Secondary School Students’ Understanding of Science and Their Socioscientific Reasoning

Research in socioscientific issue (SSI)-based interventions is relatively new (Sadler in Journal of Research in Science Teaching 41:513–536, 2004; Zeidler et al. in Journal of Research in Science Teaching 46:74–101, 2009), and there is a need for understanding more about the effects of SSI-based learning environments (Sadler in Journal of Research in Science Teaching 41:513–536, 2004). Lee and Witz (International Journal of Science Education 31:931–960, 2009) highlighted the need for detailed case studies that would focus on how students respond to teachers’ practices of teaching SSI. This study presents case studies that investigated the development of secondary school students’ science understanding and their socioscientific reasoning within SSI-based learning environments. A multiple case study with embedded units of analysis was implemented for this research because of the contextual differences for each case. The findings of the study revealed that students’ understanding of science, including scientific method, social and cultural influences on science, and scientific bias, was strongly influenced by their experiences in SSI-based learning environments. Furthermore, multidimensional SSI-based science classes resulted in students having multiple reasoning modes, such as ethical and economic reasoning, compared to data-driven SSI-based science classes. In addition to portraying how participants presented complexity, perspectives, inquiry, and skepticism as aspects of socioscientific reasoning (Sadler et al. in Research in Science Education 37:371–391, 2007), this study proposes the inclusion of three additional aspects for the socioscientific reasoning theoretical construct: (1) identification of social domains affecting the SSI, (2) using cost and benefit analysis for evaluation of claims, and (3) understanding that SSIs and scientific studies around them are context-bound.     

An Evaluation of a Children's Safety Training Programme

This paper reports an experimental evaluation of a children's safety training programme,Kidscape, which aims to increase primary school children's ability to deal with four types of potentially unsafe situation: being bullied, being approached by a stranger, being subject to inappropriate intimacy from a known adult and to pressure from such adults to keep such intimacy secret. Assessments of children's safety awareness were carried out in three schools which used the programme, and in three matched control schools which did not, with children at two age levels, 6 years and 10 years. These assessments of children's awareness were made on three occasions: before, immediately after and 2‐3 months after the training programme for the experimental sample (60 children) and on corresponding occasions for the control sample (60 children). The results revealed a significant improvement in the safety awareness of the experimental (trained) group after training and also a significant difference between the groups, in favour of the trained group. However, an improved performance of the control (untrained) group suggests that factors other than the Kidscape programme itself may influence these differences. Age differences in children's wariness of the four safety situations are also discussed.     

A longitudinal study of learning for a group of indigenous Australian university students: Dissonant conceptions and strategies

Conceptions of learning andstrategies used by 15 indigenous students inthree Australian universities were studiedlongitudinally over three years. Their academicachievements were good, but at a high cost interms of time and effort. In spite of the factthat almost half of the students expressedhigher-order (qualitative) conceptions oflearning in the first year and more in thesecond and third years, all of the studentsreported using highly repetitive strategies tolearn. That is, they did not vary their way oflearning, reading or writing in the beginningof their studies and less than half of them didso at the end of the three years. It is arguedthat encountering variation in ways of learningis a prerequisite for the development ofpowerful ways of learning and studying.     

Context Cues in Early Reading

An investigation was carried out to examine any significant differences in the use of four types of context cues by good and poor readers in the early stages of their reading development. Sentences incorporating proactive and retroactive syntactic, and proactive and retroactive semantic cues were presented in the form of deletions at three levels of difficulty. Sixty-four subjects, 32 of each sex, were drawn equally from the six to seven and seven to eight year age levels and subdivided into groups of good and poor readers. Results indicated that all groups other than the youngest poor readers found the proactive semantic cues the most useful and made miscues displaying semantic associations across cue types. Implications for an understanding of strategies employed in early reading and approaches for instruction are discussed.     

Engaged food science: Connecting K‐8 learners to food science while engaging graduate students in science communication

Connecting the public to concepts in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is an essential for technological advancement and inspiring future scientists, impacting both the communicator and the audience's understanding of scientific topics. Without proper communication of scientific knowledge, acceptance and implementation of new technologies can be hindered. Additionally, increasing public awareness about current scientific issues through STEM engagement permits more informed policy and consumer choices, especially in the field of food science where many new food technologies are met with initial resistance by the consuming public. Here, we describe an event that introduced topics in food science to the nonexpert public, including K‐8th grade participants and their adult caregivers in an informal learning environment. This program consists of six activities that collectively introduce three areas in food science: food chemistry, food microbiology, and process engineering. Protocols are provided for each activity including a materials list (with the option to scale up or down according to event duration, event space allowances, and number of participants), learning objectives and discussion points that are adaptable to different age groups, event spaces, or budgets. Each activity has a participatory component to ensure both audience member and instructor engagement. A program designed for food science communication empowers young scientific minds to better understand complex scientific topics and could inspire them to envision a possible career in STEM fields, with the additional benefit of providing graduate students an exciting medium through which they may practice their science communication skills, potentially benefiting not only their personal academic and professional skills but also broader societal needs.     

Supervisors’ experiences in supervising higher education students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds during work-integrated learning of health and non-health courses

The growing number of students who are culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) relative to the host university undertaking fieldwork placements raises questions about how to best support their needs and the needs of their fieldwork supervisors so as to maximize the experience for both parties. This research aims to quantify and compare fieldwork supervisors’ perceptions of CALD versus non-CALD students’ performance during placements, the areas and levels of concern they experience in providing this supervision. Placement supervisors from health and non-health courses affiliated with an Australian University were randomly assigned to a survey containing question sets relating to their experiences in supervising CALD (n = 153) or non-CALD students (n = 168). The survey comprised Likert scale questions assessing “pressure points” to supervision and open-ended questions including strategies fieldwork supervisors typically used to assist students. Using univariate ordinal logistic regression analyses, “speaking” (coefficient, 95% CI 2.1 (1.56, 2.65)), “writing” in English (1.69 (1.17, 2.20)), and “adapting to culture of workplaces” (1.20 (0.71, 1.69)) were perceived by placement supervisors as the top “pressure points” in supervising CALD students. Interaction effects demonstrated that “difficulties in assessing CALD students’ competency” (coefficient, 95% CI?1.14 (?2.27, ?0.01), “feeling competent in supervising students for placements” (1.35 (0.26, 2.45)), and the “perception of lack of support” from either the university or employing organization (?1.70 (?2.83, ? 0.56)) were evident within fieldwork placement of health courses only. These results can assist universities and placement organizations to prioritize resources to address the key areas affecting CALD students’ performance on placements, and to improve supervisors’ experience in supervising CALD students on placements in health courses.

     

A Scheme to Promote Social Attention and Functional Language in Young Children with Communication Difficulties and Autistic Spectrum Disorder

This paper describes an approach to intervention that aims to foster the skill of young children with autistic spectrum disorder to share social attention and action to promote socially meaningful communication. It applies principles derived from research into pre‐linguistic development. The efficacy of the approach was evaluated through both a formal research project and within a clinical setting of a Portage scheme with groups of three to five year olds with a severe delay in their ability to communicate/autistic spectrum disorder. Outcome measures showed significantly accelerated levels of participation in social games and associated development of communication skills.     

The Role of Collective Efficacy in Closing Student Achievement Gaps: A Mixed Methods Study of School Leadership for Excellence and Equity

Previous research demonstrates that collective efficacy positively predicts students' academic achievement (e.g., Bandura, 1993 Bandura, A. (1993). Perceived self-efficacy in cognitive development and functioning. Educational Psychologist, 28(2), 117–148. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep2802_3[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Goddard et al., 2000 Goddard, R. D., Hoy, W. K., &; Woolfolk Hoy, A. (2000). Collective teacher efficacy: Its meaning, measure, and effect on student achievement. American Educational Research Journal, 37(2), 479–507. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312037002479[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). However, unaddressed by the current literature is whether collective efficacy also works to reduce inequity by closing achievement gaps. To learn about the operation of collective efficacy, we designed a mixed-methods study, situated in the elementary and middle schools of one large urban district in Texas. Hierarchal linear modeling was employed to model the degree to which collective efficacy explained differences among schools in student mathematics achievement and the Black-White achievement gap. We also drew upon focus group data collected at 6 schools. We found that collective efficacy was associated with an increase in mathematics achievement as well a 50% reduction in the academic disadvantage experienced by Black students. Focus groups revealed the importance of school principals in supporting teacher collaboration and peer observation as well as a sustained focus on instructional improvement.