A COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE ON SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION PROCESS

ＩＮＴＲＯＤＵＣＴＩＯＮＳｔｕｄｉｅｓｏｆｓｅｃｏｎｄｌａｎｇｕａｇｅａｃｑｕｉｓｉｔｉｏｎ(ＳＬＡ)ａｒｅｏｆｔｅｎｖｉｅｗｅｄａｓｂａｓｅｄｏｎｆｉｒｓｔｌａｎ ｇｕａｇｅａｃｑｕｉｓｉｔｉｏｎｒｅｓｅａｒｃｈ .Ｉｎｆａｃｔ,ｐｅｏｐｌｅｕｓｅｄｔｏｅｘｐｌａｉｎｐｈｅｎｏｍｅｎａｉｎＳＬＡｗｉｔｈｉｎｓｔａｎｃｅｓａｎｄｔｈｅｏｒｉｅｓｄｅｒｉｖｅｄｆｒｏｍｒｅｓｅａｒｃｈｉｎｆｉｒｓｔｌａｎｇｕａｇｅａｃｑｕｉｓｉｔｉｏｎ.Ｈｏｗｅｖｅｒ,ｔｈｅｒｅｉｓｎｏｗａｇｅｎｅｒａｌｃｏｎｓｅｎｓｕｓ…     

THE EFFECTS OF COGNITIVE STYLES ON NAÏVE IMPETUS THEORY APPLICATION DEGREES OF PRE-SERVICE SCIENCE TEACHERS

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a relationship between pre-service science teachers’ Field Dependent or Field Independent (FD/FI) cognitive styles and the application of degrees of naive impetus theory. The sample consisted of 122 pre-service science teachers (97 females and 25 males) who were enrolled in the Introductory Physics course required by the Science Education program. Data were collected in two successive years, after the completion of the required Introductory Physics undergraduate courses, in 2008 and 2009. The Group Embedded Figure Test and Impetus Theory Application Test (a two-tier-type test) were administered to assess the FD/FI tendency of students and to determine the degree students applied the naïve impetus theory, respectively. Initial results showed that a majority of students had made use of the native impetus theory repeatedly. The results also indicated that the degree to which students applied the naïve impetus theory was statistically related to their FD/FI cognitive styles. The findings of this research showed that there existed a statistically significant difference between the FI and FD students’ degree of applying the naïve impetus theory in favor of FI students. However, the test score gap between FI and FD students remained almost constant regardless of the testing instruments utilized in this study.     

A PROBABILISTIC MODEL FOR STUDENTS’ ERRORS AND MISCONCEPTIONS ON THE STRUCTURE OF MATTER IN RELATION TO THREE COGNITIVE VARIABLES

In this study, the effect of 3 cognitive variables such as logical thinking, field dependence/field independence, and convergent/divergent thinking on some specific students’ answers related to the particulate nature of matter was investigated by means of probabilistic models. Besides recording and tabulating the students’ responses, a combination of binomial and multinomial logistic regression techniques was used to analyze the data. Thus, students’ misconceptions as well as the compatible-with-the-scientific-view student’s answers were explored one by one in relation to the above 3 cognitive variables. The study took place with the participation of 329 ninth-grade junior high school pupils (aged 14–15). The results showed that mostly logical thinking and sporadically the other 2 cognitive variables were significantly associated with students’ answers. Interpretation of the results and implications for science education are discussed.     

EFFECTS OF FUTURE MATHEMATICS TEACHERS’ AFFECTIVE, COGNITIVE AND SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS ON THEIR KNOWLEDGE AT THE END OF THE TEACHER EDUCATION IN GERMANY AND TAIWAN

How individual characteristics affect the acquisition of knowledge in teacher education has been widely unexplored thus far. The “Teacher Education and Development Study—Learning to Teach Mathematics (TEDS-M)” provides a database for examining this research question across countries. Based on the Taiwanese and German sample of TEDS-M, the relationship between future lower secondary mathematics teachers’ knowledge and their affective, cognitive and socio-demographic characteristics was examined using multilevel modelling whilst controlling for the teachers’ opportunities to learn. The results reveal that in Germany, teacher knowledge is more strongly affected by future teachers’ individual characteristics than teacher knowledge in Taiwan. These results are interpreted against the background of cultural differences between “the West” and “the East” or “individualism” and “collectivism”, respectively.