Investigating the quality of project-based science and technology learning environments in elementary school: a critical review of instruments

This paper provides a systematic review of instruments that have the potential to measure the quality of project-based science and technology (S&T) learning environments in elementary school. To this end, a comprehensive literature search was undertaken for the large field of S&T learning environments. We conducted a horizontal bottom-up analysis of the aspects measured by the retrieved instruments and their operationalisation. We distinguish 11 components. The most frequently evaluated components are prior knowledge and backgrounds, connection with reality, science as inquiry and level of initiative and group work. Overall, the results suggest a considerable diversity in the operationalisation of the components found. Particularly, for connection with reality, science as inquiry and level of initiative and group work, this is related to (1) the object of measurement (e.g. variety in aspects evaluated) and (2) the extent to which the used concepts are clarified. Consequently, some scales, items and questions were found to be a closer fit with aspects of project-based learning environments than others. Additionally, most of the retrieved instruments cover science and not technology or project-based education. This review can be used when searching for a scale, item or question to measure particular aspects of S&T learning environments.     

ICT-support for grounding in the classroom

More and more educators and researchers use ICT-tools to support collaborative learning. Research has shown that, for collaborative learning to be more effective than individual learning, individual learners have to achieve a sufficiently common cognitive frame of reference, or common ground. This common ground does not appear by itself, but rather often needs to be negotiated. This negotiation is seen as an important aspect of collaborative learning. This article presents a study with NTool, an ICT-tool to support the negotiation of common ground. NTool supports learners in making their individual perspectives explicit to others so that common ground can be negotiated. Two versions of the tool differing in the extent to which users were coerced into adhering to embedded support principles were used in a secondary vocational education setting. Coercion, as expected, increased negotiation of common ground in both settings. However, results were contradictory with regard to the extent to which common ground was achieved. Overall, it can be concluded that NTool and its underlying framework affect negotiation of common ground, and that adding some coercion increases this effect. However, when learners have no prior experience in collaborative complex problem-solving, NTool may only affect surface aspects of communication.     

How do student and classroom characteristics affect attitude toward mathematics? A multivariate multilevel analysis

This study investigated the effects of student and classroom characteristics on math self-confidence, perceived usefulness, and enjoyment of mathematics as multiple outcomes. A sample of 7th-grade students from 78 classes of 49 schools was studied. The data were collected using, among other instruments, an attitude questionnaire. The results of the multivariate multilevel analysis showed that the variance of the 3 indicators was situated mostly at the student level, and that the indicators correlated strongly at the class level. Higher prior mathematics achievement and positive parental beliefs and attitudes were significant predictors of higher scores across the 3 indicators. Each of the baseline indicators was significantly associated with its corresponding final indicator. At the classroom level, classroom assessment was significantly associated with less endorsement of all 3 indicators, higher levels of classroom modeling with greater endorsement of perceived usefulness of mathematics, and classroom questioning with greater enjoyment of mathematics.     

Philosophy,education, and the explosion of knowledge

In science, and in the teaching of science, knowinghow is as important as knowingthat. The value of theoretical knowledge is limited, especially so in view of the rapid increase in available information. Methodological analysis of concrete problems should play a major role in teaching. Also, students should learn to contextualize problems in disciplines other than their major area of interest. Generalists are badly needed for this, in teaching and in research. However, current forms of interdisciplinary integration must be de-emphasized.     

The Role of Beliefs in the Use of Information Technology: implications for teacher education,or teaching the right thing at the right time

ABSTRACT

The decision of teachers whether to use or not to use computers depends on two basic categories of factors: factors at the school level and factors at the teacher level. At the school level the principal plays an important role in the support of innovations in school. The principal supplies financial, organizational and moral support and should give the innovation a long‐term perspective. However, teacher factors outweigh school‐level factors. Teachers have strong beliefs with respect to the content of their subject matter as well as to its pedagogy. The case studies described in this article show that those beliefs appear to change only very slowly. Teachers adopt new media if they can use them in accordance with their existing beliefs and practices. From the results of this research, implications are drawn with respect to the content and strategy of initial and in‐service teacher training in the field of information technology (IT).     

Difficulties with consonants in the spelling and segmentation of CCVCC pseudowords: Differences among Dutch first graders

The goal of the present study was to explore the errors made by Dutch first graders in spelling syllable-initial and syllable-final consonants clusters in CCVCC pseudowords, to look for error types that discriminate poorer spellers from better spellers, and to relate these error types to the errors made when segmenting the same words. Such a correspondence across tasks would point to problems with the phonemic conceptualization of the spoken word as a source of spelling difficulty. The most prominent spelling error among poor spellers was omission of the consonant immediately following the vowel. This error seemed to be reflected in segmentation by omission of that consonant, but even more by the consonant being left unsegmented from the preceding vowel. The spelling and segmentation errors that we observed in Dutch are similar to those previously observed in English. The finding that such errors are made with a disproportionate frequency by poor spellers is new and suggests a basic problem in developing a phonemic conceptualization of spoken words (and of postvocalic consonant clusters in particular) that is adequate for spelling.     

Classroom Implementation of Context‐based Chemistry Education by Teachers: The relation between experiences of teachers and the design of materials

Worldwide, a tendency is visible in which upper secondary science curricula are innovated in the direction of context‐based education. Crucial to these innovations is the way teachers interact with newly developed teaching materials and implement them in classroom practice. The focus of our research is to identify characteristics of the interaction between innovative context‐based materials and teachers that hinder or facilitate classroom implementation as intended by the designers. Four cases of classroom implementation by four experienced teachers with different degrees of experiences in context‐based education, all implementing ‘Chemie im Kontext’ (CHiK) teaching materials, were carried out using a previously developed framework for analysis. It was found that a crucial aspect of CHiK, that of taking students' questions and using them as an orientation as the ‘focal event’ for the following lessons, was difficult to implement. The employed contexts are too general and broad to be effectively applicable as a setting in which activities such as students developing their own ideas and exploring them logically take place. Therefore, it is recommended that extensive teacher professionalization is required on this aspect to show teachers its value and to increase their repertoire of necessary teaching activities.