Table Of ContentDeborah Corrigan · Cathy Buntting
Alister Jones · John Loughran Editors
Navigating the
Changing Landscape
of Formal and Informal
Science Learning
Opportunities
Navigating the Changing Landscape of Formal
and Informal Science Learning Opportunities
Deborah Corrigan • Cathy Buntting
Alister Jones • John Loughran
Editors
Navigating the Changing
Landscape of Formal
and Informal Science
Learning Opportunities
Editors
Deborah Corrigan Cathy Buntting
Faculty of Education University of Waikato
Monash University Hamilton, New Zealand
Clayton, VIC, Australia
Alister Jones John Loughran
University of Waikato Monash University
Hamilton, New Zealand Clayton, VIC, Australia
ISBN 978-3-319-89760-8 ISBN 978-3-319-89761-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89761-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018944341
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Preface
This is the fifth book in a series initiated by the Monash University – Kings’ College
London International Centre for Study of Science and Mathematics Curriculum and
in partnership with Waikato University. The Monash-Kings’ College Centre was
established in 2002 with initial support from the Monash University Research Fund
(new areas). The Centre for Science and Technology Education Research at Waikato
University and the Centre for Science, Mathematics and Technology Education at
Monash University have had a formal partnership agreement since 2003 and have
worked cooperatively in many areas.
The first book in the series, The Re-Emergence of Values in Science Education
(D. Corrigan, J. Dillon & R. Gunstone [Eds.], Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2007),
considered the state of science education in the twenty-first century through the lens
of values. The book presented a ‘big picture’ of what science education might be
like if values once again became central in science education. A decade ago (when
this first book was conceptualised) the overwhelming experiences of those who
were teaching science were in an environment which had seen the de-emphasising
of values fundamentally inherent in both science and science education. There was
a disparity between the evolutionary process that science was – and still is – under-
taking and that undertaken by science education (and school science education in
particular).
In the second book, The Professional Knowledge Base of Science Teachers
(D. Corrigan, J. Dillon & R. Gunstone [Eds.], Dordrecht, Springer, 2011), our focus
was on exploring what expert science education knowledge and practices may look
like in the then slowly emerging ‘bigger picture’ of the re-emergence of values, a
focus we saw as a logical step on from the focus on values in the first book. We
noted in the Foreword to this first book that the focus of the book was on ‘exploring
what expert science education knowledge and practices may look like in the emerg-
ing “bigger picture” of the re-emergence of values’.
In the third book, Valuing Assessment in Science education: Pedagogy,
Curriculum, Policy (D. Corrigan, R. Gunstone & A. Jones [Eds.], Dordrecht,
Springer, 2013), we took what we saw as the clear logical next step in this sequence
of foci begun with our exploration of The Re- Emergence of Values in Science
v
vi Preface
Education; the reality of education is that it is assessment that is almost always the
strongest force shaping implemented curriculum, teacher development and behav-
iour, student approaches to learning, etc. This book considered the ‘big picture’ of
assessment in science education, from the strategic/policy to individual classroom
levels. While some classroom case studies were presented, they focused more on
teachers than students, and so considered assessment more in terms of what teachers
plan and do than in terms of the impacts on students.
This fourth book, The Future of Learning Science: What’s in It for the Learner?
(D.Corrigan, C.Buntting, J.Dillon, A.Jones & R.Gunstone [Eds.], Dordrcht,
Springer, 2015), considers learning – the forms of science that better represent the
nature of science in the twenty-first century, the purposes we might adopt for the
learning of school science, the forms this learning might better take, and how this
learning happens (with particular concern for the need to better engage students
with their school science and the need to place the burgeoning range of digital tech-
nologies into a more informed context than the narrow and uncritical contexts in
which these are too commonly considered). An important overarching theme we
seek is to represent and value the perspective of the learner.
The fifth book moves on again from Re-emergence of Values/Professional
Knowledge Base/Assessment /Learners to consider learning science as a fundamen-
tal issue in research in science education, in curriculum development and imple-
mentation in science education as well as in science teaching and learning. This
book takes a broad and deep view of research involving learning opportunities that
are afforded to learners of science when the focus is on linking the formal and infor-
mal science education sectors. We use the metaphor of a “landscape” as it empha-
sises how we see the possible movement within a landscape that is inclusive of
formal, informal and free-choice opportunities (rather than the not uncommon for-
mal sector assumption that the informal sector should somehow serve the formal
and free choice is not part of education at all). This book explores opportunities for
seeking to change formal school science education via the perspectives and achieve-
ments of the informal and free-choice science education sector as part of the educa-
tion landscape.
We used the same approach to the creation of this fifth book as we did with the
previous four. In a desire to achieve in this edited collection both the creation of a
cohesive contribution to the literature and having authors able to assert their own
voices without restrictive briefs from us as editors, we again organised a workshop
involving the authors and ourselves to enable a more interactive and formative writ-
ing process. Authors completed a first draft of their chapters in time to distribute
them to all workshop participants before we met. The workshop then involved
intensive discussions of individual chapters and feedback to authors, and consider-
ations of the overall structure and cohesion of the volume. Authors then rewrote
their chapters in the light of these forms of feedback. As with the previous books,
the workshop was scheduled around the European Science Education Research
Association (ESERA) conference and took place at the Monash University Centre
in Prato (Italy).
Preface vii
This procedure had previously been used very successfully in the production of
two other books in which the editors had variously been involved [P. Fensham,
R. Gunstone & R. White (Eds.) (1994). The content of science: A constructivist
approach to its teaching and learning. London: Falmer Press; R. Millar, J. Leach &
J. Osborne (Eds.) (2000) Improving science education: The contributions of
research. Milton Keynes: Open University Press], and has been more recently
adopted by other science education researchers. We believe that this process signifi-
cantly improves the quality of the final product and provides an opportunity for
what is sadly a very rare form of professional development – considered and forma-
tive and highly collaborative (and totally open) discussions of one’s work by one’s
peers.
We gratefully acknowledge the funding of the workshop through contributions
from Monash University and Waikato University, and the commitment, openness
and sharing of the participants in the workshop – all authors and editors – that
shaped the book.
Clayton, VIC, Australia Deborah Corrigan
Hamilton, New Zealand Cathy Buntting
Hamilton, New Zealand Alister Jones
Clayton, VIC, Australia John Loughran
July 2017
Contents
Navigating the Changing Landscape of Formal
and Informal Science Learning Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Deborah Corrigan, Cathy Buntting, Alister Jones,
and John Loughran
Viewing Science Learning Through an Ecosystem
Lens: A Story in Two Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
John H. Falk and Lynn D. Dierking
Pregnant Pauses: Science Museums, Schools
and a Controversial Exhibition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Erminia Pedretti and Ana Maria Navas-Iannini
Encounters with a Narwhal: Revitalising Science
Education’s Capacity to Affect and Be Affected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Steve Alsop and Justin Dillon
Communicating Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Susan M. Stocklmayer
Reinvigorating Primary School Science Through
School-Community Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Kathy Smith, Angela Fitzgerald, Suzanne Deefholts, Sue Jackson,
Nicole Sadler, Alan Smith, and Simon Lindsay
Natural Disasters as Unique Socioscientific Events:
Curricular Responses to the New Zealand Earthquakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Léonie Rennie, John Wallace, and Grady Venville
The Challenges and Opportunities for Embracing Complex
Socio-scientific Issues As Important in Learning Science:
The Murray-Darling River Basin As an Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Peter J. Fensham and Jasper Montana
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x Contents
Outreach Education: Enhancing the Possibilities for Every
Student to Learn Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Debra Panizzon, Greg Lancaster, and Deborah Corrigan
Using a Digital Platform to Mediate Intentional
and Incidental Science Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Cathy Buntting, Alister Jones, and Bronwen Cowie
“Meet the Scientist”: How Pre-service Teachers Constructed
Knowledge and Identities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Gillian Kidman and Karen Marangio
Trial-and-Error, Googling and Talk: Engineering Students
Taking Initiative Out of Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Elaine Khoo and Bronwen Cowie
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
About the Authors
Steve Alsop is a Professor in the Faculty of Education, York University, Canada. He
teaches and supervises undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of educa-
tion, science and technology studies, environmental sustainability and interdisci-
plinary studies. His research explores the personal, social, political and pedagogical
articulations of scientific knowledge and technologies in educational settings and
contexts. Such settings include the public sphere, cultural institutions (museums
and science centres), new social movements, schools and universities. His teaching,
research and writing are informed by a commitment and belief in the importance
and hopes of knowledge and education building a more wondrous, humane, diverse,
equitable and just world.
Cathy Buntting is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Waikato, New
Zealand. She has a Masters degree in biochemistry and a PhD in science education,
and is Director of the Science Learning Hub, a significant online portal linking the
science and education sectors. Recent research projects have included the develop-
ment of students’ futures thinking and the role of ICTs in transforming science
learning and teaching.
Deborah Corrigan is a Professor of Science Education and Deputy Dean of the
Faculty of Education at Monash University. After working as a chemistry and biol-
ogy teacher, she worked at Monash University in chemistry and science education,
particularly in teacher preparation. Her research interests include industry and tech-
nology links with science, curriculum design, science and STEM education policy
and the values that underpin science education. However, her main research interest
remains improving the quality of chemistry and science education so that it is rele-
vant to students.
Bronwen Cowie is Professor and Director of the Wilf Malcolm Institute of
Educational Research, the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Bronwen has
extensive experience in classroom-based research using interviews, observations,
and the collection of student work and video as a data generation tools. She is a
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