Darwin-Inspired Learning

429 Pages·2015·9.692 MB·English

by  Carolyn J. Boulter, Michael J. Reiss, Dawn L. Sanders (eds.)

Darwin-Inspired Learning
NEW DIRECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE EDUCATION
Volume 28
Series Editors
Wolff-Michael Roth, University of Victoria, Canada
Lieven Verschaffel, University of Leuven, Belgium
Editorial Board
Angie Calabrese-Barton, Teachers College, New York, USA
Pauline Chinn, University of Hawaii, USA
Brian Greer, Portland State University, USA
Lyn English, Queensland University of Technology
Terezinha Nunes, University of Oxford, UK
Peter Taylor, Curtin University, Perth, Australia
Dina Tirosh, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Manuela Welzel, University of Education, Heidelberg, Germany
Scope
Mathematics and science education are in a state of change. Received models of teaching,
curriculum, and researching in the two fields are adopting and developing new ways of
thinking about how people of all ages know, learn, and develop. The recent literature in
both fields includes contributions focusing on issues and using theoretical frames that were
unthinkable a decade ago. For example, we see an increase in the use of conceptual and
methodological tools from anthropology and semiotics to understand how different forms
of knowledge are interconnected, how students learn, how textbooks are written, etcetera.
Science and mathematics educators also have turned to issues such as identity and emotion as
salient to the way in which people of all ages display and develop knowledge and skills. And
they use dialectical or phenomenological approaches to answer ever arising questions about
learning and development in science and mathematics.
The purpose of this series is to encourage the publication of books that are close to the
cutting edge of both fields. The series aims at becoming a leader in providing refreshing and
bold new work—rather than out-of-date reproductions of past states of the art—shaping both
fields more than reproducing them, thereby closing the traditional gap that exists between
journal articles and books in terms of their salience about what is new. The series is intended
not only to foster books concerned with knowing, learning, and teaching in school but also
with doing and learning mathematics and science across the whole lifespan (e.g., science in
kindergarten; mathematics at work); and it is to be a vehicle for publishing books that fall
between the two domains—such as when scientists learn about graphs and graphing as part
of their work.
Darwin-Inspired Learning
Edited by
Carolyn J. Boulter
University of London, Institute of Education, UK
Michael J. Reiss
University of London, Institute of Education, UK
and
Dawn L. Sanders
Department of Pedagogical, Curricular and Professional Studies,
University of Gothenburg, Sweden
A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978-94-6209-831-2 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-94-6209-832-9 (hardback)
ISBN: 978-94-6209-833-6 (e-book)
Published by: Sense Publishers,
P.O. Box 21858,
3001 AW Rotterdam,
The Netherlands
https://www.sensepublishers.com/
Cover picture: ‘Going for a thinking walk’ – students on Charles Darwin’s
Sandwalk at Down House. © IntoUniversity
Printed on acid-free paper
All Rights Reserved © 2015 Sense Publishers
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfi lming,
recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the
exception of any material supplied specifi cally for the purpose of being entered and
executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword ix
Rosemary & Peter Grant
Acknowledgements xi
Open Window xiii
Ruth Padel
Introduction: Darwin-Inspired Learning 1
Michael J. Reiss, Carolyn J. Boulter & Dawn L. Sanders
Darwin’s Heritage
1. Entering Darwin’s Life 15
Randal Keynes
2. The World of Downe: Charles Darwin’s Living Laboratory 25
Dawn L. Sanders
3. ‘Pester Them with Letters’: Using Darwin’s Correspondence
in the Classroom: The Darwin Correspondence Project 35
Sally Stafford
Developing a Sense of Place
4. Learning in Cultivated Gardens and Other Outdoor Landscapes 47
Paul Davies, Dawn L. Sanders & Ruth Amos
5. Learning to Read Nature to Understand the Natural World and
How It Works 59
Ola Magntorn
6. Walking with Darwin in Rio de Janeiro: Learning about
Cultural and Historical Values 73
Sandra Escovedo Selles
7. Getting the Kids Involved – Darwin’s Paternal Example 89
James Moore
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
8. Using Collections of Darwiniana in Darwin-Inspired Learning 107
Ruth Barlow
The Importance of Active Hands-on Enquiry
9. Object Lessons in Evidence-Based Learning 117
Mike Corbishley
10. Sailing the Backyard Beagle: Darwin-Inspired Voyages of
Discovery in Backyard and Schoolyard 131
James T. Costa
11. Naming the Living World: From the Infant’s Perception of
Animacy to a Child’s Species Concept 147
Stephen P. Tomkins & Sue Dale Tunnicliffe
12. Scientifi c Enquiry: Searching for and Interpreting
Evidence to Construct Arguments 165
Shirley Simon
13. Using Darwin to Teach Earth Science: The Development of the
Darwin Workshop Methodology 177
Peter Kennett & Chris King
Critical Thinking about What and How We Know
14. Darwin the Scientist: Working Scientifi cally 199
James D. Williams
15. Teaching Evolution in Schools: A Matter of Controversy? 211
Ralph Levinson
16. The ‘Attentive and Refl ective Observer’: Darwin-Inspired
Learning and the Teaching of Evolution 221
Neil Ingram
17. Darwinian Case Studies Within a Post-16 Programme
for the History and Philosophy of Science: The Perspectives on
Science Course 237
John L. Taylor
18. They Really do Eat Insects: Learning from Charles Darwin’s
Experiments with Carnivorous Plants 243
Aaron M. Ellison
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
19. DNA Barcoding Darwin’s Meadow: A Twenty-fi rst-century
Botanical Inventory at Historic Down House 257
Karen E. James
Interdisciplinary Studies
20. Darwin’s Barnacles: Learning from Collections 273
Miranda Lowe & Carolyn J. Boulter
21. Darwin-Inspired Drama: Towards One Culture in
Teaching and Learning Science 285
Martin Braund
22. Evolutionary Narratives: Darwin’s Botany and US
Periodical Literature 299
Tina Gianquitto
23. Darwin in Natural Science School Textbooks
in the Nineteenth Century in England and Spain 311
Margarita Hernández-Laille
Developing Work with Learners
24. Writing and Representing to Learn in Science 327
Vaughan Prain
25. Routes to Conceptual Change in
Teaching and Learning about Evolution: Experiences with
Students Aged between 11 and 16 Years 339
Emma Newall
26. Developing a Model for Post-16 Teaching and Learning 353
Carolyn J. Boulter & Emma Newall
27. Transformation of the School
Grounds for Darwin-Inspired Learning 367
Susan Johnson
28. Transition: Darwin-Inspired Learning Approaches at
Crucial Junctures in Science Education 383
Susan Johnson
29. Staging Darwin’s Science through Biographical Narratives 399
Dawn L. Sanders
vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Epilogue: Transforming the Ordinary 411
Dawn L. Sanders, Carolyn J. Boulter & Michael J. Reiss
About the Contributors 425
Index 431
viii
ROSEMARY & PETER GRANT
FOREWORD
Through the introduction of Darwin’s inspirational writings, this important book,
Darwin-Inspired Learning will create an atmosphere among students in which
scientific and creative imagination flourishes. Students will be encouraged to pose
their own questions and be allowed to discover their own answers through the
formation of their own hypotheses and experiments. There can be no better guide
to the success of this approach than an in-depth examination of Darwin’s writings,
his books, notebooks, and letters. Even today his writings are a pleasure to read, his
descriptive passages poetic in their elegance, and his acute scientific observations
and analytical logic exciting. They reveal his intense desire for a full and accurate
understanding of a phenomenon by raising questions and posing explanations
(hypotheses). Darwin, the writer, talks to the reader, but in fact he is talking to
himself, out loud, in print.
Darwin was an exceptionally talented and acute observer, whether it was
describing in detail the anatomy of a marine invertebrate, the reproductive parts
of a plant, the ecology and behaviour of a bird or mammal, or an unusual rock
formation. A characteristic of all his writings and particularly prevalent in his
notebooks is his analytical approach when confronting a problem. Evidence is
considered from all angles: the geographical location, geological formation,
climatic variation, the flora and fauna, in other words the complete context of the
problem. His hypotheses, always subjected to a lengthy process of deliberation
and contemplation, were often followed by experiments. When experiments were
not available he tried to check his ideas for consistency with other facts. And
being intensely aware of the dangers of being led astray by a favoured hypothesis,
he constantly questioned the implications of his findings. In his notebooks, he
sometimes uses the Spanish cuidado, careful, as a warning when in danger of
being carried away by his enthusiasm.
Another striking feature is the immaculate organisation of his field notes, especially
remarkable for a man suffering constant sickness at sea, subjecting himself to long
hikes over hot lava in the Galapagos and climbs up to 3700 metres in the Andes. The
date and location head each page and there is a margin for afterthoughts, comments
and additions.
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