Investigating the relationships among students’ self-efficacy beliefs,their perceptions of classroom learning environment,gender, and chemistry achievement through structural equation modeling

Background: Investigating factors contributing to chemistry achievement is important since it enables us to make more concrete instructional decisions related to improving students? chemistry achievement.

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate how students? perceptions of learning environment, self-efficacy and gender are related to chemistry achievement.

Sample: Three hundred fifty six high school students with the age range of 14 and 19 from three different schools in the same district were the participants.

Design and methods: A structural equation model was designed and tested. Constructivist learning environment survey, self-efficacy scale were the instruments of the study. Information about students? gender and their chemistry grades belonging to the previous semester were also collected.

Results: The model testing showed that chemistry self-efficacy beliefs, students? perceptions of constructivist learning environment (through chemistry-self efficacy) and gender were significantly related to chemistry achievement. Moreover, the findings showed that students? chemistry self-efficacy beliefs mediated the relation of students? learning environment perceptions to their chemistry achievement.

Conclusions: The present study has some educational implications for teachers, teacher educators and curriculum developers. First of all, self-efficacy was found to have an effect on students? achievement. Therefore, teachers should consider students? self-efficacy beliefs and devise their instruction accordingly. Another implication of this study is the necessity of considering gender differences in designing teachers? instruction.     

论改革开放和中国特色社会主义理论体系

中国特色社会主义理论体系是在改革开放伟大历史实践中逐步形成和丰富发展的。改革开放和社会主义现代化建设的实践发展将进一步推动中国特色社会主义理论体系的丰富和发展。坚持中国特色社会主义,就必须坚持改革开放不动摇;坚持改革开放,就必须始终高举中国特色社会主义理论的伟大旗帜。     

Procrastination,self-regulation failure,academic life satisfaction,and affective well-being: underregulation or misregulation form

The aim of this study was to examine the role of self-regulation failure in procrastination. In addition, it also aimed to investigate the effects of procrastination on affective well-being and academic life satisfaction. Three hundred and twenty-eight undergraduate students participated in the study. The most obvious finding emerging from this study is that the absence or lack of self-regulation skills, as an indicator of underregulation, plays a significant role in procrastination among college students. Whether procrastination is an underregulation or misregulation form of self-regulation failure, it has a negative impact on students’ affective well-being. The contribution and implications of these findings were discussed in detail.     

Evaluation of the clinical chemistry tests analytical performance with Sigma Metric by using different quality specifications - Comparison of analyser actual performance with manufacturer data

IntroductionThe interest in quality management tools/methodologies is gradually increasing to ensure quality and accurate results in line with international standards in clinical laboratories. Six Sigma stands apart from other methodologies with its total quality management system approach. However, the lack of standardization in tolerance limits restricts the advantages for the process. Our study aimed both to evaluate the applicability of analytical quality goals with Roche Cobas c 702 analyser and to determine achievable goals specific to the analyser used.Materials and methodsThe study examined under two main headings as Sigma_laboratory and Sigma_analyser. Sigma_laboratory was calculated using internal and external quality control data by using Roche Cobas c 702 analyser for 21 routine biochemistry parameters and, Sigma_analyser calculation was based on the manufacturer data presented in the package inserts of the reagents used in our laboratory during the study. Sigma values were calculated with the six sigma formula.ResultsConsidering the total number of targets achieved, Sigma_analyser performed best by meeting all CLIA goals, while Sigma_laboratory showed the lowest performance relative to biological variation (BV) desirable goals.ConclusionsThe balance between the applicability and analytical assurance of “goal-setting models” should be well established. Even if the package insert data provided by the manufacturer were used in our study, it was observed that almost a quarter of the evaluated analytes failed to achieve even “acceptable” level performance according to BV-based goals. Therefore, “state-of-the-art” goals for the Six Sigma methodology are considered to be more reasonable, achievable, and compatible with today’s technologies.     

Development and Validation of an Instrument to Measure University Students’ Biotechnology Attitude

The impact of biotechnologies on peoples’ everyday lives continuously increases. Measuring young peoples’ attitudes toward biotechnologies is therefore very important and its results are useful not only for science curriculum developers and policy makers, but also for producers and distributors of genetically modified products. Despite of substantial number of instruments which focused on measuring student attitudes toward biotechnology, a majority of them were not rigorously validated. This study deals with the development and validation of an attitude questionnaire toward biotechnology. Detailed information on development and validation process of the instrument is provided. Data gathered from 326 university students provided evidence for the validity and reliability of the new instrument which consists of 28 attitude items on a five point likert type scale. It is believed that the instrument will serve as a valuable tool for both instructors and researchers in science education to assess students’ biotechnology attitudes.     

Diagnostic accuracy of UriSed automated urine microscopic sediment analyzer and dipstick parameters in predicting urine culture test results

Introduction

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most common types of infection. Currently, diagnosis is primarily based on microbiologic culture, which is time- and labor-consuming. The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic accuracy of urinalysis results from UriSed (77 Electronica, Budapest, Hungary), an automated microscopic image-based sediment analyzer, in predicting positive urine cultures.

Materials and methods:

We examined a total of 384 urine specimens from hospitalized patients and outpatients attending our hospital on the same day for urinalysis, dipstick tests and semi-quantitative urine culture. The urinalysis results were compared with those of conventional semi-quantitative urine culture.

Results:

Of 384 urinary specimens, 68 were positive for bacteriuria by culture, and were thus considered true positives. Comparison of these results with those obtained from the UriSed analyzer indicated that the analyzer had a specificity of 91.1%, a sensitivity of 47.0%, a positive predictive value (PPV) of 53.3% (95% confidence interval (CI) = 40.8–65.3), and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 88.8% (95% Cl = 85.0–91.8%). The accuracy was 83.3% when the urine leukocyte parameter was used, 76.8% when bacteriuria analysis of urinary sediment was used, and 85.1% when the bacteriuria and leukocyturia parameters were combined. The presence of nitrite was the best indicator of culture positivity (99.3% specificity) but had a negative likelihood ratio of 0.7, indicating that it was not a reliable clinical test.

Conclusions:

Although the specificity of the UriSed analyzer was within acceptable limits, the sensitivity value was low. Thus, UriSed urinalysis results do not accurately predict the outcome of culture.     

Education and symbolic violence in contemporary Turkey

This article examines the perceptions of education in Turkey, which refer to a nebulous package of formal education and a cultured stance. Guided by the literature on symbolic violence, we argue that underprivileged groups misrecognize arbitrary hierarchies by considering them just and inevitable. Elite tastes have been internalized by other groups in a particular historical context of education and culture. We investigate the historical roots of this seemingly ahistorical constellation of power relations around education and then consider the implications for the neoliberal period. Then, we contextualize the responses to symbolic violence. Subordinate groups complicate the effects of symbolic violence by exhibiting diverse responses that range from outright submission to implicitly questioning cultural and moral boundaries, creating class and ethnic others in the process. This occurs by constructing cultural and moral boundaries, especially targeting the ‘vulgar’ culture of celebrities and Kurds.     

Writing for Learning in Science: A Secondary Analysis of Six Studies

This study is a secondary analysis of six previous studies that formed part of an ongoing research program focused on examining the benefits of using writing-to-learn strategies within science classrooms. The study is an attempt to make broader generalizations than those based on individual studies, given limitations related to sample sizes, topics, and classroom contexts. The results indicated that using writing-to-learn strategies was advantageous for students compared to those students working with more traditional science writing approaches. Using diversified types of writing enabled students in treatment groups to score significantly better on conceptual questions and total test scores than those in comparison groups. Importantly, when the cognitive demand of the question is increased from an extended recall to a design type question, there are significant performance differences between comparison and treatment groups in favour of treatment. The authors argue that the use of writing-to-learn strategies requires students to re-represent their knowledge in different forms and, as such, greater learning opportunities exist. Traditional writing strategies tend to favour replication of knowledge rather than re-representation knowledge.     

Reconceptualizing the pedagogical value of student facilitation

Sustained discourse is critical to the learning potential of online courses. And, while research has surfaced many factors that mediate interaction, it further suggests that sustained interaction remains elusive. In this paper, I propose that student facilitation may have an impact on the quality of facilitators' interactions following a week of moderating a course discussion. Through a survey of students in two post-secondary online courses, the results suggest that moderation fosters understanding of online learning processes and enhances interaction with others and content. I therefore suggest that moderation acts to inculcate students into the social fabric of an online course, prior to which their role and performance is ill-defined.     

Using the Science Writing Heuristic Approach to Enhance Student Understanding in Chemical Change and Mixture

This study investigated the effect of the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) approach on grade 9 students’ understanding of chemical change and mixture concepts. Four intact classes taught by two chemistry teachers from a Turkish public high school were selected for the study; one class was assigned as the treatment group, and the other class was assigned as the comparison group. Students in the treatment group were instructed by the SWH approach, while those in the comparison group were instructed with traditionally designed chemistry instruction. Tests measuring students’ conceptual understanding in the units of chemical change and mixture were administered as pre- and posttest for both groups. At the end of the instruction, semistructured interviews were conducted with 13 students from the treatment group and eight students from the comparison group. ANCOVA results revealed that the SWH approach was superior to the traditional approach on students’ understanding of chemical change and mixture concepts. Interview results indicated that students in the treatment group demonstrated better scientific understanding of chemical change and mixture concepts compared to those in the comparison group.