Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2022

Abstract

Researchers have argued that a central goal of science education is to transform students' out-of-school experiences, so that students have aesthetic experiences of the world that would not otherwise be available to them. The goal of this paper is to articulate a set of design principles that support this goal. In doing so, I will first position this as a problem of transfer, and describe a perspective on transfer in which an idea or experience is not so much abstracted from its original context, but one in which the learning context incorporates out-of-class contexts, and vice versa. After characterising a range of context domains that may be positioned intercontextually, I will argue that such transfer of scientific activity is fostered in classrooms that are themselves intercontextual: where out-of-class contexts are invoked by students in scientifically consequential and aesthetically meaningful ways as they develop and vet ideas. I develop a taxonomy of intercontextuality and describe classroom episodes of such intercontextuality from an undergraduate course that shows evidence of high transfer of aesthetic experience. I then offer suggestions for how elements of course design may support students in such aesthetic experiences.

Copyright Statement

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Routledge, an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, in International Journal of Science Education in 2022, available online at doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2021.1905905

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