Piaget's Cognitive Psychology and its Consequences for the Teaching of Science

Summaries

English

Dr Kubli investigates several central statements from Piaget's cognitive psychology and their meaning for science eduction in that he attempts to clarify them. Among these statements are theses such as: ‘The basis of thought is action’ and ‘The development of thought is characterized by an ever more flexible equilibrium of the structure of the operative entirety’. These statements are supported by Piaget's experiments. In this article, interpretations which appear most suitable for use in deriving consequences for science education are presented. Some characteristic levels of thinking in children are explained in terms of the child's difficulty to switch from a subjective egocentric assimilation of the material world to an objectively verifiable one. The conclusion derived from this is a general one: the communication of the teacher must be conducted as reversibly as possible by presenting in his teaching those of his own assimilation schemata which can be equilibrated by the pupils with the schemata already available to them.     

Summary and Review of Investigations Relating to Reading July 1,1964 to June 30, 1965

Abstract

This study concerns the initial development of a scale to measure teachers' attitudes toward teaching as a profession.

A modification of the W-technique, a combination of the equal-appearing interval and paired-comparison methods, was utilized to construct the scales. Teachers were used to judge the statements in the preliminary stages of scaling. An alternate scale was constructed for correlational purposes and later a revised scale was also developed from the same statements.

An estimate of test-retest reliability was obtained. In one college class a correlation coefficient of .92 was obtained between the original and alternate scales. In another class, the test-retest coefficient for the original scale was .99 and .97 between the alternate and original scales.

The high correlation gives evidence for the reliability of the original scale and both scales appear ready for further research purposes.     

Attitude Toward Cheating and Opportunistic Behavior

Abstract

The problem was to Investigate attitude" toward cheating and the incidence of opportunistic cheating behavior in samples of undergraduate and graduate college student". Attitudes were assessed through the administration of Anderson’s attitudinal measurement instrument. Opportunistic cheating was observed through the utilization of contrived situations applied under two different levels of stress. Findings suggest that (a) attitudes toward cheating as measured by Anderson's scale do not appear to reflect the actual behavior of the respondents, and (b) In a given situation, regardless of the presence or absence of stress, approximately one-third of a college class will cheat opportunistically if the climate is an advantageous one.     

Use of Reinforcement in Education

Abstract

Two randomly assigned sections of general psychology were taught by the traditional lecture method. Two other sections were taught by the name teacher, but divided into four groups of ten students each. These groups of students were encouraged to clarify, to elaborate on, to illustrate and to develop the implications of the main concepts in their textbook. They were asked to take the time to become acquainted and to develop a friendly atmosphere wherein all group members would feel comfortable and free to express themselves. Each was to have some responsibility for drawing out the other members of the group and to work toward clear statements on the part of himself and his fellows. The instructor went from group to group but did not teach in the traditional sense. lie served as a reinforcer to these students. The two experimental sections showed increased test scores which were beyond the .001 level of significance.     

A Short Test of Personality: The S-ident Form

Abstract

On the premise that affective measure" are needed by those who would accurately predict the classroom behavior of teachers, an Inventory was developed to assess a teacher's attitude toward one aspect of the teaching process, namely. Instructional objectives stated In terms of student behavior. The inventory consisted of 20 instructional objectives, some behavioral and some nonbehavioral, to be rated according to a five-point scheme. A modest but significant correlation of .25 was obtained between 50 subjects' scores on the inventory and their observed classroom use of behavioral objectives. A construct validity study involving an examination of the pre-and post-instructor factor structure on Inventory scores of 100 prospective teachers also suggested that the instrument possesses a degree of validity.     

Conservation Comes of Age

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of instruction in environmental education on the attitudes of elementary school children toward the environment. One class of third graders was provided with two hours of environmental education instruction. A comparable class of third graders served as a control group. Both classes were pre- and posttested using an author-designed environmental attitude questionnaire. Analyses of these data showed that 1) the experimental group had significantly improved attitudes on a pre-post basis and 2) this same group had significantly more positive attitudes toward the environment when compared with the control group. When tested again as fifth graders, the experimental group remained significantly more positive toward the environment than the fifth grade control group.     

Public Acceptance of an Air Quality Index

Abstract

Zoological parks, nature centers, natural history museums, and related institutions are valuable resources for urban environmental education in developing countries. To determine the effectiveness of conservation education strategies currently in use at such institutions in Colombia, the authors implemented and compared several program formats. A zoo workshop in wildlife conservation targeting elementary school teachers was designed, evaluated, and contrasted with existing programs, including a zoo visit preceded by a slide show, an unstructured visit to the zoo, and a control group. The authors assessed responses from 1,015 fourth-grade students in 26 randomly selected schools in Cali, Colombia. Students in the four experimental groups completed a pretreatment and a posttreatment questionnaire comprising an achievement test with 18 multiple-choice knowledge questions and a 16-statement, 5-point attitude scale. Test results indicated that knowledge and attitude scores of students whose teachers participated in the educational program improved significantly. No effects on student knowledge or attitude scores were found for any of the other treatments. Students' active participation coupled with adequate preparation and reinforcement of wildlife conservation information were important factors influencing students' performance. Results of the study are being used to develop more effective informal programs for primary school children in Colombia.     

Measuring the attitudes of human service professionals toward deafness

The Attitudes to Deafness Scale is a 22-item measure of attitudes toward people who are deaf designed for use with human service professionals. Attitude statements were generated from personal accounts by deaf people in the literature and from a focus group in which deaf people discussed their experience of hearing people's attitudes toward them. A 60-item scale was administered to a group of 121 clinical and forensic psychologists during their training. Item analysis was conducted to select items that effectively distinguished participants with a positive attitude from those with a negative attitude toward deaf people. The scale may be used in any context where a professional group comes into contact with people who are deaf.     

An Experiment in Jewish Secondary Education

Introduction

A Student's Attitude toward his school's atmosphere, facilities, personnel, learning and extracurricular activities significantly affects his motivation, commitment, and satisfaction with the school. Positive school satisfaction has been shown to make the compulsory school day more enjoyable and stimulating for the student (Epstein and McPartland, 1978). Therefore, a major educational concern has become the development of programs and curricula that nurture and maintain student satisfaction (Bloom et al., 1971; Jackson, 1968; Jencks et al., 1972; Krathwohl, 1964; Lortie, 1975). Presumably, enhanced student satisfaction is related to greater commitment and motivation to pursue one's studies. Despite this trend, very few studies have investigated the specific variables related to student attitude toward school. This issue becomes of even greater importance in our Jewish supplementary schools, where the goal of a life-long commitment to Judaism is exchanged for a few hours of educational and spiritual exposure in temple per week.     

《广雅疏证》校勘用语“讹作”研究

王念孙疏证《广雅》,常用"讹作"这一用语进行校勘,校勘的内容包括对文献表述的校勘和文献用字的校勘。王念孙对不同的讹误现象采用的校勘方法和证据是不同的,不仅体现了他精深的校勘功底,也反映出他已经具备了较为科学的语言文字观念。文章试对"讹作"涉及的校勘内容进行分类,以考察王念孙的校勘方法及他的一些语言文字观念。     

Occupational identity,commitment to a trade and attitude to non-vocational courses amongst a group of craft apprentices

Summary

The study started from the thesis that vocational and non-vocational courses are working against each other in terms of the people who consider them important. Those who are committed to their trade and therefore to their vocational training or who have a strong conception of themselves as members of that trade, are likely to consider non-vocational work unimportant, and those who do consider non-vocational work important are those who are disillusioned with their vocational work. Thus, instead of providing a rounded education for work and leisure, vocational and non-vocational courses are, in fact, considered important and are followed keenly by different groups. A certain amount of support could be found for these hypotheses. Although no statistically significant differences could be found between the subject's occupational identity and his attitude to non-vocational courses, a relationship did appear between the apprentice's commitment to his industry and his attitude to such courses.

The aim of this study was to begin to clarify the position of Liberal Studies as a non-vocational course in the socialization process of the craft apprentice in further education. If similar relationships could be discovered in other colleges with other crafts it would provide an enlightening background to the typical apprentice's complaint that he comes to college to learn his trade and that Liberal Studies does not relate to this. This study seems to point to two areas of concern to the Liberal Studies lecturer; firstly, that he may be failing to communicate with those who are going to be the most dependable members of their trade and, secondly, that there may be scope for him to act in a counselling capacity to help those disillusioned with their trade if, as has been shown, these people consider his courses important.     

The use of computers in the teaching and learning of functions in school Mathematics in Eritrea

Abstract

This article reports on an empirical investigation in which quantitative and qualitative methods were utilised to determine the effect of the use of computers on Grade 11 Eritrean Mathematics learners' mastery of the quadratic function concept. MS Excel and RJS Graph software were used to teach this topic, which is usually regarded as difficult subject matter, to an experimental group. The results of this study indicated that the use of computers had a positive impact on learners' achievement, problem-solving skills, exploration of mathematical ideas, motivation, attitude, and classroom interactions. In particular, computer use reduced the tedium of creating tables and drawing graphs and enabled learners to analyse functions and their graphs more easily, represent functions in different ways and solve real life problems using these programmes. Moreover, learners were more motivated to explore the nature and properties of functions and their graphs both on their own or in a group, make conjectures, and verify their findings. Taking into consideration the limitations in schooling in developing countries, the utilisation of computer technology can contribute to the advancement of Mathematics learning, which is a very important issue.     

Designing a likert-type scale to assess attitude toward energy conservation: A nine step process

A nine-step process was used as a multilevel screening mechanism in developing a Likert-type scale that measures that attitudes of teachers toward energy conservation. Following the assemblage of a 71 statement item pool, the statements were analyzed via qualitative criteria (i.e., presence of authoritative appeals, use of double negatives, statements irrelevant to the attitude object, etc.). The 60 statements meeting the qualitative criteria were then pilotted using a sample of 93 preservice elementary teachers. One of the 60 statements was modified as a result of respondent feedback. Data collected from respondents were anlayzed using the Likert Attitude Scale Analysis Main Program (LIKRT) and the emotional intensity of each statement was judged by the criteria: discrimination index, bipolar data, and neutral data. Nineteen statements that were part of the initial item pool met all the criteria set forth by the nine-step process; as a result, these statements composed the Attitude Toward Energy Conservation Scale. Coefficient alpha for the scale was reported at 0.81 by LIKRT with an average adjusted item-total correlation of 0.48. Initial validity data collected suggests the scale to be a valid measure of preservice teachers' attitudes toward energy conservation.     

Personality and Adjustment of High and Low Anxious Children

Abstract

This study examined the effect of computer simulation training on elementary teacher trainees’ ability to administer an Informal Reading Inventory (IRI) to a child and interpret it. After initial in-class instruction for all trainees, the experimental group participated in the simulation and then gave an IRI to a child. The order of these steps was reversed for the control group. Analysis of results showed no significant differences between groups in ability to administer the IRI accurately, but the experimental group scored significantly higher (p > .02) in their ability to diagnose reading skill weaknesses correctly. The experimental group also had a more favorable attitude (p > .03) toward developing lesson plans based on skills weaknesses identified by the IRI.     

Biology teachers' attitudes toward and use of Indiana's evolution standards

This study examines the relationship between biology teachers' evolution teaching practices and their regard and use of Indiana state evolution standards. A survey developed by the authors contained five subscales: use of standards; attitude toward standards; attitude toward evolution standards; evolution teaching practices; and demographic information. This survey was administered to 229 Indiana biology teachers. Data were analyzed using the Rasch model to convert Likert rating scale data into ratio data used for parametric analyses. Correlation analysis revealed significant relationships between use of standards and attitude toward standards, attitude toward standards and evolution teaching practices, and attitude toward evolution standards and days teaching evolution. These findings suggest practical relationships between standards use, teachers' regard of standards, and evolution teaching practices. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 236–257, 2007     

Preparing Teachers to Support Inclusion: The benefits of interaction between a group of preservice teachers and a teaching assistant who is disabled

This qualitative study investigates the development of preservice teachers' attitudes toward people with disabilities during a semester-long unit. Ten students enrolled in a special education teaching elective were interviewed before and after they were engaged in a teaching program designed to expose them to direct, structured interactions with a teaching assistant who was physically disabled. The teaching assistant interacted with students in both small and large group tutorial discussions throughout the semester. Also, students kept a reflective journal on their experiences with people with disabilities throughout the teaching program. Data were collected through the use of semi-structured interviews and journals, and analysis indicated that: (i) students developed a more positive attitude and became more comfortable in interacting with the teaching assistant during the semester, and (ii) learning experience improved their knowledge about disability issues.     

A Comparison of the Extent of Educational Growth of Mentally Advanced Pupils in the Cedar Rapids Experiment

Abstract

Entering high school freshmen (N-421) during the 1971-72 academic year in a rural Arizona high school were evaluated as to their dropout potential on several criteria. Of the 154 identified as potential dropouts, 36 were randomly selected and received a special academic program and 118 were placed in vocational educational classes. A control group of 94 students was randomly selected from those assigned to the regular classroom. The special academic class was designed to hold potential dropouts in school, as w ell as to modify some of the negative attitudes toward school with which they entered as freshmen. It was found that the special academic group maintained their attitude toward school with no drop in attitude occurring. In contrast, the potential dropouts which were assigned to vocational classes showed a slight drop in attitude toward school while the control group showed a significant decrease. A lower dropout rate also was found among the special academic students than the other two groups, a fact which attests to the effectiveness of the program.     

The Effect of Teacher Attitudes on Children’s Responses to Defective Articulation

Abstract

A group of 040 first-grade children reacted to four criterion attitude" "elected to reflect different way" teacher" may respond verbally toward a child with defective speech. They answered four questions indicating their acceptability of him. The purpose of the Investigation was to study the effect of the teacher attitudes on the children's responses. Results Indicate a significant relationship" and support the assumption that the social acceptability of speech-defective school children Is related to teacher attitudes. These children are chosen more often by their peers when the basis for selection Is friendship rather than speaking ability.     

Regional Environmental Education Centers

Abstract

The development of the Children's Attitudes Toward the Environment Scale-Preschool Version (CATES-PV) is reported. The scale was administered to 42 preschool children. Their parents (34 mothers, 30 fathers) completed 2 environmental attitude scales, an environmental knowledge scale, and a questionnaire concerning environmentally related home practices. The scale has acceptable reliability, with a Cronbach's alpha of .68. Construct validity of the scale was suggested by the pattern of relationships found between child and parent measures. Specifically, children's attitudes were not correlated with verbal ability, but with the degree to which children participated in environmentally relevant activities in the home. The implications of those results for preschool curricula and practices are discussed.