“Evolution? I Don’t Believe in It”

Science & Education - Due to the controversies surrounding the topic of evolution among religious and non-religious people alike, the treatment of biological evolution in education—both...     

FACTORS AFFECTING FEMALE TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARD HELP‐SEEKING OR HELP‐AVOIDANCE IN COPING WITH BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS

Questionnaires were given to 392 elementary school teachers to examine help‐seeking or help‐avoidance in dealing with classroom behavioral problems. Scale validity was examined through a series of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Using a series of multivariate regression analyses and structural equation modeling, we identified predictors of motivational goals, predictors of attitudes toward help‐seeking or help‐avoidance, and a model of teachers’ attitudes toward help‐seeking or help‐avoidance. Results revealed four types of attitudes. Two reflected a positive approach to seeking help, but for different reasons: the first is intended to end the confrontation rapidly, and the second strives to develop new coping abilities. Also, two avoidant behaviors intended to avoid seeking help were revealed: one from fear of failure, and the other from a desire to deal with the problems independently. These four positions support a model of teacher help‐seeking, where seeking or avoiding help arises from a combination of implicit theories, efficacy beliefs, and motivational goals. Suggestions for further research into motivational factors of teachers when seeking help in coping with behavioral problems are suggested, as well as a call for a renewed consideration of the effectiveness of teacher support mechanisms.     

The learning processes of two high‐school biology students when reading primary literature

Biology education, like education in any other discipline, strives to make students familiar with the knowledge, activities, and ways of thinking of the community of biologists. We produced a curriculum in developmental biology based on learning through primary literature, in an attempt to develop biological literacy among highschool students. Here we characterize the way in which two high‐school biology students read a research article in developmental biology. Mere reading resulted in superficial comprehension. In contrast, when the students answered questions about the text, deeper comprehension evolved. The students could overcome readingcomprehension problems by applying well‐established reading strategies, but encountered difficulties resulting from the classical structure of research articles. We hope that our characterization of the learning process of research articles by high‐school students will enable the use of these complex texts in high‐school biology classrooms.     

Characterizing children’s spontaneous interests in science and technology

This article reports the results of an analysis of 1676 science and technology questions submitted by Israeli children to a series of television programmes. It categorizes the children’s questions with reference to five different coding schemes: field of interest, motivation for asking the question, type of information requested, country‐specific aspects, and source of information. The results point to the popularity of biology, technology, and astrophysics over other sciences, indicate a shift in interests and motivation with age, and reflect a variety of gender‐related differences within the sample. The implications of the findings for some current trends in curriculum development and for informal science education are discussed with reference to the wider context of the pupils’ voice in education.     

Toward Bridging the Mechanistic Gap Between Genes and Traits by Emphasizing the Role of Proteins in a Computational Environment

Previous studies have shown that students often ignore molecular mechanisms when describing genetic phenomena. Specifically, students tend to directly link genes to their encoded traits, ignoring the role of proteins as mediators in this process. We tested the ability of 10th grade students to connect genes to traits through proteins, using concept maps and reasoning questions. The context of this study was a computational learning environment developed specifically to foster this ability. This environment presents proteins as the mechanism-mediating genetic phenomena. We found that students’ ability to connect genes, proteins, and traits, or to reason using this connection, was initially poor. However, significant improvement was obtained when using the learning environment. Our results suggest that visual representations of proteins’ functions in the context of a specific trait contributed to this improvement. One significant aspect of these results is the indication that 10th graders are capable of accurately describing genetic phenomena and their underlying mechanisms, a task that has been shown to raise difficulties, even in higher grades of high school.     

Secondary School Choice as a Window on Jewish Faith Schools in Contemporary British Society

ABSTRACT

Research into school choice has generally explored both the processes by which choices are made and the considerations that parents explore when making this important decision on behalf of their children. This article examines the secondary school choices of Jewish parents in the United Kingdom. It explores parents’ reasons for choosing to select Jewish faith secondary schools. We frame our arguments against the backdrop of the wider faith-school phenomenon in the UK, and as with the Christian communities, we find a disconnect between the small number of Jewish adults attending places of worship regularly and the growing number of Jewish children attending Jewish faith schools. We show that for many parents, schooling is synonymous with Jewish socialization, or enculturation; developing networks of Jewish friends, providing sufficient cultural resources to enable participation in Jewish life, and nurturing distinctive values. We show how Jewish schools have become more than places for academic advancement for these families; they have become the primary locus of Jewish community.     

Yesterday’s Students in Today’s World—Open and Guided Inquiry Through the Eyes of Graduated High School Biology Students

Research in Science Education - Educational policy bodies worldwide have argued that practicing inquiry as a part of the K-12 curriculum would help prepare students for their lives as adults in...     

It Only Happens Once: Adolescents’ Interpretations of Mediated Messages About Sexual Initiation

The current study examines adolescents’ interpretations of a televised scene narrative describing a sexual initiation encounter. The study uses the media practice model as a theoretical framework. Two hundred ninety-three 10th, 11th, and 12th graders suggested possible endings to the narrative, reflecting their outcome expectancies for sexual initiation. The adolescents’ suggested scene endings were divided into 10 categories, including emotional, physical, and relational outcomes. A thematic analysis of their outcome expectancies revealed some shared themes, but important individual differences based on gender and sexual experience also were identified, consistent with media practice model assumptions. Male students were more technical and less emotional than female students in their scene interpretations. Adolescents without sexual experience suggested more simplistic and deterministic outcomes than more sexually experienced teens. The study contributes to the understanding of adolescents’ interpretation of mediated narratives in the context of sexual initiation and supports their complex, active, and developmentally consistent understanding of this topic.     

Does interest have an expiration date? An analysis of students’ questions as resources for context-based learning

ABSTRACT

Context-based approaches can bridge the gap between abstract, difficult science concepts and the world students live in. However, the relevance of specific contexts to different groups of learners, and its stability over time, have not been extensively explored. This study used four datasets, collected in different formal and informal settings, to examine which types of contexts could capture the interest of many students and remain so for many years. In the formal setting, responses to closed-ended questionnaires in which 4–12th graders indicated their interest in studying the answers to science questions were compared. Over 700 questionnaires collected in 2007 were compared to over 1600 questionnaires collected in 2016. To document the stability of children’s interest in informal science learning settings we compared over 1600 science questions sent to a TV science show in 2004 with over 7000 science questions submitted to a commercial exhibition in 2014. Although there were some differences across ages, students’ interest in science remained relatively stable over the 10 years. In the formal setting, this similarity was reflected in the significant linear relationship between the two databases (r?=?0.917) with regard to the questions students found interesting. In the informal setting, there was a striking similarity in the proportions of spontaneous questions in biology, astrophysics, Earth Science and chemistry. Based on the findings of this study and the literature we recommended, frequently asked questions are a valuable resource for context-based teaching which can serve to identify contexts that enhance the relevance of science in students’ lives.