Teaching Science in Out-of-school Settings: Pedagogies for Effective Learning

This book explores pedagogical approaches used by informal science educators and botanic garden educators in particular, when teaching science to visiting students (7-12 years old). More specifically, it draws on the sociocultural perspective of learning, and highlights the importance of discourse in learning processes. It examines the interactions between four botanic garden educators (BGEs) and their students, focusing on how the students’ contributions to the talk are followed up on by the BGEs. Moreover, it includes an investigation into which kinds of teaching behaviours on the part of BGEs can best support learning.

Dr. Junqing Zhai is an assistant professor at the Department of Education, Zhejiang University, China. He received his Ph.D. from King’s College London, UK. His doctoral thesis focused on the pedagogical practices of professional botanic garden educators when communicating plant-based science to visiting children. From 2011-2014, Junqing worked as a research fellow at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, during which he investigated the inquiry-based learning environment of Singaporean primary science classrooms.