Interest of Intermediate‐Level Secondary Students in Physics and Technology

Summaries

English

This article describes the results of an extensive study, which examined the interests of intermediate‐level secondary students, from the State of Hesse in the Federal Republic of Germany, in aspects of physics and technology.

Both boys and girls show greater interest in technological issues than in issues of pure physics. This distribution of interest is in contrast to the importance accorded to these subjects in school curricula. Children from rural areas seem to have a slightly better background of experiences involving knowledge of physics and technology than children from urban areas. A correlation was found to exist between out‐of‐school activities concerned with technology and the natural sciences, and academic achievement as measured by students’ physics grades. Girls display a general interest in natural phenomena which are not sufficiently covered by physics curricula.     

Linguistic‐minority Students and Bilingual Mathematics Teaching

Mathematics teaching and subject‐matter acquisition of two groups of linguistic minority students were studied; one in a minolingual second‐language class and the other in a traditional bilingual‐education model in the city of Oslo, Norway. The background of attempts at bilingual education in the Norwegian context is presented, and some aspects of bilingual education, bilingual pedagogy and research‐based perspectives on the role of bilingual education in subject‐matter acquisition is discussed. On the basis of an empirical study of the teaching situation of linguistic‐minority students it is concluded that linguistic‐minority students profit from bilingual mathematics teaching. The empirical research results indicate that linguistic‐minority students (LMSs) with a bilingual‐education (BE) background can achieve as good or better results in mathematics as monolingual students. The strength of bilingual education can therefore be said to reside in the favourable conditions that it creates for the comprehension of linguistic‐minority students of the content taught. By creating favourable conditions bilingual subject‐matter teaching also fulfils minorities’ expectations of participating in content‐area instruction: to understand what is being communicated in subject‐matter teaching and to learn what is normally expected to be learned in subject‐matter teaching. It is therefore legitimate to argue for bilingual education on pedagogical grounds without the support of old‐fashioned anthropological or psychological arguments.     

The Self‐esteem of Pre‐service Physics Education Students

The self‐esteem as physics teachers of students taking pre‐service physics teacher education courses was investigated before and after the courses. It was found that students who dropped out from the courses had lower self‐esteem than either the students who satisfactorily completed them or similarly qualified students who did not take the courses. There was some evidence that learning pedagogical theory enhances self‐esteem if it takes place after practical teaching experience but has the opposite effect when taught first, in the absence of any practical teaching experience.     

Learning Difficulties of Part‐Time Mature Students

Abstract

The parents of university students are one of the major stakeholders in Higher Education, yet there appears to be little investigation of their views. A postal questionnaire was distributed to a sample of some 640 parents or parent substitutes having at least one child currently taking a first degree at a British university. 335 completed questionnaires were returned. These give a very consistent and homogeneous picture, with no important variations related to university, subject studied, or level of parents’ education, and almost none related to sex of parent. In general, parents take a clearly traditional view of Higher Education, with research as the most important activity of universities followed by teaching students. The latter should gain personal maturity and a useful qualification from their studies. There is a very strong preference for students to live away from home. These views are highly consistent with those of students themselves, both at university and before; but less so with trends in Higher Education seen by many experts.     

Cognitive Preferences in Agriculture of Middle‐School Students and their Teachers‡

Summaries

English

A special cognitive‐preference inventory dealing with agriculture was developed, validated and administered to 943 middle‐school students and their teachers. This is the first reported study of cognitive preferences of 7th and 8th grade (12 to 13 year‐old) students. The inventory was found to be a valid and reliable measure of cognitive preferences related to agricultural topics studied in Israeli schools.

Preference for application (A) was found to be negatively correlated in different students with either recall (R) or principles (P) or critical questioning (Q).

Studying the ‘new’ agriculture compared with the ‘old’, resulted in a lower preference for R and a higher preference for A. Female students had, on the average, a higher preference for R and P while males tended to prefer A and Q. Children whose fathers were simple workers had the highest preference for R while children whose fathers were academics had the lowest preference for R. Teachers, when compared with their students, had a much higher preference for P and a much lower preference for R. A close correspondence was found between reported emphasis in classroom tests and the cognitive‐preference modes of teachers.

     

Sense of Well‐being in School as Perceived by Students and Teachers

Sandven, J. 1972. Sense of Well‐being in School as Perceived by Students and Teachers. Scand. J. educ. Res. 16, 117‐159. Sense of well‐being in school was investigated in 1966 among more than 3,000 9th graders. A follow‐up study was conducted in the gymnasium in 1969. A new investigation among 2,500 9th graders was undertaken in 1970. The difference in the sense of well‐being between students at higher and lower course levels is marked. No increase in well‐being is found from 1966 to 1970. The way the teachers perceive the situation in school was investigated in 1970 among 1,620 teachers, who were presented with school‐related statements to which they were asked to take a stand. The situation in youth school is experienced as difficult. As to causes, mention is made of the pressure to achieve and the over‐emphasis on intellectual ambitions as well as of suppression of experience, emotions, social contact, and personal activity. As to remedies, efforts in line with judgment of causes are seen as needed.     

Non‐traditional Students in a Traditional System of Higher Education: The German Case of Formally Non‐qualified Students

For many years, higher education systems around the world have been reporting on “new”; and/or “non‐traditional” students which in many institutions represent the majority of all undergraduate enrolments. These students are older, have work experience, study part‐time, carry full‐time adult responsibilities, have to take on full‐time employment, take advantage of open admission policies, and focus their studies on vocational objectives. This article focuses on a small group of German non‐traditional students who enrol through special admission. Their backgrounds, their experiences, their motives, and their expectations will be described. Certain consequences for higher education will be sketched.     

Gender Differences in Self‐efficacy and Academic Performance among Students of Business Administration

Gender differences in perceived self‐efficacy and academic performance in marketing, organizational behaviour, accounting, computing, mathematics and statistics were investigated in 154 college students studying business administration. At the beginning of their second year in college, the students completed a questionnaire designed to measure self‐efficacy in subjects they had studied during their first year. The female students had significantly lower self‐efficacy in computing and marketing and higher self‐efficacy in statistics than the male students. Except for statistics, where female students outperform their male counterparts, there were no significant gender differences in academic performance.     

Fourth‐grade Elementary Students’ Conceptions of Standards‐based Lunar Concepts

Fourth‐grade students’ knowledge of observable moon phases and patterns of change, as well as conceptual understanding of the cause of moon phases, was investigated before and after special instruction. Pretest and post‐test data for 48 students were used to address the research question related to observable moon phases and patterns of change. Interviews were conducted with 10 students on a post‐only basis to provide data on understanding the cause of moon phases. The researchers used the constant comparative method to analyse data. Pretest results indicate these students had not met the expectations expressed in the U.S. Science Education Standards for lunar concepts. Post‐test results reveal a very positive performance on observable moon phases and patterns of change, as well as the cause of moon phases. Interpretation and implications of these findings are provided.     

Music in Audio‐visual Materials

Music has an important place in theatre productions and in instructional audiovisual material. Why is this, what functions has the music and what are its effects? Literature on music in audio‐visual material and on its design is very scarce. The concept of music and its characteristics are described in some detail, indicating that music per se has no referential meaning. The theory is presented that music has an emotional effect that can be manipulated by the developer of audio‐visual material. On the other hand, music offers resources for commenting and structuring audio‐visual material.     

Development and Validation of an Instrument to Measure Students’ Motivation and Self‐Regulation in Science Learning

Students’ motivational beliefs and self‐regulatory practices have been identified as instrumental in influencing the engagement of students in the learning process. An important aim of science education is to empower students by nurturing the belief that they can succeed in science learning and to cultivate the adaptive learning strategies required to help to bring about that success. This article reports the development and validation of an instrument to measure salient factors related to the motivation and self‐regulation of students in lower secondary science classrooms. The development of the instrument involved identifying key determinants of students’ motivation and self‐regulation in science learning based on theoretical and research underpinnings. Once the instrument was developed, a pilot study involving 52 students from two Grade 8 science classes was undertaken. Quantitative data were collected from 1,360 students in 78 classes across Grades 8, 9, and 10, in addition to in‐depth qualitative information gathered from 10 experienced science teachers and 12 Grade 8 students. Analyses of the data suggest that the survey has strong construct validity when used with lower secondary students. This survey could be practically valuable as a tool for gathering information that may guide classroom teachers in refocusing their teaching practices and help to evaluate the effectiveness of intervention programmes.     

Relational Analysis of College Science‐Major Students’ Epistemological Beliefs Toward Science and Conceptions of Learning Science

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest among educational researchers in exploring the relationships between learners’ epistemological beliefs and their conceptions of learning. This study was conducted to investigate these relationships particularly in the domain of science. The participants in this study included 407 Taiwanese college science‐major students. All of them responded to two major questionnaires, one assessing their scientific epistemological beliefs (SEBs) and the other one probing their conceptions of learning science (COLS). The SEB questionnaire included four factors: “certainty,” “source,” “development,” and “justification” of science knowledge. The COLS survey consisted of six factors in a hierarchical order, that is, learning science as “memorizing,” “preparing for tests,” “calculating and practicing,” “increasing one’s knowledge,” “application,” and “understanding and seeing in a new way.” The students’ confidence and interest toward learning science were also assessed by additional questionnaire items. Stepwise regression analyses, in general, showed coherence between students’ SEBs and their COLS, indicating that the sophistication of SEBs was consistent with less agreement with lower‐level COLS (such as “memorizing” and “preparing for tests”) as well as more agreement with higher‐level COLS (such as “understanding and seeing in a new way”). However, the SEB’s “justification” factor was positively related to almost all of COLS factors from the lower‐level to higher‐level. This study finally found that among all of the SEB and COLS factors, the “preparing for tests” factor in COLS was the solely significant variable for predicting students’ interest in science and confidence toward learning science.     

Students’ Perspectives of a Science Enrichment Programme: Out‐of‐school inquiry as access

Science enrichment programmes housed outside traditional school settings can offer students from traditionally under‐resourced schools valuable opportunities to access authentic scientific tools and practices. The present study contributes to our understanding of this potential and how it can best be realised through an analysis of the students’ own perspectives on a specific out‐of‐school programme—a one‐year partnership with a university‐based science outreach programme, which culminated in a half‐day laboratory experience for a total of 292 secondary students (ages 11–18 years). Extensive data were collected on this experience, including detailed field notes and video recordings of the classes’ visits to the university as well as the planning meetings with teachers at the beginning and end of the school year, surveys of the participating students, and surveys and interviews of the teachers, and were analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively using a grounded theory approach. Building on the valuable perspectives of the participating students, and comparing them with those of their eight teachers, this study confirms that carefully designed collaborative out‐of‐school inquiry programmes have the potential to broaden students’ (especially those from under‐resourced schools) experiences of science as well as bridge them to school science.     

Development and Application of a Three‐Tier Diagnostic Test to Assess Secondary Students’ Understanding of Waves

This study focused on the development and application of a three‐tier multiple‐choice diagnostic test (or three‐tier test) on the nature and propagation of waves. A question in a three‐tier test comprises the content tier, which measures content knowledge; the reason tier, which measures explanatory knowledge; and the confidence tier, which measures the strength of conceptual understanding of the respondents. This paper presents results based on the responses of 243 Grade 10 students after they were formally instructed on the topic. The vast majority of the respondents showed an inadequate grasp of concepts about waves. Eleven alternative conceptions (ACs), which were expressed with confidence by more than 10% of the students, were identified; four of these ACs were expressed with high confidence.     

An Exploratory Study of Teachers’ and Students’ Use of Multi‐modal Representations of Concepts in Primary Science

As part of a long‐term research study to enhance science learning, this paper reports on an exploratory study aimed at identifying initial beliefs and practices of a group of teachers and students (Years 4–6) in Australia when the students engaged with multiple representations of the same science concepts. There is growing recognition in science education research that students need to understand and link different representational modes, such as graphic and verbal modes, in learning to think and act scientifically. This exploratory study used a multi‐site case‐study approach employing qualitative and quantitative methods. The findings indicated that while teachers used various modes to engage students and assess learning, they were not systematic in their focus on student integration and translation across modes. The study found that various factors affected students’ understanding of different modes, and that students who recognised relationships between modes demonstrated better conceptual understandings than students who lacked this knowledge.     

Attribution of Perceived Academic Results and Relations with Self‐esteem in Senior High School Students

The question of what makes a text easy or difficult to comprehend is answered on the basis of an empirical investigation, which draws especially on theories related to text and memory linguistics. Easy and difficult texts, verified empirically, were analyzed on micro‐ and macro‐levels. Certain aspects of syntax, lexicon and information structure were first studied. These were followed by text‐level analyses related to the narrative and structural organization and the propositional structure of the texts. The article gives an account of the parameters that were most clearly associated with level of text comprehension. The results are also discussed in the light of the possible implications for language in the Swedish‐medium instructional materials in Finland.     

The Influence of 16‐year‐old Students’ Gender,Mental Abilities,and Motivation on their Reading and Drawing Submicrorepresentations Achievements

Submicrorepresentations (SMRs) are a powerful tool for identifying misconceptions of chemical concepts and for generating proper mental models of chemical phenomena in students’ long‐term memory during chemical education. The main purpose of the study was to determine which independent variables (gender, formal reasoning abilities, visualization abilities, and intrinsic motivation for learning chemistry) have the maximum influence on students’ reading and drawing SMRs. A total of 386 secondary school students (aged 16.3 years) participated in the study. The instruments used in the study were: test of Chemical Knowledge, Test of Logical Thinking, two tests of visualization abilities Patterns and Rotations, and questionnaire on Intrinsic Motivation for Learning Science. The results show moderate, but statistically significant correlations between students’ intrinsic motivation, formal reasoning abilities and chemical knowledge at submicroscopic level based on reading and drawing SMRs. Visualization abilities are not statistically significantly correlated with students’ success on items that comprise reading or drawing SMRs. It can be also concluded that there is a statistically significant difference between male and female students in solving problems that include reading or drawing SMRs. Based on these statistical results and content analysis of the sample problems, several educational strategies can be implemented for students to develop adequate mental models of chemical concepts on all three levels of representations.