
Stephen KlassenUniversity of Winnipeg · Faculty of Education
Stephen Klassen
PhD
About
27
Publications
84,747
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
1,142
Citations
Introduction
Additional affiliations
September 1969 - present
Publications
Publications (27)
A presente obra é a reunião de estudos de temáticas como Ensino-Aprendizagem, História, Filosofia e Sociologia da Ciência que são de interesse em linhas de pesquisa da área de Ensino. O livro reúne estudos epistemológicos e pesquisas teórico-experimentais no campo do Ensino de Ciências. Contempla elementos como a discussão da natureza do conhecimen...
It is a little known fact that the scientist who was a key figure in assembling the first “atomic” bomb ever to be exploded was a native Winnipegger, Louis Slotin. When Louis completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1936, he tried, unsuccessfully, to get a position with the National Research Council in Canada. Instead, Slotin moved to Chicago and ended...
This chapter deals with the use of historically based stories in science teaching. Stories can be viewed as pedagogical tools to help improve the learning experience of students and the learning of the content, itself. The focus of this chapter is the structure and content of science stories and the effectiveness of properly constructed stories to...
A major aspect of the power of a historically based science story derives from its ability to cultivate interest in the reader or listener. In this paper, we review the research on interest originating from diverse scholarly areas and apply it to the understanding, construction, and effective use of science stories in both formal and informal learn...
A major aspect of the power of a historically based science story derives from its ability to cultivate interest in the reader or listener. In this paper, we review the research on interest originating from diverse scholarly areas and apply it to the understanding, construction, and effective use of science stories in both formal and informal learn...
Many educators today advocate the use of historical narratives as one of
a number of possible contexts for teaching science. However, several
pedagogical and epistemological issues arise when implementing
narratives in the classroom. In this paper, we are interested in
expanding our view of narrative, specific to integrating the history of
science...
The literature on the pedagogical aspects of the photoelectric effect as used in the undergraduate student laboratory shows
that little research has been done in this area. Our current study is an analysis of the instructions in 38, electronically
published laboratory manuals for the photoelectric effect. The analyses were based on history and phil...
The purpose of this paper is to discuss and apply the notion of romantic understanding by outlining its features and its potential role in science education, to identify its features in the story of Nikola Tesla, and to describe an empirical study conducted to determine the effect of telling such a story to Grade 9 students. Elaborated features of...
The photoelectric effect is commonly used as the introductory topic for the study of quantum physics. However, a literature
review reveals that besides various weaknesses and errors in the presentation of the history of the photoelectric effect,
textbook presentations also contain incorrect presentations of the work function and the photon concept....
History of science can be used to bring scientific concepts to school science in a way that humanizes the protagonists and
provides an appropriate context. The authors have researched the 1909 meeting of the British Association for the Advancement
of Science (BAAS) in Winnipeg, a significant event in the city’s history that has remained largely une...
The photoelectric effect is an important part of general physics textbooks. To study the presentation of this phenomenon, we have reconstructed six essential, history and philosophy of science (HPS)-related aspects of the events that culminated in Einstein proposing his hypothesis of lightquanta and the ensuing controversy within the scientific com...
Millikan's oil-drop experiment is one of the classic experiments from the history of physics. Due to its content (the determination of the elementary charge) it is also among those experiments that are frequently used and discussed in teaching situations. Disappointingly, a review of the educational literature on this experiment reveals that its im...
The Millikan oil drop experiment has been characterized as one of the ‘most beautiful’ physics experiments of all time and,
certainly, as one of the most frustrating of all the exercises in the undergraduate physics laboratory. A literature review
reveals that work done on addressing student difficulties in performing the oil drop experiment has, t...
Science educators are beginning to establish a theoretical and methodological foundation for constructing and using stories
in science teaching. At the same time, it is not clear to what degree science stories that have recently been written adhere
to the guidelines that are being proposed. The author has written a story about Louis Slotin, which d...
Although various reasons have been proposed to explain the potential effectiveness of science stories to promote learning,
no explicit relationship of stories to learning theory in science has been propounded. In this paper, two structurally analogous
models are developed and compared: a structural model of stories and a temporal conceptual change...
The authors of this paper portray the perspective of Professor Leon Cooper, a theoretical physicist, Nobel laureate, active
researcher, and physics textbook author, on teaching science and on the nature of science (NOS). The views presented emerged
from an interview prepared by the authors and responded to in writing by Professor Cooper. Based on t...
The photoelectric effect is commonly used as the introductory topic for the study of quantum physics. However, there are various indicators that some instructional materials and approaches to the topic contain deficiencies and even factual errors. A major aspect of instruction is the historical and scientific background for the photoelectric effect...
Science curriculum outcomes at the middle school level are typically associated with the decontextualized science found in textbooks and teacher resources. However, the typical middle years classroom with a single teacher is an ideal setting for an integrated approach to learning science in the context of social studies, language arts, art, and oth...
The use of historically based stories to teach science has both theoretical and practical support. This paper outlines how
the historically based story may be utilized effectively in the classroom and, as an illustration of this, presents the story
of Lord Kelvin’s role in the laying of the first trans-Atlantic communications cable during the perio...
Contemporary assessment practices in science education have undergone significant changes in recent decades. The basis for these changes and the resulting new assessment practices are the subject of this two-part paper. Part 1 considers the basis of assessment that, more than 25 years ago, was driven by the assumptions of decomposability and decont...
It is well established that thought experiments are both scientifically and philosophically significant, and even that they
are pedagogically significant. However, the basis and methodology for their pedagogical use is not as well established. Pedagogical
thought experiments are defined as mental simulations with special features to isolate certain...
The contextual approach to teaching is generally recognized as a reasonable and desirable strategy to enhance student learning
in science. Using several cognitive and learning theories together with various philosophical considerations, I identify five
distinct contexts that are important in engaging learners: the theoretical, practical, social, hi...
Many educators today advocate the use of historical narratives as one of a number of possible contexts for teaching science. However, several pedagogical and epistemological issues arise when implementing narratives in the classroom. In this paper, we are interested in expanding our view of narrative, specific to integrating the history of science...
Our objective in this paper is to clarify the contextual approach in scienceeducation and to suggest appropriate uses of history in the science classroomfrom early years through post secondary education. We present a descriptionof the variety of approaches by which teachers and educators may include thehistory of science in science instruction. Thi...
This thesis formulates a theoretical framework for the incorporation of
history of science in science teaching, which, it is argued, is
essential to laying a stable foundation for instructional design and
future empirical studies. It is assumed that the historical approach to
teaching science no longer needs defending and that contextual methods
ar...