Purpose: The study aims to find out primary school students’ perceptions of microorganisms and to analyze whether theoretical or practical teaching interventions produce different levels in student’s learning about this topic.
Sample: The sample consisted of 199 primary students in 2nd (aged 7–8) and 6th (11–12) grades from two public schools in Albacete (Spain).
Design and method: This study uses a pre- and post-intervention questionnaire to evaluate the knowledge of students on the issue of microorganisms. We compare differences by age and two teaching–learning intervention methodologies: theoretical and practical.
Results: Results from the pre-test showed a poor understanding and several misconceptions. Children have a limited and negative view of microorganisms, mainly derived from non-formal learning. Both types of intervention provided an improvement in knowledge, but closed questions did not reveal clear statistically significant differences between methods. Open questions showed how the scientific use of the language and quality of verbalization is much better in the groups that received a practical intervention.
Conclusion: The findings can be a starting point for curriculum planners and for teachers interested in engaging students in science learning. 相似文献
Purpose: The study aims to understand how seventh grade students perceive a collaborative web-based science project in light of Wolff’s design categories. The goal of the project is to develop their technological and collaborative skills, to educate them about technology integration practices, and to provide an optimum collaborative, PBL experience.
Sample: Seventh grade students aged 12–14 (n = 15) were selected from a rural K–12 school in Turkey through purposeful sampling.
Design and methods: The current study applied proactive action research since it focused on utilizing a new way to enhance students’ technological and collaborative skills and to demonstrate technology integration into science coursework. Data were collected qualitatively through interviews, observation forms, forum archives, and website evaluation rubrics.
Results: The results found virtual spaces such as online tutorials, forums, and collaborative and communicative tools to be beneficial for collaborative PBL. The study supported Wolff’s design features for a collaborative PBL environment, applying features appropriate for a rural K–12 school setting and creating a digitally-enriched environment. As the forum could not be used as effectively as expected because of school limitations, more flexible spaces independent of time and space were needed.
Conclusions: This study’s interdisciplinary, collaborative PBL was efficient in enhancing students’ advanced technological and collaborative skills, as well as exposing them to practices for integrating technology into science. The study applied design features for a collaborative PBL environment with certain revisions. 相似文献
Purpose: It is designed to help students deconstruct the level of organisation of each tier of a genetic diagram, as the symbols used in such diagrams (i.e. lines and letters) can be too abstract to serve as hints for students to identify the level of organisation.
Design and method: The method employs hybrid dynamic visualisation, which combines static (e.g. a genetic diagram) and dynamic visualisations (e.g. meiotic cell division, fertilisation). The method also addresses the learning problem wherein students isolate the conceptual components of the processes of meiotic cell division and fertilisation from the procedural components of genetic diagrams. The new pedagogy was trialled in a voluntary enrichment course with 22 Secondary Six (or 12th grade) students.
Results: The results of conceptual assessments and individual interviews show that the participating students, in general, provided more explanations at the molecular level, although there is considerable room for improvement in making a smooth macro–micro transition. Students also had a better grasp of the symbolic representation and mathematical concepts of genetics. In addition, their responses in individual interviews revealed that they shared a restricted understanding of the term ‘recessiveness’.
Conclusion: Possible scaffolds for revisiting the concept of recessiveness in regular teaching are suggested. 相似文献
Purpose: This study aims to develop a NOSvs for assessing prospective teachers’ views of the nature of science and to analyse their psychometric properties.
Sample: A total of 565 prospective teachers participated in the study.
Design and methods: The Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) Index and Bartlett’s Sphericity Test were used in this study. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to determine the construct validity of the scale. Cronbach’s Alpha (α) coefficient was calculated for the reliability of the study.
Results: It was consequently found that the KMO was larger than .50. That Bartlett’s Sphericity Test was also statistically significant. The items with item-total correlations smaller than .30 were removed from the scale. Cronbach’s α values calculated for each sub-scale were above .70. In consequence of the first CFA performed, fit indices were found to be below the expected level. For this reason, three more items with the least item-total correlations were removed from the scale. Following the CFA, the final form of the scale included 36 items and five sub-scales. 相似文献
The methods of theoretical research involve analysis and synthesis. Age and content criteria are analyzed for childhood and adulthood. Infantile traits in an adult are described.
Results. The characteristics of adult infantilism in the modern world are defined, taking into account increasing information flows and socio-economic changes. The concept of “infantilism” and its main features are defined as an organization of the personality that includes traits and behavioral models that are typical of one's earlier age periods and not appropriate to the person's actual age, which is most articulately manifested in emotional and volitional immaturity of an individual.
Scientific novelty. The main psychological characteristics of adulthood are described, including reflection, the desire to work and have a vocation, vocational self-determination, work skills, the desire for self-realization, and emotional and volitional maturity. Objective characteristics of adulthood are: transition to economic and territorial independence of the parental family, and development of new social roles, such as that of worker, spouse, and parent. Two possible operationalizations of the concept are identified: objective (existence/absence in a person’s life of objective criteria of adulthood) and subjective (self-report on the subjective feeling of existence/absence of the psychological characteristics of adulthood).
The practical significance of the work consists in formulation of an operationalization of “infantilism,” which at the moment has so many interpretations. Such operationalization is necessary for further analysis and research. 相似文献
Purpose: The purpose of the study is to determine the effect of the concept cartoon-embedded worksheets on grade 9 students’ conceptual understanding of Newton’s Laws of Motion.
Sample: Within a quasi-experimental research design with control group, the sample consisted of 102 grade 9 students (aged 15–16 years) enrolled in an Anatolian High School. They were randomly assigned to control (52 students) and experimental groups (50 students).
Design and methods: While the control group followed the existing physics instruction, the experimental one was exposed to the concept cartoon-embedded worksheets. To collect data, two scales (Newton’s Laws of Motion Test –NLMT– and Interview about Instances –IAI) were employed.
Results: The results indicated that the experimental group performed better than did the control group.
Conclusions: It can be deduced that the concept cartoon-embedded worksheets are effective in improving grade 9 students’ conceptual understanding and in replacing their alternative conceptions with scientific ones. 相似文献
Purpose: Aiming to understand the enrolment dynamics, this study analyses sample-based data from Finland’s National Assessment in Science to determine whether pedagogical approaches influence student intention to enrol in upper secondary school physics courses.
Sample: This study examined a clustered sample of 2949 Finnish students in the final year of comprehensive school (15–16 years old).
Methods: Through explorative factor analysis, we extracted several variables that were expected to influence student intention to enrol in physics courses. We applied partial correlation to determine the underlying interdependencies of the variables.
Results: The analysis revealed that the main predictor of enrolment in upper secondary school physics courses is whether students feel that physics is important. Although statistically significant, partial correlations between variables were rather small. However, the analysis of partial correlations revealed that pedagogical practices influence inquiry and attitudinal factors. Pedagogical practices that emphasise science experimentation and the social construction of knowledge had the strongest influence.
Conclusions: The research implies that to increase student enrolment in physics courses, the way students interpret the subject’s importance needs to be addressed, which can be done by the pedagogical practices of discussion, teacher demonstrations, and practical work. 相似文献
Purpose: The general purpose of this study was to assess and to describe university students’ meta-modelling knowledge. More specifically, it was analysed to what extent the meta-modelling knowledge, as expressed in a questionnaire, depends on the scientific discipline to which university students relate their answer and the concrete model to which they refer while answering.
Sample: N = 184 students from one German university voluntarily participated in this study.
Design and methods: The questionnaire was developed based on a theoretical framework for model competence and includes constructed response items asking about the purpose of models, ways for testing models and reasons for changing models. Students written answers were first analysed qualitatively based on the theoretical framework to decide whether they expressed advanced understandings or not. Further analyses then were conducted quantitatively.
Results: Findings suggest that only few university students possess an advanced meta-modelling knowledge. However, significant more students who relate their answers to the STEM-disciplines expressed advanced understandings than those who referred to social sciences or linguistics/philology. Furthermore, university students who expressed an advanced meta-modelling knowledge referred to rather abstract kinds of models in order to explain their view.
Conclusions: The present study supports the assumption that meta-modelling knowledge may be situated and contextualised. Both the scientific discipline and the concrete model to which university students refer seem to be relevant item features influencing university students’ expressed meta-modelling knowledge. Implications for assessment and teaching are discussed in the article. 相似文献
Design: Four hundred and forty-five teachers completed questionnaires that examined a variety of aspects of reciprocal relations between teachers and school management.
Findings: The model explains 44% of the variance in authentic teacher–principal communication. The principal’s communication pattern with teachers, with two sub-components, represents a dominant factor in teacher willingness to share information. Leadership style represents only an indirect factor. 相似文献
Aims.
The aims of the study were to investigate whether the style of pupils with behaviour problems was different from that of children with no reported problems, and also to consider how pupils of different style manifested their problem behaviours.
Sample.
The sample comprised 83 male pupils aged 10‐18 years from two residential special schools.
Method.
The sample were given the Cognitive Styles Analysis to assess their positions on the Wholist‐Analytic and Verbal‐Imagery style dimensions. The pupil records of the special school pupils who were at the extreme of the style dimensions were also examined.
Results.
When their style characteristics were contrasted with a Comparison Sample of 413 12‐16‐year‐old males attending 10 secondary schools, the special school pupils had a significantly higher proportion of both Wholists and Verbalisers, than the Comparison Group. Further, the inspection of the records indicated that the types of social behaviour and behaviour problems exhibited varied with style, and particularly on the Wholist‐Analytic dimension.
Conclusion.
The results were considered to have implications for the origins and treatment of problem behaviour. 相似文献
Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of inquiry-based activities on pre-service teachers’ knowledge about GCC and their perceptions of teaching this subject.
Sample The participants were 102 pre-service middle school mathematics and science teachers who were enrolled in an environmental education course.
Design and methods A one group pre-test–post-test design was employed to identify changes after pre-service teachers engaged in a learning unit on GCC. The inquiry-based GCC unit was implemented during the spring semester at a public university in northeastern Turkey. The unit was implemented over seven sessions. Data were collected through two questionnaires: the ‘GCC content questionnaire’ and the ‘perceptions of teaching GCC questionnaire’. Each questionnaire was administered both before and after implementation of the unit. Content questionnaire responses were analyzed using a paired-samples t-test. Responses to the perceptions of teaching questionnaire were analyzed using inductive open coding.
Results Results indicated that after the implementation the pre-service teachers significantly improved their understanding of GCC across all items in the content questionnaire, saw several benefits of and challenges about teaching GCC, and perceived themselves as better prepared to teach about GCC in their future classrooms.
Conclusions Teacher education programs should integrate inquiry-based GCC instruction to increase pre-service teachers’ knowledge as well as their preparedness to teach about this important planetary issue. 相似文献