Socio-scientific issues: a transdisciplinary approach for engaging pre-service teachers in science and mathematics education

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2014

Authors

Paige, K.A.
Hardy, G.

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Revista Internacional de Educación para la Justicia Social, 2014; 3(1):17-36

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Abstract

Over the past decade, primary/middle pre-service teachers at the University of South Australia have been employing socio-scientific issues (SSIs) as the basis ofplanning meaningful and connected science and mathematics experiences forstudents in low socio economic schools. We have used the philosophic andpragmatic challenges associated with exploring SSIs to help our pre-serviceteachers conceptualize ways in which they, as teachers of science and mathematics,can better help their students to understand how they can live and operate in amore socially and ecologically just world. This case study of a cohort ofprimary/middle undergraduate students utilizes two sources of data to evaluate theefficacy of these learning experiences in meeting the desired outcomes; firstly, adebriefing analysis following a formal 'roundtable' assessment of pairs of pre-service teachers, and secondly, a collection of direct student evaluation data bymeans of an online survey. The outcomes show that the challenges presented byadopting these strategies were particularly acute in the professional journey ofnon-specialist primary and primary/middle pre-service teachers, and meeting thesechallenges directly through participation in authentic experiences incorporating,place-based voluntary learning, environmental pledges, and transdisciplinaryapproaches to long-term planning had some demonstrable success, particularly inconnecting planning to student life worlds

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Copyright 2014 International Journal of Education for Social Justice. The works are published under a Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-SinObraDerivada 4.0 Spain. You can copy, use, distribute, transmit and publicly display, provided that: i) the authorship and the original source of publication (Journal, editorial, and URL) acknowledged; ii) not used for commercial purposes; iii) mentioned the existence and specifications of this license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)

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