Connected Knowledge in Science and Mathematics Education

While the traditional meaning of connected knowledge is valuable in some school subjects, it does not address the main activities of knowledge acquisition in subjects such as physics and mathematics. The goal of this article is to analyze the relationships between the concepts “learning for understanding” and “connected knowledge”, a central theme in feminist epistemology. In learning for understanding, the learner forms multiple, intricate connections among the concepts she is studying in school, between school concepts and her everyday concepts, and between school concepts and their wider context. Viewing connected knowledge as tightly related to understanding has several important implications. It brings connected knowledge into the central learning activities that take place in school science and mathematics, and gives it a high status. It contributes to our understanding of gender‐related patterns in thinking; and it may form a unifying theoretical framework for many studies and projects in the field of gender fair education.     

Identifying meta‐clusters of students' interest in science and their change with age

Nearly 6,000 science questions collected from five different web‐based, TV‐based and school‐based sources were rigorously analyzed in order to identify profiles of K‐12 students' interest in science, and how these profiles change with age. The questions were analyzed according to their topic, thinking level, motivation for and level of autonomy in raising the question, the object of interest and its magnitude, and psychological distance of the object in question from the asker. Characteristics of the asker, such as gender, grade level, and country of origin were also considered, alongside characteristics of the data source, such as language, setting (Internet, school, TV), and the potential science‐attentiveness of the users. Six meta‐clusters of children's and adolescents' interest in science were identified using cluster analysis of their self‐generated science questions. A developmental shift in interest from non‐classical to classical school science subjects was noted. Other age‐related developments, such as an increase in thinking level as reflected by the questions, a decrease in organization level and the psychological distance of the object in question with age were also explored. Advantages and shortcomings of web‐based data collection for educational research are discussed, as are the implications of the results obtained using this methodology for formal science education. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 999–1022, 2009     

Variables that influence the environmental behavior of adults

This study focuses on understanding the factors that encourage adults’ environmental behavior. This mixed approach methodology study used 10 Likert type questionnaires to collect data about nine cognitive and affective components that might influence environmental behavior. The qualitative data was collected through open questions and interviews. The main sample included 656 participants from amongst Israel’s working population. The questionnaires were found both reliable and valid. Most of the explored cognitive and affective aspects appeared to act as predictors of environmental behavior. The study indicates that environmental behavior is driven by ‘egoistic’ concerns rather than by altruistic views and motivations.     

Robotics as a Tool to Enhance Technological Thinking in Early Childhood

Journal of Science Education and Technology - This paper presents findings regarding the addition of robotics education in kindergarten and elementary school as a tool for enhancing technological...     

Teaching thinking on a national scale: Israel's pedagogical horizons

Like other countries, Israel had its share of projects that see the implementation of inquiry and higher order thinking in schools as their main goal. However, although many of these projects were quite successful, they did not succeed in changing the bulk of teaching and learning in Israeli schools. This article describes a new national educational policy called “Pedagogical Horizons for Learning”. The goal of this policy is to move the whole educational system towards a focus on higher order thinking and deep understanding. Such a move must consider the knowledge gained from previous projects but it must also lean on strategies for implementing systemic educational change. Implementing the goals of the “Pedagogical Horizons for Learning” on a national scale requires simultaneous work on three-dimensions: (a) curriculum, learning materials and standards; (b) professional development; and (c) assessment. The article outlines the plan for each of these three-dimensions and provides some accounts of the first stages of the implementation process.     

Themes of individualism, competition, and cooperation in teachers' stories

This paper deals with themes of individualism, competition, and cooperation in teachers' stories, as they are told in a high school staffroom. Teachers told stories to their colleagues and through these stories they presented their professional culture to themselves. The three themes of individualism, cooperation, and competition were woven together in the stories, stressing the importance of all three in the teachers' work. This triple theme is contradictory in essence and so it shows new difficulties in the teaching profession.     

Reasoning about Interactions between Variables

Thinking about interactions between variables is a necessary condition for accurate scientific thinking. The purpose of this study was to investigate difficulties in thinking about interactions between variables and to suggest remedial educational means. A conceptual analysis distinguishes between valid interaction inferences, invalid interaction inferences, and limited inferences which can be seen as a partial or a primitive interaction inference. Empirical findings show that expert thinkers demonstrate thinking about interactions at both an operational and a metastrategic level. Some lay-adults however, although able to draw many limited inferences, encounter substantial difficulties in drawing valid interaction inferences while engaged in an investigation of a scientific sort. Four types of difficulties were identified in this study: lack of a “double set of controlled comparisons” strategy that is necessary for valid inferences about interacting variables; lack of the conceptual framework for interacting factors; diversion of attention to other features; and difficulty in maintaining the necessary control of other variables. The implications of the findings to science curriculum are discussed.     

Contribution of Meta‐strategic Knowledge to Scientific Inquiry Learning

The aim of the present study is to explore the effects of Meta‐strategic Knowledge (MSK) on scientific inquiry learning. MSK is a subcomponent of metacognition defined as general, explicit knowledge about thinking strategies. Following earlier studies that showed considerable effects of explicit instruction of MSK regarding the strategy of variables control, the present study explores whether similar effects are found in two additional scientific thinking strategies: Define Research Questions and Formulate Research Hypotheses. Participants were 119 eighth‐grade students from six classes of a heterogeneous school. Equal numbers of low‐achieving and high‐achieving students were randomly assigned into experimental and control groups. The findings showed dramatic developments in students’ performance following instruction. The effect of the treatment was preserved in a delayed transfer test. Our findings show that explicit teaching of MSK had a stronger effect for low‐achieving students than for high‐achieving students. The implications of the findings for teaching and learning in the context of scientific inquiry are discussed.     

Children's sleep regulation is linked to mothers’ sleep-related childhood experiences

The present research explored how mothers’ own childhood experiences are linked to their perceptions of their children's sleep regulation. It focused on collective sleeping; a practice used in the past in the Israeli kibbutz, and used a quasi-experimental research design to examine whether mothers who were raised in collective sleeping arrangements differed from mothers who were raised in home sleeping. Two typically developing cohorts: infants (n = 68; ages 9–15 months; M = 12.2, SD = 2.2) and preschool children (n = 113; ages 48–55 months; M = 51.5, SD = 1.85) participated in this investigation. Sleep regulation and temperament were reported for infants and children, whereas for mothers data were collected on separation anxiety and appraisal of the ecology in which they were raised. Collectively raised mothers evaluated their upbringing significantly more negatively than home-raised mothers, expressed higher separation anxiety with regard to an alternative caregiver, but were not different in their views of their child's sleep difficulties. For infants, it was maternal separation anxiety that contributed uniquely to the explained variance in maternal view of sleep regulation difficulties. For preschool children, it was maternal evaluation of own childhood ecology and child's temperament that contributed uniquely to the explained variance in maternal view of sleep regulation difficulties. These findings suggest that mothers’ representations of their sleep-related early experiences, rather than their childhood ecology in and of itself, influenced their perceptions about their child's sleep, which, in turn, affect child's sleep patterns. Implications to caregiving are discussed.