The teaching of science : New insights into knowledge, language and pedagogy

Despite its significance, science education is in crisis. This chapter highlights that research into science education has focused on how students learn scientific ways of knowing but failed to address the knowledge they are learning, the language in which it is couched, or how both that knowledge and language are taught. The chapter details how two approaches – Legitimation Code Theory and Systemic Functional Linguistics – have been addressing these issues, both individually and together, in new and challenging ways. It outlines the development of understanding of science over the past 50 years by Systemic Functional Linguistics and over the past 20 years by Legitimation Code Theory. The chapter also discusses how interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration between these approaches is leading to fundamentally new ways of seeing science education. It also sets out the major contributions made by chapters in this collection and how they will radically advance our understanding of science teaching.