Kathryn Scantlebury - Böcker

In this book various scholars explore the material in science and science education and its role in scientific practice, such as those practices that are key to the curriculum focuses of science education programs in a number of countries.As a construct, culture can be understood as material and social practice. This definition is useful for informing researchers' nuanced explorations of the nature of science and inclusive decisions about the practice of science education (Sewell, 1999). As fields of material social practice and worlds of meaning, cultures are contradictory, contested, and weakly bounded. The notion of culture as material social practices leads researchers to accept that material practice is as important as conceptual development (social practice).However, in education and science education there is a tendency to ignore material practice and to focus on social practice with language as the arbiter ofsuch social practice. Often material practice, such as those associated with scientific instruments and other apparatus, is ignored with instruments understood as "inscription devices", conduits for language rather than sources of material culture in which scientists share “material other than words” (Baird, 2004, p. 7) when they communicate new knowledge and realities. While we do not ignore the role of language in science, we agree with Barad (2003) that perhaps language has too much power and with that power there seems a concomitant loss of interest in exploring how matter and machines (instruments) contribute to both ontology and epistemology in science and science education.

This volume acknowledges the contribution of Kenneth Tobin to the international science education community. The book includes a range of perspectives, from more theoretical contributions to practical case studies, and is comprised of 23 chapters organized into 4 sections around the key themes of Ken’s work, namely interpretative classroom research, doing research differently, and transformative practice in schools and teacher education. These sections are framed by an introduction and overview that focuses on Ken’s initial research, his commitment to research through his own intellectual development as a scholar and his support of others through networks (collaborations and research squads) and mentoring (educating and learning from colleagues).  The last section discusses his current and future research direction (e.g. his more recent work on emotions and mindfulness).

Coteaching is two or more teachers teaching together, sharing responsibility for meeting the learning needs of students and, at the same time, learning from each other. Working as collaborators on every aspect of instruction, coteachers plan, teach and evaluate lessons together. Over the past decade, because coteaching can be highly beneficial to both students and teachers it has become an increasingly important element of science teacher education and is expanding into other content areas and educational settings. This edited book brings together ten years' work on the research and the practice of coteaching and its impact on teaching and learning, predominantly in the sciences. It includes contributions from Europe, United States and Australia and presents an doverview of theory and practice common to most studies.