Doris Jorde | SMEC 2008

Prof. Doris Jorde

Professor in Science Education, University of Oslo, Norway

Abstract:

Scientific and technological developments happen quickly in a modern society, influencing the lives of all citizens. Challenges of global warming, climate change, disease, energy and food supplies are topics on the forefront of scientific research and of importance to all people in the global community.

At the same time reports within the EU indicate that modern youth are less interested in careers in science than their predecessors. So we look to science teaching in schools to help us understand if there is any remedy to the situation at hand. Is school science outdated? Should we be looking more critically at the connections between academic science and school science?

In this talk I will present what I consider to be the challenges to science education at schools and in teacher education, including the changing roles of the teacher, student and curriculum. Examples of teaching sequences from viten.no (a web based science curriculum now in English) will be used to illustrate some of the new ways we are thinking about teaching science.

Biography

Doris Jorde is a professor in Science Education at the University of Oslo, Norway. After completing her doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley, she moved to Oslo, Norway where she has worked with developing science education as a research field.
Her research interests have centred on curriculum development and classroom practice in teaching and learning science. She was the project leader of the net based curriculum Viten.no; conducting research on the uses of ICT in science teaching. She is currently the Vice Dean (Studies) at the Faculty of Education, University of Oslo.
Doris Jorde is leading the project “Mind the Gap” – a European initiative recently funded by the EU to improve the teaching of science through inquiry based teaching strategies.