Knowledges and Values in Science Syllabuses: A sociological study of educational reforms

Abstract

The study analyses the Natural Science syllabuses of the 5th/6th and 7th years of schooling (ages 10 - to 13 + ) to investigate the extent to which the present Portuguese reform (1991) for the elementary school introduces fundamental changes in the discourses and competences it values. The analysis used the conceptual framework of Bernstein's model of pedagogic discourse. The results show changes in the present reform that suggest, in general, an increasing valuing of the regulative dimension of learning. The results also show a greater diversity and specification of the complex cognitive and socio-affective competences. The study also points out to a recontextualizing within the syllabuses, when passing from the curricular level to the disciplinary level, in the direction of blurring the changes observed. These findings are discussed in terms of national and international educational changes and in terms of the socio-political contexts in which present and past reforms took place.