Effects of Analogical Learning Approaches and Presentation Modalities on Ninth Graders’ Learning Outcome and Eye Movements: a Preliminary Study

Journal of Science Education and Technology - This study analyzed the impact of different analogical learning approaches (analogies or metaphors) integrated with different presentation modalities...     

Different Gender Students' Participation in the High- and Low-achieving Middle School Questioning-orientated Biology Classrooms in Taiwan

This case study investigated gender-based differences in classroom participation through examining teacher-student interactions between a female biology teacher and two groups of middle school students, namely high achievers and low achievers. The female teacher used a questioning-orientated instructional strategy as her major teaching style which creates greater opportunities for student participation in biology learning. Classroom sessions were videotaped for one school year, then analysed for gender differences in question-and-answer patterns. The results showed that more teacher-initiated questions, teacher-directed interactions, and teacher feedback were given to males than females in both groups, but a large difference was found between the two groups of students. Girls in the low-achieving biology class (LABC) were more likely to participate at a rate comparable with their male classmates; girls answered more procedure questions and an equal percentage of process questions, called out approximately the same percentage of answers to undirected teacher-initiated questions, and received more instances of praise and follow-up questions. Contrary to what was observed in the high-achieving biology class (HABC), LABC girls initiated more questions than LABC boys.     

Facilitating Students’ Conceptual Change and Scientific Reasoning Involving the Unit of Combustion

This article reports research from a 3 year digital learning project to unite conceptual change and scientific reasoning in the learning unit of combustion. One group of students had completed the course combining conceptual change and scientific reasoning. The other group of students received conventional instruction. In addition to the quantitative data, six students from each group were interviewed to evaluate their conceptual change, correct concepts and scientific reasoning. Results indicate that the experimental group’s students significantly outperformed the conventional group on the Combustion Achievement Test (CAT), Scientific Reasoning Test (SRT) and Combustion Dependent Reasoning Test (CDRT). Moreover, the experimental group’s students use higher levels of scientific reasoning more frequently and changed their alternative concepts more successfully than did the conventional group. Furthermore, once the experimental group’s students’ successfully changed their conceptions, their concepts tended to be more stable than the conventional group’s students, even after the 6th week of learning. These results demonstrate that combining conceptual change and scientific reasoning indeed improves students’ conceptual change and scientific reasoning ability more effectively than conventional instruction.     

Enhancing Eighth Grade Students' Learning of Buoyancy: The Interaction of Teachers' Instructional Approach and Students' Learning Preference Styles

This study investigates the potential of enhancing students' learning of difficult science concepts by exploring the interaction between teachers' four different instructional approaches and students' four different learning preference styles. Students' immediate performance and their retention for learning of buoyancy concepts serve to examine the effects, using the concept of “buoyancy,” which has been classified as a difficult concept because it is at a higher hierarchical level and involves the understanding of both matter and process. Results indicate that students' post-test scores were significantly affected by both the types of instruction and students' learning preference styles; while students' retention test scores were significantly affected by the types of instructions. Moreover, this study does not support that matching teaching style with students' learning preference would make students' learning more effective. Nevertheless, because procedural learning preference styles (QB-learning preference) students performed better on the retention test than other learning preference styles students, it indicates the possibility that procedural learners are more efficient than others for learning such higher hierarchical and difficult concepts, regardless of the types of instruction students receive.     

Reflections on and implications of the Programme for International Student Assessment 2015 (PISA 2015) performance of students in Taiwan: The role of epistemic beliefs about science in scientific literacy

The 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has drawn a substantial amount of attention from science educators and educational policymakers because it marked the first time that PISA assessed students' ability to evaluate and design scientific inquiry using computer-based simulations. We undertook a secondary analysis of the PISA 2015 Taiwan dataset of 7,973 students from 214 schools to identify critical issues of student learning and potentially reshape our educational system and policies. Thus, this study sought to identify potential latent clusters of students' scientific literacy performance according to a set of focus variables selected from the PISA student questionnaires. In addition, significant determinants of students' scientific literacy and resiliency were analyzed. Cluster analysis results demonstrated the presence of four clusters of high, medium, low, and inferior scientific literacy/epistemology/affective dispositions. Specifically, students in cluster 1 compared with other clusters showed that the higher the scientific literacy scores are, the more positive epistemic beliefs about science, achievement motivation, enjoyment of science, interests in broad science, science self-efficacy, information and communications technology (ICT) interest, ICT autonomy, more learning time, more teacher supports and teacher-directed instructions are. Regression results indicated that the most robust predictor of students' scientific literacy performance is epistemic beliefs about science, followed by learning time, interest in broad science topics, achievement motivation, inquiry-based science teaching and learning practice, and science self-efficacy. Decision tree model results showed that the descending order of the variables in terms of their importance in differentiating students as high- versus low-performing were epistemic beliefs about science, learning time, self-efficacy, interest in broad science, and scientific inquiry, respectively. A similar decision tree model to determine students as resilient versus non-resilient also was found. Various interpretations of these results are discussed, as are their implications for science education research, science teaching, and science education policy.     

Facilitating Changes in Ninth Grade Students’ Understanding of Dissolution and Diffusion through DSLM Instruction

This study examines the nature and process of ninth grade students conceptual change regarding their mental model of dissolution and diffusion as a result of instructions using the Dual Situated Learning Model (DSLM). The dual situated learning events of this model are designed according to the students ontological viewpoint of the science concepts as well as the nature of these concepts. Moreover, these events serve two functions by creating dissonance with the pre-existing knowledge and providing new schema for constructing a more scientific view of the concept. The concepts of dissolution and diffusion were chosen to examine students conceptual change process because they involve the understanding of both invisible and process attributes. Results indicate that about 76%–90% of the students successfully underwent a change in their understanding of the concepts of dissolution and diffusion after instruction using dual situated learning events. Moreover, about 75% of the students successfully applied their previous mental sets into the challenging situated learning event. This current study demonstrates that DSLM indeed facilitates the processes of conceptual change and knowledge acquisition involving concepts of dissolution and diffusion, clarifying the nature of conceptual change involving science concepts of both an invisible and a process nature.     

Concepts of a higher hierarchical level require more dual situated learning events for conceptual change: A study of air pressure and buoyancy

This article examines the process of students' conceptual changes in respect of air pressure and buoyancy as a result of instructing with the Dual Situated Learning Model. The dual situated learning events of this model were designed according to the students' ontological viewpoint on the science concepts as well as on the nature of these concepts. Results demonstrated that the notion of buoyancy required more dual situated learning events for conceptual change to occur than that for air pressure. Instead of attributing the difficulty involved in conceptual change to the mismatch of ontological category of the concepts, the author proposes that the hierarchical level of the scientific concepts would determine how easy or difficult it is to bring out a conceptual change. Concepts of higher hierarchical level subsume more essential underlying concepts, thus making it more difficult for conceptual changes to occur.     

DSLM Instructional Approach to Conceptual Change Involving Thermal Expansion

This article examines the process of students' conceptual change involving thermal expansion as a result of employing the Dual Situated Learning Model (DSLM) (She, 2001, 2002) as a classroom instructional approach. The dual situated learning events of this model are designed according to the students' ontological viewpoint of the science concepts as well as the nature of these concepts. Moreover, these events serve two functions in creating dissonance with the pre-existing knowledge and providing new schema for constructing a more scientific view of the concept. DSLM has been shown to promote students' conceptual change using one-to-one instructional procedure (She, 2002). This study further demonstrates that DSLM holds great potential to facilitate the conceptual change process involving thermal expansion through classroom instruction, even the difficult concept or higher hierarchical level one.