Teaching Beliefs and Practices of a Research Scientist Faculty Member Engaged in Science-Technology-Society (STS) Instruction

Abstract

Critics call for extensive reform of undergraduate science instruction, including a greater emphasis on students' prior knowledge and experiences and the interaction of science with technology and society. This case study emerged as a result of efforts to reform undergraduate science education. The purpose was to investigate the teaching beliefs and practices of a research scientist faculty member engaged in Science-Technology-Society instruction at a major postsecondary institution. A principal focus was on what large research universities could do to foster quality teaching in courses that satisfied general degree requirements in the natural sciences. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with the participant and observations of his class sessions in an STS course. Assertions that emerged from the findings speak to the instructor's "participatory" classroom culture, his instructional practices that model the values and methods of practicing scientists, and his beliefs that undergraduate science instruction is compromised at the institutional level.