title: Promoting mental model building in astronomy education

authors: Taylor, Ian

abstract: While astronomy has recently re-emerged in many science curricula, there remain unresolved teaching and learning difficulties peculiar to astronomy education. This paper argues that mental model building, the core process in astronomy itself, should be reflected in astronomy education. Also, this crucial skill may promote a better understanding of the nature of science by pupils and it resonates with current understandings about pupils' learning in science. However, three practical questions to be considered are: the expressed reservations about the connection between mental model building and meaningful learning; the earliest age of pupils for whom mental model building is appropriate; and the lack of research into pupils' prior ideas about the role of models in science. The paper describes how a four-phase general pedagogical strategy was adopted to create an astronomy teaching and learning package to promote mental model building. The package consists of notes explaining the mental model building followed by an overview of the teaching-learning approach and suggested outlines of the 12 lessons. Research investigated whether that package can help Year 7-8 pupils interrogate and refine their mental models of the Sun-Earth-Moon system within the constraints of an ordinary class of 33 pupils. The results showed that all four phases of the general strategy were necessary and effective in that most pupils were able successively and successfully to critique their mental models of the Sun-Earth-Moon system while also achieving traditional astronomy knowledge goals. Implications are that pupils as young as Year 7-8 may be able to construct other appropriate mental models, such as those for biological populations, atomic structure and plate tectonics.

text: Promoting mental model building in astronomy education While astronomy has recently re-emerged in many science curricula, there remain unresolved teaching and learning difficulties peculiar to astronomy education. This paper argues that mental model building, the core process in astronomy itself, should be reflected in astronomy education. Also, this crucial skill may promote a better understanding of the nature of science by pupils and it resonates with current understandings about pupils' learning in science. However, three practical questions to be considered are: the expressed reservations about the connection between mental model building and meaningful learning; the earliest age of pupils for whom mental model building is appropriate; and the lack of research into pupils' prior ideas about the role of models in science. The paper describes how a four-phase general pedagogical strategy was adopted to create an astronomy teaching and learning package to promote mental model building. The package consists of notes explaining the mental model building followed by an overview of the teaching-learning approach and suggested outlines of the 12 lessons. Research investigated whether that package can help Year 7-8 pupils interrogate and refine their mental models of the Sun-Earth-Moon system within the constraints of an ordinary class of 33 pupils. The results showed that all four phases of the general strategy were necessary and effective in that most pupils were able successively and successfully to critique their mental models of the Sun-Earth-Moon system while also achieving traditional astronomy knowledge goals. Implications are that pupils as young as Year 7-8 may be able to construct other appropriate mental models, such as those for biological populations, atomic structure and plate tectonics.

year: 2003

title: Book Review Essay: Reimagining the subject of feminism: Six women artists

authors: Middleton, Sue

abstract: Maria Tamboukou is a Reader in Sociology and Co-Director of the Centre of Narrative Research at the University of East London,  UK. A trans-disciplinary feminist writer, Tamboukou is known for imaginative conceptual assemblages in the study of narrative texts. Influenced by Hannah Arendt and Adriana Cavarero, she argues: “narratives foreground the question of Who one is, as differentiated from the Western (male) philosophical tradition that has revolved around the question of What one is” (Tamboukou, 2010a: 13). “Who” one is, however, is never fixed, never stable, always in process – in Deleuzian terms, nomadic. Citing Rosi Braidotti, (Tamboukou 2010a: 84) defines nomadic subjects as always in transition, characterised not by homelessness but by “their ability to create their homes everywhere” in the process of becoming.

text: Book Review Essay: Reimagining the subject of feminism: Six women artists Maria Tamboukou is a Reader in Sociology and Co-Director of the Centre of Narrative Research at the University of East London,  UK. A trans-disciplinary feminist writer, Tamboukou is known for imaginative conceptual assemblages in the study of narrative texts. Influenced by Hannah Arendt and Adriana Cavarero, she argues: “narratives foreground the question of Who one is, as differentiated from the Western (male) philosophical tradition that has revolved around the question of What one is” (Tamboukou, 2010a: 13). “Who” one is, however, is never fixed, never stable, always in process – in Deleuzian terms, nomadic. Citing Rosi Braidotti, (Tamboukou 2010a: 84) defines nomadic subjects as always in transition, characterised not by homelessness but by “their ability to create their homes everywhere” in the process of becoming.

year: 2011

title: Mapping Māori knowledge from the past to inform marine management futures

authors: Paul-Burke, Kura

subjects: mātauranga Māori

abstract: This article provides an overview of research which used mātauranga moana (Māori marine knowledge systems) to inform and assist Western science field research methods and surveys. Place-based Māori marine knowledge identified the traditional distribution range and sizing of taonga (culturally important) species in traditional coastal areas which had been fished and managed by consecutive generations of Māori; kina, Evechinus chloroticus, sea urchin; koura, Jasus edwardsii, red rock lobster; kūtai, Perna canaliculus, green lipped mussel; and pāua, Haliotis iris, abalone. This knowledge was then mapped and used as the baseline for sub-tidal marine science field research surveys. Findings from the transdisciplinary marine research was used to develop management actions to assist Māori and Government entities for improving, enhancing and safeguarding marine taonga species into the future. This article critically discusses and demonstrates the relevance and complementarity of mātauranga Māori and Western science, and the importance of kaupapa Māori strategies for empowering Māori collaboration and voices in marine research co-development, implementation and communication.

text: Mapping Māori knowledge from the past to inform marine management futures This article provides an overview of research which used mātauranga moana (Māori marine knowledge systems) to inform and assist Western science field research methods and surveys. Place-based Māori marine knowledge identified the traditional distribution range and sizing of taonga (culturally important) species in traditional coastal areas which had been fished and managed by consecutive generations of Māori; kina, Evechinus chloroticus, sea urchin; koura, Jasus edwardsii, red rock lobster; kūtai, Perna canaliculus, green lipped mussel; and pāua, Haliotis iris, abalone. This knowledge was then mapped and used as the baseline for sub-tidal marine science field research surveys. Findings from the transdisciplinary marine research was used to develop management actions to assist Māori and Government entities for improving, enhancing and safeguarding marine taonga species into the future. This article critically discusses and demonstrates the relevance and complementarity of mātauranga Māori and Western science, and the importance of kaupapa Māori strategies for empowering Māori collaboration and voices in marine research co-development, implementation and communication.

year: 2020