Students' Agentic Engagement Predicts Longitudinal Increases in Perceived Autonomy-Supportive Teaching: The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease

Recognizing that teachers' motivating styles predict students' classroom engagement, we investigated whether students' classroom engagement might predict a change in teachers' motivating styles, though we investigated only students' perceptions of these changes. Using a self-determination theory framework and a classroom-based longitudinal research design, 336 Peruvian university students self-reported their teachers' perceived autonomy-supportive teaching and four aspects of their own engagement (behavioral, emotional, agentic, and cognitive) at the beginning (T1) and end (T2) of a semester. As expected, earlysemester perceived autonomy-supportive teaching predicted longitudinal increases in all four aspects of students' late-semester engagement. More importantly, students' early-semester agentic engagement predicted longitudinal increases in perceived autonomy-supportive teaching, which suggests that students' classroom engagement may recruit greater perceived autonomy support.     

The effects of Common Knowledge Construction Model sequence of lessons on science achievement and relational conceptual change

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the Common Knowledge Construction Model (CKCM) lesson sequence, an intervention based both in conceptual change theory and in Phenomenography, a subset of conceptual change theory. A mixed approach was used to investigate whether this model had a significant effect on 7th grade students' science achievement and conceptual change. The Excretion Unit Achievement Test (EUAT) indicated that students (N = 33) in the experimental group achieved significantly higher scores (p < 0.001) than students in the control group (N = 35) taught by traditional teaching methods. Qualitative analysis of students' pre‐ and post‐teaching conceptions of excretion revealed (1) the addition and deletion of ideas from pre‐ to post‐teaching; (2) the change in the number of students within categories of ideas; (3) the replacement of everyday language with scientific labels; and (4) the difference in the complexity of students' responses from pre‐ to post‐teaching. These findings contribute to the literature on teaching that incorporates students' conceptions and conceptual change. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 25–46, 2010     

Teachers' views on understanding evolutionary theory: A PCK-study in the framework of the ERTE-model

The study of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) that is presented in this paper aims to obtain an impression of teachers' knowledge and beliefs concerning teaching evolutionary theory. The starting point of this project was the development of the Educational Reconstruction for Teacher Education model (ERTE). The PCK-study shows that teachers' attitudes toward students' conceptions of evolutionary theory are not always constructive and that teachers often lack awareness of the historical nature of biology. Scenario questions proved to be effective interview items in order to acquire a detailed picture of teachers' ways to react to students' pre-scientific conceptions.     

线上深度教学的局限性探讨

线上深度教学，是以教师深度的知识教学为基础，促进学生开展“激活—联结—评价—迁移”深度学习，以实现学生认知、情感和实践能力深度发展的一种活动。学科知识的深度教学是指知识的外在形式和知识的内在意蕴的教与学。由于目前网络学习平台发挥的功能不全，及教师对线上教学的规律认识不够，线上教学存在域限性、时限性、不可控性、单向性等几个方面的特征，从而带来了线上实现深度知识教学，促进学生深度学习，以及实现学生深度发展方面的局限性。克服这些局限性，要充分发挥网络平台在深度教学中的作用，认真做好线上深度教学设计，以及实现线上教学与线下教学的深度融合。     

Rethinking the introduction of particle theory: A substance‐based framework

In response to extensive research exposing students' poor understanding of the particle theory of matter, this article argues that the conceptual framework within which the theory is introduced could be a limiting factor. The standard school particle model is characterized as operating within a “solids, liquids, and gases” framework. Drawing on an analysis of scientific ideas on matter and research into students' understanding, issues arising from the framework are identified which could contribute towards students' well known difficulties. The analysis leads to the proposal for a particle model based within the framework of the concept of a substance. Results from two exploratory studies using the substance‐based particle model with children (ages 9–10) in two contrasting elementary schools in England are then reported. After a short teaching intervention with a class in each school, individual interviews were held with a sample of 12 students from each class. Data were collected on students' understanding of substances coexisting in different room temperature states and phenomena involving changes of state and mixing. The results gave useful feedback on the specification of the model and its teaching. Overall the students' engagement with the particle ideas was encouraging and suggests a larger scale testing of the substance‐based model is merited. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47:130–150, 2010     

Knowing and teaching science: the constructivist paradox

This paper addresses the parallel between the changes in students' and teachers' learning advocated by constructivist science educators. It begins with a summary of the epistemology of constructivism and uses a vignette drawn from a set of case studies to explore the impact of a constructivist science in‐service programme on an experienced and formal elementary science teacher. Judged by constructivist standards, the teacher described in the vignette makes very little progress. The irony of applying a constructivist critique to his work, however, is that it fails to treat the teachers' imperfect knowledge of teaching with the same respect as constructivists treat students' imperfect learning of science. The remainder of the paper explores this constructivist paradox, and suggests that‐like students' knowledge of science‐teachers' knowledge of constructivist science teaching is likely to grow through slow and gradual re‐formation of their established understanding of classroom theory and practice.     

高校学生评教的结构方程模型分析——以唐山学院为例

在教学质量评价体系中,学生评教占据着重要地位,科学合理地分析学生评教数据,对于增强评教结论的说服力及科学性有着重要意义。文章通过构建结构方程模型,运用SmartPLS对学生评教数据进行计算和验证,对学生评教指标体系的数据关系及内部结构进行了研究和探讨,并以实证为例对学生评教存在的问题及改进措施进行了分析。     

文化回应教学理论：背景、思想与实践--华盛顿大学多元文化教育中心Genev a Gay 教授访谈

文化回应教学作为一种教学取向以及一种行动方案,有其提出的理论背景、思想脉络和实践意向。教学忽视了学生的文化差异,没有关注他们的生活经历和文化背景,仍是以主流文化的标准及方式要求他们,因而造成少数民族学生学业低落。教师应该理解学生成长的母文化、学生文化行为所暗示的文化意蕴以及学生之间的文化差异,将学生的母文化作为学习的桥梁,而不是学习的障碍,学校教育应适度反应学生的母文化,使学生的学习经验更具脉络意义。教师需要关怀学生、与学生建立多种沟通方式、开发多元文化课程以及保持教学与文化一致性的教学架构。     

基于CDIO工程教育理念的电子信息类专业基础课程群改革

为加强对学生的工程能力培养,借鉴CDIO工程教育理念,以电子信息类基础课程群为改革对象,构建课程群一体化教学大纲和项目实例库,将基于实例的教学方法和多层次的实验应用于教学实践,力求使学生的理论知识和工程实践能力获得平衡发展。实践表明,基于CDIO工程教育理念的专业基础课教学模式,有利于调动学生的学习热情,有效改善教学环境,提升学生的工程创新意识和工程应用能力。     

Student Evaluation of Teaching Effectiveness: An assessment of student perception and motivation

Over the past century, student ratings have steadily continued to take precedence in faculty evaluation systems in North America and Australia, are increasingly reported in Asia and Europe and are attracting considerable attention in the Far East. Since student ratings are the most, if not the only, influential measure of teaching effectiveness, active participation by and meaningful input from students can be critical in the success of such teaching evaluation systems. Nevertheless, very few studies have looked into students' perception of the teaching evaluation system and their motivation to participate. This study employs expectancy theory to evaluate some key factors that motivate students to participate in the teaching evaluation process. The results show that students generally consider an improvement in teaching to be the most attractive outcome of a teaching evaluation system. The second most attractive outcome was using teaching evaluations to improve course content and format. Using teaching evaluations for a professor's tenure, promotion and salary rise decisions and making the results of evaluations available for students' decisions on course and instructor selection were less important from the students' standpoint. Students' motivation to participate in teaching evaluations is also impacted significantly by their expectation that they will be able to provide meaningful feedback. Since quality student input is an essential antecedent of meaningful student evaluations of teaching effectiveness, the results of this study should be considered thoughtfully as the evaluation system is designed, implemented and operated.     

A New Autonomy-Supportive Way of Teaching That Increases Conceptual Learning: Teaching in Students' Preferred Ways

We tested the educational utility of “teaching in students' preferred ways” as a new autonomy-supportive way of teaching to enhance students' autonomy and conceptual learning. A pilot test first differentiated preferred versus nonpreferred ways of teaching. In the main study, a hired teacher who was blind to the purpose of the study taught 63 college-age participants in small groups the same 48-minute lesson in one of these two different ways, and we assessed participants' perceived autonomy support, autonomy-need satisfaction, engagement (self-report and rater scored), and conceptual learning (self-report and rater scored). Multilevel analyses showed that participants randomly assigned to receive a preferred way of teaching perceived the teacher as more autonomy supportive and showed significantly greater autonomy-need satisfaction, engagement, and conceptual learning. Mediation analyses using multilevel modeling for clustered data showed that this way of teaching enhanced conceptual learning because it first increased students' autonomy. We conclude that “teaching in students' preferred ways” represents a way of teaching that increases students' autonomy, engagement, and conceptual learning.     

The judgement of observed teaching by preservice science education students

The ability of preservice physics education students to make judgements of observed teaching during two differently structured education courses was investigated. The first part of each course, irrespective of its content, resulted in changes in students' evaluation of teaching, with greater and fairly stable individual differences in judgement emerging. Students' knowledge of pedagogical theory was found to be related both to their judgements of observed teaching and to the quality of their own teaching.     

Students' Visualization of Diagrams Representing the Human Circulatory System: The use of spatial isomorphism and representational conventions

This study investigated students' interpretation of diagrams representing the human circulatory system. We conducted an interview study with three students aged 14–15 (Year 10) who were studying biology in a Hong Kong school. During the interviews, students were asked to interpret diagrams and relationships between diagrams that represented aspects of the circulatory system. All diagrams used in the interviews had been used by their teacher when teaching the topic. Students' interpretations were expressed by their verbal response and their drawing. Dual coding theory was used to interpret students' responses. There was evidence that one student relied on verbal recall as a strategy in interpreting diagrams. It was found that students might have relied unduly on similarities in spatial features, rather than on deeper meanings represented by conventions, of diagrams when they associated diagrams that represented different aspects of the circulatory system. A pattern of students' understanding of structure–behaviour–function relationship of the biological system was observed. This study suggests the importance of a consistent diagrammatic and verbal representation in communicating scientific ideas. Implications for teaching practice that facilitates learning with diagrams and address students' undue focus on spatial features of diagrams are discussed.     

Role-play or debate to promote students' argumentation and justification on an issue in animal transgenesis

This paper compares the impact of a role-play and a conventional discussion on students' argumentation on an issue involving animal transgenesis. Students were confronted with an imaginable but fictional situation. They had to decide whether or not to approve a giant transgenic salmon farm being set up in a seaside village. Students received the same teaching and information, the only differences being in the debate situation. Students were asked to reach a decision on well-argued grounds, to identify areas of uncertainty and to define the condition or conditions under which a change of view might be considered. They had to write them down. Pre-post-tests were used to assess the students' opinions. The role-play and discussion were all video- and audio-taped and transcribed in full. The analysis focuses on the argumentative structure of the students' discourse and identifies the reference areas that students draw on to deliver their arguments. The theory of economics of 'greatness' or 'importance', which has recently emerged as a framework for the sociology of justification, has also been used in analysing students' discourse.     

Teaching and Learning in a University Classroom: A Norwegian Case Study on Students' Perspectives

This article focuses on student activity and how students experience learning. A teaching programme was both led and researched by the one teacher. The article describes a master's level teaching programme and presents the data collection strategies used by the teacher‐researcher and presents learning viewed from the students' perspective. The teaching and researching processes are carried out in the framework of socio‐cultural theory. In Vygotsky's and Bakhtin's theories, as part of the socio‐cultural tradition, language and dialogue are viewed as decisive factors in learning and understanding, and hence in the researched teaching programme.     

Students' Learning of a Generalized Theory of Sound Transmission from a Teaching–Learning Sequence about Sound,Hearing and Health

Learning abstract concepts such as sound often involves an ontological shift because to conceptualize sound transmission as a process of motion demands abandoning sound transmission as a transfer of matter. Thus, for students to be able to grasp and use a generalized model of sound transmission poses great challenges for them. This study involved 199 students aged 10–14. Their views about sound transmission were investigated before and after teaching by comparing their written answers about sound transfer in different media. The teaching was built on a research-based teaching–learning sequence (TLS), which was developed within a framework of design research. The analysis involved interpreting students' underlying theories of sound transmission, including the different conceptual categories that were found in their answers. The results indicated a shift in students' understandings from the use of a theory of matter before the intervention to embracing a theory of process afterwards. The described pattern was found in all groups of students irrespective of age. Thus, teaching about sound and sound transmission is fruitful already at the ages of 10–11. However, the older the students, the more advanced is their understanding of the process of motion. In conclusion, the use of a TLS about sound, hearing and auditory health promotes students' conceptualization of sound transmission as a process in all grades. The results also imply some crucial points in teaching and learning about the scientific content of sound.     

Editorial: Learning and Teaching Object Technology

Non-determinism is one of the most important, yet abstract, recurring concepts of Computer Science. It plays an important role in Computer Science areas such as formal language theory, computability theory, distributed computing, and operating systems. We conducted a series of studies on the perception of non-determinism. In the current research, we studied and analyzed undergraduate Computer Science students' solutions to assignments in a course on automata and formal languages. Our findings shed some light on students' perceptions of non-determinism, their tendency to use non-determinism, and the characteristics of their non-deterministic solutions. This paper describes the current research and its results, and suggests several teaching applications.     

Research Trends in Science Education from 2008 to 2012: A systematic content analysis of publications in selected journals

This paper presents the third study of research trends in science education. In this review, a total of 990 papers published in the International Journal of Science Education, the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, and Science Education from 2008 to 2012 were analyzed. The results indicate that in the recent five years (2008–2012), the top three research topics in the published papers were those regarding the context of students' learning, science teaching, and students' conceptual learning. The changes in the most popular research topics in the past 15 years also evidentially indicate shifts in the journals' preferences and researchers' interest. For example, in 2003–2007, context of students' learning replaced students' conceptual learning, which was the most published research topic from 1998 to 2002. The research topic of students' learning contexts continued to rank the first in 2008–2012. Moreover, there was an increasing trend of research papers regarding science teaching from 1998 to 2012. The analysis of highly cited papers revealed that research topics such as argumentation, inquiry-based learning, and scientific modeling were recently highlighted by science educators. In recent 15 years, productive researchers' publications also focused on the topics about context of students' learning, science teaching, and students' conceptual learning.     

“通信原理”核心课程教学方法与手段改革研究

"通信原理"课程存在理论知识难、实践性强、传统教学方式单一等问题。为了改善教学效果,在教学方法和手段上做了一系列改革和尝试,将"层次化实验教学法"、网络教学平台及虚拟实验平台引入到教学工作中,以此激发学生的学习兴趣,提高学生学习的主动性。经实践证明,教学改革取得了一定的成效。