Children's views concerning phase changes

This article reports on answers by children (Grades 1–9) to oral and written questions concerning the phase change from liquid to gas. The development of concepts was followed, proceeding from concrete to abstract ideas. Difficulties in the application of abstractions were found, and participants were frequently misled where a choice of possible correct answers was given. Many students were found to experience difficulties in problem solving even though they may have had the necessary level of knowledge. These findings lead us to emphasize the importance of explaining specific situations and experiences using clear and relevant models to suit the discussion. To this end, a number of suggestions are made for minimizing misunderstandings and enhancing understanding.     

Teaching Weight-Gravity and Gravitation in Middle School

This study deals with the school instruction of the concept of weight. The historical review reveals the major steps in changing weight definition reflecting the epistemological changes in physics. The latest change drawing on the operation of weighing has been not widely copied into physics education. We compared the older instruction based on the gravitational definition of weight with the newer one based on the operational definition. The experimental teaching was applied in two versions, simpler and extended. The study examined the impact of this instruction on the middle school students in regular teaching environment. The experiment involved three groups (N = 486) of 14-year-old students (ninth grade). The assessment drew on a written questionnaire and personal interviews. The elicited schemes of conceptual knowledge allowed to evaluate the impact on students’ pertinent knowledge. The advantage of the new teaching manifested itself in the significant decrease of the well-known misconceptions such as “space causes weightlessness,” “weight is an unchanged property of the body considered,” and “heavier objects fall faster”. The twofold advantage—epistemological and conceptual—of the operational definition of weight supports the correspondent curricular changes of its adoption.     

Determining the factors that influence parents’ views about science and technology

Background: Children generally adopt the behaviours and attitudes they see in their home environment. Because of this, education provided in the school can be effective, as long as it is supported at home and by extension to the entire environment where the child interacts. Isolating the family from school influences the continuance of the school’s educational impact. In this sense, families do have a significant impact on their child’s attitude about.

Purpose: The objective of this study is to determine how parents view science and technology, the factors that influence their views (gender, age, educational level), and the relationship between these opinions and the students’ science academic achievement.

Sample: The present study was conducted with the parents of 169 students attending randomly chosen primary schools in a city in western Turkey.

Design and methods: The ‘Scale for Determining Views of Parents regarding Science and Technology’ (SFDVPAST) was developed by the researchers and used in the present study. The scale’s reliability was 0.88. Data obtained from SFDVPAST were analysed with SPSS 11.5 using frequency (f), percentage (%), average (X), standard deviation (SD), one-way MANOVA, a univariate ANOVA for each dependent variable as a tracking test, and simple linear regression analysis to determine the relationships.

Results: At the completion of this study, findings indicated that gender does not have an impact on how parents view science and technology, but age and educational level do impact parents’ views on this topic. The science academic achievement of the student correlates with the views of his/her parents on science and technology.

Conclusions: Parents’ views towards science and technology have affected their age and education level, but have not affected their sex. In addition, parents’ positive view towards science and technology has affected their science academic achievement of the students.     

Yes,Memorize

The endless wealth of information on the internet sharpens the question: how much and what is really important for us to remember? This issue is related to questions regarding the core processes involved in reasoning and thinking. We present mental manipulation (MM) as the core of reasoning and examine the above‐mentioned issue in light of MM's vital role in reasoning and problem‐solving.     

Pupils’ Image of ‘the Scientist’ among Two Communities in Israel: A comparative study

The image of ‘the scientist’ and its effect on the willingness to be a scientist and to follow a career in science were investigated in two different cultural populations of elementary and junior high school pupils in Israel: Hebrew‐speaking (secular) pupils (N = 390) and Arabic‐speaking Bedouin pupils (N = 185). Five different tools were employed in our investigation (naming scientists, pictorial representation of the scientist (‘Draw‐a‐Scientist‐Test’), statements regarding the characteristics of the scientist, reasons for wanting/not wanting or being able/being unable to be scientists, and sources of knowledge regarding the scientist’s image). The image held by Hebrew pupils was similar to those held by western pupils found in previous research, but some details were more elaborate (due to the fact that many different tools were employed here). However, the image held by the Arabic pupils differed from that found in previous research. This image had a strong ethnical trend, with Golden Age Muslim scientists’ names dominating name lists, and drawings of traditional Muslim figures. Another image found in their drawings was of a scientist admired as a teacher, emphasising the Bedouin school’s formal culture. The theory of modernity will be a useful analytical tool to judge the results of the investigation, whether the population is supposed to be (or is close to) a modern population and whether it does not, definitely, fall under this definition (see Methods and Discussion).     

MATAL: the Israel Elementary Science Project‐‐a Retrospective

Summaries

English

In this article, the authors reflect on the development and implementation of the Israel Elementary Science Project (MATAL). The MATAL project, initially established in 1968, used British and American programmes as its foundation, but so modified them that they became applicable to the needs of less developed countries. The authors describe the structure and content of their project, as well as their work in teacher training and the development of ancillary and enrichment programmes. It is hoped that the Israeli experience in developing an elementary school science curriculum will be of interest and potential benefit to curriculum workers in other countries also.     

The Effect of Various Reward Situations on Children's Helping Behaviour

Abstract The present study examines the differential effect of three reward situations on children's helping behaviour. Ninety‐six boys front kindergarten and second grade were put in one of four experimental conditions: (a) a tangible reward was promised for helping; (b) a social reward was promised for helping; (c) undefined reward was mentioned and (d) no reward was offered. The results indicated that more second‐grade than kindergarten children helped and that the more concrete and tangible the reward offered, the more children helped. These results are discussed in the framework of the development of helping behaviour.     

Developmental Relations Among Behavioral Inhibition,Anxiety, and Attention Biases to Threat and Positive Information

This study examined relations between behavioral inhibition (BI) assessed in toddlerhood (n = 268) and attention biases (AB) to threat and positive faces and maternal‐reported anxiety assessed when children were 5‐ and 7‐year‐old. Results revealed that BI predicted anxiety at age 7 in children with AB toward threat, away from positive, or with no bias, at age 7; BI did not predict anxiety for children displaying AB away from threat or toward positive. Five‐year AB did not moderate the link between BI and 7‐year anxiety. No direct association between AB and BI or anxiety was detected; moreover, children did not show stable AB across development. These findings extend our understanding of the developmental links among BI, AB, and anxiety.     

Children's ideas about action at a distance

Children's ideas about action at a distance are analysed according to the commonsense theory. These ideas can be organized around three presuppositions which express concrete realizations of the abstract idea of interaction at a distance. The presuppositions are concerned with the uniqueness of earth, the need for connection between objects interacting at a distance, and how various forces support and focus each other. These ideas do not form a self‐consistent set of axioms to be applied coherently, but rather form a guiding framework. The chosen presuppositions are context dependent and related to the different environments of earth, a satellite, the moon and outer space. Support is preferred over connection. The relevance of these findings for instruction are discussed.