Teaching aspects of the interrelationship between science and technology: explicit or implicit approach?

ABSTRACT

Background

Developing upper secondary school students’ understanding of the nature of science and technology are important priorities in educational systems worldwide. More research is needed to better understand the conditions under which teaching and learning of epistemological insights become possible, as well as the tools that are necessary for this purpose.

Purpose

This study investigates the potential impact of Explicit Epistemological Discourse (EED) in improving student understanding of the interrelationship between Science and Technology (S&T) through a combined inquiry-oriented and design-oriented teaching and learning activity sequence on Electromagnetic Properties of Materials.

Sample

The participants were 16 year-old students from two intact classes (N = 37 and N = 26, respectively) in their last year of state schooling, in a European country, one year before selection of high school elective courses.

Design and methods

We implemented two conditions of the activity sequence; one included EED activities on the interrelationship between S&T, the other condition included identical inquiry and design activities, with additional practice exercises substituting the reflection activities on EED. Pre-post tests and interviews evaluated students’ understanding about the goals of S&T.

Results

Students in the EED condition surpassed students in the non-EED condition. The results support the claim that students’ awareness about the interrelationship between S&T is improved when integrating EED into classroom activities that are credibly authentic and relevant from the students’ perspective.

Conclusion

Discursive reflection activities have an important role to play in helping students appreciate aspects of the nature of science and the nature of technology as part of their science classes. The integration of epistemological insights in the objectives of science education and the findings of this study are particularly relevant for contemporary efforts to promote education for innovation and entrepreneurship.

KEYWORDS:

• Nature of science and technology
• explicit epistemological discourse
• upper secondary students' epistemological insight
• education for innovation and entrepreneurship

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Also reported as control of variables strategy (D. Klahr, D. Kuhn), design and conduct of scientific investigations (D. Kuhn, N. Lederman), experimental design (N. Lederman).

2. We removed some items that were identified in previous studies to be easier and less discriminating, for the purpose of saving time.

Additional information

Funding

Work presented in this paper has been partially supported by the European Union through the European Communities Research Directorate General in the project Materials Science: University‐school partnerships for the design and implementation of research‐based ICT‐enhanced modules on Material Properties, Science and Society Programme, FP6, SAS6‐CT‐2006‐042942. This research has also been partially supported by the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation through project EΠIKOITE—A learning environment for promoting student understanding of the nature of science and its role in society, ENIΣX/0504/15.