Mathematical thinking intervention programmes for preschool children with normal and low number sense

This study investigated the possibility of enhancing the level of preschoolers’ number sense by introducing two intervention programmes, Let’s think! and Young children with special educational needs count, too! .Forty‐five preschoolers, mean age 66.4 months, were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The experimental group received instruction twice a week, for half an hour, and for a period of nine months. Pretest–postest comparison revealed that the experimental group showed enhanced number‐sense performance immediately after the instruction ended, but the between‐group difference faded after six months. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups in general mathematical thinking abilities (transfer tasks) after the intervention.     

The Learning Consortium: A School‐University Partnership Program. An Introduction

ABSTRACT

Induction experiences of beginning teachers in schools that were classified as more effective or less effective on the basis of student achievement are compared. Classroom observations, interviews, and a “Beginning Teacher Questionnaire” were used to obtain information from teachers in the two groups. Three areas of socialization were examined: assistance, monitoring, and team‐building. Results indicate that historically more effective schools were more supportive of their beginning teachers. In addition, outcome data regarding teacher performance provides evidence of more effective teaching among teachers in more supportive schools, even though initial teacher effectiveness, levels of experience, and educational attainment were not different for the two groups.     

Knowledge and Technique in Statistical Problem‐Solving

Summaries

English

Subjects’ knowledge and technique in statistical problem‐solving, as well as their ability to detect their own problem‐solving errors, were studied. Twenty subjects were asked to solve two statistical problems, and then to explain their solutions to the experimenter. Finally, each subject was asked successively more detailed questions about his/her solution, particularly in reference to its erroneous parts. The results showed that subjects tended to describe rather than explain their solutions. Subjects eliminated three errors (4%) when accounting for their solutions and another 20 errors (24%) in the following interview. About one‐third of all errors were analysed as being due to deficiencies in subjects’ problem‐solving techniques. For 62% of the errors where subjects showed knowledge deficiencies, there were deficiencies in propositional knowledge, i.e. in subjects’ understanding of statistical concepts and their interrelations. The results showed that misunderstandings of concepts and methods of solution were much more common than lack of conceptions as such. In addition, the results suggest that deficiencies in subjects’ problem‐solving are related to motivational factors, such as a tendency to minimize cognitive strain. Pedagogical implications of the results are discussed.     

Same place,different experiences: exploring the influence of gender on students’ science museum experiences

Providing learning environments that are motivating for female students and male students alike is a challenge for science educators. This overview of the research conducted in science museums provides initial insights into informal educational settings that allow female visitors to have experiences which foster development of science interest and learning. The discussion of the influence of gender on learning experiences in informal science environments raises questions and calls for further research and more comprehensive reporting of research results. Findings related to gender‐equitable learning in settings such as science museums would be beneficial and extend the present knowledge base in science education.     

Turkish Prospective Chemistry Teachers’ Beliefs about Chemistry Teaching

Given the progressive loss of influence for the school relative to television in youngsters’ everyday lives, this article describes the procedure and the results of including cartoons in the physics curriculum in secondary education. Work was carried out intensively with a small group of pupils and sporadically with a larger group. In the first case, cartoons were used for identifying and discussing fictitious phenomena, problem‐solving, and assessment of the learning. In the second case, for identifying and discussing fictitious phenomena, a quasi‐experimental research design was followed. The results back the use of this didactic tool as an element for motivating and invigorating the classroom, for identifying the pupils’ alternative ideas and the assessment of their learning, as well as for a more critical way of watching television.     

Exploring the Structural Relationships between High School Students’ Scientific Epistemological Views and their Utilization of Information Commitments toward Online Science Information

The main purpose of this study was to examine the structural relationships between scientific epistemological views (SEVs) and information commitments (ICs) of high school students in Taiwan. Data were collected from 486 Taiwanese high school students via two self‐reporting instruments: one was the SEV questionnaire, including five scales for representing students’ views toward scientific knowledge; and the other was the ICs survey, involving six scales for exploring their evaluative standards and searching strategies of online science information. Structural equation modelling analysis was used to examine the relationships between the aspects of SEVs and ICs. The results of the measurement model confirmed that both the SEVs and ICs instruments had highly satisfactory validity and reliability. The structural equation modelling analysis further indicated that students’ SEVs guided their evaluative standards and searching strategy when dealing with Web‐based science information. For example, students who viewed scientific knowledge as more changeable and tentative significantly tended to adopt a more sophisticated evaluative standard, such as carefully inspecting the content of web sites for judging the usefulness. The findings in general suggested that students with more constructivist‐oriented SEVs might develop more advanced standards and searching strategy toward online scientific information to derive great benefit from Web‐based environments. Consequently, the role of SEVs should be highlighted as increasingly metacognitive engagement with online science information.     

Perspectives on learning to teach science: insights and dilemmas from a collaborative practicum project

In this article we discuss the theoretical and practical rationale for establishing a collaborative science practicum project and report on the findings of the first two years. The project was designed to strengthen the communication links among the school‐based educators, the pre‐service teachers, and the university‐based educators, in order to address the seemingly intractable problems associated with initiating new science teachers into the varied social practices of the teaching profession. Our findings are organized and discussed in the form of three dilemmas (Cuban 1992). These dilemmas are associated with the difficulties the pre‐service teachers had in connecting the propositional knowledge presented in the university setting with the procedural knowledge required in the school setting, and the lack of familiarity by the university and school‐based educators of each other's practice setting. We describe results that resonate with similar issues reported in other collaborative projects, and propose an alternative approach for preparing science teachers. This approach is based on conceptualizing learning to teach as a cognitive apprenticeship (Hennessy 1993) which prepares pre‐service teachers to enter the ‘community of practice’ called teaching. We argue that the success of such an approach requires the development of a collaborative community in which all participants engage in meaningful and supportive discourse concerning what, when and how science is taught in the classroom.     

Concept formation in environmental education: 14‐year olds’ work on the intensified greenhouse effect and the depletion of the ozone layer

A case study is presented describing the work of three pupils in the upper level of compulsory school. The pupils were learning about the intensified greenhouse effect and the depletion of the ozone layer. In their work, the need for certain domain‐specific knowledge becomes apparent; for example, understanding such concepts as photosynthesis, radiation and catalyst. The results show that the pupils experienced difficulty in distinguishing between the different meanings attached to individual concepts in their theoretical and practical contexts. They are often unable to identify the meaning relevant to the specific environmental problem that they are working on. The pupils’ difficulties are seen here as a problem of differentiation between concepts denoted by the same term as well as between different aspects of the same concept, a view that is then related to the question of appropriate conditions for conceptual change.     

The stepping stones of learning and evaluation

Based on the teachers’ lectures and evaluations we elaborate on a model of the aspects of learning. Inside the framework of this model three ways for solving a given problem relating to the previous teaching are presented.

We describe and analyse a method which is useful in selecting an evaluation task adapted to intended objectives, helps in the interpretation of the students’ performances and acts as a guide to the possible inferences about what the students acquire.     

Using Data Comparison and Interpretation to Develop Procedural Understandings in the Primary Classroom: Case study evidence from action research

The development of a science education that includes a focus upon the nature of science suggests the need for “pedagogic tools” that can be used to engage children with the procedural understandings that are central to the scientific approach to enquiry. This paper reports on a collaborative action research project that focused on the use of secondary data as just such a “tool” for stimulating engagement with procedural understandings among primary school children. It argues that the comparative analysis of secondary and investigative data can provide a basis for such engagement. However, such comparative analysis will only mirror the collaborative nature of the scientific enterprise where children have guided opportunities to discuss their understanding of the issues revealed by the comparisons. The research suggests that children work best with this data if the scientific approach to enquiry is contextualized through connection with the knowledge claims made in science.