Background: Uncertainty is a crucial element of scientific knowledge growth. Students should have some understanding of how science knowledge is developed and why scientific conclusions are considered more or less certain than others. A component of the nature of science, it is considered an important aspect of science education and allows students to recognize the limitations of scientific research.
Purpose: This study examined Grades 5 and 9 students’ views of uncertainty in their personal scientific research and the formal scientific research of professionals.
Sample: This study included 33 students in Grade 5 (n = 17) and Grade 9 (n = 16). The students were recruited from a charter school that emphasised inquiry instruction.
Design and methods: Data were collected through interviews. Students were asked their views of their inquiry-based projects and their views of professional science.
Results: Interview data and statistical analyses indicated that students recognized uncertainty in personal science, which varied across elements of the scientific process. Additionally, their views of uncertainty in formal science tended to change across grades and knowledge of uncertainty in personal and formal science were positively correlated.
Conclusion: These findings offer insights into the processes by which students come to understand uncertainty in science and point to ways of fostering such knowledge through teaching practices. 相似文献
This paper examines Vygotsky’s conception of play as a leading activity in the contexts of children’s contemporary play worlds. Commencing with an examination of the relationship between leading activities and the development of psychological functions, the paper moves into a consideration of the relationship between imagination and reality as a basis for play as a leading activity. The relationship is considered in the context of current discussion regarding the sociology of childhood and the sociology of consumerism to explore the ways in which children’s experiences in digital–consumerist contexts possibly shape learning and development. Drawing on the example of the highly popular character Thomas the Tank Engine?, the paper examines the implications associated with understanding play as a leading activity within contemporary contexts, and how these might relate to existing perspectives on play, pedagogy and curriculum in early childhood education settings. 相似文献
Pseudoscience beliefs (e.g., astrology, ghosts or UFOs) are rife in American society. Most research examines creation/evolution
among liberal arts majors, general public adults, or, infrequently, middle or high school science teachers. Thus, research
truncates the range of ersatz science thinking and the samples it studies. We examined diverse beliefs, e.g., extraterrestrials, magic, Biblical creation, and evolution, among 540 female and 123 male future teachers, including 325 elementary education majors. We study
how these cognitions related to education major and, because popular media often present pseudoscience “information”, student
media use. Future elementary educators most often rejected evolution and endorsed “creationism” or Intelligent Design. Education
majors held similar beliefs about astrology, UFO landings, or magic. Compared with other education students, elementary education
majors watched less news or science television and read fewer popular science magazines. However, religious and media variables
explained more variation in creation/evolution beliefs than education major. We discuss implications of our findings for elementary
school science education and how teacher educators may be able to affect pseudoscience beliefs among their elementary education
students. 相似文献
Issues linked with the notions of quality of life (QOL) and motivation to learn among Asian medical students have not been
well documented. This is true in both the international and the New Zealand contexts. Our paper addresses this lack of research
by focusing on the QOL of international and domestic Asian students studying in New Zealand, where Asian students form a significant
proportion of tertiary students. Although there is evidence to suggest that Asian students do well academically, it was felt
that an investigation into their QOL would be instructive as QOL will likely have an impact on cognition, behavior, general
well-being, and motivation. The present study surveyed fourth- and fifth-year medical students to examine the relationship
between QOL and motivation to learn and to consider how Asian medical students compare against European medical and non-medical
student peers. The study utilized the World Health Organization—Quality of Life questionnaire (BREF version) and a shortened
version of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire. The results show that the Asian medical students in this study
generated significantly lower scores in terms of their satisfaction with social relationships compared with their non-Asian
peers. In addition, international Asian medical students appear to be more at risk than domestic Asian students with respect
to test anxiety. The paper considers the findings and the implications for quality of life, motivation to learn, medical education,
and the Asian student community. 相似文献
This article reports on findings from a research project designed to explore ways in which creativity can be fostered through interactions between selected children, particular environments, materials, techniques and key adults. The Young Designers on Location (YDoL) project was funded by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), and brought together selected groups of 11 year‐olds with ‘design‐related professionals’ (DRPs) to work together intensively for a week in two locations (Bath Spa University College and Ironbridge Gorge Museum, Shropshire) then subsequently in participants' schools. The findings from case studies of selected individuals within the Bath location include key messages about the quality of environment and relationships in unlocking children's creativity. The study has exemplified aspects of Harrington's model of a ‘creative ecosystem’ [1]. 相似文献
Despite evidence that young children are sensitive to differences in angle measure, older students frequently struggle to grasp this important mathematical concept. When making judgments about the size of angles, children often rely on erroneous dimensions such as the length of the angles' sides. The present study tested the possibility that this misconception stems from the whole‐object word‐learning bias by providing a subset of children with a separate label to refer to the whole angle figure. Thirty preschoolers (M =4.86 years, SD = .53) were tested with a pretest–training–posttest design. At pretest, children showed evidence of the whole‐object misconception. After training, children who were given a novel‐word label for the whole object improved significantly more than those trained on the meaning of “angle” alone. 相似文献