Students’ Views About Secondary School Science Lessons: The Role of Practical Work

This paper reports an interpretive study that sought students' views about the role that practical work plays in their school science lessons. Twenty-nine students aged between 13 and 16 years were selected from three secondary schools in England. Data were collected from initial lesson observations and in-depth interviews in order to explore students’ views about practical work. The findings suggest that students have three main reasons why practical work is important in their school science lessons: for interest and activity, including social and personal features such as participation and autonomy; as an alternative to other forms of science teaching involving a pedagogy of transmission, and as a way of learning, including memorizing and recall. The findings are discussed in the context of a critical view of previous work on the role of practical work, work on attitudes to science and on the student voice. The paper concludes that practical work is seen to provide opportunities for students to engage with and influence their own learning but that learning with practical work remains a complex issue that needs further research and evaluation about its use, effectiveness and of the role of scientific inquiry as a component of practical activity.     

University Students’ Understanding of Chemical Thermodynamics

This study explored undergraduate students’ understanding of the chemistry topic of thermodynamics using a 4-tier diagnostic instrument, comprising 30 questions, and follow-up interviews. An additional objective of the study was to assess the utility of the 4-tier instrument for use in studies on alternative conceptions (ACs) as there has been no study done on it since its introduction in the literature in the year 2010. A total of 296 students majoring in Chemistry at a university in Singapore participated in this study—88 students in the preliminary study, 102 students in the pilot study and 106 students in the main study. This article reports on the results obtained with students in the main study; their age ranges from 20 to 22 years. Comprising answer and reason tiers plus associated confidence ratings, the 4-tier diagnostic instrument enabled the eliciting of 34 ACs harbored by the undergraduates as well as the strengths of these ACs. Of concern to note is that even for questions which were answered correctly, the mean confidence was not very high. The results of this study reiterate the point that thermodynamics is a topic fraught with conceptual difficulties and ACs. Based on the results from this study, the potential of the 4-tier test for AC studies is further underscored. Some implications of the study are discussed.     

Understanding the Students’Contribution to EFL Learning

One can view life from many different perspectives, and each perspective will reveal different aspects and details. As a teaching professional, teachers’ major aim is to help learners. This is the major justification for their career. If they don’t help learners, they will not enjoy teaching. Helping learners requires certain skills on the part of the teacher.     

University Students’ Understanding of Electromagnetic Induction

This study examined engineering and physical science students' understanding of the electromagnetic induction (EMI) phenomena. It is assumed that significant knowledge of the EMI theory is a basic prerequisite when students have to think about electromagnetic phenomena. To analyse students' conceptions, we have taken into account the fact that individuals build mental representations to help them understand how a physical system works. Individuals use these representations to explain reality, depending on the context and the contents involved. Therefore, we have designed a questionnaire with an emphasis on explanations and an interview, so as to analyse students' reasoning. We found that most of the students failed to distinguish between macroscopic levels described in terms of fields and microscopic levels described in terms of the actions of fields. It is concluded that although the questionnaire and interviews involved a limited range of phenomena, the identified explanations fall into three main categories that can provide information for curriculum development by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of students' conceptions.     

Scaffolding Student Understanding in Small-Group Work: Students’ Uptake of Teacher Support in Subsequent Small-Group Interaction

Providing contingent or adaptive support (i.e., scaffolding) is effective. Yet it is unclear how it promotes students’ learning. In this mixed-methods study, we investigated to what extent the effect of contingent support for students’ learning is mediated by the extent to which students take up teachers’ support in subsequent small-group work. We define contingent support as support that contains adapted levels of teacher control or regulation based on the learner’s level of understanding. To explore the research question, we analyzed all interactions from 35 lessons of 7 secondary social studies teachers and 7 small groups of students. Logistic multilevel mediation analyses showed that the likelihood of students formulating accurate answers during small-group work was higher when students applied the teacher’s support in subsequent small-group work (as opposed to ignoring that support). However, the contingency of a teacher’s support did not affect students’ uptake or the accuracy of their answers. Additional qualitative analyses showed that students’ uptake of contingent support was sometimes hampered by untimely fading of the support. Moreover, we found that contingent support that was then gradually faded was the most effective in fostering students’ uptake of a teacher’s support.     

Cross-Grade Comparison of Students’ Understanding of Energy Concepts

The aims of this cross-grade study were (1) to determine the level of understanding of energy concepts of students at different academic grades and the differences in understanding between these grades and (2) to analyse the conceptual development of these students. Two hundred and forty-three students at 3 different levels (high school, undergraduate, and postgraduate) participated in this study. The students’ understandings of energy concepts were determined using a questionnaire, which requested them to define the concept verbally, and to represent it graphically. The most important findings of this study may be summarised as follows. Students from the different groups generally succeeded in defining ‘energy’ in a similar way, namely as the ‘ability to do work’. Nevertheless, some students (including those at university) also provided different alternative conceptions related to the energy concept. In addition, some students also found difficulty in visually analysing the relationships between different variables using graphs. This finding could help explain why attainment levels of all groups falls short in questions that involve the graphical representation of data.     

Diagnosing Students’ Understanding of the Nature of Models

Students’ understanding of models in science has been subject to a number of investigations. The instruments the researchers used are suitable for educational research but, due to their complexity, cannot be employed directly by teachers. This article presents forced choice (FC) tasks, which, assembled as a diagnostic instrument, are supposed to measure students’ understanding of the nature of models efficiently, while being sensitive enough to detect differences between individuals. In order to evaluate if the diagnostic instrument is suitable for its intended use, we propose an approach that complies with the demand to integrate students’ responses to the tasks into the validation process. Evidence for validity was gathered based on relations to other variables and on students’ response processes. Students’ understanding of the nature of models was assessed using three methods: FC tasks, open-ended tasks and interviews (N?=?448). Furthermore, concurrent think-aloud protocols (N?=?30) were performed. The results suggest that the method and the age of the students have an effect on their understanding of the nature of models. A good understanding of the FC tasks as well as a convergence in the findings across the three methods was documented for grades eleven and twelve. This indicates that teachers can use the diagnostic instrument for an efficient and, at the same time, valid diagnosis for this group. Finally, the findings of this article may provide a possible explanation for alternative findings from previous studies as a result of specific methods that were used.     

A Discriminant Analysis of Students’ Work Values

This study examined the power of Super’s work values in discriminating between engineering and liberal arts students. Three analyses were performed, one for each of the different factors of the work values. The major findings were: all three dimensions discriminate effectively between the two programs, the work values which discriminate in favor of liberal arts students tend to focus on general aspects of the work, and the work values favoring engineering students are values relevant to specific aspects of their perceived jobs. The implications of the findings are discussed.     

Social Work Students’ Perceptions of Team-Based Learning

This study sought to examine social work students’ perceptions of Team-Based Learning (N = 154). Aside from looking at overall student perceptions, comparative analyses examined differences in perceptions between BSW and MSW students, and between Caucasian students and students of color. Findings for the overall sample revealed favorable perceptions. The majority of students felt that Team-Based Learning effectively relayed content while teaching higher order cognitive skills. No differences emerged between MSW and BSW students; however, there were significant differences between students of color and Caucasian students, with the former feeling more isolated and singled out. Implications for practice are discussed.     

Upper High School Students’ Understanding of Electromagnetism

Although electromagnetism is an important component of upper secondary school physics syllabuses in many countries, there has been relatively little research on students’ understanding of the topic. A written test consisting of 16 diagnostic questions was developed and used to survey the understanding of electromagnetism of upper secondary school students in Turkey (n = 120) and England (n = 152). A separate test consisting of 10 questions on the visualization of spatial rotation was used to investigate the hypothesis that students’ ability to visualize three‐dimensional situations from two‐dimensional representations might influence learning of electromagnetism. Many students’ responses showed misunderstandings and inconsistencies that suggested they did not have a coherent framework of ideas about electromagnetism. Common errors included confusing electric and magnetic field effects, seeing field lines as indicating a “flow”, using cause–effect reasoning in situations where it does not apply, and dealing with effects associated with the rate of change of a variable. Performance on the spatial rotation test was, however, only weakly correlated with performance on the electromagnetism questions. The findings suggest the need to develop teaching strategies that help students to visualize magnetic field patterns and effects, and assist them in integrating ideas into a more coherent framework.     

Physics Students’ Conceptual Understanding of Geometric Optics: Revisited Analysis

Journal of Science Education and Technology - In this study, we used a research tool for measuring students’ conceptual understanding in optics, the Geometrical Optics Conceptual...     

Students’ Independent Use of Screencasts and Simulations to Construct Understanding of Solubility Concepts

As students increasingly use online chemistry animations and simulations, it is becoming more important to understand how students independently engage with such materials and to develop a set of best practices for students’ use of these resources outside of the classroom. Most of the literature examining students’ use of animations and simulations has focused on classroom use with some studies suggesting that better outcomes are obtained when students use simulations with minimal guidance while others indicate the need for appropriate scaffolding. This study examined differences with respect to (1) student understanding of the concept of dissolution of ionic and covalent compounds in water and (2) student use of electronic resources when students were asked to complete an assignment either by manipulating a simulation on their own or by watching a screencast in which an expert manipulated the same simulation. Comparison of students’ pre- and posttest scores, answers to assignment questions, near-transfer follow-up questions, and eye-tracking analysis suggested that students who viewed the screencast gained a better understanding of the dissolving process, including interactions with water at the particulate level, particularly for covalent compounds. Additionally, the eye tracking indicated that there were significant differences in the ways that the different treatment groups (screencast or simulation) used the electronic resources.     

Using Photographs to Probe Students’ Understanding of Physical Concepts: The Case of Newton’s 3rd Law

The starting point of the present research is the following question: since we live in an age that makes increasing use of visual representations of all sorts, is not the visual representation a learner constructs a window into his/her understanding of what is or is not being learned? Following this direction of inquiry, the present preliminary study introduces and evaluates a novel technique for pinpointing learners’ misconceptions, namely, one that has learners create and interpret their own photographs (CIP). 27 high-school students and 26 pre-service teacher trainees were asked to assume the role of textbook designers and create a display—photograph plus attached verbal explanation—which, in their opinion, best depicted Newton’s 3rd law. Subsequent analysis of the participants’ photographs yielded the following six misconception categories: 3rd law not depicted; 3rd law depicts a sequence of events; tendency to introduce irrelevant entities in explanations; the word ‘reaction’ used colloquially; tendency to restrict the application of the third law to dynamic situations; and informal explanations in which the word “force” is absent. The findings indicate that, indeed, the CIP method can be effectively employed to elicit, detect, and investigate learners’ misconceptions. The CIP method joins the growing efforts to utilize the yet relatively untapped potential of visual tools for science education purposes.     

Secondary Students’ Understanding of Basic Ideas of Special Relativity

A major topic that has marked ‘modern physics’ is the theory of special relativity (TSR). The present work focuses on the possibility of teaching the basic ideas of the TSR to students at the upper secondary level in such a way that they are able to understand and learn the ideas. Its aim is to investigate students' learning processes towards the two axioms of the theory (the principle of relativity and the invariance of the speed of light) and their consequences (the relativity of simultaneity, time dilation and length contraction). Based on an analysis of physics college textbooks, on a review of the relevant bibliography and on a pilot study, a teaching and learning sequence consisting of five sessions was developed. To collect the data, experimental interviews (the so-called teaching experiment) were used. The teaching experiment may be viewed as a Piagetian clinical interview that is deliberately employed as a teaching and learning situation. The sample consisted of 40 10th grade students (aged 15–16). The data were collected by taping and transcribing the ‘interviews’, as well as from two open-ended questionnaires filled out by each student, one before and the other after the sessions. Methods of qualitative content analysis were applied. The results show that upper secondary education students are able to cope with the basic ideas of the TSR, but there are some difficulties caused by the following student conceptions: (a) there is an absolute frame of reference, (b) objects have fixed properties and (c) the way events happen is independent of what the observers perceive.     

Extending Students’Understanding of Mathe matics via Problem-posing

Inmathematicseducationproblem posinghaslongbeenundertheshadowofproblemsolving .Inthelastdecade ,however,researchersstartedtorealizethepoten tialof problemposingandtherehasbeena growingrecognitionoftheneedtoincorporateproblem posingac tivitiesintomathematicsclassrooms .Problemposinghasbeendefinedbyresearchersfromdifferentperspectivesasagenerationofanewproblemorreformulationofagivenproblem ,asaformulationofasequenceofmathematicalproblemsfromagivensitua tion ,asaresultantactivitywhenaprobleminvit…     

Students’ readiness to move from consumers to producers of digital video content: A cross-cultural analysis of Irish and Indian Students

Evidence has shown that students have greatly increased their consumption of digital video, principally through video sharing sites. In parallel, students’ participation in video sharing and creation has also risen. As educators, we need to question how this can be effectively translated into a positive learning experience for students, whilst examining how willing students actually are to critically engage with digital video and analysing how best to hone their digital literacy skills. Firstly, this article presents a cross-cultural analysis of Irish and Indian students’ perception of themselves as creators of digital video and examines their readiness to produce such videos as part of third level curricula. Secondly, it attempts to quantify the expose of both student cohorts to video sharing and creation. Thirdly, it analyses student perceptions of what challenges they face as they move from consumers to creators of digital video. Results indicate that whilst students are willing to adopt digital video for academic tasks, this article will analyse what supports and considerations need to be put in place in order for its successful integration in curricula.