This year the International History and Philosophy for Science Teaching (IHPST) conference was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and was hosted by The Federal Center of Technological Education of Rio de Janeiro (CEFET/RJ). This conference was in good attendance by members of EPI•STEM and the Education Department from the University of Limerick, namely Sila Kaya, Onur Imren, Alison Cullinane and Prof Sibel Erduran
Sila Kaya discussed a theoretical approach to including entrepreneurship in the science classroom in her talk entitled “The role of entrepreneurship in nature of science and science education” and how it is important to establish those skills that are needed to equip students in developing entrepreneurial skills in science for related careers.
Onur Imren discussed how the practices needed to play video games show similarities to how science works and the scientific practices that scientists’ employ to generate new knowledge. His talk was entitled “A theoretical framework for understanding nature of Science through video games”.
Alison Cullinane talked about the changes to the Irish Junior Cycle Science curriculum which includes the introduction of Nature of Science as a new overarching theme. As a result of this new theme teachers will need to be up-skilled for its successful integration into the science classroom and a proposed model for pre-service science teacher education was discussed. Alison was also a recipient of one of this year’s IHPST scholarships.
Prof. Sibel Erduran had her name attached to seven presentations at this year’s IHSPT conference. A session that was well attended was the “the Characterization of Nature of Science” where leading researchers discussed their views of the nature of science. Other participants in this discussion were Prof Agustín Adúriz-Bravo (Argentina), Prof. Zoubeida Dagher (United States), Prof Douglas Allchin (United States) and Dr. Rosaria Justi (Brazil) and Dr. Hagop A. Yacoubian (Lebanon). This provided a good platform to observe and appreciate all the various views of research on Nature of Science from around the world. The session was chaired by Prof Bill McComas.
Due to the changes of the key skills at Junior Cycle level and the introduction of Nature of Science to the new Junior Cycle science curriculum all of this research is very timely in the Irish education system and was well received at this year’s conference.
The International Group of History, Philosophy and Science Teaching (The International History, Philosophy, and Science Teaching Group - IHPST) was founded in 1987. The Group is concerned to promote the betterment of school and university science and mathematics education by making them informed by history, philosophy, sociology of science and Mathematics. The IHPST has organized, for over 20 years, biennial international conferences, covering an audience of professional historians, scientists, philosophers and educators who conduct research on the multiple ways in which history and philosophy of science are related. These researchers discuss theoretical, curricular and pedagogical issues in teaching and learning of science and mathematics. The next IHPST conference will be held in Ankara, Turkey in 2017.