New Interpretive Methods and Techniques

Environmental education (EE) and social studies education share an interest in behavioral outcomes. This study compares behavioral outcomes—including both self-reported knowledge of actions and reported actions taken—in the context of a land use curriculum enacted in secondary science versus social studies classes with 500 students and nine teachers. Data included pre- and posttests for comparison and intervention groups, classroom observations, and student and teacher interviews. Results indicated that students tended to know and undertake individual rather than collective actions toward sustainable land use. The type of actions students identified varied by course type: when the EE curriculum was presented in science class compared to social studies, students showed less diverse knowledge of actions in support of sustainable land use.     

质疑物理课程知识的绝对化和权威性

基础教育物理教材编制和实际教学中普遍存在知识绝对化、简单化倾向,正视和反思这些问题,重构课程知识的权威性或合法性,尊重并有效利用师生的知识解释空间和解释权利,充分实现课程知识的教育价值,将有利于我们理解科学的本质和科学教育的目标,有利于理性思考基础教育课程改革的理念,有利于教师教育专业的健康发展,有利于国民科学素质和人文素质的提高。     

基于环境教育使命的高师地理科学专业建设与课程改革

环境教育经历了从单纯的环境教育到可持续发展教育、从渗透式课程到独立式课程、从绿色课程到绿色学校的发展历程。在肩负环境教育使命的背景下，高师地理科学专业建设和课程改革有着以下新的目标：一是满足为中学独立式环境教育培养专门师资的需要；二是为满足大学环境素质教育和中学渗透式环境教育需要积极建构绿色校选课程体系；三是通过加强围绕绿色课程改革和绿色科研厦其实践的地理科学重点专业建设，推动绿色大学的创建活动。     

Inquiry‐based science in the middle grades: Assessment of learning in urban systemic reform

Science education standards established by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the National Research Council (NRC) urge less emphasis on memorizing scientific facts and more emphasis on students investigating the everyday world and developing deep understanding from their inquiries. These approaches to instruction challenge teachers and students, particularly urban students who often have additional challenges related to poverty. We report data on student learning spanning 3 years from a science education reform collaboration with the Detroit Public Schools. Data were collected from nearly 8,000 students who participated in inquiry‐based and technology‐infused curriculum units that were collaboratively developed by district personnel and staff from the University of Michigan as part of a larger, district‐wide systemic reform effort in science education. The results show statistically significant increases on curriculum‐based test scores for each year of participation. Moreover, the strength of the effects grew over the years, as evidenced by increasing effect size estimates across the years. The findings indicate that students who historically are low achievers in science can succeed in standards‐based, inquiry science when curriculum is carefully developed and aligned with professional development and district policies. Additional longitudinal research on the development of student understanding over multiple inquiry projects, the progress of teacher enactment over time, and the effect of changes in the policy and administrative environment would further contribute to the intellectual and practical tools necessary to implement meaningful standards‐based systemic reform in science. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 1063–1080, 2004     

Teaching Science to Learners With Special Needs

A fundamental social justice issue worldwide is how to meet the needs of all learners, especially those with special needs who historically have faced discrimination, exclusion, and oppression due to special needs (physical, cognitive, or behavioral dimensions). This article focuses on the key questions that researchers interested in improving science education for students with special needs have examined empirically and lessons learned in regard to making science more accessible and relevant to them through evidence-based adapted instruction. The most promising insights culled from a review of the literature to achieve this goal for curriculum, instruction, and assessment are presented for science teachers at all grade levels, and also for school administrators and policy makers. A call for more research is made, with an emphasis placed on how teachers of science can best conduct and use practitioner research in this topic area.     

师范院校综合理科课程特征分析

科学文化的发展使得社会对教师的要求越来越高,为主动适应当今科学技术发展综合化趋势和基础教育新一轮课程改革对复合型师资的需要,高等师范院校应率先开展综合课程的教学研究,本文运用系统化分析问题的方法,从综合理科课程的学科性质、师范生的学习特征以及综合理科课程的时代特征出发,分析了师范院校综合理科课程的9大特征,并针对这些特征提出有效的教学策略.     

英国现行的初中外语课程目标对中国的启示

介绍了英国现行初中外语课程目标,分析了中国新一轮课改,力求与国际接轨,认为英国的做法对中国初中英语教学具有特别的意义,值得借鉴。     

An implementation study: An analysis of elementary students' and teachers' attitudes toward science in process-approach vs. traditional science classes

In 1983, the Richardson Independent School District conducted an internal audit to assess the status of science education. The audit was in anticipation of Texas Administrative Code Chapter 75 which requires an inquiry-oriented, process-approach to the teaching of science. In response to the data, and to national reports advocating a broadening of the science education curriculum to address the needs of all students, the district established a committee to implement and evaluate their new K-6 SCIENCE THROUGH DISCOVERY curriculum. The Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIIS) was adopted as the focal component of the overall curriculum with subsequent, planned innovations to occur in accordance with the Concerns-Based Adoption Model. The purpose of this study was to assess the attitudes toward science of students who had completed one year of SCIIS compared to students in non-SCIIS classes. In addition, the attitudes of teachers who received inservice education and who had instructed SCIIS were compared to non-SCIIS teachers. While SCIIS and non-SCIIS teachers possess similar perceptions of science, drastic attitudinal differences were observed between SCIIS and non-SCIIS students. The results indicate that the nature of the curriculum, in conjunction with the necessary implementation support including inservice education, greatly enhances students perceptions of science.     

Science career aspiration and science capital in China and UK: a comparative study using PISA data

ABSTRACT

The concept of science capital has a growing influence in science education research for understanding young people’s science trajectories. Popularised in the UK, this paper aims to extend and evaluate the applicability of science capital in the context of China by drawing on PISA2015. More specifically, we make use of existing items in the PISA2015 survey as a proxy for operationalising the construct of science capital to explore the science career aspirations and attainments of 15-year-old Chinese and UK students (n?=?23,998). Our findings indicate that science capital has more explanatory power for understanding UK students’ science career aspirations than for Chinese students, where science attainment seems most important. We raise the potential challenge for Chinese students to convert their science capital into scientific self-efficacy and science career aspirations as we highlight the importance of recognising cultural and national differences in operationalising science capital.     

Science achievement, gender differences, and experimental work in classes in Slovenia as evident in TIMSS studies

Since 1999, Slovenia has been in the process of introducing nine years of compulsory education to replace the previous eight-year system of compulsory education. Under the new system, the school entry age is six years rather than the former seven years. This reform of the system necessitated a number of other changes, such as those relating to the curriculum and teaching approaches. The purpose of this study was to compare the “new” Slovenian science curriculum with the “old” to ascertain if different relationships exist between the two in terms of achievement and gender, attitudes toward science, and the amount of experimental work undertaken by students in school. Data from the IEA TIMSS 2003 study were used to analyze these relationships. The analyses employed basic statistics and log-linear modeling of the effects of gender, school system, amount of experimental work in school, and students’ science achievement. Compared to students taught under the old curriculum, students taught under the new curriculum performed slightly better on the overall science test. A large decrease in gender differences in achievement was also apparent. The relationship between experimental work and achievement strengthened. Conducting experiments at every lesson related to lower student achievement, while conducting experiments during half of the science lessons related to higher achievement. These findings have a clear message for teachers and policymakers. A moderate amount of time devoted to student experimental work seems to raise science achievement of students as well as promote more positive attitudes toward learning science.     

Motivation and strategy use in science: Individual differences and classroom effects

This study examines individual and classroom-level differences in motivation and strategy usage in sixth- and seventh-grade middle school science. Results suggest that students who experience academic difficulties differ from both high achieving and special education students on measures of self-efficacy, goal orientation, expectancy, value, and self-concept of ability in science, with students who experience academic difficulties occasionally demonstrating less adaptive patterns of motivation and cognition than special education students in science. We used hierarchical linear modeling to examine between-classroom differences in learning-focused goal orientation. Findings indicate that students who have science teachers that use ability-focused instructional practices (e.g., pointing out the best students as an example to others) are less learning focused, and exhibit a diminished relation between self-concept of ability and being learning focused in science. Implications for science education reform are discussed.     

Food safety in the classroom: Using the Delphi technique to evaluate researcher‐developed food safety curriculum aligned to state academic standards

High school students’ prevalence as food‐service industry employees and their lack of food safety knowledge make them prime candidates for food safety education. The researchers developed a food‐safety‐focused curriculum for high school students aligned with Indiana Academic Standards for Agriculture, Advanced Life Science: Food. The curriculum was designed to provide students with fundamental food safety concepts through experiential learning and incorporation of science, technology, engineering, agriculture, and mathematics (STEAM) activities in the context of different careers related to agriculture, especially in food science. This study uses the Delphi technique to evaluate the food safety curriculum, including the identification of barriers to incorporating the curriculum into classrooms. The Delphi technique uses an expert panel to generate consensus related to a topic. A panel of experts in the field of education evaluated the curriculum through three rounds of surveys containing questions related to six curriculum assessment topics. Experts rated the degree to which they agreed with statements about the curriculum using a 5‐point Likert scale and multiple‐choice questions. At the conclusion of the study, the cost to purchase materials for cooking labs was the only identified barrier to curriculum incorporation (62.5%). Experts agreed that the curriculum addressed academic standards (100%), was engaging for students (100.0%), was easy for teachers to use (89.5%), and successfully incorporated STEAM (100.0%), experiential learning (89.5%), and career‐education (78.9%). This study highlights the feasibility of providing food safety education to high school students in less traditional disciplines while promoting career development through the incorporation of experiential learning, STEAM, and career‐education components.     

Food Safety Practices Assessment Tool: An Innovative Way to Test Food Safety Skills among Individuals with Special Needs

Abstract: This article describes an innovative assessment tool designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a food safety skills curriculum for learners receiving special education services. As schools respond to the increased demand for training students with special needs about food safety, the need for effective curricula and tools is also increasing. A Food Safety Education for High School and Transition Special Needs Students curriculum served as the basis upon which our assessment tool was developed. The project was a collaborative effort by food safety and education professionals in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. This USDA‐funded initiative emerged from teacher‐generated data that identified critical gaps in food safety knowledge and skills among students with disabilities (SWD) receiving special education services. As an adjunct to this curriculum, a Food Safety Practices Assessment Tool was developed to: 1) conduct observations of students as they demonstrate food safety practices, and 2) use this information to design classroom‐based learning activities that are aligned with students’ Individual Education Plans (IEP). Pilot data suggest that the tool is valid and reliable for use in a kitchen‐based setting. This is the first known tool of its kind to test food safety skills of individuals with special needs in a real‐world environment. Further testing is needed to determine the usefulness of the tool for broader audiences.     

英国医学院校社会和行为学科教育的现状和未来

在英国,大多数医学院校均为医学生开设了社会和行为科学课程,但是,怎样限定核心内容,以及怎样同预期的学习成果联系起来,仍然是一个有待解决的问题。本文根据问卷调查和研讨会讨论,论述了英国医学院校社会和行为学科教育的现状、问题和未来方向,例如医学课程中社会和行为科学的程度和范围、内容、同一性等。     

Biodiversity Education: A teacher's perspective

Reduction in biodiversity has been established as a global environmental issue, mainly over the last 10 years. However, there is disagreement amongst experts whether it is a natural phenomenon or strongly influenced by human activity. This article considers biodiversity as a controversial issue in the education of students of 11-18 years of age in schools, particularly in relation to science education. It includes a study of teachers' attitudes and approaches to biodiversity education in the UK and was undertaken using participatory appraisal methods with 'focus' groups of teachers. It was shown that the teachers in the study were frequently well informed, they considered biodiversity to be an important issue and although the formal science curriculum had a contribution to make it was also a matter that the whole institution could address. Suggestions for evaluating the possible indicators and outcomes of effective biodiversity education were made. In conclusion it was shown that while programmes included many of the essential components of knowledge for biodiversity education there was usually little attempt to ensure that students achieved a more coherent understanding of the complex issue or how to deal with matters that are truly controversial. The methodology provided a useful model for reflection on practice and professional development in many possible contexts.     

Impact of a Scientist–Teacher Collaborative Model on Students,Teachers, and Scientists

Collaborations between the K-12 teachers and higher education or professional scientists have become a widespread approach to science education reform. Educational funding and efforts have been invested to establish these cross-institutional collaborations in many countries. Since 2006, Taiwan initiated the High Scope Program, a high school science curriculum reform to promote scientific innovation and inquiry through an integration of advanced science and technology in high school science curricula through partnership between high school teachers and higher education scientists and science educators. This study, as part of this governmental effort, a scientist–teacher collaborative model (STCM) was constructed by 8 scientists and 4 teachers to drive an 18-week high school science curriculum reform on environmental education in a public high school. Partnerships between scientists and teachers offer opportunities to strengthen the elements of effective science teaching identified by Shulman and ultimately affect students’ learning. Mixed methods research was used for this study. Qualitative methods of interviews were used to understand the impact on the teachers’ and scientists’ science teaching. A quasi-experimental design was used to understand the impact on students’ scientific competency and scientific interest. The findings in this study suggest that the use of the STCM had a medium effect on students’ scientific competency and a large effect on students’ scientific individual and situational interests. In the interviews, the teachers indicated how the STCM allowed them to improve their content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and the scientists indicated an increased knowledge of learners, knowledge of curriculum, and PCK.     

20世纪本科生医学教育中的基础医学课程

本文论述了过去100年中基础医学科学在本科生医学课程中的作用和课程改革,讨论了进入21世纪之际仍然反映在医学教育中科学与技艺之间的紧张关系。     

理工科高校人文教育课程的构建

长期以来,我国理工科大学生人文教育的状况不尽人意。许多高校尤其是理工科高校的人文教育课程在总体上受到轻视,由此制约了大学生人文素质的培养,制约了大学生综合素质的提高。本文分析了大部分理工科高校的人文教育课程设置的现状,分析对比了国外人文教育课程设置特点,尝试性的对建立适合我国理工科高校的人文教育课程体系提出了一些建议。     

The Proof of the Pudding?: A Case Study of an “At-Risk” Design-Based Inquiry Science Curriculum

When students collaboratively design and build artifacts that require relevant understanding and application of science, many aspects of scientific literacy are developed. Design-based inquiry (DBI) is one such pedagogy that can serve these desired goals of science education well. Focusing on a Projectile Science curriculum previously found to be implemented with satisfactory fidelity, we investigate the many hidden challenges when using DBI with Grade 8 students from one school in Singapore. A case study method was used to analyze video recordings of DBI lessons conducted over 10 weeks, project presentations, and interviews to ascertain the opportunities for developing scientific literacy among participants. One critical factor that hindered learning was task selection by teachers, which emphasized generic scientific process skills over more important cognitive and epistemic learning goals. Teachers and students were also jointly engaged in forms of inquiry that underscored artifact completion over deeper conceptual and epistemic understanding of science. Our research surfaced two other confounding factors that undermined the curriculum; unanticipated teacher effects and the underestimation of the complexity of DBI and of inquiry science in general. Thus, even though motivated or experienced teachers can implement an inquiry science curriculum with good fidelity and enjoy school-wide support, these by themselves will not guarantee deep learning of scientific literacy in DBI. Recommendations are made for navigating the hands- and minds-on aspects of learning science that is an asset as well as inherent danger during DBI teaching.