More than ever, our time is characterised by rapid changes in the
organisation and the production of knowledge. This movement is
deeply rooted in the evolution of the scientific endeavour, as well
as in the transformation of the political, economic and cultural
organisation of society. In other words, the production of
scientific knowledge is changing both with regard to the internal
development of science and technology, and with regard to the
function and role science and technology fulfill in society. This
general social context in which universities and knowledge
production are placed has been given different names: the
informational society, the knowledge society, the learning society,
the post-industrial society, the risk society, or even the
post-modern society. A common feature of different
characterisations of this historic time is the fact that it is a
period in construction. Parts of the world, not only of the First
World but also chunks of the Developing World, are involved in
these transformations. There is a movement from former social,
political and cultural forms of organisation which impact knowledge
production into new forms. These forms drive us into forms of
organisation that are unknown and that, for their very same
complexity, do not show a clear ending stage. Somehow the utopias
that guided the ideas of development and progress in the past are
not present anymore, and therefore the transitions in the knowledge
society generate a new uncertain world. We find ourselves and our
universities to be in a transitional period in time. In this
context, it is difficult to avoid considering seriously the
challenges that such a complex and uncertain social configuration
poses to scientific knowledge, to universities and especially to
education in mathematics and science. It is clear that the
transformation of knowledge outside universities has implied a
change in the routes that research in mathematics, science and
technology has taken in the last decades. It is also clear that in
different parts of the world these changes have happened at
different points in time. While universities in the "New World"
(the American Continent, Africa, Asia and Oceania) have
accommodated their operation to the challenges of the construction
in the new world, in many European countries universities with a
longer existence and tradition have moved more slowly into this
time of transformation and have been responding at a less rapid
pace to environmental challenges. The process of tuning
universities, together with their forms of knowledge production and
their provision of education in science and mathematics, with the
demands of the informational society has been a complex process, as
complex as the general transformation undergoing in society.
Therefore an understanding of the current transitions in science
and mathematics education has to consider different dimensions
involved in such a change. Traditionally, educational studies in
mathematics and science education have looked at changes in
education from within the scientific disciplines and in the closed
context of the classroom. Although educational change in the very
end is implemented in everyday teaching and learning situations,
other parallel dimensions influencing these situations cannot be
forgotten. An understanding of the actual potentialities and
limitations of educational transformations are highly dependent on
the network of educational, cultural, administrative and
ideological views and practices that permeate and constitute
science and mathematics education in universities today. This book
contributes to understanding some of the multiple aspects and
dimensions of the transition of science and mathematics education
in the current informational society. Such an understanding is
necessary for finding possibilities to improve science and
mathematics education in universities all around the world. Such a
broad approach to the transitions happening in these fields has not
been addressed yet by existing books in the market.
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