Case for Building Informal Ontology of a Subject Matter at School Level Science Education with Community Collaboration

Sachin Datt*
Educational Content Developer, Pratham Education Foundation, India.
Periodicity:June - August'2015
DOI : https://doi.org/10.26634/jsch.11.1.3553

Abstract

School science textbooks are an amalgamation of concepts collected from different fields of Science like Physics, Chemistry and Biology. The actual number of concepts in the different domains of science are enormous. Educationists have to make a decision of choosing some concept that they think are necessary for students to know at a certain age. Moreover, these concepts have to be arranged in a certain order of arrangement from first chapter to the last in a textbook. The aim of this paper is to question the ontological basis of filtering concepts from the larger world of science to placing them in a school science textbook. Through two informal studies presented in this paper, the author has tried to demonstrate that different groups of people can form concept maps of a topic that are very different in structure compared to what is given in NCERT textbook. If there are multiple ways of arranging the same set of concepts, then how do educationist validate one set of arrangement of topics against the other? The result of study puts light on the fact that currently there are no criteria available for judging the ontological validity of concepts that are present in existing textbooks in school science curriculum. The selection of topics is dependent upon limited individual knowledge base of the expert who is writing the chapter.

The article briefly provides a framework by which ontology of a subject can be developed collaboratively by a community of teachers and subject matter experts. This ontology can be used as a valid guide for choosing and arranging topics in a school level science textbook.

Keywords

Ontology, Concept map, Science Curriculum, Textbook, Collaboration

How to Cite this Article?

Datt,.S. (2015). Case for Building Informal Ontology of a Subject Matter at School Level Science Education with Community Collaboration. i-manager’s Journal on School Educational Technology, 11(1), 34-40. https://doi.org/10.26634/jsch.11.1.3553

References

[1]. Baker, E. L. (2012). Ontology Based Educational Design: Seeing is Believing. Los Angeles: University of California.
[2]. Dror, D. (2015). Micro Insurance mindmap. New Delhi: Micro Insurance Academy.
[3]. Heidrun Allert, H. M. (2006). “Rethinking the Use of Ontologies in Learning”. Innovative Approaches for Learning and Knowledge Sharing (pp. 115-125). Espo: ECTEL 2006.
[4]. Kharatmal M., N. (2006). “A proposal to Refine Concept Mapping for Effective Science Learning. Concept Maps: Theory, Methodology, Technology”. San Jose, Costa Rica: Second International Conference on Concept Mapping.
[5]. Mintzes, J. W. (1997). Teaching Science for Understanding - A Human Constructivist View, Academic Press.
[6]. Morrisson, R. a. (2008). “Experimental Research Methods”. In D. H. Jonassen, Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology (p. 1060). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.
[7]. NCERT. (2005). National Curricullum Framework. New Delhi: NCERT.
[8]. NCERT. (2006). Electricity and Circuits. In NCERT, Science for class 6 (p. 116). New Delhi: NCERT.
[9]. Novak J. D., C. J. (2007). “Theoretical Origins of Concept Maps, How to Construct Them and Uses in Education”. Reflective Education, pp.29-42.
[10]. Whitehead, T. L. (2005, July 7). “Basic Classical Ethnographic Methods”. Cultural Ecology of Health and Change, pp. 22.
If you have access to this article please login to view the article or kindly login to purchase the article

Purchase Instant Access

Single Article

North Americas,UK,
Middle East,Europe
India Rest of world
USD EUR INR USD-ROW
Pdf 35 35 200 20
Online 35 35 200 15
Pdf & Online 35 35 400 25

Options for accessing this content:
  • If you would like institutional access to this content, please recommend the title to your librarian.
    Library Recommendation Form
  • If you already have i-manager's user account: Login above and proceed to purchase the article.
  • New Users: Please register, then proceed to purchase the article.