We are well into the 21st century now and the urgency for lifelong learning is growing especially regarding numeracy. There are major societal and policy pressures on education to prepare citizens for a complex and technologized society, in literature referred to as “21st century skills” (Voogt & ParejaRoblin, 2012), “global competences” (OECD, 2016a) or “the 4th industrial revolution” (Schwab, 2016). International research has demonstrated the economic and social value of literacy and numeracy knowledge and skills (Hanushek and Wöbmann, 2012; Grotlüschen, et al. 2016). With respect to numeracy (and/or mathematics) education, we explore the implications of these pressures to the mathematical demands at individuals living and working in modern life, and what is expected from numeracy education as society moves further into the 21st century. New means of communication and types of services have changed the way individuals interact with governments, institutions, services and each other, and social and economic transformations have in turn, changed the nature of the demand for skills as well.
This dissertation aims to strengthen socioscientific issues (SSI) education by focusing on the resources available to students. SSI education is a type of science and citizenship education that supports students’ informed and critical engagement with social issues that have scientific or technological dimensions. This dissertation explores students’ SSI-related resources relevant to their engagement with SSI, such as their attitudes and social resources. The dissertation consists of four papers. The first is a position paper that introduces the concept of socioscientific capital and argues why it is important to pay attention to students’ resources in SSI-based teaching. The other three papers involve empirical, quantitative studies. Two questionnaires were developed that were used to investigate student differences regarding engagement with SSI: the Pupils’ Attitudes towards Socioscientific Issues (PASSI) questionnaire and the Use of Sources of Knowledge (USK) questionnaire. The final study is an exploration of the effects of SSI-based teaching on students’ attitudes toward SSI, considering socioscientific capital.
MULTIFILE
In 1996 innovative, double major teacher education programs for Physics & Mathematics and Physics & Chemistry were initiated at the University of San Carlos in Cebu, Philippines. Both programs require 4 years of study. From the outset the focus was on making a difference in the quality of Science and Mathematics Teacher Education, producing teachers with a good mastery of subject matter and able to teach the subjects in exciting and effective ways in typical Philippine crowded and resource-poor classrooms. The programs recruit top high school graduates using a promotion and scholarship scheme and then expose them to the best science lecturers at the university, and create a special learning environment for the duration of their training. Early 2011 a study was conducted to assess long term effects of the programs through a tracer study of the 300 alumni, interviews, and 22classroom visits to observe their teaching. Of the 300 alumni 245 are still teaching of whom 33 abroad (mainly USA) and 212 in the Philippines. Alumni are highly valued by principals of the top schools in Cebu and their students win many local and even national science competitions. Their teaching is competent with lots of interaction and good subject matter mastery, but they are also facing some typical Philippine education problems.
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