This study explores the form of curriculum documents and its implications for the enacted curriculum. In this study, the narrative voices that appear in the Scottish Broad General Education phase and the Swedish Compulsory phase of the curriculum are scrutinized in relation to the most likely reader of these documents--the teacher. The study…

In this article, David Lewin examines the processes of educational representation, simplification, and selection, proposing the term "pedagogical reduction" in order to clarify the role these processes play within pedagogy. Although this term is virtually unknown among Anglo-American educational theorists, it reflects a substantial…

This study is part of a dissertation which aims to explore and understand the role of play in the teaching-learning process at elementary level in a public school at Pernambuco, Brazil. We opted for a qualitative approach, using the interactive methodology, interviews by the technique of hermeneutic-dialectical circle, observations of science…

The main argument of this article is that science teaching based on a pedagogy of questions is to be modeled on a hermeneutic conception of scientific research as a process of the constitution of texts. This process is spelled out in terms of hermeneutic phenomenology. A text constituted by scientific practices is at once united by a hermeneutic…

Hermeneutics is useful in science and science education by emphasizing the process of understanding. The purpose of this study was to construct a workshop based upon hermeneutical principles and to interpret students' learning in the workshop through a hermeneutical perspective. When considering the history of Newtonian mechanics, it could be…

The paper describes and illustrates the potential of using pictorial artistic images in supporting teaching scientific concepts and the nature of science. In the first part, the case of Giotto's fresco of stigmatization of St. Francis is described within the interpretation of relationship between the figures as between an object and its…

Cognitive and conceptual uncertainties are critical elements in geology from the earliest data collection stage to concluding interpretations. How a geologist conceptually weighs the importance of various data greatly influences final interpretations. In order for the process of data selection and interpretation to be transparent and repeatable,…

The aim of this self-study research was to deepen my understanding of pedagogy for teacher education and the factors that enhanced and hindered my confidence and competence as a teacher educator. I recorded my impressions and descriptions of events, discussions, and interpretations as a result of studying my practice in an electronic journal.…

This study investigates beliefs about teaching held by preservice science teachers and their influences on self-perceived microteaching outcomes within interactive secondary science teaching methods courses. Hermeneutic methodology was used in cooperation with seven preservice science teachers (N = 7) to infer participant beliefs about teaching…

Background: Existing research suggests that one of the challenges for teachers in persisting with innovative inquiry curricula is their difficulty scaffolding students' transitions into technology-supported and open-ended activities. The question of whether students can effectively scaffold one another's transitions has not been previously…

After proposing and defining the superordinate concept of "historicality," fundamental interrelationships between time, events, memory, meaning, personal knowledge, public knowledge, and the histories of science are explored. Relevant research findings that demonstrate the confluence of scholarly thought concerning historicality across…

Explores the nature of explanations used by 20 middle school science teachers utilizing the constant comparative analysis method in analyzing transcripts of classroom discourse. Discusses a subsuming categorical framework for the 10 types of explanations generated, along with examples of each type, namely: analogical, anthropomorphic, functional,…

If we are to change the pedagogy of teacher education, then teacher educators need to listen carefully to the students they teach. Drawing on a longitudinal study where prospective teachers talk about their learning across a 2-year teacher education program, this article seeks to illustrate and to interpret interview comments from five prospective…