Students’ Socio-Scientific Reasoning in an Astrobiological Context During Work with a Digital Learning Environment

In a European project—CoReflect—researchers in seven countries are developing, implementing and evaluating teaching sequences using a web-based platform (STOCHASMOS). The interactive web-based inquiry materials support collaborative and reflective work. The learning environments will be iteratively tested and refined, during different phases of the project. All learning environments are focusing “socio-scientific issues”. In this article we report from the pilot implementation of the Swedish learning environment which has an Astrobiology context. The socio-scientific driving questions are “Should we look for, and try to contact, extraterrestrial life?”, and “Should we transform Mars into a planet where humans can live in the future?” The students were in their last year of compulsory school (16 years old), and worked together in triads. We report from the groups’ decisions and the support used for their claims. On a group level a majority of the student groups in their final statements express reluctance towards both the search of extraterrestrial life and the terraforming of Mars. The support used by the students are reported and discussed. We also look more closely into the argumentation of one of the student groups. The results presented in this article, differ from earlier studies on students’ argumentation and decision making on socio-scientific issues (Aikenhead in Science education for everyday life. Evidence-based practice. Teachers College Press, New York, (2006) for an overview), in that they suggest that students do use science related arguments—both from “core” and “frontier” science—in their argumentation and decision making.     

Diagnosis and Monitoring of Basic Motor Competencies among Third-Graders in Luxembourg. An Assessment Tool for Teachers

ABSTRACT

Basic motor competencies (in German: Motorische Basiskompetenzen; MOBAK) are performance dispositions empowering children to participate in the movement culture. For the diagnosis of basic motor competencies, a test instrument consisting of 15 test items for assessing third graders’ basic motor competencies was developed (MOBAK-LUX-3) and validated empirically. Basic motor competencies were operationalized as test items in the form of basic motor qualifications, which are cultural tools formulated as a minimum standard. Data (MOBAK-LUX-3, age, gender, migration background, weight, height, sport club membership, weekly physical activity) were collected in 2015 amongst third-graders in elementary school in Luxembourg (N = 488; 50.4% female; M age = 8.8 years, SD = .51). A confirmatory factor analysis confirmed a four-factor structure (locomotion, object control, moving in water, object locomotion; CFI = .94; TLI = .92; RMSEA = .036; WRMR = 0.89). Five classes with different competence profiles were determined through latent class analysis. The MOBAK-LUX-3 test instrument satisfies test theory requirements and can be used to determinate motor competence profiles.     

Group formation based on learning styles: can it improve students’ teamwork?

This work explores the impact of teacher-led heterogeneous group formation on students?? teamwork, based on students?? learning styles. Fifty senior university students participated in a project-based course with two key organizational features: first, a web system (PEGASUS) was developed to help students identify their learning styles and distribute them to heterogeneous groups. Second, group facilitation meetings were introduced as a technique to help students reflect on their weak/strong traits and employ appropriate roles in their group. The study research questions focused mainly on students?? attitudes regarding the learning style-based group formation approach. By applying qualitative research method students?? views were recorded about the impact of styles awareness and group heterogeneity on group collaboration and possible benefits and drawbacks related to the style-based grouping approach. Evaluation data revealed that students gradually overcame their initial reservations for the innovative group formation method and were highly benefited since styles heterogeneity within the group emphasized complementarities and pluralism in students?? ways of thinking. Overall, this work provides evidence that the adoption of learning styles theories in practice can be facilitated by systems for automated group formation and supportive group facilitation meetings that help avoiding the trivial and discouraging approach of using learning styles to simply label students.     

PISA,TIMSS and Finnish mathematics teaching: an enigma in search of an explanation

Finnish students’ success on all three content domains of each of the four cycles of the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has created much international interest. It has also prompted Finnish academics to offer systemic explanations typically linked to the structural qualities of Finnish schooling and teacher education. Less well-known has been the modest mathematics performance of Finnish grade 8 students on the two Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in which Finland has participated, which, when compared with its PISA successes, has created something of an enigma. In this paper, we attempt to shed light on this enigma through analyses of Finnish mathematics classroom practice that draw on two extant data sets—interviews with Finnish teacher educators and video-recordings of sequences of lessons taught on standard topics. Due to the international interest in Finnish PISA success, the analyses focus primarily on the resonance between classroom practice and the mathematical literacy component of the PISA assessment framework. The analyses indicate that Finnish mathematics didactics are more likely to explain the modest TIMSS achievements than PISA successes and allude to several factors thought to be unique to the Finns, which, unrelated to mathematics teaching practices, may be contributory to the repeated Finnish PISA successes. Some implications for policy-borrowing are discussed.     

Global Learning and Education for Sustainable Development

Globalization is a fundamental factor affecting higher education in this century. More than ever before, the processes of globalization are being integrated into a set of social, technological, economic, cultural and ecological factors, so that we are now beginning to accept that we are facing a completely irreversible world‐wide phenomenon. The concept of sustainable development integrates these factors and leads, beside environmental education, to a demand for global learning and education for sustainable development. To get a better understanding of the subject, the decision‐game ‘Prisoner's Dilemma’ focuses on the aspect of the public good.     

Zwischen Berufstreue und Berufswechsel

In einer retrospektiven Befragung von vier Kohorten (Patentierung 1963–65, 1973–75, 1983–85 und 1993–95) ehemaliger Absolventinnen und Absolventen der seminaristischen Primarlehrerausbildung im Kanton Bern (Schweiz) wurden Daten zur beruflichen Mobilit?t und aktuellen Berufst?tigkeit erhoben. Auf der Basis von Besch?ftigungsgrad und T?tigkeitschronologie konnten fünf Karrieretypen gebildet werden — Nicht-Einstieg, Verbleib, Reduktion, Ausstieg und Wiedereinstieg —, die bezüglich beruflicher Beanspruchung, motivationaler Haltung und Berufszufriedenheit beschrieben wurden. Mehr als die H?lfte der Befragten arbeitet aktuell nicht mehr als Primarlehrer, jedoch haben nur wenige das Berufsfeld Bildung und Schule verlassen. Die Ergebnisse zeichnen ein weit günstigeres Bild der beruflichen Karriere von Lehrkr?ften als die bisherige Forschung, die zumeist auf „überlebende“ im Lehrerberuf beschr?nkt ist. Auff?llig ist die starke Determination der Karriere von weiblichen Lehrkr?ften durch die traditionelle Geschlechtsrollenteilung, und zwar in allen untersuchten Kohorten.     

The role of classroom differences in achievement changes

A combined criterion involving the regression slopes of pretest-posttest achievement scores and achievement gain scores was used to classify similar types of classrooms. Mathematics achievement differences among 632 fifth graders were analysed in a longitudinal design and explained in a structural equation framework provided by LISREL, separately for four types of classrooms. The results replicated the findings of an earlier study (Schneider & Treiber, 1984) in that the local nature of achievement models could be demonstrated. That is, the structural components of the causal models could not be generalized across the four groups of classrooms. The inclusion of a second grouping criterion (i. e., achievement gain) proved useful in that a better model fit was always obtained for classrooms with high achievement agains. As a global model test ignoring group and classroom membership did mask the differential validity of the achievement model in the various subgroups, the need for multilevel approaches was emphasized.     

Fostering Upper Secondary Students’ Ability to Engage in Practices of Scientific Investigation: a Comparative Analysis of an Explicit and an Implicit Instructional Approach

Research in Science Education - Inquiry-based teaching is considered as contributing to content-related, procedural, and epistemic learning goals of science education. In this study, a...