Futurising science education: students’ experiences from a course on futures thinking and quantum computing

Rasa, Tapio; Palmgren, Elina; Laherto, Antti

doi:10.1007/s11251-021-09572-3

Cited by 21 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…The results of the “I SEE” module seem to support the basic argument of futures researchers that thinking about alternative scenarios broadens future perceptions and prepares for an uncertain future (Bishop et al , 2007). Participants have found the “I SEE” courses to be interesting and inspiring (Levrini et al , 2021; Rasa et al , 2022), and the same has been observed in previous experiments combining scenario building activities with science education (Buntting and Jones, 2015; Jones et al , 2012).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

“…After the presentation of teaching methods used, we give a brief review of students’ experiences. The activities and results are comprehensively reported elsewhere (Levrini et al , 2021; Rasa et al , 2022). Here, the methodology of the studies is referenced only in outline, as our purpose is only to comment on the practical feasibility and potential benefits of future thinking in science lessons.…”

Section: Examples Of Future-oriented Pedagogies In Science Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this way, the project enabled us to analyse, through inductive, qualitative content analyses, students’ initial ways of futures thinking as well as their perceptions of any changes in their thinking during the course. The methodology and results of empirical studies are reported elsewhere (Rasa et al , 2022; Rasa and Laherto, 2022); here we only review some observations relevant to this article.…”

Section: Examples Of Future-oriented Pedagogies In Science Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Facilitating transformative science education through futures thinking

Laherto

Rasa

2022

OTH

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Purpose The aims and pedagogies in the field of science education are evolving because of global sustainability crises. School science is increasingly concerned with responsible agency and value-based transformation. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to argue that perspectives and methods from the field of futures studies are needed to meet the new transformative aims of science education for sustainable development. Design/methodology/approach This paper analyses some contemporary challenges in science education and gives reasons for introducing a futures perspective into science classrooms. The suggestion is illustrated by reviewing some results, published elsewhere, on future-oriented activities trialled within the European Union project “I SEE” and students’ experiences on them. Findings Recent research has shown that future-oriented science learning activities, involving systems thinking, scenario development and backcasting, can let students broaden their futures perceptions, imagine alternatives and navigate uncertainty. Practising futures thinking in the context of contemporary science offers synergies through shared perspectives on uncertainty, probabilities and creative thinking. Originality/value This paper highlights the relevance of the futures field for science education. Future-oriented activities appear as promising tools in science education for fostering sustainability, agency and change. Yet, further work is needed to integrate futures aspects into science curricula. To that end, the paper calls for collaboration between the fields of futures studies and science education.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Section: Examples Of Future-oriented Pedagogies In Science Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Examples Of Future-oriented Pedagogies In Science Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Facilitating transformative science education through futures thinking

Laherto

Rasa

2022

OTH

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“…This suggestion seconds the claims made in the field of futures studies: futures thinking is a skill that can and must be trained in order to be able to question the instinctive thinking patterns which narrow down possible futures [48]. For developing such skills and broadening future perceptions, there is a growing number of works of literature on scenario building techniques (e.g., [20,47]) and their educational applications (e.g., [64][65][66][67][68]). Furthermore, the concept of utopia has recently been developed as a method for exploring alternative possible futures [69].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Teacher Agency and Futures Thinking

et al. 2022

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Problems encountered in top-down school reforms have repeatedly highlighted the significance of teachers’ agency in educational change. At the same time, temporality has been identified as a key element in teachers’ agency, with teachers’ beliefs about the future and experiences of the past shaping their agentic orientations. However, research on teachers’ future orientations is typically limited to short-term trajectories, as opposed to long-term visions of education. To address this, we draw on a futures studies perspective to give more explicit attention to teachers’ long-term visions of their work. We argue that the method of future narratives, already well-established in the field of futures studies, is a fruitful methodological framework for studying these long-term visions. In this paper, we first show that the futures studies approach is theoretically compatible with the ecological model of teacher agency. We then outline the method of future narratives to point out the possibilities it offers. Finally, we illustrate our approach with an exploratory analysis of a small set of future narratives where teachers imagine a future workday. Our analysis reveals that the narratives offer a rich view of teachers’ longer-term visions of education, including instances of reflecting on the role of education in relation to broader societal developments. Our study suggests that this novel approach can provide tools for research on teacher agency as well as practical development of teacher education, addressing long-term educational issues and policies.

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“…However, criticalities have been arising too. If dystopian and pessimistic views are very common when students imagine the future-for a recent review of the literature we refer to the work by Rasa et al (2022)-when they are asked to imagine a desirable scenario the result is often a picture of static, idealized stillness (Barelli, 2017). The request of dreaming about a preferable future triggered attitudes of detachment from reality that resulted in fictional, idealized scenarios that avoid any possible tension or conflict between interests or people.…”

Section: The Concept Of Scenarios From the Futures Studies To Future-...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Imagining the School of the Future Through Computational Simulations: Scenarios’ Sustainability and Agency as Keywords

Barelli

2022

Front. Educ.

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Computational simulations are fundamental tools not only for scientific research but also for education. They are frequently used as virtual laboratories to foster students’ understanding of the theoretical concepts that lie at the basis of the simulated systems. Recent research works in STEM education have started to explore the potential of simulations as future-oriented objects, to support students in the development of future scenarios for real-world situations. In this paper, we present a teaching-learning module targeted to upper high-school students on simulations of complex systems. The peculiarity of this course is that, guiding the students through the conceptual and epistemological analysis of some computational agent-based models, we were able to ground on these disciplinary bases the introduction of key concepts of the futures studies, like that of scenario. More specifically, in this paper we address an original future-oriented activity in which the students were required to choose an urgent problem of their interest, imagine possible and desirable scenarios based on a simulation and identify the sequence of actions to be undertaken to reach the preferable future. In presenting the results of the module’s implementation we focus on two groups of students who spontaneously decided to address a problem related to the current educational system. In particular, we discuss how the future-oriented activity based on simulations led the students (i) to imagine sustainable scenarios for the school of the future, in which a dynamical equilibrium between opposite tensions is achieved, without any of them being eliminated and (ii) to recognize themselves as agents of transformation in a public, professional, and personal dimension.

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Futurising science education: students’ experiences from a course on futures thinking and quantum computing

Cited by 21 publications

References 41 publications

Facilitating transformative science education through futures thinking

Facilitating transformative science education through futures thinking

Teacher Agency and Futures Thinking

Imagining the School of the Future Through Computational Simulations: Scenarios’ Sustainability and Agency as Keywords

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