The impact of the MARS curriculum on students' ability to coordinate theory and evidence

The Model-Assisted Reasoning in Science (MARS) project seeks to promote model-centered instruction as a means of improving middle-school science education. As part of the evaluation of the sixth-grade curriculum, performance of MARS and non-MARS students was compared on a curriculum-neutral task. Fourteen students participated in structured interviews in which they experimented with a balance apparatus that provided three manipulable variables (two affected balance, one was a non-causal distractor variable). Although both groups were equally able to identify and test variables, all MARS students discovered a quantitative rule to describe the operation of the balance, whereas only one non-MARS student did so. MARS students discovered this numerical relationship through experimentation, regardless of their scientific reasoning profile (i.e. theory-generating, theory-modifying, or theory-preserving). The critical components of MARS instruction that may foster the ability to flexibly coordinate theory and evidence include multiple opportunities to draw conclusions from data and an emphasis on the successive refinement of models.     

Teaching for quality learning in chemistry

In Portugal, the number of students in higher education increased from 80,000 in 1975 to 381,000 in 2000 (a change from 11% to 53% in the age group 18–22), meaning a major change in the diversity of student population with consequences well known and studied in other countries. The teaching of chemistry at the University of Aveiro, for the first‐year students of science and engineering, has been subjected to continuous attention to implement quality and student‐centred approaches. The work devoted to excellence and deep learning by several authors has been carefully followed and considered. This communication reports research work on chemistry teaching, associated with those developments for first‐year students. The work included the design of strategies and the adoption of teaching and learning activities exploring ways to stimulate active learning by improving the quality of classroom interactions. In addition to regular lectures, large classes' teaching based on student‐generated questions was explored. In order to improve students' motivation and stimulate their curiosity, conference‐lectures were adopted to deal with selected topics of wide scientific, technological and social interest. Quantitative analysis and discussion of selected case studies, together with the organization of laboratory classes based on selected enquiry‐based experiments, planned and executed by students, stimulated deep learning processes. A sample of 32 students was followed in the academic year of 2000/01 and the results obtained are here discussed in comparison with those of a sample of 100 students followed in 2001/02. Particular attention was paid to the quality of classroom interactions, the use of questions by students and their views about the course design.     

The effects of different types of text and individual differences on view complexity about genetically modified organisms

ABSTRACT

View change about socio-scientific issues has been well studied in the literature, but the change in the complexity of those views has not. In the current study, the change in the complexity of views about a specific scientific topic (i.e. genetically modified organisms; GMOs) and use of evidence in explaining those views was examined in relation to individual factors and type of text (informational, persuasive, or narrative). Undergraduate students completed measures of their prior views about GMOs their epistemic beliefs about the nature of science, and activities related to food consumption. Participants then read either an informational, persuasive, or narrative passage about GMOs and again answered a question related to their views about GMOs. Participants who read the persuasive passage decreased in the complexity of their views, while those who read the narrative and expository passage increased in the complexity of their views. Additionally, while cultural activities related to the complexity of individuals’ views during the pretest, these significant differences were not evident at posttest after the text intervention. These findings can be used to help scientists and teachers better understand how to communicate information critical to understanding complex science and environmental issues to the public and their students.     

An Exploratory Case Study of Olympiad Students’ Attitudes towards and Passion for Science

Much is known about high school students’ attitudes towards science but there is almost no research on what passion for science might look like and how it might be manifested. This exploratory case study took advantage of a unique group of highly gifted science students participating in the Australian Science Olympiad (N = 69) to explore their attitudes towards school science and science as presented in the Olympiad summer camp. In particular the role the summer camp might play in igniting the students’ passion for science was a focus of the research. Data were collected through a two-tiered survey of students’ attitudes towards school science, an evaluative survey of the Olympiad summer camp and in-depth interviews with six participants. Findings indicated that Olympiad students generally had positive attitudes towards school science with most selecting science as one of their favourite subjects. However, an underlying ambivalence about school science was noted in the data. In contrast, the Olympiad summer camp transformed students’ positive attitudes into passion for science. Seven themes emerged from the data providing a foundation for a model of what academic passion for science looks like.     

School rituals as educational contexts: symbolizing the world,others, and self in Waldorf and college prep schools

This paper examines school rituals as educational contexts. Rituals in two private schools, an elite preparatory school and a Waldorf school, are compared. The schools were studied through extended fieldwork over a school year. School rituals and related symbolic relationships serve to orient participants in schools to particular world‐views. College Prep is shown to foster an instrumental‐rational way of perceiving the world. Waldorf School, in contrast, encourages an organic, holistic, and aesthetic perspective. The implications of differing perceptions of the world, relations to others, and the individual or “self” are discussed.     

Designing a Moodle course with the CADMOS learning design tool

CADMOS is a graphical learning design (LD) authoring tool that helps a teacher design a unit of learning in two layers: (i) the conceptual layer, which seems like a concept map and contains the learning activities with their associated learning resources and (ii) the flow layer, which contains the orchestration of these activities. One of CADMOS’ main innovative features is that it can bridge the gap between the design of a unit of learning and its enactment into Moodle. This paper presents how one can create a LD using CADMOS and deploy it into Moodle. Also, the paper shows the findings from a case study which was organized in order to evaluate the usability of the tool, its pedagogical flexibility and the usefulness of its innovative feature of deploying a LD into Moodle. CADMOS seems to be an easy-to-use tool, which offers guidance and flexibility during the design process.     

Teachers’ perceptions of school connectedness and risk-taking in adolescence

School connectedness has been shown to be an important protective factor in adolescent development, which is associated with reduced risk-taking behavior. Interventions to increase students’ connectedness to school commonly incorporate aspects of teacher training. To date, however, research on connectedness has largely been based on student survey data, with no reported research addressing teachers’ perceptions of students’ connectedness and its association with student behavior. This research attempted to address this gap in the literature through in-depth interviews with 14 school teachers and staff from two Australian high schools. Findings showed that teachers perceived students’ connectedness to be important in regard to reducing problem behavior, and discussed aspects of connectedness, including fairness and discipline, feeling valued, belonging and having teacher support, and being successfully engaged in school, as being particularly important. This research enables the development of school-based intervention programs that are based on both student- and teacher-focused research.     

Researching the competence-based curriculum: preface to a case study of four urban secondary schools

This introductory article accompanies three further articles forming a case study research project undertaken to describe the experience of four urban secondary schools implementing a competence-based curriculum for students in their first year of secondary education. The nature of such competence-based curricula is discussed in the context of secondary schools before providing an outline of the context of each of the case study schools. A democratic and emancipatory view of education provides the rationale for the development of transferable competencies, and this is considered with respect to the challenges of engaging in a cross-disciplinary approach to the curriculum. These challenges are viewed through the lens of Bernstein's concepts of strong and weak framing and horizontal and vertical discourses. Each of the accompanying articles takes up a different aspect of education, focusing on curriculum planning, teaching and learning, and leadership and management respectively. Further challenges with regard to changes in the English curriculum are briefly reflected upon. Finally an outline of the case study methodology which was employed in the study is provided.