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• Date of publication Oct 22, 2007 Category: Article

  The biography of scientists as a means of communicating science: analogies concerning a hermeneutic or empirical problem

  by Maria Francisca Carneiro

  Sometimes scientists live real dramas or undergo social and psychological conflicts which have a positive or negative influence on the development and recognition of their research, discoveries and inventions in society, including the way they are recorded in history. This being so, the question is: to what extent can science be communicated to the public at large by the use of scientists' biographies as a motivational strategy? The controversy arises from the fact that usual (classical) science has traditionally argued for the separation (or de-linking) of the research (the object) from the researcher (the subject).Thus, if the above-mentioned motivational strategy is used in scientific communication, it could break a dominant methodological trend and consequently lead to a questioning of the myth of axiological neutrality in science. The communication of science by means of scientists' biographies could be useful for reaching a specific public, more directed towards emotional aspects, thereby awakening its interest in science, even amid cultural differences and in environments where interest in science and its utility is lacking. It could also reveal human aspects of the everyday life of scientists, bringing them closer to the public at large, which would contribute to the dissemination of science and knowledge.

  Volume 6 • Issue 04 • 2007

• Date of publication Sep 20, 2007 Category: Commentary

  Teachers' perception of the European scientists

  by Daniele Gouthier

  The first step of the SEDEC project has been a survey on teachers and pupils perception of science, scientists, and the European dimension of science. Different research actions have been organized for the different targets, and have been held in the six countries involved in the project: Czech Republic, France, Italy, Portugal, Poland and Romania. This article will present the results of a questionnaire distributed between European teachers. A research on the scientific imagery should have an opposite perspective to the one of a teacher at school; whereas the latter, the keeper of a knowledge, has the usual task of transferring and checking the knowledge in their students, a researcher has to record and describe their interior world relating to science – the information, but especially the images, the expectations, the emotions related to it.

  Volume 6 • Issue 03 • 2007

• Date of publication Sep 20, 2007 Category: Editorial

  Vatican-branded science communication

  by Nico Pitrelli

  The summer now gone has reported two episodes we would like to bring to the attention of the JCOM readers. Two minor pieces of news, unlikely to be in the limelight over the summer, when the media understandably focus on gossips and crime news. Even the experts – especially outside the Italian territory – would probably dismiss these events as minor, wouldn’t it be for the people involved. But let’s see the facts.

  Volume 6 • Issue 03 • 2007

• Date of publication Sep 20, 2007 Category: Book Review

  Science and society of knowledge

  by Pietro Greco

  Probably among the first to deal with it, nearly sixty years ago, Norbert Wiener, the founding father of cybernetics (The human use of human beings. Cybernetics and Society, Houghton Mifflin Company, London, 1950), prefigured its opportunities, as well as its limitations. Today, it is a quite common belief. We have entered (are entering) a new, great era in the history of human society: the age of information and knowledge.

  Volume 6 • Issue 03 • 2007

• Date of publication Sep 20, 2007 Category: Commentary

  From the perception of science to the design of teaching materials

  by Laura Dumbrăveanu

  To design teaching materials starting from the subject matter in Science field, from the contents of textbooks or by studying the syllabuses are regular practices within schools. The SEDEC project proposes concrete and innovative modalities of conceiving teaching materials starting from teachers perception of science and by talking with them about their ideas and needs regarding teaching Science. A deep discussion of the relationships between science education and European citizenship has been another important ingredient of this new process of didactic design.

  Volume 6 • Issue 03 • 2007

• Date of publication Sep 20, 2007 Category: Commentary

  What is a scientist’s job? From the drawings to the citizenship

  by Etienne Bolmont

  IUFM is a centre for the in-service training of teachers and the development of didactic research. IUFM contribution to the SEDEC project is essentially built on a reflexion on educational implications of the links between science and European citizenship. We are convinced that European citizenship may be developed in scientific activities in school, by the introduction of communication moments, where pupils have to express and defend their ideas, and also to understand and accept the others’ ones. We have implemented two activities using the results of the SEDEC survey on science perception, that make the pupils get a better view on scientific research, especially in the knowledge of two scientific “jobs”, astronomer and botanist. Our approach consists of allowing the children express their conceptions of these jobs, of organising a debate to clarify these ideas, and of confronting them with other pupils’ opinions in Europe, with the history of the involved science and with direct testimonies of scientists. The project should be pursued in allowing classes in Europe to communicate about a scientific problem and so, to live their European citizenship.

  Volume 6 • Issue 03 • 2007

• Date of publication Sep 20, 2007 Category: Article

  CNRS researchers' popularization activities: a progress report

  by Pablo Jensen , Yves Croissant

  We have analyzed the popularization activities undertaken by ten thousand CNRS researchers by means of their annual reports for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006. This is the first time that such an extensive statistical study on science popularization practices is carried out. Our main findings are : - the majority of researchers is not involved in popularization (51% has not done any popularization over the three-year period, two thirds have been involved in no more than one popularization action). - popularization practices are extremely diverse, both at the individual level (we have identified three subpopulations that feature distinctive attitudes towards popularization), and at the level of scientific disciplines (researchers in Humanities are twice as active as the average), as well as in laboratories or geographical regions. - the number of actions reported in 2005 greatly increased compared to 2004 (+ 26%), while they slightly diminished in 2006.

  Volume 6 • Issue 03 • 2007

• Date of publication Sep 20, 2007 Category: Article

  Is art a "good" mediator in a Science Festival?

  by Fabienne Crettaz von Roten , Olivier Moeschler

  This paper relates to a special case of science-society mediation set up during the Science et Cité festival 2005. This national event took place in about twenty cities in Switzerland to promote a closer cooperation between science and society via art (theatre, music, dance, exhibitions, cinema, etc.), in order to reach the population at large. Results on the profile of the public, the role played by the cultural institutions involved, the motives of the visitors and the role of art in the science-society dialogue show that the goals aimed at by the festival's organisers were only partially reached. Moreover, the analyses shed light on the complex relation between art, science and society in public understanding of science activities.

  Volume 6 • Issue 03 • 2007

• Date of publication Sep 20, 2007 Category: Commentary

  Debating as an educational method to science and citizenship

  by Sara Calcagnini

  If one of aims of science today is to respond to the real needs of society, it must find a new way to communicate with people and to be acquainted with their opinions and knowledge. Many science museums in Europe are adopting new ways to actively engage the public in the debate on topical scientific issues. The Museum of Science and Technology "Leonardo da Vinci" in Milan (partner of the SEDEC project) has thus experimented some formats for dialogue with teachers and with the public in general. Our experience shows that museums can be places where science and the public on the one hand and democracy on the other meet.

  Volume 6 • Issue 03 • 2007

• Date of publication Sep 20, 2007 Category: Commentary

  Scientific education and European citizenship. Suggestions and results from the European project SEDEC

  by Roberto Ceriani

  Two concepts seemingly distant from each other, scientific education and European citizenship, have been the basis for "SEDEC - Science Education for the Development of European Citizenship", a European project funded by the European Commission in the framework of the Socrates/Comenius programme, aiming at producing training material addressed to European teachers. Started in autumn 2005, the project will end in 2008 with an in-service training course for European teachers and educators.

  European citizenship and active citizenship: an ever open debate

  by Lauretta D'Angelo

  Science popularization and European citizenship in Poland

  by Jacek Piotr Szubiakowski

  Science and scientists in the drawings of European children

  by Paola Rodari

  What is a scientist’s job? From the drawings to the citizenship

  by Etienne Bolmont

  Teachers' perception of the European scientists

  by Daniele Gouthier

  From the perception of science to the design of teaching materials

  by Laura Dumbrăveanu

  Debating as an educational method to science and citizenship

  by Sara Calcagnini

  School staff training: the opportunities offered by National Agencies in European countries

  by Chris Souvlis

  Volume 6 • Issue 03 • 2007