Changing primary teacher trainees' attitudes to science

A study of primary teacher trainees' perceptions and attitudes to science in 1990, has been useful in designing a semester unit aimed at increasing the confidence and interest of first year students at Victoria College. This paper outlines the background survey and discusses some, of the results and how they were used to develop the Professional Readiness Study-Understanding Science. This unit attempts to change attitudes by focussing on metacognition and encourages students to understand and control their own learning. Discussion involves teaching and learning strategies and alternative assessment approaches including the student's journal-the Personal Record. Specializations: technology for learning, health education. Specializations student understanding of biology, particularly genetics, evaluation. Specializations: children's learning in science, language in science.     

Improving quantitative volumetric analysis skills in first year university chemistry courses

This paper describes a project in the School of Chemistry at The University of Melbourne. During 1992 thirty hours of videotapes were taken of students doing quantitative volumetric work in first year laboratories. These were viewed to find out what problems students encountered and what interactions they had with other students and with demonstrators. The data were logged on a Hypercard stack and novel visual images were produced to map student activity, both qualitatively and quantitatively. These data contributed to the design of a multimedia learning package which students worked through at the beginning of 1993. Video data of their laboratory performance after this intervention provides evidence of improved performance. Specializations: academic development in the sciences, evaluation of computer-based learning materials. Specializations: physical chemistry, chemical education at tertiary level. Specializations: design and development of computer-based learning materials. Specializations: electrochemistry, general physical chemistry at secondary and tertiary level. Specializations: chemical education at secondary and tertiary level, theoretical chemistry.     

Effect of context and gender on application of Science Investigation Skills

Two parallel versions of a Test of Science Investigation Skills were developed to assess students' application of science investigation skills in biology and physics contexts. Repeated pilot testing and critical appraisal were used to ensure the validity of the tests and their equivalence. Both versions of the test were administered to 112 Year 10 science students. The results indicated a satisfactory level of test reliability, the test set in a physics context proved to be significantly more difficult than the test set in a biology context, and mean scores for male and female students were not significantly different. Specializations: science teacher education, development of problem-solving expertise, concept development and conceptual change, assessment of laboratory work. Specializations: Chemistry education, concept development and conceptual change, effective laboratory teaching.     

A survey of pre-service primary teachers' experiences of science in schools

In 1990, a large proportion of third year primary trainee teachers at Victoria College had observed or taught very few or no science lessons during the first two years of their course. The students felt that a lack of content knowledge, a crowded school curriculum, and problems associated with managing resources and equipment, were the main factors contributing to the low level of science being taught in schools. By the end of their third year significantly more students had taught science than after the second year. There was also a change in approach to teaching science with more practical activities being included than previously. The science method unit taught to the students in the third year of their course contributed to this increase. The students considered the hands-on activities in class to have been the most effective aspect of the unit in their preparation for the teaching of primary science. Specializations: children's learning in science, primary teacher education. Specializations: student understanding of biology, evaluation of formal and informal educational settings. Specializations: gender, science and technology, environmental education. Specializations: children's learning in science, language and science.     

Assessing the psychosocial environment of science classes in Catholic secondary schools

Much Catholic school and church rhetoric suggests that Catholic schools possess distinctive learning environments. Research into this aspect of Catholic schooling has been hampered by the lack of an appropriate assessment instrument. By drawing on contemporary church literature, the perceptions of personnel involved in Catholic education and existing classroom environment questionnaires, a new instrument was developed to assess student perceptions of classroom psychosocial environment in Catholic schools. The use of this instrument in 64 classrooms in Catholic and Government schools indicated significant differences on some scales. The distinctive nature of Catholic schooling did not extend to all classroom environment dimensions deemed important to Catholic education. Specializations: Catholic education, learning environments. Specializations: conceptual change in students, science teacher professional development, scientific reasoning, learning environments. Specializations: learning environments, science education, educational evaluation, curriculum.     

Developing networks of grass-roots science curriculum action

This paper describes an ongoing process of participatory curriculum development. It outlines some of the tensions which need to be explored in science curriculum development: debates about the nature of science, of society, of school science content and of learning theories. The process whereby action can arise from this debate is also explored. An example will be outlined of a network of science curriculum action which has developed from the work of a range of science education projects in Natal, South Africa. Specializations: science curriculum development from primary to tertiary level. Specializations: inservice primary science teacher development. Specializations: inservice teacher development, biology education. Specializations: environmental education, teacher development. Specializations: environmental education, teacher development.     

A constructivist approach to secondary school science experiments

The focus of this study was on the investigation of a laboratory instructional program on electricity designed for conceptual development using constructivist principles for conceptual change. This approach was compared with a traditional laboratory approach in a quasi-experimental design. The sample was 247 grade 10 students (boys) in a large non-government urban school. Covariance analysis with the corresponding pretest as covariate showed statistically and educationally significant gains for the experimental group on cognitive but not attitudinal outcomes when compared to the traditional group. Student and teacher interview data provide some evidence for the success of the experimental approach. Specializations: physics education, constructivist approaches to in practical work. Specializations: science teacher education, learning environments, conceptual change.     

Students' thinking in a chemistry laboratory

Despite the almost mandatory inclusion of a laboratory component in the school curriculum very little has been reported about the effects of laboratory instruction upon student learning and attitudes. The present study was undertaken to investigate the thinking of students in a chemistry laboratory. An interpretive research method was adopted in collecting and analysing data gathered from observations, general interviews and stimulated recall interviews. Four high school students were studied during their participation in a week-long university summer school program. This study reports how the four students responded differently to the same laboratory experience. Specializations: chemistry and biochemistry education, thinking in science and industry. Specializations: science education, teacher learning and preparation, teaching thinking.     

Children's interests in geology and biology

A study of students from a primary school and its local secondary school was conducted to investigate students' relative interests in geology and biology during the years prior to Year 10. Students from Years 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 were interviewed, using an innovative interview technique, and results show that interest in both subjects appears to be fairly evenly distributed throughout all years. This paper reports on the study conducted and illustrates the success of the interview technique developed to accommodate all students, especially those from younger year levels. Specializations: science teacher education, biology teacher education. Specializations: economic geology, mineralogy, geological education. Specializations: primary science education.     

Comparison of personal and class forms of the science laboratory environment inventory

Existing instruments in classroom environment research have limitations when subgroups are investigated or case studies of individual students conducted. This study reports the validation and development of a personal form of the Science Laboratory Environment Inventory which is better suited to such studies. Further, systematic differences between scores on the class and personal forms of the instrument are reported along with comparisons of their associations with inquiry skill and attitudinal outcomes. Specializations: Science education, Preservice science teacher education. Specializations: Learning environments, science education, educational evaluation, curriculum. Specializations: Curriculum, science education, science laboratory teaching.     

Expert — Novice differences in science investigation skills

Many school students experience difficulty in conducting science investigations (Hackling & Garnett, 1991; Murphy, 1988). Students in Western Australia have poorly developed skills of problem analysis, planning and carrying out controlled experiments, basing conclusions only on obtained data, and recognising limitations in the methodology of their investigations. This paper compares the work of 10 expert scientists and 10 Year 12 science students as they conducted a laboratory based investigation. The results provide insights into expertise in science investigation skills. Specializations: Science teacher education, development of problem-solving expertise, concept development and conceptual change, assessment of laboratory work. Specializations: Chemistry education, concept development and conceptual change, role of laboratory work.     

Is achievement in Australian chemistry gender based?

This paper compares the performances of female and male secondary students in the 1991 and 1992 Australian National Chemistry Quizzes. Male students consistently achieved a higher mean score in all Year groups (7 to 12), even though the numbers of female and male entrants were approximately equal. Implications for class tests and assessment tasks are addressed. Specializations: chemical education, environmental science. Specialization: chemical education Specializations: chemical education, analytical chemistry.     

Evaluation of a course designed to teach physics to students of physiotherapy

This paper describes the development and evaluation of a course in physiotherapy whereby the physics fundamental to the modalities of cold, heat and ultrasound therapies was integrated in lectures and actual physiotherapy activities. The design of the course is described together with the perceptions of physiotherapy students regarding the organisation of the course, safety aspects and how well the integration contributed to their understanding of the physics involved in electrotherapy. Specialization: Physics education. Specialization: electrotherapy. Specializations: Diagnosis of student learning difficulties and teaching for conceptual change, technology education, curriculum evaluation. Specializations: Material science, isotope studies, physics education.     

Reconstructing the interactive science pedagogy: Experiences of beginning teachers implementing the interactive science pedagogy

Six beginning primary school teachers pioneering the Interactive Teaching approach to science were studied in their first year of teaching. Interviews with the beginning teachers revcaled that they faced several obstacles to the implementation of the interactive teaching of science. These included lack of collegial support, lack of feedback on their teaching, difficulty assessing the learning of their pupils, and the differences between the culture of learning of the alternative science pedagogy and that of their pupils. By the end of the year, teachers had reconstructed the alternative science pedagogy in ways that reduced these difficulties. The interviews also provided evidence that ongoing support by teachers and teacher-educators versed in the alternative pedagogy can make beginning teacher's implementation of the Interactive Teaching of science less difficult. Specializations: physics education, beginning teachers. Specializations: misconceptions, assessment.     

Explainers' perceptions of visitors' learning at an Interactive Science and Technology Centre

This paper reports part of a larger study into the learning of the general public during visits to an interactive science centre. Much previous research on visitors' learning has focused on students, whereas the explainers, who have most interaction with visitors, have rarely been used as a data source. Reported here are the views of a representative sample of explainers from a science centre. Data were collected through interviews and conclusions scrutinised by a wider group of explainers. The findings suggest that explainers believe that first, visitors have fun at the centre; second, learning is not the main purpose of the visit; third, their own role is to facilitate understanding of the exhibits, not to teach; fourth, learning occurs when visitors relate experiences at the centre to experiences in the outside world; fifth, analogies facilitate understanding; and sixth, incidental learning, unrelated to the intention of an exhibit, often occurs. Specializations: interactive science and technology centres. Specializations: gender issues and assessment in science and technology education.     

Application of genetics knowledge to the solution of pedigree problems

This paper reports on a study of undergraduate genetics students' conceptual and procedural knowledge and how that knowledge influences students' success in pedigree problem solving. Findings indicate that many students lack the knowledge needed to test hypotheses relating to X-linked modes of inheritance using either patterns of inheritance or genotypes. Case study data illustrate how these knowledge deficiencies acted as an impediment to correct and conclusive solutions of pedigree problems. Specializations: problem solving, laboratory work, conceptual change, science teacher education.     

Progression in learning science

A national curriculum comprising statements of attainment at different levels must be underpinned by some idea of “progression” in learning. Questions arise as to the nature and meaning of progression. To gain a deeper insight into how children progress in their understanding of science, this research involves the construction and testing of a hypothetical learning sequence for the topic of forces. This interim report explains how children aged 7 to 13 are being interviewed to explore their explanations of phenomena involving forces. These explanations will be mapped onto the sequence to provide a multi-dimensional model of progression. Specializations: assessment, curriculum development. Specializations: assessment, investigations in science, progression in learning science.     

Knowledge engineering: An alternative approach to curriculum design for science education at a distance

Most of the curriculum design models within the technical-scientific approach utilise the rational and sequential process of designing and inter-relating the various elements of the design process. While this procedure may be efficient and adequate for conventional education in which the designers are professional science educators, there is doubt if it satisfies the particular needs of distance education. The experience accumulated through a multi-disciplinary team approach to distance learning courseware development for higher education at the University of Southern Queensland Distance Education Centre motivated this study which primarily focused on a search for an alternative approach to curriculum development with a more satisfactory functional value. Using selected units in Engineering as a focus, an experiment was designed in which a variant of the classical Wheeler model was used. This paper reports the results of this experiment. The implications for contemporary curriculum development initiatives in science especially within distance education settings are pointed out. Specializations: science education, learning strategies, curriculum development, instructional design, research and development in distance education. Specializations: Cognitive Science, curriculum development, instructional design, expert systems, research and development in distance education. Specializations: science education, learning strategies, curriculum development, instructional design, research and development in distance education.     

Learning in interactive science centres

The potential of informal sources of science learning to supplement and interact with formal classroom science is receiving increasing recognition and attention in the research literature. In this study, a phenomenographic approach was used to determine changes in levels of understanding of 27 grade 7 primary school children as a result of a visit to an interactive science centre. The results showed that most students did change their levels of understanding of aspects of the concept “sound”. The study also provides information which will be of assistance to teachers on the levels of understanding displayed by students on this concept. Specializations: informal science learning, science curriculum Specializations: science education, science teacher education, conceptual change, learning environments.     

Primary pre-service teachers' pedagogical reasoning skills

This paper discusses a preliminary investigation into primary pre-service teachers' pedagogical reasoning skills. Results from this investigation led to the development of a problem-based learning model which focused on improving primary pre-service teachers' pedagogical reasoning skills. The problem-based learning model uses pedagogical reasoning as the basis for creating problem situations for the pre-service teachers to investigate. The paper reports on pre-service teachers' views on the use of the approach to improve their pedagogical reasoning skills. Specializations: science teacher education, learning in science, chemistry education. Specializations: student learning, conceptual change, technology education, curriculum evaluation.