Chinese Journal of Science Education

Abstract

This study used a graduate-level “science/technology/society” course and a group of mathematics and science teachers (M & S teachers) (N = 38). The purpose of the course was to help the M & S teachers to understand STS rationale and strategies in more depth and develop their ability to develop STS modules. The instructor in this course, as an action researcher, was to collect M & S teachers’ opinions and problems faced in this course. The researcher tried to respond these problems as soon as possible by providing immediate assistances. The results of this study were recorded and presented through narratives. It was reported that: (1) The jargon used in the science education community was an obstacle to understanding the real meaning of the specific educational theory. (2) In-service M & S teachers were not familiar with the profound meaning of technology. (3) This lack of understanding of technology hindered their efforts to connect the societal issues to possible embedded scientific concepts. (4) In developing STS modules, M & S teachers covered too much content, and lacked logical connections between individual parts. In the process of this study, the researcher tried to interpret the rationale and definition of STS more detail, provide a variety of exemplars as reading assignments, answer questions based on what M & S teachers produced and encourage their interactive discussion by reviewing the paper work through oral presentations. All of these aimed to promote the teachers’ understanding of STS and their ability to integrate the resources used in developing the task. Finally, M & S teachers reported 22 benefits and 10 disadvantages in adopting STS modules in school science teaching. Based on the results, this study suggested feasible ways to conduct pre- and in-service M & S teacher education. Remarkably, the M & S teacher programs need to connect to authentic learning environments.

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