Junior High School Students’ Ideas about the Shape and Size of the Atom

The concept of the atom is one of the building blocks of science education. Although the concept is a foundation for students?? subsequent learning experiences, it is difficult for students to comprehend because of common misconceptions and its abstractness. The purpose of this study is to examine junior high school students?? (ages 12?C13) ideas about the shape and size of the atom and the evolution of these ideas over 2?years. The study??s sample size was 126 students, including 76 sixth-grade and 50 seventh-grade students. The educational curriculum and relevant literature guided the development of a questionnaire that consisted of three open-ended questions intended to determine students?? knowledge of the structure and physical properties of the atom. After administering the questionnaire, collected data were analysed qualitatively. The study shows that students had difficulty developing a mental image of the atom, and contrary to the conclusions of other studies, students demonstrated a preference for working with complex and abstract models.     

Students’ English Learning Anxiety in Senior High School

Since 1970s,the research on second language acquisition has been developed with times.The research focus of lLanguage teach ing has shifted from the study of how to teach students to how to learn for students,with particular attention to explore the influence that students’psychological factors such as learning motivation,learning attitude and learning anxiety have on learning outcomes.Among those emotional variables,anxiety is considered to be one of the most critical psychological variables.English classroom anxiety is different from the ordinary classroom anxiety and receives much attention from scholars.Horwiz(1986) pointed out that foreign language anxiety is a unique phenomenon in language learning.In China,English learning in senior high school is a very important period.It is a common phenomenon to see students behaving anxiously in the English class.Therefore,the anxiety in the English class of senior high school de serves attention.This paper will analyze the main reasons of students’anxiety and points out several effectively methods to relieve their anxiety so as to enhance English classroom teaching and learning effect.     

High School Students’ Learning and Perceptions of Phylogenetics of Flowering Plants

Basic phylogenetics and associated “tree thinking” are often minimized or excluded in formal school curricula. Informal settings provide an opportunity to extend the K–12 school curriculum, introducing learners to new ideas, piquing interest in science, and fostering scientific literacy. Similarly, university researchers participating in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) outreach activities increase awareness of college and career options and highlight interdisciplinary fields of science research and augment the science curriculum. To aid in this effort, we designed a 6-h module in which students utilized 12 flowering plant species to generate morphological and molecular phylogenies using biological techniques and bioinformatics tools. The phylogenetics module was implemented with 83 high school students during a weeklong university STEM immersion program and aimed to increase student understanding of phylogenetics and coevolution of plants and pollinators. Student response reflected positive engagement and learning gains as evidenced through content assessments, program evaluation surveys, and program artifacts. We present the results of the first year of implementation and discuss modifications for future use in our immersion programs as well as in multiple course settings at the high school and undergraduate levels.

Just as beginning students in geography need to be taught how to read maps, so beginning students in biology should be taught how to read trees and to understand what trees communicate. O’Hara (1997 , p. 327)

     

Characterizing High School Students’ Written Explanations in Biology Laboratories

The purpose of this qualitative interpretive research study was to examine high school students’ written scientific explanations during biology laboratory investigations. Specifically, we characterized the types of epistemologies and forms of reasoning involved in students’ scientific explanations and students’ perceptions of scientific explanations. Sixteen students from a rural high school in the Southeastern United States were the participants of this research study. The data consisted of students’ laboratory reports and individual interviews. The results indicated that students’ explanations were primarily based on first-hand knowledge gained in the science laboratories and mostly representing procedural recounts. Most students did not give explanations based on a theory or a principle and did not use deductive reasoning in their explanations. The students had difficulties explaining phenomena that involved intricate cause–effect relationships. Students perceived scientific explanation as the final step of a scientific inquiry and as an account of what happened in the inquiry process, and held a constructivist–empiricist view of scientific explanations. Our results imply the need for more explicit guidance to help students construct better scientific explanations and explicit teaching of the explanatory genre with particular focus on theoretical and causal explanations.     

Taiwanese Junior High School Students’ Understanding about the Validity of Conditional Statements

This research was designed to study Taiwanese junior high school students understanding about the validity of conditional statements. Distinguishing between validity and truth is a crucial topic in mathematical reasoning and argumentation but has been always neglected in the mathematics curriculum at junior high school level of schooling. The aims of the survey were (1) to find out the methods Taiwanese junior high school students used when conducting mathematical justification on conditional statements; (2) to examine whether the students could distinguish between a statement and its converse statement; (3) to analyse whether the correctness of a conditional statement influenced the students to conduct mathematical reasoning and argumentation. Approaching the three aims of the survey is expected to give some insights into the issue of whether the students could distinguish between the validity of conditional statements and the truth of assertions. Several thousand students from different schools which were randomly sampled from within six geographically diverse (regions of Taiwan) were administered a test on either algebra/number-pattern or geometry corresponding to their respective grades. The main results were (1) the methods the students used when conducting mathematical justifications on conditional statements were called producing (supporting- or counter-) example(s), analytical narrative, and analytical formal; (2) over a third of those students, who considered the given conditional statement to be valid or invalid, proposed supporting- or counter-example(s), respectively; (3) over half the students considered the statement and its converse to be the same; (4) students reasoning performance was influenced by their opinions of the correctness of the conditional statements. These results seem to lead to the conclusion that most of these students could not distinguish between the validity of conditional statements and the truth of assertions.     

Inquiry-Based Laboratory Activities in Electrochemistry: High School Students’ Achievements and Attitudes

This study aimed to investigate the effects of inquiry-based laboratory activities on high school students’ understanding of electrochemistry and attitudes towards chemistry and laboratory work. The participants were 62 high school students (average age 17 years) in an urban public high school in Turkey. Students were assigned to experimental (N?=?30) and control groups (N?=?32). The experimental group was taught using inquiry-based laboratory activities developed by the researchers and the control group was instructed using traditional laboratory activities. The results of the study indicated that instruction based on inquiry-based laboratory activities caused a significantly better acquisition of scientific concepts related to electrochemistry, and produced significantly higher positive attitudes towards chemistry and laboratory. In the light of the findings, it is suggested that inquiry-based laboratory activities should be developed and applied to promote students’ understanding in chemistry subjects and to improve their positive attitudes.     

Students’ Learning Experiences in an Early College High School

Early College High Schools (ECHS) are at the forefront of high school reform embodying the principles of rigor, relationship, and relevance. This study examines students’ learning experiences in the context of relationships and rigor at an ECHS. Specifically, I investigate factors that influence students to attend an ECHS, what they attribute to their academic success, and the challenges they experience. I draw upon data from individual and focus group interviews with students at one 3-year-old ECHS in southeastern North Carolina.     

An Investigation of Junior Middle School Students’English Learning Motivation and Motivating Strategies

English learning motivation plays a more and more important role in junior middle school students’ study,and it is necessary for students to learn English effectively.Therefore,teachers should take responsibilities for stimulating students’ English learning motivation.This present thesis investigates 63 students who are from class 1 grade 1,class 2 grade 1 and class 3 grade 1 in NanJie country junior middle school in LinYing town LuoHe city by the way of questionnaire.And the thesis discusses the source of students’ learning motivation,for the purpose of putting forward strategies of motivating students’ English learning motivation in accordance with students’ type of motivation.     

Grade Level Differences in High School Students’ Conceptions of and Motives for Learning Science

Research in Science Education - Students’ conceptions of learning science and their relations with motive for learning may vary as the education level increases. This study aimed to compare...     

Exploring Effectiveness of Classroom Assessments for Students’ Learning in High School Chemistry

Research in Science Education - New notions of science teaching and learning provide challenges for designing and using classroom assessment. Existing assessments are not effective in assessing and...     

Yesterday’s Students in Today’s World—Open and Guided Inquiry Through the Eyes of Graduated High School Biology Students

Research in Science Education - Educational policy bodies worldwide have argued that practicing inquiry as a part of the K-12 curriculum would help prepare students for their lives as adults in...     

Do Junior High School Students Perceive Their Learning Environment as Constructivist?

The purpose of this study is to examine the manner in which the features of a constructivist learning environment, and the mechanisms at its base, are expressed in junior high school students’ conceptions. Our research is based on an integration of quantitative and qualitative approaches, deigned to provide a wider ranging and deeper understanding. Eight hundred and forty eighth- and ninth-grade students from over 15 schools participated in the study. Of the 840 students who completed the questionnaire, the explanations of 200 well-written questionnaires were further analyzed qualitatively. The findings of the study are presented in terms of the four scales employed in the CLES, namely the autonomy scale, the prior knowledge scale, the negotiation scale, and the student-centeredness scale. The quantitative results achieved here concur with parallel studies conducted around the world. The findings indicate that a considerable portion of the students perceive their learning environment as a constructivist one and report positive attitudes toward the way they are being taught. In terms of the qualitative results, however, it appears that in some cases, the students’ explanations reveal that in fact, and contrary to the bare quantitative results, some students do not perceive their learning environment as being constructivist. This raises the question of whether the fact that students recognize the factors associated with constructivist teaching is indeed an indication that such teaching exists in practice. This finding emphasizes the importance of combining qualitative and quantitative methods for arriving at a balanced view of classroom occurrences.     

Exploring the Relationship Between High School Students’ Physics-Related Personal Epistemologies and Self-regulated Learning in Turkey

This article reports on an empirical exploration of the relations and strengths among Turkish grades 9–11 students’ (n = 209) personal epistemologies (justification of knowledge, certainty of knowledge, source of knowledge, development of knowledge), self-regulated learning (extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, rehearsal, elaboration, organization, critical thinking, metacognitive self-regulation), and achievement in physics (course grades). Established instruments were used to collect data on these students’ beliefs about knowledge and components of self-regulated learning (SRL) such as goal orientations (extrinsic and intrinsic motivation) and learning strategies, critical thinking, and metacognitive regulation. Results from structural equation modeling revealed that students’ personal epistemologies directly influenced their motivation (extrinsic and intrinsic goal orientations), rehearsal and organization strategies, and metacognitive self-regulation to learn physics. Furthermore, students’ personal epistemologies indirectly (mediated through motivation beliefs) influenced rehearsal, elaboration and organization strategies, critical thinking, and metacognitive self-regulation to learn physics. Students’ ideas about knowledge and knowing about the source and development of knowledge significantly contributed to students’ self-regulatory skills and physics course grade. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

Driven by Topics: High School Students’ Interest in Evolutionary Biology

Research in Science Education - We investigated potential drivers of interest in topic–context and topic–activity combinations, as well as interactions between the different elements of...     

Discussions about Students’ Writing Ability Development in Senior High School

With the growing communication with western countries,English especially English writing is becoming more and more important while in China,some English teachers still haven’t given enough emphasis on fostering students’writing ability.Here the author will discuss it and give some suggestions.     

High School Students’ Perceptions of Evolution Instruction: Acceptance and Evolution Learning Experiences

Evolution is an important and sometimes controversial component of high school biology. In this study, we used a mixed methods approach to explore students’ evolution acceptance and views of evolution teaching and learning. Students explained their acceptance and rejection of evolution in terms of evidence and conflicts with religion and authority. Students largely supported the teaching of evolution and offered several reasons for its inclusion in high school biology. Students also offered several suggestions for improving evolution instruction. Evolution acceptors’ and rejecters’ views of evolution teaching and learning differed in a number of respects, and these differences may be explained using border crossing as a theoretical lens. Relevant implications for evolution instruction are discussed.     

Learning Segregation in Junior High‐Schools in Israel: Causes and Consequences

ABSTRACT

Implementation of educational integration policy in Israel creates heterogeneous student compositions in the schools. Principals and teachers who, as a result, confront instructional difficulties, and who are ambiguous about this policy and its expected efficacy, press to counter‐balance this heterogeneity by resegregating students within the school in ability‐based classes. In this paper we deal with three inter‐related topics:

1. the degree of learning segregation within integrated junior high schools in Israel;

2. several factors which may explain the degree of learning segregation; (3) the effect of learning segregation on academic outcomes: achievement (in reading and science) and subsequent school career (student placement in high school track).

In doing so, we clarify an aspect of the school principal's role and his or her indirect effect on students learning. Principals have a decisive power in the organization of learning frameworks (class structure, ability grouping etc.) within the school. Their ideas and convictions about the efficacy of integration affect the actual practices of class organization in the school. This, in turn, has an effect on learning processes within the class and evetually on students’ academic outcomes, especially on those from the weaker group.     

The Impact of Learning Communities on First Year Students’ Growth and Development in College

This study investigated the direct and indirect relationships between participating in a learning community, student engagement, and self-reported learning outcomes. Using a sample of 241 freshmen at a single urban research university who took the College Student Experiences Questionnaire, the results indicate that after controlling for demographic characteristics and entering composite ACT score, the relationship between learning community participation and learning outcomes are mediated by students’ levels of engagement. Learning community participation was not directly related to educational gains but was indirectly related to educational gains through student engagement. Student engagement in turn was strongly related to educational gains.     

The Effects of Prior Knowledge and Audience on High School Students’ Writing

Abstract

To investigate the likelihood that explicit instruction in text summarization is being provided in classrooms, an "ideal lesson" method was used. Twelve experienced K-12 teachers were asked to devise summarization lessons appropriate to their learners and course content, to deliver the lessons, and to audiotape them. Lessons were transcribed, and instances of mentioning of summarization rules were coded. Only two teachers in the sample group discussed more than one of the five summarization rules assessed. The other teachers provided instruction that emphasized words and facts, despite their having been prompted to "assist students in improving text summaries." Staff development possibilities are discussed.