Teaching Air Pollution in an Authentic Context

This paper describes a teaching-learning sequence (TLS) about air pollution and the findings resulting from its implementation by pre-service elementary teachers (PET) currently undergraduate students of the Department of Primary Education in the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. The TLS focused on the relation of air pollution with wind and topography in local conditions. An authentic context was provided to the students based on daily up-to-date meteorological data via the Internet in order to estimate air pollution. The results are encouraging given that PET can correlate wind and concentration of air pollutants through reading specialized angular diagrams and weather maps, can recognize the correlation of topography in the concentration of air pollutants, and can describe temperature inversion. However, the PET demonstrated clear difficulties in ability of orientation, in wind naming, and in interpretation of symbols on weather map. Finally, the implications on teaching air pollution are discussed.     

What Undergraduates Misunderstand about Stem Cell Research

As biotechnology‐related scientific advances, such as stem cell research (SCR), are increasingly permeating the popular media, it has become ever more important to understand students’ ideas about this issue. Very few studies have investigated learners’ ideas about biotechnology. Our study was designed to understand the types of alternative conceptions students hold concerning SCR. The qualitative research design allowed us to examine college students’ understandings about stem cells and SCR. More specifically, we addressed the following questions: How can alternative conceptions about stem cell topics be categorized? What types of alternative conceptions are most common? Participants included 132 students enrolled in a biotechnology course that focused on the scientific background of biotechnology applications relevant to citizens. In this study, we used an inductive approach to develop a taxonomy of alternative ideas about SCR by analyzing student responses to multiple open‐ended data sources. We identified five categories of conceptions: alternative conceptions about what, alternative conceptions about how, alternative conceptions about medical potential, terminology confusion, and political and legal alternative conceptions. In order to improve instruction, it is important to understand students’ ideas when entering the classroom. Our findings highlight a need to teach how science can be applied to societal issues and improve science literacy and citizenship.     

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.     

The influence of teachers’ conceptions of teaching and learning on their technology acceptance

Prior research has attempted to incorporate different personal variables within extant theories of technology acceptance models (TAMs). This study further extends TAM by incorporating teachers’ conceptions of teaching and learning (CoTL) in two forms: constructivist and traditional conceptions. The moderating effects of teachers’ demographic variables including age, gender, teaching experience, teaching level, and technology experience were tested. Our findings demonstrated that incorporating CoTL could provide a richer and more nuanced understanding of technology acceptance, although no moderating effects on any demographic variables were found.     

A Cross-Age Study of Different Perspectives in Solution Chemistry from Junior to Senior High School

This study reports on research examining what students think about aspects of solution chemistry and seeks to establish what alternative conceptions they hold in this area. To achieve this aim the researchers developed a test comprising of open-ended questions that evaluated students understanding of solution chemistry. The test was administered to 441 students selected randomly from different grades, grade 7 through grade 10. The research findings suggest that students have difficulty at comprehending the investigated concepts in solution chemistry. Alternative conceptions about the concepts of dissolution, chemical bonding, evaporation and condensation influence latter learning. Interestingly, the grade 9 students have the least percentages, except for Item 3, amongst grades in terms of alternative conception. Also, students' alternative conceptions are also stored in long-term memory and interact with each another. In the light of the findings, it can be suggested that the future research may need to focus on classifying of students' responses in terms of categories in understanding such as propositions, strings, images, episode, intellectual skills and cognitive strategies.     

Developing an Understanding of Chemistry: A case study of one Swedish student's rich conceptualisation for making sense of upper secondary school chemistry

In this paper, we report a case study of a 16-year-old Swedish upper secondary student's developing understanding of key concept areas studied in his upper secondary school chemistry course. This study illustrates how the thinking of an individual learner, Jesper, evolves over a school year in response to formal instruction in a particular educational context. Jesper presented a range of ideas, some of which matched intended teaching whilst others were quite inconsistent with canonical chemistry. Of particular interest, research data suggest that his initial alternative conceptions influenced his thinking about subsequent teaching of chemistry subject matter, illustrating how students' alternative conceptions interact with formal instruction. Our findings support the claims of some researchers that alternative conceptions may be stable and tenacious in the context of instruction. Jesper's rich conceptualisation of matter at submicroscopic scales drew upon intuitions about the world that led to teaching being misinterpreted to develop further alternative conceptions. Yet his intuitive thinking also offered clear potential links with canonical scientific concepts that could have been harnessed to channel his developing thinking. These findings support the argument that identifying students' intuitive thinking and how it develops in different instructional contexts can support the development of more effective science pedagogy.     

Defining Social Goods and Distributing Them Fairly: The Development of Conceptions of Fair Testing Practices

Conceptions of fair educational practices develop differently for testing and learning situations. After about age 8, children judged peer tutoring to be an unfair practice during a test. (Most 6–8-year-olds judged it fair). Yet, peer tutoring was seen as the most fair way to help students learn until at least age 17. In addition, 4 levels of conceptions of fair testing practices were found. Adult-like conceptions of fair testing practices emerged at about age 11, which contrasts with about 18 for conceptions of fair learning practices. Conceptions of fair testing practices parallel the development of the concepts of ability and effort as factors limiting immediate performance; whereas conceptions of fair learning practices parallel the development of concepts concerning the long-term acquisition of intelligence. These findings support the conclusion that children's understanding of different types of situations is reflected in their conceptions of social justice.     

Do academic developers’ conceptions support an integrated academic practice? A comparative case study from Hong Kong and Singapore

ABSTRACT

Academic development (AD) is increasingly being oriented towards an integrated approach to academic practice (AP), given arguments for the importance of integrating research, learning, and teaching. Given the complex and evolving character of AD as a profession, it is important to understand the conceptions of AD held by academic developers, who can play a key role in supporting conditions for such integration. This comparative case study explores conceptions of AD and the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) held by academic developers at two universities in Hong Kong and Singapore, and examines the extent to which these conceptions support an integrated AP. The findings show that not all conceptions recognise the importance of integration; moreover, though in both cases aspects of integration come to the fore, there are gaps that militate against a fuller understanding of integrating teaching and research. The study has implications for future AD practice and raises questions about using SoTL as a means of fostering teaching and research integration.     

Why Most Children Think Well of Themselves

This research aimed to examine whether and why children hold favorable self‐conceptions (total N = 882 Dutch children, ages 8–12). Surveys (Studies 1–2) showed that children report strongly favorable self‐conceptions. For example, when describing themselves on an open‐ended measure, children mainly provided positive self‐conceptions—about four times more than neutral self‐conceptions, and about 11 times more than negative self‐conceptions. Experiments (Studies 3–4) demonstrated that children report favorable self‐conceptions, in part, to live up to social norms idealizing such self‐conceptions, and to avoid seeing or presenting themselves negatively. These findings advance understanding of the developing self‐concept and its valence: In middle and late childhood, children's self‐conceptions are robustly favorable and influenced by both external (social norms) and internal (self‐motives) forces.     

Understanding Early Elementary Children's Conceptual Knowledge of Plant Structure and Function through Drawings

This study examined children''s drawings to explain children''s conceptual understanding of plant structure and function. The study explored whether the children''s drawings accurately reflect their conceptual understanding about plants in a manner that can be interpreted by others. Drawing, survey, interview, and observational data were collected from 182 students in grades K and 1 in rural southeastern United States. Results demonstrated the children held a wide range of conceptions concerning plant structure and function. These young children held very simple ideas about plants with respect to both their structure and function. Consistent with the drawings, the interviews presented similar findings.     

Building on student mathematical thinking in whole-class discourse: exploring teachers’ in-the-moment decision-making,interpretation, and underlying conceptions

Often, mathematics teachers do not incorporate whole-class discourse of students’ various ideas and solution methods into their teaching practice. Particularly complex is the in-the-moment decision-making that is necessary to build on students’ thinking and develop their collective construction of mathematics. This study explores the decision-making patterns of five experienced Dutch mathematics teachers during their novice attempts at orchestrating whole-class discourse concerning students’ various solution methods. Our goal has been to unpack the complexity of their in-the-moment decision-making during whole-class discourse through lesson observations and stimulated recall interviews. We investigated teacher decision-making adopting a model that combines two perspectives, namely (1) we explored student-teacher interaction with regard to building on student thinking and (2) we explored how the teachers based decisions during such interaction upon their own personal conceptions and interpretation of student thinking. During these novice attempts at orchestrating whole-class discourse, the teachers created many situations for students to articulate their thinking. We found that at certain instances, teachers’ in-the-moment decision-making resulted in opportunities to build on student thinking that were not completely seized. During such instances, the teachers’ decision-making was shaped by the teachers’ own conceptions of the relevant mathematics and by teacher conceptions that centered around student understanding and mathematical goals. Our findings suggest that teachers might be supported in their novice attempts at whole-class discourse by explicit discussion of the mathematics and of their conceptions with regard to student understanding and mathematical goals.

     

Understanding teenagers' personal contexts to design technology that supports learning about energy consumption

Energy sustainability is prevalent in political and popular rhetoric and yet energy consumption is rising. Teenagers are an important category of future energy consumers, but little is known of their conceptions about energy and energy saving. We report on empirical research with two groups of teenagers. This is part of ongoing work to design learning technologies that support teenagers learn about personal energy consumption. In this paper we describe our analysis and methodology, which are shaped by the Ecology of Resources (EoR) design framework [Luckin, R. (2010). Re-designing learning contexts: Technology-rich, learner-centred ecologies. London and New York, NY: Routledge]. Our findings informed the development of an EoR model of the participants' personal context, which includes their world resources (people, tools, knowledge, skills, and environment) and their personal resources (conceptions, motivations and concerns around energy consumption). We discuss the range of methods we employed to understand learners' personal contexts. These findings contribute to our understanding of how to explore teenagers' personal contexts and have implications for the design of technology to support learning about personal energy consumption.     

Conceptions and Beliefs About “Good Teaching”: An integration of contrasting research areas

Previous research on conceptions of teaching comes from three distinct areas. The first is based on interviews with students and staff in higher education, the second involves the investigation of the conceptions and beliefs of schoolteachers, while the third derives from more general consideration of the nature of conceptions themselves. The empirical study reported here drew on these differing research areas to distinguish between beliefs and conceptions about good teaching and to explore their possible origins. The data came from student teachers, but the findings contribute to current thinking about conceptions of teaching in higher education. Bringing the empirical findings together with the three areas of previous research enables a more complete concept map to be drawn to summarise what may underlie the notion of “good teaching”.     

An integrated analysis of secondary school students’ conceptions and beliefs about learning

Students’ conceptions and beliefs about learning are constructs that have been proposed in two independent lines of research, phenomenographic and metacognitive, and analysed using qualitative and quantitative methodologies, respectively. The present research examines and integrates in a single study both constructs and methodologies. Data were collected through an open-ended task (Tynjäla, 1997) and an epistemological questionnaire (Schommer, 1990), administered to a sample of 1,200 secondary students. Three major statistically significant findings emerged. First, students’ conceptions of learning and epistemological beliefs changed from simplistic to more complex as they progressed through school. Second, the two constructs were linked to each other. The most advanced category on the ‘dimension of depth’ of learning conceptions corresponded to the highest scores at the complex pole of the belief system. Third, learning conceptions as well as epistemological beliefs were predictors of academic performance. The more capable students were of constructing meaning, the better their academic achievement appeared to be. Theoretical and educational implications are discussed with regard to further research, classroom instruction, and the value of combining both research methodologies in order to deepen our understanding of students’ learning experience.     

The Contribution of Constructivist Instruction Accompanied by Concept Mapping in Enhancing Pre-service Chemistry Teachers’ Conceptual Understanding of Chemistry in the Laboratory Course

The present study aimed to evaluate whether a chemistry laboratory course called “Laboratory Experiments in Science Education” based on constructivist instruction accompanied with concept mapping enhanced pre-service chemistry teachers’ conceptual understanding. Data were collected from five pre-service chemistry teachers at a university in Ankara by means of a concept test and semi-structured interviews. Results showed that pre-service teachers had some alternative conceptions about chemistry topics. Moreover, using constructivist instruction accompanied with concept maps as an instructional tool was effective to promote conceptual understanding. Participants thought that concept maps were useful especially in recognizing the relation between different chemistry concepts.     

Students’ Alternative Conceptions about Electricity and Effect of Inquiry-Based Teaching Strategies

This study attempted to investigate the alternative conceptions that a group of 12 Lebanese students in a grade 9 class hold about electricity. It also attempted to evaluate learning outcomes of implementing in that class an inquiry-based module for the acquisition of conceptual understanding of basic concepts in electricity. Fourteen mostly subjective tests were administered throughout the implementation phase of the inquiry-based module to assess the evolution of participants’ conceptions. The instrument DIRECT (Version 1.0) focusing on conceptual understanding was used as a post-instructional test to measure acquisition of understanding. The findings revealed that most of the alternative conceptions reported in literature were found amongst the participants. Results of the post-testing showed that the implemented inquiry-based approach was successful in enhancing participants’ conceptual understanding of the targeted DC circuit concepts.     

Teachers’ Conceptions of Gifted and Talented Young Children

Efforts by schools to cater more adequately for highly able students necessitate a shared understanding regarding the gifted and talented. This research aims to ascertain the qualitatively different ways in which teachers identify and describe gifted and talented children. It examines the variety of conceptions of giftedness held by teachers and analyses the patterns and inconsistencies among them. Initial findings of the study, conducted with 16 early childhood teachers (two male and 14 female), are reported. A qualitative phenomenographic research design was adopted because of its focus on revealing individual understandings (conceptions). These results show that teachers understand giftedness as a series of conceptions, namely excellence, potential, rarity, behaviour, innate ability, motivation and asynchrony. These are discussed with reference to existing theories and pertinent research. Results represent the initial findings of an ongoing major research project.     

Interrogating conceptions of leadership: school principals,policy and paradox

Currently educational research literature demonstrates wide discussion and endorsement of ‘distributed’ leadership while concurrently traditional, hegemonic forms prevail in practice. This article investigates understandings about educational leadership held by Australian school principals. The article describes the contradictory conceptions about educational leadership currently in circulation. It interrogates underlying assumptions and questions how both hegemonic and newer leadership conceptions and assumptions serve educational leaders. Data from principals around the country and across education systems reinforced the predominance of un-theorised or under-theorised notions about leadership, with similar assumptions found in important policy artefacts and practices. This article emerges from interviews with 100 principals focusing on their professional learning needs, which revealed interesting ideas, issues and dilemmas concerning ‘leadership’. It fills a gap in research on distributed leadership by exploring contradictions inherent in policy, practice and understandings in this area. The article is structured into four sections. First, extant literature on this topic and the research are explained. Second, the article focuses on principals' conceptions about leadership and those inherent within important policy and practical artefacts. A discussion of the findings focuses on the discrepancy between theory and policy endorsement and the views of practitioners. Finally, the article canvasses the implications of the research.