Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education

Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education

Introduction
Homi Bhabha Centre for Science
Education (HBCSE) is a National Centre of the Tata
Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai,
India. The broad goals of the institute are to promote
equity and excellence
in science and mathematics education from primary
school to undergraduate college level, and encourage
the growth of scientific literacy in the country.[1][2] To
these ends it carries out a wide spectrum of inter-
related activities, which may be viewed under three
broad categories:
 Research and development, Type Research Institution
 Teacher orientation and science popularisation
Established 1974
 Olympiads and other students' nurture
programmes Founder Dr.Raghunath G. Lagu, V. G.
Three decades after its inception, HBCSE has Kulkarni
emerged as the premier institution in the country for Director Dr. K. Subramaniam
research and development in science, technology and
mathematics education. It is India's nodal centre for Location Mumbai
Olympiad programmes ,
in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology[3] and astro India
nomy. Another major program of HBCSE is the
Campus Urban
National Initiative on Undergraduate Science (NIUS).
HBCSE runs a graduate school in science and Website www.hbcse.tifr.res.in
mathematics education. Students admitted to HBCSE
Graduate School work for the degree of Ph.D. in Science Education, which is a degree of TIFR (Deemed
University).

Aims and objective:

Objective
The Second Peoples Education Congress on ‘Science Education In India’ seeks to achieve the following:

0601 To appraise the status of science education in schools, colleges, universities and research
institutes and, also its interconnections with humanities and social sciences.

0602 To appraise the relevance of contemporary educational institutions and organizations to science
education.

0603 To determine the appropriateness of syllabi, text books and pedagogy of science education in
schools, colleges and universities.

0604 To determine the nature of relationship between science educational institutions and society and
between science teachers and society.

0605 To appraise the nature of the relationship between science education and democratic needs,
aspirations and creative urges of peoples and society.

0606 To ascertain the nature of social bonds between and among students and teachers.

0607 To ascertain the impact of science and technology coaching institutes on science education in
schools, colleges and universities.

0608 To determine the impact of corporatisation and marketisation on science education in schools,
colleges, universities and research institutes.

0609 To appraise the impact of commercialization of education on science education.

0610 To discover, develop and disseminate a new democratic system of science education in
congruence with the democratic needs and aspirations of the people of Indian Democratic Republic
which is capable of flowering the creative and innovative potentialities of all young minds in particular
and peoples of all sections in general.

0611 To discover, develop and disseminate a new democratic system of science communication capable
of building bridges between scientists and the people and between and among all sections of the
people.

Review Presentations
Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education

Overview of HBCSE: Jayashree Ramadas, Centre Director

Faculty presentations – Science and Mathematics Education R&D

Overview of R&D: Chitra Natarajan, Dean, HBCSE Faculty

Socio cultural issues in education: Sugra Chunawala

Mathematics education: K. Subramaniam

Knowledge cartography: G. Nagarjuna

Educational materials in Hindi: K. K. Mishra

Literature
The literature given below is divided into three sections A, B and C.

1. The literature mentioned in this section is compulsory reading and will guide the students through the
content of the various sections of the syllabus.
1. The nature of science:
1. Matthews, Michael (1998). "The Nature of Science and Science Teaching' in History and Philosophy
of Science' in "International Handbook of Science Education' by B.J. Fraser and K.G.Tobin ( eds),
Kluwer Academic Publishers (981-999).
2. McComas, William, Clough, Michael and Almazroa, Hiya (1998). "The Role and Character of the
Nature of Science in Science Education" in W. F. McComas (ed) "The Nature of Science in Science
Education". Kluwer Academic Publishers (3-39).
3. Dolby, R. G. A. (1996). "Uncertain Knowledge: An Image of Science for a Changing World"
Cambridge University Press: Cambridge (157-189).
4. Elkana, Yehuda (2000). "Science, Philosophy of Science and Science Teaching" Science and
Education 9: 463-485.

2. Science and society:

1. Mulkay, Michael(1979). Science and the Sociology of Knowledge, pages 1-62.
2. Keller, Evelyn Fox (1985). "Reflections on Gender and Science". Yale University Press: New Haven
(3-13, 17-20, 69-73, 129-138).
3. Harding, Sandra (1991). "Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Thinking from Women's Lives". Cornell
University Press: New York (296-312).
4. Longino, Helen E. (1989). "Can there be a Feminist Science?" in "Feminism and Science" by Nancy
Tuana (ed). Indiana University Press: Bloomington (45-57).
 5. Raina, Dhruv (2006). "Towards a Global History of Science: The Relationship between Science, its
History and Theory of History" in "Sites and Practices: An Exercise in Cultural Pedagogy" by
Madhusree Dutta and Smriti Nevatia (eds) Majlis: Mumbai (232-242).
6. Nanda, Meera (1997). "Against Social Deconstruction of Science: Cautionary Tales from the Third
World". Monthly Review.
3. Cognition and learning:
1. Duit and Treagust (2003): Conceptual change – a powerful framework for improving science
teaching and learning
2. Gilbert et al (1982): Children’s science and its consequences for teaching
3. Gilbert and Boulter (1998): Learning science through models and modeling
4. Lehrer and Schauble (2006): Scientific thinking and science literacy (only 156-160)
5. Scott (1998): Teacher talk and meaning making in science classrooms (only 83-93)
6. Carr et al (1994): The constructivist paradigm and some implications for science content and
pedagogy (Chapter in Fensham, Gunstone and White)
4. Aims of science education:
1. Alsop (2005): The importance of affect in science education
2. OECD (2004): Scientific literacy (Chapter in The RoutledgeFalmer Reader in Science Education
edited by Gilbert)
3. Woolnough (1994): Aims and unresolved tensions (Chapter in book, 11-26)
5. Innovations in science education:
1. Position Paper on Science, NCERT, (2005)
2. NCF, NCERT, (2005)
3. amadas, J. (2004). 'Science and Technology Education in South Asia' in Jenkins, E. W. (ed.)
Innovations in Science and Technology Education, Vol.8. Paris: UNESCO.
4. Qualter, A. (1996). Differentiated Primary Science (Chapters 1 and 2). Exploring Primary Science
and Technology (Series Editor Brian Woolnough) Buckingham, U.K. and Philadelphia, U.S.A: Open
University Press.
Needs and importance
Scope:
The vastness of scope of a field such as Science Education is being tailored in this course to address and
allow deliberation on the possibility of attaining positive learning environments for science, guided by
recent findings in research and drawing on the practioner’s /student’s field experience on the ground. The
objective of such a focus is with an intention of stimulating discussion on what science education could be
for students, teachers and researchers beyond what science education should be, in search for effective
tools and implementable models.
Syllabus guidelines:
1. The nature of science: How is science different from or similar to other forms of knowledge
production? How do you distinguish between science and pseudo-science, good and bad science? Is
there ‘a’ science and/or ‘a’ scientific method? Traditional philosophies of science and their
contributions to the definitions of science and ‘scientific’ method(s) (Kuhn, Popper, Lakatos, etc.)
Impact on nature of science education.
2. Science and society: Issues of representations of caste, race, gender within science. Critiques arising
from people’s engagements with science – environment, reproductive health and people’s science. New
definitions of science and issues around it emerging. Debates on indigenous, non Western science and
issues of historiography from there. Newer critiques and voices: cultural, relativist, feminist.
Implication for science education.
3. Cognition and learning: the concept of conceptual change and its analysis, impact of research on
school practice, images of science as reasoning, theory change and practice with their implications for
education and development, juxtaposing children’s and teachers science, authoritative and dialogic
functions of classroom discourse, learning science through models, theories and concepts in the
classroom
4. Aims of science education: education through science and education in science, unresolved tensions
and curriculum issues, gender and technology issues, affect and interest in teaching science, scientific
literacy: scientific processes, scientific concepts and situations
5. Innovations in science education: What are the main curricular debates in primary, middle and high
school science? How are science curricula and textbooks constructed and what concerns have informed
curriculum inquiry into science education. The above to be discussed in the context of recent
innovative programs e.g. HSTP, HBCSE (Small Science), NCF (2005)
 6. Student and program assessment and evaluation: Assessing what children say, do, record, achieve
and attain, formative and summative assessments and evaluation, issues of transfer and accountability,
testing and helping schools to improve, assessing students knowledge construction in task settings, one
case study of program evaluation
Manner of assessment
There are four assignments that will be submitted at the end of Nov ’07, Dec ’07, Jan ’07 and Feb ’07 that
will together constitute assessment of the student:

1. Term paper (40% weightage): Based on the breadth of readings in section A, students will submit by
29th February 2008, a 2000-2500 word reasoned critique based on any one of the following science
curricula:
i. Australia (1998): Curriculum Framework
ii. Canada (2002): The Ontario Curriculum
iii. India (2005): NCERT position paper on science
iv. India (1972-2002): HSTP curriculum for science
v. India (1998-2004): HBCSE curriculum for science
vi. New Zealand (1993): Science in the New Zealand Curriculum
vii. Nuffield (1998): Beyond 2000 -Science Education for the future
2. Personal reflection (20% weightage): Based on the entire course, students submit by 31st January
2008, a 1000 word essay/writing offering a practitioner’s / student’s personal reflection addressing the
following in their writing:
i. nature of practitioners/students qualifications and background brought to teaching-learning
ii. opportunities for creating learning environments for science that one’s school or institution
provides/provided
iii. relevance of the papers to the kind of learning environments that could be brought about in
the classroom
iv. important and relevant issues in relation to the practitioner’s / student’s teaching-learning
that the papers fall short of
3. Presentation during contact period followed by short essay (20% weightage): Students make a choice
of any one article from section B of the literature and make a 20 minute presentation during the
contact period, allowing for a 10 minute discussion to follow. Students are free to make power point
presentations or use transparencies. Subsequent to the presentation in the contact period, students
will submit by 30th November 2007, a 1000 word essay/writing on the selection made.
4. Essay to be submitted any time during the course (20% weightage): Students submit by
31st December 2007, a 1000 word essay/writing on any one book chosen from section C of literature.
The essay needs to address the following: practitioner’s/student’s reasons for choosing the book, what
arguments the practioner/student thought were made in the book and finally the applicability or
inapplicability of those arguments to the teaching-learning praxis of science.

Peoples Council of Education (PCE) and Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE), Tata Institute of
Fundamental Research (TIFR), propose to organize an exhibition on Science Education in India during the
forthcoming Second Peoples Education Congress in October 5-8, 2009 at Mumbai. The major object of the
exhibition is to depict newer and better methods of science education in schools, colleges and universities.
Each exhibit ought to reflect some degree of innovation and creativity. The exhibition can be in Hindi,
Marathi, Gujarati and English. It can be in any form – posters, demonstration, modules, activities, films,
audio-visuals etc. However, a brief write-up on the proposed exhibits is necessary. Such write-up ought to
be sent to the Convener of the exhibition latest by July 15, 2009.

Since the Peoples Education Congress seeks to discover newer and better democratic system of science
education reflecting needs, aspirations, creativity and problems of people of India all exhibits are expected
to contribute to the aforesaid goal.

Interactive sessions with children and parents would be held during the exhibition. This may be kept in
view while preparing exhibits.

The dxhibition is open to all. Universities, colleges, schools, autonomous science education groups etc are
most welcome to exhibit their creations on science education.
 All those who wish to participate in the exhibition are advised to send the following information to the
convener, Ms. Meena Kharatmal latest by July 15, 2009:

 Name
 Affiliation
 Address (Telephones & e-mails)
 A short write-up within 1000 words on the exhibits
 Requirements; Panels, Tables, Space, Screen, Computer, etc
 Registration Fee

All correspondence regarding exhibition should be addressed to the following:

Ms. Meena Kharatmal

Convener, Exhibition
Second Peoples Education Congress
Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
V. N. Purav Marg, Mankhurd
Mumbai 400088
M: 09821550522,
E-mail:peoples@hbcse.tifr.res.in
706 Task Force

A Task Force constituted by the Peoples Council of Education and Homi Bhabha Centre for Science
Education shall deliberate over the deliberations on ‘Science Education in India’ in order to search the new
ideas, theories and methods of democratic system of science education.

Based on its assessment the Task Force shall prepare its recommendations for new policy formulations
and actions to be taken up by the Peoples Council of Education, the Ministry of Science & Technology, the
Ministry of Human Resource Development, the University Grants Commission, NCERT and such other national
and state educational bodies which are concerned with science education in India. The Task Force shall
normally hold its sessions during post-dinner session and shall submit its report to the assembly of the
delegates on the last day of the Congress between 1500 and 1600 hours.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research methodology
Text:
Outline of the course:

Assessment: class participation, assignments and oral examination

Contents:
1) Underlying Tenets of Educational Research
2) Research data, its sources, variables
3) Selecting, refining and proposing a topic of research
4) Procedures and tools of gathering data, validity and reliability in data collection.
5) Types of research and discussion about them – ethnographic, descriptive, historical, correlational,
experimental causal-comparative, action, evaluation
6) Qualitative Research – Developmental Research, Case Studies, Accounts, Role Policy, Personal constructs
7) Special techniques and methods - Triangulation, Observation of behaviour, interviews, projective
methods, content analysis, sociometry, semantic differential
8) Research Designs – criteria, adequate designs

Main Reference:
1. F. N. Kerlinger – Foundations of Behavioural Research, Ind Ed. Surjeet Publi (1978)
2. C. M. Charles – Introduction to Educational Research, 2nd Ed; Longmen, USA (1995)
3. L. Cohen and L. Marion – Research Methods in Education; 4th Ed.; Routledge (1994)
Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (A Deemed University) Admission to
PhD Programme in Science Education – 2017 We are looking for young people with • Interest in science education • Flair
for teaching and writing • Curiosity about how students learn • Critical and analytical skills • Innovative approaches •
Commitment to improve education Science and mathematics Teachers and Educators are also encouraged to apply.
They would have to spend a minimum of two years at HBCSE and can do their research work while stationed at their
parent institutions. To submit the form online, to download the form and for more information about the admission
please visit: http://www.hbcse.tifr.res.in/admissions/ Note: This is a programme in education. It is not a pure or applied
science research programme. Areas of Research • Teaching and learning of science and mathematics from primary to
undergraduate level • Innovative curricula, laboratories, teaching and assessment methods • Development of scientific
and mathematical thinking in students at school and college level • Design and technology in the curriculum • Visual and
spatial modes in learning • Socio-cultural and gender factors in learning • Structure and dynamics of knowledge
Eligibility MSc (in any subject), M Tech or a Master’s degree (MA/MSW) in any of the social/ behavioural sciences/
psychology/ linguistics/ sociology/ economics/ anthropology or any allied disciplines, M.Ed. Exam Fee 600 to be paid
online or through DD (in favour of Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, TIFR and payable at Mumbai). Important
Dates • Application Submission deadline: March 15, 2017 • Written test: May 14, 2017 • Interview: June 3rd week,
2017. Scholarships 25000 per month till registration 28000 per month post-registration Additionally, 30% HRA in lieu of
on-campus institute accommodation Annual contingency grant of 32000. Admissions are made initially for one year,
renewable annually up to a maximum of five years. The offline applicants should send the completed form along with
one passport size photograph and a demand draft for 400/- (non-refundable) to: Graduate School Admissions - 2016,
Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, TIFR, V. N. Purav Marg, Mankhurd, Mumbai 400088. A written test for
eligible applicants will be held at seven Centres around the country: Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata
and Guwahati (provisional). Those who qualify will be called for an interview.

Suggestion
Executive Summary Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) is an Autonomous Institution of the Department of
Atomic Energy (DAE), Government of India, and has been declared a National Centre of the Government of India for
Nuclear Science and Mathematics. The Main Campus of TIFR is in Colaba, Mumbai, where the TIFR administration is also
housed. TIFR also has has external campuses in Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, where its Research Centres
are located. TIFR carries out fundamental research in the areas of physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, computer
science, and science education. The Main campus in Colaba comprises the Natural Sciences Faculty (Departments of
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science, High Energy Physics, Nuclear and Atomic
Physics, Theoretical Physics, Chemical Sciences and Biological Sciences), the School of Mathematics, and the School of
Technology and Computer Science. The Research Centres of TIFR have been established to take its mandate of
fundamental research forward. Each Research Centre is academically equivalent to a Department: it has about 10-20
faculty members, carrying out research activities in a focussed area. It however has a more autonomous governing
structure and carries out its research activities independently. In this Self Study Report, for academic purposes the
Centres are treated like other Departments of TIFR. The Research Centres are located at the external campuses of TIFR.
The Mumbai campus has Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE), in Chembur, Mumbai, while the Pune
campus has National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA). The Bengaluru campus has National Centre for Biological
Sciences (NCBS), Centre for Applicable Mathematics (CAM) and International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS) as its
three Departments, and the Hyderabad campus has TIFR Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences (TCIS) as its first
Department
References[edit]
1. ^ "Science, education, research & innovation pillars of development - Times of India". Times of India.
PTI. 22 March 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
2. ^ "Homi Bhabha National Institute gets HRD ministry's nod to start its off-campus centre - Times of
India". Times of India. PTI. 18 February 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
3. ^ "12-Year-Old Boy From Kota Qualifies For International Biology Olympiad". NDTV. PTI. 4 January
2016. Retrieved 14 September 2016.