hub, linking all other actors. All students can put information on SBP for all. The level of collaboration is very high. The study of levels of collaborations in several methodologies can provide knowledges to design new active methodologies that can improve the STEM learning.

ABSTRACT. The acronym STEM is universal on the education landscape, yet its meaning varies with contexts. We see STEM used for advertising, in classrooms, for competitions, as conference themes, in curriculum, and as workshops. It is possible to define STEM in terms of each of these uses, yet each definition will be slightly different. The meaning of STEM is not clear and distinct. We know there are four disciplines involved (discounting the STEAM variations on STEM), but sometimes the meaning and emphasis defaults to only one discipline, or the four disciplines are deemed as separate but equal, or we find definitions where STEM is the integration of the four disciplines. What is clear however, is the societal drive for a STEM education leading to the solving of complex and ‘wicked’ STEM problems. Complex and wicked STEM problems draw on all our intellectual resources, they value the contributions of all the academic disciplines as well as other ways we construct our knowledge. And that brings the challenge of open disciplinary modes of inquiry teaching. But how do teachers teach STEM and these complex and wicked problems? What is an effective pedagogical approach? This paper provides insights into a framework for integrating disciplinary thinking – a framework that when combined with inquiry-based practices, STEM learning is expected.

ABSTRACT. The traditional lecture, where a lecturer presents, summarize, explain etc. the course content, still exists as common practice in Biology higher education. The purpose of this study is therefore the possibility of the lecture, as a mean to deal with a central learning problem in genetics. An experienced teacher and researcher sees a learning problem in the gap between scientific development and a more simple "one gene - one phenotype" relation and laws of inheritance, founded by Mendel. The question is how the lecturer tries to overcome the learning problem as part of the content structure of the lecture in a fruitful way. The study is inspired by lesson study in its arrangement. The lecturer structures his lectures in order to make this learning problem more visible for the students in two different ways for two different study groups. The lectures are recorded and the lecturer is interviewed before and after the lectures. The focused learning problem is then tested with a question in the final exam and the results from both student groups are documented and compared. The focus of the qualitative analysis was how the learning problem was framed and dealt with in the data. The lecture begins by setting the title “Mendel as genetics enemy no 1”, as a provocation in relation to the textbook (where Mendel is described as a founder of genetics) and continues with contrasting different patterns of inheritance in different ways. However, the exam results are not positive. The majority of students do not pass the question about how gene complexity is involved in phenotypic changes. The results bids a discussion about consequences for teaching when focusing on contrasting challenges for learning as well as development.

ABSTRACT. Genetic determinism is a hindrance to genetic literacy, which is extremely relevant to contemporary science understanding, given the advance of new technologies. YouTube has a high reach between young adults and is a science communication tool. This is a preliminary study to verify if gene concepts used by Evangelista (2016) and gene frames developed by Carver (2013) are adequate to analyze if genetic determinism is present in YouTube science communication videos. A trustworthy YouTube channel was selected for it is well seen and has the potential to have a lot of influence. The videos were selected, transcribed and separated in analysis units which were categorized by two independent researchers. The agreement rate was low and a consensus was reached. Two categories were more frequent: deterministic and gene-environment interactive. Deterministic was more frequent when physical traits were mentioned whereas gene-environment interaction was more prevalent when personality traits were brought up, which is a well-documented phenomenon. Therefore, the tools are adequate to the analysis and require very few modifications. Gene frame categories revealed to be more specific for this video media content. Our research will go on based on them - with the addition of the Others and Gene interaction categories - and media frame notions to find out if and how genetic determinism is present on popular YouTube science channels, especially Brazillian. English language videos are also meant to be included. Our sample is expected to be a lot broadened.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study is to determine how inquiry-based approaches represented in the Turkish biology textbooks. Four biology textbooks for 9-12 grades approved by the Ministry of National Education of Turkey were the sample of this study. Inquiry-based Tasks Analysis Inventory (ITAI) developed by Yang and Liu (2016) was used for analysis. Eighty-one activities were analyzed and findings showed that textbooks do a poor job of preparing students for understanding what scientific inquiry is. Scientific inquiry is a fundamental part of scientific literacy and despite being mentioned as a goal in the national curriculum, Turkish biology textbooks do not reflect this objective in the activities.

ABSTRACT. Biology teaching should be the way by which citizens acquire a deeper understanding of the diverse and complex structures of living organisms and the multiple interrelationships between them and their environment as well of its implications for everyday life. On the contrary, school education usually consists of mere retransmission of information, most of it disconnected from the reality of students. This situation explains why many students consider the study of biology monotonous and uninteresting. Ecology, in particular, should represent an important aspect in biology classes, encompassing the study of the rules governing natural and created/altered systems where we live. Considering that textbooks are the main didactic resource used by Brazilian teachers and the importance of the National Program for the Didactic Book (PNLD), academic research is needed on the contents of the books selected by this program and distributed free of costs to students of all basic education public schools, in order to contribute to its continuous improvement. This work aims to evaluate the content of Ecology in all nine biology textbooks approved in the public PNLD selection of 2016 regarding the nature and approach of socio-scientific issues. Results were analyzed in both qualitative and quantitative ways. Chapters dealing with Ecology were examined in terms of references to socio-scientific questions, categorized categorically, regarding its direct or indirect relation to students' daily lives. The presentation structure and the strategies of didactic approach of these subjects were analyzed in each work, being verified if these contemplate in some way the perspective of the scientific literacy and if they foster students’ critical positioning. It is presented a preliminary overview of teaching materials widely used in teaching Ecology in middle-level Brazilian schools, identifying aspects to be stimulated and revised in future editions of these works.

ABSTRACT. The present study proposes to investigate learning when we speak about biological invasions, whith a social point of view that encompasses the environmental, social and economic impacts related to the theme. For this, one of the activities of Sun Coral Project (PCS) was chosen as the object of study, which is based in Rio de Janeiro, and the Ilha Grande region is one of the main areas of activity. One of the main activities of the project is related to coral management, in which members of the project mainly researchers, biologists and residents work together to develop strategies for coral removal. Here the idea arises that the learning process about biological invasion can be a collective activity in which different actors guide the course of their own reality and of the social reality in a joint practice. From a cultural historical point of view, the values of learning as a result of practical social activity will be sought in the propositions of the participation and Situated Learning. Under this theoretical view, the concept of biological invasions, their meanings and the practice of the subjects around the question will be studied. The research is qualitative and the instruments for data collection will be interviews. The initial results show that participation in the activity allows the learning of multiple aspects of biological invasions that emerge from the local context, corroborating with some premises of situated learning. Finally, this research also aims to show the value of educational processes that involve scientific literacy outside of school. Learning about biological invasions within the management activity brings participants closer to their reality and as a consequence of socio-scientific issues.

ABSTRACT. In the face of contemporary educational challenges, socioscientific issues (SSI) gains relevance in science teaching through the stimulus to students to develop a critical stance on the scientific and technological subjects that modern society faces daily. Field classes stand out as the main didactic strategy to introduce students to real scenarios. In this context, the present work aims to analyze the potentialities of field classes in the approach SSI. In this perspective, during the application of a didactic sequence, which included intense classroom discussions about the use of pesticides, the students of a 6th grade class from a public school in the municipality of Lagarto, in the northeast region of Brazil, visited a rural property adopting organic agriculture. In the locality, the students had the opportunity to visualize the diversity of plantations, besides talking with the farmer and with an agricultural technician who orients the agroecological practices in the region. This experience provided the articulation between theoretical knowledge and the students’ reality, in addition to motivating them to think critically and taking position.

ABSTRACT. Public policies for science communication are essential for science to become part of Brazilian culture. However, they are insufficient quantitatively and there are a few studies about them. Thus, the present work intends to reflect, from the perspective of the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), the impact of the science communication public policies for social inclusion. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss the conception of social inclusion so that it can be understood how actions of science communication can result in social inclusion. It is believed that the theme is essential for elaboration of new and efficient public policies. The perspective of CHAT allows us to speak of social inclusion and science communication, considering the dialectical process in which the individual must apprehend and be apprehended in a given social context. The present study analysed projects selected by fund calls from Brazilian Science, Technology, and Innovation Ministry (STIM) that supported the science and technology communication, which were carried out from 2006 to 2013, as well as the projects and reports accepted and funded by these programs. In an initial analysis of 10 projects and their respective final reports referring to the 2006 STIM call, we observed that only one of the projects cites the expression "social inclusion". Approximately 70% of the projects analysed had as main objective the production of publicity materials, such as books, websites, videos and posters. Another 30% aimed at expanding the activities of existing science centers. The challenge of promoting a debate about polysemy of the term social inclusion and strengthen the understanding of how actions aimed at science communication can result in social inclusion are believed to be essential for new and efficient public policies to be elaborated.

ABSTRACT. Some of the most emblematic approaches in Environmental Perception researches aim to understand how individual are distributed on a continuum biocentric-anthropocentric views. The Wiseman and Bogner’s Model of Ecological Values can be considered an evolution of this approach, which has a two-dimensional nature. Preservation is a biocentric dimension and Utilization is an anthropocentric dimension. The model allows for individuals to be placed in one of four Cartesian quadrants. The aim of this work was to investigate the Environmental Perception about marine and coastal ecosystems of students from a coastal city of Brazil. We used a questionnaire as research instrument, composed by: an adaptation of “The Environment Questionnaire” (developed by Johnson and Manoli, 2008) specifically to evaluate the perception about marine and coastal environments, and by an essay question (Is there any relationship between your daily life and the marine and coastal environments? If you answered “yes”, explain this relationship.). The questioner was applied to 360 students from 3 basic education schools from Ubatuba (Brazil). Most students were located at the Preservation+Utilization- category (81%), followed by Preservation+Utilization+ (16%). Only few students were located at Preservation-Utilization- (2%) and Preservation-Utilization+ (1%). About the relationship of marine and coastal environments with daily life, 51% of students answered “no”, 46% answered “yes” and 3% did not respond. The main explanations were related with living in coastal environments (31%), recreation (27%) and affection for these environments (22%). We believe that the results were positive, specially related to Preservation component. However, they also highlighted that Environmental Educational programs focus on marine and coastal environments may have a special attention to relationship and utilization of these ecosystems, trying to minimize consumerist and utilitarian student’s views, with became evident on the explanations of the essay question.

ABSTRACT. Abstract Integration of natural sciences and aesthetics in preschool education Preschool education includes two courses, 30 credits each, with a particular focus on Science. Natural science is integrated with various aesthetic expressions to provide students with necessary subject knowledge, as well as ideas and examples of how natural science and aesthetics can complement and enrich each other. In our poster we present a theme where students are working with the subject content sustainable development. Recycling materials are used in a part of the cours and the students create a puppet with this material. The puppet can then be the tool they use to convey the knowledge of how we can take care of our earth. Building a kasper doll and using it in bodily action gives the student a tool to use in the educational activities. The students are assigned the task of writing a playbook related to the work in preschool with ecology, sustainable development and nature awareness. The project is conducted as a group work with four to five students in each group. They build their own dolls and use them in a story. The result is presented and then carried out in the form of a performance in an outdoor environment with each group. It is by simple means we are creating a kasper doll. The material we use is the one usually found at home or material you can easily access with no extra cost. In our poster you can see the students' work when the dolls develop and then how the final result will be. Readers are invited to discurss the advantages and cons of integrating science and aesthics and how we can create an education which prepering the students for an integrated approach in future practice.

ABSTRACT. As recent events have made abundantly clear, might not be as true as it appears. At the same time, mass media play an increasingly significant role in today’s society. More than ever, we need to consciously and critically analyze and evaluate news media messages, and then decide how to respond. This session focuses on fake news as it applies to science, and provides teachers resources and strategies that can help students become savvy science news consumers and producers as citizen scientists. How news media literate are today’s students? A 2016 research study by Stanford faculty focused on students’ news-literacy tasks, and found that middle and high school students, and even some in college, have trouble distinguishing which online resources are credible. The researchers stated a strong need for curriculum focused on developing students’ civic online reasoning. One disturbing trend is fake news in the form of pseudo-science. Several reasons underlay belief in “bad science” fake news: lack of scientific knowledge, poor logic skills and critical thinking, ideological biases and peer norms, as well as how the brain functions. The consequences of denying verifiable science, though, can be serious. While news media has not been integrated well into traditional curricula, its impact on political and daily decision-making highlights its need to be part of formal education. Several curricular areas lend themselves to the examination of fake news, one of them being science. Teachers can use science-related fake news to foster not only stronger scientific thinking but also increased research and analysis skills, improved communications skills, and science-oriented civic engagement. In particular, teachers can help students apply these skills to serve as citizen scientists. This paper explains fake news and how science teachers can help their students recognize and combat fake news as burgeoning citizen scientists.

ABSTRACT. Bedouins is a minority group in Israel, with cultural, historical, social and political uniqueness. During the past 70 years, the Bedouin community experiences changes in their traditional nomad culture and has become more urbanized. Still, the community suffers from under developed physical infrastructures and public services. The Bedouin community school drop-out rate is about 2.6 times higher than the average rate of the Israeli society. Less than 60% of the 17-18 years old Bedouin students take the matriculation exam, and only 30% pass them successfully. In STEM, the numbers are significantly lower. For example, only 2% have the highest level of math training, as compared to 12% percentage at the national level. The poor school achievements of Bedouin students are the main barrier to attend Higher education and later on integrate into the job market. In our lecture, we intend to describe a unique off-school intervention program – Excellence in Science Program, fully designed and carried out by young Bedouin leaders who understand this reality and seek for a true change. The heart of this program is intensive collaboration with the students’ schools, their communities and parents so as to give the students the necessary safety net they need to be able to join higher education science institutes, cope with their requirements while not dropping out. The main core of the program is a quality preparation, by well-qualified teachers, to math and science matriculation exams. At the same time, the program provides social and emotional empowerment, achieved, among other means, by setting meeting with academic and employment raw models and by visiting in High-Tec and scientific work places. Currently, 350 students participating in the program, and a massive evaluation research is carrying out, primarily examining students’ achievements and attitudes, as well as following their registration rate to higher education institutes.

ABSTRACT. This proposed presentation or roundtable discussion will explore theoretical perspectives on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education that merge some tenants of the ‘Slow Science Manifesto’ proposed by a group of scientists from Berlin, Germany. ‘Slow Science’ embraces a more thoughtful and reflective academic science where the group insists that more time is necessary to produce quality science. This paper explores what STEM education may look like theoretically from ‘Slow Science’ perspectives and would encompass time for students to reflect, draw from their ‘Funds of Knowledge’ (Moll et al., 1992), focus on fewer curricular outcomes more deeply, incorporate social and environmental justice, more time allocated for authentic feedback practices and assessment and to engage in Weltanschauung (i.e., the students’ conception of themselves and their place in the universe).

ABSTRACT. The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics has recently shown that women still earn less than men in the labor market: 76.1% of their income. A report by the 2017 World Economic Forum showed that inequality between men and women arises mainly from four social contributors - work, education, politics, and health – and has grown again that year. The same report states it would take at least 217 years to achieve gender equality in Brazil (Brazil is in the 90th position in the ranking of 144 countries in gender parity in these said aspects). Areas such as Sciences and Mathematics are until now lacking the presence of women. An increase in the number of women in these areas has been observed in Brazil, even though they remain a minority both in Brazil and in the rest of the world and, as the career hierarchy progresses, this number drops significantly. The presented scenario leads to the development of a research that intends to unveil the factors that contribute to the permanence of this minority of women in the scientific career, also considering the distancing from this area since a very early age. For that, we carried out nine life narratives with female research scientists. Based on these autobiographical stories, we employed a computational tool (Iramuteq) that performs a textual statistics to get the most cited pairs of words in the transcribed interview. The attribution of meaning to these words pairs depended on the context of each transcribed narration and was done by content analyses (as developed in the French perspective) within the constraints that emerged from the literature theoretical framework. Out of the set of analyzed interviews, one of the most quoted pairs of related words by the narrators is "no" and "woman".

ABSTRACT. Globally, there is a focus on generating energy from renewable energy sources in order to mitigate climate change and ensure sustainability. However, it has been discovered that mitigation and adaptation must both be applied together for effectiveness. Such activities can only be socially, ecologically and culturally sustainable if the indigenous people are carried along in their execution. This study seeks to examine the implementation of renewable energy technologies in rural Nigeria, the level of involvement of the indigenous knowledge systems and the impact of such implementation on the indigenous communities. Using maximum variation sampling method, data will be collected through semi-structured interviews and focus groups. Thematic analysis will be performed on data and implications will be derived on the role(s) of indigenous knowledge system in Science and Technology education in the country.

ABSTRACT. Policy guidelines have been highlighting society’s urgent need to adapt for the fast evolution of science and technology. In order to motivate people for pursuing scientific careers it is necessary to design and to implement educational policies and practices that foster scientific and technological knowledge and competencies right from the early years of schooling. STEM have emerged within this context. This study aims to know how a project based on STEM activities influences students’ learning and motivation to learn science. In the project the authors of this communication with schoolteachers, during one school year, designed STEM activities. These activities were implemented in the classroom by the schoolteachers. Participants are 860 students of thirty two 3th, 4th and 8th grade classes from five different schools. In this work, we used as data collection methods, students written answers to the STEM activities and focus group interviews after the project was over. The results show benefits for students. The students had the opportunity for improving their scientific learning, interest and motivation for learning science.

ABSTRACT. In 2016 The Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Columbia University invited technicians from the Rio de Janeiro City Hall to participate in a training workshop to share best practices for building climate resilience. From this meeting, another project was also proposed in the educational area. The Program "Education in Times of Climate Change" is an initiative that aims to connect, through teleconferences, professionals, and specialists of natural sciences area, with teachers and students of the public system of the Rio de Janeiro City. These technicians should prepare presentations on the actions they were carrying out for the teachers of the municipal network. Teachers would do the dissemination of this information to their students, using a more didactic approach. Within this cooperation agreement, four conferences were held with the following objectives: - to make the students aware of the need for researches and actions to preserve the environment; - to present the effects of climate change on their city; - to bring knowledge from the experience of professional public managers, regarding climate change and their impact; - to make a correlation between the topics addressed in school science education and professional activities related to the environment. While still enjoying the first contacts with the subjects related to these themes, the students have the possibility to have a supplementary information about practical applications of the disciplines that are being taught in their schools, besides having an opportunity to know the problems related to climate change. The present study aims to conduct a research to evaluate the efficiency and capacity of a methodological proposition within this teaching program, considering the use of alternative technological and didactic resources.

ABSTRACT. The continuous falling of the birth rate in developed countries is resulting in a reduction in the number of students where most of them are going away from scientific fields. From the academic point of view, such issues represents a great challenge for universities to motivate and make clear the importance for them to contribute in the industrial development within the fourth industrial of connected machines, reconfigurable systems, advanced robotics and seamless information flows. Therefore, in this paper, an industrial oriented project-based learning was proposed and implemented for the undergraduate course Project Course in Electrical Engineering (ELGB24) at Karlstad University. In this paper, it is described the design of the course and some examples of the projects selected by the students in collaboration with our industrial partners. For each of the examples, a description of the work done as well as a summary of their results are given.

ABSTRACT. Learning outside of the school environment is important for us because we spend most of life in outside of a school. In particular, Museums etc. are an important organization of the lifelong learning. Therefore a concept called "universal accessibility for the global citizen" is necessary at the museum. In actuality, the accessibility program for visitor and the universal guideline for exhibition are prepared in the Museum. The instructional activity at the museum continues developing by the advanced technology. For example, in Oarai aquarium (Ibaraki Prefecture Japan), there are the multilingual contents using the Nintendo DS. The contents support Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean, but it does not support the sign language. In this way, most of the contents for the hearing and visually impaired people are not mentioned in Japan. It is insufficient from a viewpoint of the universal design. Therefore, we aimed at improving the information accessibility of the museum based on “universal design” and “design for all”. we designed the multilingual web contents (included sign language) assuming that the audience accesses the information in the aquarium by using Wi-Fi networks. We examine a technical term spoken in an aquarium with a hearing impaired people in conformity with Inclusive Design Principles. The contents are epoch-making to have compiled the sign language about the aquarium but do not use the advanced technology. A characteristic of these contents is that not only sign language giving an open caption, but also a caption for reading with given kana is included. As a result, these contents are accessible for the foreigners and the small children who cannot understand a kanji instead of the hearing and visually impaired people. We consider that the information accessibility for the aim at the offer of the scientific information that anyone can enjoy is "Future Educational Challenge".

ABSTRACT. This presentation focus on how teachers in some elementary schools in a Denmark are reflecting on challenges and possibilities regarding pedagogical development, using indoor climate data on temperature, humidity and content of carbon dioxide in education. The study is part of a collaboration among Malmö University, Copenhagen University, Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and the Municipality of Höje Taastrup within Smart City Accelerator, Interreg Öresund-Kattegat-Skagerrak. Four types of theories and concepts about learning have influenced the research question and the interpretation of data. These include experience and communication, pragmatism, place-based education theory and theories of children’s participation. Three schools are equipped with indoor climate sensors and DTU is enable use of data collected, in the past and in real-time, to teachers at the schools. Teachers involved in the project are aiming to develop place-based learning on energy, climate and the Global Sustainable Development Goals. The teachers are interviewed in groups, using semi-structural questions regarding using indoor climate data in the classroom; • Experiences on place-based learning? • Possibilities and challenges using indoor climate data in education? • Aims of working with climate data in the classroom? • Learning activities and connections to syllabus? • How can knowledge learned in school be used? • What role do students place in the education? • Teachers learning in the project? One challenge is to understand the indoor climate data received from sensors in the classroom and how the indoor climate depends on various abiotic as well as biotic factors. Another challenge is to develop student-centered learning activities regarding energy issues and climate change. The teachers are experiencing possibilities to work place-based in science and technique education, do experiments and measurements, together in the classrooms. However, they also express their learning process while developing and try new materials and methods in class room education.

ABSTRACT. The main objective of this work is to analyze historically the field of science education in Brazil. Through the analysis of scientific journals published over the last 25 years, we examine the data we have collected raising questions about science and scientific and technological processes understood as inherent in society. We selected the ten best evaluated Brazilian journals on science education and then analyzed what Brazilian researchers said and wrote in those publications. To analyze data, to carry out a historical and critical investigation of Brazilian science education and to be able to think over other aspects involved in the issues associated with science education, we rely on Michel Foucault’s theoretical and methodological framework and his both archeological and genealogical perspective. We investigated mainly the scientific and technological practices. Our preliminary results reveal trends in Brazilian science education. It is expected that, at the end of the work, we will be able to show how Brazilian journals demonstrate science education and the main themes and discussions that embody Brazilian science education. It is also expected to understand how technological development presents itself in society as well as some of the future challenges that will be faced regarding scientific and educational aspects.

ABSTRACT. This study aims to analyze elementary students' scientific creativity based on a formula and verify the effectiveness of formula focusing on the components of originality and usefulness. 46 elementary students aged 10 to 12 responded the questions requiring students’ scientific creativity. The questions were designed to suggest up to five ideas for each of the advantages and disadvantages of Armadillidium vulgare’s living by looking at the insect’s appearance and characteristics. The students’ answers were assessed by a scientific creativity assessment formula. Based on two essential components of creativity, the scientific creativity is divided into two parts of originality and usefulness. Therefore, in this formula, ideas that satisfy both components can be counted as scientifically creative. The research questions of the study are as follows: First, how relevant is originality, usefulness, and fluency to scientific creativity? Fluency has been regarded as one of the elements constituting creativity. However, in terms of educational practices, it is necessary to identify whether fluency is a necessary requisite of creativity. In this study, the number of ideas can be counted as a fluency score. Second, when evaluating a student’s scientific creativity, which is more effective to apply the total sum, the average scores or the maximum score of those? Third, how different is the degree of scientific creativity in responding to positive aspects such as advantages and negative aspects such as disadvantages? Fourth, the question is part of the selection process of the science-gifted education center. So researchers found out who passed the selection among the students who responded the questions, and whether they completed the gifted education center. Finally, in the extension of the first question, researchers analyzed the various elements known as creativity constituents in previous studies and examine the effectiveness of the assessment in applying those elements.

ABSTRACT. For children, the museum is an important place to acquire scientific knowledge through experiences and conversation. However, the main learning method in the museum is through observation of exhibits and reading explanations on text panels, which constitutes passive learning. Few opportunities to discuss those experiences and engage in conversation exist. Therefore, it is difficult for young children to learn sufficiently and obtain knowledge efficiently. These issues should be solved to improve the quality of science education in museums. With the purpose of solving these issues, we developed a collaborative immersive learning support system in the museum that enables children to learn through body movements and conversation. Children can adequately obtain knowledge by thinking hard when moving with multiple people. Based on this consideration, we developed content that can be manipulated by body movements of multiple people. For instance, people cooperate to observe a fossil projected on the screen surrounded by other exhibits and answer quizzes. We expect children to efficiently gain knowledge of fossils through this system. The study was performed at the Museum of Nature and Human Activities, Hyogo, Japan with 19 elementary school students. We tested these students to evaluate their knowledge before and after using the system. Through an analysis of the before and after results, we confirmed that the knowledge acquired using the system was greater. This result indicated that this system is effective in helping children efficiently acquire knowledge.

ABSTRACT. CREATIONS is a H2020-EU funded project involving 11 EU countries who aim to develop more engaging science classrooms through arts-based creative practices. The project seeks to demonstrate innovative approaches and activities that involve teachers and students in Scientific Research. This paper synthesises a range of previous findings from EU-funded projects and wider literature with an original survey to identify the perspectives on effective, creative science pedagogy and practice of a range of stakeholders, including teachers, educational researchers, professional development providers and informal science educators. The results of a survey designed to explore the perspectives of different stakeholders on the relationship between creativity and science in science education are presented. Our findings showed that all Primary teachers and informal educators felt there was a relationship between science and creativity. A small sub-group of secondary science teachers (16.3%) were unconvinced of the relationship between creativity and science. This was found to be related to the educators’ perception of the relative role and importance of scientific knowledge and scientific creativity in teaching and learning. Thematic analysis of qualitative data indicated the importance of question-posing for creativity in science. The paper discusses these findings with respect to the key features of creativity in science articulated in the theoretical framework of the project. In particular, we focus on the relationship between knowledge and creativity, how they are balanced in interdisciplinary work, and how the notion of ‘possibilities’ can help bridge concepts and disciplines

ABSTRACT. There are few studies that examine the impact of storytelling and practical inquiry on learning in science. The case studies that do exist provide illuminatory insights that emphasise the nature and impact of such classroom practice. This study, however, was designed to be quasi-experimental to compare the extent to which more or less storytelling was influential in hands-on inquiry learning. Classes of children ages 5, 6 and 10 years old were divided into thirds to enable within class comparisons of three forms of pedagogy and to examine across age comparisons of talk and interaction. The lessons were video-recorded, transcribed and then analysed to ascertain the nature of learning and verbal interactions amongst the differently aged children. The theme (gravity and forces) remained consistent for each lesson. The first pedagogical approach, involved directly describing Newton’s scientific discoveries through analogous demonstrations followed by some hands-on free play. The second pedagogical approach contained historical story-telling about Newton’s life and illustrated his findings through experiments, as well as incorporating some child-led hands-on investigation. The third pedagogical approach provided all the same materials and equipment, but the children were free to choose how they might play or experiment with the apparatus. After each lesson the teacher was interviewed. The analysis illuminated the nature of students’ learning, given differentiated teacher inputs. Not unexpectedly there was variation in the talk across all age groups but the extent of the verbal interactions and the storytelling approach appeared related. For example, the learning outcomes were verbally articulated and enhanced when storytelling was combined with hands-on inquiry. Surprisingly, however, some scientific ideas emerged in the free-play lessons, but there was less exploratory talk and symmetrical discussion.

ABSTRACT. The aim of this paper is to illuminate how transdisciplinary drama involvements can explore affective dimensions and opportunities for practicing action and agency concerning sustainable development. A pedagogical framework of role play activities is presented. In order for students to incorporate the complexity of sustainable development issues, they engage in bodily experiences in educational drama. Drama and role play afford complex arenas in which students can explore diverse affective dimensions and opportunities for practicing action and agency. Using drama as an educational tool in sustainability issues, provides a transdisciplinary learning activity, and maintains the core of drama education; exploring and experiencing affective dimensions. By for instance, using semi-structured role plays, students play out and explore decision-making situations in different roles where they utilize acquired knowledge from a number of disciplines and simultaneously in the encounter, together reflect upon and perhaps build new transdisciplinary knowledge about issues of sustainability. Being in role, enforces the students to also consider personal values and ethical concerns.

ABSTRACT. Profound socio-environmental changes taking place at a planetary scale are threatening food security over the coming years. A ‘new competition for land’ is arising from growing nutritional needs combined with increasing energy demands, reduced availability of fossil fuels and the urgent need to reduce emissions (Harvey & Pilgrim, 2011). However, while debates on climate change proliferate in the scientific literature, policy discussions continue to focus on technical solutions or ‘knowledge transfer’ without seriously engaging with the content and practices of education (Bangay & Blum, 2010). In this context, school gardens are receiving renovated attention. Expanding on current initiatives of educational reform, featuring inquiry/project-based and action-oriented learning (Bencze, 2017) , this project developed as a partnership between a teacher education institution, a non-governmental organisation, a city council planning and infrastructure department, and three primary schools in three regeneration areas of the city. Data were collected through a semi-ethnographic approach incorporating basic quantitative measures of children’s perspectives and practices, taken at the start and at the end of the project along with qualitative data obtained through observation schedules; visual data and interviews with teachers and pupils over the course of the project. Drawing on the insight of socio-material approaches (Barad, 2007), the project was conceived of as a process of description of an ontological re-reversal; beyond the acquisition of language and principles associated with knowledge of sustainability, tending to the gardens and growing food was seen to contribute to the formulation of a learning aesthetics which re-connects learners with their own bodies; acknowledges the living state of materials and re-view action as a way of being and becoming into the world.

ABSTRACT. Roles of elite schools in perpetuating the status quo have been extensively discussed. Through their selective traditions, their discourses of distinction, and/or their global connections, elite schools tend to secure privileges to dominant social classes, facilitating leadership, mobility and networked support for their students. Additionally, how knowledge is conceptualized, presented and applied in these schools seems to significantly contribute to constructing and maintaining these privileges. This paper reports on a Canadian elite school’s approach to STEM education, and how this approach might support the distinction and (privileges of) their students. As dominant forms of STEM education have been critiqued for their apparent (exclusive) focus on technical skills and knowledge - perhaps supporting ‘regulation’ of students/citizens in a productive workforce – examining how STEM education is conceptualized and practiced in elite schools provides a better understanding of constructs of power imbalances in STEM (education) and in society. Findings reveal employing (STEM-related) competitions and contests (as cocurricular activities) to construct and maintain distinction and privilege. Research significance and recommendations are also discussed.

ABSTRACT. Sustainable development is the educational and global challenge now and still in the future, which strongly links to the goal of scientific literacy for responsible citizenship addressed internationally today. In order to contributing to formal education, the study aims to explore what knowledge and value aspects found in young fishers’ and school teachers’ responses concerning sustainable fishing in the Rufiji District in Tanzania. Group interviews were conducted with 42 young fishers (including 25 part-time fishers and 17 full-time fishers, age from 16 to 19) and nine school teachers during 2017 spring to collect the responses on their practices (fishing or teaching practices) concerning sustainable fishing. In order to contribute to formal learning guided by the discipline-based curriculum, the participants’ responses were analysed based on the SEE-SEP model, which was developed aiming for providing a holistic view of socioscientific issues (SSI) and found suitable. After coded the participants’ responses from the group interviews, descriptive analyses were done to show the distributions of knowledge and value linking to different subject areas presented by the different groups of participants. It was revealed that both of the part-time and full-time the young fishers presented the knowledge aspect to a high degree than the school teachers. Among the different subject area, knowledge from environmental science was found dominantly in all the participating groups’ responses, but knowledge from the subject area of ethics was less presented. Concerning the value aspect, it was interesting to find that the teacher group presented value to a large degree than the young fisher groups, and mainly linked to the subject areas of environmental science and economy. Moreover, the young part-time and full-time fishers did show knowledge and value linking to different subject areas to different degrees. The implications for educational practice, curriculum policy and research are discussed.

ABSTRACT. This study explore how 15-year- old students choose to position themselves in relation to the prevailing norms and values in a discourse practice: the Swedish National test in chemistry from 2009. The prevailing discourse in the test calls on students to embrace a particular identity. This identity is male-coded, and builds on Cartesian thoughts and thereby on the mind/-body, culture/nature dichotomies. The overarching aim has been to trouble this scientific identity that the test promotes. The aim has also been to sketch a possible alternative to this discourse, that is, what feminist figurations can be interpreted through students’ subject positions and what alternative science teaching can be sketched in the means of them. The study has been conducted by analysing 188 student answers from one of the open-ended socio-scientific test items that allows students to take stances and express their thoughts. The position that students take are broadly in opposition to the prevailing discourse and the interpreted feminist figurations show a possible and alternative science teaching that among other things points at a science teaching that takes into account students’ interests and involvement.

ABSTRACT. This paper aims to deconstruct how the practice of science is discursively attached to certain parts of the world and certain “kinds of people”. In focus is how the power technology of coloniality organizes the scientific content in textbooks as well as how different categories of science students are acted upon in the science classroom. The theoretical foundation is Foucault’s work on how power and knowledge are inseparable categories and operate together in the making of truth as well as (im)possible subjectivities. To deconstruct the power/knowledge system I use the concepts of epistemic violence and coloniality; how the entanglement of scientific reason, coloniality and the idea of modernity are constantly reproduced.

Drawing on these theories, the paper discusses how science and coloniality shape the images of the world and of science. This is done through analyzing science textbooks from the following themes: 1) if and how the colonial history of science is described in Swedish textbooks; 2) how science history is described and; 3) how the global South is represented. Furthermore, to understand how the power technology of coloniality organize science classrooms, I use previous studies on the image of the science learner from inside and outside the context of Sweden.

The analysis shows that what has been – and still is – made in the name of science in the colonial project is not present in the science textbooks. Noisier is the talk about science as necessary for the development, i.e. colonialism is more or less absent in the science textbooks, while coloniality organizes the content. Furthermore, the biology lessons differs depending on the color and/or ethnic background of the children. Racialized children are objected to “civilization” in the name of science: eat better, sleep better and take care of their hygiene (e.g. Ideland, Malmberg & Winberg, 2011).

ABSTRACT. Floating and sinking involves complex concept that is difficult to grasp for both pre-service teachers (PST) and students. It is important that PST get a high level of understanding of the underlying concepts since students encounter these concepts from early years of school and in kindergarten. The aim of the study is to get an insight into PST’s sense making of floating and sinking. The teaching sessions were research-based and carefully designed by teacher educators based on the inquiry-based learning (IBL) pedagogy, in which experiments and discussions played an important role. In this proposal, we focus on how the PST gain conceptual understanding of the relative forces approach - how the forces of buoyancy and gravity relates to floating and sinking - and the relative density approach -how the density of an object compared to the density of the liquid determines if the object floats or sinks. Our preliminary analysis have given evidence that the PST at the first encounter explained the concepts through colloquial language and by comparing the observations to their experiences in their everyday life. At the end of the teaching, they have gained conceptual understanding of the main concepts and made a better use of scientific language. They used scientific theories and laws to explain the concepts rather than solely leaning on everyday life experiences in their explanations.

ABSTRACT. It is without doubt, that education is one of the main social factors having influence on health. Health education is most effective at school, because it reaches a man at his most receptive period of life - childhood and adolescence. A demand to live a healthy life is formed not only by family, but also by school. Teachers’ role in health education process is very significant, therefore, their health literacy and health competence are the main components realising health education at school. During the studies at university preservice teachers in one way or another develop health competence, however hopefully not enough attention is paid to this, and study process poorly contributes to health literacy improvement, health competence formation. A qualitative research was carried out, by which it is sought to ascertain university students’, preservice teachers’ position on health literacy question. In the research participated two Lithuanian university pedagogy study bachelor programme students (101 respondents). For data collection 5 open questions were used, data were analysed using a quantitative content analysis type, when a code system is defined, calculation results are presented in the form of tables. It has been stated, that students’ health literacy basically is related to the knowledge about health, healthy way of living, personal example to live a healthy life. A traditional attitude to health literacy improvement possibilities is noticed. Non-formal health education activity is slightly accentuated, the importance of emotional, spiritual health and health care is almost not emphasised.

ABSTRACT. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of the SSI programs on promoting elementary school students’ character and values, and key competencies as citizens. Fifty 6th graders in a public elementary school, located in the North part of Seoul, participated in the study. Students in the experimental group took SSI classes over 8 weeks regarding 8 selected issues that matched National science curriculum, whereas students in the control group was taught by traditional lecture-based instruction. Data was collected by administering two questionnaires designed to investigate students’ character and values, and key competencies as citizens. For the experimental group, student group discussions and focus group interviews were audio-taped and used as a secondary data source. In the results, first, among the three elements of character and values, the experimental group’s social moral and compassion scores showed the larger improvement as a result of the SSI programs. Especially, the SSI programs had a significant impact on the three sub-elements (i.e. inter-connectedness, perspective-taking, and empathic concerns) out of seven. Qualitative data analysis supported that the experimental group started to be more aware of the importance of sustainable development and to appreciate diverse perspectives on the issues. The students also became more sensitive to moral and ethical aspects of SSI and presented more responsibility and willingness to act as citizens. And second, the significant educational effects were also observed in two targeted elements under the key competencies, (i.e. critical thinking/problem solving and communication). Specifically, the experimental group showed statistically significant improvement on collaborative efforts, critical thinking, meta-cognitive skills, and active listening. Even in the rest of the sub-elements, the experimental group tended to perceive the values of collaboration and sharing more, and to feel free to express their ideas.

ABSTRACT. Socio-scientific issues (SSI) are related to science and scientific technology and are complex social issues that involve diverse values. The SSI in which multiple values are involved is thought to be crucial as a content of science education. Therefore, it is believed that scientific literacy can be improved by adopting SSI into science education. Preceding SSI research studies focus on improving students’ argumentation skills through SSI based education. However, there is no study that have focused on learning Argumentation for Persuasion. Therefore, this study will engage in the development of Design Elements for a Socio-scientific Issue Curriculum Unit to foster students’ Argumentation for Persuasion based on the instructional model by Friedrichsen, Sadler, Graham and Brown (2016). The instructional model by Friedrichsen et al. (2016) highlights (1) Focal Issue (2) Social Connections (3) Scientific ideas and practice (4) using Information and Communications Technology (ICT) (5) Culminating Experience. In this research, we selected the development of GMO known as ‘Rice Seed-Based Edible Vaccine for Japanese Cedar Pollinosis’ as the Focal Issue. Students firstly learn about the scientific aspects of cedar pollen allergies and GMO (i.e. Scientific ideas and practice). Next, they learn about the five opinions for and five opinions against the development of Rice Seed-Based Edible Vaccine for Japanese Cedar Pollinosis (i.e. Social Connections). They will develop a matrix in order to clarify the complex relationships between these statements. Additionally, the quality of the completed matrix will be further improved upon by sharing the developed matrices between students (using ICT). Then, they are asked to make proposals that will persuade those who have a standpoint that opposes their own (i.e. Culminating Experience).

ABSTRACT. It is generally accepted that addressing socioscientific issues (SSIs) in the classroom provides an appropriate context for focusing on several components of scientific literacy. Teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge for socioscientific issues (PCK for SSI) and understanding of socioscientific issues (SSI) emerge as significant components shaping their SSI practices in the classroom. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between teachers’ PCK for SSI and understanding of SSI. Participants of this study were 102 in-service biology teachers. Data was collected through the instrument for assessing Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Biological Socioscientific Issues (PCK-BSSIs). Data was analyzed using the rubric developed by Han-Tosunoglu and Lederman. The rubric for instrument helps to accommodate the responses to each question in one of three different categories: inadequate understanding, eclectic understanding and, reform-based understanding. These categories were scored 0, 1 and 2 points respectively. To assess teachers’ PCK-BSSIs, three parts of the instrument were analyzed separately first. Then, total score was calculated for each theme and each part excluding the first one (demographic). At the last step, the results of the the correlation between the teachers’ understanding of SSIs and PCK-SSIs assessed. Bivariate relationships among the variables revealed moderate and significant positive relationship between understanding of SSI domains (knowledge about SSI r=0,454, importance of SSI in science education r=0,542, importance of SSI in science classroom r=0,548, SSI practice r=0,540) and PCK for SSI. Also, the analysis of the data showed that total score of understanding of SSI and PCK for SSI is strong, significant and positive (r=0,63). Teachers’ understanding of SSI in classroom, SSI practice and SSI in science education are more related to PCK for SSI than knowledge about SSI. Also, total score of understanding SSI may be predictive of PCK for SSI.

ABSTRACT. Labwork in science education has been questioned with respect to its contribution to learning. This paper reports on critical factors to enhance students’ meaning making during labwork in six different Swedish schools. Using Spy-glass cameras we were able to collect close-up video data from student talk and activities. Student focus varied between schools and student groups, on most occasion a majority of time was spent focusing clearly outside anything related to the subject. Teachers’ introductions were categorized according to their main focus (scientific ideas, laboratory skills or knowledge of scientific inquiries) and school-related students’ negotiations were analyzed using the same categories. There was no clear-cut relationship between the focus of teacher introductions and the nature of the school-related student negotiations. Overall, teacher introductions most often focused on the scientific ideas. However, student negotiations were dominated by the laboratory skills category, followed by scientific ideas. Negotiations concerning knowledge of scientific inquiry were rare. Small variations among groups suggests that students had similar experiences of what was expected from them in the labwork situation. We found a connection between whether the scientific ideas had been previously processed and the likelihood that students discussions would focus on the scientific ideas. There was a range in the type of tasks given to the students in connection with the labwork. We found that both open discussions about scientific topics as well as limited activities such as simply filling in a form could potentially generate scientific discussions. However, the combination of previously unprocessed scientific content and openly formulated tasks was never successful. We conclude that several factors affect student focus and that the labwork situation remains questionable as learning situations as long as all these factors are not entirely appreciated by teachers.

ABSTRACT. Science teachers in England are under more pressure than ever to deliver a content-rich, high stakes curriculum. At the same time, they strive to encourage a view of science as engaging, empowering and relevant to pupils’ lives. In response to this double bind, some teachers run project-based activities spanning weeks or months, generally in addition to the standard curriculum and often in the ‘gaps’ or neglected spaces of the school timetable. For my PhD I am using a case study approach to follow some of these teachers and pupils and to explore what they are doing and why they are doing it. The case studies will adopt a multi-voiced approach to explore the interplay between teachers’ and pupils’ perspectives, but this presentation draws on the data from some teacher interviews in the first instance. Pilot interviews with eight teachers were conducted to identify key themes. In this presentation I will outline some of the findings from these interviews using cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT). The data will be used to illustrate the implications of considering school-based science projects as collaborative, tool-mediated, object-oriented activities that are shaped by their historical and cultural contexts as well as the multiple motives of the participants. I suggest that these activities constitute attempts by teachers, however modest, to transform the practices and culture of school science from the ground up and to open up spaces for the development of agency. The pupils’ positioning as active subjects appears to be a defining feature of these activities, in contrast to a widely expressed belief that much of science learning in schools encourages passivity. Simultaneously, the teachers’ own sense of professional agency is crucial for initiating and sustaining activities. I will make the case that teacher agency and learner agency are related in complex and dynamic ways.

ABSTRACT. For a long time, laboratory work, enquiry-based learning and experimental activities have been a topic of study and debate amongst science educators and researchers . However, there are many unsettled points, for instance, the concrete goals of this kind of activity in school setting. Furthermore, in many cases there is a mismatch between teachers’ and students’ intentions and expectations with enquiry or laboratory work. Although the teacher planning targets an epistemic shift, often the laboratory work ends up reinforcing naive conceptions on science enquiry. In this paper, we are confronting the students and teachers’ perspectives on experimental activities, laboratory work and enquiry-based learning. Are they still have conflicting perspectives? Using the PISA 2015 dataset, we are able to trace the correlation between students and teachers’ perspectives on laboratory work as well as theses perspectives with other PISA indices. Besides the PISA country rankings and the strongly normative OECD orientations, PISA survey might provide some interesting insights on teachers’ practices and how it affects students’ learning and motivation. Particularly, in the results regarding laboratory work and enquiry-based activities there are some evidences that this type of activities teachers develop impact positively the students’ motivation, which corroborate the literature and teachers general perceptions. Our results suggest an alignment between students and teachers’ perception on laboratory work. Finally, there is a negative correlation between laboratory work and performance in paper (or computer) type test.

ABSTRACT. This communication presents the results of a study about the understanding of the polysemic term "Experimentation". The research refers to the undergraduate students enrolled on an ITE in Chemistry provided by the Federal University of Espírito Santo, Brazil. The Social Representation (SR) of these undergraduate students about "Experimentation" indicates the meaning this social group attributes to this polysemic term. The importance of the words that constitute an SR is related to their symbolic value to the social group, a qualitative feature that implies in the salience and connectivity of the term, also qualitative characteristics. The Central Core Theory (CC) is a theoretical approach to the SR in which, in a free association task, the most significant terms are the more salient, presenting higher frequencies and being hierarchically more representative. The CC Theory assumes that the structure of the SR presents a central core that guides the meaning and the organization of the SR, and a peripheral system that reflects the individual experiences and allows the SR adaptation to the immediate context. The structural theory explains the coexistence of the rigidity and the flexibility in an SR. In this study, we use a questionnaire based on the free association of words. The survey, with 13 questions, was answered in 2017 by 59 ITE Chemistry students of the Federal University of Espírito Santo, in the city of Alegre-ES (Brazil). In short, the terms of the central core of the SR concerning experimentation for this group of future teachers are "experiment", "knowledge", "discovery" and "research". Data show that only "experiment" has a significant number of evocations associated to the teaching/learning process, what indicates the need of deepening the reflexion on the importance of experimentation as a pedagogical tool for teaching chemistry, during the Chemistry ITE.

ABSTRACT. University pedagogy gives guidelines for education arrangements. As known studying level, previous learning practices, group size and learning aims and methods must be taken into account when teaching selected tasks for any course.

In the NDU’s science and technology education lectures the purpose is that exercises, and report type home works guide students to achieve learning goals. Group work is the major tool to activate students and on the same time save lecturing resources. Besides this teaching instructors’ role is to clarify goal settings and to be available to solve various problems like motivational issues or practical working space arrangements.

This research presents observations how teacher’s role according to students viewpoint grows from an inspector (or commanding officer) to a coach, and finally towards personal advisor. Research follows loosely Design-based research methodology. Action research methodology was used in the intervention design. Interventions were part of another research project that will be reported separately. In theory part teacher leadership and student centric-education are studied so that the collected feedback data can be analyzed and the results reflected to literature findings. Even though it is known that utilization of student evaluations for teaching in higher education may have validity problems, the standard SET questionnaires in NDU’s Learning Material Portal have been used for data collection. The research revealed that students appreciated especially self-regulated learning and founded well guided team work as motivational task. The path how to have active multitasking teachers is discussed.

ABSTRACT. This study explored the STEM identity that has been formed and changed and developed through mathematics, science, technology, and engineering experience of Korean science and engineering college students since childhood. Participants were university students (12 male students, 3 female students) with high academic achievement in Seoul, Daejeon, and Pohang, and advanced into high-quality universities through entrance into high school through science and gifted education. The students participated in the event. This researcher has been studying mathematics, science, technology and engineering experience with parents in their childhood, and based on various experience in school and out of school at elementary, middle and high school, The purpose of this study is to clarify the implications of the in-depth interview results on how the interaction with the society outside the school affects the formation, change and development of the STEM Identity through qualitative analysis. Based on the research of Carlone & Johnson (2007), Calabrese Barton (2013), Hoffer (2016) and Hazari et al. (2010), which proposed the Conceptual Framework of STEM identity, We analyzed how the elements of identity are revealed, and the change and development process of STEM identity is derived from Lave & Wenger (2007). Based on this research, we will seek and propose the direction of integrated talent education in elementary, middle and high schools to improve the STEM mindset of students in science and engineering and to enhance STEM identity positively.

ABSTRACT. The study aimed to investigate the Manifestations of the Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), according to the model proposed by Rollnick et al, about Biomes that occurs at São Paulo of an undergraduate student when developing activities during a teacher training program (PIBID). Data source were: CoRe questionnaire (Content Representation) and transcriptions of planning meetings and application of classroom activities. Data were evaluated by content analysis, using Manifestations as a priori categories: Curricular Salience (CS), Topic specific instructional strategies (S), Representations (R) and Assessment (A). The main ideas listed in CoRe by student were: Diversity, Adaptations and Energy flow-trophic chain. About Idea 1, there was a highlight for the identification, relationship with the abiotic factors and conservation of the biodiversity of the Atlantic Forest, Cerrado and Mangrove biomes (CS). The use of dialogic expository teaching as a main strategy occurred (S). Traditional assessment instruments were used, but the diagnostic assessment was incorporated (A). About Idea 2, we observed the focus on Atlantic Forest and Cerrado, addressing the adaptations of animals and plants to the environment. The adaptations to burning in Cerrado was discussed (CS) and a strong highlight was given to field work (S). The relationships among several types of seeds and their types of dispersion were highlighted (R). Debates were pointed as a possible assessment strategy (A). For Idea 3, the basic structure of the trophic chains and the mechanisms and conservation importance of energy flow were discussed (CS). There was a variety of instructional strategies, as didactic game and Facebook page construction (S). Representations were incorporated into game (R). The discussions were highlighted as possible forms of assessment (A). The research demonstrated the presence of all PCK manifestations, showing that the immersion at school proposed by PIBID program enabled the undergraduate student to mobilize teachers’ knowledge.

ABSTRACT. This proposal reports from an empirical study of social moderation meetings concerning assessment of scrutiny of scientific information and informed decision-making in lower secondary science education. Assessing students’ scrutiny and decision-making has proved difficult to teachers in Sweden. As an alternative to the standardised formats in the national tests, the Swedish national Agency for Education has suggested that teacher discuss syllabi standards and assessment in social moderation meetings. A series of three such meetings were observed in Apple and Birch School. In the first meeting teachers constructed two items that were then administered and assessed in the two following meetings. Between the last two meetings assessment were altered according to what solutions the teachers had come up with to the problems arisen in the first assessment meeting. The meetings were analysed as to what tensions arouse between the teachers and how they agreed to resolve these tensions. The meetings were different in the two schools. Teachers in Apple school took much more responsibility in interpreting student performances. Tensions in Apple school were, furthermore, much more conflictual and concerned whether identifying and applying scientific aspects of civic issues could be expected of students with language difficulties. The Birch school teachers, on the other hand, found that they initially put to little emphasis on students’ articulation of scientific concepts and theories. The Birch school teachers decided to stress the importance of scientific concepts whereas the Apple School teachers decided to focus assessment on the process of scrutiny and decision-making. However, three teachers from Apple School did not participate in the last meeting, indicating that social moderation of teacher assessment is more complex than coming to consensus of how to apply assessment instructions to collectively constructed items.

ABSTRACT. Although fields of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematic) have been greatly beneficial (e.g., increasing human longevities through medical technosciences), they also are associated with harms for individuals, societies and environments - including human illnesses from food additives and myriad problems from fossil fuel uses - particularly when governments, corporations and transnational governing bodies prioritize private profit over general societal and environmental wellbeing. Consequently, it seems clear that citizens need to be ever-vigilant in evaluating STEM fields and, where they detect harms or risks, develop and implement action plans to bring about their conceptions of a better world. A natural place for such critical and action-oriented education seems to be school science, which can educate STEM workers and literate citizens. However, while there have been some successes in this regard reported for science education, more could be learned from analyses of authentic citizen action projects - which, for instance, appear to be highly contextual and diverse. Accordingly, based on constant comparative analyses informed by constructivist grounded theory of citizens' efforts to convince city officials and others to eliminate perceived toxic dust pollution in a city, it became apparent that authentic cases of citizen activism can be well understood using actor-network theory (Latour, 2005) and Foucault's (2008) concept of dispositifs; that is, networks of living, nonliving and symbolic actants all, more or less, cooperating in support of a common cause. More particularly, students may gain insights into relevant ontological (e.g., networked), epistemological (e.g., citizen knowledge generation practices) and axiological (e.g., differing value systems) aspects of competing dispositifs. Also, pedagogically and in terms of mobilization of perspectives and practices, findings here suggest needs for ongoing integrated knowledge generation and evaluative activities by students, teachers, STEM workers, government officials and others.