The effect of the biology critical thinking project on the development of critical thinking

This article describes the Biology Critical Thinking (BCT) project in which carefully designed activities for developing specific critical thinking skills are incorporated into the biology curriculum. The objectives were to find out whether the BCT project contributes to the development of critical thinking skills in various biological and nonbiological topics and how it affects students' biological knowledge and classroom learning environment. The study consisted of 678 seventh graders who were assigned randomly into two groups that studied the same seventh-grade biology textbook. Only one group, the experimental, completed the BCT activities. The results indicate that the students in the experimental group improved their critical thinking skills compared to their own initial level and compared to their counterparts in the control group. Improved critical thinking skills were observed in a new biological context and nonbiological everyday topics, suggesting generalization of thinking skills across domains. The experimental students scored significantly higher than the control on a knowledge test, suggesting that “knowledge of facts” as one educational goal and “learning to think” as another, need not conflict, but rather can interact with each other. Finally, the results show that BCT involvement decreased the frequency of teacher-centered teaching and enhanced student-centered, more active learning.     

Cognitive preferences: A validation study

In 1964 Health introduced the cognitive preference construct and used it to evaluate a new science curriculum. Since then the construct, adapted from research on cognitive styles, has been used in many research and evaluation studies. More recently, however, a number of questions have been raised concerning the validity of findings and analytical techniques employed in these studies. Ultimately the validity of the cognitive preference construct itself is being questioned.In this article a framework for examining validity evidence for the cognitive preference construct is developed; the literature on cognitive preferences in the context of this framework is reviewed, and the validity evidence developed in one recent study is presented and discussed.     

Considering the role of invitations to inquiry in scienceteaching and in teacher education

Conclusion Invitations to inquiry have been shown to be not only an interesting and effective way of teaching science as inquiry by inquiry, but also as a highly effective means for teacher education. It is recommended that institutions which employ the classic model of microteaching (Allen and Ryan, 1969) revise their approach and adopt a more holistic approach such as the one described here. This article is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Joseph J. Schwab, a master of science teacher education and a curriculum scholar whose ideas continue to illuminate classroom practice.     

Home and school contributions to science achievement in elementary schools in israel

This article reexamines the relative status of “school variables” versus “home variables” in explaining the variance in science achievement, based on data from Israeli elementary schools in 1984. The contribution of school variables was found to be “subject specific”—larger in subjects taught in school and less dependent on general ability, and “system specific”—larger in low socioeconomic schools and small in high socioeconomic schools.     

The relations between disciplinary and pedagogical knowledge and the length of teaching experience of biology and geography teachers

Concept mapping was used to tap the conceptual disciplinary and pedagogical knowledge of seven biology and six geography teachers with short or long teaching experience. Based on five knowledge structure dimensions, the results were that (1) the disciplinary and pedagogical knowledge of teachers of both biology and geography is quite unsatisfactory; (2) the two types of knowledge did not improve with experience and the latter slightly deteriorated; and (3) the teachers mastered their disciplinary knowledge better than their pedagogical knowledge. The results are discussed in relation to the nature of the instructional activities and the different status of the disciplinary and pedagogical knowledge in teaching.     

Attitudes of University Candidates Towards Learning Activities Aimed at Preparation for Science Studies

Our education system aims to equip young people with the knowledge, problem‐solving skills and values to cope with an increasingly technological society. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of biotechnology education on adolescents’ understanding and attitudes about processes associated with biotechnology. Data were drawn from teacher and student interviews and surveys in the context of innovative Year 10 biotechnology courses conducted in three Western Australian high schools. The results indicate that after completing a biotechnology course students’ understanding increased but their attitudes remained constant with the exception of their views about human uses of gene technology. The findings of this study have ramifications for the design and implementation of biotechnology education courses in high schools.