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The purpose of this work has been to shed light on the science of education, primarily in the period 1948-1971. The work also consists of the establishment of education as an academic discipline (1910-1948). The theoretical frame of reference is Kuhn's theory about the structure of scientific revolutions. The dissertation consists of two main parts: in the first part a paradigm analysis is treated, where some theoretical considerations are applied with a view to examine the effects of external factors on educational research. The purpose of the paradigm analysis was partly to identify and describe any prevailing system of scientific norms and values that may exist, and partly to characterize the outcome of the . analysis in terms of the theory of scientific revolutions. The total scientific production, descriptions of model studies and model examples made up the three materials that were subjected to an analysis with a view to finding out the nature of the underlying paradigm. The analyses of these three material indicated,both individually and in combination, that educational research during the period in question was dominated by one system of norms and values: a neobehaviouristic one. It also turned out to be possible to distinguish one approach as deviating from the others, viz. the hermeneutic approach. The conclusion was that educational research, visavi the theory of paradigm, was in a multiparadigmatic phase. But we could also observe variations of approaches within the framework of the predominating paradigm. We took this state of affairs as a point of departure for theoretical considerations about the status of paradigm in the social sciences. The basis for this policy was Kuhn's claim that paradigm is the most controlling dimension during phases of normal science. Therefore we examined the relationship between internal and external factors within the predominating paradigm in order to shed light on the principal question as to what the main impetus of the development in Swedish educational research had been. After several analyses the question was answered in the following manner. The existence of a predominant scientific system of norms and values probably constituted one of the main prerequisites of a massive concentration on educational research. However, external circumstances gradually developed for this system of values new problems in the way of analysis. In this way the nature of educational research changed from a concentration on psychometry to a. concentration on "school research". This state of affairs has also probably implied that the scientific ambition of educational research was gradually changed from descriptive and expository reports towards official reports on questions that are important for the authorities. / digitalisering@umu

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This thesis examines the activities of the Statistical Society of London (SSL) and its contribution to early statistics-conceived as the science of humans in society-in Britain. The SSL as a collective entity played a crucial role in the formation of early statistics, as statisticians envisaged early statistics as a collaborative scientific project and prompted large-scale observation, which required cooperation among numerous statistical observers. The first three chapters discuss how the SSL shaped the concepts, practices, and institutions of statistical data production. The SSL demonstrated how the use of a hierarchical division of labour and blank form minimised observers' leeway to exercise individual observational skills and ensured uniformity in the production of statistical facts. This arrangement effectively depreciated first-hand observation in statistics and allowed statisticians to rely on the statistical facts collected by other people. It prompted the SSL to launch the Journal of the Statistical Society of London to serve as a virtual storage of observed facts where one could share their data for further aggregation and retrieve that of others for their analysis. The statisticians also engaged in contemporaneous discussion on the best mode of a statistical office with a view towards producing complete and internationally comparable statistical facts. The SSL's endorsement of the Belgian Central Statistical Commission model and the International Statistical Congress was intended to support the introduction of uniformity into statistical data at both the national and international levels. The last two chapters of this thesis discuss how the SSL's activities contributed to the historical formation of human sciences and the emergence of social scientists. Statisticians demanded the recognition of a scientific field which, independent from natural science, studied people as social beings and whose discourses moulded the treatment of the people they studied. The SSL's activities helped statisticians not only establish their scientific expertise but also develop their unique scientific ethos. Statisticians learnt not to trust their personal observations since individuals could see only a partial, and potentially distorted, picture of society. Instead, statisticians disciplined themselves to patiently wait for the accumulation of statistical facts and analyse data in their entirety because this was the only way, they believed, to truly understand the complex relationships people had with each other. The SSL's activities assisted statisticians' conception of statistical fact and produced a new kind of intellectual inquirer who patiently collected statistical facts as the basis of knowing and intervening in people's lives.

Today it is common to state that we are living in an information overloaded society. But there are many different definitions of what can be said to constitute Information Overload and there is a lack of substantial research on the subject. Conclusions in the available literature on Information Overload are often drawn on anecdotal evidence and carries a dramatized picture of the causes and effects of the phenomenon. With the tools of discursive analysis this two years master’s thesis explores how the phenomenon Information Overload is portrayed in six popular science books that deals with the subject: Alvin Toffler (1970) Future Shock, Orrin Klapp (1986) Overload and Boredom, Richard Wurman (1989) Information Anixety, Andrew Keen (2007) The cult of the amateur, Maggie Jackson (2008), Distracted and Nicholas Carr (2010) The Shallows. The result of the analysis shows that there is a common discourse of how the subject of Information Overload is represented, which stretches in and between the books intertextually. In this study that discourse is called the dystopian discourse of Information Overload. It is structured by a unified use of narratives, concepts, themes, metaphors and statements and by its separation from the opposite utopian discourse of Information Overload. In the final discussion the results of the analysis are compared to postmodern theory, a problematisation of the concept of distraction and to the Swedish government’s 2012 investigation of reading habits of young people in the country. The conclusion of the study is that the two binary discourses discovered in the analysis – the dystopian and the utopian – should be avoided in the debate and research on Information Overload. Instead the discussion should be influenced by pluralism, complexity and awareness.

The aim of this study is to investigate the views of preservice science teachers on science-technology-society, STS, issue. A total of 176 preservice science teachers participated in the study. A 26-item &ldquo / Views on Science-Technology-Society (VOSTS)&rdquo / instrument, translated and adapted into Turkish, were utilized to assess participants&rsquo / views on STS. The VOSTS (Aikenhead, Ryan and Fleming, 1989) is a pool of 114 empirically developed multiple-choice items with nine categories. In order to understand participants&rsquo / views on STS in depth, semi-structured interviews were also conducted by 9 volunteer preservice science teachers. The results gave a colorful picture of the views of preservice science teachers on science-technology-society issue. The analysis revealed that preservice science teachers often confuse the definitions of technology with science. Most of the participants of the study had specific views about the reasons of doing scientific researches in their country, for example, to be independent from other countries, to get financial profit. Results displayed a consensus on the possible positive effects of upbringing and the importance of education given to high school students. According to the data obtained from the present study, respondents possess varied views about the influences of society on science and technology. While preservice science teachers claiming that scientists could break the rules of science, they also claimed scientists as objective in their study. On the other hand, participants supported the view that scientists&rsquo / concern on all the effects of their experiments. Preservice science teachers advocated also that technological developments can be controlled by citizens.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard University, 1978. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 493-532).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard University, 1978. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 493-532).

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the extent to which multicultural science education, including indigenous knowledge representations, had been infused within the content of high school biology textbooks. The study evaluated the textbook as an instructional tool and framework for multicultural science education instruction by comparing the mainstream content to indigenous knowledge perspectives portrayed in the student and teacher editions of 34 textbooks adopted in Florida within the last four adoption cycles occurring from 1990 to 2006. The investigation involved a content analysis framed from a mixed methods approach. Emphasis was placed, in consideration of the research questions and practicality of interpreting text with the potential for multiple meanings, within qualitative methods. The investigation incorporated five strategies to assess the extent of multicultural content: 1) calculation of frequency of indigenous representations through the use of a tally; 2) assessment of content in the teacher editions by coding the degree of incorporation of multicultural content; 3) development of an archaeology of statements to determine the ways in which indigenous representations were incorporated into the content; 4) use of the Evaluation Coefficient Analysis (ECO) to determine extent of multicultural terminologies within content; and 5) analysis of visuals and illustrations to gauge percentages of depictions of minority groups. Results indicated no solid trend in an increase of inclusion of multicultural content over the last four adoption cycles. Efforts at most reduced the inclusion of indigenous representations and other multicultural content to the level of the teacher edition distributed among the teacher-interleafed pages or as annotations in the margins. Degree of support of multicultural content to the specific goals and objectives remained limited across all four of the adoption cycles represented in the study. Emphasis on standardized testing appeared in the six textbooks representing the most recent adoption cycle. Recommendations included increased efforts to identify quality of content by including input from scholars in the field of multicultural education as well as indigenous peoples in the creation of textbook content. Recommendations also included further clarification of the definition of science within multicultural science education frameworks, indigenous knowledge as compared to Western science and pseudoscience, and scientific literacy as a central focus to a multicultural science education meant to address the needs of an increasingly diverse student population and prime-age workforce.

This descriptive case study focuses on how Technology teachers interpret and enact the interrelationship of the Technology-Society-Environment (TSE) theme with the Technological Process and Skills (TPS) and Technological Knowledge and Understanding (TKU) curriculum themes of the South African school subject, Technology. Science and technology have influenced society in the twentieth and twenty-first Century to a considerable extent. A critical study of this group of related influences is termed Science- Technology-Society and addresses socially relevant topics that encourage critical and high level thinking skills, problem-solving and decision making capacity. These issues are included in the Technology curriculum as the TSE theme. Using the TSE theme in teaching would have the potential to make the curriculum more relevant and learning more meaningful as it provides scope for teachers to engage learners to construct knowledge at a critical level in different real life contexts. This study investigated the relationship between teachers’ understanding of the interrelationship of TSE with Technological Process and Skills (TPS) and Technological Knowledge and Understanding (TKU) themes and the extent to which the unique features and scope for teaching Technology are met. The study was set in Bohlabela district of the province of Mpumalanga, in South Africa and implemented between August 2011 and April 2012. Four teachers of different schools and circuits were interviewed, three were observed during teaching, their lessons, work schedules and learners’ workbooks and project portfolios were analysed. A novel combination of an adaptation of the Ben-Peretz scheme of curriculum document analysis and Rogan and Grayson construct of implementation frame was used in the analysis of the information obtained through documents and observations. The study established that only in exceptional cases teachers use learner centred approaches that allow the integration of the TSE theme with the process (TPS) and knowledge (TKU) themes. Evidence was found that while teachers planned such integration, learners themselves do not show any examples of such integration in their workbooks. Teachers have difficulties with specific knowledge areas of the Technology curriculum, in spite of formal adequate basic training in the subject. Teachers ascribe these difficulties to resource limitations, the absence of specific technology training and inadequate support by teacher support personnel. It is recommended that teacher support groups be established, and that the Department of Education develop specific curriculum materials and train teachers in the interpretation and enactment of the documents. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / gm2014 / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / unrestricted