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This study explores book talks as an approach to teaching Nature of Science (NOS) to young children (4–6 years old). To teach about NOS means to, in one way or another, focus on the processes, humans that build science knowledge, as well as the characteristics and limits of scientific knowledge. Previous research in this area has studied the representation of NOS in science trade books and suggested ways for teachers to highlight this content, specifically in relation to books that have been rendered "exemplary" for teaching NOS. This study focuses on the actual conversations (i.e., book talks) between teachers and children related to science trade books that are available in bookstores. The aim of the study was to contribute further knowledge about the characteristics of book talks related to such books when they are used as an approach to teaching NOS. Book talks (N = 58) between two teachers and their respective groups of children were audiorecorded and transcribed. The results contribute by shedding light on how teachers use the book as a resource in combination with other resources to highlight various aspects of NOS during book talks. This is important since it shows how book talks as an approach to NOS teaching can be staged even if exemplary books are not available. A tentative model that can scaffold teachers' didactic analysis is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a conceptual discussion of 'ownership' in various forms of participatory research. The discussion is grounded in our experiences from three research projects in science education. We seek to understand how and why ownership may be distributed between teachers and researchers at different stages in the research process. Looking at our projects in retrospect, we see that ownership was differently distributed at the initial stages. Then ownership distribution followed a similar pathway, as teachers gained ownership of implementation, whereas researchers reclaimed ownership of analyzing and disseminating the work. Our discussion departs from the idea that ownership relates to both 'risks' and 'benefits' as well as to both 'rights' and 'obligations'. Thereby, we can make visible some of the circumstances that steer ownership towards the teachers or researchers. For example, we highlight that ownership distribution may be influenced by guidelines for research ethics and inequalities in terms of administrative support structures available to researchers and teachers. Based on our discussion, we suggest a number of questions to initiate and support a continuous dialogue between teachers and researchers who plan to engage in participatory research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research field of science education has gathered questions about what science is, how scientific knowledge is developed and in what ways humans are involved in these processes under the umbrella concept 'nature of science' (NOS). Previous research has suggested that teaching ought to focus much more on these issues, but so far the focus has been on older children and students, while there is a lack of research on NOS teaching for the youngest children (up to six years). In this conceptual article, we suggest that NOS should be taught from the outset, and thus be part of science teaching in the early years. We put forward arguments as to why this early introduction coupled to the overall values and aims of democracy and social justice is important, and elaborate on the kind of NOS issues that could be included in science teaching aimed at the youngest children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the need for increased attention to content issues and working methods for science teaching in Early Childhood Education (ECE). Science education research emphasises the importance of not only focusing on specific phenomena, but also on the Nature of Science (NOS). NOS teaching deals with questions about what science is, how scientific knowledge is developed and in what ways humans are involved in these processes. An inclusion of such issues is important if common stereotypical images of science and scientists are to be challenged. Previous research has suggested that NOS can be taught through book talks connected to trade books. However, there is a lack of empirical studies at the ECE level supporting this suggestion. Thus, this article reports from the first part of a project in which researchers and teachers explored book talks as a possibility to introduce NOS in early years science (children between 1 and 5 years old). Data consists of book talks (N=48) around two picture trade books led by five preschool teachers preceded by a teacher-researcher workshop on NOS and NOS teaching. The results show that discussions on a variety of NOS issues is possible in an ECE context. These results are discussed in relation to previous literature on both NOS teaching and science in the early years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nature of science (NOS) has increasingly been emphasized as an important element in science education. This paper engages in the question of how teachers negotiate different approaches to and contexts for NOS teaching. This exploratory study is part of a three‐year longitudinal project where six in‐service teachers developed and negotiated their NOS‐teaching practices. Pickering's (1995) theory of the mangle of practice is used for the analysis of teachers' focus‐group discussions. In a mangled practice, school science traditions, policy documents, and students' and teachers' expectations and identities are rubbed against each other. As part of the project teachers planned, implemented, and reflected on two NOS activities at different levels of contextualization. The concepts alignment, resistance, and accommodation are used as an analytical tool to understand the processes of the mangle in relation to teachers' negotiations concerning the two activities during the focus groups. The results of the mangle are presented in relation to a backdrop of three teaching traditions (facts, lab‐work, and discussions) that the teachers' claim to depart from. The results show how the alignment and resistance of different components of the mangle lead to various accommodations as regards both the activities and the three traditions. The article concludes by discussing how the teachers' negotiations highlight what becomes possible and what becomes challenging when NOS meets existing traditions, and what this means in respect of possibilities for NOS learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tests convey messages about what to teach and how to assess. Both of these dimensions may either broaden or become more uniform and narrow as a consequence of high-stakes testing. This study aimed to investigate how Swedish science teachers were influenced by national, high-stakes testing in science, specifically focusing on instances where teachers' pedagogical practices were broadened and/or narrowed. The research design is qualitative thematic analysis of focus group data, from group discussions with Swedish science teachers. The total sample consists of six teachers, who participated in 12 focus group discussion during three consecutive years. Findings suggest that the national tests influence teachers' pedagogical practice by being used as a substitute for the national curriculum. Since the teachers do not want their students to fail the tests, they implement new content that is introduced by the tests and thereby broaden their existing practice. However, when this new content is not seen as a legitimate part of teachers' established teaching traditions, the interpretation and implementation of this content may replicate the operationalisations made by the test developers, even though these operationalisations are restricted by demands for standardisation and reliable scoring. Consequently, the tests simultaneously broaden and narrow teachers' pedagogical practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inclusion of nature of science (NOS) in science education has for a long time been regarded as crucial. There is, however, a lack of research on appropriate NOS aspects for different educational levels. An even more neglected area of research is that focusing on teachers' perspectives on NOS teaching at different levels. The aim of this article is to examine NOS progression in the light of teachers' suggestions and rationales. In order to obtain teachers' informed perspectives, we chose to involve six teachers (teaching grades 1–9) in a 3-year research project. They took part in focus group discussions about NOS and NOS teaching as well as implemented jointly planned NOS teaching sessions. Data that this article builds on was collected at the end of the project. The teachers' suggestions for NOS progression often relied on adding more NOS issues at every stage, thereby creating the foundations of a broader but not necessarily deeper understanding of NOS. Five rationales, for if/when specific NOS issues are appropriate to introduce, emerged from the analysis of the teacher discussions. Some of these rationales, including practice makes perfect and increasing levels of depth can potentially accommodate room for many NOS issues in the science classroom, while maturity and experience instead has a restricting effect on NOS teaching. Also, choice of context and teaching approaches play an important role in teachers' rationales for whether specific NOS issues should be included or not at different stages. The article discusses the implications for teacher education and professional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional school science has been described as focused on indisputable facts where scientific processes and factors affecting these processes become obscured or left undiscussed. In this article, we report on teachers' perspectives on the teaching of sociocultural and subjective aspects of the nature of science (NOS) as a way to accomplish a more nuanced science teaching in Swedish compulsory school. The teachers ( N = 6) took part in a longitudinal study on NOS and NOS teaching that spanned 3 years. The data consists of recorded and transcribed focus group discussions from all 3 years. In the analysis, the transcripts were searched for teachers' suggestions of issues, relevant for teaching in compulsory school, as well as opportunities and challenges connected to the teaching of these issues. The results of the analysis show that (a) the number of suggested issues increased over the years, (b) teachers' ways of contextualizing the issues changed from general and unprecise to more tightly connected to socio-scientific or scientific contexts, and (c) the number of both opportunities and challenges related to NOS teaching increased over the years. The most evident changes occurred from the beginning of year 2 when the focus group discussions became more closely directed towards concrete teaching activities. Tensions between the opportunities and challenges are discussed as well as how these can be met, and made use of, in science teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nature of science (NOS) has for a long time been regarded as a key component in science teaching. Much research has focused on students' and teachers' views of NOS, while less attention has been paid to teachers' perspectives on NOS teaching. This article focuses on in-service science teachers' ways of talking about NOS and NOS teaching, e.g. what they talk about as possible and valuable to address in the science classroom, in Swedish compulsory school. These teachers ( N = 12) are, according to the national curriculum, expected to teach NOS, but have no specific NOS training. The analytical framework described in this article consists of five themes that include multiple perspectives on NOS. The results show that teachers have less to say when they talk about NOS teaching than when they talk about NOS in general. This difference is most obvious for issues related to different sociocultural aspects of science. Difficulties in-and advantages of-NOS teaching, as put forth by the teachers, are discussed in relation to traditional science teaching, and in relation to teachers' perspectives on for which students science teaching will be perceived as meaningful and comprehensible. The results add to understanding teachers' reasoning when confronted with the idea that NOS should be part of science teaching. This in turn provides useful information that can support the development of NOS courses for teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]