Chemistry Teaching for the Future: A model for secondary chemistry education for sustainable development

For more than 40 years, the international community has acknowledged the role education might play in environmental awareness and conservation. The last major initiative came when the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed a Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014). In the final year of the decade, teachers still struggle to realise education for sustainable development (ESD). One of the challenges teachers face with respect to ESD is the inclusion of even more content into an already overloaded curriculum. In response, it has been suggested that ESD should be introduced as an integrated perspective across the content of all existing subjects. This paper offers a model for how ESD can be realised in chemistry education. The model has been developed to support chemistry teachers in their educational planning and consists of 5 categories: chemical content knowledge, chemistry in context, the distinctiveness and methodological character of chemistry, ESD competences and lived ESD. The ESD model is illustrated through 5 ellipses, visualising the hierarchy of the categories, as they exist in different levels. All 5 ESD categories need to be considered in a holistic ESD approach.     

Analysing proof-related competences in Estonian,Finnish and Swedish mathematics curricula—towards a framework of developmental proof

Many countries are revising their mathematics curriculum in order to elevate the role of proof and argumentation at all school levels and for all student groups. Yet, we have very little research on how proof-related competences are aimed to be developed in the mathematics curricula of different countries in Grades 1 to 12. This article contributes to filling this gap by analysing and comparing three countries’ curricula from the perspective of developmental proof. For this purpose, we created an analytical frame of proof-related competences that could be connected to the development of students’ understanding and skills concerning argumentation and mathematical proof. The analysis reveals three quite different trajectories with specific characteristics, shortcomings and strengths.     

Discourses about School-based Mathematics Teacher Education in Finland and Sweden

In this cross-case study we focus on school-based teacher education in Sweden and Finland. Through the use of focus-group interviews with mathematics teacher educators in Finland and Sweden, the study shows that there are substantial differences in how school-based teacher education is introduced and portrayed in the discourse about teacher education and prospective teachers' learning. The school-based teacher education among the Finnish groups is made relevant in relation to several aspects of prospective teachers' learning. In the Swedish groups, school-based teacher education is portrayed as an organizational problem and few aspects of prospective teachers' learning are brought into the discourse. The results cannot be generalized to the two countries but show interesting conceptualizations of school-based education potentially useful for teacher educators and scholars.     

Science teacher education for sustainable development: a case study of a residential field course in a Norwegian pre-service teacher education programme

In this paper, we explore how a Norwegian teacher education institution promotes education for sustainable development (ESD) through a residential field course. The residential field course was located in a mountain area and data were collected through participant observation. The data included—together with instructional artefacts—evaluation schemes and assignments written by the student teachers, and the analysis was based on categories for science ESD. Through exemplary teaching experiences in an outdoor environment and pupil-active teaching methods, such as inquiry learning and phenomenon-based teaching, the student teachers gained experience in outdoor education and of stepping into the unknown in a safe learning environment. This was further connected to ESD pedagogy.     

Selecting students for medical school: What predicts success during basic science studies? A cognitive approach

This study focuses on differences between multiple-choice science tests and a learning-from-text (LFT) test, and how these tests predict success in basic medical studies. The subjects (N = 503) were applicants to the Helsinki University Medical Faculty. All of them had to take an entrance examination in order to be considered for admission to a 6-year study programme combining medical school and graduate studies. The entrance examination consisted of three traditional multiple-choice science tests and one LFT test, the latter designed to measure deep-level processing of text. A follow-up study was conducted in order to see how the different tasks were related to the grades and pace of studying of those who were accepted onto the programme.As hypothesized, there were very high correlations among the three multiple-choice tests, but no correlations between the LFT subtasks and the multiple-choice tests. LISREL analyses showed that the LFT Synthesis Task, designed to measure the ability to pull together the essentials of a text, was the best predictor of academic progress during basic science studies.     

Capturing teacher students’ emotional experiences in context: does inquiry-based learning make a difference?

In the present study teacher students?? contextual learning experiences were examined longitudinally in authentic study environments using the contextual activity sampling system, a means of mobile-supported experience sampling. The students?? (n?=?9) experiences were first recorded during a 2?week period in their first year of study. The same measurements were repeated again for a 2?week follow-up in the second year, accompanied by interviews before and after the follow-up. The first year of study consisted mostly of lectures and ordinary small-group work, whereas the second measurement period ran parallel to the completion of an intensive inquiry-based project, which was the focus of the present study. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed that studying during the inquiry-based period produced stronger experiences of being challenged as well as negative affects than the teacher-centered period. The participants?? experiences of competence, commitment and positive affects did not differ during the two periods. However, interview data indicated that the participants enjoyed the inquiry-based period and that the work was intensive. Contextual data and interviews were also used to describe students?? experiences during one particular study session during the inquiry-based project. The results suggest that negative affects may be an essential part of the process of gradually learning to take responsibility for both individual and collaborative learning processes. Possibilities for using experience-sampling methods to analyze collaborative learning are also discussed.     

Aspects and Prospects of Measuring Studying and Learning in Higher Education

The development of two dominant research traditions is described: students' approaches to learning (SAL) and information processing (IP). The development of the third tradition, self-regulated learning (SRL) is added. SAL is based on European research, whereas IP and SRL are more typical background ideas for North-American research. The most central conceptual frameworks behind these traditions are analyzed. These frameworks form the foundations for the most common inventories used in higher education to measure university students' learning and studying. A larger multilayered perspective is then outlined with three levels of context: general, course-specific, and situational. The other contributions to this Special issue are discussed in relation to this larger picture.     

Curious play: children’s exploration of nature

This article explores the concept of ‘curious play’ as a theoretical framework to understand and communicate children’s experiences of free play in nature. The concept emerged interactively from three sources of inspiration: an ethnographically inspired study of children playing in nature; as a critique of the concept of ‘risky play’ being the dominant discourse on children’s play in natural environments; and from phenomenological and cultural-historical theories of children’s play and play environments. The article illustrates this interplay through an analysis of two empirical examples, and argues that curious play offers a comprehensive and existential approach to understanding the interplay of children playing in nature and children’s growth. Thus, children are conceptualized as active explorers and playful agents whilst embodying and creating knowledge, skills and understandings of themselves and their life-worlds.