Progression in learning science balanced forces

This article is linked to the last in its intelligent concern for the purposes of activities (“play”; “building with apparatus”) that can too often become part of the “routine” of a classroom. She starts with her own sensitive observations of what children do in her own classroom and enables us to see the value of structured use of play materials. With our current concerns for science, design and technology teaching in junior and secondary schools, it is, perhaps, a timely reminder of those subjects' starting points.     

Creative learning in science education

Conclusion Making sense of the world-including the world of school learning-involves making connections between new and existing experiences. Whether this process is called the construction (Piaget, 1929), the generation (Osborne & Wittrock, 1985) or the creation of meaning, the relation of new experiences to existing understandings, images, experiences, and feelings are essential to the process of learning with understanding. For many years cognitive psychology has focused on the making of logical, sequential, highly structured connections. However, the computer metaphor for human information processing and storage is now being questioned and cognitive psychologists are beginning to explore the new ‘unexplorable’-parallel, holistic, divergent, creative mental processes. In addition, this paper proposes a model of the learning process in terms of reciprocally interactive cognitive, affective, and social variables.     

Challenge in learning and teaching science

Taking as a basis a conceptualisation of personal challenge having both cognitive/metacognitive (thinking) and affective (feeling) components, the nature and extent of perceived challenge in learning and teaching science were explored for seven teachers and thirty-seven students in five secondary schools over a period of five months. Findings suggest that many secondary students are not challenged by the science they learn in school. Similary, many secondary science teachers are insufficiently challenged by the task of teaching. There are indications, however, that science teaching and learning attitudes and practices can be improved if teachers work to diagnose and change key classroom factors that influence level of perceived challenge in learning.     

Perceptions of challenge in science learning

Prior research has indicated that decisions made by students about their learning are influenced by perceptions of various factors related to the task and classroom context. This influence seems to be mediated by the extent to which the learner perceives personal challenge in what is done. This concept of personal challenge comprises both cognitive (demand) and affective (motivation) components. In the current paper, response trends of almost 4000 secondary science students to a questionnaire structured according to factors associated with challenge are considered by school, year level and gender. These trends indicate that challenge in science diminishes as students move from Years 7 to 10, due to increasingly negative perceptions of many of these factors. Results also indicate however that, through purposeful change in teaching perspectives and practices, teachers can establish and sustain students’ sense of challenge in classroom learning.     

案例教学法改进

案例教学法注重激发学生的学习兴趣,在多学科的教学中倍加受到推崇.以内科学教学为例,针对案例教学中的四个不足,提出了四种改进措施.     

More than science: family learning in a Mexican science museum

Latin American audiences living in their countries of origin are poorly understood as museum learners due to the scarcity of research in this field. Through a case study approach, I investigate and report on the ways of learning of 20 Mexican family groups. In particular, I examine the influence of the Mexican sociocultural context on the participant family members’ learning outcomes from a Mexican science museum. Conducted in Universum Museo de las Ciencias, a science museum located in Mexico City, this research study is based on the premise that understanding the role of the sociocultural elements of learning is essential to understanding the nature of learning in museums. The cognitive and social outcomes of the participants are discussed in the light of the sociocultural elements that define Mexicans as museum learners.     

Cultural communication learning environment in science classes

Classroom communication often involves interactions between students and teachers from dissimilar cultures, which influence classroom learning because of their dissimilar communication styles influenced by their cultures. It is therefore important to study the influence of culture on classroom communication that influences the classroom verbal and nonverbal interactions. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a new instrument to assess eight scales of students?? classroom communication learning environment: Body Language, Communication Rate, Communication Loudness, Eye Contact, English Usage, Verbal Support, Intra-gender Communication and Inter-gender Communication. The instrument was administered to 1,723 upper-secondary biology students in Brunei government schools. The alpha reliability (0.58?C0.91) and discrimination validity (0.08?C0.13) coefficients for these scales were within acceptable ranges. Statistically significant ??² coefficients suggested that the instrument was able to differentiate between participating biology classes. Students perceived a low level verbal support and sometimes higher teacher communication rate in their classes. Dialects other than English, which is the medium of instruction, have been used in biology classes to some extent. There is a strong tendency for intra-gender than inter-gender communications in classes, which could limit the effectiveness of teaching and learning in constructivist classes