Persuading teachers to reexamine the innovative elementary science programs of yesterday: The effect of anecdotal versus data-summary communications

Two anecdotal and two data-summary communications were prepared to test the effect of the communications on preservice teachers' attitudes toward supplementing traditional, textbook-based science programs with either SAPA or SCIS. The results of the investigation in which the communications were used indicate that communications of an anecdotal nature were more effective than data-summary communications in changing the attitudes of preservice elementary teachers. Also, attitudes changed by anecdotal communications were found to be less susceptible to dissipation than those changed by data-summary communications.     

Prospective Teachers' Conceptions of the Knowledge Base for Teaching Chemistry at the German Gymnasium

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

Changing attitudes toward energy conservation: The effect of development advancement on the salience of one-sided and two-sided persuasive communications

Tested was the effect of a one-sided and two-sided persuasive message on the attitudes toward energy conservation of 85 preservice elementary teachers categorized as developmentally or nondevelopmentally advanced with respect to the topic of the message. The study addressed the following questions: (1) Are one-sided and two-sided systematically designed communications more effective in persuading nondevelopmentally advanced and developmentally advanced persons, respectively? (2) Do positive attitude gains between pre- and posttests, if any, dissipate within four weeks following the treatment? The important finding was that the two-sided communication was more effective than the one-sided communication regardless of subjects' level of developmental advancement when attitude change is measured immediately following the treatment. Secondly, positive attitude change dissipated four weeks after exposure to the two-sided communication for developmentally and nondevelopmentally advanced subjects, alike. Thirdly, while the attitudes of nondevelopmentally and developmentally advanced subjects exposed to the one-sided communication did not change immediately after exposure, the nondevelopmentally advanced subjects exhibited a positive shift in attitude four weeks following the presentation of the communication.     

Persuasion and attitude change in science education

Many strategies used to induce the occurrence of desirable science-related beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors involve the use of persuasive messages. Science educators need to become acquainted with persuasion in the context of social influence and learning theory to be able to evaluate its usefulness in the science education milieu. Persuasion is the conscious attempt to bring about a jointly developed mental state common to both source and receiver through the use of symbolic cues, and it can be distinguished from other forms of social influence. Propaganda is a type of persuasion directed toward a mass audience. Coercion relies on reinforcement control, whereas persuasion is prompted by information. Brainwashing involves coercive techniques used to obtain cooperation and compliance. Persuasion and instruction are much alike; both require conscious cognitive activity by the recipient and involve communication which includes giving arguments and evidence for the purpose of getting someone to do something or to believe something. Persuasion research is anchored in learning theory. Early efforts were based on information processing. Studies following an information process approach focused on the effect of the variables harbored within the question “Who says what in which channel to whom with what effect?” on belief and attitude change. Cognitive processing and social exchange approaches to persuasion represent extensions to information process. Cognitive processing is concerned specifically with how people personally process the arguments presented in a persuasive message. Social exchange emphasizes the interchange that takes place between the message source and recipient. These approaches seem to be fruitful areas for future persuasion research in science education. Science educators' unfamiliarity with persuasion research stems from the fact that it is largely reported in the social psychology literature and has not been integrated into a framework familiar to educators.     

Prospective gymnasium teachers' conceptions of chemistry learning and teaching

The aim of the study was to investigate prospective gymnasium teachers' conceptions of chemistry learning and teaching. Data were collected through individual interviews with nine prospective teachers at one German university. Phenomenography served as the methodological framework for the study. The findings revealed that chemistry learning is conceptualized as gaining knowledge, problem-solving and constructing personal understandings; and that chemistry teaching is conceptualized as transferring knowledge, problem-posing and interacting with pupils. The majority of the prospective teachers' conceptions of learning chemistry were considered reproductive rather than constructive and their conceptions of chemistry teaching were viewed as facilitating reproductive learning. Comparisons of the dominant conceptions of learning chemistry and teaching chemistry held by each prospective teacher revealed mixed support for the assumption that if one holds a reproductive (or constructive) conception of teaching, then (s)he will also hold a reproductive (or constructive) conception of learning. Support for the assumption was found in the reproductive-oriented relationship between conceptions of learning chemistry as gaining knowledge and of teaching chemistry as transferring knowledge, but not found in the relationships between learning chemistry as problem-solving and teaching chemistry as problem-posing and between learning chemistry as gaining knowledge and interacting with pupils.