EDU 711 Science and Technology Education Trimester 1 2014 Week 11 Lecturer : Mrs. Runaaz Sharma

Gender, language and Communication issues in Science and Technology Education

What is the difference between Gender and Sex ? Gender Issues What is the difference between Gender and Sex ? Sex is biologically determined Gender is a “sociological label”- refers to those ‘ non physiological components of sex that are culturally regarded as appropriate to males and females

Factors that create a difference between boys and girls participation rates in science classroom? Focus is one three areas: The girl: - She is deficient in a number of ways e.g. Lacks confidence, makes incorrect career choices The science curriculum:- projects a masculine image , promotes male stereotypes The learning environment: - teacher behaviors preferentially support boys , boys dominate intellectually

When does the difference start ?What does research show? Research supports that it starts as low as primary schools Why? Achievement- shows that males tend to perform better in earth science and physical science topics Sex- role stereotyping of jobs- students in primary grades are indicating that males dominate in jobs associated with math and science Preference for types of activities – research shows that many girls seem to participate less in hands on activities than boys but some research show otherwise Interest in science topics – primary aged boys are interested in physical science and girls in biological science . Many research shows that girls like other subjects more than science

Implications for teaching and learning in science Present science topics so that students have choices and can make choices Integrate physical science ideas in life science ideas Use interventions to overcome science sex stereotyping – positive role models , give more career information , removal of male bias from curriculum materials Teacher changing attitudes and beliefs (gender inclusive perspective ) Encourage reading about science in class time devoted to literacy (girls like reading)

For you to reflect on ? What are your perspective about this issue? Reflect on your personal history as a child , a student and a teacher . How has this lecture started to influence your views on what it means to have a non discriminatory, gender inclusive curriculum? How does your science curriculum make reference to gender issues?

Language and communication issues in science education

“Language is central in everyday life since it is one of the tools for understanding the world around us, communicating with peers, expressing our ideas and developing our knowledge. Even though language is not the only tool for understanding … world, “ becoming an educated person necessarily involves learning some special way of using language’ (Mercer and Littleton, 2007:2)

Why are language and literacy so important for science ? Language is the vehicle through which learners actively describe and reflect prior knowledge, they use the language to develop new structures to the existing understanding When explaining about the natural world , developing explanations on the phenomenon of day and night: we observe, we are forced to refer to object we can see, to imagine things such as how the earth is rotating… (language is the tool by which that understanding is achieved)

Why are language and literacy so important for science ? Language is important to the activity of doing science : Once ideas and hypothesis is made, it must be tested and data must be collected. Such data must be codes and represented using a range of representational forms such as charts tables , drawings, words Language is also central to communicating ideas of science- science classroom is a place of talking , sharing and reading and writing

What is the issue ? Science has a language of its own Scientist use language in unique ways There are specialist scientific vocabulary Learning in science is learning a new language Challenge for the teacher: how to introduce and deploy these new language and explain its meaning

What does constructivist view on language development say.. The constructivist view of learning sees the process of decoding as one which depends on the learning PK which the listener can bring to the process. Constructing meaning from text is not simply a process of word recognition The words must be interpreted and their meaning weighed and argued over.

Implication for teachers means that the teacher is not just a teacher of a new language (the language of science) but that they also must act as an interpreter- somebody who can explain how to derive the correct meaning from discourse and text from science classroom

Reflection and for you to think about? What are some of the difficulties in science language ?

References Hensen,L.E. (2003).Science in any Language. Science and Children, 41(3), pp. 35-39. Skamp,K. (2004).Teaching Primary Science Constructively. Nelson: Thomson. (pp 159- 160). (pp. 334- 240) and (pp. 518- 519) Osborne,J.&Dilon,J.(2010). Good practice in science teaching: what research has to say.(2nd.ed.),Open University Press. pp 135- 154.