As ‘process’ as it can get: students' understanding of biological processes

Students' understanding of biological phenomena are analysed via the ontological categories of processes and matter. The analysis is based on tenth graders' explanations regarding biological phenomena such as photosynthesis, energy resources, temperature regulation and interrelations between living/nonliving worlds. This direction of analysis is an attempt to flow with the more meaningful trend of biological research and thought, that emphasizes the importance and fruitfulness of the process approach. Some implications regarding biology learning and teaching are suggested.     

Reaching a Consensus on the Definition of Genetic Literacy that Is Required from a Twenty-First-Century Citizen

To determine what knowledge of genetics is needed for decision-making on genetic-related issues, a consensus-reaching approach was used. An international group of 57 experts, involved in teaching, studying, or developing genetic education and communication or working with genetic applications in medicine, agriculture, or forensics, answered the questions: “What knowledge of genetics is relevant to those individuals not professionally involved in science?” and “Why is this knowledge relevant?” The answers were classified in different knowledge components following the PISA 2015 science framework. During a workshop with the participants, the results were discussed and applied to seven cases in which genetic knowledge is relevant for decision-making. The analysis of these discussions resulted in a revised framework consisting of nine conceptual knowledge components, three sociocultural components, and four epistemic components. The framework can be used in curricular decisions; its open character allows for including new technologies and applications and facilitates comparisons of different cases.     

The Role of Surface Text Processing in Centrality Deficit and Poor Text Comprehension of Adolescents with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Think‐Aloud Study

The present study employed a think‐aloud method to explore the origin of centrality deficit (i.e., poor recall of central ideas) in individuals with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Moreover, utilizing the diverse think‐aloud responses, we examined the overall quality of text processing employed by individuals with ADHD during reading, in order to shed more light on text‐level deficiencies underlying their poor comprehension after reading. To address these goals, adolescents with and without ADHD were asked to state aloud whatever comes to their minds during the reading of two expository texts. After reading, the participants freely recalled text ideas and answered multiple‐choice questions on the texts. Compared to controls, participants with ADHD generated fewer responses that reflect deep, efficient text processing, and reinstated fewer prior text ideas, particularly central ones, during reading. Moreover, the proportions of deep processing responses positively associated with participants’ performance on recall and comprehension tasks. These findings suggest that individuals with ADHD exhibit poor text comprehension and memory, particularly of central ideas, because they construct a low‐quality, less‐connected text representation during reading, and produce fewer, less‐elaborated retrieval cues for subsequent tasks after reading.     

Fostering students' knowledge and argumentation skills through dilemmas in human genetics

This study examined the outcomes of a unit that integrates explicit teaching of general reasoning patterns into the teaching of a specific science content. Specifically, this article examined the teaching of argumentation skills in the context of dilemmas in human genetics. Before instruction only a minority (16.2%) of the students referred to correct, specific biological knowledge in constructing arguments in the context of dilemmas in genetics. Approximately 90% of the students were successful in formulating simple arguments. An assessment that took place following instruction supported the conclusion that integrating explicit teaching of argumentation into the teaching of dilemmas in human genetics enhances performance in both biological knowledge and argumentation. An increase was found in the frequency of students who referred to correct, specific biological knowledge in constructing arguments. Students in the experimental group scored significantly higher than students in the comparison group in a test of genetics knowledge. An increase was also found in the quality of students' argumentation. Students were able to transfer the reasoning abilities taught in the context of genetics to the context of dilemmas taken from everyday life. The effects of metacognitive thinking and of changing students' thinking dispositions by modifying what is considered valuable in the class culture are discussed. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 35–62, 2002     

Gender and Performance in Mathematical Tasks: Does the Context Make a Difference?

This study investigates how the context of mathematical tasks affects the performance of young children (ages 5–11). Subjects were 523 children from age 5 to 11. Three contexts of mathematical tasks (stereotypically boys’ contexts, stereotypically girls’ contexts and neutral contexts) are examined in three age groups (young, medium, and old). Boys’ and girls’ mean scores were compared for each age group in each of the three contexts. The data show that girls’ performance is affected by the context of the task while boys’ performance is not. The comparison between boys and girls in the three different contexts showed that in neutral contexts, the scores of boys and girls are similar. In (stereotypically) boys’ contexts, however, boys score significantly higher than girls. In (stereotypically) girls’ contexts, a significant interaction is found between age and gender, showing that the way girls are affected by such contexts depends on their age. The implications of these findings for gender-fair mathematics learning are discussed.     

Today's learning objective is to have a party: playing research with students in a secondary school special needs unit

The use of creative methods has been advocated within disability and childhood research as a means of including voices of inarticulate participants in research, as it can support and supplement the use of conventional language. This paper draws on a research project aimed at designing ‘the best school in the world’ with five students in a special needs unit of a secondary school in a socially deprived community in England, to suggest the use of playful creative methods in generating and representing data in inclusive education research. Play, as an activity occurring in an actual social reality yet not completely governed by its rules, offers an interesting starting point for researchers interested not only in describing the existing world but also in imagining viable alternatives to it. This paper discusses how using a playful methodology had an impact on power relations and provided an accessible context to foster participants' engagement in reflexive discussions about social norms and values. Creative and playful methodology was also useful in transgressing the primacy of language in educational research, thus opening spaces for other aspects of experience to be included in the analysis. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: http://youtu.be/Lt9l1eab6rQ .     

Expansion of Biology Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) During a Long-Term Professional Development Program

Experienced teachers possess a unique teaching knowledge comprised of an inter-related set of knowledge and beliefs that gives direction and justification to a teacher’s actions. This study examined the expansion of two components of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of three in-service teachers in the course of a professional development program aimed at designing new teaching and learning materials suggested by the teachers themselves. The research presents an enlargement of previous PCK representations by focusing on a detailed representation of two main PCK domains: teaching and learning, including ten PCK components that emerged in the course of data analysis. This representation enabled revealing the unique PCK held by each teacher and to characterize the expansion of the two components of the participating teachers’ PCK during the long-term professional development program. Retention of major parts of the expanded PCK a year after termination of the program implies that designing and implementing new teaching and learning materials based on the teachers’ experiences, needs, and knowledge in a workshop format accompanied by biology and science education courses might provide a powerful means for PCK expansion. We recommend that designers of professional development programs be aware of the unique PCK held by each teacher in order to promote meaningful professional development of each teacher. Moreover, the PCK representations that were identified in the course of this study enabled clarifying the “orientation toward teaching science” category of PCK which appears to be unclear in current literature.     

Dating violence and sexual risk behaviors in a sample of at-risk Israeli youth

OBJECTIVE: This exploratory study examines the reported dating violence and its association with sexual risk behavior among Israeli adolescents, who are at risk for dropping out of school. METHODOLOGY: A convenience sample of 105 at-risk youth (51 boys and 54 girls) completed self-administered anonymous, questionnaires in small same-gender groups. The questionnaire included a Hebrew version of the Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory, a valid scale developed in the US especially for adolescents, the Hebrew version of the Conflict Tactics Scale and the Self-Efficacy to Refuse Sexual Behavior Scale. RESULTS: We found high rates of perpetration of verbal-emotional abuse for both girls and boys. Rates of reported victimization by physical abuse were higher among boys but that by sexual abuse were higher among girls. We found a moderate inverse association between victimization by dating violence and practicing safe sex among girls. There was a similar but much stronger association for boys who were victims of dating violence. CONCLUSIONS: The high rates of various types of dating violence in Israel, at least among at-risk adolescents, should raise concern and motivate designing and implementing specific prevention interventions. The high reported rates of victimization from dating violence among boys are somewhat surprising and call for special attention and more indepth studies.     

Cloud Pedagogy: Utilizing Web-Based Technologies for the Promotion of Social Constructivist Learning in Science Teacher Preparation Courses

The new guidelines for science education emphasize the need to introduce computers and digital technologies as a means of enabling visualization and data collection and analysis. This requires science teachers to bring advanced technologies into the classroom and use them wisely. Hence, the goal of this study was twofold: to examine the application of web-based technologies in science teacher preparation courses and to examine pre-service teachers’ perceptions of “cloud pedagogy”—an instructional framework that applies technologies for the promotion of social constructivist learning. The study included university teachers (N = 48) and pre-service science teachers (N = 73). Data were collected from an online survey, written reflections, and interviews. The findings indicated that university teachers use technologies mainly for information management and the distribution of learning materials and less for applying social constructivist pedagogy. University teachers expect their students (i.e., pre-service science teachers) to use digital tools in their future classroom to a greater extent than they themselves do. The findings also indicated that the “cloud pedagogy” was perceived as an appropriate instructional framework for contemporary science education. The application of the cloud pedagogy fosters four attributes: the ability to adapt to frequent changes and uncertain situations, the ability to collaborate and communicate in decentralized environments, the ability to generate data and manage it, and the ability to explore new venous.