Communicating Evolution: An Exploration of Students' Skills in an Essential Practice of Science

Autor/inn/en	Cook, Kristin L.; Oliveira, Alandeom W.
Titel	Communicating Evolution: An Exploration of Students' Skills in an Essential Practice of Science
Quelle	In: Electronic Journal of Science Education, 19 (2015) 5, (23 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1087-3430
Schlagwörter	Science Instruction; Communication Skills; Evolution; High School Students; Secondary School Science; Scientific Principles; Rural Schools; Beliefs; Student Attitudes; Persuasive Discourse + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Teaching of science; Science education; Natural sciences Lessons; Naturwissenschaftlicher Unterricht; Kommunikationsstil; High school; High schools; Student; Students; Oberschule; Schüler; Schülerin; Studentin; Rural area; Rural areas; School; Schools; Ländlicher Raum; Schule; Schulen; Belief; Glaube; Schülerverhalten; Persuasion; Persuasive Kommunikation
Abstract	The Next Generation Science Standards emphasize the importance of developing students' abilities to effectively communicate science, including topics that are highly scrutinized in the American public sphere such as evolution. However, student attainment of "controversial communicative competence" (the ability to competently communicate about controversial science topics) has received little attention from educational researchers. The present paper addresses this issue by examining student communication of evolution (their choices when creating a public website) at the end of an instructional unit. Our exploratory analysis indicated students' efforts to communicate evolution are characterized by varied levels of openness to dialogue (dialogic expansion and contraction). Further, our findings suggest a parallel between dialogically imbalanced communicative approaches (i.e., excessive use of dialogic contraction or expansion) and reduced levels of conceptual and NOS competence. Implications for science education are discussed; including the need for explicitly guiding students in critically analyzing varied forms of science communication. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Southwestern University and Texas Christian University. TCU Box 297900, Fort Worth, TX 76129. Tel: 817-257-6115; e-mail: ejse@southwestern.edu; Web site: http://ejse.southwestern.edu
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01