Understanding The Impact of an Apprenticeship-Based Scientific Research Program on High School Students’ Understanding of Scientific Inquiry

The purpose of this study was to understand the impact of an apprenticeship program on high school students’ understanding of the nature of scientific inquiry. Data related to seventeen students’ understanding of science and scientific inquiry were collected through open-ended questionnaires. Findings suggest that although engagement in authentic scientific research helped the participants to develop competency in experimentation methods it had limited impact on participants’ learning of the implicit aspects of scientific inquiry and NOS. Discussion focuses on the importance of making the implicit assumptions of science explicit to the students in such authentic scientific inquiry settings through structured curriculum.     

Development of student inquiry skills in a computerised classroom environment

This paper discusses a study in progress which involves the use of a computerised research science database (Birds of the Antarctica) and specially designed curriculum materials. The purpose of the study is to investigate the extent to which students’ inquiry skills can be facilitated by the materials. Much attention is given in the programme to developing both students’ inquiry skills and their subject-matter knowledge. Year 11 and 12 students’ knowledge and skills development are interpreted as they interact with the computerised database and the curriculum materials. Preliminary findings about students’ abilities and perceptions are discussed and, in particular, constraints to the development of inquiry skills and construction of understanding are explored. Specializations: Science education, computers in education, learning environment.     

Question Posing, Inquiry, and Modeling Skills of Chemistry Students in the Case-Based Computerized Laboratory Environment

A new learning unit in chemistry, Case-based Computerized Laboratories (CCL) and Computerized Molecular Modeling (CMM) was developed at the Technion. The CCL and CMM curriculum integrates computerized desktop experiments and molecular modeling with an emphasis on scientific inquiry and case studies. Our research aimed at investigating the effect of the CCL and CMM learning environment on students’ higher-order thinking skills of question posing, inquiry, and modeling. The experimental group included 614 honors 12th grade chemistry students from high schools in Israel who studied according to this learning unit. The comparison group consisted of 155 12th grade chemistry honors students who studied other chemistry programs. Pre- and post-tests questionnaires were used to assess students’ higher-order thinking skills. Students’ responses were analyzed using content analysis rubrics and their statistical analysis. Our findings indicated that the scores of the experimental group students improved significantly in question posing, inquiry and modeling skills from the pre-test to the post-test. The net gain scores of the experimental group students were significantly higher than those of their comparison peers in all three examined skills. In modeling skills, experimental group students significantly improved their achievements in making the transfer from 3D models to structural formulae, but only about half of them were able to transfer from formulae to 3D models. By presenting a case-based chemistry assessment tool and content analysis of students’ responses in this paper, we enable teachers and educators to analyze their students’ higher-order thinking skills both qualitatively and quantitatively.     

Inquiring into Teaching: Lesson Study in Elementary Science Methods

This article describes an innovative approach to developing preservice elementary science teachers’ classroom confidence and skills. Based on lesson study approaches, preservice candidates designed and taught integrated science–mathematics lessons during the semester before their student teaching. Working in teams, candidates designed and taught a common lesson in 3 different classrooms, critiquing and refining their lesson between each teaching activity. Data collected from observations of classroom teaching events, team reports, and individual reflections were analyzed qualitatively. Results indicate that, over the 3 teaching events, there were dramatic improvements in lesson design and delivery, the management of the learning environment, the quality of students’ engagements with meaningful content, and the quality of assessments and generation of student data. According to the website of the Lesson Study Research Group, there were more than 2,300 teachers in over 335 schools involved in lesson study in the U.S. as of May 2004 (www.tc.edu/lessonstudy/). Additional lesson study information, projects, and resources are available through a number of other websites, including www.lessonresearch.net (at Mills College) and www.uwlax.edu/sotl.lsp (at The University of Wisconsin–La Crosse)     

The Spectrum of Dynamic Inquiry Teaching Practices

The Israeli high school biology curriculum comprises the Biomind program, in which students are engaged in an open inquiry learning process. The dynamic features of open inquiry often pose challenges to teachers in implementing the Biomind program. The current qualitative research shows that facilitating students in a dynamic open inquiry process is multidimensional. Teaching practices cover a wide range of methods, from structured inquiry through guided inquiry to open inquiry. An individual teacher’s profile can be elucidated on the basis of this spectrum. In addition, we realised that teachers often encounter several difficulties in implementing open dynamic inquiry: A dearth of teachers’ scientific knowledge, students’ lack of scientific knowledge and skills, and a restrictive time-frame. This study suggests several areas which should be considered while implementing an on going professional development support for teachers who are engaged in open inquiry teaching.     

Students’ changing views and the integrated-skills approach in taiwan’s efl college classes

The integrated-skills approach (ISA), which incorporates the four language skills-reading, writing, speaking, and listening-has become a dominant trend in FL college instruction in Taiwan. The purpose of the study was to examine how the ISA is being used in Taiwan’s EFL college classes, develop an understanding of students’ satisfaction with the integrated-skill class and authentic activities, and determine if students’ views about separated-skill instruction changed during the year of coursework. Data were collected from a questionnaire survey, interviews of students, and classroom observation. The results indicated that the instructor provided a wide range of authentic materials and class activities, allowing students to interact with texts and each other in a seamless integration of the four language skills. 90% of students recommended continuing to implement the ISA in class for the next academic year. Survey and interview data revealed that under teachers’ class structures, students changed their views on EFL instruction.     

Assessing pre-service teachers’ skills for analyzing teaching

This study investigated the learning-from-practice skills that pre-service teachers possess when they enter teacher preparation programs in the United States. Two subskills were hypothesized to represent, at least in part, what is required to learn from practice: (1) the ability to collect evidence about students’ learning in order to analyze the effects of instruction, and (2) the ability to use the analysis to revise the instruction. Because it seems likely that different teaching situations and contexts reveal these learning-from-practice skills in different ways and to different degrees, this study examined the skills that pre-service teachers exhibited under two experimental conditions. Thirty pre-service teachers were asked to analyze the effects of a videotaped mathematics lesson on student learning, to support their analysis with evidence, and to use their analysis to revise the lesson. Based on the results, it appears that many entry level pre-service teachers can carry out a cause-effect type of analysis of the relationships between specific instructional strategies and students’ learning, and can use this analysis to make productive revisions to the instruction. However, prospective teachers’ ability to collect evidence that supports their analysis appears to be less developed. In addition, the type of analysis that prospective teachers carried out about the effects of instruction on students’ learning differed dramatically across the two experimental task conditions.Preparation of this article was supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant #0083429 to the Mid-Atlantic Center for Teaching and Learning Mathematics). The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Foundation. Thanks to James Hiebert for his comments on earlier drafts of the paper.     

Students’ Involvement in Authentic Modelling Practices as Contexts in Chemistry Education

In science education students should come to understand the nature and significance of models. A promising strategy to achieve this goal is using authentic modelling practices as contexts for meaningful learning of models and modelling. An authentic practice is defined as professionals working with common motives and purposes, pertaining to a similar type of procedure and applying relevant knowledge on the modelling issue they work on. In this study we evaluate whether the use of authentic practices initiates adequate students’ involvement. This was done by investigating students’ interests, ownership, familiarity and complexity. In addition, we evaluated students’ expressed modelling procedures in response to the modelling issues. We designed learning tasks which were enacted by a focus group of students. Three primary data sources were used to collect data. Firstly, a group discussion was organised in which students’ reflected on both authentic practices. Secondly, students filled in written questionnaires containing items on affective and cognitive aspects. Thirdly, the realised modelling procedures by students were analysed. The results show that students’ involvement was successfully initiated, evidenced by motivated students, willingness to continue and the completeness and quality of the realised modelling procedures. The design of the learning tasks proved to be successful in realising this involvement. The results obtained in this study support the strategy of using authentic modelling practices as contexts for meaningful learning of models and modelling.     

E-mentors: Connecting caring adults and kids through E-mail

Conclusion We feel that this program has been enormously beneficial in improving student’s writing skills, interpersonal skills, and computer literacy. According to Principal Linda Perdaems, “This program has had a powerful impact on participating students’ lives. It has opened their eyes to the world of business, helped them set goals for their education, and given them another adult with whom to build a relationship. The program has met and surpassed all expectations.” Teachers feel that as students experience a positive link with the workplace, they are motivated to do better in school. We have also had the pleasure of watching the participating students’ self-esteem blossom under the warmth and light provided through this meaningful and supportive relationship with an additional caring adult. She researches technology integration and implementation and also teaches related courses in the College of Education and Human Development.     

The Rhetoric of Care: Preservice Teacher Discourses that Depoliticize, Deflect, and Deceive

How teachers “care” for students is a well-established line of inquiry in educational research, but the ways such “care” may function as symbolic violence have received scant attention. In this ethnographic investigation of classroom disciplinary interactions, the characteristics and functions of preservice teachers’ care discourses are examined. By translating deficit discourses into expressions of praise for students’ nonacademic talents, the participants’ rhetoric of care effectively shifts blame for failure from teacher to student. The preservice teachers’ expressions of care also function to veil the power being produced in such rhetoric, to frame the teacher as victim when said care is rejected, and to reverse the carer/cared-for dynamic when teachers’ attempts to inspire academic progress are unsuccessful. Implications for teacher education and teacher development are provided as are suggestions for how to recognize and implement more authentic forms of care.     

Characterizing High School Students’ Written Explanations in Biology Laboratories

The purpose of this qualitative interpretive research study was to examine high school students’ written scientific explanations during biology laboratory investigations. Specifically, we characterized the types of epistemologies and forms of reasoning involved in students’ scientific explanations and students’ perceptions of scientific explanations. Sixteen students from a rural high school in the Southeastern United States were the participants of this research study. The data consisted of students’ laboratory reports and individual interviews. The results indicated that students’ explanations were primarily based on first-hand knowledge gained in the science laboratories and mostly representing procedural recounts. Most students did not give explanations based on a theory or a principle and did not use deductive reasoning in their explanations. The students had difficulties explaining phenomena that involved intricate cause–effect relationships. Students perceived scientific explanation as the final step of a scientific inquiry and as an account of what happened in the inquiry process, and held a constructivist–empiricist view of scientific explanations. Our results imply the need for more explicit guidance to help students construct better scientific explanations and explicit teaching of the explanatory genre with particular focus on theoretical and causal explanations.     

Scaffolding cognitive and metacognitive strategy instruction in regular class lessons

The quality of teachers’ knowledge about how people learn influences students’ learning outcomes. Similarly, the quality of students’ knowledge about how they learn influences their engagement in self-regulated learning and consequently, their learning achievement. There is a gap between research findings that support these two premises and teaching–learning practices in classrooms. In this paper we describe attempts to reduce this gap. In Study 1 we surveyed early adolescent students’ cognitive and metacognitive strategy use and demonstrated that students’ cognitive and metacognitive strategy knowledge has substantial room for improvement. In Studies 2 and 3 we collaborated with teachers to embed explicit cognitive and metacognitive strategy instruction, using learning protocols, into regular class lessons. Studies 2 and 3 showed that the learning protocols slipped readily into teachers’ typical lesson designs, scaffolded teachers’ delivery of strategy instruction, and scaffolded some students’ acquisition of strategy knowledge, although progress was sometimes slow. Recommendations are presented for supporting teachers and students to engage with cognitive and metacognitive strategy instruction.     

UNDERSTANDING ACID�CBASE CONCEPTS: EVALUATING THE EFFICACY OF A SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT-CENTRED INSTRUCTIONAL PROGRAM IN INDONESIA

This study was a mixed quantitative–qualitative research to evaluate the efficacy of a designed student-centred instructional (DSCI) program for teaching about acids and bases. The teaching innovation was designed based on constructivist, hands-on inquiry and context-based approaches and implemented in seven 45-min lessons with a class of 36 grade 11 students (experimental group) from a public senior high school in Indonesia. Another class of 38 students (comparison group) from the same school was instructed using a traditional teacher-centred approach. Data were obtained using a (1) 12-item achievement test on acids and bases that was administered to both groups as a pretest and a posttest, (2) self-evaluation 13-item questionnaire on students’ perceptions of their competence and confidence in carrying out the inquiry activities that was administered to the experimental group and (3) 3-item open-ended questionnaire on students’ perceptions of the instructional process using the DSCI that was administered to the experimental group. The results of the study showed that the teaching innovation was effective in improving students’ understanding of acid–base concepts with significant difference between the two groups on the posttest mean scores. Moreover, the effectiveness of the innovation was supported by an increase in students’ interest in learning science as indicated by their (1) positive perceptions of their engagement and competence in doing inquiry activities, (2) positive perceptions of the learning environment and (3) positive outcome expectations. The findings have implications for chemistry teaching in any institution with similar achieving students as well as for the professional development of teachers.     

Closing the Gap: Inquiry in Research and the Secondary Science Classroom

Teaching students how to conduct authentic scientific inquiry is an essential aspect of recent science education reform efforts. Our National Science Foundation-funded GK-12 program paired science graduate students—fellows—with secondary science teachers in order to enhance inquiry-based instruction. This research examined the roles of the fellows, teachers, and school culture in the implementation of inquiry and the fellows’ conceptions of classroom inquiry versus that in their own research. Qualitative data were collected for two academic years. Overall, the classrooms shifted toward a more inquiry-oriented approach over the academic year. Several aspects of school culture influenced inquiry implementation. Fellows described their research as similar in overall structure but less constrained by known concepts, less guided by mentors, and more in-depth than that of secondary school students. The teacher-fellow scientist partnership is a potentially effective professional development model to create positive and lasting change within the science classroom.     

Creating thinking schools through authentic assessment: the case in Singapore

Using Singapore as an example, we argue that schools need to equip and encourage teachers to adopt authentic assessment in teaching and learning so as to develop the students’ higher-order thinking. The importance of teaching and assessing higher-order thinking in Singapore classrooms is encapsulated in the vision of ‘Thinking Schools’ launched by the Ministry of Education in 1997. Underpinning this vision is a shift from conventional assessment to authentic assessment. Unlike conventional paper-and-pencil tests that focus on knowledge reproduction and low-level cognitive processing skills in artificial, contrived contexts, authentic assessment tasks underscore knowledge construction, complex thinking, elaborated communication, collaboration and problem solving in authentic contexts. However, the creation of thinking schools in Singapore remains a constant challenge as many teachers tend to rely on conventional assessment and are often ill-prepared to implement authentic assessment. By presenting the findings from a recent empirical study, we propose that schools build teacher capacity by providing ongoing and sustained professional development on authentic assessment for teachers.     

Assessing elementary school support for inquiry

Increasingly in elementary schools, there has been a focus on the influence of school-level factors on students’ learning. The way in which the learning environment is organised in schools and classrooms is likely to influence students’ opportunities to carry out inquiry. Most studies have focused on the effects of the amount of schooling, rather than effects attributable to support for inquiry in the school context. This study clarifies aspects of school contexts that support inquiry at the school level and describes the development of an inventory to assess school contexts. The Primary School Characteristics Inventory has three components named Motivation for Student Inquiry, Organisational Structures to Support Inquiry and Structures to Support Inquiry Strategies in School. The instrument was effective for identifying schools with varying levels of support for inquiry, suggesting that some schools might need to modify the school context if students are to carry out inquiry in a self-directed way.