ABSTRACT
In his book Talking Science (1990), Jay Lemke documents the forms of science talk that predominate in high school. Through his analysis, he shows that science and teaching are social processes dependent on attitudes, values, and social interests, not just on knowledge and skills. He also argues that science education perpetuates a view of science as objective, authoritative, and exclusive in the sense that it is presented in opposition to common sense and as comprehensible only to those possessing special talents. He makes the case that this ideology is maintained, sometimes unwittingly, through particular ways of talking science in the classroom (e.g., Triadic dialogues consisting of teacher question-student response-teacher evaluation sequences) and through the content of the science curriculum.
