The Impact of Interactive Computer Simulations on the Nature and Quality of Postgraduate Science Teachers’ Explanations in Physics

This study investigated how individuals’ construction of explanations—a way of ascertaining how well an individual understands a concept—develops from an interactive simulation. Specifically, the purpose was to investigate the effect of interactive computer simulations or science textbook assignments on the nature and quality of postgraduate science teachers’ explanations regarding physical phenomena in Mechanics, Waves/Optics, and Thermal Physics. The use of simulations or science textbook assignments was implemented according to the Predict–Observe–Explain model and integrated into a one‐semester conceptual survey course in physics for practising science teachers who served as participants in the study. Data were collected through semi‐structured interviews and were analysed using a qualitative content analysis approach. Results indicate that the use of computer simulations along with the application of the Predict–Observe–Explain model had a positive impact on the nature and quality of science teachers’ explanations. They improved science teachers’ ability to generate scientifically accurate explanations and fostered in‐depth advancement in teachers’ search for explanatory scientific information regarding the physical phenomena under investigation. In addition, teachers’ explanations became more elaborate, reflecting cause‐effect reasoning and formal reasoning.     

Identification,Interpretation—Evaluation,Response: An alternative framework for analyzing teacher discourse in science

Although research has come to recognize the importance of studying classroom-based student–teacher discourse in science, the emphasis remains largely on teachers' abilities to ask questions and provide students with feedback, or on students' abilities to ask questions or engage in argumentative discourse. Consequently, little research has focused on the discourse elements relating to teacher–student discourse interactions. In this article, we argue for a shift of research attention toward describing what the teacher is responding to (Identification of student inquiry), the process of deciding how to respond (Interpretation—Evaluation of student inquiry), and how the teacher is responding (Response to student inquiry). We propose a new methodological approach for studying teacher discourse, which involves a framework we developed while analyzing 1,385 minutes of fifth grade, whole-class science conversations covering a 2-year period and facilitated by an experienced science teacher. Then, as a case in point, we applied our framework to the teacher discourse data of the study, aiming to show that the framework can be a useful tool for examining how a teacher supports students' inquiry.     

The effect of two different cooperative approaches on students’ learning and practices within the context of a WebQuest science investigation

The goal of this study was to investigate the effect of two different cooperative learning approaches, namely, the Jigsaw Cooperative Approach (JCA) and the Traditional Cooperative Approach (TCA), on students’ learning and practices/actions within the context of a WebQuest science investigation. Another goal of this study was to identify possible problems that students face within the context of a WebQuest when following either approach and to provide suggestions for developing web-based learning tools that enable students to overcome these problems. The sample of the study consisted of 38 seventh-graders, who, according to their science teachers, had prior experience with TCA and JCA. All participants studied about the ecology, architecture, energy and insulation of CO₂-friendly houses through the use of a WebQuest science investigation. The data collection involved conceptual tests, screen–video captured data and interviews. Results revealed no differences between the two approaches, in terms of enhancing students’ understanding of concepts related to CO₂-friendly houses, because of (a) JCA students’ inability to apply one of the JCA components, namely, teaching one another about learning material they solely studied, and (b) the fact that the JCA students started applying the TCA after failing teaching one another in the context of JCA. Finally, a number of problems that students faced within the context of a WebQuest science investigation when following the JCA or TCA were identified.     

Making the invisible visible: enhancing students’ conceptual understanding by introducing representations of abstract objects in a simulation

This study aimed to identify if complementing representations of concrete objects with representations of abstract objects improves students’ conceptual understanding as they use a simulation to experiment in the domain of Light and Color. Moreover, we investigated whether students’ prior knowledge is a factor that must be considered in deciding when to use representations of abstract objects. A pre-post comparison study design was used, involving 69 participants assigned to two conditions. The first condition consisted of 36 students who had access to a simulation with representations of concrete objects, whereas the second condition consisted of 33 students who had access to a simulation with representations of both concrete and abstract objects. Both conditions used the same inquiry-oriented curriculum materials, consisting of three sections that included physical phenomena with increasingly complex underlying mechanisms, so that the third section’s mechanisms were more complex in nature than those in the first two sections. Tests were administered to assess students’ conceptual understanding before and after the presentation of the curricular material as a whole, as well as before and after each of its three sections. Results revealed that the presence of representations of abstract objects was helpful for the first two sections, but only for students with low prior knowledge. On the third, most complex section, also the students with higher prior knowledge profited from the presence of abstract objects. From these findings, we conjecture that for physical phenomena with a lower level of complexity, students with high prior knowledge are able to mentally construct the necessary abstract concepts on their own, whereas for higher levels of complexity they need an explicit representation of the abstract objects in the learning environment.     

Is physicality an important aspect of learning through science experimentation among kindergarten students?

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether physicality (actual and active touch of concrete material), as such, is a necessity for science experimentation learning at the kindergarten level. We compared the effects of student experimentation with Physical Manipulatives (PM) and Virtual Manipulatives (VM) on kindergarten students’ understanding of concepts related to the use of a beam balance as a means to compare and differentiate materials according to their mass. A pre-post comparison study design was used that involved four conditions, with 20 kindergarten students in each condition. The first and second conditions included students who had correct prior knowledge of what a balance beam does and who were given PM and VM, respectively, to use for the study's purposes. The third and fourth conditions included students who had an incorrect prior knowledge of what a balance beam does and who were also given PM and VM, respectively, to use. All conditions followed the same learning tasks, which was a series of experiments. The learning process occurred in the context of a clinical interview, which was used as a means to collect data before, during, and after the learning process. Findings revealed that kindergarteners learned more from experimentation in both PM conditions and the VM condition whose participants had correct prior knowledge of what a balance beam does than in the VM condition whose participants had an incorrect knowledge of what a balance beam does. Physicality appears to be a prerequisite for students’ understanding of concepts concerning the use of a beam balance, as a means to compare and differentiate materials according to their mass, only when the students have incorrect prior knowledge of what a beam balance does.     

Testing in the schools: A help or a hindrance?

In an article in our regular feature ‘Viewpoints and Controversies’ entitled ‘Ability Tests? A Shot in the Dark’,¹ the Soviet Academician Arthur V. Petrovsky defined the limits of a certain conception of mental development which he, for his part, saw as being directly governed by children's social and cultural environment and the education they receive and not as a spontaneous process of revelation of intelligence. Based on unscientific presuppositions, tests, in his view, cannot measure the mysterious quantity labelled intelligence. Although thus expressing the strongest reservations concerning this scientifically unfounded method, he said at the end of his article that the argument, though it had gone on for a long time, was still unsettled. The American educator whose outspoken views we publish below returns to the charge from a different angle; far from invalidating Petrovsky's arguments, he too denounces the obstacles to the renewal of educational methods, democratization and the universalization of genuinely scientific thought which tests multiply and institutionalize. And so the debate on tests continues. Our readers are invited to join in.     

Beliefs,attitudes, and intentions of science teachers regarding the educational use of computer simulations and inquiry‐based experiments in physics

The purpose of this study was to investigate (a) what effect the use of interactive computer‐based simulations (ICBSs), the use of laboratory inquiry‐based experiments (LIBEs), and the use of combinations of an ICBS and a LIBE, in a conceptually oriented physics course, have on science teachers' beliefs about and attitudes toward the use of these learning and teaching tools, as well as the effect on their intentions to incorporate these tools in their own future teaching practices, (b) science teachers' attitudes toward physics and the effect that the use of ICBSs and/or LIBEs have on teachers' attitudes toward physics, and (c) whether teachers' beliefs have an effect on their attitudes and whether their attitudes have an effect on their intentions. A pre–post comparison study and the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) were used for this purpose. Results confirmed the TRA model that beliefs affect attitudes and these attitudes then affect intentions, and showed that science teachers' attitudes toward physics, the use of an ICBS, the use of a LIBE, and the use of a combination of an ICBS and an LIBE were highly positive at the end of the study. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 792–823, 2003     

Investigating secondary school students’ unmediated peer assessment skills

The purpose of this study was to investigate secondary school students’ unmediated peer assessment skills. Specifically, 36 seventh graders, without receiving any kind of support, were anonymously assigned to reciprocally assess their peers’ science web-portfolios. Additionally, students’ attitudes towards and intentions about the use of unsupported reciprocal peer assessment were examined. Three data sources were used, namely, interviews, screen-video captured data, and the peer assessors’ feedback produced. Findings showed that the students have positive attitudes towards unsupported reciprocal peer assessment and that they intend to implement it again. It was also found that students have the skills, at least the beginnings, needed for the implementation of peer assessment. Specifically, they were found to be able to define and use their own assessment criteria, whose overall validity and reliability, however, were found to be low. Finally, the feedback they produced included grades, positive and negative judgments, as well as suggestions for changes.     

Persisting students’ explanations of and emotional responses to academic failure

ABSTRACT

Academic failure is an important and personal event in the lives of university students, and the ways they make sense of experiences of failure matters for their persistence and future success. Academic failure contributes to attrition, yet the extent of this contribution and precipitating factors of failure are not well understood. To illuminate this world-wide problem, we analysed institutional data at a large, comprehensive Australian university and surveyed 186 undergraduate students who had failed at least one unit of study in 2016, but were still enrolled in 2017. Academic failure increased the likelihood of course attrition by 4.2 times. The students who failed and persisted attributed academic failure to a confluence of dispositional, situational, and institutional factors. There was a compounded effect of academic failure on already-vulnerable students resulting in strong negative emotions. Viewing persistence as an interaction between individuals and their sociocultural milieu opens up different avenues for research and considerations for support.