Science Education

Shamin Padalkar is Assistant Professor at the Centre of Excellence in Teacher Education (CETE, formerly CEIAR), Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. She teaches courses on cognition and learning and science education. She has a master’s degree in physics and a doctoral degree in science education. Her research interests are visuospatial thinking and representational competence in science, nature of science and teacher education. She was involved in the Connected Learning Initiative and is now engaged with CL4STEM, an international collaboration with Bhutan, Nigeria and Tanzania. Mythili Ramchand is Professor at at the Centre of Excellence in Teacher Education (CETE), Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. She teaches philosophy of education and action research. Currently, she anchors a unique Post Graduation Certification programme on Contemporary Education Perspectives for teacher-educators, offered by TISS. She is leading a comparative research on initial teacher education across BRICS countries and the UK. She has consulted for several organisations and been in the panel of committees on teacher education curriculum renewal and reforms. Rafikh Shaikh works at the Centre for Excellence in Teacher Education (CETE), Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. He teaches courses in science education and cognition. He has a master’s degree in microbiology and is pursuing a PhD in Science Education. His research interests include education technology, computer-supported collaborative learning and frugal tools for science education. He has been involved in various science outreach programmes and received the Foldscope Fellowship from Foldscope Instrument-Stanford University. Indira Vijaysimha is former Associate Professor, Azim Premji University, India, where she taught courses on science education, teacher development and sustainability education. She is a founder of the Poorna Trust which manages Poorna Learning Centre in Bangalore. She served as a member of the Academics and Pedagogy group of the Azim Premji Foundation and spearheaded a two-year quality improvement programme in collaboration with a BEd college. She continues to work in the areas of teacher education, sustainability education and science education.

Introduction, 1. Science Education: An Overview, 2. Nature of Science, 3. A Cognitive Approach to Learning Physics, 4. An Inquiry-Based Approach to Learning Chemistry, 5. A Socio-cultural Approach to Learning Biology, 6. Assessment in Science Education, 7. Inclusive Science Education, Appendix: Resources and Tools for Practice