Research in Science Education at the University of Glasgow

The purpose of this study was to examine how prior knowledge of cellular transport influenced how high school students in the USA viewed and interpreted graphic representations of this topic. The participants were Advanced Placement Biology students (n = 65); each participant had previously taken a biology course in high school. After assessing prior knowledge using the Diffusion and Osmosis Diagnostic Test, two graphical representations of cellular transport processes were selected for analysis. Three different methods of data collection—eye tracking, interviews, and questionnaires—were used to investigate differences in perceived salient features of the graphics, interpretations of the graphics, and processing difficulty experienced while attending to and interpreting the graphics. The results from the eye tracking data, interviews, and instructional representation questionnaires were triangulated and revealed differences in how high and low prior knowledge students attended to and interpreted particle differences, concentration gradient, the role of adenosine triphosphate , endocytosis and exocytosis, and text labels and captions. Without adequate domain knowledge, low prior knowledge students focused on the surface features of the graphics (ex. differences in particle colour) to build an understanding of the concepts represented. On the other hand, with more abundant and better‐organised domain knowledge, high prior knowledge students were more likely to attend to the thematically relevant content in the graphics, which enhanced their understanding. The findings of this study offer a more complete understanding of how differentially prepared learners view and interpret graphics and have the potential to inform instructional design.     

Evolutionary Maps: A new model for the analysis of conceptual development,with application to the diurnal cycle

This paper presents a model of how children generate concrete concepts from perception through processes of differentiation and integration. The model informs the design of a novel methodology (evolutionary maps or emaps), whose implementation on certain domains unfolds the web of itineraries that children may follow in the construction of concrete conceptual knowledge and pinpoints, for each conception, the architecture of the conceptual change that leads to the scientific concept. Remarkably, the generative character of its syntax yields conceptions that, if unknown, amount to predictions that can be tested experimentally. Its application to the diurnal cycle (including the sun's trajectory in the sky) indicates that the model is correct and the methodology works (in some domains). Specifically, said emap predicts a number of exotic trajectories of the sun in the sky that, in the experimental work, were drawn spontaneously both on paper and a dome. Additionally, the application of the emaps theoretical framework in clinical interviews has provided new insight into other cognitive processes. The field of validity of the methodology and its possible applications to science education are discussed.     

美育在小学语文教学中的作用研究

本文立足于小学语文教学实践,以美育为整篇文章探讨的切入点。首先对美育的概念以及小学语文教学中实施美育的可行性进行了初步分析,奠定了整篇文章的研究基调,接着又结合具体实例,详细阐述了美育在小学语文教学中所发挥的重要作用,旨在做好小学语文教学工作的同时让学生切实感受到美、学会鉴赏美,朝着更好的方向进步与发展。     

Teaching and Learning Science Through Song: Exploring the experiences of students and teachers

This qualitative, multi-case study explored the use of science-content music for teaching and learning in six middle school science classrooms. The researcher sought to understand how teachers made use of content-rich songs for teaching science, how they impacted student engagement and learning, and what the experiences of these teachers and students suggested about using songs for middle school classroom science instruction. Data gathered included three teacher interviews, one classroom observation and a student focus-group discussion from each of six cases. The data from each unit of analysis were examined independently and then synthesized in a multi-case analysis, resulting in a number of merged findings, or assertions, about the experience. The results of this study indicated that teachers used content-rich music to enhance student understanding of concepts in science by developing content-based vocabulary, providing students with alternative examples and explanations of concepts, and as a sense-making experience to help build conceptual understanding. The use of science-content songs engaged students by providing both situational and personal interest, and provided a mnemonic device for remembering key concepts in science. The use of songs has relevance from a constructivist approach as they were used to help students build meaning; from a socio-cultural perspective in terms of student engagement; and from a cognitive viewpoint in that in these cases they helped students make connections in learning. The results of this research have implications for science teachers and the science education community in developing new instructional strategies for the middle school science classroom.     

小学体育教学中德育的渗透

体育是小学生成长过程中的重要学科,对学生强身健体有着积极的意义,能够培养学生积极向上的精神风貌,让学生更具个人魅力。但是,部分学生在体育活动中,忽视了德育的存在,只关注运动的结果,缺乏运动所需要的身心素养。为了改变学生的这种现状,小学体育教师在教学中进行德育渗透,借助生活,提出问题,促进合作,丰富实践,组织竞赛,以推动学生素养的发展。     

创办教师发展学校,打造教学研共同体

按照“教学外置”的办学理念,以及教师发展学校“建设新型学校、培养新型教师、创造新型教师教育”的目标,青岛职业技术学院教育学院在青岛市范围内和中小学建立了广泛的联系,确立了与青岛文登路小学和青岛第41中学作为合作伙伴,并分别在2004年和2005年与他们建立了教师发展学校,充分利用教育学院丰富的教育教学资源,在语文教学领域内大胆创新,促进中小学教师语文专业水平的发展。     

小学科学教育教学中学生学习兴趣的培养

传统的科学教学课堂,内容形式单一枯燥,而且受时间和空间的限制因素极大,局限了学生对科学的兴趣。素质教育要求培养德智体美劳全方位发展的综合型、应用型人才,对课程的要求更为灵活巧妙,充分体现了学生在教育活动中的主体地位。因此,在科学教学中,要激发学生的学习兴趣,引导学生主动积极地学习科学知识。     

探究新课程理念下小学语文的教学策略

新课程的总目标中曾明确表示过:“在语文学习过程中,培养爱国主义感情、社会主义思想道德和健康的审美情趣,发展个性,培养合作精神,逐步形成积极的人生态度和正确的价值观。”对此,本文立足于小学语文日常的真实教学情况,从“多媒体教学,提高学生学习兴趣”“创建情境教学,加强学生课堂互动”“注重合作学习,培养学生合作能力”“发展思维能力,增加学生学习技巧”“评价鼓励机制,提升学生学习信心”五个方面出发,对新课程理念下,如何实施小学语文的教学策略做出了分析与探究。     

论小学语文教学中的探究性学习

21世纪是知识经济时代,我们必须树立崭新的教育理念。当前,改变学生的学习方式,培养学生发现问题、研究问题、解决问题的能力,已成为世界各国教育改革共同关注的焦点。在小学语文教学中,开展探究性学习有着十分重要的现实意义。     

Chinese and Australian Year 3 Children's Conceptual Understanding of Science: A multiple comparative case study

Children have formal science instruction from kindergarten in Australia and from Year 3 in China. The purpose of this research was to explore the impact that different approaches to primary science curricula in China and Australia have on children's conceptual understanding of science. Participants were Year 3 children from three schools of high, medium and low socio-economic status in Hunan Province, central south China (n?=?135) and three schools of similar socio-economic status in Western Australia (n?=?120). The students' understanding was assessed by a science quiz, developed from past Trends in Mathematics and Science Study science released items for primary children. In-depth interviews were carried out to further explore children's conceptual understanding of living things, the Earth and floating and sinking. The results revealed that Year 3 children from schools of similar socio-economic status in the two countries had similar conceptual understandings of life science, earth science and physical science. Further, in both countries, the higher the socio-economic status of the school, the better the students performed on the science quiz and in interviews. Some idiosyncratic strengths and weaknesses were observed, for example, Chinese Year 3 children showed relative strength in classification of living things, and Australian Year 3 children demonstrated better understanding of floating and sinking, but children in both countries were weak in applying and reasoning with complex concepts in the domain of earth science. The results raise questions about the value of providing a science curriculum in early childhood if it does not make any difference to students' conceptual understanding of science.     

深入挖掘中小学美术教学中泥塑的教育价值

孩子的想象力往往会带给我们出乎意料的惊喜,他们的大脑就像一个宝库,其中满载着各种奇珍异宝。小学美术教学既是提高其艺术修养、美学素养的主要途径,也是助力学生健康成长的重要课程。而泥塑更是有着具象还原、抽象表达的作用,对学生思维发育、动手能力提升等有着诸多裨益。     

What Teachers See as Creative Incidents in Elementary Science Lessons

Teachers are often urged to nurture creativity but their conceptions of creativity in specific school subjects may have limitations which weaken their attempts to do so. Primary school teachers in England were asked to rate lesson activities according to the opportunity they offered children for creative thought in science. The teachers could, overall, distinguish between creative and reproductive activities but, as predicted, there was evidence of narrow conceptions of school science creativity, biased towards fact finding, practical activity, and technological design. Some teachers saw creativity in essentially reproductive activities and in what simply stimulated interest and on‐task talk. Some implications and recommendations for teacher training and professional development are discussed.     

Towards a Complete Commonsense Theory of Motion: The interaction of dimensions in children's predictions of natural object motion

Events involving motion in fall are differentiated psychologically from events involving horizontal motion. Do children associate motion down inclines more with motion along horizontals or more with motion in fall, or do they even treat it as an integration of the two? The question was raised over 20 years ago but never satisfactorily answered, so the principal aim of the reported research was to take matters forward. Children (n?=?144) aged 5–11 years were assessed while predicting natural dynamic events along a horizontal, in fall and down an incline. They were required to make predictions of speed with heavy and light balls and under changes in incline heights. The results show that, consistent with previous work, faster horizontal motion was associated with the light ball across all ages, whereas faster fall was associated with the heavy ball. However, while the younger children predicted faster incline motion for the lighter ball, there was a shift in this conception towards older children predicting faster motion for the heavier ball. Understanding of how changes in incline height affect speed was generally good, with this aspect of the study helping to establish how children perceive diagonal dimensions. How supported horizontal motion and unsupported fall motion may affect children's changing understanding of incline motion is discussed, thus providing more complete insight into children's understanding of natural object motion than has been established so far.     

小学数学混合式教学探究

混合式教学模式是教学新形势下的新型教学模式,能够有效提升数学教学的有效性。在小学数学课堂教学中运用混合式教学,能使学生对数学学习更感兴趣。教师应引导学生养成自主学习、深入学习数学的心理,使小学数学教学模式成为更适合社会培养数学人才的有效教学模式。     

甘肃省白银市小学教师调查及专业发展

在新课程改革过程中,教师的专业成长、教育教学能力的提高以及新形势下角色的转变日益受到关注。深入了解新课改下小学教师专业成长现状及其影响因素,将有助于促进小学教师的成长发展。本文就新课改下小学教师的专业成长现状及其影响因素做了抽样调查,并就如何促进小学教师的专业成长提出了相应对策。     

Inquiring into Teaching: Lesson Study in Elementary Science Methods

This article describes an innovative approach to developing preservice elementary science teachers’ classroom confidence and skills. Based on lesson study approaches, preservice candidates designed and taught integrated science–mathematics lessons during the semester before their student teaching. Working in teams, candidates designed and taught a common lesson in 3 different classrooms, critiquing and refining their lesson between each teaching activity. Data collected from observations of classroom teaching events, team reports, and individual reflections were analyzed qualitatively. Results indicate that, over the 3 teaching events, there were dramatic improvements in lesson design and delivery, the management of the learning environment, the quality of students’ engagements with meaningful content, and the quality of assessments and generation of student data. According to the website of the Lesson Study Research Group, there were more than 2,300 teachers in over 335 schools involved in lesson study in the U.S. as of May 2004 (www.tc.edu/lessonstudy/). Additional lesson study information, projects, and resources are available through a number of other websites, including www.lessonresearch.net (at Mills College) and www.uwlax.edu/sotl.lsp (at The University of Wisconsin–La Crosse)     

Attitudes towards Science Learning among 10th‐Grade Students: A qualitative look

The twenty‐first century is characterized by multiple, frequent and remarkable scientific advancements, which have a major effect on the decisions that govern everyday life. It is therefore vital to give proper comprehensive scientific education to the population and provide it with the right tools for decision‐making. This in turn requires that we foster a positive attitude among students towards science studies and encourage them to choose sciences as their major subjects. The following study examines 10th‐grade high school students in an attempt to understand and document the influential factors underlying their attitudes towards science studies. The study is conducted through a qualitative research methodology, gathering data based on interviews. This methodology exposes the students’ feelings, views and beliefs, and explores the characteristics of the factors influencing students’ attitudes. Of these factors, we found the most significant for high school students to be interpersonal interaction between teacher and student, the relevance and authenticity of the topics being studied, and the diversity of the teaching methods. We therefore suggest that these three elements should be given particular emphasis by teachers and teacher educators.     

小学科学教学中德育导师育人途径的探究

义务教育阶段是开展德育的关键阶段,小学科学课程作为实施德育的重要课程,要贯彻落实"立德树人"的指导思想,引导学生树立科学精神,端正学生正确价值观,使学生具备良好的道德品行和心理素质.本文以政治素养教育、思想素质教育、道德素质教育、心理素质教育为切入点,分析探讨了小学科学教育中德育导师育人的教学路径,期望对提高小学科学德...     

小学语文整合性教学的探究

本文以整合教学的内涵为切入点,以小学语文教学为例,介绍整合教学内容、整合阅读主题、整合阅读策略等方法,为小学语文教师提供整合性教学借鉴,推动整合性教学在语文课堂上有效落地,提高语文教学效果。     

情趣教学模式在小学语文快乐教学中的应用研究

快乐教育和快乐学习指的是学校在课堂教学过程中要从学生的情感出发,从学生的兴趣出发,让学生爱上学习,自主学习,这就对学校的培养任务提出了要求。为了坚决贯彻落实教育部快乐教育的指导方针,学校要根植快乐教育的沃土,将立德树人作为开展教学活动的根本任务。