Visual templates in pattern generalization activity

In this research article, I present evidence of the existence of visual templates in pattern generalization activity. Such templates initially emerged from a 3-week design-driven classroom teaching experiment on pattern generalization involving linear figural patterns and were assessed for existence in a clinical interview that was conducted four and a half months after the teaching experiment using three tasks (one ambiguous, two well defined). Drawing on the clinical interviews conducted with 11 seventh- and eighth-grade students, I discuss how their visual templates have spawned at least six types of algebraic generalizations. A visual template model is also presented that illustrates the distributed and a dynamically embedded nature of pattern generalization involving the following factors: pattern goodness effect; knowledge/action effects; and the triad of stage-driven grouping, structural unit, and analogy.     

Programming and Mathematics in an Upper-Level University Problem-Solving Course

We discuss teaching and learning situations that surfaced when computer programming and mathematics were brought together in a course where students write computer code to explore mathematics problems. Combining programming and mathematics creates a rich ecosystem which, on top of traditional mathematics activities (writing solutions, proofs, etc.), offers simulation and experimentation, invites discussions about structure, requires logic and testing strategies, and handles mathematics objects with an added feeling of reality. Focusing on novice and inexperienced programmers, we look for answers to the practice-oriented question, “How do students reason through their difficulties when using programming to explore a mathematics problem?” Following literature review and methodology, we build the programming model, which we use to study students' experiences as they approach a mathematical problem by writing computer code. Our research is based on analyzing students' in-class work and class notes, author's observations of students working on their computers, and his interactions with students in class and elsewhere. In the four case studies that we present we touch upon students' difficulties in working with complex conditional statements and recurrence relations. As well, we discuss cases where resolving a programming issue demands posing and answering mathematical questions.     

The language of science and preferential thinking styles: A comparison between hindi speaking students (in India) and english speaking students (in Tasmania)

A study of science textbooks and students' responses indicates that many key concepts are treated at different levels of meaning. As a consequence of these observations we have attempted to examine what we have termed students' “preferential thinking style.” To do this, the level of meaning that students preferred when thinking about each of 16 key concept definitions associated with the theme, the nature of matter, was measured for each concept. The same concept definitions had already been studied in respect to students' ability to recognize them. Each of the 16 concept terms was formulated at the three levels of meaning defined by us as: membership, partial association, and generalization. The resulting test of preferential thinking style was administered to representative samples of Hindi-speaking high school students in India (826) and English-speaking high school students in Tasmania (1635). Some marked changes in the relative development of preferential thinking styles for the two groups were observed which raises questions associated with the importance of this notion as an outcome of science teaching.     

Students' Visualization of Diagrams Representing the Human Circulatory System: The use of spatial isomorphism and representational conventions

This study investigated students' interpretation of diagrams representing the human circulatory system. We conducted an interview study with three students aged 14–15 (Year 10) who were studying biology in a Hong Kong school. During the interviews, students were asked to interpret diagrams and relationships between diagrams that represented aspects of the circulatory system. All diagrams used in the interviews had been used by their teacher when teaching the topic. Students' interpretations were expressed by their verbal response and their drawing. Dual coding theory was used to interpret students' responses. There was evidence that one student relied on verbal recall as a strategy in interpreting diagrams. It was found that students might have relied unduly on similarities in spatial features, rather than on deeper meanings represented by conventions, of diagrams when they associated diagrams that represented different aspects of the circulatory system. A pattern of students' understanding of structure–behaviour–function relationship of the biological system was observed. This study suggests the importance of a consistent diagrammatic and verbal representation in communicating scientific ideas. Implications for teaching practice that facilitates learning with diagrams and address students' undue focus on spatial features of diagrams are discussed.     

Toward Effective Teaching and Learning: stories of primary schools'environmental science interest and action

This article provides some stories of primary school teachers' and students' experiences of implementing new science teaching and learning strategies through an action research process that have also led to more environmental education occurring in the schools' curriculum. The stories have been constructed from the coordinators' journals, observations and interviews with the teachers and students in the schools. The teachers in the schools are consciously engaged in an action research-based model of curriculum change in science teaching and learning. The stories also acknowledge the critiques of critical theory in environmental education and the possibilities for a socially critical approach in environmental education within a context of the limited opportunities for both science and environmental education in primary schools.     

From down house Landlord to Brazilian high school students: What has happened to evolutionary knowledge on the way?

Evolution is considered an essential topic that brings to school a broader perspective of natural phenomena and of the nature of science. Most if not all research has shown that the result of the teaching of evolutionary theories is not positive in different parts of the world. Some have attributed the poor understanding shown by students to teaching style or to students' cognitive abilities. This article reports results of interviews and tests carried out with students after they had been taught the topic of evolution. By adopting a sociocultural perspective, before terming students' views “misconceptions,” attention was given to several different ways Charles Darwin's theories have been re-interpreted by well-known scholars and offered to the public. I have analyzed the approaches taken by Emanuel Radl (1873-1942), John C. Greene, Robert Maxwell Young, and Ernst Mayr to assess the diverse ways Darwinism has been conceived. Attention was also given to the presentation of this controversial knowledge to the public in two major popular books written by respected scientists, Huxley and Kettlewell's Darwin and His World (1975) and Richard Dawkins' more recent The Blind Watchmaker (1989). These analyses revealed remarkable differences between what was written in Downe (Kent) a hundred years ago and what was heard at Sao Paulo (Brazil) nowadays. Students show very poor understanding of evolutionary theories. Their conceptions reveal evolution has been primarily related to the human species. Its meaning is understood as similar to progress, growth, multiplication, and improvement. Biological and cultural evolution are not clearly distinguished. Competition is misunderstood as pure violence, sometimes inevitable, and adaptation is considered an individual process that occurs during the organism's life span. Educational change may not depend just on teaching style and students' cognitive abilities. Modification of factual knowledge and epistemological gaps may be the result of a process of social reconceptualization of knowledge offered to students.     

Students' Evaluation of Teachers and Instructional Quality--Analysis of Relevant Factors Based on Empirical Evaluation Research

This paper explores the factors that determine the student evaluation of teachers. Unlike many previous studies, the effect of potential biases on global ratings is examined in the context of teaching behaviour (that should in fact--in contrast to the potential biases--have an influence on global ratings). Our research takes into account that biases like the students' interest in the subject or their liking for the teacher may be a result of good teaching behaviour and may not be considered a mere bias of student ratings. Furthermore, it also concentrates on the students' attitudes towards evaluating their teachers. The empirical results are based on qualitative interviews with 40 students at Austrian commercial colleges and on a quantitative survey of 2,121 students who were asked to evaluate their Accounting teachers. Structural equation models show that the students' global ratings of teachers mainly depend on their teaching behaviour. However, global ratings are also affected by the students' attitudes towards evaluating their teachers, as well as by the students' liking for their teacher and their interest in the subject of Accounting.     

Book reviews

Background: In England, the promotion of ‘national values’ within the history curriculum has become an increasingly topical issue in the wake of recent debates about ‘Britishness’ and community cohesion. However, despite the swathe of policy statements and pronouncements, there is little empirical evidence linking young people's identities and their attitudes towards history.

Purpose: Drawing on a survey of undergraduates, we explore young people's attitudes towards the history curriculum and how these relate to their ethnic, national and political identity. We anticipated that students ascribing to a strong sense of national identity may be particularly receptive to a traditional approach to teaching national values within history classes, while those with a strong sense of political identity would be receptive to a multicultural approach; and vice versa.

Sample: The sample consisted of 353 undergraduates attending five universities in the North of England. The sample was composed of British citizens, the majority of whom would have recently experienced secondary education including discrete or cross-curricular teaching designed to promote ‘British’ national values.

Design and methods: Students' attitudes towards history and their self-identity were estimated using a questionnaire survey asking respondents a series of questions about history teaching and identity. Exploratory factor analysis was used to reveal underlying patterns in students' responses to items assessing their attitudes towards history. Items gauging relevant dimensions of self-identification, such as the relative importance of their national identity, along with other individual background characteristics, were then regressed on to attitudes towards history.

Results: We found that students' attitudes towards history were connected with two distinct factors: traditional/conservative and multicultural/liberal. The regression results revealed a positive relationship between a strong sense of national identity and a traditional attitude towards history, and, a negative relationship between a strong sense of national identity and a multicultural attitude towards history, even when controlling for students' background characteristics.

Conclusions: Our exploratory research suggests that students' self-identity is likely to influence their attitudes towards approaches to history teaching. Educational policy-makers and practitioners must therefore pay careful attention to students' self-identity and the context in which this is formed when seeking to inculcate an inclusive national identity in history classes.     

Conceptual difficulties experienced by senior high school students of electrochemistry: Electrochemical (galvanic) and electrolytic cells

This research investigated students' understanding of electrochemistry following a 7–9-week course of instruction. A list of conceptual and propositional knowledge statements was formulated, and this provided the framework for semistructured interviews that were conducted with 32 students in their final year of high school chemistry, following instruction in electrochemistry. Three misconceptions identified in this study and five which have been reported earlier are incorporated into an alternative framework about electric current. The framework is grounded on the notion that a current always involves drifting electrons, even in solution. Another area where students' misconceptions were prevalent was in relation to the sign of the anode and cathode. Students who thought the anode was negatively charged believed cations would move toward it, and those who thought it was positively charged were unable to explain why electrons move away from it. Electrolytic cells also proved troublesome for students. Many students did not associate the positions of the anode and cathode with the polarity of the applied electromotive force (e.m.f.). Other students attempted to reverse features of electrochemical cells and apply the reversals to electrolytic cells. The implications of the research relate to students' interpretation of the language that is used to describe scientific phenomena and the tendency for students to overgeneralize, due to comments made by teachers or statements in textbooks.     

‘Feed‐forward’: improving students' use of tutors' comments

A small‐scale action research project was carried out on students' feedback histories on one undergraduate module. Old grades and comment sheets were collected and analysed by staff for recurring advice to individual students on the target module. This advice was then synthesized to create simple individual learning plans for the students' forthcoming assignments, in other words old feedback was applied to a new task. A number of additional teaching and learning interventions were provided for participants and the statistical outcomes showed a small gain in the grades achieved against those who did not participate. Interviews were held with participants that indicated a number of reasons why feedback was not optimized to assist further learning.     

Understanding metallic bonding: Structure,process and interaction by Rasch analysis

This paper reports the results of a survey of 3006 Year 10–12 students on their understandings of metallic bonding. The instrument was developed based on Chi's ontological categories of scientific concepts and students' understanding of metallic bonding as reported in the literature. The instrument has two parts. Part one probed into students' understanding of metallic bonding as (a) a submicro structure of metals, (b) a process in which individual metal atoms lose their outermost shell electrons to form a ‘sea of electrons’ and octet metal cations or (c) an all-directional electrostatic force between delocalized electrons and metal cations, that is, an interaction. Part two assessed students' explanation of malleability of metals, for example (a) as a submicro structural rearrangement of metal atoms/cations or (b) based on all-directional electrostatic force. The instrument was validated by the Rasch Model. Psychometric assessment showed that the instrument possessed reasonably good properties of measurement. Results revealed that it was reliable and valid for measuring students' understanding of metallic bonding. Analysis revealed that the structure, process and interaction understandings were unidimensional and in an increasing order of difficulty. Implications for the teaching of metallic bonding, particular through the use of diagrams, critiques and model-based learning, are discussed.     

Students' Ideas about Reaction Rate and its Relationship with Concentration or Pressure

This cross‐sectional study identifies key conceptual difficulties experienced by upper secondary school and pre‐service chemistry teachers (N = 191) in the area of reaction rates. Students' ideas about reaction rates were elicited through a series of written tasks and individual interviews. In this paper, students' ideas related to reaction rate and its relationship with concentration or pressure are discussed. Evidence is presented to support the following claims. First, school students tended to use “macroscopic” modelling rather than using “particulate” and/or “mathematical” modelling. By contrast, undergraduates were more likely to provide explanations based upon theoretical models and entities within established chemical ideas. Nevertheless, second, they had conceptual difficulties in making transformation within and across different theoretical models. Finally, students did not generally use a scientifically acceptable concept of reaction rate across contexts. Although an acceptable concept may have been used in one context, incorrect ideas may, nonetheless, have been used in other contexts. However, undergraduates' responses were less affected by context. Several conceptual difficulties exhibited by school students persisted among undergraduates. Some possible implications for planning the curriculum and teaching are proposed in the light of the results.     

Developing Critical Curiosity in Adolescents

Critical consciousness refers to the ways in which individuals come to understand and challenge oppressive social forces. Philosopher-educator Paulo Freire argued that critical curiosity—an eagerness to learn more about and develop a deep understanding of issues of social justice—serves as an important catalyst to critical consciousness development. Yet, relatively little scholarship has considered how to foster critical curiosity in adolescents. The present qualitative study analyzed semi-structured interviews with 60 adolescents attending five Northeastern urban charter high schools with mission statements focused on fostering students' engagement in social action. Specifically, the study considered these students' perceptions of the impact of their respective schools' social engagement programming upon their critical curiosity. The interviews were analyzed using a flexible inductive/deductive approach drawn from the thematic analysis approach to qualitative analysis. The findings of this study indicate that students had a variety of conceptions of what stimulates their critical curiosity, including relevance, exposure to new perspectives, and receiving new, surprising information. Alignment with Freire's conceptions of critical curiosity and current curiosity scholarship, implications for educators, limitations, and future directions are discussed.     

Analysing sexual experiences through ‘scenes’: a framework for the evaluation of sexuality education

This paper describes an alternative approach to undertaking and evaluating sexual health promotion, focusing on the notion of sexual scenes and scenarios and how these can provide a vantage point from which to examine sexual experience. The concept of sexual scenes provides a context within which to analyse many of the behavioural and epidemiological factors associated with sexual practice. In principle, such an approach provides a tool for conscientization, action and the invention of novel group and individual repertoires that may result in individual and social mobilization for health and/or sexual and reproductive rights. Scenes can be elicited through individual interviews, group interviews and discussions, or through staged and dramatized performance and students' writing. Analysing sexual scenes offers an entry point for dialogue in sexual health promotion programming. Evaluation of these programmes can be part of the process of changing sexual scenarios. Change is witnessed not only through individual changes but, especially in impoverished communities, through challenges to dominant local sexual scenarios and engagement with structural concerns.     

Concept map structure,gender and teaching methods: an investigation of students' science learning

Background: This study deals with the application of concept mapping to the teaching and learning of a science topic with secondary school students in Germany.

Purpose: The main research questions were: (1) Do different teaching approaches affect concept map structure or students' learning success? (2) Is the structure of concept maps influenced by gender? (3) Is the concept map structure a reliable indicator of students' learning success?

Sample: One hundred and forty-nine high-achieving 5th-grade students from four German secondary schools participated in the study. The average age of participants was 10½ years. Gender distribution was balanced. Students produced concept maps working in small, single-sex groups.

Design and methods: There were two teaching approaches used: one based upon teacher-centred instruction and one consisting of student-centred learning. Both were followed by a concept-mapping phase. Student groups experienced either one or the other teaching approach. Concept map structures were analysed using of the method of Kinchin, Hay and Adams. We defined three different possible types of concept map structure: spokes, chains and nets. Furthermore, for assessing a student's short- and longer-term learning success, we constructed a multiple-choice knowledge test applied in a pre-, post-, retention-test design. Parametric tests, such as MANOVA, one-way ANOVA and t-tests were used to identify any differences in gender, teaching approach, number of nets per concept map and their interactions.

Results: Type of teaching approach had an effect on concept map structure but not on students' longer-term learning success. Students of the teacher-centred approach produced more net structures than those students who participated in the hands-on instruction. Subsequent analyses showed in total more net structures for female groups. The interaction of gender and number of nets per concept map showed a significant effect on students' longer-term learning success.

Conclusion: The study suggests that Kinchin's classification scheme for assessing concept map quality may be a good indicator of students' learning success when applied in combination with a knowledge test.     

Rethinking the introduction of particle theory: A substance‐based framework

In response to extensive research exposing students' poor understanding of the particle theory of matter, this article argues that the conceptual framework within which the theory is introduced could be a limiting factor. The standard school particle model is characterized as operating within a “solids, liquids, and gases” framework. Drawing on an analysis of scientific ideas on matter and research into students' understanding, issues arising from the framework are identified which could contribute towards students' well known difficulties. The analysis leads to the proposal for a particle model based within the framework of the concept of a substance. Results from two exploratory studies using the substance‐based particle model with children (ages 9–10) in two contrasting elementary schools in England are then reported. After a short teaching intervention with a class in each school, individual interviews were held with a sample of 12 students from each class. Data were collected on students' understanding of substances coexisting in different room temperature states and phenomena involving changes of state and mixing. The results gave useful feedback on the specification of the model and its teaching. Overall the students' engagement with the particle ideas was encouraging and suggests a larger scale testing of the substance‐based model is merited. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47:130–150, 2010     

Instructional practices in secondary science: How teachers achieve local and standards-based success

This article reports on analyses of the instructional practices of six middle- and high-school science teachers in the United States who participated in a research-practice partnership that aims to support reform science education goals at scale. All six teachers were well qualified, experienced, and locally successful—respected by students, parents, colleagues, and administrators—but they differed in their success in supporting students' three-dimensional learning. Our goal is to understand how the teachers' instructional practices contributed to their similarities in achieving local success and to differences in enabling students' learning, and to consider the implications of these findings for research-practice partnerships. Data sources included classroom videos supplemented by interviews with teachers and focus students and examples of student work. We also compared students' learning gains by teacher using pre–post assessments that elicited three-dimensional performances. Analyses of classroom videos showed how all six teachers achieved local success—they led effectively managed classrooms, covered the curriculum by teaching almost all unit activities, and assessed students' work in fair and efficient ways. There were important differences, however, in how teachers engaged students in science practices. Teachers in classrooms where students achieved lower learning gains followed a pattern of practice we describe as activity-based teaching, in which students completed investigations and hands-on activities with few opportunities for sensemaking discussions or three-dimensional science performances. Teachers whose students achieved higher learning gains combined the social stability characteristic of local classroom success with more demanding instructional practices associated with scientific sensemaking and cognitive apprenticeship. We conclude with a discussion of implications for research-practice partnerships, highlighting how partnerships need to support all teachers in achieving both local and standards-based success.