The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Socio-scientific issues and the quality of exploratory talk - what can be learned from schools involved in a 'collapsed day' project?

Socio-scientific issues and the quality of exploratory talk - what can be learned from schools involved in a 'collapsed day' project?
Socio-scientific issues and the quality of exploratory talk - what can be learned from schools involved in a 'collapsed day' project?
This project was designed to examine the feasibility of using a ‘collapsed day’ to explore socio-scientific issues relating to genes and genetic engineering in secondary schools by enabling science and humanities staff to collaborate. It was believed that science staff would have expertise in promoting understanding of genetics and humanities staff would have expertise in managing the ethical debates that emerged. The study took place in eight secondary schools with pupils aged 14-16. A surprising result of the project was the lack of high quality ‘public discourse’ or ‘exploratory talk’ around the ethical dilemmas raised by the topic. An examination of the data suggests that clarity about the nature of the day, teacher expertise in motivating and managing discussion, and pupil experience of discussion might be related to the level of discourse seen.
Socio-scientific issues, science education, citizenship education, exploratory talk, collapsed day
0958-5176
439-453
Harris, Richard
0550d258-245a-4d0f-b366-4a8bc580cda3
Ratcliffe, Mary
23eb1e68-67a1-4b73-ad0e-925dcb12e5e8
Harris, Richard
0550d258-245a-4d0f-b366-4a8bc580cda3
Ratcliffe, Mary
23eb1e68-67a1-4b73-ad0e-925dcb12e5e8

Harris, Richard and Ratcliffe, Mary (2005) Socio-scientific issues and the quality of exploratory talk - what can be learned from schools involved in a 'collapsed day' project? The Curriculum Journal, 16 (4), 439-453. (doi:10.1080/09585170500384396).

Record type: Article

Abstract

This project was designed to examine the feasibility of using a ‘collapsed day’ to explore socio-scientific issues relating to genes and genetic engineering in secondary schools by enabling science and humanities staff to collaborate. It was believed that science staff would have expertise in promoting understanding of genetics and humanities staff would have expertise in managing the ethical debates that emerged. The study took place in eight secondary schools with pupils aged 14-16. A surprising result of the project was the lack of high quality ‘public discourse’ or ‘exploratory talk’ around the ethical dilemmas raised by the topic. An examination of the data suggests that clarity about the nature of the day, teacher expertise in motivating and managing discussion, and pupil experience of discussion might be related to the level of discourse seen.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: December 2005
Keywords: Socio-scientific issues, science education, citizenship education, exploratory talk, collapsed day

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 19138
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/19138
ISSN: 0958-5176
PURE UUID: f17ac6d7-96f4-43cd-9247-699eea7c1cb4

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 05 Jan 2006
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 06:11

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Richard Harris
Author: Mary Ratcliffe

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×