Aesthetics, interest and meaning-making in science education | Per-Olof Wickman

Oplæg ved professor emeritus Per-Olof Wickman, Institut for matematik- og naturfagsdidaktik, Stockholms Universitet:

Abstract
In my talk I present an approach on how the constitution of interest in a school science topic may be empirically studied as it happens in classrooms and how a teacher may support its development. With this aim I introduce two operationalizations, namely aesthetic experience (1) as aesthetic judgments and (2) as taste. These concepts mainly stem from the investigations of John Dewey, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Pierre Bourdieu. Central is the enactment of continuity of (1) positive feelings and a sense of beauty with (2) learning to cope with the objects of a school science (conceptually as well as manually) and (3) with a sense of agency and belonging. Examples are given from classrooms.