In this paper, we discuss the well-known teaching challenge of how to provide undergraduate students with basic chemistry knowledge without making them experience these basics as meaningless and unintelligible. First, we situate the challenge in a classic dilemma: should we teach the necessary basic facts before the chemical explanations or should the explanations be taught before or in parallel to these facts? Here we draw on examples from interviews with graduate students reflecting on their experiences regarding their studies at the undergraduate level. Second, we suggest a way out of the dilemma, through a shift in perspective from the typical progression of facts and explanations towards a purpose and activity-based progression. We conclude with a discussion of implications of such a shift for university chemistry education together with suggestions for future research.

Anthropomorphisms are widespread at all levels of the educational system even among science experts. This has led to a shift in how anthropomorphisms are viewed in science education, from a discussion of whether they should be allowed or avoided towards an interest in their role in supporting students’ understanding of science. In this study we examine the role of anthropomorphisms in supporting students’ understanding of chemistry. We analyze examples from undergraduate students’ discussions during problem-solving classes through the use of practical epistemology analysis (PEA). Findings suggest that students invoked anthropomorphisms alongside technical relations which together produced more or less chemically appropriate explanations. Also, anthropomorphisms constitute potentially productive points of departure for rendering students’ explanations more chemically appropriate. The implications of this study refer to the need to deal with anthropomorphisms explicitly and repeatedly as well as to encourage explicit connections between different parts of the explanation - teleological as well as causal.

In this study, we explore the issues and challenges involved in supporting students’ learning to discern relevant and critical aspects of determining oxidation states of atoms in complex molecules. We present a detailed case of an interaction between three students and a tutor during a problem-solving class, using the analytical tool of practical epistemology analysis (PEA). The results show that the ability to make relevant distinctions between the different parts of a molecule for solving the problem, even with the guidance of the tutor, seemed to be challenging for students. These shifts were connected to both purposes that were specific for solving the problem at hand, and additional purposes for general learning of the subject matter, in this case how to assign oxidation states in molecules. The students sometimes could not follow the additional purposes introduced by the tutor, which made the related distinctions more confusing. Our results indicate that in order to provide adequate support and guidance for students the tutor needs to consider how to sequence, move between, and productively connect the different purposes introduced in a tutor-student interaction. One way of doing that is by first pursuing the purposes for solving the problem and then successively introduce additional, more general purposes for developing students’ learning of the subject matter studied. Further recommendations drawn from this study are discussed as well.

Socioscientific issues (SSIs) are proved as good contexts to make learners achieve the goal of scientific literacy and to enhance skills of argumentation worldwide. Research has found that reasons from various resources are involved in students’ argumentation on SSIs and also shows that multi-perspective involvement of reasoning is important for the quality of argumentation. To study whether students could use reasons from multi-resources in arguing SSIs, we adopt a model termed SEE-SEP to analyze 208 Swedish upper secondary students’ written arguments on SSIs including global warming, GMO, nuclear power and consumption. The results disclosed that (1) social-science majors and females generated more numbers of reasons and also showed multi-disciplinary reasons; (2) the aspect of value was found used most in students’ argumentation without differences among study backgrounds and genders; (3) reasons from the subject area of science were presented most in the topic of nuclear power and GMO, also without differences among study backgrounds and gender; (4) reasons from the subject area of ethics/morality were generated less among the four SSIs, but relatively, females provided more than males; (5) personal experience were involved far less than the aspects of value and knowledge, especially in the topics of global warming, GMO and nuclear power, in which, the subject area of economy was also presented less. The implications to SSI research and teaching are discussed.

Inquiry-based science education (IBSE) has been addressed in science education internationally during the past decades, and the new Swedish curriculum from 2011 also emphasize the need to develop students’ inquiry skills. However, to what extent school teachers in Sweden have developed their professional knowledge on IBSE has only been focused in a small number of studies in Sweden and it was found that in-service teachers were not well-informed about the ideas of IBSE (Lunde, Rundgren, & Chang Rundgren, 2015). Therefore, in the PROFILES project in Sweden, we could create time and space for in-service teachers to develop and reflect on IBSE. The purpose of this presentation is to share our experiences on the development of PROFILES with in-service science teachers (primary and lower secondary school levels) in Sweden during year 2012 to 2014. A model termed context-inquiry-assessment (CIA) continuously professional development (CPD) is introduced in the presentation together with suggestions on different teacher professional development approaches (e.g. design-based, learning study and action research) (Chang Rundgren, in press) as well as the detailed professional reflection on pedagogical content knowledge (PCK).  

References

   Lunde, T., Rundgren, C-J, Chang Rundgren, S. N. (2015) När läroplan och tradition möts – hur högstadielärare bemöter yttre förväntningar på undersökande arbete i naturämnesundervisningen. NorDiNa (Nordic Studies in Science Education) 11(1) 88-101.

Lunde, T. (2014). När läroplan och tradition möts. Om lärarfortbildning och undersökande aktiviteters syfte inom den laborativa NO-undervisningen i grundskolans senare del. Licentiate Thesis. Karlstad University Studies 2014:42. ISBN 978-91-7063-577-9

With the emergence of socioscientific issues (SSIs) like GMO, global warming and the use of nuclear power plants, SSI-research has become one of the main trends in science education. During the past decade, researchers indicate that SSIs are suitable contexts to promote students’ argumentation skills, to achieve the goal of scientific literacy and even to enhance students’ learning interests toward sciences. Evidently, SSI-research shows the importance of its continuation. To date, most of the research focuses on how students’ argue in different SSI topics, but this paper highlights the importance of shifting the main focus from individual student’s argumentation on SSIs to teaching contexts. The SEE-SEP model (with six subject areas and three aspects of value, knowledge and personal experiences) was developed to analyze the resources of students’ supporting reasons in their argumentation. From former research using the SEE-SEP model, it was disclosed that the value aspect dominated students’ argumentation on different SSIs. We argue that, if value-laden argumentation is an essential part of SSI-teaching, teachers need to work on engaging students with various forms of experiences (from low to high authenticity) to develop students’ values towards SSIs. Hence, an experience-based SSI teaching and learning model is suggested in the paper to develop students’ different values on SSI topics, which can contribute to their interests in SSIs as well as competency as citizens of our future society.

In today’s society, mass media plays an important role in our life. In addition toschool education, people receive scientific knowledge from mass media to a greatextent. Within chemistry, the information, for example, concerning food chemistry,crime investigation, environmental toxins and local mining issues, pervades massmedia. Today, all the above-mentioned issues are termed socio-scientific issues(SSI), which are seen as suitable contexts to promote scientific literacy and citizeneducation in the global age. In addition to the importance of noticing the emergingSSI in mass media, both of SSI and media have been found useful in enhancingstudents’ learning in sciences, especially at the moment of facing the presentphenomenon concerning students’ low interest in science revealed internationally,in particular among developed countries (e.g. Sweden). Therefore, it is a majortask now for us, as science educators, to put effort on motivating students’ interestin science, and we believe the combination of SSI and mass media can enhancestudents’ interest through making science relevant. In this chapter, the importanceof SSI-based teaching linking to the meaning of relevance is introduced as a visionthat science teachers need to be aware of and develop further. Further, we arguewhy mass media can contribute to making chemistry education relevant forstudents based on research evidence. Two examples of SSI-teaching approaches,based on local SSI topics discussed in mass media in Taiwan and Sweden, arepresented to benefit teaching practices. The implication to teacher education isalso discussed.

Together with Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE), teaching and learning about SocioScientifis Issues (SSI) and the related argumentation skill (termed informal ar-gumentation or SSI-argumentation) are emerging and hot research topics in science education internationally during the past decades. Embedding the four important concepts regarding Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), Citizenship Educa-tion (CE), SSI and IBSE for the education in modern society, the teaching strategy of SocioScientific Inquiry-Based Learning (SSIBL) is generated and recognized by the European Commission to promote in teacher education and apply in school educa-tion. The presentation is based on an EU FP7 project, PARRISE (No. 612438), aiming to develop TPD courses to enhance pre- and in-service teachers’ competence on teaching students’ SSIBL in formal and informal education from primary to upper secondary education levels. The purpose of this presentation is to demonstrate a design of a SSIBL TPD course (with a focus of RRI, SSI, IBSE and CE concepts) for a group of pre-service teachers at primary education level. Further, the pre-service teachers’ awareness on teaching strategies involving SSI, IBSE to enhance SSIBL is investigated with the main research questions including: 1. What are the pre-service teachers’ awareness of SSI and IBSE teaching? 2. What are the re-service teachers’ awareness of SSI, IBSE and SSIBL teaching after the SSIBL TPD course? 3. What are pre-service teachers’ general feedback on the SSIBL TPD course? Through the pre- and post-test with quantitative Likert-Scale questionnaire survey, the results showed that the 26 pre-service teachers’ confidence on SSI, IBSE and SSIBL teaching strategies were increased and need for further education was decre-ased, both with significantly differences (p < 0.05) after the SSIBL TPD course. Also, the general feedback on the SSIBL course was positive as well.

How to create a meaningful science education plat­form for all citizens, and to achieve the goal of scientific literacy, has been a long-standing debate internationally. To date, ‘science for all’ and ‘science for future scientists’ describe science curricula for two different target groups, students who expect to pursue further studies and students who will not continue to study science, of which the latter constitute the majority in the society. The way science education is organized with those two target groups in mind can be connected to the two different ‘visions’ of science education. According to Douglas Roberts, in science education related to ‘vision one,’ the academic subject gives the structure and content of school science teaching. A ‘vision two’ related science teaching generally structures the school science around societal issues in which science knowledge plays an important role. However, the questions of how to create a meaningful ‘science education for all’ linking to society must be addressed. After school, media become one of the main sources for the majority of citizens to access science information. Hence, the importance of conducting research on ‘science in media,’ which can give input to science education in school, has been noticed. In this paper, we focus on discussing civic scientific literacy (related to ‘science for all’ or ‘vision two’) through the aspect of media. Based on our three-year (2009-2011) experiences and research outcomes from SLiM (Scientific Literacy in Media) project in Taiwan (1034 participants) and Sweden (117 participants), the following questions are addressed and reflected in this paper. Implications for science education and research are also discussed.

• Why is ‘science in media’ important to be included in civic scientific literacy?
• What ‘science’ is included in media?
• How can we embed ‘science in media’ in science education?
• Should we have a ‘uniform’ scientific literacy globally?

In this science and technology dominated society, the complex interrelationship of science, technology, environment and society has been noticed during the past 30 years. In line with this phenomenon, socioscientific issues (SSI) are not only emerging in the research field of science/environmental education, but also discussed in our everyday multimedia world. This year is the last year of the UN Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) decade (year 2005 to 2014), it is time to reflect upon what we have done and how we ought to continue in the next step. Therefore, in this presentation, firstly, we will address the important relationship of scientific literacy (SL), ESD, SSI and science media literacy (SML) in the modern society. Secondly, based on the aforementioned important relationship of SML, ESD and SSI, a model of SSI pedagogic discourse is presented to contribute to school education. The implications to ESD, media, science and citizen education are delineated.

Based on the EU FP 7 project PROFILES, this article presents our findings from a three-round Delphi study conducted in Sweden which aimed at establishing a consensus on how science education should be developed for citizens to enhance civic scientific literacy. A total of 100 stakeholders (9^th graders, school teachers, scientists and science education researchers) were involved in our Delphi study in 2012–13. The results revealed that there were some highly ranked consensus ideas: environmental issues, inquiry skills, motivation/interest and holistic comprehension were all in line with conclusions drawn elsewhere in the literature and ideas within the PROFILES project itself. However, we also found that there were some mismatched aspects of our Delphi study and the Swedish curriculum. The conclusions of our research imply the importance of involving different stakeholders in the educational reconstruction process; we suggest that the school teacher in particular should play a vital role.

To meet future challenges regarding sustainability issues, science education needs to address how to educate scientifically literate and responsible citizens. Chemistry education must be organized in a way that gives the students opportunity to participate in discussions and decision-making regarding sustainability issues in which chemistry knowledge is needed. One aspect of education for responsible citizenship is to draw students’ attention to the complexity in sustainability issues.

The aim of this study is to analyse how complexity in sustainability issues can be visualized in upper secondary school chemistry education.

This study was conducted as a didactic modelling inspired by Design Based Research. Two cycles were conducted: cycle 1 with 12 students discussing batteries in different products and cycle 2 with 38 students discussing organic pollutants in everyday products. The data was analysed using Practical Epistemological Analysis (PEA) (Wickman & Östman, 2002) and Deliberative Educational Questions (DEQ) (Lundegård & Wickman, 2007).

Four different kinds of considerations emerged in students’ discussions which were used to develop a didactic model visualizing complexity. Those considerations regarded facts and values in relation to sufficient and insufficient factual knowledge. All four kinds of considerations are needed to visualize complexity.

The results showed that conflicting perspectives/values and the issues’ incompleteness and uncertainty only emerged to a small extent in the students’ discussions in cycle 1. In cycle 2 all four kinds of considerations emerged more equally. The design principles in cycle 2 were that the students’ activity should explicitly request conflicting perspectives and values and also include frontier research in chemistry. The result indicates that those gave the students more opportunities to visualize complexity.

The didactic model and design principles that were developed can together be used for teaching and learning from sustainability issues in chemistry education.

To meet future challenges regarding sustainability issues, science education needs to address how to educate scientifically literate and responsible citizens. One aspect of this is how to draw students’ attention to the complexity in sustainability issues. Therefore, this study analyses how complexity can become visible in students’ deliberations. The study has been conducted as an in-situ study at two upper secondary schools. The data was analysed using Practical Epistemological Analysis (PEA) and Deliberative Educational Questions (DEQ). The results show that four different kinds of considerations were used to visualise complexity. Those considerations regarded facts and values in relation to known and unknown facts. The considerations were used to develop a didactic model. Design principles were also developed, which together with the model can support teachers in didactic analyses regarding complex sustainability issues in chemistry education. Furthermore, the study shows that chemistry education can contribute to development of Bildung and democratic citizenship.

Research has shown the importance of dealing with real-life issues and of enabling student encounters with complexity in chemistry education in order to increase student participation. Therefore, this study aims to analyse how complexity evolves in students’ discussions and how this complexity relates to aspects of tentativeness in chemistry. In the study, we analyse how a previously developed didactic model can be refined from the students’ considerations evolving from the present context. The study was conducted as an in situ study in one upper-secondary school. Students’ discussions were recorded on video. The recordings were transcribed and analysed using deliberative educational questions. Two different kinds of considerations emerged in the students’ discussions: factual and exploratory considerations. While factual considerations are an important element of chemistry education, students also need to encounter exploratory considerations. The study proposes a didactic model useful for teachers in didactic analysis and design of activities aiming to support students to unfold complexity through exploratory considerations. One implication is to base activities on real-life issues in order to invite the unpredictability needed for experiencing complexity and the exploratory nature of chemistry. These issues enable students to experience aspects of tentativeness in chemistry and thereby increase their understanding of NOS and chemistry as a knowledge building practice. Furthermore, this might also increase student participation in chemistry education. 

The Wolf Issue - Upper Secondary Students’ Argumentation about a Socio-Scientific Issue

The focus of this study is the attitudes towards wolves in Sweden among upper secondary students.This socio-scientific issue (SSI) involves many aspects, such as ethical, political and biological aspects,and provides a context to study students’ informal argumentation. The different arguments usedby the students were analyzed using the framework of the SEE-SEP-model. A questionnaire probingattitudes to the existence of wolves in the neighbourhood was distributed to 352 upper secondarystudents. 18 students were interviewed in focused group-interviews (in pairs). The results showedthat 55% of the students showed a negative attitude towards the existence of wolves in the neighbourhood.The analysis of the different aspects of arguments used by the students in the interviewsshowed that arguments based on value were more dominant (60%) than arguments based on knowledge(30%), and arguments based on personal experiences (10%).

Many former studies of students’ informal argumentation about socio-scientific issues (SSIs) shows that reasoning based on values is essential for the students ability to take part in discussion and provides the fundament for decision-making on different SSI-topics. We argue that, if value-laden argumentation is an essential part of SSI-teaching, we need to think about how teachers could help to develop students’ different values on SSI topics and science in school education. However, many science teachers still seem to feel insecure and are in need of instructions and guidance to deal with the intertwinement of ethics and science to manage the challenges in respect to SSI argumentation. The present case study aims to explore how SSI experiences can enhance students’ value formation and develop their ability to reflect on values. In a pre-study, 15 science major students at an upper secondary school in Sweden will be engaged in SSI interventions. The data will be collected using multiple methods (questionnaires, classroom observations of group discussions, students’ written reports, and individual follow-up interviews) in order to triangulate the material. As the main analytical framework, the SEE-SEP-model will be used. The SEE-SEP has earlier been validated as an analytical tool for analyzing students’ informal argumentation on SSIs in both written reports and oral discussions. We hope that the investigation can give some new perspectives on the intertwined connection between science, values and knowledge related to real-life issues.

Proposed research questions

• To what extend do upper secondary school students develop their environmental values when participating in a SSI program?
• How do the development of values relate to the construction of knowledge during the negotiation of SSIs?

Many former studies of students’ informal argumentation about socio-scientific issues (SSIs) shows that reasoning based on values is essential for the students ability to take part in discussion and provides the fundament for decision-making on different SSI-topics. We argue that, if value-laden argumentation is an essential part of SSI-teaching, we need to think about how teachers could help to develop students’ different values on SSI topics and science in school education. However, many science teachers still seem to feel insecure and are in need of instructions and guidance to deal with the intertwinement of ethics and science to manage the challenges in respect to SSI argumentation. The present case study aims to explore how SSI experiences can enhance students’ value formation and develop their ability to reflect on values. In a pre-study, 15 science major students at an upper secondary school in Sweden will be engaged in SSI interventions. The data will be collected using multiple methods (questionnaires, focus groups interviews and individual follow-up interviews) in order to triangulate the material. As the main analytical framework, the SEE-SEP-model will be used. The SEE-SEP has earlier been validated as an analytical tool for analyzing students’ informal argumentation on SSIs in both written reports and oral discussions. We hope that the investigation can give some new perspectives on the intertwined connection between science, values and knowledge related to real-life issues.

Proposed research questions

• To what extend do upper secondary school students develop their environmental values when arguing on a SSI?
• How do the development of values relate to the construction of knowledge during the negotiation of a SSI?
• How can SSI education affect students’ view on the nature of science (NOS)? 

Discussion matters

Are the research questions relevant and appropriate? What implications for science education could be expected from the findings?

De flesta människor vet att vi står inför gigantiska miljöproblem. De flesta vet också hur man kan göra för att minska sin påverkan och därmed också minska effekterna av problemen. I själva verket känner de flesta till väldigt många åtgärder och förändringar i sitt vardagsliv som faktiskt skulle kunna göra skillnad. Fast å andra sidan så är ju den lilla skillnaden som jag kan göra så liten att det kanske inte har så stor betydelse i det stora hela. Dessutom så gör jag redan en massa saker och vissa saker tycker jag att jag har rätt att göra. Det finns många argument för att inte göra det man själv anser att man egentligen borde göra. Denna bok lyfter fram och diskuterar tio sådana skäl och diskuterar varför det är så svårt att förändra vardagligt beteende som påverkar miljön.

Previous research suggests that students use metaphors when asked to explain digestive processes and nutritional uptake. In this paper, we describe the results of a study designed to gain a deeper understanding of how metaphors and anthropomorphisms are used by students when describing such processes. We applied analyses based on the systemic-functional grammar framework to 123 student responses to a question about nutrition on a Swedish national test in biology in order to identify, describe and analyse how students use metaphors and to understand the linguistic structure of those metaphors. We also considered how the metaphors are linked to metaphor systems and anthropomorphisms, thereby gaining a deeper understanding of the role of metaphors in this area. The results of our analyses provide important insights into how students understand digestion and nutrition and could provide the basis for improved teaching materials and methods for these important topics.

This study explores first-year university students' reasoning as they learn to draw Lewis structures. We also present a theoretical account of the formal procedure commonly taught for drawing these structures. Students' discussions during problem-solving activities were video recorded and detailed analyses of the discussions were made through the use of practical epistemology analysis (PEA). Our results show that the formal procedure was central for drawing Lewis structures, but its use varied depending on situational aspects. Commonly, the use of individual steps of the formal procedure was contingent on experiences of chemical structures, and other information such as the characteristics of the problem given. The analysis revealed a number of patterns in how students constructed, checked and modified the structure in relation to the formal procedure and the situational aspects. We suggest that explicitly teaching the formal procedure as a process of constructing, checking and modifying might be helpful for students learning to draw Lewis structures. By doing so, the students may learn to check the accuracy of the generated structure not only in relation to the octet rule and formal charge, but also to other experiences that are not explicitly included in the formal procedure.

Understandings of the nature of scientific inquiry (NOSI), as opposed to engaging students in inquiry learning experiences, are included in science education reform documents around the world. However, little is known about what students have learned about NOSI during their pre-college school years. The purpose of this large-scale follow-up international project (i.e. 32 countries and regions, spanning six continents and including 3917 students for the high school sample) was to collect data on what exiting high school students have learned about NOSI. Additionally, the study investigated changes in 12th grade students' NOSI understandings compared to seventh grade (i.e. 20 countries and regions) students' understandings from a prior investigation [Lederman et al. (2019). An international collaborative investigation of beginning seventh grade students' understandings of scientific inquiry: Establishing a baseline. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 56(4), 486-515. ]. This study documents and discusses graduating high school students' understandings and compares their understandings to seventh grade students' understandings of the same aspects of scientific inquiry for each country. It is important to note that collecting data from each of the 130+ countries globally was not feasible. Similarly, it was not possible to collect data from every region of each country. A concerted effort was made, however, to provide a relatively representative picture of each country and the world.

Although understandings of scientific inquiry (as opposed to conducting inquiry) are included in science education reform documents around the world, little is known about what students have learned about inquiry during their elementary school years. This is partially due to the lack of any assessment instrument to measure understandings about scientific inquiry. However, a valid and reliable assessment has recently been developed and published, Views About Scientific Inquiry (VASI; Lederman et al. [2014], Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 51, 65-83). The purpose of this large-scale international project was to collect the first baseline data on what beginning middle school students have learned about scientific inquiry during their elementary school years. Eighteen countries/regions spanning six continents including 2,634 students participated in the study. The participating countries/regions were: Australia, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Mainland China, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States. In many countries, science is not formally taught until middle school, which is the rationale for choosing seventh grade students for this investigation. This baseline data will simultaneously provide information on what, if anything, students learn about inquiry in elementary school, as well as their beginning knowledge as they enter secondary school. It is important to note that collecting data from all of the approximately 200 countries globally was not humanly possible, and it was also not possible to collect data from every region of each country. The results overwhelmingly show that students around the world at the beginning of grade seven have very little understandings about scientific inquiry. Some countries do show reasonable understandings in certain aspects but the overall picture of understandings of scientific inquiry is not what is hoped for after completing 6 years of elementary education in any country.

Knowledge of scientific inquiry (SI) is considered essential to the development of an individual's Scientific Literacy (SL) and therefore, SI is included in many international science education reform documents. Two previous large scale international studies assessed the SI understandings of students entering middle school and secondary students at the end of their formal K-12 science education. The purpose of this international project was to use the VASI-E to collect data on what primary level students have learned about SI in their first few years of school. This study adds to previous research to bridge the landscape of SI understandings now with representation from primary, middle and high school samples. A total of 4,238 students from 35 countries/regions spanning six continents participated in the study. The results show that globally, primary students are not adequately informed about SI for their age group. However, when compared with the students in the previous international studies (grades seven and 12), the primary students' understandings were surprisingly closer to the levels of understanding of SI of the secondary school students than those in the seventh grade study.

Läroplaner och utbildningsprogram runt om i världen är baserade på undersökandebaserad naturvetenskaplig undervisning (IBSE) som ett bärande princip. Denna princip är också bärande i den nya svenska lärolanen för grundskolan Lgr11. Forskning på lärarnas roll i implementering av IBSE är därför av stor betydelse för att ta ställning till vad som är realistiskt att uppnå i stor skala. Det finns många studier som kretsar kring implementering av IBSE genom fortbildningsprogram, men dessa involverar ofta ett urval frivilliga lärare som är motiverade för förändring. I denna studie deltar så när som alla NO-lärarna från tre högstadieskolor och fem mellanstadieskolor i ett fortbildningsprogram på 30 timmar som löper under ett år. Fortbildningsprogrammet ingår som del av ett europeiskt projekt – PROFILES – initierad för att främja undersökandebaserat undervisning i No-ämnena (http://www.profiles-project.eu/). Viktiga moment i fortbildningsprogramet är tid för lärarna att konstruera egna undervisningsmoduler, reflektera i grupp över utfallet och delta i förläsningar som fördjupar ämnes- och ämnesdidaktisk kunskapen förknippad med IBSE. I denna studie kommer lärarnas perspektiv lyftas och hur de reflekterar kring mötet med IBSE. Syftet är att undersöka hur lärarna upplever IBSE och vilka olika faktorer som framträder som viktiga för lärarna i deras sätt att respondera på IBSE.

How lower secondary science teachers meet external expectations on inquiry-based science teaching

The current Swedish curricula for compulsory school (Lgr11) emphasize inquiry-based science teaching to develop pupils’ critical thinking while the Swedish laboratory teaching tradition emphasize labora-tory work to promote students’ conceptual understanding. The aim of this study is to illuminate how a group of teachers within the Swedish teaching tradition, based on the prevailing condition, met the external expectations of involving pupils in inquiry-based science teaching. During a teacher profes-sional development program, the entire group of lower secondary science teachers within a school district, twelve in total, participated in group reflections about own inquiry activities. The results indicated that teachers, despite shortage of activities, wanted to involve pupils in inquiry-based science teaching to meet the curricula’s and national tests’ request for such activities. The teachers did this through hybridization, in which the teachers opened up and transformed existing laboratory activities; and by imitation, in which they imitated how investigative inquiry is carried out on natio-nal tests. Inquiry-based science teaching, as it emerges in this study, possessed several characteristics might limiting the potential for pupils to develop an understanding functional for critical thinking in private- and public lives.

Teachers’ response and implementation of inquiry-based science teaching instructions within different settings will have a broad impact on science education by reflecting what may be realistically to accomplish on a large scale. A lot of studies on inquiry-based science teaching have involved programmes designed by researchers and taught by expert teacher. But these tend to work with volunteer teachers likely to be highly supportive. In this study all science teachers from eight different schools within the same school district will participate in a program aiming to implement inquiry-based science teaching as characterised in the Swedish curricula. This is done within the context of a continuous professional development program where teachers’ will participate in a co-constructing process developing inquiry-based teaching. This will enable us to take a broad range of teachers voices into account within the same school district.The aim of the study is to explore teachers’ response of inquiry-based teaching as characterized in a curricula and what condition the teachers’ response. The main questions will be how science teachers experience inquiry-based science teaching, what factors condition these experiences and what characteristics are emphasised in the co-constructed inquiry-based teaching developed during the teacher-training program. Multiple qualitative methods will be used: audio-recorded co-reflections, semi-structured interviews and written documentations from teacher designed instructions. The data collection started September 2012 and will be transcribed and analysed continuously as it become available. The data collection will end in May 2013 and all the data will then be analysed. 

In this forum article, I reflect on issues related to the implementation of inquiry-based science education (IBSE) in different countries. Regarding education within the European Union (EU), the Bologna system has in later years provided extended coordination and comparability at an organizational level. However, the possibility of the EU to influence the member countries regarding the actual teaching and learning in the classrooms is more limited. In later years, several EU-projects focusing on IBSE have been funded in order to make science education in Europe better, and more motivating for students. Highlighting what Heinz and her colleagues call the policy of ‘soft governance’ of the EU regarding how to improve science education in Europe, I discuss the focus on IBSE in the seventh framework projects, and how it is possible to maintain more long-lasting results in schools through well-designed teacher professional development programs. Another aspect highlighted by Heinz and her colleagues is how global pressures on convergence in education interact with educational structures and traditions in the individual countries. The rise of science and science education as a global culture, encompassing contributions from all around the world, is a phenomenon of great potential and value to humankind. However, it is important to bear in mind that if science and science education is going to become a truly global culture, local variation and differences regarding foci and applications of science in different cultures must be acknowledged.

The purpose of this presentation is to present a design of a Delphi study to investigate different stakeholders’ consensus viewpoints on science education in school at the age of 15-16 in a Swedish context. A three-round Delphi approach will be adapted, and the results of the first round of data will be of focus in this poster presentation. A total of 25 participants in each group of students at junior high level, science teachers, science educators at universities and scientists were invited to provide their viewpoints. The implication to science education is presented.

In order to achieve the goal of scientific literacy for responsible citizenship, the importance of developing students' socioscientific inquiry-based learning (SSIBL) has been recognised by an EU FP7 project, PARRISE, including the essential notions of responsible research and innovation (RRI), and citizenship education (CE). The study aims to investigate pre-service primary science teachers' confidence in and need for further education on teaching SSIBL as well as their reflections -in and -on a three-step model SSIBL activity. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were applied in the study. Quantitative methods were applied to collect data from the 76 participating pre-service primary science teachers in Sweden; participants' confidence and need for SSIBL teaching was investigated via a Likert scale questionnaire. The qualitative descriptive analysis method was used to explore participants' reflection-on-action regarding the three-step SSIBL activity and the SSIBL framework. Thematic analyses were applied to analyse the participants' reflection-in-action concerning the design of the three-step SSIBL activity with three aspects of PCK. The results showed that the pre-service teachers had confidence in SSIBL, but still needed further education on SSIBL teaching. The outcomes of the study suggest that developing teachers' SSIBL teaching competence is important and needed from both of the researchers' points of view and the participating teachers' feedback.

This chapter reflects on the contribution of science education by means of socio scientific issues (SSI) to global citizenship education and education for sustainability from a Swedish research perspective. The relation between what science inquiry and moral inquiry may entail in SSI for educating our future citizens is discussed. We argue that equipping citizens not only with factual knowledge, but also training them to act with moral reflection, has become an even more important goal for education due to the current planetary emergency. Ethics/morality are of special importance for SSI argumentation, but research is still limited concerning how people’s knowledge, value and personal experience are related to ethics/morality in SSI argumentation and how moral inquiry can be further enhanced through education. The chapter is composed of three main parts. First, SSI related research, practices and policy in Sweden are briefly presented. Second, two empirical studies from Sweden are presented as examples to further reveal the complexity of people’s knowledge, value and personal experience in relation to science and moral inquiry. Last, a didactic model for science and moral inquiry via SSI is presented to promote reflective and responsible citizens for sustainability and Bildung globally. In the chapter, science and moral inquiry are seen as intertwined in SSI education, as two entities which presuppose each other like the Yin and Yang in Daoist Chinese philosophy.

This presentation aims to share our experiences on the development of PROFILES with in-service science teachers for grade 7-9 in Sweden during the period of time from year 2012 to 2014. Inquiry-based science education (IBSE) has been addressed in science education internationally during the past decades, and the new Swedish curriculum from 2011 also emphasize the need to develop students’ inquiry skills. However, to what extent school teachers in Sweden have developed their professional knowledge on IBSE has only been focused in a small number of studies in Sweden and it was found that in-service teachers were not well-informed about the ideas of IBSE [1]. Therefore, in the PROFILES project in Sweden, we could create time and space for in-service teachers to develop and reflect on IBSE. During the two PROFILES teacher groups, as science education researchers and educators, we also develop our knowledge and skills on how to develop a successful teachers’ professional development [2].

Dieser Artikel diskutiert ein Unterrichtsmodul für die Sekundarstufe II aus dem PROFILES Projekt in Schweden. Thematisiertwird das Problem von Umweltgift en in Fischen aus der Ostsee, welches aus einer naturwissenschaft lich-gesellschaft -lichen Sicht behandelt wird. Dabei erlernen die Schüler nicht nur naturwissenschaft liche Hintergründe und Argumente,sondern erwerben auch allgemeine Kompetenzen aus den Bereichen Kommunikation und Bewertung.

This study aims to explore students’ argumentation and decision-making relating toan authentic socioscientific issue (SSI)—the problem of environmental toxins in fish from theBaltic Sea. A multi-disciplinary instructional module, designed in order to develop students’skills to argue about complex SSI, was successfully tested. Seven science majors in the finalyear of their upper secondary studies participated in this study. Their argumentation anddecision-making processes were followed closely, and data were collected during multiplestages of the instructional module: group discussions were audio recorded, the participantswrote reports on their decision making, and postexercise interviews were conducted withindividual students. The analysis focused on the skill of evaluation demonstrated by thestudents during the exercise and the relationships between the knowledge, values, andexperiences that they used in their argumentation. Even though all of the students had accessto the same information and agreed on the factual aspects of the issue, they came to differentdecisions. All of the students took counter-arguments and the limitations of their claims intoaccount and were able to extend their claims where appropriate. However, their decisionsdiffered depending on their background knowledge, values, and experiences (i.e., theirintellectual baggage). The implication to SSI teaching and learning is discussed.

This study aims to explore students’ argumentation and decision-making relating to an authentic socioscientific issue (SSI)—the problem of environmental toxins in fish from the Baltic Sea. A multi-disciplinary instructional module, designed in order to develop students’ skills to argue about complex SSI, was successfully tested. Seven science majors in the final year of their upper secondary studies participated in this study. Their argumentation and decision-making processes were followed closely, and data were collected during multiple stages of the instructional module: group discussions were audio recorded, the participants wrote reports on their decision making, and postexercise interviews were conducted with individual students. The analysis focused on the skill of evaluation demonstrated by the students during the exercise and the relationships between the knowledge, values, and experiences that they used in their argumentation. Even though all of the students had access to the same information and agreed on the factual aspects of the issue, they came to different decisions. All of the students took counter-arguments and the limitations of their claims into account and were able to extend their claims where appropriate. However, their decisions differed depending on their background knowledge, values, and experiences (i.e., their intellectual baggage). The implication to SSI teaching and learning is discussed.

Socioscientific issues (SSI) are emerging issues globally nowadays, and at the same time,become an important research field in science education internationally. Accordingly,teaching and learning of SSI and the related skills of inquiry and argumentation arerecognized in school science today. This study is based on the EU FP7 project PARRISE (No.612438) aiming to promote socioscientific inquiry-based learning (SSIBL). In addition to thedesign of the six-step SSIBL teaching module shown in this presentation, the study aims toinvestigate how students’ knowledge and values interact in students’ SSI-decision-making. Atotal of seven students (4 males and 3 females) from a science-major program at an uppersecondary school in Sweden were invited to participate in the SSIBL teaching module onenvironmental toxins in fish from the Baltic Sea. The findings showed that, even though thestudents were aware of the risks of eating fatty fish from Baltic Sea, still, two distinct groupsof SSI-decisions could be identified. For those who agreed that Sweden should have apermanent exemption from the EU regulation for dioxins in fatty fish from the Baltic Sea, themain arguments were connected to values and the reasons related to the consumers’ right offree choice and responsibility to keep informed about the risks. The further implication toresearch and education on enhancing SSIBL will be discussed at the presentation.

This study examines how students explain their conceptual understanding of protein function using visualizations. Thirteen upper secondary students, four tertiary students (studying chemical biology), and two experts were interviewed in semistructured interviews. The interviews were structured around 2D illustrations of proteins and an animated representation of water transport through a channel in the cell membrane. In the analysis of the transcripts, a score, based on the SOLO-taxonomy, was given to each student to indicate the conceptual depth achieved in their explanations. The use of scientific terms and non-conventionalized expressions in the students explanations were investigated based upon a semiotic approach. The results indicated that there was a positive relationship between use of scientific terms and level of education. However, there was no correlation between students’ use of scientific terms and conceptual depth. In the interviews, we found that non-conventionalized expressions were used by several participants to express conceptual understanding and played a role in making sense of the visualizations of protein function. Interestingly, also the experts made use of non-conventionalized expressions. The results of our study imply that more attention should be drawn to students’ use of scientific and nonconventionalized terms in relation to their conceptual understanding.

To obtain a consensus of different stakeholders’ view and contribute to the development of scienceeducation, a Delphi study was conducted in Sweden during 2012–2013. The purpose of this chapterwas to compare different stakeholders’ view on science education in the first two rounds of the SwedishDelphi study with the current Swedish curriculum (Lgr 11) for the science subjects in grade 7–9 and to see whataspects might need to be developed further in the science curriculum. A total of 212 stakeholders from groupsof scientists, science teachers, science educators and students were invited to provide their ideas concerningscience education in the first round of the Swedish Delphi study. A total of 100 responses from the first roundand 76 from a second round were analyzed and presented in this article. From the results, 75 categorieswere identified in the first round of the Swedish Delphi study while, in the second round, the categories werenarrowed down to 57 according to a mean score above 4. We found that science-technology-society (STS)was an emerging view from the stakeholders’ responses, not only highlighted in our Delphi study, but alsoaddressed in the Swedish curriculum for science subjects in grade 7–9 (Lgr 11). Some aspects revealed in ourDelphi study, were not addressed in the curriculum. Based on our results, we have argued that the PROFILES3–stage model was a suitable way of teaching sciences for grade 7–9, since the aspects analyzed from theresults of the Swedish Delphi study and the Swedish curriculum could be embedded.

This paper analyses data from the Swedish sample of the international VASI (Views about scientific inquiry) study (Lederman et al. [2019]. An international collaborative investigation of beginning seventh grade students’ understandings of scientific inquiry: Establishing a baseline. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. Published online. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21512). Understandings about scientific inquiry involve knowledge about the processes of inquiry, and are not the same as being able to do inquiry although these are related domains. This paper focuses on what students know about scientific inquiry and what impact school science may have on this knowledge. Data were collected using the VASI instrument developed previously and was administered to 126 students at the beginning of year seven and 145 students at the end of year 12 in a cross-sectional design. Results indicate that the majority of students do not have an informed understanding of key aspects of scientific inquiry in either grade. Although students in year 12 are more informed, the average is still less than 50% as measured by the VASI and with a large spread. 

This study focuses the emerging need for young people to critically respond to alarming messages in contemporary media highlighting the potential benefits or harms of certain foods. Besides being technical, advancements in the field of nutrition reported in media are often of tentative and speculative character, primarily selected and constructed on the basis of their news value rather than as representing established knowledge. The study aims to study students' capabilities to navigate and critically respond to controversial media messages about health and nutrition in the context of science education. Our theoretical point of departure is in the concept an examined life in the critical reflection tradition of Socrates and the Stoics. We analyze how groups of upper secondary science class students engage in critical examination of a controversial message about cow's milk encountered through Swedish public service news media on the Internet. The results illuminate that even when controversial findings are produced by a reputed university and communicated through independent media, students are capable of discerning the need to scrutinize such findings and are capable of performing such critical examination drawing on experiences of scientific investigations. Students' openness to question authoritative voices in society and to illuminate the new findings on milk from multiple perspectives reflects how an examined life may be enacted in the context of science education. Inviting students to participate in related activities shows promise for enabling a critical examination of themselves and others in ways deemed important for democratic citizenship.

The overarching interest of this study is how science education, when it connects students emotionally to a topic, may contribute to cultivating democratic citizenship in a globalised world. The urge for joint global actions and a mutual sense of responsibility for achieving a sustainable future need to be balanced with consideration for inequalities, accountability and differences in agency among people around the world. This raises questions of what citizens need to know, do and feel in order to respond to the contemporary and future needs of a broader humanity. This study explores how Martha Nussbaum’s notion of 'world citizenship' (1997) may be used to expand the understanding of critical examination of socioscientific controversies in science education. We analyse how groups of upper secondary science students engage in a critical examination of cow’s and oat milk production and consumption from multiple perspectives. The study provides examples of how critical examination of science may be recognised not only in terms of traditionally valued forms (such as source critique) but also as a way to: critically examine norms, traditions and personal habits around milk; recognise oneself as bound to others by ties of concern for human and environmental wellbeing; imagine pathways to a sustainable future; and make moral judgements on the milk cow’s right to life. Establishing science education practices that allow for students’ own constructions of closeness and care rather than rhetoric and resolution in examining tensions and otherness plays an important role in practicing 'world citizenship'.

The interest of this study is in how science education may contribute to cultivating democratic citizenship in a globalised world. The drive for joint global action and a mutual sense of responsibility for achieving a sustainable future need to be balanced with consideration for inequalities, accountability and differences in agency among people around the world. This raises questions of what citizens need to know, do, and feel to respond to the contemporary and future needs of a broader humanity. We explore how Martha Nussbaum's notion of world citizenship (1997) may be used to expand the understanding of critical examination of socioscientific controversies in science education. We analyse how groups of upper secondary science students engage in a critical examination of dairy and oat milk production and consumption from multiple perspectives. The study exemplifies how the critical examination of science may be recognised not only as source critique, but also as a way to: critically examine norms, traditions and personal habits; recognise oneself as bound to others by mutual concern for human and environmental wellbeing; imagine pathways to a sustainable future; and make moral judgements on a cow's right to life.

The internet has become a main source for health-related information retrieval. In addition to information published by medical experts, individuals share their personal experiences and narratives on blogs and social media platforms. Our increasing need to confront and make meaning of various sources and conflicting health information has challenged the way critical reasoning has become relevant in science education. This study addresses how the opportunities for students to develop and practice their capabilities to critically approach online health information can be created in science education. Together with two upper secondary biology teachers, we carried out a design-based study. The participating students were given an online retrieval task that included a search and evaluation of health-related online sources. After a few lessons, the students were introduced to an evaluation tool designed to support critical evaluation of health information online. Using qualitative content analysis, four themes could be discerned in the audio and video recordings of student interactions when engaging with the task. Each theme illustrates the different ways in which critical reasoning became practiced in the student groups. Without using the evaluation tool, the students struggled to overview the vast amount of information and negotiate trustworthiness. Guided by the evaluation tool, critical reasoning was practiced to handle source subjectivity and to sift out scientific information only. Rather than a generic skill and transferable across contexts, students’ critical reasoning became conditioned by the multi-dimensional nature of health issues, the blend of various contexts and the shift of purpose constituted by the students.

Beginning with an overview of different aspects of scientific literacy in relation to an expanding media landscape, this poster proposes a broader definition of the concept of scientific literacy, also including scientific media literacy. The aim of the poster is to formulate and test a number of design principles for creating meaningful online learning situations in science education relating to health-related issues. The principles are characterized by collaborative problem-solving, informal mentorship, online interactions and working with as authentic and up to date topics as possible, e.g. socio-scientific issues. Through the joint creation of a web-based platform for participation in health-related reasoning, both Swedish upper secondary students and their science teachers are involved in the meaning-making process. Data will consist of audio recordings of students’ reasoning during media production, uploads on the website (e.g. texts, images and wiki-threads) dealing with health-related dilemmas. The results from a pilot study will be presented and discussed, focusing on an evaluation of the design principles.