Describing Changes in Undergraduate Students’ Preconceptions of Research Activities

Research has shown that students bring na?ve scientific conceptions to learning situations which are often incongruous with accepted scientific explanations. These preconceptions are frequently determined to be misconceptions; consequentially instructors spend time to remedy these beliefs and bring students' understanding of scientific concepts to acceptable levels. It is reasonable to assume that students also maintain preconceptions about the processes of authentic scientific research and its associated activities. This study describes the most commonly held preconceptions of authentic research activities among students with little or no previous research experience. Seventeen undergraduate science majors who participated in a ten week research program discussed, at various times during the program, their preconceptions of research and how these ideas changed as a result of direct participation in authentic research activities. The preconceptions included the belief that authentic research is a solitary activity which most closely resembles the type of activity associated with laboratory courses in the undergraduate curriculum. Participants' views showed slight maturation over the research program; they came to understand that authentic research is a detail-oriented activity which is rarely successfully completed alone. These findings and their implications for the teaching and research communities are discussed in the article.     

Community College Engineering Students’ Perceptions of Classroom Climate and Fundamental Engineering Skills

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine community college engineering students’ perceptions of their classroom climate and how these perceptions are related to fundamental skills in engineering. The study was guided by the following research question: How are community college engineering students’ perceptions of their fundamental engineering skills related to their perceptions of classroom climate? Data from a 2009 National Science Foundation sponsored project, Prototype to Production: Processes and Conditions for Preparing the Engineer of 2020 (P2P), which contains information from students in 15 pre-engineering community college programs, were examined. Measures of classroom climate and fundamental skills related to engineering were first established through an exploratory factor analysis. In order to explore differences in student perceptions by individual characteristics and by institution, hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used. Results indicated that for community college engineering students, a warmer perception of classroom climate was associated with a higher perception of fundamental engineering skills. At community colleges, class sizes are generally smaller, especially compared to introductory courses at universities, and may provide a warmer climate for students considering beginning their engineering degrees. Given the diversity within community colleges, these institutions may provide an important pathway for underrepresented groups in engineering.     

Stories of Policing: The Role of Storytelling in Police Students’ Sensemaking of Early Work-Based Experiences

Storytelling has been shown to play a key role in transferring work experience from more experienced towards novices in a number of vocational educational practices, however previous studies have not to the same extent dealt with the role of students’ own storytelling practices for sensemaking of work experience. This study set out to examine police students’ storytelling of their first occupational experiences from a sensemaking perspective, with an analysis drawing on the concepts of enactment, selection, and retention. The study is based on participant observations of field training follow up sessions’ in the context of police education. Findings indicated that student storytelling of work experience tended to be geared towards action, extremeness and the telling of ‘war stories’. Furthermore, these type of stories functioned to enable student identification, self-enhancement and emotion management. These findings contribute to our current understanding of how students engage in sensemaking of work-based experiences and in extension how knowledge integration and learning from work placements can be structured pedagogically.     

Undergraduate Engineering Students’ Beliefs,Coping Strategies,and Academic Performance: An Evaluation of Theoretical Models

Research has identified factors associated with academic success by evaluating relations among psychological and academic variables, although few studies have examined theoretical models to understand the complex links. This study used structural equation modeling to investigate whether the relation between test anxiety and final course grades was mediated by personal control, self-efficacy, goal orientation, coping strategies, and self-regulation. Participants were 297 undergraduate students taking an algebra course designed for engineering students. Results indicated that the proposed theoretical model was supported by the data, although a modified model produced a better fit. Other competing models were also tested. Collectively, analyses revealed that the psychological variables played important roles in predicting students’ grades, as all the structural coefficients and R ² statistics were statistically and practically significant. Findings suggest value in the development and testing of additional models that contribute to the expansion of intervention programs to enhance academic outcomes among students.     

The Role of Struggle in Pre-Service Elementary Teachers’ Experiences as Students and Approaches to Facilitating Science Learning

Science education researchers are concerned with preparing pre-service elementary teachers (PSETs) to teach in ways that support students to learn science in a meaningful way. Preparing elementary teachers to teach science is complicated given that they tend to be generalists and may not have the same experience with science as secondary teachers. During an elementary science methods course, we explored PSETs?? perspectives on the teaching and learning of science via a case study that included four PSETs. Using Frykholm??s (Journal of Curriculum and Supervision 19:125?C149, 2004) framework of ??educative?? and ??debilitating?? discomfort, we examined PSETs?? approaches to their own science learning and their approaches to science teaching. A theme apparent in PSETs?? perspectives was struggle. We described ways in which struggle was either educative or debilitating for PSETs, both in terms of their own learning and the ways in which they approached teaching. Some PSETs who struggled in their own learning developed learning experiences to engage their students in reform-based science teaching, while some PSETs developed learning experiences that prevented their students from experiencing any sort of struggle in their learning process. The ways in which these students dealt with their own learning struggles mirrored the ways in which they dealt with their struggles to become teachers of reform-based science instruction. Helping PSETs to deal with their feelings of discomfort with science content or ideas about the nature of science learning and teaching promoted by reform documents may be a key issue in developing their willingness to become facilitators of meaningful science learning.     

Impact of Secondary Students’ Content Knowledge on Their Communication Skills in Science

The expert blind spot (EBS) hypothesis implies that even some experts with a high content knowledge might have problems in science communication because they are using the structure of the content rather than their addressee’s prerequisites as an orientation. But is that also true for students? Explaining science to peers is a crucial part of cooperative learning methods such as the “jigsaw method”. Our study examined the relationship between science communication competence (SCC) and content knowledge (CK) of 10th-grade students (N = 213). Using latent class analysis, we identified two types of students with a different relationship between CK and SCC. Using path analysis, we found that the first type of 109 students primarily used their science CK as the “resource” for addressee-oriented science communication and both their SCC and their CK were correlated with each other. For the second type of 104 students (who used other resources), their CK even had a small negative effect on their SCC. Using t tests, we found that those students primarily using their CK as the resource for communication performed significantly worse in the communication test than did those students who used other resources. Using the EBS hypothesis, we suggest that students’ CK might have ambiguous effects in communication if the content structure—rather than their addressee’s prior knowledge—is used as the primary orientation for communication. We suggest that an effective use of cooperative learning techniques in classroom requires a special prior training for their science communication skills.     

Students’ Expectations of Teaching in Undergraduate Physics

This article reports on a phenomenographic‐based study of the expectations of teaching among undergraduate physics students. Data are drawn from a range of course‐contexts at each of two quite different universities — one South African and one Swedish — and five qualitatively different expectations of physics teaching are identified and exemplified. These range from presenting knowledge to facilitating personal development and agency. Implications of possible mismatches between students’ and lecturers’ expectations of physics teaching are discussed in relation to students’ learning experiences.     

Students’ Experiences of Meaningful Situations in School

This paper focuses on school situations students experienced as meaningful and how these experiences can guide educational improvement. Participants included 15 students in grade 3 from a Swedish school. In this qualitative study, the data consisted of drawings, multimodal productions, interviews, and field notes. The analysis resulted in four themes: Having the opportunity to learn in different spaces; Being free and able to participate; Experiencing caring and sharing, and Recognizing one’s own growth and achievement. The findings suggest that situations students find meaningful involve aspects of both learning and wellbeing. The practical implication for these results is that student-generated qualitative data can help indicate needs for educational improvement.     

Engaging Students in Traditional and Digital Storytelling to Make Connections Between Pedagogy and Children’s Experiences

Traditional and digital storytelling is a powerful literacy tool which engage students in making connections between pedagogy and academic content. Definitions of traditional and digital storytelling, pedagogical methods aligned with curriculum standards, and examples of literacy centers associated with storytelling in early childhood classrooms are shared. The theoretical framework, Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK), is included to illustrate how pedagogy, storytelling, and technology interact to teach content knowledge and 21st-century skills. The five literary elements and additional elements of stories identified from research which enhance students’ engagement in stories are provided. A checklist for selecting stories, book lists and storytelling websites offer resources that will support teachers in using both digital and traditional storytelling with their students.     

Undergraduate Science Students’ Scientist–Practitioner Gap: the Role of Epistemic Curiosity and Cognitive Flexibility

International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education - The scientist–practitioner gap refers to the phenomenon of individuals with a scientific background exhibiting non-scientific...     

Emergence,Learning Difficulties,and Misconceptions in Chemistry Undergraduate Students’ Conceptualizations of Acid Strength

Philosophical debates about chemistry have clarified that the issue of emergence plays a critical role in the epistemology and ontology of chemistry. In this article, it is argued that the issue of emergence has also significant implications for understanding learning difficulties and finding ways of addressing them in chemistry. Particularly, it is argued that many misconceptions in chemistry may derive from students’ failure to consider emergence in a systemic manner by taking into account all relevant factors in conjunction. Based on this argument, undergraduate students’ conceptions of acids, and acid strength (an emergent chemical property) were investigated and it was examined whether or not they conceptualized acid strength as an emergent chemical property. The participants were 41 third- and fourth-year undergraduate students. A concept test and semi-structured interviews were used to probe students’ conceptualizations and reasoning about acid strength. Findings of the study revealed that the majority of the undergraduate students did not conceptualize acid strength as an emergent property that arises from interactions among multiple factors. They generally focused on a single factor to predict and explain acid strength, and their faulty responses stemmed from their failure to recognize and consider all factors that affect acid strength. Based on these findings and insights from philosophy of chemistry, promoting system thinking and epistemologically sound argumentative discourses among students is suggested for meaningful chemical education.     

Promoting Students’ Interest and Motivation Towards Science Learning: the Role of Personal Needs and Motivation Orientations

This study aimed to design a teaching sequence for science education that enabled lower secondary school students to enhance their motivation towards science. Further, it looked to examine the way the designed teaching sequence affected students with different motivational profiles. Industry site visits, with embodied theory-based motivational features were included as part of the designed teaching sequence. The sequence was implemented in Finland and Greece with 54 participants, 27 from each country. Quantitative data was collected using the Evaluation of Science Inquiry Activities Questionnaire, based on the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory but did not map the expected outcomes. Interviews, however, showed that students with different motivational profiles found aspects within the module that met their psychological needs as explained by Self-Determination Theory. The results offer a perspective to adolescents’ psychological needs along with some insights into how students mediate the way they value an activity in the context of science education.     

The Role of Simulation-Enabled Design Learning Experiences on Middle School Students’ Self-generated Inherence Heuristics

Journal of Science Education and Technology - In science and engineering education, the use of heuristics has been introduced as a way of understanding the world, and as a way to approach...     

The Relation of Teachers’ Emotional Intelligence and Students’ Social Skills to Students’ Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties: A Study of Preschool Teachers’ Perceptions

The present study used hierarchical linear modeling to examine predictors of students’ emotional and behavioral difficulties in preschool classrooms. Specifically, the study examined (a) the link between teachers’ perceptions of their own emotional intelligence and students’ emotional and behavioral difficulties, (b) the link between teachers’ perceptions of students’ social skills and emotional and behavioral difficulties, and (c) how teachers’ perceptions of their own emotional intelligence were related differentially to their perceptions of students’ emotional and behavioral difficulties based on students’ social skills. Participants were 92 preschool teachers and 238 students from 52 state schools in central Greece. Research Findings: Results indicated that higher scores for teachers’ perceptions of emotional intelligence and students’ social skills were related to lower scores for teachers’ perceptions of students’ emotional and behavioral difficulties. Teachers’ perceptions of emotional intelligence were important in predicting students’ emotional and behavioral difficulties, especially in the case of students’ lack of social skills. Practice or Policy: This study provides empirical support for the predictors of students’ emotional and behavioral difficulties by taking into consideration both teachers’ perceptions of emotional intelligence and students’ social skills, thus suggesting new insights into the interpretation of emotional and behavioral difficulties in preschool.     

Research Insights Into The Relationship between Teachers’ Acceptance Attitudes,Their Role Concepts,and Students’ Acceptance Attitudes

Abstract

In experiment I, two teachers of adolescent students were given video feedback of their teaching behavior in regard to two types of teacher "postures/’ the effect of which was to change their behavior in specific directions. Experiment II, a replication, was conducted with elementary students and demonstrated that change in specific teacher behaviors appeared to produce changes in academic response rate in pupils. Results were discussed relative to teacher training.     

The Role of Students’ Home Language in Science Achievement: A multilevel approach

The present study aimed to identify the role of both student- and school-level characteristics in primary school students’ achievement in the science curriculum. As societies become more culturally and linguistically diverse, many students enter the classroom with a home language that is different from the language of instruction used at school. This study takes into account both the home language and literacy in the language of instruction in relation to student achievement in science subjects. Questionnaires, reading performance tests, and science achievement tests were administered to 1,761 fourth-grade students from 67 schools across Flanders (Belgium). Multilevel hierarchical regression analyses show that the home language and literacy in the language of instruction play an important role in science achievement at the student level, next to gender and socioeconomic status. Students with a home language that is different from the language of instruction experience difficulties with science subjects. Moreover, the higher students’ performance on reading comprehension and self-assessed proficiency in the language of instruction, the higher their score on science achievement tests. At the school level, a school's teachability expectations are one of the key factors related to students’ science achievement. Limitations of this study and future directions for research are discussed.     

College Students’ Therapy Preferences: The Role of Psychological Mindedness

The current study examined expectations and preferences of psychotherapy approach in 225 college students. Psychodynamic-interpersonal (PI) techniques were generally favored over cognitive-behavioral (CB) techniques both in expectations of what is characteristic of a typical therapy session and perceived helpfulness. There was no difference in findings between therapy naïve college students and those with a history of psychotherapy. Psychological mindedness was correlated with PI ratings, but not CB ratings. College counselors may want to emphasize emotional and relational strategies when working with college students and may benefit from examining the psychological mindedness of new clients to assist with determining their treatment plan.