Faculty Learning Community: Agenda and Notes (April 29, 2010)

TOPIC:

Reflections on a journey toward science education as conversation

or

The theory and practice of science as "co-generative dialogue"?

Paul Grobstein will briefly describe and reflect on his own experiences with trying to get science education "less wrong," with the objective of providing a framework that will encourage and support continuing conversation about a number of issues that have come up in our meeting this year.  Among them are

• What is science?  reasoning? inquiry?  How should science education be assessed?  Does science education require prior preparation?  Is there a skill to be mastered?
• Should education and research in education  be modeled on "scientific methods and processes"? 
• What's the role of feedback and collaboration in science education?
• What role should disciplinary expertise, interpersonal dynamics, and "misconceptions" play in science education?  
• What kinds and levels of "structure" is important in science education? 
• Is "problem" solving context specific or general?
• What are the pros and cons of various kinds of technological innovation? 

Snacks will be served in Campus Center 200 from 2:30-4pm.

SUGGESTED READING:

Beginning twenty years ago ... (pick one of the following)

• This isn't just MY problem, friend - 1991
• Science as "getting it less wrong' - 1993
• Some thoughts on introductory science teaching - 1993

Current status ... (read the first and one of the others)

• Evolution of science education as story telling and story revising
• Subjectivities and objectivities in classrooms and beyond
• Making sense of the world: the need to entertain the inconceivable
• Exploring the nervous system's role in experiencing ("discussion summary" and forum comments)

Additional materials

• Cultures of ability
• Science, culture, education, and the brain
• Learning to teach through coteaching and cogenerative dialogue