Learning science content through socio-scientific issues-based instruction: a multi-level assessment study

Science educators have presented numerous conceptual and theoretical arguments in favor of teaching science through the exploration of socio-scientific issues (SSI). However, the empirical knowledge base regarding the extent to which SSI-based instruction supports student learning of science content is limited both in terms of the number of studies that have been conducted in this area and the quality of research. This research sought to answer two questions: (1) To what extent does SSI-based instruction support student learning of science content? and (2) How do assessments at variable distances from the curriculum reveal patterns of learning associated with SSI-based instruction? Sixty-nine secondary students taught by three teachers participated in the study. Three teachers implemented an SSI intervention focused on the use of biotechnology for identifying and treating sexually transmitted diseases. We found that students demonstrated statistically and practically significant gains in content knowledge as measured by both proximal and distal assessments. These findings support the claim that SSI-based teaching can foster content learning and improved performance on high-stakes tests.     

Intercultural Communication Competence Scale: Invariance and Construct Validation in Portugal

ABSTRACT

This article explores the psychometric validation of an Intercultural Communication Competence (ICC) scale. Three studies were performed: (1) psychometric evidence pertaining to the scale’s reliability and factor structure and an analysis of the measurement invariance; (2) assessment of convergent and predictive validity; and (3) analyzes the association between ICC and affective and cognitive dimensions of cultural empathy. A three-factor model with eight items yielded the best fit to the data. The scale showed non-invariance between genders, but proved to be a predictor of intercultural contact. Convergent validity were demonstrated.     

What Does Prone Skateboarding in the Newborn Tell Us About the Ontogeny of Human Locomotion?

The crawling behavior of sixty 2-day-old newborns was studied while they were supported prone on a mini skateboard and on a pediatric mattress without additional support. Analyses of the number and types of limb movements and their characteristics, the coactivation of limb pairs, and the displacement across the surface, revealed that newborns can crawl with locomotor patterns similar to those documented during quadrupedal locomotion in animals and human adults. This was particularly apparent on the skateboard. This discovery suggests that locomotor circuitry underlying quadrupedal locomotion develops during fetal life. Drawing upon other evidence for a quadrupedal organization underlying bipedal gait, we argue that early quadrupedal training may enhance interventions designed to hasten the onset of independent walking.     

Can Didactic Transposition and Popularization Explain Transformations of Genetic Knowledge from Research to Classroom?

We will attempt a synthesis from various research perspectives that have analyzed the alterations that knowledge inevitably goes through while percolating into classroom activities. We will try to identify some of their causes and will illustrate them with examples in genetics. First, we will discuss some research on knowledge transformation when genetics knowledge is popularized (Staerklé and Clémence 2002), to show how knowledge is transformed in specific predictable manners as it moves from experts to general public. Then, we will draw from a large body of (French) research in didactic transposition (Chevallard 1991) in order to highlight what knowledge characteristically thrives or is lost as it percolates into school practice and learner’s knowledge. We will then draw from Huberman’s (Science Communication, 4(4), 478–510, 1983) analysis of knowledge use in schools the specificities of knowledge that teachers effectively use. All three perspectives reveal that cognitive and social environment are crucial determinants of what knowledge will be found in schools. An ecological metaphor explains how different cognitive environments from research into education favor knowledge adapted to specificities of this ecosystem. This transposition of knowledge is therefore not decay but inescapable and necessary. Ignoring this transposition has considerably reduced the effectiveness of many educational reforms. We will combine these three to propose an evolutionary perspective that could inform ways of expressing research into educational recommendations fed into the system to optimize the didactic transposition process.     

The Factory: an Experimental Studio for Discovering the Other

This article discusses the idea of otherness in design education and introduces a new approach that merges the potentials of collaborative and individual design. The aim is for each individual student to discover how others design to criticise and derive their own ways of designing. Therefore, the discussion here focuses on the process of becoming aware of other designers and the importance of being with others while designing. I call this state the Field of Otherness. It is something that cannot be described or taught; it is a relative and indeterminate zone based on the existence of others. It is a set of potentials in which designers oscillate and their design aspects merge into a multiplicity. In this article I argue that by discovering others, designers encounter each other in the Field of Otherness and this enables them to design diversely. To broaden the discussion within this context, an experimental one‐day project called the Factory is explored. The main idea of the project was to introduce students to the Field of Otherness, in which they would design by continual ‘as ifs’ and oscillations to meet the other; who is precisely unfamiliar, unexpected, unknown and inexperienced. Interviews with students three months after the project are used to investigate the effects. These interviews can also be seen as fragments of the otherness experience of the students.     

High school students’ scientific epistemological beliefs,self-efficacy in learning physics and attitudes toward physics: a structural equation model

Background: There are some theoretical evidences that explain the relationships between core beliefs (i.e., epistemological beliefs) and peripheral beliefs (self-efficacy in learning) in the literature. The close relationships of such type of beliefs with attitudes are also discussed by some researchers. Constructing a model that investigates these relationships by considering theoretical and empirical evidences can empower researchers to discuss these relationships more comprehensively.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships among Turkish high school students’ scientific epistemological beliefs, self-efficacy in learning physics and their attitudes toward physics.

Sample: A total of 632 high school students participated in this study; however, 269 female and 229 male (a total of 498) high school students’ data were used.

Design and methods: Three distinct instruments that measure scientific epistemological beliefs, self-efficacy in learning physics and attitudes toward physics were combined into a unique questionnaire form and it was distributed to high school students. To explore the relationships among these variables, structural equation modeling was used.

Results: The results showed that scientific epistemological belief dimensions uncovered by the nature of knowing (source and justification) significantly and positively related to both self-efficacy in learning physics and attitudes toward other important physics dimensions. Additionally, self-efficacy in learning physics significantly and positively predicted attitudes toward multiple physics dimensions (importance, comprehension and requirement). However, epistemological belief dimensions related to the nature of knowledge (certainty and development) did not have significant impact on self-efficacy in learning physics or attitudes toward physics.

Conclusions: This study concludes that there are positive and significant relationships among Turkish high school students’ scientific epistemological beliefs, self-efficacy in learning physics and their attitudes toward physics.     

The Use of Representations and Argumentative and Explanatory Situations

This paper discusses the use of non-verbal representations in a modelling-based science teaching context, in which argumentative and explanatory situations occur. More specifically, we analyse how the students and teacher use representations in their discourse in modelling activities, and we discuss the relationships between the functions of these representations and the demands of the explanatory and argumentative situations that exist in that classroom. The data were collected by video recording all the classes in which a teaching sequence about intermolecular interactions was used—a topic which the students had not previously studied. In the activities, the students had to create, express, test, and discuss models in order to understand the difference between intermolecular and interatomic interactions, as well as their influences on the properties of substances. Initially, we selected excerpts of the recorded classes in which a non-verbal representation was used. Then, we used criteria to identify the argumentative and explanatory situations (previously defined), and we created categories for the functions of the representations that were used in order to analyse all the identified situations. The analysis supports conclusions indicating the relevance of the use of non-verbal representations in the construction, use, and defence of explanations. As the defence of explanations was the main context in which argumentative situations occurred in this study, our conclusions also indicate the contribution that representations make towards changing the status of the students' explanations.     

Reliability of unipodal and bipodal counter movement jump landings in a recreational male population

Movement patterns during landing have been suggested to be related to injury risk. The purpose of this study was to determine the inter-session reliability of kinematic variables and ground reaction forces during landing in a population of male recreational athletes after a counter movement jump. Both unipodal and bipodal landings were evaluated. Furthermore, the possibility to improve landing reliability with a verbal instruction was also studied. Twenty-four male volunteers with no history of lower extremity trauma were randomly assigned to two groups (with and without verbal landing instruction). An optoelectronic 3D system and force plates were used to measure the lower limb joint angles and the ground reaction forces during landing. Intraclass correlation values show moderate to excellent inter-session reliability for the bipodal task (ICC average: 0.80, range: 0.46–0.97) and poor to excellent reliability for the unipodal task (ICC average: >0.75, range: 0.20–0.95). However, large standard errors of measurement values at the ankle joint at impact (27.6?±?11.5°) and for the vertical ground reaction forces (394?±?1091 N) show that some variables may not be usable in practice. The verbal instruction had a negative effect on the reliability of unipodal landing but improved the reliability of bipodal landing. These findings show that the reliability of a landing task is influenced by its motor complexity as well as the instruction given to the subject.     

Strategies d'orientation scolaire et insertion sociale: Contexte general et cas des jeunes marocains en belgique francophone

Résumé L'insertion scolaire est un facteur qui conditionne les différentes formes d'intégration. Elle est mesurée par la qualité, la quantité et le contenu des études suivies. Les structures de formation et leur accessibilité aux familles immigrées sont la base d'une insertion réussie ou, selon les cas, d'une relégation sociale. Des données récentes démontrent qu'en Belgique francophone, l'école est plus un lieu d'échec qu'un lieu de réussite pour les jeunes issus de l'immigration: les imperfections du système scolaire et en particulier, son incapacité à gérer la pluralité éthnique et sociale produisent un échec massif avec tous les risques de marginalisation socio-économique que cette situation comporte. Notons cependant que l'hypothèse principale de l'enquête présentée ici porte sur l'environnement socio-culturel, le niveau de vie du ménage, l'histoire migratoire de la famille d'origine et l'histoire individuelle, fruits d'une multi-détermination sociale et pouvant influencer la scolarisation, l'orientation des jeunes lors de ce processus et, enfin, la réussite. Il apparaît que l'hypothèse se vérifie à travers quatre facteurs globaux expliquant la réussite et l'insertion à l'école. Il s'agit du niveau de formation scolaire des parents, de la catégorie socio-professionnelle de ceux-ci, du niveau de la pratique de la langue française au sein de la famille et de la nationalité des parents. Dans ce compte rendu, certains points touchant la formation scolaire des étrangers sont développés; une analyse plus détaillée du cas des Marocains de Belgique est tentée.

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Successful schooling is a factor which significantly influences integration in its various forms. It is measured by the quality, quantity and content of what is studied. Educational structures and their accessibility to immigrant families are at the heart of successful schooling, or social failure. Recent data show that in French-speaking Belgium, school is more a place of failure than of success for immigrants. The imperfections of the school system and, in particular, its inability to manage ethnic and social plurality, produce massive failure, with all the attendant risks of socio-economic marginalisation. However, the main hypothesis of the study presented here concerns the socio-cultural environment, the standard of living of the home, the migration history of the family of origin, and the history of the individual. These are determined by many social factors, and can in turn influence school performance, young people's attitudes to school, and ultimately their success. It appears that the hypothesis is true, there being four global factors which explain school performance and success. These are the level of the parents' schooling, their socio-professional class, the level of use of the French language in the family, and the nationality of the parents. In this report, certain points relevant to the schooling of foreigners are touched on, and a more detailed analysis of the case of Moroccans in Belgian is attempted.

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Zusammenfassung Die schulische Eingliederung ist ein Faktor, der die unterschiedlichen Arten von Integration bedingt. Sie wird nach Qualität, Quantität und Inhalt der absolvierten Studien bemessen. Bildungsstrukturen und ihre Zugänglichkeit für Immigrantenfamilien sind die Basis einer erfolgreichen Eingliederung bzw. eines sozialen Mißerfolgs. Kürzlich zusammengetragene Daten zeigen, daß Immigranten im französischsprachigen Belgien die Schule eher als einen Ort des Mißerfolgs als des Erfolgs empfinden. Die Unzulänglichkeiten des Schulsystems und insbesondere dessen Unfähigkeit, ethnische und soziale Pluralität zu meistern, führen zu massivem Mißerfolg und den dazugehörigen Risiken sozialer Ausgrenzung. Die Haupthypothese der hier präsentierten Studie betrifft jedoch die sozialkulturelle Umgebung, den Lebensstandard und die Migrationsgeschichte der Familie, sowie die persönliche Geschichte des individuellen Familienmitglieds. Diese werden durch viele soziale Faktoren bestimmt und können umgekehrt die schulischen Leistungen, die Einstellung junger Menschen zur Schule und schließlich ihren Erfolg beeinflussen. Es scheint, daß die Hypothese über die Existenz vier globaler Faktoren, die Schulleistungen und den Erfolg bestimmen, zutrifft. Zu diesen Faktoren gehören der Grad der elterlichen Schulbildung und deren sozialer und beruflicher Status, der Grad der Anwendung der französischen Sprache in der Familie und die Nationalität der Eltern. Dieser Bericht zeigt gewisse, für die Schulbildung von Ausländern relevante Kriterien auf, und versucht eine detaillierte Analyse über die Situation von Marokkanern in Belgien.

     

Impacts of a university–school partnership on middle school students' fractional knowledge: A quasiexperimental study

In this quasiexperimental study, the authors investigated the effects of university within school partnership model, within which faculty members acted as teacher-researchers to improve fractional knowledge among middle school (Grades 5–8) students. Students in nine Grade 6 mathematics classes from two public middle schools in Turkey were assigned to two conditions: University within school model instruction and traditional instruction. Pre- and posttest data showed that the students exposed to instruction through the university within school partnership model significantly outperformed their traditional instruction peers on the fractions test. Results indicated that students made significant gains in fractional knowledge in the experimental classrooms and in different subgroup populations. It was suggested that a substantial amount of mathematical infusion through partnership could have a positive impact on middle school students' fractional knowledge. The educational implications of the study were also discussed.