The Relationship between Students' Connections to Out‐of‐School Experiences and Factors Associated with Science Learning

This study examined the relationship between students' out‐of‐school experiences and various factors associated with science learning. Participants were 1,014 students from two urban high schools (secondary schools). They completed a survey questionnaire and science assessment describing their science learning experiences across contexts and science understanding. Using multilevel statistical modelling, accounting for the multilevel structure of the data with students (Level 1) assigned to teachers (Level 2), the results indicated that controlling for student and classroom factors, students' ability to make connections between in‐school and out‐of‐school science experiences was associated with positive learning outcomes such as achievement, interest in science, careers in science, self‐efficacy, perseverance, and effort in learning science. Teacher practice connecting to students' out‐of‐school experiences was negatively associated with student achievement but has no association with other outcome measures. The mixed results found in this study alert us to issues and opportunities concerning the integration of students' out‐of‐school experiences to classroom instruction, and ultimately improving our understanding of science learning across contexts.     

温州市中专生违法犯罪的成因与预防

随着社会的发展、社会环境的不断变化和书籍、报刊、影视、网络等文化的影响,青少年违法犯罪人数逐年增多,对社会的危害越来越大,已经成为社会的一个突出问题。运不能不今全社会深思和警醒。预防和重视青少年违法犯罪已成为全社会的共同呼声。本文结合温州中专生的具体情况,分析了其犯罪的原因,提出了预防的对策,以便做到防患于未然。     

Predicting Students’ Skills in the Context of Scientific Inquiry with Cognitive,Motivational, and Sociodemographic Variables

Research on predictors of achievement in science is often targeted on more traditional content-based assessments and single student characteristics. At the same time, the development of skills in the field of scientific inquiry constitutes a focal point of interest for science education. Against this background, the purpose of this study was to investigate to which extent multiple student characteristics contribute to skills of scientific inquiry. Based on a theoretical framework describing nine epistemological acts, we constructed and administered a multiple-choice test that assesses these skills in lower and upper secondary school level (n?=?780). The test items contained problem-solving situations that occur during chemical investigations in school and had to be solved by choosing an appropriate inquiry procedure. We collected further data on 12 cognitive, motivational, and sociodemographic variables such as conceptual knowledge, enjoyment of chemistry, or language spoken at home. Plausible values were drawn to quantify students’ inquiry skills. The results show that students’ characteristics predict their inquiry skills to a large extent (55%), whereas 9 out of 12 variables contribute significantly on a multivariate level. The influence of sociodemographic traits such as gender or the social background becomes non-significant after controlling for cognitive and motivational variables. Furthermore, the performance advance of students from upper secondary school level can be explained by controlling for cognitive covariates. We discuss our findings with regard to curricular aspects and raise the question whether the inquiry skills can be considered as an autonomous trait in science education research.     

幼儿园集体科学教学活动设计中存在的问题与对策

幼儿科学活动教育越来越受到人们的重视,然而在现实的科学活动设计中,却存在着诸多问题。文章主要围绕幼儿园集体教学中,科学活动设计存在的问题进行分析,主要有科学活动设计中存在的目标把握不准确,问题提出缺少情境性,材料投放缺乏目的性,教师提问偏离主题,缺少对活动结束后的总结等问题,并针对这些问题提出相应的解决策略。     

校外科技教育活动评价体系初探

校外科技教育活动和学校教育一样需要进行科学的评价,校外教育机构普遍缺乏教育活动的评价体系,即使在现有的不甚完善的评价体系中还存在明显的不尽合理的地方,这种状况将影响到校外教育的可持续发展。文章从校外教育机构本身、活动中的学生以及教师三个方面对校外科技教育的评价原则、评价指标、权重分配等作了一定的阐述。     

大学生科技创新障碍分析

培养学生的创新精神和实践能力是时代赋予教育工作者的使命。通过分析大学生科技创新活动的现状与障碍,提出了克服大学生科技创新活动障碍的对策。     

Racial Hiring Quotas for Teachers: Another Perspective

Today I talked to my students about ways we could make class better for us and then asked them to talk it over. I told them that I needed their help. We agreed to work together     

A Multidimensional Scaling Analysis of Students’ Attitudes about Science Careers

To encourage students to seek careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields, it is important to gauge students’ implicit and explicit attitudes towards scientific professions. We asked high school and college students to rate the similarity of pairs of occupations, and then used multidimensional scaling (MDS) to create a spatial representation of occupational similarity. Other students confirmed the emergent MDS map by rating each of the occupations along several dimensions. We found that participants across age and sex considered scientific professions to be less creative and less people‐oriented than other popular career choices. We conclude that students may be led away from STEM careers by common misperceptions that science is a difficult, uncreative, and socially isolating pursuit.     

高中地理课“活动”探究——以湘教版必修一“活动”调查为例

目前太原市地理学科选用的是湘教版的教材,这套教材最大的特点就是活动多,其中必修一有69个探究活动项目。如此多的活动,教师不可能全部在有限的上课时间内完成,如何取舍、改编,以取得较好的活动教学效果,这是每个地理教师非常关心的问题。文章通过对必修一的研究及在教学实践的基础上归纳出了教材中活动教学的九种类型,再根据目前活动教学开展存在的一些困难,提出了对于教师在活动教学的开展时的一些建议。     

Exploring marine ecosystems with elementary school Portuguese children: inquiry-based project activities focused on ‘real-life’ contexts

The purpose of the study was to investigate how young students engage in an inquiry-based project driven by real-life contexts. Elementary school children were engaged in a small inquiry project centred on marine biodiversity and species adaptations. All activities included the exploration of an out-of-school setting as a learning context. A total of 49 students and 2 teachers were involved in the activities. The research methods included observation, document analysis and content analysis of the answers to a questionnaire and an interview. The results revealed that most of the students acquired scientific knowledge related to biological diversity and adaptations to habitat. Moreover, students progressively demonstrate greater autonomy, argumentative ability and decision-making. One implication of the present study is that elementary science curriculum could be better managed with inquiry project-based activities that explore different types of resources and out-of-school settings.     

浅谈中学科学课程中的活动内涵

中学科学课程中重学科课程轻活动课程的现象严重,致使科学课程成为死记硬背的代名词。深入理解科学课程中的活动内涵,加强并活跃学生的实践性活动,是科学教育的必经之路。     

Bridging the Gap? A Comparative,Retrospective Analysis of Science Literacy and Interest in Science for Indigenous and Non‐Indigenous Australian Students

Previous research has shown that indigenous students in Australia do not enjoy equal educational outcomes with other Australians. This secondary analysis of PISA 2006 confirmed that this continues to be the case in science literacy for secondary students. However, the analysis also revealed that indigenous Australian students held interest in science equal to that of their non‐indigenous peers, and that observed variations in science literacy performance were most strongly explained by variations in reading literacy. These findings hold important implications for teachers, teacher educators, policy‐makers, and researchers. Firstly, acknowledging and publicly valuing indigenous Australian science knowledge through rethinking school science curriculum seems an important approach to engaging indigenous students and improving their literacy in science. Secondly, appropriate professional learning for practising teachers and the incorporation of indigenous knowing in science methods training in teacher preparation seems warranted. Additionally, we offer a number of questions for further reflection and research that would benefit our understanding of ways forward in closing the science literacy gap for indigenous students. Whilst this research remains firmly situated within the Australian educational context, we at the same time believe that the findings and implications offered here hold value for science education practitioners and researchers in other countries with similar populations striving to achieve science literacy for all.