Designing and using open-ended software to promote conceptual change

We describe a recent project that explored the use of interactive computer software for teaching Einstein's special theory of relativity to secondary school studients. Our approach couples results from recent cognitive science research with modern techniques for using computers to help students visualize and experiment with otherwise inaccessible phenomena. One the products of this research is RelLab, a computer-based exploratory tool for constructing gedanken, or thought experiments involving physical systems in relative motion. We will describe our efforts in designing and testing this software for affecting change in students' concepts of space and time. Relativity is ideally suited for such a study because understanding it requires a radical reconceptualization of these quantities.Advanced Physics from an Elementary Viewpoint, NSF grant MDR-9016417.     

科学教育中的知识、方法与信念——基于科学哲学的考察

科学教育强调学生理解科学的本质,而不仅仅是知识,这是因为科学与社会之间的联系越来越紧密,凸显了将科学看作了解世界的方式在认识论上的重要性。出于个体认识论的需要、科学研究的认识论特征以及科学外行与科学家在认知劳力上的区分,科学教育的目标转向受教育个体未来的社会行动,应培育学生建立对科学的信任和维护科学的认识论权威。为实现这种目标,科学教育应从理解科学的本质转向理解真实的科学实践的本质,在科学教育中呈现真实的而非理想化的科学实践,采纳基于科学哲学模型和理论的实用主义进路。科学哲学对科学实践的新近研究,虽然可以提供理论基础,但应该与科学教育进行建设性对话,更加关注非科学家理解科学的模式,将哲学模型转化为适合学生认知水平和需要、符合教学情境的教学资源。     

Results of use of Machines for Testing and for Drill,upon Learning in Educational Psychology

The Work Components Study (WCS) questionnaire is a measure of work motivation with predictive powers as a selection device on a probabilistic basis for industrial managers. This study established the factorial validity and reliability of a modified WCS-the Educational Work Components Study (EWCS) questionnaire. The sample of 745 included 153 senior and forty-two graduate students and 118 administrators and 432 teachers randomly selected from three school districts. The data analyses consisted of varimax orthogonal and maxplane oblique R-factor analysis procedures and Cronbach’s estimate of internal consistency. Instead of sixty-six items and seven prevalent factors in the WCS, fifty-six items and six unidimensional factors paralleling the original instrument were found in the EWCS. The reliabilities of the six factors ranged from .73 to .83. These findings coupled with the strong theoretical foundation of the EWCS indicate a high potential for probing many provocative relationships based on work motivation.     

Predicting Scientific Understanding of Prospective Elementary Teachers: Role of Gender,Education Level,Courses in Science,and Attitudes Toward Science and Mathematics

A multiple regression analysis of the relationship between prospective teachers' scientific understanding and Gender, Education Level (High School, College), Courses in Science (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Earth Science, Astronomy, and Agriculture), Attitude Towards Science, and Attitude Towards Mathematics is reported. Undergraduate elementary science students (N = 176) in an urban doctoral-level university in the United States participated in this study. The results of this study showed Gender, completion of courses in High School Chemistry and Physics, College Chemistry and Physics, and Attitudes Toward Mathematics and Science significantly correlated with scientific understanding. Based on a regression model, Gender, and College Chemistry and Physics experiences added significant predictive accuracy to scientific understanding among prospective elementary teachers compared to the other variables.     

An Enquiry into the Professional Competence of Inclusive Education Teachers in Beijing: Attitudes,Knowledge, Skills,and Agency

Attitudes, knowledge, and skills are widely recognised as the three pillars of professional competence of inclusive education teachers. Studies emerging from the Chinese context consider these three pillars important for the practice of Learning in Regular Classrooms—an idiosyncratic Chinese form of inclusive education. Our mixed methods study reveals that agency is the fourth pillar of the professional competence for inclusive education teachers in Beijing, China. Results from comparative analysis indicate that the level of teachers’ agency is significantly lower than that of their attitudes, knowledge, and skills. We offer some implications for policy and practice in inclusive education.