How Chinese students’ scientific competencies are influenced by their attitudes?

ABSTRACT

In recent years, research on students’ scientific competencies has generated much discussion. According to the PISA 2015 Assessment and Analytical Framework, both scientific competencies and attitudes towards science – interest in science, valuing scientific approaches to enquiry (or epistemological beliefs about science), and environmental awareness – are integral aspects of scientific literacy. However, few studies have focused on the relationships between them. This article examines how students’ scientific competencies are affected by their attitudes. Based on a theoretical analysis, the present study argues that the three attitudinal factors have a direct impact on scientific competencies, interest has an immediate influence on the other two attitudes, and epistemological beliefs are directly affected by environmental awareness. To test this hypothesis, a model was constructed to verify such relationships. PISA 2015 assessment instruments were used for data collection. The participants were 25,658 students from different parts of China, containing Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was employed for data analysis. The results confirmed our hypothesis. The way in which Chinese students’ attitudes affected their scientific competencies did not differ (to a statistically significant level) by gender or district. The limitations and implications of this research are discussed below.     

Personal Universes: revealing community college students’ competences though their organization of the cosmos

In this article I present a study on learners’ conceptions in cosmology by situating the results in the context of broader historical and sociocultural themes. Participants were community college students in California from non-dominant cultural and linguistic backgrounds finishing their first semester of astronomy. Data were collected through a drawing activity and card sort given during clinical-style interviews. This type of work is typically done from the perspective of conceptual change theory, using drawings to reveal student “misconceptions.” I argue that in analyzing this kind of data, we need to come from the perspective that students are competent, and put their conceptions in context. I begin by presenting traditional frameworks for evaluating and describing learning, all of which rely on an outdated “banking” or “transmission” model of learning that puts an over-emphasis on the performance and attributes of individuals. Not only do these theories provide an incomplete picture of what learning looks like, they create and reify unnecessary divides between “scientific” and “unscientific” that can contribute to student alienation from the world of science. To illustrate this, I present my own results as a window into the logic of learners’ assumptions within a sociocultural context, and suggest ways to support their learning trajectories, rather than figuring out how to unlearn their misconceptions. Through this analysis, I hope to show how taking student conceptions out of sociocultural context can potentially exclude students from non-dominant cultural and linguistic backgrounds from science.     

Are changes of major major changes? The roles of grades,gender, and preferences in college major switching

The choice of college major is a key stage in the career search, and over a third of college students switch majors at least once. We provide the first comprehensive analysis of major switching, looking at the patterns of switching in both academic and non-academic dimensions. Low grades signal academic mismatch and predict switching majors - and the lower the grades, the larger the switch in terms of course content. Surprisingly, these switches do not improve students’ grades. When students switch majors, they switch to majors that “look like them”: females to female-heavy majors, and so on. Lower-ability women flee competitive majors at high rates, while men and higher-ability women are undeterred. Women are far more likely to leave STEM fields for majors that are less competitive – but still somewhat science-intensive – suggesting that leaving STEM may be more about fleeing the “culture” of STEM majors than fleeing science and math.     

Television: The performance of nonresident students in the “economics U$A” telecourse

Abstract

Correspondence study represents the first and most persistent distance education format in American universities. Later called independent study, it enabled universities to disseminate instruction far beyond their campuses. Yet, national‐level leadership provided by the National University Continuing Education Association (NUEA) and its divisions has been relatively restrained. In contrast, leadership in the private correspondence school sector has been assertive, and sometimes even aggressive. The NUEA and its members shunned this approach, choosing instead to lead by persuasion and example. The NUEA developed standards of practice concerned primarily with replicating on‐campus teaching styles and values, rather than the promotion of distance education. With the abolition of its division structure, the NUEA's successor, the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA), has opted out of a leadership role in independent study. This paper concludes that the NUEA's initial attempt at leadership in distance education— while reasoned and principled—contained flaws that made failure inevitable.     

Perceptions of Chinese students in an Australian university: are we meeting their needs?

This short-term longitudinal study sought to identify the issues faced by a group of international Chinese students undertaking study in an Australian university. While the focus was on educational issues, socio-cultural and personal factors were also examined in an attempt to identify the sorts of strategies students used in settling into a new socio-cultural and educational context. Interviews conducted at the beginning and end of the first semester of study indicate a range of issues that are supported by previous studies. What has not previously been highlighted, however, is the emphasis on speaking and listening skills which students reported they needed to improve. Lack of proficiency in these areas was seen by students as hampering their active participation in class, leading to lack of confidence in approaching Australian students, and resulting in their inability to benefit from the “Australian experience”. Many existing academic support structures in Australian universities tend to emphasize support with written and study skills. While this is important because of the direct impact on assessment, it is perhaps now opportune to place some emphasis on developing strategies and programmes that will support the development of students' speaking and listening skills, with a focus on intercultural communication.     

The identification of students’ alternative conceptions in biology by the use of creative writing

Children, Power and Schooling. How Childhood is Structured in the Primary School By Dympna Devine Trentham Books Ltd. 2003, ISBN: 1 85856 271 6 (pbk)     

The present situation and the countermeasure of belief education of vocational college students——Analysis based on the belief of higher vocational students in Hainan Province

本文根据对海南省高职院校信仰状况的调查,在总结高职学生当前信仰教育现状的基础上,分析了影响高职学生信仰教育的因素,并有针对性地提出了加强高职学生信仰教育的对策.     

“Our tears are not enough”: The warrant of the dead in the rhetoric of gun control

The warrant of the dead refers to an explicit or implicit claim that the dead place a demand on the living. The living are called on to act and the dead are invoked as justification for that action: since they died, we should do X. Seeing this rhetorical move as a warrant is useful because the connection between the dead and the requested action of the living is often assumed rather than argued outright. This essay examines how, why, and to what effect President Barack Obama used the warrant of the dead in his gun control rhetoric since the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012. By extending, expanding, and intensifying memories of the victims of gun violence, Obama used the warrant of the dead to try to establish sustained concern for those victims and thus sustained commitment to gun control. Yet Obama’s effort to transform gun control supporters into gun control activists proved largely ineffective. Examining this partial rhetorical failure offers rhetorical scholars important insights about the warrant of the dead, the gun debate, and, more generally, the challenges of public argument and deliberation in an era of fleeting engagement.     

Connecting college and work: examining the relationship between students’ college employment experiences and their professional and career attitudes

This study examined the relationship between U.S. students’ employment experiences during college/university and their fourth-year professional career attitudes as defined by the Wabash National Study Professional Success Scale, including obtaining recognition from one’s colleagues for contributions to their field of expertise, having administrative responsibility for the work of others, working in a prestigious occupation, making a lot of money and becoming successful in a business of one’s own. This study considered three types of employment experiences (on-campus work; off-campus work; and completing an internship practicum, field experience, co-op or clinical assignment), as well as the number of hours spent engaged in on-campus and off-campus employment, and whether these measures of student employment were associated with students’ fourth-year professional career attitudes. Results suggest that on-campus work experiences, off-campus work experiences; and completing an internship practicum, field experience, co-op or clinical assignment, as well as the number of hours of employment during college have the potential to influence students’ fourth-year professional career attitudes.     

Community college students’ views on learning mathematics in terms of their epistemological beliefs: a Q method study

The purpose of this study was to explore the views of students enrolled at a small United States Midwestern community college toward learning mathematics, and to examine the relationship between student beliefs about mathematic learning and educational experiences with mathematics using Q methodology and open-ended response prompts. Schommer’s (Journal of Educational Psychology, 82, 495–504, 1990) multidimensional theory of personal epistemology provided the structural framework for the development of 36 domain specific Q sort statements. Analysis of the data revealed three distinct but related views of learning mathematic which were labeled Active Learners, Skeptical Learners, and Confident Learners. Chi-square tests of independence revealed no significant differences based on gender. Additionally, there was no evidence for differences based on level of mathematics completed, age, or college hours accumulated. Student’s previous experiences in instructional environments, however, were closely associated with beliefs. Results are discussed in view of the implications for establishing learning environments and considerations in implementing Standards-based curricula in higher education.     

Self-concept of students in higher education: are there differences by faculty and gender?

Many studies examine student self-concept during compulsory schooling but few have explored the self-concept of students in higher educational settings. The current study examined self-concept by faculty and gender among higher education students in New Zealand. Participants were 929 undergraduate students from a large New Zealand university. The results showed some differences in verbal and maths self-concept by faculty. Generally, students in faculties teaching subjects more reliant on maths skills had higher maths self-concept than those in faculties where facility in verbal skills was important. The opposite results were found for verbal self-concept. No overall gender differences were found for general, academic, verbal and maths self-concept although a statistically significant difference was found for problem-solving self-concept. This finding suggests students’ choice of faculty may be based on perceptions of their skills and capabilities in the various fields, irrespective of gender.     

The extended Theory of Planned Behaviour and college grades: the role of cognition and past behaviour in the prediction of students’ academic intentions and achievements

Understanding the underlying processes influencing college students’ academic achievement represents an important goal of educational research. The aim of the present study was to examine the utility of the extended Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the relative influence of cognitive processes and measures of past behaviour in the prediction of grade intentions and actual grades in the context of higher education. Our results show that perceived behavioural control (PBC), subjective norms (SN) and past grades emerged as significant predictors and were able to explain 41% of the variance in grade intentions, while the influence of cognitive processes (planning and future orientation) was not significant. With respect to the prediction of actual grades, we found that habitual school attendance and past grades explained 26% of the variance in actual grades. Again, the influence of cognitive processes (planning and future orientation) was not significant. The main discussion is centred on the utility of the extended TPB in the prediction of academic achievement and the complex relationship between cognitive processes and past behaviour in predicting human actions in general. Limitations and implications of the study are also discussed.     

Testing a motivational model of achievement: How students’ mathematical beliefs and interests are related to their achievement

Blackwell et al. (Child Development 78(1):246–263, 2007) tested a motivational model of achievement in which an incremental theory of intelligence leads to learning goals and positive effort beliefs, which leads to fewer ability-based, helpless attributions, and more positive strategies, which leads to improved grades. In the present study, we tested this model by using a different population, using domain-specific items, comparing the results across gender, including “interest” as another variable in the model, and assessing the impact of achievement as an antecedent and outcome variable in the model. Participants included 163, mostly White, ninth-grade Algebra students from a suburban school in southwest Virginia, USA. We established that the model had a relatively good fit to the data and all paths were statistically significant when achievement was used as both an antecedent and outcome variable. The standardized path coefficients were consistent with those reported by Blackwell et al. and the model was invariant across genders. Furthermore, we documented that interest could be included as another mediating variable in the model. The results of this study provide evidence to support the validity of the relationships between the constructs in the Blackwell et al. model for the population examined.     

The drivers of women farmers’ participation in cash crop production: the case of women smallholder farmers in Northern Ghana

Purpose: Participation in labour markets and high-value crops among men and women smallholder farmers has always been an important strategy for poverty alleviation and attainment of food and income security. In contributing to the generation of gender-disaggregated empirical literature, this paper examined determinants of women smallholder farmers’ participation in their households’ decision-making regarding cash crop production.

Methodology: Data for the paper were sourced from a baseline survey conducted by Monitory and Evaluation Technical Support Services, Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research and Ghana Statistical Service for the USAID Feed the Future Programme in their Northern Ghana Zone of Influence. The data were analysed using probit regression analysis to identify factors which significantly influence women farmers’ participation in cash crop production.

Findings: The probit analysis identified intra-household power relations such as women participation in household decision-making, control over household productive resources and control over household income as significant determinants of smallholder women farmers’ participation in cash crop production.

Theoretical Implication: Improving women smallholder farmers’ power to participate in household decision-making, access to and control over household productive resources and income are therefore imperative in boosting women farmers’ participation in cash crop production.

Practical Implications: It is therefore recommended that any gender-targeted policy and programme with the aim of women’s economic empowerment must critically examine the sociocultural barriers impeding women’s participation in their household decision-making and control over household productive resources. Women farmers’ participation in their households’ decision-making regarding cash crop production and the use of income generated from it should be encouraged through gender mainstreaming in agricultural service delivery.     

How do students’ accounts of sociology change over the course of their undergraduate degrees?

In this article we examine how students’ accounts of the discipline of sociology change over the course of their undergraduate degrees. Based on a phenomenographic analysis of 86 interviews with 32 sociology and criminology students over the course of their undergraduate degrees, we constituted five different ways of accounting for sociology. These ranged from describing sociology as a form of personal development focused on developing the students’ opinion to describing sociology as a partial way of studying the relations between people and society. The majority of students expressed more inclusive accounts of sociology over the course of their degrees. However, some students’ accounts suggested they had become disengaged with sociology. We argue that the differences in the ways that students were disengaged were not captured by our phenomenographic categories. In conclusion, we argue that our analysis illustrates the crucial role that students’ relations to knowledge play in understanding the transformative nature of higher education.     

The effect of prior education on students’ competency in digital logic: the case of ultraorthodox Jewish students

In line with the growing interest in extending the diversity of CS students, we examined the performance of a unique group of students studying an introductory course in Digital logic: ultraorthodox Jewish men, whose previous education was based mostly on studying Talmud and who lacked a conventional high-school education. We used questions from the Digital Logic Concept Inventory . We compared the results to those of religious Jewish men with a conventional high-school education, and to the results reported in the literature. The ultraorthodox group performed better than the other groups in tasks that concerned number representation. No other statistically significant differences were found. Talk-aloud protocols revealed that the ultraorthodox students utilized a viable conceptual understanding in their performance. We can conclude that students’ unique, alternative prior education should not be merely viewed as an obstacle to their academic studies, but also as a potential source for strengths.