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Beliefs about the Nature of Science and the Enacted Science Curriculum

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Abstract

This interpretive study of the teaching and learning of chemistry in an Australian high school examines the beliefs about the nature of science of a teacher and his class in relation to the enacted curriculum. Although the teacher and students tended to see science as an evolving discipline that was uncertain and changed over time, the manner in which the curriculum was implemented was a direct contrast. In the enacted curriculum science was represented as a catalogue of facts to be memorised and as algorithmic solutions to problems. The beliefs that had greatest impact on shaping the curriculum were the teacher‘s beliefs about the nature of student learning, his beliefs about the distribution of power between himself and the students, and the extent to which restraints were accepted by the teacher as reasons for maintaining a traditional approach to teaching and learning chemistry.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Florida State University, 203 Carothers Hall, Tallahassee, FL, 32306-3032, U.S.A

    Kenneth Tobin & Campbell J. McRobbie

  2. Centre of Mathematics and Science Education, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, 4059

    Kenneth Tobin & Campbell J. McRobbie

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  1. Kenneth Tobin
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  2. Campbell J. McRobbie
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Tobin, K., McRobbie, C.J. Beliefs about the Nature of Science and the Enacted Science Curriculum. Science & Education 6, 355–371 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008600132359

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