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38626 results in Cambridge Textbooks

Page 1265 of 1932

  • 2.6 - Assessing science teaching and learning in the classroom

  • from Part 2 - Practice
  • Edited by Geoff Woolcott, Southern Cross University, Australia, Robert Whannell, University of New England, Australia
  • Book:
    Teaching Secondary Science
    Published online:
    06 August 2018
    Print publication:
    16 November 2017, pp 323-347

  • Summary

    LEARNING OBJECTIVES

    After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

  • • describe the steps involved in writing and returning an assessment task

  • • describe how Bloom's taxonomy may be used to develop assessment items of differing complexity levels

  • • write assessment items at several complexity levels for a given science concept

  • • describe the structure of an open-ended inquiry assessment task

  • • describe the process of writing an assessment rubric.

    • Introduction

    This chapter is the ‘mirror’ to Chapter 1.6, which considered assessment at a relatively high level, and described a number of commonly used approaches to describing assessment, including assessment as/of/for learning and formative and summative assessment. In this chapter we will apply the principles described in Chapter 1.6 to develop a number of illustrative high-quality assessment tasks. Because of the space limitation and the variety of possible assessment task types that may be developed, we will focus on the thinking that underpins the development of assessment. Initially we will consider the development of individual assessment items and then look at writing an open-ended inquiry task. This chapter should provide you with a structured approach to developing any genre of assessment.

    OPENING VIGNETTE

    Watch the video Performance-based assessment: Engaging students in chemistry (www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvYSVEmcjHM). This video presents an important consideration when developing summative assessment, namely, the capacity for an assessment task to provide all students with the opportunity to demonstrate the full range of capabilities. This includes students who will struggle to meet the minimum requirements of the task as well as those who will achieve very highly.

    Questions

    1. What does the term assessment mean to you and what do you feel are the main purposes for undertaking assessment in science?

    2. Think of an example of how an assessment task has helped your students. What were the specific characteristics of that task that made it effective?

    3. What approaches have been used by the chemistry teacher to enhance the requirement for higher order thinking/processing in the assessment task?

    4. Considering the approach taken in designing the assessment task, how long do you think it would take for the task to be completed? What problems do you consider might arise due to time considerations?

  • Chapter 2 - The employment contract: implied terms

  • Louise Floyd, James Cook University, North Queensland, William Steenson, University of Technology Sydney, Amanda Coulthard, Bond University, Queensland, Daniel Williams, Anne C. Pickering, University of Queensland
  • Book:
    Employment, Labour and Industrial Law in Australia
    Published online:
    06 August 2018
    Print publication:
    16 November 2017, pp 37-70

  • Summary

    Introduction

    In Chapter 1 we established the nature of a contract and how to distinguish between a contract of employment and an independent contract. The terms of an employment contract set out the various rights and duties of the employer and the employee.

    In addition to the express terms in an employment contract, there are implied terms. These are duties and obligations imposed on the employer and employee under the common law. They are based on public policy or originate from the nature of the contract of employment (for example, between master and servant). Duties implied by common law can be imposed on the employee or the employer or they can be mutual obligations. In Australia at present, there is much debate about that latter group.

    In the 2014 High Court of Australia decision in Commonwealth Bank of Australia v Barker (2014) 253 CLR 169 (Barker (2014)) the court did not imply a mutual duty of trust and confidence into the employment relationship flowing from the employer to the employee. As will be seen throughout this chapter, debate as to whether there is a reciprocal duty of good faith continues. Further, issues arise as to the interconnection between work, remuneration and strikes. So it is with those reciprocal duties that this discussion begins.

    No work, no pay – work earns remuneration

    That workers are entitled to earn remuneration, whether it is by way of wages or salary, for work they perform was confirmed by the decision in Automatic Fire Sprinklers Pty Ltd v Watson. The employee's duty to render services and the employer's duty to pay wages may seem straightforward, in that if services are not rendered then wages may not be paid. However, there are several issues arising from this seemingly simple interdependent duty.

    For example, there is a question as to whether it is justified for employees to extract wages, based on the employer's duty to pay wages, during lawful industrial action such as a go-slow or a work-to-rule. Chapter 5 of this book deals with industrial action and limits on payment of salary to workers who strike under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). But there are difficulties in practice.

    In a go-slow, work is performed, but at a very slow rate. In a work-to-rule, work is performed, but only to the letter of the contract of employment.

  • 14 - Archaeology, Genealogy, Ethics

  • from Part III - Inquiry With An Emancipatory Interest
  • Martin J. Packer, Universidad de San Buenaventura, Colombia
  • Book:
    The Science of Qualitative Research
    Published online:
    06 August 2018
    Print publication:
    16 November 2017, pp 424-460

  • Summary

    [The task] consists of not – of no longer – treating discourses as groups of signs (signifying elements referring to contents or representations) but as practices that systematically form the objects of which they speak. Of course, discourses are composed of signs; but what they do is more than use these signs to designate things. It is this more that renders them irreducible to language (langue) and to speech. It is this “more” that we must reveal and describe.

    Foucault, 1969/1972, p. 49

    The third approach to critical inquiry we shall consider is that ofMichel Foucault (1926–1984). Foucault developed a form of critical inquiry that explored knowledge, power, and human being itself as products of history and culture. His work throws light on the central aspects that define a form of life, as well as how investigation itself always arises in a form of life. Foucault reversed Kant's critique: whereas Kant had claimed to show how seemingly contingent aspects of human experience, such as causality, are actually necessary and universal, Foucault aimed to show how apparent necessities are actually contingent. Unlike Habermas, he didn't view language as a transcendental or quasi-transcendental domain. Unlike Bourdieu, he didn't view science as a field that produces knowledge that can transcend its circumstances. Indeed, Foucault's historical critique was directed especially at the “universal truths” of the modern biological, psychological, and social sciences. These turn out, in his analysis, to be outcomes of contingent historical events. But we shall see that Foucault did not consider truth to be indistinguishable from opinion, politics to be merely the play of power, or ethical judgments to be culturally relative. Whereas Habermas focuses on individual know-that, on reflection and decision making, and Bourdieu emphasized know-how, the embodied knowledge of habitus, Foucault recognized both formal knowledge and informal practical know-how and explored the relationship between them, as well as their relation to the acting knower.

    Foucault is sometimes described as a postmodernist and is sometimes accused of being antimodern. It is more accurate to say that all his work was motivated by the aim to understand how modern society operates. He was no more interested in telling a history of the failure of what he calls “our modernity” than in telling a history of its successes.

  • 2.4 - Bringing real-world science into the classroom

  • from Part 2 - Practice
  • Edited by Geoff Woolcott, Southern Cross University, Australia, Robert Whannell, University of New England, Australia
  • Book:
    Teaching Secondary Science
    Published online:
    06 August 2018
    Print publication:
    16 November 2017, pp 283-299

  • Summary

    LEARNING OBJECTIVES

    After studying this chapter, you will be able to:

  • • consolidate personal understanding of the Nature of Science and application to real-world scenarios

  • • demonstrate how inquiry approaches can assist in development of an understanding of working scientifically, scientific knowledge domains and science as a human endeavour

  • • formulate clear understanding of concepts and resolve commonly held alternative conceptions

  • • apply theoretical knowledge to examining real-world scenarios that engage students in teaching science.

    • Introduction

    This ‘mirror’ chapter provides examples for the practical application of learning experiences from Chapter 1.4, designed to enable students to connect scientific principles to real-world scenarios and to develop an understanding of the Nature of Science.

    A scientifically literate person can be described as action-oriented (Rennie, 2006), and displays the following:

  • • is interested in and understands the world around them

  • • engages in the discussions about and of science

  • • identifies questions, investigates and draws evidence-based conclusions

  • • is sceptical and questions claims made about scientific matters

  • • makes informed decisions about their own health and wellbeing and environment.

    • The development of scientific literacy is fostered by integrating explicit, reflective instruction about the Nature of Science together with scientific literacy in traditional science content (Lederman, Lederman & Antink, 2013). Essentially, if you create a range of opportunities for students to practise doing science and reflect on what they are doing (as discussed in Chapter 1.4 and modelled in Figure 1.4.2), their science learning experiences will be richer, more authentic and more meaningful. The question, therefore, is what activities or strategies can you bring into the classroom to engage authentic, real world experiences for your students – while at the same ensuring that all strands of the Australian Curriculum: Science are addressed. For a true reflection of science as a way of learning or the Nature of Science, all strands must be integrated. Figure 2.4.1 depicts the strands of the Australian curriculum as a three dimensions model related to the Nature of Science, which depicts misgivings occurring when an insufficient number of strands is addressed.

    OPENING VIGNETTE

    Watch the Youtube clip Awareness test, www.youtube.com/watch?

    v=oSQJP40PcGI.

    Questions

    How did you go with this? Did you need to watch the video again to check the validity of the statement?

    It is often easy to miss the ‘obvious’ if we are not looking for it. The same concept applies when ensuring the Nature of Science is embedded into your teaching.

  • Chapter 6 - The end of the employment relationship

  • Louise Floyd, James Cook University, North Queensland, William Steenson, University of Technology Sydney, Amanda Coulthard, Bond University, Queensland, Daniel Williams, Anne C. Pickering, University of Queensland
  • Book:
    Employment, Labour and Industrial Law in Australia
    Published online:
    06 August 2018
    Print publication:
    16 November 2017, pp 211-266

  • Summary

    For many of us, none of these statements is unfamiliar:

    ‘I love my job.’

    ‘I loathe my job’

    ‘You can't do that, it's my job!’

    Yet, as Professor Hugh Collins notes, in Justice in Dismissal, the legal reality is that there is no proprietary interest in a job. We cannot necessarily hold onto a job until a time of our choosing; nor can we pass a job on to whomever we please when we decide it is time to leave. One of the harsh realities of life is that people can and do lose their jobs for all manner of reasons – and sometimes against their wishes.

    That said, Collins also underscores the importance of employment – jobs so often define people's identity – and strong rates of employment add to the economic and social prosperity of the community. It is neither a good thing nor a legally allowable thing for employers to simply terminate an employee's employment on a whim. Indeed, under International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions such as the Convention on Termination of Employment, the notion of preventing unfair dismissal is enshrined. And it must be remembered that employment is governed by a contract of employment (discussed in Chapters 1 and 2 of this book), so the idea of suing for breach of contract may be entertained.

    Australian law governs the circumstances in which employment terminates. It endeavours to provide checks and balances between fairness to employees and economic flexibility for business, and to govern the numerous issues that can arise.

    The Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) provides remedies for unfair dismissal and is available to many Australian employees whose dismissal was ‘harsh, unjust or unreasonable’. The remedy is not available for job loss caused by genuine redundancy, nor to those whose employment terminates at the end of a genuine fixed-term contract or who are on qualifying periods. (It does, however, apply to some demotions and constructive dismissals – and there is a Small Business Fair Dismissal Code for those working in small business.) Reasons for dismissals governed by this legislation are many and varied, ranging from alleged poor workplace performance through to after-hours misconduct for misuse of social media. This jurisdiction embeds roles for unions as advocates and promotes conciliation, but lawyers may appear by leave and full trials can occur.

  • 2.8 - Digital technologies in the science classroom and beyond

  • from Part 2 - Practice
  • Edited by Geoff Woolcott, Southern Cross University, Australia, Robert Whannell, University of New England, Australia
  • Book:
    Teaching Secondary Science
    Published online:
    06 August 2018
    Print publication:
    16 November 2017, pp 375-393

  • Summary

    LEARNING OBJECTIVES

    After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

  • • design a lesson sequence that achieves learning goals by integrating technologies

  • • reflect on the purposes of technology that you integrate into your science teaching

  • • design a sequence of lessons or learning experiences that utilise technologies to extend students’ thinking and reasoning in science

  • • make informed choices regarding the use of technology for curriculum planning, making pedagogical choices and assessing students’ learning.

    • Introduction

    This chapter is a ‘mirror’ chapter to Chapter 1.8. The main goal of this chapter is to provide practical examples to elaborate on and illustrate the applications of the main focus areas of Chapter 1.8. The first two sections in the chapter focus on the different ways in which technologies can be integrated into the science classroom and the advantages that technologies provide for teaching and learning science, in contrast with more traditional approaches. The third section allows you to gain an insight into the use of technologies for extending students’ thinking during inquiry learning. The final section focuses on the ways in which teachers might capitalise on the affordances of technologies and the factors influencing their decisions relating to curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. Throughout this chapter we have used a combination of specific classroom examples and more generic approaches to allow you to adapt the ideas and strategies to your own teaching context, year level and content area.

    OPENING VIGNETTE

    Watch the first two minutes of the video clip How technology has changed my science classroom (www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdPJ0jHihSg) in which a year 6 science teacher describes the use of multiple technologies in a science unit.

    Questions

    Take 10 minutes to think about the following questions:

    1 What were the main purposes for which technologies were used (either by students or the teacher) in this science unit?

    2 In what ways did the technologies provide learning opportunities that would not have been possible without technologies?

    3 How has the use of technologies in this science unit made learning more student-centred?

    Integrating technology into science lessons

    In Chapter 1.8, we discussed the ways in which technological change has influenced science teaching and learning and described the opportunities that this provides to teachers. In this chapter, we provide examples of classroom practice to illustrate how and why technologies can enhance the teaching and learning of science.

  • Chapter 4 - Bargaining, awards and the National Employment Standards

  • Louise Floyd, James Cook University, North Queensland, William Steenson, University of Technology Sydney, Amanda Coulthard, Bond University, Queensland, Daniel Williams, Anne C. Pickering, University of Queensland
  • Book:
    Employment, Labour and Industrial Law in Australia
    Published online:
    06 August 2018
    Print publication:
    16 November 2017, pp 97-150

  • Summary

    Overview: some basic concepts

    What is enterprise bargaining?

    Enterprise bargaining is the primary process by which employers and groups of employees collectively negotiate and agree terms and conditions of employment which will apply to their employment relationship.

    There are many forms of enterprise bargaining. An informal discussion between a work team and their supervisor, if it leads to an agreement which is then followed in respect of that work team, can be categorised as enterprise bargaining. However, the term is mostly used to describe a formal process which takes place under either State or Federal industrial relations legislation. For the private sector, the legislation is the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth).

    The key characteristics of enterprise bargaining, which have changed incrementally over time as legislation has changed but which have remained relatively constant in practical application, are:

  • • Enterprise bargaining occurs between an employer, or in some cases a group of employers, and employees who are within a defined scope. In some cases, the scope can be as broad as the employees in a particular industry. In other cases, the scope can include all of an employer's employees. In other cases, the scope will be limited to particular employees, and in many cases, employees in one particular work location.

  • • There are formal rules which govern how enterprise bargaining can commence (and who has the capacity to commence it).

  • • Once commenced, there are rules which govern the obligations of all parties involved, including formal requirements in respect of administrative processes.

  • • Both the employer and employees, or different sub-groups of the relevant employees, are entitled to be represented by bargaining representatives. Trade unions are generally permitted to be bargaining representatives for employees who are their members or for employees within their eligibility rules who have not joined the union but who have appointed them as bargaining representatives. Under the Fair Work Act unions are in fact the default bargaining representative for their members and will have that role unless the employee appoints a different bargaining representative.

  • Part III - Inquiry With An Emancipatory Interest

  • Martin J. Packer, Universidad de San Buenaventura, Colombia
  • Book:
    The Science of Qualitative Research
    Published online:
    06 August 2018
    Print publication:
    16 November 2017, pp 351-354

  • Summary

    Kant worked hard to resolve a contradiction that emerged from the Enlightenment emphasis on rationality: the contradiction between the new view of man as an individual, natural creature and the need for valid scientific knowledge and ethical conduct. How could objective knowledge and binding ethics be built from subjective experiences and preferences? Kant's proposal was that ideas are representations that the mind actively constructs using its innate capacity for universal reason. Mind constitutes reality as we know it. As a result, individuals can have indubitable knowledge of the world and be clear on their moral duties.

    The empirical-analytic social sciences accepted this solution and defined their job as the objective study both of people's objective behavior and of their subjective beliefs, opinions, and desires. Qualitative research, when it is defined as the objective study of subjectivity, also accepts Kant's solution. But this solution operates at the epistemological level, while it presumes an ontological divide. It is torn in two by the dualisms of appearance and reality, subjective opinion and objective knowledge, foritself and in-itself.

    In the face of these problems, some people began to ask, ‘What more?’ Their answers change our understanding of both the character and the location of constitution. They emphasize that practical activity is the origin of order and of subjects and objects. Constitution takes place in practical know-how before any theoretical or objective-seeming formal know-that. Knowledge – reason, logic, and so on – is a local accomplishment. Objects and subjects are formed in practical activity.

    We can now understand better the calls for a new kind of interpretive research in the 1970s. These researchers wanted to study constitution, avoid dualism, focus on practices through immersion, and use hermeneutics. We have seen that the ontological approach to constitution does indeed offer a nondualistic account of humans and the world and emphasizes the primacy and importance of social practices. These practices provide a tacit knowhow on which all formal knowledge is based, and they involve ways of being. It seems reasonable that researchers have to obtain familiarity with social practices by participating in them, by becoming ‘immersed.’

    Parts I and II of this book have explored two central ways of defining qualitative research, first as the objective study of subjectivity, centered around interviewing, and then as the participatory study of intersubjectivity, centered around ethnographic fieldwork.

  • Preface

  • Louise Floyd, James Cook University, North Queensland, William Steenson, University of Technology Sydney, Amanda Coulthard, Bond University, Queensland, Daniel Williams, Anne C. Pickering, University of Queensland
  • Book:
    Employment, Labour and Industrial Law in Australia
    Published online:
    06 August 2018
    Print publication:
    16 November 2017, pp li-liii

  • Summary

    The photograph on the front cover of this book was taken by me whilst flying in a Qantas charter flight over the South Pole. To many, there might not be any immediate connection between that photo and labour and employment law. The South Pole is vast and beautiful, but it is largely uninhabited; it is not a thriving hub of either businesses or trade unions.

    But the photograph is a metaphor. The South Pole is, at once, something that has been with us forever, and something that is undergoing great change. There are settlements that have been in existence since Mawson's hut, yet there are vast expanses comprising a new frontier. Terrain that is majestic yet challenging (even threatening) on the ground can be enjoyed for all its magnificence comparatively easily from the sky. There is wildlife and nature so spectacular that it must not be destroyed as the world changes and develops.

    In what some would call a crowded market of good employment or labour texts, this book offers its own perspective and contribution. The book:

  • • analyses the key elements and new developments of both employment and labour law – issues relating to the employment of workers as well as trade union-related issues and new developments such as the responses to the Trade Union Royal Commission and anti-bullying laws;

  • • analyses the crucial emerging issues and new frontiers, such as transnational labour law (including a discussion of Chinese labour standards and Brexit, and their relevance to Australia); immigration and employment; volunteering; as well as the impact of robots and automation;

  • • analyses areas of work that either have not previously been considered in texts or that are important, yet do not regularly appear in labour and employment texts, such as public sector work and ‘The Big Society’; judicial work; and taxation;

  • • provides teaching materials, such as tutorial and group work questions and chapter summaries at the end of chapters; and

  • • has accompanying web materials – so developing areas (such as workplace policy) have a flexible medium with which materials can be presented in a useful and timely way.

  • 1.6 - Assessing science teaching and learning

  • from Part 1 - Theory
  • Edited by Geoff Woolcott, Southern Cross University, Australia, Robert Whannell, University of New England, Australia
  • Book:
    Teaching Secondary Science
    Published online:
    06 August 2018
    Print publication:
    16 November 2017, pp 116-140

  • Summary

    LEARNING OBJECTIVES

    After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

  • • state the principles that support the development of high quality science assessment tasks

  • • compare and contrast summative and formative assessment, giving examples of how each is used in the classroom

  • • state the requirements of the ACARA science syllabus with respect to assessment and reporting

  • • describe the differences between assessment of, as and for learning and give examples of how each would be used

  • • describe common techniques of assessment used in science education

  • • describe techniques for embedding formative assessment in a 5E lesson sequence.

    • Introduction

    Assessment is an integral component of everything that you do as a teacher. The importance of assessment cannot be underestimated. This importance arises due to assessment being the tool that provides feedback to the student, teacher, school administration, and parents and caregivers about the effectiveness of learning and instruction in the classroom. With state and national level assessment, such as Queensland Core Skills (QCS) test, Higher School Certificate (HSC) in New South Wales and National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) nationally, it can be seen that it provides the lens through which classroom activity, student learning and teacher effectiveness are determined.

    By the end of this chapter, you will have a good understanding of assessment as a tool for measuring student performance and, more importantly, as a tool used by the teacher and student to make the classroom a highly effective learning environment. You will also understand the differing requirements relating to assessment and reporting imposed on teachers at the federal and state level. This chapter will present to you some of the theory behind how teachers approach the development of assessment tasks in science. You will be introduced to a number of ideas, including the use of formative assessment, used primarily as a means of informing both the student and teacher about progress and as a means of diagnosing learning challenges, and summative assessment, which will form the basis of measuring and reporting student progress. The opportunity to consider the different roles of assessment as it relates to learning will also be provided.

    OPENING VIGNETTE

    Have a look at TedEd talk Formative and summative assessment, ed.ted.com/ on/QwcBdG5t. This is a short talk by Chuck Holland, where he describes a number of different aspects of assessment.

  • 1 - What Is Science?

  • from PART I - The Objective Study of Subjectivity
  • Martin J. Packer, Universidad de San Buenaventura, Colombia
  • Book:
    The Science of Qualitative Research
    Published online:
    06 August 2018
    Print publication:
    16 November 2017, pp 19-54

  • Summary

    [T]he logical empiricists sold us an extraordinary bill of goods.

    Taylor, 1980, p. 26

    Science is not hypothetico-deductive. It does have hypotheses, it does make deductions, it does test conjectures, but none of these determine the movement of theory.

    Hacking, 1983, p. 144

    In an article titled “What drives scientific research in education?” Shavelson and Towne (2004) note that the debate over how to define social science has gone on for more than 100 years. They try to calm what have become politicized arguments by recommending that scientific inquiry should be defined not by a particular methodology but by a way of posing and answering questions. Summarizing the conclusions of a National Research Council (NRC) committee convened in 2001 by the National Educational Research Policies and Priorities Board, they recommend (see Table 1.1) that all scientific research, in both the natural and the social sciences, should pose significant questions that can be investigated empirically, should be linked to relevant theory, should use methods that permit direct investigation of the questions, should provide a coherent and explicit chain of reasoning to rule out counterinterpretations, should replicate and generalize findings across studies, and should disclose research data and methods to enable and encourage professional scrutiny and critique (see Feuer, Towne, & Shavelson, 2002; Shavelson & Towne, 2002). Overall, “It's the question – not the method – that should drive the design of education research or any other scientific research. That is, investigators ought to design a study to answer the question that they think is important, not fit the question to a convenient or popular design” (Shavelson & Towne, 2004).

    These recommendations seem reasonable, and the effort to overcome competition among polarized camps seems admirable. However, the questionable assumptions that underlie their recommendations start to become evident when the NRC committee identifies three fundamental types of questions and the methods they consider most appropriate to answer them (see Table 1.2).

    The three questions are (1) What's happening? (2) Is there a systematic (causal) effect? and (3) What is the causal mechanism, or how does it work? The committee judged that the first type of question is asking for a description, and they recommended that this should be provided by a survey, ethnographic methods, or a case study. The second type of question is asking whether X caused Y. Here the most desirable method is a randomized clinical trial.

  • 2.7 - Using representations in the science classroom

  • from Part 2 - Practice
  • Edited by Geoff Woolcott, Southern Cross University, Australia, Robert Whannell, University of New England, Australia
  • Book:
    Teaching Secondary Science
    Published online:
    06 August 2018
    Print publication:
    16 November 2017, pp 348-374

  • Summary

    LEARNING OBJECTIVES

    After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

  • • engage your students and encourage them to think scientifically through the use of student-generated representations

  • • use the resources provided to develop a plan to begin to explore the use of representational reasoning in your classroom

  • • reflect on your questioning in relation to the use of student-generated representations to assess student learning and improve your science teaching

  • • plan a comprehensive unit of work based on incorporating representational reasoning into the 5Es learning model.

    • Introduction

    This chapter is designed to provide practical advice and examples to help you develop your understanding of the ideas discussed in Chapter 1.7. Research into representational reasoning has indicated that this approach is an effective way to engage students in science and develop their understanding of science concepts. Using student-generated representations (SGRs) as a basis for reasoning about science, provides a means for students to build their knowledge and engage in science in a way that emulates the way science works and to appreciate scientific thinking (see Chapter 1.4 and Chapter 2.4 for detail on Nature of Science principles).

    The teacher has an important role to play when student-generated representations are used as a basis for science inquiry and learning. The teacher needs to create a learning environment that values genuine inquiry, where students can make and refine claims, based on evidence, through a respectful discussion of their ideas. The teacher's role changes from a provider of expert knowledge to that of an expert guide. The aim is to plan and develop activities that will enable students to explore relevant problems, questions and/or issues and come to understand the relevant science concepts.

    While acknowledging that the balance of breadth (i.e. covering the content) with depth (i.e. exploring topics deeply) is an ever-present tension, it is argued that the improved quality of student learning and engagement in science makes this approach worthwhile. The Australian Curriculum: Science encourages deep explorations of key concepts, so the onus is upon us as teachers of science to be creative, but purposeful, in planning. The tools provided in this chapter have been designed to support an iterative and responsive approach to planning science teaching.

    You are encouraged to study the examples, adapt them as needed and try these ideas in your class.

  • 1.9 - Celebrating Australia's diversity through science education

  • from Part 1 - Theory
  • Edited by Geoff Woolcott, Southern Cross University, Australia, Robert Whannell, University of New England, Australia
  • Book:
    Teaching Secondary Science
    Published online:
    06 August 2018
    Print publication:
    16 November 2017, pp 191-214

  • Summary

    LEARNING OBJECTIVES

    After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

  • • consider what diversity might look like in Australian classrooms and why inclusive practices matter in terms of quality science learning and teaching

  • • understand how inclusive practices can foster the different ways of knowing science for students with diverse cultural backgrounds

  • • recognise the role of inclusive practices in supporting students with disabilities in learning science

  • • demonstrate an awareness of how inclusive practices enable students of differing socioeconomic statuses to access science education

  • • highlight the impact of inclusive practices on providing science learning opportunities for students living in different geographic locations.

    • Introduction

    As a term, diversity can mean a variety of things to different people. In this chapter, we intend to draw on a holistic view of diversity. Cultural diversity and disability are commonly focused on when we consider the notion of diversity and are very important differences to acknowledge and address in our classrooms. Diversity, however, is evident in many more ways than just these two areas. In its broadest sense, diversity is about embracing all human differences and as a concept encompasses acceptance and respect. By defining diversity in this way, we hope to support you – future secondary school teachers – in thinking about how to embrace and celebrate your students’ diversities in safe, positive and nurturing ways. For the purposes of this chapter, we have chosen to focus on four main areas: cultural background, disability, socioeconomic status (SES) and geographic location (rural, remote and metropolitan). The rural, remote and metropolitan area (RRMA) classification was developed nationally by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2004), and is still used by the Department of Health when defining geographic location in Australia, with metropolitan locations including capital cities and other urban centres (population greater than 100 000), rural, including large rural centres (population of 25 000 – 99 999), small rural centres (population of 10 000 – 24 999) and other rural centres (population of less than 10 000), and remote centres (population greater than 4999) and other remote areas (with the population of less than 5000).

    While we acknowledge that a range of other differences have a presence in schools, we believe that these four areas of diversity, cultural background, disability, socioeconomic status and geographic location, may be ones that you will come across most commonly in secondary school classrooms.

Page 1265 of 1932