High school students' understanding of resistance in simple series electric circuits

In view of the lack of work on the understanding of resistance concept, we studied the understanding that high school students (from the eighth to the twelfth grades) were able to develop with regard to the interrelationships between this concept, and the potential difference and current concepts (Ohm's law). In addition, we explored the immediate effects of exposure to electricity courses on the intuitive mastery of these relationships. The participants were presented with information on potential difference and intensity of current and asked to predict the corresponding resistance values. In this current-potential difference context, the resistance concept was difficult to understand. For the majority of participants, resistance was a direct function of both current and potential difference, which is more reminiscent of the concept of power than of the concept of resistance. The systematic teaching of electricity concepts and Ohm's law had only limited, positive as well as negative, effects on the understanding of these relationships. The implications for education are discussed.     

A comparison of students' conceptual understanding of electric circuits in simulation only and simulation‐laboratory contexts

The aim of this experimental study was to compare learning outcomes of students using a simulation alone (simulation environment) with outcomes of those using a simulation in parallel with real circuits (combination environment) in the domain of electricity, and to explore how learning outcomes in these environments are mediated by implicit (only procedural guidance) and explicit (more structure and guidance for the discovery process) instruction. Matched‐quartets were created based on the pre‐test results of 50 elementary school students and divided randomly into a simulation implicit (SI), simulation explicit (SE), combination implicit (CI) and combination explicit (CE) conditions. The results demonstrated that the instructional support had an expected effect on students' understanding of electric circuits when they used the simulation alone; pure procedural guidance (SI) was insufficient to promote conceptual understanding, but when the students were given more guidance for the discovery process (SE) they were able to gain significant amount of subject knowledge. A surprising finding was that when the students used the simulation and the real circuits in parallel, the explicit instruction (CE) did not seem to elicit much additional gain for their understanding of electric circuits compared to the implicit instruction (CI). Instead, the explicit instruction slowed down the inquiry process substantially in the combination environment (CE). Although the explicit instruction was able to improve students' conceptual understanding of electrical circuits considerably in the simulation environment, their understanding did not reach the level of the students in the combination environment. These results suggest that when teaching students about electricity, the students can gain better understanding when they have an opportunity to use the simulation and the real circuits in parallel than if they have only a computer simulation available, even when the use of the simulation is supported with the explicit instruction. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 71–93, 2011     

High school students' understanding of projectile motion concepts

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of conceptual change-based instruction and traditionally designed physics instruction on students' understanding of projectile motion concepts. Misconceptions related to projectile motion concepts were determined by related literature on this subject. Accordingly, the Projectile Motion Concepts Test was developed. The data were obtained through 43 students in an experimental group taught with learning activities based on conceptual change instruction and 39 students in a control group who followed traditional classroom instruction. The results showed that conceptual change-based instruction caused significantly better acquisition of conceptual change of projectile motion concepts than the traditional instruction.     

Exploring identities to deepen understanding of urban high school students' sexual health decision‐making

Sexual health is a controversial science topic that has received little attention in the field of science education, despite its direct relevance to students' lives and communities. Moreover, research from other fields indicates that a great deal remains to be learned about how to make school learning about sexual health influence the real‐life choices of students. In order to provide a more nuanced understanding of young people's decision‐making, this study examines students' talk about sexual health decision‐making through the lens of identities. Qualitative, ethnographic research methods with twenty 12th grade students attending a New York City public school are used to illustrate how students take on multiple identities in relation to sexual health decision‐making. Further, the study illustrates how these identities are formed by various aspects of students' lives, such as school, family, relationships, and religion, and by societal discourses on topics such as gender, individual responsibility, and morality. The study argues that looking at sexual health decision‐making—and at decision‐making about other controversial science topics—as tied to students' identities provides a useful way for teachers and researchers to grasp the complexity of these decisions, as a step toward creating curriculum that influences them. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47:742–762, 2010     

Natural pedagogical conversations in high school students' internship

Many science educators encourage student experiences of “authentic” science by means of student participation in science‐related workplaces. Little research has been done, however, to investigate how “teaching” naturally occurs in such settings, where scientists or technicians normally do not have pedagogical training and generally do not have time (or value) receiving such training. This study examines how laboratory members without a pedagogical background or experience in teaching engage high school students during their internship activities. Drawing on conversation analysis, we analyze the minute‐by‐minute transactions that occurred while high school students participated in a leading environmental science laboratory. We find that the participation trajectory was based on demonstration‐practice‐connect (D‐P‐C) phases that continually recurred in the process of “doing” science. Concerning the transactional structures, we identify two basic conversation patterns—Initiate‐Clarify‐Reply (I‐C‐R) and Initiate‐Reply‐Clarify‐Reply (I‐R‐C‐R)—that do not only differ from the well‐known Initiate‐Reply‐Evaluate (I‐R‐E) patterns previously observed in science classrooms, but also could be combined to constitute more complex patterns. With respect to the organization of natural pedagogical conversations, we find that there were not only of preferred and dispreferred modes of responding but also ambiguous dispreferred modes; and the formulating organization not only includes self‐formulating but also other‐formulating. These natural pedagogical conversations helped, on the one hand, students to clarify their understanding and, on the other hand, technicians (or teachers) to teach toward different needs for different students in different contexts. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 481–505, 2009     

Effect of explicit problem solving instruction on high school students' problem-solving performance and conceptual understanding of physics

In this study a two-sample, pre/posttest, quasi-experimental design was used to investigate the effect of explicit problem-solving instruction on high school students' conceptual understanding of physics. Eight physics classes, with a total of 145 students, were randomly assigned to either a treatment or comparison group. The four treatment classes were taught how to use an explicit problem-solving strategy, while the four comparison classes were taught how to use a textbook problem-solving strategy. Students' problem-solving performance and conceptual understanding were assessed both before and after instruction. The results indicated that the explicit strategy improved the quality and completeness of students' physics representations more than the textbook strategy, but there was no difference between the two strategies on match of equations with representations, organization, or mathematical execution. In terms of conceptual understanding, there was no overall difference between the two groups; however, there was a significant interaction between the sex of the students and group. The explicit strategy appeared to benefit female students, while the textbook strategy appeared to benefit male students. The implications of these results for physics instruction are discussed. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 34: 551–570, 1997.     

Slovak high school students' attitudes toward computers

The pervasive involvement of information and communication technologies and computers in our daily lives influences changes of attitude toward computers. We focused on finding these ecological effects in the differences in computer attitudes as a function of gender and age. A questionnaire with 34 Likert-type items was used in our research. The sample consisted of 659 students from 14 high schools, aged 15–19 years attending the first, the second, the third, and the fourth years of study. The results of the questionnaire were divided into the two dimensions of concrete computer enjoyment and computer anxiety. On the first dimension both younger students and girls have positive attitudes. On the second dimension both younger students and boys have more positive attitudes. Overall, girls have more positive attitudes than boys. This is interesting because in the existing literature there is evidence that boys have more positive attitudes toward computers than girls. Perhaps a change is taking place.     

Building middle school students' understanding of proportional reasoning through mathematical investigation

This article describes and shares an innovative pedagogical practice that holds promise in contributing to the teaching and learning of proportions in middle school. The teaching and learning of mathematics with understanding framework was used as a vehicle to help 21 seventh grade students reason proportionally. The findings of this unit suggest that the classroom culture, which encouraged the students to make connections between their existing and new ideas and reflecting and communicating their thinking, contributed to their emerging understanding of proportions. The use of an authentic and non-routine task involving liquid measurements also heightened their interest, curiosity and enthusiasm, thereby contributing to their excitement about the mathematics they were learning.     

Explaining systems: Investigating middle school students' understanding of emergent phenomena

Science, as with all cognitive activities, is fundamentally a matter of interpretation, sense‐making, and explanation. This study focused on a small group of middle school students as they developed understanding of a particular type of phenomena: emergent systems. Such systems are notable in that macro‐level properties emerge as the result of micro‐level interactions between system components. I describe students' initial understanding of emergent systems, as well as the ways in which their thinking came to reflect the following heuristics: (a) recognition that there may not be a singular causal force underlying the system; (b) distinguishing between micro‐ and macro‐levels of analysis; and (c) comprehending that even small changes at the micro‐level can have significant effects at the macro‐level (Resnick, 1994 ). I conclude by considering some implications for science education. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 784–806, 2000     

Improving students' understanding of carbohydrate metabolism in first-year biochemistry at tertiary level

Many introductory biochemistry students have problems understanding metabolism and acquiring the skills necessary to study metabolic pathways. In this paper we suggest that this may be largely due to the use of a traditional teaching approach which emphasises memorisation rather than understanding. We present an alternative approach to teaching carbohydrate metabolism which is designed to promote understanding of pathways. The approach also enables regular monitoring of, and reflection on, student progress and the identification of student reasoning and conceptual difficulties through the use of specially designed problems. Preliminary results are presented giving examples of specific student difficulties and the extent to which they were addressed by the alternative instructional approach. A qualitative evaluation of the approach is also presented. Specializations: metal accumulating plants biochemical education. Specializations: physics education, conceptual development, instructional design, improvement of tertiary science education.     

An in-depth study of two individual students' understanding of electric and magnetic fields

This paper describes and compares individual students' understanding of a range of concepts associated with electric and magnetic fields. Data are drawn from written tests and detailed interviews of students from a first-year university physics class. The case study approach makes it possible to examine in depth the interaction between conceptions of various related topics in the students' minds. The theoretical framework of the SOLO (Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome) Taxonomy, as elaborated in a previous paper on this topic area by the author, is further advanced here. Using this framework, the paper provides insight into a more detailed view of students' understanding of fields, which in turn casts light on possible teaching strategies for fields and related topics.     

讨论法在高中生写作档案袋中的应用

传统的考试模式即终结性的评价方式已不能满足教育发展的需要,这种方式不能完整的评价一个学生的学习成果及学习过程。当前在高中教学更多地提倡形成性评价,而写作档案袋的实施就是其中一种有效的形式,它会使教师全面评价学生的写作能力,又可以使学生有一个反思自己的过程,不断取得进步。     

以学生为主体的高中英语阅读有效研究

多年以来的英语教学形成了一个固定的模式,那就是以教师讲授为主的课堂风格,伴随着教育改革的不断推进,过去陈旧的教学模式也不得不进行改变,在这一背景之下,英语教学模式逐渐的向以学生为主体的模式进行转变。在这种新型的教学模式中,老师扮演的是引导的角色。然而从当前的高中英语的阅读教学中却存在着很多不足,笔者将通过对国内高中英语的阅读教学的现状进行研究,提出一些解决方法,     

Representation of space and students' conceptions at high school level

At high school level, the teaching of space geometry makes use of graphical representations of objects. But usually the only function of these figures is to illustrate, they are stereotyped and have no real mathematical status, as a study of textbooks shows. They contain many implicit conventions, of different kinds, which can lead students to misconceptions about geometrical objects if they are not mastered. However they can, at a low educational cost, serve as an efficient tool to be used for problem solving. To achieve this I propose to base such drawings explicitly on parallel projection, a principle which produces representations of various types, often coinciding with the usual figures, close to perceptive images, and on which important properties of the objects represented are retained.     

An analysis of Turkish high school students' metacognition and motivation

Publishing data on individual schools is becoming a common practice in more and more countries. Based on an extensive study of literature and interviews with experts in England, Scotland, The Netherlands, and France, this article reveals that publishing individual school data is not only a contested but also a very complex affair. Different stakeholders may benefit from the availability of individual (comparative) school data under the condition that some prerequisites are met. The publication system must prevent unintended effects from occurring. Additionally, criticisms on existing publication systems should be taken into account. Providing informative, correct, and comparative information is primordial. Value added measurements are explored as a promising approach.     

Teaching for understanding: Exemplary practice in high school chemistry

The study is a component of a larger investigation that focused on exemplary practice in science and mathematics education. This case study involved an investigation of two chemistry teachers in high schools in Perth, Western Australia. The study utilized an interpretive methodology in which the questions emerged from intensive observations of chemistry lessons in classes taught by the two teachers. The principal finding was that the two teachers focused on teaching for understanding. One teacher tended to emphasize whole-class activities while the other utilized more small-group and individualized activities. The teachers were successful in their goal of teaching for understanding because they were effective classroom managers and they had strong science content knowledge that enabled them to focus on instructional strategies that facilitated student understanding. They asked appropriate questions, responded to student questions, and used effective cognitive monitoring strategies. The teachers were able to teach effectively because they had adequate content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge.     

高中历史教育中学生人文素养的培养

历史学科是一门蕴含着丰富人文思想的课程,这就要求历史教师在教学过程中充分挖掘历史课程中一些爱国主义内容,要有目的地培养学生民族意识和民族自豪感,把学生的爱国情感激发出来。此外,教师要借助历史人物的优秀品质,培养学生健康、健全的人格,同时要把历史和现实有机地结合在一起,培养学生关注人类发展的历史责任感。     

高中学生学习化学的相异构想初探

学习知识时存在相关的"相异构想"是学习过程中出现思维障碍、形成教学低效率的原因之一.本文就高中学生形成相异构想的原因、对学习科学概念和规律带来的困难以及高中化学教学应采取的策略作一探讨.