Students’ Perceptions of a Problem-Based Learning Environment

During the last decades, traditional learning environments have been criticised for not developing the prerequisites for professional expertise (H. Mandl, H. Gruber &; A. Renkl, Interactive minds: Life-span perspectives on the social foundation of cognition, pp. 394–412, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996; P. Tynjälä, International Journal of Educational Research, 31, 357–442, 1999). To meet this criticism, educational approaches such as problem-based learning, project-based learning and case-based learning are being implemented to an increasing extent. Research also concentrates on the efficiency of these approaches in terms of students’ learning outcomes. At the same time, classroom-based theories of learning (J. B. Biggs, British Journal of Educational Psychology, 63, 3–19, 1993; M. Prosser &; K. Trigwell, Understanding learning and teaching. Buckingham, UK: SRHE and Open University Press, 1999) stress the importance of the investigation of subjective learning environments in order to understand the nature of these students’ learning outcomes, for learning results are not a mere function of the learning setting because each student operates as a filter for the possible influence of the environment. However, most research on students’ perception of the learning environment is conducted in predominantly traditional learning environments.The goal of our research was to investigate students’ perceptions of the key design variables of a problem-based learning environment and if students perceive that they enhance learning. There are four research questions. First, to what extent do students’ perceptions of a PBL environment match the theoretical assumptions of PBL? Second, do their perceptions differ as a function of the institutional context? Third, is there a difference in the perceptions of students between groups of first year and experienced students and between disciplines? Fourth, are there interaction effects between study phase and discipline?The results show that, in general, students value the key variables of the learning environment as powerful (i.e. enhancing learning). Also, the results indicate that students’ perceptions of the learning environment in various institutional contexts differ significantly. In general, no distinctions were found related to students in different study phases. However, in terms of specific design variables, students studying in diverse disciplines showed significantly divergent perceptions. Finally, significant interaction effects were found between study phase and discipline.     

Impacts of Multi‐representational Instruction on High School Students’ Conceptual Understandings of the Particulate Nature of Matter

This quasi‐experimental study examined 42 high school introductory chemistry students’ conceptual understandings of the particulate nature of matter (PNM) before and immediately after instruction. Two groups of students, who were taught by the same teacher, received one of two possible instructional interventions: Reform‐Based Teaching (RBT) or Reform‐Based Teaching with Multiple Representations (RBTw/MR). The RBTw/MR instruction differed from the RBT instruction in terms of the frequency of using multiple representations (visual, textual, oral) in relationship to the macroscopic phenomenon and the likely actions occurring at the submicroscopic level. Qualitative research methods, including open‐ended questionnaires and interviews, were used to investigate and describe participants’ conceptual understandings of the PNM over time. The findings indicated that before instruction all participants held a range of alternative conceptions about the aspects of the PNM. Post‐instruction findings indicate that the RBTw/MR instruction was more efficacious in promoting a scientific understanding of the PNM than was the instruction without multiple representations.     

Urban High School Students’ Critical Science Agency: Conceptual Understandings and Environmental Actions Around Climate Change

This study investigates how the enactment of a climate change curriculum supports students’ development of critical science agency, which includes students developing deep understandings of science concepts and the ability to take action at the individual and community levels. We examined the impact of a four to six week urban ecology curriculum on students from three different urban high schools in the USA. Data collection included pre and posttest written assessments from all students (n = 75) and pre and post interviews from focal students (n = 22) to examine how students’ conceptual understandings, beliefs and environmental actions changed. Our analyses showed that at the beginning of the curriculum, the majority of students believed that climate change was occurring; yet, they had limited conceptual understandings about climate change and were engaged in limited environmental actions. By the end of the curriculum, students had a significant increase in their understanding of climate change and the majority of students reported they were now engaged in actions to limit their personal impact on climate change. These findings suggest that believing a scientific theory (e.g. climate change) is not sufficient for critical science agency; rather, conceptual understandings and understandings of personal actions impact students’ choices. We recommend that future climate change curriculum focus on supporting students’ development of critical science agency by addressing common student misconceptions and by focusing on how students’ actions can have significant impacts on the environment.     

Relationships between High School Chemistry Students’ Perceptions of a Constructivist Learning Environment and their STEM Career Expectations

Considerable attention has been devoted to factors affecting the persistence of women and historically underrepresented ethnic groups in their science education trajectories. The literature has focused more on structural factors that affect longitudinal outcomes rather than classroom experiences. This exploratory survey study described relationships among high school chemistry students’ perceptions of a constructivist learning environment (CLE) and STEM career expectations. The sample included 693 students from 7 public high schools within the San Francisco Bay Area. Students’ perceptions of a CLE predicted their expectations of entering a science career, but not engineering, computer, health, or mathematics-related careers. When all groups of students perceived the learning environment as more constructivist, they were more likely to expect science careers.     

The Use of Video Cases in a Multimedia Learning Environment for Facilitating High School Students’ Inquiry into a Problem from Varying Perspectives

This study investigated the connection between the use of video cases within a multimedia learning environment and students’ inquiry into a socio-scientific problem. The software program was designed based on principles from the Cognitive Flexibility Theory (CFT) and incorporated video cases of experts with differing perspectives. Seventy-nine 10th-grade students in an urban high school participated in this study. After watching the expert videos, students generated investigative questions and reflected on how their ideas changed over time. This study found a significant correlation between the time students spent watching the expert videos and their ability to consider the problem’s perspectives as well as their ability to integrate these perspectives within their questions. Moreover, problem-solving ability and time watching the videos were detected as possible influential predictors of students’ consideration of the problem’s perspectives within their questions. Although students watched all video cases in equivalent ways, one of the video cases, which incorporated multiple perspectives as opposed to just presenting one perspective, appeared most influential in helping students integrate the various perspectives into their own thinking. A qualitative analysis of students’ reflections indicated that many students appreciated the complexity, authenticity, and ethical dimensions of the problem. It also revealed that while the majority of students thought critically about the problem, some students still had naïve or simplistic ways of thinking. This study provided some preliminary evidence that offering students the opportunity to watch videos of different perspectives may influence them to think in alternative ways about a complex problem.     

High School Students’ Learning and Perceptions of Phylogenetics of Flowering Plants

Basic phylogenetics and associated “tree thinking” are often minimized or excluded in formal school curricula. Informal settings provide an opportunity to extend the K–12 school curriculum, introducing learners to new ideas, piquing interest in science, and fostering scientific literacy. Similarly, university researchers participating in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) outreach activities increase awareness of college and career options and highlight interdisciplinary fields of science research and augment the science curriculum. To aid in this effort, we designed a 6-h module in which students utilized 12 flowering plant species to generate morphological and molecular phylogenies using biological techniques and bioinformatics tools. The phylogenetics module was implemented with 83 high school students during a weeklong university STEM immersion program and aimed to increase student understanding of phylogenetics and coevolution of plants and pollinators. Student response reflected positive engagement and learning gains as evidenced through content assessments, program evaluation surveys, and program artifacts. We present the results of the first year of implementation and discuss modifications for future use in our immersion programs as well as in multiple course settings at the high school and undergraduate levels.

Just as beginning students in geography need to be taught how to read maps, so beginning students in biology should be taught how to read trees and to understand what trees communicate. O’Hara (1997 , p. 327)

     

Stitching Codeable Circuits: High School Students’ Learning About Circuitry and Coding with Electronic Textiles

Learning about circuitry by connecting a battery, light bulb, and wires is a common activity in many science classrooms. In this paper, we expand students’ learning about circuitry with electronic textiles, which use conductive thread instead of wires and sewable LEDs instead of lightbulbs, by integrating programming sensor inputs and light outputs and examining how the two domains interact. We implemented an electronic textiles unit with 23 high school students ages 16–17 years who learned how to craft and code circuits with the LilyPad Arduino, an electronic textile construction kit. Our analyses not only confirm significant increases in students’ understanding of functional circuits but also showcase students’ ability in designing and remixing program code for controlling circuits. In our discussion, we address opportunities and challenges of introducing codeable circuit design for integrating maker activities that include engineering and computing into classrooms.     

Students’ English Learning Anxiety in Senior High School

Since 1970s,the research on second language acquisition has been developed with times.The research focus of lLanguage teach ing has shifted from the study of how to teach students to how to learn for students,with particular attention to explore the influence that students’psychological factors such as learning motivation,learning attitude and learning anxiety have on learning outcomes.Among those emotional variables,anxiety is considered to be one of the most critical psychological variables.English classroom anxiety is different from the ordinary classroom anxiety and receives much attention from scholars.Horwiz(1986) pointed out that foreign language anxiety is a unique phenomenon in language learning.In China,English learning in senior high school is a very important period.It is a common phenomenon to see students behaving anxiously in the English class.Therefore,the anxiety in the English class of senior high school de serves attention.This paper will analyze the main reasons of students’anxiety and points out several effectively methods to relieve their anxiety so as to enhance English classroom teaching and learning effect.     

The Role of Simulation-Enabled Design Learning Experiences on Middle School Students’ Self-generated Inherence Heuristics

Journal of Science Education and Technology - In science and engineering education, the use of heuristics has been introduced as a way of understanding the world, and as a way to approach...     

Promoting Middle School Students’ Understandings of Molecular Genetics

Genetics is the cornerstone of modern biology and understanding genetics is a critical aspect of scientific literacy. Research has shown, however, that many high school graduates lack fundamental understandings in genetics necessary to make informed decisions or to participate in public debates over emerging technologies in molecular genetics. Currently, much of genetics instruction occurs at the high school level. However, recent policy reports suggest that we may need to begin introducing aspects of core concepts in earlier grades and to successively develop students’ understandings of these concepts in subsequent grades. Given the paucity of research about genetics learning at the middle school level, we know very little about what students in earlier grades are capable of reasoning about in this domain. In this paper, we discuss a research study aimed at fostering deeper understandings of molecular genetics at the middle school level. As part of the research we designed a two-week model-based inquiry unit implemented in two 7th grade classrooms (N = 135). We describe our instructional design and report results based on analysis of pre/post assessments and written artifacts of the unit. Our findings suggest that middle school students can develop: (a) a view of genes as productive instructions for proteins, (b) an understanding of the role of proteins in mediating genetic effects, and (c) can use this knowledge to reason about a novel genetic phenomena. However, there were significant differences in the learning gains in both classrooms and we provide speculative explanations of what may have caused these differences.     

Do Junior High School Students Perceive Their Learning Environment as Constructivist?

The purpose of this study is to examine the manner in which the features of a constructivist learning environment, and the mechanisms at its base, are expressed in junior high school students’ conceptions. Our research is based on an integration of quantitative and qualitative approaches, deigned to provide a wider ranging and deeper understanding. Eight hundred and forty eighth- and ninth-grade students from over 15 schools participated in the study. Of the 840 students who completed the questionnaire, the explanations of 200 well-written questionnaires were further analyzed qualitatively. The findings of the study are presented in terms of the four scales employed in the CLES, namely the autonomy scale, the prior knowledge scale, the negotiation scale, and the student-centeredness scale. The quantitative results achieved here concur with parallel studies conducted around the world. The findings indicate that a considerable portion of the students perceive their learning environment as a constructivist one and report positive attitudes toward the way they are being taught. In terms of the qualitative results, however, it appears that in some cases, the students’ explanations reveal that in fact, and contrary to the bare quantitative results, some students do not perceive their learning environment as being constructivist. This raises the question of whether the fact that students recognize the factors associated with constructivist teaching is indeed an indication that such teaching exists in practice. This finding emphasizes the importance of combining qualitative and quantitative methods for arriving at a balanced view of classroom occurrences.     

High School Students’ Perceptions of Evolution Instruction: Acceptance and Evolution Learning Experiences

Evolution is an important and sometimes controversial component of high school biology. In this study, we used a mixed methods approach to explore students’ evolution acceptance and views of evolution teaching and learning. Students explained their acceptance and rejection of evolution in terms of evidence and conflicts with religion and authority. Students largely supported the teaching of evolution and offered several reasons for its inclusion in high school biology. Students also offered several suggestions for improving evolution instruction. Evolution acceptors’ and rejecters’ views of evolution teaching and learning differed in a number of respects, and these differences may be explained using border crossing as a theoretical lens. Relevant implications for evolution instruction are discussed.     

Western Australian High School Students’ Understandings about the Socioscientific Issue of Climate Change

Climate change is one of the most significant science issues facing humanity; yet, teaching students about climate change is challenging: not only is it multidisciplinary, but also it is contentious and debated in political, social and media forums. Students need to be equipped with an understanding of climate change science to be able to participate in this discourse. The purpose of this study was to examine Western Australian high school students’ understanding of climate change and the greenhouse effect, in order to identify their alternative conceptions about climate change science and provide a baseline for more effective teaching. A questionnaire designed to elicit students’ understanding and alternative conceptions was completed by 438 Year 10 students (14–15 years old). A further 20 students were interviewed. Results showed that students know different features of both climate change and the greenhouse effect, however not necessarily all of them and the relationships between. Five categories of alternative conceptions were identified. The categories were (1) the greenhouse effect and the ozone layer; (2) types of greenhouse gases; (3) types of radiation; (4) weather and climate and (5) air pollution. These findings provide science educators a basis upon which to develop strategies and curriculum resources to improve their students’ understanding and decision-making skills about the socioscientific issue, climate change.     

Language Learning Beliefs:A Survey of Chinese High School Students

1. Introduction To our knowledge, students come to the class with their own mini-theories about language learning. Those mini-theories are called language learning be- liefs (LLBs) by Horwitz (1987) and viewed as a com- ponent of metacognitive knowledge in cognitive psy- chology (e.g., Flavell, 1979). Studies show that LLBs exert either positive or negative effects on learning process. Therefore, it is quite necessary to take a com- prehensive investigation into the beliefs held by lan- gu…     

Students’ Learning Experiences in an Early College High School

Early College High Schools (ECHS) are at the forefront of high school reform embodying the principles of rigor, relationship, and relevance. This study examines students’ learning experiences in the context of relationships and rigor at an ECHS. Specifically, I investigate factors that influence students to attend an ECHS, what they attribute to their academic success, and the challenges they experience. I draw upon data from individual and focus group interviews with students at one 3-year-old ECHS in southeastern North Carolina.     

Exploring Effectiveness of Classroom Assessments for Students’ Learning in High School Chemistry

Research in Science Education - New notions of science teaching and learning provide challenges for designing and using classroom assessment. Existing assessments are not effective in assessing and...     

Students’ Views About Secondary School Science Lessons: The Role of Practical Work

This paper reports an interpretive study that sought students' views about the role that practical work plays in their school science lessons. Twenty-nine students aged between 13 and 16 years were selected from three secondary schools in England. Data were collected from initial lesson observations and in-depth interviews in order to explore students’ views about practical work. The findings suggest that students have three main reasons why practical work is important in their school science lessons: for interest and activity, including social and personal features such as participation and autonomy; as an alternative to other forms of science teaching involving a pedagogy of transmission, and as a way of learning, including memorizing and recall. The findings are discussed in the context of a critical view of previous work on the role of practical work, work on attitudes to science and on the student voice. The paper concludes that practical work is seen to provide opportunities for students to engage with and influence their own learning but that learning with practical work remains a complex issue that needs further research and evaluation about its use, effectiveness and of the role of scientific inquiry as a component of practical activity.     

Upper High School Students’ Understanding of Electromagnetism

Although electromagnetism is an important component of upper secondary school physics syllabuses in many countries, there has been relatively little research on students’ understanding of the topic. A written test consisting of 16 diagnostic questions was developed and used to survey the understanding of electromagnetism of upper secondary school students in Turkey (n = 120) and England (n = 152). A separate test consisting of 10 questions on the visualization of spatial rotation was used to investigate the hypothesis that students’ ability to visualize three‐dimensional situations from two‐dimensional representations might influence learning of electromagnetism. Many students’ responses showed misunderstandings and inconsistencies that suggested they did not have a coherent framework of ideas about electromagnetism. Common errors included confusing electric and magnetic field effects, seeing field lines as indicating a “flow”, using cause–effect reasoning in situations where it does not apply, and dealing with effects associated with the rate of change of a variable. Performance on the spatial rotation test was, however, only weakly correlated with performance on the electromagnetism questions. The findings suggest the need to develop teaching strategies that help students to visualize magnetic field patterns and effects, and assist them in integrating ideas into a more coherent framework.     

Teachers’ Role in Students’ Learning at a Project-Based STEM High School: Implications for Teacher Education

International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education - This study explored how teachers engage and support students at a project-based STEM high school to identify key elements defining...     

High School Students’ Motivation to Learn Mathematics: The Role of Multiple Goals

Using a sample of 310 Year 10 Chinese students from Hong Kong, this survey study examined the effects of multiple goals in learning mathematics. Independent variables were mastery, performance-approach, performance-avoidance, and pro-social goals. Dependent variables included perceived classroom goal structures, teacher’s support, learning motives and strategies, attitudes, and grade aspiration. Based on regression and cluster analyses, this study found convergent evidence supporting the benefits of adopting additional adaptive goals alongside mastery goals. Regression analyses located significant interaction between pro-social goals and mastery goals in predicting higher levels of positive learning attitudes and lower levels of surface learning motives. Cluster analyses confirmed that students endorsing pro-social goals, performance-approach goals and mastery goals in their goal profiles had an adaptive pattern of perceptions, use of strategies, learning motives and grade aspiration in mathematics.