EDUCATIONAL TRENDS IN SCIENCE TEACHING AND DISSEMINATION

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EDUCATIONAL TRENDSIN SCIENCE TEACHINGAND
DISSEMINATION

• Michel RUDNIANSKI
• ORT France University of Reims
• michel.rudnianski_at_wanadoo.fr

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Summary

• Science and education a bilateral relation
• Inquiry based learning
• Real time information availability
• Scientific exchange through the Net
• Research data processing through computerized
  tools
• Investigating complex systems through models and
  simulations
• Dynamic visual presentation of information
• Hypermedia
• New learning approaches
• New versus traditional environments
• Conclusions

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A bilateral relation

• practice
• theory

Science
Education

• observation
• reasoning

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Inquiry Based Learning

• Inquiry based learning, reformed education at the
  end of the 60s, by enabling students to
  experience and become acquainted with the
  scientific method through plannned
  experimentation ( learning by doing )
• Observation, experimentation and research promote
  curiosity, interest and thinking that help
  understanding scientific phenomena and concepts
• ITs revolution gives a greater significance to
  IBL

Define the problem
State assumptions
Collect and analyze data
Draw conclusions
Report the findings
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Availability of real time information

• The Internet offers maximum and real-time access
  to information
• Through access to data gathered by advanced
  technologies, such as the Hubble Space Telescope
  pictures of distant galaxies, students have a
  greater opportunity to
• - measure and observe beyond the confines of
  their school
• - track the progress of contemporary research
  and possibly participate in it
• Locating, processing, analyzing such information
  and assessing its significance requires new
  skills
• Fostering such abilities and producing curious
  learners, is probably the greatest challenge of
  science teachers today

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Scientific exchange through the Net

• By connecting to the Net, students create a
  virtual scientific community.
• They can collect, analyze and present data for
  comments by fellows student
• This cooperation is characteristic of the way
  scientific RD operates today
• The sense of participation that stems from it
  provides learners with additional motivations

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Research data processingthrough computerized
tools

• These tools help creating new relationships
  between data, and thus new information
• Software for presenting information, can improve
  the students skills in preparing and submitting
  research reports, to an even larger audience

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Investigating complex systems through models and
simulation

• System-oriented thinking is the core of present
  science teaching
• Computers enable students to dicover complex
  systems, and conduct previously impossible
  experiments, study abstract concepts, and thus
  analyze assumptions
• With computer simulations, abstract models can be
  presented visually

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Dynamic visual presentationof information

• Developments in computer power, data gathering
  and processing, as well as applying visual arts
  in the design of systems, have made possible to
  translate huge amounts of scientific data into
  digital graphic images
• Variations in color and shading can now be used
  to represent numeric data that describe various
  aspects of a phenomenon or process
• Such representations can portray complex
  phenomena, as well as depict changes over time
  through a series of images.
• Astronomers develop visual simulations to model
  theories about creation of the universe
  physicists build three dimensional models to
  describe the atoms internal structure.

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Hypermedia

• Databases are linked through a non-linear dynamic
  connection
• The connection consists of a logical
  system-oriented or associative matrix
• Hypermedia can be used to shed light between
  components of complex systems
• Non-linear organization of information and its
  representation by hypermedia is comparable to the
  way information is organized in human mind
• Students can design hypermedia programs
• The more dense and connected the cognitive
  network, the easier the understanding.

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New learning approaches

• In the constructivist approach which has gained a
  lot of support with IT, knowledge is constructed
  through a process in which learners actively
  incorporate new information into existing one
• Cooperative learning focuses on the sociocultural
  perspective learning is seen as a dialogue
  among peers. The individual learning processes
  are reinforced by participation in group
  activities
• Situated learning is context based. The context
  is relevant to the students own world.
  Reinforced by the development of the Net,
  situated learning spawned the context of
  authentic learning, in which students address
  problems and situations not typicllay associated
  with the classroom.
• Science Technology and Society theories emphasize
  involvment in scientific and social processes,
  through addressing interdisciplinary issues
  pertaining to everydays life

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New versus traditional environments
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New versus traditional environments (2)
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Conclusions

• Falling interest of young people for science due
  to a lack of appeal of school courses
• Yesterday, curriculum developers acted as a
  intermediary between the student and the world of
  information
• Today, responsability of the learning process
  rests with the learner
• A driving force behind this change is the
  potential of ICTs
• Internet ensures the widest possible
  dissemination of the newly acquired technogies
• The social context of science should be taken
  into account