Redesigning a General Education Science Course to Promote Critical Thinking

Recent studies question the effectiveness of a traditional university curriculum in helping students improve their critical thinking and scientific literacy. We developed an introductory, general education (gen ed) science course to overcome both deficiencies. The course, titled Foundations of Science, differs from most gen ed science offerings in that it is interdisciplinary; emphasizes the nature of science along with, rather than primarily, the findings of science; incorporates case studies, such as the vaccine-autism controversy; teaches the basics of argumentation and logical fallacies; contrasts science with pseudoscience; and addresses psychological factors that might otherwise lead students to reject scientific ideas they find uncomfortable. Using a pretest versus posttest design, we show that students who completed the experimental course significantly improved their critical-thinking skills and were more willing to engage scientific theories the general public finds controversial (e.g., evolution), while students who completed a traditional gen ed science course did not. Our results demonstrate that a gen ed science course emphasizing the process and application of science rather than just scientific facts can lead to improved critical thinking and scientific literacy.     

Performance on Middle School Geometry Problems With Geometry Clues Matched to Three Different Cognitive Styles

ABSTRACT— This study investigated the relationship between 3 ability‐based cognitive styles (verbal deductive, spatial imagery, and object imagery) and performance on geometry problems that provided different types of clues. The purpose was to determine whether students with a specific cognitive style outperformed other students, when the geometry problems provided clues compatible with their cognitive style. Students were identified as having a particular cognitive style when they scored equal to or above the median on the measure assessing this ability. A geometry test was developed in which each problem could be solved on the basis of verbal reasoning clues (matching verbal deductive cognitive style), mental rotation clues (matching spatial imagery cognitive style), or shape memory clues (matching object imagery cognitive style). Straightforward cognitive style–clue‐compatibility relationships were not supported. Instead, for the geometry problems with either mental rotation or shape memory clues, students with a combination of both verbal and spatial cognitive styles tended to do the best. For the problems with verbal reasoning clues, students with either a verbal or a spatial cognitive style did well, with each cognitive style contributing separately to success. Thus, both spatial imagery and verbal deductive cognitive styles were important for solving geometry problems, whereas object imagery was not. For girls, a spatial imagery cognitive style was advantageous for geometry problem solving, regardless of type of clues provided.     

Cognitive skills and literacy performance of Chinese adolescents with and without dyslexia

The present study sought to identify cognitive abilities that might distinguish Hong Kong Chinese adolescents with dyslexia and to assess how these abilities were associated with Chinese word reading, word dictation, and reading comprehension. The cognitive skills of interest were morphological awareness, visual-orthographic knowledge, rapid naming, and verbal working memory. A total of 90 junior secondary school students, 30 dyslexic, 30 chronological age controls, and 30 reading level controls was tested on a range of cognitive and literacy tasks. Dyslexic students were less competent than the control students in all cognitive and literacy measures. The regression analyses also showed that verbal working memory, rapid naming, morphological awareness, and visual-orthographic knowledge were significantly associated with literacy performance. Findings underscore the importance of these cognitive skills for Chinese literacy acquisition. Overall, this study highlights the persistent difficulties of Chinese dyslexic adolescents who seem to have multiple causes for reading and spelling difficulties.     

Predictive value of attitude,cognitive ability,and personality to science achievement in the middle school

This article examines the factors of attitude toward science, spatial ability, mathematical ability, and the scientific personality, as measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, in a sample of middle school students. Males and females with science grades of A and B were found to have several characteristics of the scientific personality, good grades in mathematics, but negative attitudes toward science. Males and females with science grades of C and D had a more positive attitude toward science, but poor mathematical and spatial abilities and few characteristics of the scientific personality. There were no sex differences except on the Thinking/Feeling (TF) scale of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. As expected females portrayed themselves as preferring the (F) scale, the use of personal values when making decisions and males portrayed themselves as preferring the (T) scale, the use of logical analysis when making decisions.     

The influence of students’ cognitive and motivational variables in respect of cognitive conflict and conceptual change

In this study, the relationships among students’ cognitive/motivational variables, cognitive conflict, and conceptual change were investigated. Subjects were 159 seventh graders in Korea. Tests regarding logical thinking ability, field dependence/independence (FDI), meaningful learning approach, failure tolerance, mastery goal orientation, and self‐efficacy were administered to examine students’ cognitive/motivational characteristics. A preconception test and a test of responses to discrepant event were also conducted to examine the degree of students’ cognitive conflict induced by a discrepant event. Computer‐assisted instruction, designed to change an undifferentiated weight‐density concept into a scientific density concept, was then provided to students as a conceptual change intervention. A conception test was administered as a post‐test. The results indicated that FDI was the only statistically significant variable correlated with the degree of cognitive conflict. A stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that logical thinking ability, FDI, and failure tolerance were statistically significant predictors of the conception test scores. Educational implications are discussed.     

Teachers' perceptions of the effects of a scientific literary course on subsequent learning in biology

Five teachers were interviewed as to their perceptions of the effect of an intervention to teach scientific literacy on learning in subsequent biology courses. The sample consisted of 450 students who had a literacy course in ninth grade and had completed tenth-grade biology. At the end of the academic year the biology teachers were interviewed and asked to compare the biology students who had the literacy course to students they had taught in earlier years. The biology teachers concluded that the literacy course did have an effect on students' subsequent ability to learn biology. The strength of the effect varied according to level of biology. Students had a better understanding of the nature of science and better laboratory and process skills. They were also better at analyzing data. The advanced and intermediate biology students were more creative, more likely to take risks, and engage in hypothetical thinking than other groups of students that the teachers had taught. Although the purpose of the literacy course was to teach literacy skills the advanced students retained a substantial amount of content material that was applicable to biology.     

Social Conversation: Presidents as Educators

The skill set associated with lifelong scientific literacy often includes the ability to decode the content and accuracy of scientific research as presented in the media. However, students often find decoding science in the media difficult, due to limited content knowledge and shifting definitions of accuracy. Faculty have developed a variety of approaches to increasing scientific literacy, but these approaches often miss out on valuable opportunities to teach core information literacy skills, including accessing original scientific research. We describe a scaffolded assignment using news reports that allows students enrolled in a science course for non-majors to learn about the nature of the scientific research literature, the connection between the popular press and the scientific literature, and the accuracy of popular media reporting of science while developing important information literacy skills. Our experience suggests that students develop information literacy skills associated with finding scientific articles using media reports, actively engage in trying to decode scientific articles, and are willing to thoughtfully assess the accuracy of science reporting in the news despite minimal content training. Moreover, students anecdotally report that the skills developed here are portable to decoding media reports from other academic fields of research, especially the social sciences.     

STS教育理念下的高校大学物理课程改革之探索

大学物理是高等院校的基础必修课,将STS教育理念融合于物理教学中,教学目标由个体认知的发展、知识的掌握,转向包括认知、情感、态度在内的科学素养和人文情怀的普遍提高,使学生在创建的实际技术情景和社会背景下去学习和利用物理知识和技术,即让物理知识融于技术、融于社会,这是以学生发展为本的综合性教育。     

COGNITIVE ASSESSMENT AND STUDENT ATTITUDE

A mastery learning strategy was used to teach undergraduate microbiology to part‐time HNC and BSc students. Their performance was cognitively assessed in terms of Bloom's taxonomy. Their changes of attitude were measured by comparison of questionnaires after the introduction to the strategy and after the return of the assessed post‐test. Two performance groups were discovered. Both groups showed positive attitude changes toward the tutor controlling the learning experience and toward the quality of the learning materials. The low group showed negative change toward the strategy and expressed a preference for more traditional teaching, whilst the high group did the reverse. The students’ conception of the academic level of the package and its level of assessment appeared to be canalised by their knowledge of their course status in the academic hierarchy and not by their performance. It was concluded that cognitive assessment more clearly detects students failing to achieve mastery whilst indicating cognitive areas needing remedial tuition and that mastery strategies should be carefully introduced to students to avoid de‐motivating their learning. The difficulty of constructing such strategies and the time taken is compensated for by their ability to teach broader academic groups.     

Information literacy in science writing: how students find,identify, and use scientific literature

For undergraduate students to achieve science literacy, they must first develop information literacy skils. These skills align with Information Literacy Standards and include determining appropriate databases, distinguishing among resource types, and citing resources ethically. To effectively improve information literacy and science literacy, we must identify how students interact with authentic scientific texts. In this case study, we addressed this aim by embedding a science librarian into a science writing course, where students wrote a literature review on a research topic of their choice. Library instruction was further integrated through the use of an online guide and outside assistance. To evaluate the evolution of information literacy in our students and provide evidence of student practices, we used task-scaffolded writing assessments, a reflection, and surveys. We found that students improved their ability and confidence in finding research articles using discipline-specific databases as well as their ability to distinguish primary from secondary research articles. We also identified ways students improperly used and cited resources in their writing assignments. While our results reveal a better understanding of how students find and approach scientific research articles, additional research is needed to develop effective strategies to improve long-term information literacy in the sciences.     

课程思政教学在基础护理学课程中的应用效果

目的:探讨课程思政教学改革在基础护理学课程中的应用效果。方法:采用整群抽样法选取2016级护理本科生122名、2017级护理本科生125名作为研究对象,将2016级(n=122)作为对照组,2017级(n=125)作为实验组,对照组采用传统教学方法,实验组进行课程思政教学。课程结束后对护理专业学生专业知识、技能的掌握和职业态度进行评价和网上评教。结果:实验组学生专业知识、技能的掌握和职业态度评价和网上评教均高于对照组(P<0.05)。结论:将课程思政运用于基础护理学中,可以提高护理本科生的专业知识和技能的掌握,提高职业态度及对教师的满意度。     

Sources of Self-efficacy in a Science Methods Course for Primary Teacher Education Students

Self-efficacy has been shown to be an issue of concern for primary teacher education students – many of them have low self-efficacy and this can negatively affect their future teaching of science. Previous research has identified four factors that may contribute towards self-efficacy: enactive mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion and physiological/affective states. It could also be argued that there are additional sources of self-efficacy that apply to primary teacher education students, namely cognitive content mastery, cognitive pedagogical mastery and simulated modelling. The main purpose of the present paper was to investigate the relative importance of the various sources of self-efficacy in a primary science methods course. Data on changes in self-efficacy and sources of self-efficacy were collected throughout the course using formal and informal surveys. It was found that the main source of self-efficacy was cognitive pedagogical mastery.     

Native language predictors of foreign language proficiency and foreign language aptitude

Fifty-four students were tested at specific time intervals over 10 years to determine best native language (NL) predictors of oral and written foreign language (FL) proficiency and FL aptitude. All participants completed two years of Spanish, French, or German. Each was administered measures of NL literacy, oral language, and cognitive ability in elementary school. A measure of FL aptitude was administered at the beginning of ninth grade and FL proficiency was evaluated at the end of the 10th grade. Among the variables, NL literacy measures were the best predictors of FL proficiency, and NL achievement and general (verbal) intelligence were strong predictors of FL aptitude. Results suggest that indices of NL literacy as early as first grade are related to FL proficiency and FL aptitude nine and 10 years later. Findings provide strong support for connections between L1 and L2 skills, and for speculation that “lower level” skills in phonological processing are important for written language development and oral proficiency in a FL.     

思政元素在材料力学课程的挖掘、梳理和隐性融合的研究

材料力学是理工科高校大部分工科专业的技术基础课,承担着工科学生从基础课到专业课顺利过渡中逻辑思维、知识结构、科学素养能力培养的重要任务;材料力学课程中的知识点、逻辑思维、知识结构是显性教学目标,而材料力学课程中所包含的众多思政元素则是隐性教学目标,文章针对材料力学课程中隐性思政元素的挖掘、梳理和显性教学目标的有机融合进行了探索研究。     

Longitudinal study of the impact of requiring training for students with initially weak spatial skills

ABSTRACT

Three-dimensional spatial skills are a cognitive ability that have been shown to predict success in engineering. Michigan Tech has been offering a course to help students improve their 3-D spatial skills for more than two decades. In previous studies, students who failed a rotations test and enrolled in the course performed better on a number of measures when compared to those who failed the rotations test and did not enrol in the course. A valid criticism of these studies was that the two groups were self-selected. Beginning in 2009, the spatial skills course became a requirement for students who initially failed the rotations test. This paper reports on the results from a longitudinal study conducted to determine the impact of the spatial skills course when no self-selection is involved.     

近代物理实验教学过程中对学生综合素质培养的思考

近代物理实验课程是培养学生的创新思维和实践能力的一个重要教学环节,它历来是世界各国综合性大学物理类专业的必修课.通过近代物理实验培养学生实事求是、理论联系实际的科学素养、严谨的科学态度和工作作风,掌握近代物理实验主要领域的基本实验方法、技术、仪器和知识,进一步提高学生的研究探索能力和创新精神.从近代物理实验课程本身的特点出发,就培养学生的综合素质和能力的问题,阐述了自己的观点.     

The role of output speech in literacy acquisition: Evidence from congenital anarthria

A case study of literacy acquisition in acongenitally speechless child (SM) isreported. In spite of a complete oral apraxia(due to bilateral focal brain damage), SMdeveloped normal intelligence and acquired complete mastery of reading and writing skills.Furthermore, both his verbal memory andmetaphonological skills were surprisinglypreserved. However, he showed a relativeimpairment in writing non-words. Theimplications of these findings for thedevelopmental interactions between language andliteracy are discussed.     

学习者因素对高职学生英语阅读能力的影响

英语阅读能力的发展直接影响到听、说、写和译四项语言技能的发展,对于英语学习者具有重要的作用。学习者因素,也称为学习者特征,包括学习者的认知能力和初始的知识能力、对所学内容的学习动机和态度、学习的方法和习惯、心理因素以及性格特征等。以娄底市卫生学校为例,通过问卷调查分析了影响高职学生英语阅读能力的因素：语言因素和非语言因素,并从认知能力和初始的知识能力、学习动机和态度、学习方法和阅读习惯等方面提出提高高职学生英语阅读能力的对策。     

Building Scientific Literacy in HIV/AIDS Education: A case study of Uganda

The term scientific literacy is defined differently in different contexts. The term literacy simply refers to the ability for one to read and write, but recent studies in language literacy have extended this definition. New literacy research seeks a redefinition in terms of how skills are used rather than how they are learned. Contemporary perspectives on literacy as a transfer of learned skills into daily life practises capture the understanding of what it means to be scientifically literate. Scientific literacy requires students to be able to use their scientific knowledge independently in the everyday world. Some models for teaching towards scientific literacy have been suggested including inquiry‐based learning embedded in constructivist epistemologies. The inquiry‐based model is posited to be effective at bringing about in‐depth understanding of scientific concepts through engaging students’ preconceptions. In order to establish whether directly engaging students’ preconceptions can lead to in‐depth understanding of the science of HIV/AIDS, a case study was designed to elucidate students’ prior knowledge. From questionnaires and classroom observations, Ugandan Grade 11 students’ persistent preconceptions were explored in follow‐up focus group discussions. The inquiry process was used to engage students with their own perceptions of HIV/AIDS during the focus group discussions. Findings suggest that students need to dialogue with each other as they reflect on their beliefs about HIV/AIDS. Dialogue enabled students to challenge their beliefs while making connections between ‘school’ and ‘home’ knowledge.     

From Biology to Mathematical Models and Back: Teaching Modeling to Biology Students,and Biology to Math and Engineering Students

We describe the development of a course to teach modeling and mathematical analysis skills to students of biology and to teach biology to students with strong backgrounds in mathematics, physics, or engineering. The two groups of students have different ways of learning material and often have strong negative feelings toward the area of knowledge that they find difficult. To give students a sense of mastery in each area, several complementary approaches are used in the course: 1) a “live” textbook that allows students to explore models and mathematical processes interactively; 2) benchmark problems providing key skills on which students make continuous progress; 3) assignment of students to teams of two throughout the semester; 4) regular one-on-one interactions with instructors throughout the semester; and 5) a term project in which students reconstruct, analyze, extend, and then write in detail about a recently published biological model. Based on student evaluations and comments, an attitude survey, and the quality of the students'' term papers, the course has significantly increased the ability and willingness of biology students to use mathematical concepts and modeling tools to understand biological systems, and it has significantly enhanced engineering students'' appreciation of biology.