Transforming Undergraduate Science Teaching : Social Constructivist Perspectives

Counterpoints publishes the most compelling and imaginative books being written in education today. Grounded on the theoretical advances in criticalism, feminism and postmodernism in the last two decades of the twentieth century, Counterpoints engages the meaning of these innovations in various forms of educational expression. Committed to the proposition that theoretical literature should be accessible to a variety of audiences, the series insists that its authors avoid esoteric and jargonistic languages that transform educational scholarship into an elite discourse for the initiated.

This book comes at a time when epistemological reform is sweeping through the global community of science education. Since the 1970s, the theories of knowing embodied in the teaching activities of school science teachers have been undergoing a major transformation toward more learner-sensitive standpoints. But undergraduate science teaching, the breeding ground of teachers of school science, has remained largely teacher-centered in many lecture theaters and laboratories. Little wonder that newly graduated science teachers arrive in school science classrooms ill prepared to practice learner-sensitive teaching. Thus, the motivating force behind this book is to expedite the process of epistemological reform of undergraduate science teaching, to align it with the reform goals of the science education community. The knowledge gained from this unique collection of studies can be extended to science courses for all students, those going on directly into science, those planning to become K-12 teachers of science, and those in allied fields as well.