Crossing the Border of the Traditional Science Curriculum

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

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2. Curricular Innovation and Didactic-Pedagogical Risk Management

   • Maurício Pietrocola

   Pages 1-21

3. Elementary Particle Physics for High Schools

   • Maxwell Siqueira

   Pages 23-43

4. Particle Accelerators and Didactic Obstacles

   • Márlon Pessanha, Maurício Pietrocola

   Pages 45-59

5. A Teaching-Learning Sequence on the Concept of Mass and Required Skills for Teaching Relativity

   • Fabiana B. Kneubil, Maurício Pietrocola

   Pages 61-72

6. Science Stand

   • Luís Paulo de Carvalho Piassi, Rui Manoel de Bastos Vieira, Emerson Izidoro Dos Santos

   Pages 73-93

7. Computer Simulations and Students’ Difficulties in Reading Visual Representations in Science Education

   • Víctor López, Roser Pintó

   Pages 95-114

8. Praxeology and the Use of Educational Robotics in the Teaching of Physics

   • Milton Schivani, Maurício Pietrocola

   Pages 115-125

9. Teaching Solar Physics in a Partnership between Formal and Non-Formal Education

   • Cibelle Celestino Silva, Pedro Donizete Colombo Jr.

   Pages 127-141

10. Curricular Innovation in Modern and Contemporary Physics in Ongoing Training Courses

    • Ivani T. Lawall, Maurício Pietrocola

    Pages 143-162

11. A Game Designed to Tackle Controversies about the Nature of Science

    • Alexandre Bagdonas, André Noronha, Vitor Machado, Felipe Velásquez, Ivã Gurgel

    Pages 163-179

12. A Proposal for Overcoming Obstacles to Teaching Natural Science

    • Thaís Cyrino de Mello Forato, Alexandre Bagdonas

    Pages 181-206

13. The Role of Narrative Thinking in Learning Scientific Concepts

    • Ivã Gurgel, Maurício Pietrocola, Danilo Cardoso

    Pages 207-225

14. Interwoven Thoughts

    • Maristela Do Nascimento Rocha, Ivã Gurgel

    Pages 227-247

Nations worldwide consider education an important tool for economic and social development, and the use of innovative strategies to prepare students for the acquisition of knowledge and skills is currently considered the most effective strategy for nurturing engaged, informed learners. In the last decade especially, European countries have promoted a series of revisions to their curricula and in the ways teachers are trained to put these into practice. Updating curriculum contents, pedagogical facilities (for example, computers in schools), and teaching and learning strategies should be seen as a routine task, since social and pedagogical needs change over time. Nevertheless, educational institutions and actors (educational departments, schools, teachers, and even students) normally tend to be committed to traditional practices. As a result of this resistance to change within educational systems, implementing educational innovation is a big challenge. The authors of the present volume have been involved with curriculum development since 2003. This work is an opportunity to present the results of more than a decade of research into experimental, inventive approaches to science education. Most chapters concern innovative strategies for the teaching and learning of new contents, as well as methods for learning to teach them at the pre-university school level. The research is focused on understanding the pedagogical issues around the process of innovation, and the findings are grounded in analyses of the limits and possibilities of teachers’ and students’ practices in schools.

• innovation
• Teaching and Learning Sequences
• teacher professional development
• science education
• curriculum update

• School of Education, University of São Paulo, Brazil

  Maurício Pietrocola

• Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo, Brazil

  Ivã Gurgel

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