Academic Success in Context-Based Chemistry: Demonstrating fluid transitions between concepts and context

Curriculum developers and researchers have promoted context-based programmes to arrest waning student interest and participation in the enabling sciences at high school and university. Context-based programmes aim for student connections between scientific discourse and real-world contexts to elevate curricular relevance without diminishing conceptual understanding. This interpretive study explored the learning transactions in one 11th grade context-based chemistry classroom where the context was the local creek. The dialectic of agency/structure was used as a lens to examine how the practices in classroom interactions afforded students the agency for learning. The results suggest that first, fluid transitions were evident in the student–student interactions involving successful students; and second, fluid transitions linking concepts to context were evident in the students' successful reports. The study reveals that the structures of writing and collaborating in groups enabled students' agential and fluent movement between the field of the real-world creek and the field of the formal chemistry classroom. Furthermore, characteristics of academically successful students in context-based chemistry are highlighted. Research, teaching, and future directions for context-based science teaching are discussed.     

Science Education and Health Education: Locating the Connections

Context-based chemistry education aims to improve student interest and motivation in chemistry by connecting canonical chemistry concepts with real-world contexts. Implementation of context-based chemistry programmes began 20 years ago in an attempt to make the learning of chemistry meaningful for students. This paper reviews such programmes through empirical studies on six international courses, ChemCom (USA), Salters (UK), Industrial Science (Israel), Chemie im Kontext (Germany), Chemistry in Practice (The Netherlands) and PLON (The Netherlands). These studies are categorised through emergent characteristics of: relevance, interest/attitudes/motivation and deeper understanding. These characteristics can be found to an extent in a number of other curricular initiatives, such as science-technology-society approaches and problem-based learning or project-based science, the latter of which often incorporates an inquiry-based approach to science education. These initiatives in science education are also considered with a focus on the characteristics of these approaches that are emphasised in context-based education. While such curricular studies provide a starting point for discussing context-based approaches in chemistry, to advance our understanding of how students connect canonical science concepts with the real-world context, a new theoretical framework is required. A dialectical sociocultural framework originating in the work of Vygotsky is used as a referent for analysing the complex human interactions that occur in context-based classrooms, providing teachers with recent information about the pedagogical structures and resources that afford students the agency to learn.     

Making Connections: Learning and Teaching Chemistry in Context

Even though several studies have reported positive attitudinal outcomes from context-based chemistry programs, methodological obstacles have prevented researchers from comparing satisfactorily the chemistry-learning outcomes between students who experience a context-based program with those who experience a content-driven program. In this narrative inquiry we are able to address the question: how do the recalled experiences of a student and her teacher in context-based and concept-based chemistry programs compare? From the student’s unique perspective of experiencing both programs with the same teacher, we have constructed our collective account around four themes; namely, the extent to which the student makes connections between chemistry concepts and real-world contexts, developing research independence through engaging in extended experimental investigations related to contexts, learning chemistry concepts through contexts, and conceptual sequencing in a context-based program. The student reported real-world connections between chemistry concepts and contexts, found her engagement in the context-driven tasks interesting and productive, and identified connected sequences of concepts across the contexts studied. Despite difficulties for teachers who are required to shift pedagogies, the student’s lived experiences and outcomes from a context-based program provide some encouragement in working through these issues.     

Context-based assessment: creating opportunities for resonance between classroom fields and societal fields

There is on-going international interest in the relationships between assessment instruments, students’ understanding of science concepts and context-based curriculum approaches. This study extends earlier research showing that students can develop connections between contexts and concepts – called fluid transitions – when studying context-based courses. We provide an in-depth investigation of one student’s experiences with multiple contextual assessment instruments that were associated with a context-based course. We analyzed the student’s responses to context-based assessment instruments to determine the extent to which contextual tests, reports of field investigations, and extended experimental investigations afforded her opportunities to make connections between contexts and concepts. A system of categorizing student responses was developed that can inform other educators when analyzing student responses to contextual assessment. We also refine the theoretical construct of fluid transitions that informed the study initially. Implications for curriculum and assessment design are provided in light of the findings.     

Nanotechnology applications as a context for teaching the essential concepts of NST

The goals of this study are to map applications of nanotechnology that are recommended to be taught in high-school science and to identify the ‘need-to-know’ essential nanoscale science and technology (NST) concepts for each of the selected nanotechnology applications. A Delphi study using a community of experts was used to address these goals. Five nanotechnology applications that should be taught in high-school science were found to be important and reached a consensus by the Delphi-study experts: (1) nanomedicine, (2) nanoelectronics, (3) photovoltaic cells, (4) nanobots, and (5) self-cleaning. It was found that teaching these five nanotechnology applications should be based on all seven NST concepts, and therefore, these applications can be used as an appealing context for teaching the essential NST concepts. The different recommendations between the two communities of experts emphasize the importance of involving teachers and scientists in the process of designing a scientific curriculum. Identifying the applications of nanotechnology that should be taught in high-school science and identifying the connections between the applications and the essential NST concepts constitute an important step that supports designing a context-based nanotechnology program before it is integrated into a high-school science curriculum.     

Impacts of integrating the repertory grid into an augmented reality-based learning design on students’ learning achievements,cognitive load and degree of satisfaction

Augmented reality (AR) offers potential advantages for intensifying environmental context awareness and augmenting students’ experiences in real-world environments by dynamically overlapping digital materials with a real-world environment. However, some challenges to AR learning environments have been described, such as participants’ cognitive overload and the ways to provide assistance in constructing the presented learning materials. In this study, a mindtool-based AR learning system was developed, based on the repertory grid method and the contiguity principle of multimedia learning, for assisting students in constructing their knowledge in a natural science course. Furthermore, an experiment was carried out on an elementary school natural science course to compare the influences of this method with those of the conventional AR learning system on students’ learning effectiveness. The experimental results show that the designated approach effectively promoted the students’ learning achievements, and no significant difference existed between the mindtool-based AR learning system and the conventional AR learning system in terms of students’ cognition load and satisfaction degree; moreover, both the experimental group and the control group perceived low cognition load during the learning activity and rated their own AR learning systems as being highly satisfactory.     

Teaching Energy Concepts by Working on Themes of Cultural and Environmental Value

Energy is a central topic in physics and a key concept for understanding the physical, biological and technological worlds. It is a complex topic with multiple connections with different areas of science and with social, environmental and philosophical issues. In this paper we discuss some aspects of the teaching and learning of the energy concept, and report results of research on this issue. To immerse science teaching into the context of scientific culture and of the students’ cultural world, we propose to select specific driving issues that promote motivation for the construction of science concepts and models. We describe the design and evaluation of a teaching learning path developed around the issue of greenhouse effect and global warming. The experimentation with high school students has shown that the approach based on driving issues promotes students’ engagement toward a deeper understanding of the topic and favours further insight. The evolution of students’ answers indicates a progressively more correct and appropriate use of the concepts of heat, radiation, temperature, internal energy, a distinction between thermal equilibrium and stationary non equilibrium conditions, and a better understanding of greenhouse effect. Based on the results of the experimentation and in collaboration with the teachers involved, new materials for the students have been prepared and a new cycle of implementation, evaluation and refinement has been activated with a larger group of teachers and students. This type of systematic and long term collaboration with teachers can help to fill the gap between the science education research and the actual school practice.     

Analysing student written solutions to investigate if problem-solving processes are evident throughout

An interdisciplinary science course has been implemented at a university with the intention of providing students the opportunity to develop a range of key skills in relation to: real-world connections of science, problem-solving, information and communications technology use and team while linking subject knowledge in each of the science disciplines. One of the problems used in this interdisciplinary course has been selected to evaluate if it affords students the opportunity to explicitly display problem-solving processes. While the benefits of implementing problem-based learning have been well reported, far less research has been devoted to methods of assessing student problem-solving solutions. A problem-solving theoretical framework was used as a tool to assess student written solutions to indicate if problem-solving processes were present. In two academic years, student problem-solving processes were satisfactory for exploring and understanding, representing and formulating, and planning and executing, indicating that student collaboration on problems is a good initiator of developing these processes. In both academic years, students displayed poor monitoring and reflecting (MR) processes at the intermediate level. A key impact of evaluating student work in this way is that it facilitated meaningful feedback about the students’ problem-solving process rather than solely assessing the correctness of problem solutions.     

An Analysis of Teaching Competence in Science Teachers Involved in the Design of Context-based Curriculum Materials

The committees for the current Dutch context-based innovation in secondary science education employed teachers to design context-based curriculum materials. A study on the learning of science teachers in design teams for context-based curriculum materials is presented in this paper. In a correlation study, teachers with (n?=?25 and 840 students) and without (n?=?8 and 184 students) context-based curriculum material design experience were compared on context-based competence. Context-based competence comprises context handling, regulation, emphasis, design, and school innovation. Context-based teaching competence was mapped using both qualitative and quantitative research methods in a composite instrument. Due to the differences in design team set-up for different science subjects, teachers with design experience from different science subjects were also compared on their context-based competence. It was found that teachers with design experience showed more context-based competence than their non-designing colleagues. Furthermore, teachers designing for biology showed more context-based competence than their peers from other science subjects.     

Mapping context-based learning environments: The construction of an instrument

The current trend in science curricula is to adopt a context-based pedagogical approach to teaching. New study materials for this innovation are often designed by teachers working with university experts. In this article, it is proposed that teachers need to acquire corresponding teaching competences to create a context-based learning environment. These competences comprise an adequate emphasis, context establishment, concept transfer, support of student active learning, (re-)design of context-based materials, and assistance in implementation of the innovation. The implementation of context-based education would benefit from an instrument that maps these competences. The construction and validation of such an instrument (mixed-methods approach) to measure the context-based learning environment is described in this paper. The composite instrument was tested in a pilot study among 8 teachers and 162 students who use context-based materials in their classrooms. The instrument’s reliability was established and correlating data sources in the composite instrument were identified. Various aspects of validity were addressed and found to be supported by the data obtained. As expected, the instrument revealed that context-based teaching competence is more prominently visible in teachers with experience in designing context-based materials, confirming the instrument’s validity.     

What do science teachers think about developing scientific competences through context-based teaching? A case study

ABSTRACT

In this paper we explore the views and opinions of four secondary education science teachers regarding the teaching of scientific competences. Their views were gathered in the context of a training programme in which they had to design, implement, and assess their own teaching unit for developing students’ scientific competences by means of context-based learning. Analysis of the data yielded a set of 14 categories distributed across 5 areas: scientific competence and context-based teaching; the teacher and his/her professional environment; implementation in the classroom; development of the teaching unit; and assessment. This process also identified the aspects which teachers believed either facilitated or acted as an obstacle to the development of scientific competences through context-based teaching. We discuss the implications of our findings and suggest ways in which a shift towards a context-based approach to teaching scientific competences can best be achieved, and consider a series of factors related to teachers’ professional identity that may influence this process.     

Does interest have an expiration date? An analysis of students’ questions as resources for context-based learning

ABSTRACT

Context-based approaches can bridge the gap between abstract, difficult science concepts and the world students live in. However, the relevance of specific contexts to different groups of learners, and its stability over time, have not been extensively explored. This study used four datasets, collected in different formal and informal settings, to examine which types of contexts could capture the interest of many students and remain so for many years. In the formal setting, responses to closed-ended questionnaires in which 4–12th graders indicated their interest in studying the answers to science questions were compared. Over 700 questionnaires collected in 2007 were compared to over 1600 questionnaires collected in 2016. To document the stability of children’s interest in informal science learning settings we compared over 1600 science questions sent to a TV science show in 2004 with over 7000 science questions submitted to a commercial exhibition in 2014. Although there were some differences across ages, students’ interest in science remained relatively stable over the 10 years. In the formal setting, this similarity was reflected in the significant linear relationship between the two databases (r?=?0.917) with regard to the questions students found interesting. In the informal setting, there was a striking similarity in the proportions of spontaneous questions in biology, astrophysics, Earth Science and chemistry. Based on the findings of this study and the literature we recommended, frequently asked questions are a valuable resource for context-based teaching which can serve to identify contexts that enhance the relevance of science in students’ lives.     

Environmental Education within a Science Course in the Initial Education of Primary Teachers

This paper describes an attempt to infuse an environmental dimension into a science course through which prospective primary teachers are trained. The innovation concerns teaching science concepts not in the context of the discipline, but within a context of everyday life, and as such the focus chosen was drinking water. In formulating the course, learners’ ideas about aspects of the issue were taken into account. The evaluation was based on a post‐course questionnaire. The main conclusions to be drawn from this evaluation is that the science knowledge learned through this approach helped students gain a better understanding of a variety of aspects which concern that issue. The majority of students appreciated such an integrated approach and thought the approach taken was more promising than the stereotypical one that they had been accustomed to up to that point.     

Confronting prospective teachers' ideas of evolution and scientific inquiry using technology and inquiry‐based tasks

This study addresses the need for research in three areas: (1) teachers' understandings of scientific inquiry; (2) conceptual understandings of evolutionary processes; and (3) technology‐enhanced instruction using an inquiry approach. The purpose of this study was to determine in what ways The Galapagos Finches software–based materials created a context for learning and teaching about the nature of scientific knowledge and evolutionary concepts. The research used a design experiment in which researchers significantly modified a secondary science methods course. The multiple data sources included: audiotaped conversations of two focus pairs of participants as they interacted with the software; written pre‐ and posttests on concepts of natural selection of the 21 prospective teachers; written pre‐ and posttests on views of the nature of science; three e‐mail journal questions; and videotaped class discussions. Findings indicate that prospective teachers initially demonstrated alternative understandings of evolutionary concepts; there were uninformed understandings of the nature of scientific inquiry; there was little correlation between understandings and disciplines; and even the prospective teachers with research experience failed to understand the diverse methods used by scientists. Following the module there was evidence of enhanced understandings through metacognition, and the potential for interactive software to provide promising context for enhancing content understandings. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Complexity of Learning: Exploring the Interplay of Different Mediational Means in Group Learning with Digital Tools

The relationship between the different mediational means for supporting students’ learning with digital tools in science group work in a Norwegian lower-secondary school is examined. Analyses of teacher-student and student-student interactions are located in cultural-historical theory and draw on Galperin’s conceptualisation of learning processes. Findings show that digital tools, task design, peer collaboration, and teacher’s interventions dialectically interplay to shape how learners use mediational means: (1) digital tools are the resources that enable students to explicate their (mis)understandings; (2) compare-and-contrast tasks promote analytical thinking; (3) peers present themselves as resources who promote development of conceptual understanding; (4) the teacher guides learners’ attention towards the potential of the mediational resources, elicits, organises, and structures students’ knowledge. The dialectical interplay of these mediational means creates a system that supports and guides students’ learning.     

Inquiry as a context-based practice – a case study of pre-service teachers’ beliefs and implementation of inquiry in context-based science teaching

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to provide an understanding of context-based inquiry teaching within a humanistic perspective on science education by studying pre-service teachers’ beliefs about inquiry and their implementations of inquiry in their context-based teaching sequences. Therefore, five pre-service teachers enrolled in a university undergraduate course called ‘Inquiry-based chemistry education II’ (5 ECTS) were involved in an empirical case study. The pre-service teachers’ implementations of inquiry were studied from their reports on self-designed context-based inquiry teaching sequences for students age 13–15, and their beliefs by interviewing them after the course. The results indicate that the most frequent aspects of inquiry, which were implemented, were that inquiry (i) includes a context, (ii) is a way to act, (iii) is a way to think, and (iv) includes source/information evaluation and argumentation. The pre-service teachers’ beliefs about inquiry were shown to reflect manifold aspects of inquiry, such as the difficulty in explaining it. However, this difficulty in encapsulating inquiry into a clear-cut definition is not necessarily an impediment to inquiry-based teaching. Furthermore, inquiry is inherently context-bound, and context-based teaching requires extra-situational knowledge from the context and not only declarative knowledge from science. This should be considered to support effective professional development.     

Inquiry-Based Science and Technology Enrichment Program for Middle School-Aged Female Students

This study investigates the effects of an intensive 1-week Inquiry-Based Science and Technology Enrichment Program (InSTEP) designed for middle school-aged female students. InSTEP uses a guided/open inquiry approach that is deepened and redefined as eight sciences and engineering practices in the Next Generation Science Standards, which aimed at increasing female students’ interest in science and science-related careers. This study examined the effectiveness of InSTEP on 123 female students’ pre-assessment and post-assessment changes in attitudes toward science and content knowledge of selected science concepts. An attitude survey, a science content test with multiple-choice questions, written assignments, and interviews to collect data were all used to measure students’ attitudes and content knowledge. A within-group, repeated measure design was conducted, and the results indicated that at the post-intervention level, InSTEP increased the participants’ positive attitudes toward science, science-related careers, and content knowledge of selected science concepts.     

推荐国外一种化学实验教学模式

文章评价了美国加州大学柏克利分校化学系的一种化学实验教学模式。这种基于内容的模块化实验增强了学生对科学的兴趣,有利于提高学生解决实际问题的能力。