When we think about plants, we do not normally imagine them “speaking” to each other. But they do... more When we think about plants, we do not normally imagine them “speaking” to each other. But they do communicate—in many different ways. More than a century ago, the eminent biologist Charles Darwin suggested that plants have a brain-like structure at their root tips! In this case, Darwin’s root-brain hypothesis was wrong, but more modern research shows that plants can communicate. They speak with other plants as well as with animals and even people. They do this primarily using chemicals and sound.
The Future in Learning Science: What’s in it for the Learner?, 2015
The way in which the content of science curricula is selected and sequenced is still dictated by ... more The way in which the content of science curricula is selected and sequenced is still dictated by notions of the nature of the discipline of science. It is rarely influenced by understandings of student learning of science, in particular the concepts of science. This chapter explores the use/misuse of scientific concepts in teaching. Using sociocultural perspectives, it presents an action-oriented view of concepts as dynamic, changeable, contextualized and usable tools which have been developed over time to help explain the world around us and how it ‘works’. Learners and teachers can critique these tools—which ones are fit-for-purpose—all been demonstrated definitively to exist, or are some, for example the atom, still models? New ideas for learning and teaching school science that reconceptualise scientific concepts as ‘tools’ for learning science, rather than as ‘entities’ to be learned, are proposed.
When we think about plants, we do not normally imagine them “speaking” to each other. But they do... more When we think about plants, we do not normally imagine them “speaking” to each other. But they do communicate—in many different ways. More than a century ago, the eminent biologist Charles Darwin suggested that plants have a brain-like structure at their root tips! In this case, Darwin’s root-brain hypothesis was wrong, but more modern research shows that plants can communicate. They speak with other plants as well as with animals and even people. They do this primarily using chemicals and sound.
The Future in Learning Science: What’s in it for the Learner?, 2015
The way in which the content of science curricula is selected and sequenced is still dictated by ... more The way in which the content of science curricula is selected and sequenced is still dictated by notions of the nature of the discipline of science. It is rarely influenced by understandings of student learning of science, in particular the concepts of science. This chapter explores the use/misuse of scientific concepts in teaching. Using sociocultural perspectives, it presents an action-oriented view of concepts as dynamic, changeable, contextualized and usable tools which have been developed over time to help explain the world around us and how it ‘works’. Learners and teachers can critique these tools—which ones are fit-for-purpose—all been demonstrated definitively to exist, or are some, for example the atom, still models? New ideas for learning and teaching school science that reconceptualise scientific concepts as ‘tools’ for learning science, rather than as ‘entities’ to be learned, are proposed.
Uploads
Papers by Colette Murphy