首页 | 本学科首页   官方微博 | 高级检索  
相似文献
 共查询到20条相似文献，搜索用时 21 毫秒
1.
A study of science textbooks and students' responses indicates that many key concepts are treated at different levels of meaning. As a consequence of these observations we have attempted to examine what we have termed students' “preferential thinking style.” To do this, the level of meaning that students preferred when thinking about each of 16 key concept definitions associated with the theme, the nature of matter, was measured for each concept. The same concept definitions had already been studied in respect to students' ability to recognize them. Each of the 16 concept terms was formulated at the three levels of meaning defined by us as: membership, partial association, and generalization. The resulting test of preferential thinking style was administered to representative samples of Hindi-speaking high school students in India (826) and English-speaking high school students in Tasmania (1635). Some marked changes in the relative development of preferential thinking styles for the two groups were observed which raises questions associated with the importance of this notion as an outcome of science teaching.  相似文献   

2.
This study examined the degree to which individual differences in students' (N = 232) concepts of size and scale are explained by factors such as students' innate sense of number, out‐of‐school science experiences, exposure to size and scale instruction, gender identities, and racial/ethnic identities. There is increasing emphasis being placed on the use of crosscutting concepts to promote deep learning in science. A multiple linear regression indicated students' racial/ethnic identities, experiences with scale outside of school, and exposure to size and scale instruction significantly added to the prediction model. Results from this study can both inform the movement toward incorporating crosscutting concepts into pedagogy as well as inform educators, administrators, and other stakeholders of the factors that may shape students' understanding of the cross‐cutting concept of scale, proportion, and quantity.  相似文献   

3.
This study explores the relationship between affective and cognitive variables in grade 9 chemistry students (n = 73). In particular, it explores how students' situational interest, their attitudes toward chemistry, and their chemistry‐specific self‐concept influence their understanding of chemistry concepts over the course of a school year. All affective variables were assessed at two time points: at the middle of the first semester of grade 9, and at the end of the second semester of grade 9, and then related to students' postinstructional understanding of chemical concepts. Results reveal that none of the affective variables measured at the earliest time point have a significant direct effect on postinstructional conceptual understanding. Looking at the different affective variables as intermediary constructs, however, reveals a pattern in which self‐concept and situational interest measured at the middle of grade 9 contribute to self‐concept measured at the end of grade 9, which in turn, has a positive, significant effect on students' postinstructional conceptual understanding. These results reveal the importance of a strong and positive self‐concept, the feeling of doing well in the chemistry class, for developing a meaningful understanding of scientific concepts. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 908–937, 2007  相似文献   

4.
Students' difficulties in interpreting what counts as knowledge have been addressed in past research on science education. The implementation of progressivist pedagogy in terms of more student-active classroom practice and the introduction of a variety of discourses into the science classroom deepens students' difficulties. The integration of different forms and demands of knowledge and discourses typified by Science-in-Context initiatives, such as within the socioscientific framework, exemplifies this development in science education. Here, the diffuse boundaries between school subjects and other silos of knowledge lead to considerable difficulties for students to interpret what is expected from them. Such contexts having diffuse boundaries between, for example, subject discourses and other forms of knowledge, have been describes as contexts with weak classification. The present study aims to explore students' interpretation of what knowledge or meaning they are requested to produce in contexts with weak classification, here exemplified within an SSI-task. We use Bernstein's concepts of recognition rules and classification to analyze how 15- to 16-year-old students develop their discussions in groups of 4–6 students. This study reports how students' recognition of the educational demands enabled integration of different discourses in their discussion, and that the use of both universalistic and particularistic meanings can produce new understandings. Students who had not acquired recognition rules were found to keep discourses apart, expressed either as rejection of the relevance of the task, answering questions as in a traditional school task, or just exchange of personal opinions. Furthermore, they included discourses irrelevant to the issue. An important outcome of the study was that socioscientific thinking was hampered when students kept universalistic and particularistic meanings apart. This hampering results from the inhibition of dynamic exploration during SSI discussions. The results provide new insights with relevance for teachers' guiding students toward a fruitful SSI-discourse.  相似文献   

5.
The Periodic Table of Elements (PTE) is one of the organizing principles in chemistry. Originally it was a list of elements (as substances). Later, the PTE developed into a list of atoms of the elements. However, isotopes and allotropes are difficult to integrate into the PTE. Therefore, difficulties in understanding these terms can be expected. The investigation set off to study secondary school students' concepts of isotopes and allotropes and how the concepts are linked to the PTE. Three specific research questions were addressed: (a) How do secondary school students describe the relationship between fundamental particles constituting an atom? (b) How do they conceive isotopes? and (c) What are students' concepts of graphite and diamond? Multiple choice items were given to 3074 senior high school students. In addition, six interviews were conducted with senior high school students. The data analysis revealed students' alternative concepts, which distinguished between standard atoms and atoms of isotopes. Standard atoms contain neutrons and protons in equal numbers and are more stable. The atomic masses are expressed as integers. Moreover, students considered graphite and diamond as isotopes. The analysis of the results shows that students actively tried to make sense of what they had experienced. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 257–277, 2003  相似文献   

6.
This paper reports on teachers' use of concept mapping as an alternative assessment strategy in advanced level biology classes and its effects on students' cognitive skills on selected biology concepts. Using a mixed methods approach, the study employed a pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental design involving 156 students and 8 teachers from intact classes. A researcher-constructed Biology Cognitive Skills Test was used to collect the quantitative data. Qualitative data were collected through interviews and students' personal documents. The data showed that the participants utilized concept mapping in various ways and they described positive experiences while being engaged in its use. The main challenge cited by teachers was the limited time available for more consistent use. The results showed that the use of concept mapping in advanced level biology can lead to learning gains that exceed those achieved in classes where mainly traditional methods are used. The students in the concept mapping experimental groups performed significantly better than their peers in the control group on both the lower-order (F(1)?=?21.508; p?<?.001) and higher-order (F(1)?=?42.842, p?<?.001) cognitive items of the biology test. A mean effect size of .56 was calculated representing the contribution of treatment to the students' performance on the test items.  相似文献   

7.
This study evaluates the use of an open‐ended question to determine students' knowledge structure on the topic of galvanic cells. The open‐ended question was developed and administered to 163 Grade 10 students who had earlier completed a course on electrochemistry. Students' responses were marked as well as coded on the basis of the fields identified from their responses. This was then evaluated statistically to determine the collective knowledge structure of the sample of students. The knowledge structure thus mapped contains both canonical concepts and alternative conceptions (ACs). An important finding emerging from this study is that instructors need to focus student's attention on the dynamic processes involving electrons and ions during the operation of galvanic cells. In order for students to fully understand how a galvanic cell operates, they need to see the whole picture. There are three critical components that lead to students' understanding of how an oxidation–reduction reaction can generate energy and how a circuit is complete: transfer of electrons during oxidation–reduction half‐reactions, flow of electrons within metals, and migration of ions in solution. Also, we found that it is possible for students to use correct chemistry concepts in an incorrect way by establishing linkages among these in an inappropriate manner. We reiterate that apart from evaluating students' ACs, it is also important to evaluate the links between the concepts and conceptions present in students' knowledge structure so that teaching can be made more effective.  相似文献   

8.
The present study examined the comparative effects of a prediction/discussion‐based learning cycle, conceptual change text (CCT), and traditional instructions on students' understanding of genetics concepts. A quasi‐experimental research design of the pre‐test–post‐test non‐equivalent control group was adopted. The three intact classes, taught by the same science teacher, were randomly assigned as prediction/discussion‐based learning cycle class (N = 30), CCT class (N = 25), and traditional class (N = 26). Participants completed the genetics concept test as pre‐test, post‐test, and delayed post‐test to examine the effects of instructional strategies on their genetics understanding and retention. While the dependent variable of this study was students' understanding of genetics, the independent variables were time (Time 1, Time 2, and Time 3) and mode of instruction. The mixed between‐within subjects analysis of variance revealed that students in both prediction/discussion‐based learning cycle and CCT groups understood the genetics concepts and retained their knowledge significantly better than students in the traditional instruction group.  相似文献   

9.
Threshold concepts are transformative, integrative, and provocative; understanding these difficult concepts allows students to be capable of solving advanced problems. This investigation and evaluation of a metacognitive curricular approach explore variation in students' and teachers' discernment of structural complexity of concepts and its potential for enhancing students' learning and conceptual understanding of threshold concepts. Three trials of a metacognitive assessment activity administered to two cohorts of a civil engineering course (n?=?276 and n?=?264) were investigated. Students were presented with several answers (varying in structural complexity) to a question about a threshold concept and asked to mark each response. Quantitative analyses compared students' and teachers' marking schemes within and across trials, and qualitative analyses explored students' written reflections following the activity. Students' justifications for their marking schemes, their reflections on the activity's usefulness, and the convergence of students' and teachers' marking schemes suggest that the activity supported deep forms of student learning.  相似文献   

10.
This study investigates Pakistan's secondary school children's constructions of their national identity in a Pakistani school in Dubai by drawing on data collected from students and teachers from the case school and analysing national curriculum textbooks used in the school. Informed by Foucault's concepts, the article problematises how the curriculum textbooks are employed as a technology of power for inculcating national consciousness in the students. The findings suggest that Pakistan's national curriculum textbooks deploy a specific version of Islam as a major technology, which then influences other national identity signifiers in the textbooks for shaping students' national identity. The school affords a crucial space for the complex interplay of these technologies, which construct students' ethnocentric national identities, encouraging social polarisation. This has implications for Pakistan's national social cohesion as well as the potential for subverting international peaceful coexistence and working relationships, particularly in the selected overseas study context.  相似文献   

11.
This is a mix methods follow‐up study in which we reconfirm the findings from an earlier study [Vedder‐Weiss & Fortus [ 2011 ] Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 48(2), 199–216]. The findings indicate that adolescents' declining motivation to learn science, which was found in many previous studies [Galton [ 2009 ] Moving to secondary school: Initial encounters and their effects. Perspectives on Education, 2(Primary‐secondary Transfer in Science), 5–21. Retrieved from www.wellcome.ac.uk/perspectives ; Osborne, Simon, & Collins, [2003] International Journal of Science Education 25(9), 1049–1079], is not an inevitable phenomenon since it appears not to occur in Israeli democratic schools. In addition to reinforcing previous results in a different sample, new results show that the differences between the two school types are also apparent in terms of students' self‐efficacy in science learning, students' perceptions of their teachers' goals emphases, and students' perception of their peers' goals orientation. Quantitative results are accompanied by rich verbal examples of ways in which students view and articulate their own and their teachers' goal emphases. Content analysis of students' interviews showed that students in traditional schools are directed more towards goals that are external and related to the outcome of learning in comparison to democratic school students who are motivated more by goals that are internal and related to the process of learning. Structure analysis of these interviews suggests that democratic school students experience a greater sense of autonomy in their science learning than traditional school students do. Implications for research on students' motivation are discussed, such as considering not only the teacher and the classroom but also the school culture. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 1057–1095, 2012  相似文献   

12.
This study examined the relationship between environment‐based education and high school students' critical thinking skills and disposition toward critical thinking. Four hundred four 9th and 12th grade students from 11 Florida high schools participated in the study. A Pretest‐Posttest Nonequivalent Comparison Group Design (9th grade) and a Posttest Only Nonequivalent Comparison Group Design (12th grade) were used. Interviews of students and teachers were used in the classic sense of triangulation. Data collection took place over the 2001–2002 school year. When controlling for pretest score, grade point average (GPA), gender, and ethnicity, environment‐based programs had a positive effect on 9th grade students' critical thinking skills (p=.002). When controlling for GPA, gender, and ethnicity, environment‐based programs had a positive effect on 12th grade students' critical thinking skills (p < .001) and disposition toward critical thinking (p < .001). The results of this study support the use of environment‐based education for improving critical thinking and can be used to guide future implementation.  相似文献   

13.
This paper is part of an extensive study of secondary school students' preconceived ideas about climate change. Here, we undertake a survey in the province of Valencia (Spain) to ascertain secondary school students' notions of the causes and consequences of climate change. Results show, among other things, that students clearly relate the misuse of motor vehicles and factory emissions to the problem. However, the obvious correlation with household energy use is not observed. The usual confusion with other environmental problems, such as the hole in the ozone layer, as described in previous studies, is also detected. Students know almost no greenhouse gases other than CO2, while the socio‐economic consequences of climate change are the least perceived.  相似文献   

14.
This paper draws on a Canadian qualitative case study grounded in multiliteracies theory to describe the meaning‐making processes of four students aged 13‐14 years as they created history projects. Students were invited to explore curriculum content in self‐chosen ways and to produce presentations in a range of formats. The data we present and discuss were collected through participant observation and in‐situ interviews with four students who selected digital formats. We examine these data using multiliteracies concepts: specifically multimodality and identity texts. We argue that multimodal literacy practices have potential to bridge gaps between students' in‐school and out‐of‐school lives and underscore the importance of allowing students to draw on their out‐of‐school identities and interests to guide explorations of curriculum content.  相似文献   

15.
The junior middle school phase is one in which students first come into formal contact with science subjects and is a key period in the formation of their attitudes toward the sciences. Any setback in science studies in this period inevitably affects the students' studies in the senior middle school phase and even their future choice of specializations and the direction of their career development. Thus science education during the junior middle school phase is of the utmost importance for the students' growth. Studies by scholars abroad show that the great majority of girls have the same intelligence and ambitions as boys when they enter school, but by the time they graduate from junior and senior middle schools they have much less confidence in their abilities and their self-esteem has conspicuously declined. There is also a big difference between boys and girls in terms of their choice of advancement to higher schools, and a relatively small proportion of girls choose to take science courses in senior middle school. In terms of choice of vocations, most girls remain stuck in the narrow field of traditional occupations for females, such as nursing, health care, and secretarial work, and display a clear tendency toward job gender patternization. The rate of school dropouts and discontinued schooling is much higher among girls than boys.1 Studies by scholars in China show that stereotyped gender impressions among teachers leads to incorrect conduct in education and teaching. For instance, teachers believe that boys are more clever. They make different dispositions for girls' and boys' learning activities, and lavish more attention on boys. Such different feedback to learning information [sic] from boys and girls widens the difference between students of different genders.2  相似文献   

16.
Abstract

This study proposes and verifies the concept of a technology disposition in teacher education, which is comprised of predisposition and competence. It examines the reliability and validity of a measure of the technology disposition of teacher education students, the Technology Disposition Scale for Teacher Education Students (TDS‐T). The TDS‐T is comprised of two subscales: technology predisposition and technology competence. In this study, the TDS‐T was completed by 656 teacher education students. Results showed the proposed disposition model of predisposition and competence had significant relationships with gender and class year. Male students had significantly higher overall technology disposition scores than did female students, but these differences were due to the male students' strong self‐concept, especially self‐confidence. Students technology competence level was significantly higher for seniors than for sophomores, and the overall technology disposition scores significantly increased from students' junior to senior years. The TDS‐T demonstrated content validity through factor analysis and convergent and discriminate validity through item analysis. The value for Cronbach's alpha was .93, indicating highly satisfactory reliability.  相似文献   

17.
This study, conducted in an inner-city middle school, followed the conceptual changes shown in 25 students' writing over a 12-week science unit. Conceptual changes for 6 target students are reported. Student understanding was assessed regarding the nature of matter and physical change by paper-and-pencil pretest and posttest. The 6 target students were interviewed about the goal concepts before and after instruction. Students' writing during lesson activities provided qualitative data about their understandings of the goal concepts across the science unit. The researcher constructed concept maps from students' written statements and compared the maps across time to assess changes in the schema of core concepts, complexity, and organization as a result of instruction. Target students' changes were studied in detail to determine patterns of conceptual change. After patterns were located in target students' maps, the remaining 19 students' maps were analyzed for similar patterns. The ideas that students identified in their writing showed changes in central concepts, complexity, and organization as the lessons progressed. When instructional events were analyzed in relation to students' demonstrated ideas, understanding of the goal conceptions appeared in students' writing more often when students had opportunities to explain their new ideas orally and in writing.  相似文献   

18.
Background: This study deals with the application of concept mapping to the teaching and learning of a science topic with secondary school students in Germany.

Purpose: The main research questions were: (1) Do different teaching approaches affect concept map structure or students' learning success? (2) Is the structure of concept maps influenced by gender? (3) Is the concept map structure a reliable indicator of students' learning success?

Sample: One hundred and forty-nine high-achieving 5th-grade students from four German secondary schools participated in the study. The average age of participants was 10½ years. Gender distribution was balanced. Students produced concept maps working in small, single-sex groups.

Design and methods: There were two teaching approaches used: one based upon teacher-centred instruction and one consisting of student-centred learning. Both were followed by a concept-mapping phase. Student groups experienced either one or the other teaching approach. Concept map structures were analysed using of the method of Kinchin, Hay and Adams. We defined three different possible types of concept map structure: spokes, chains and nets. Furthermore, for assessing a student's short- and longer-term learning success, we constructed a multiple-choice knowledge test applied in a pre-, post-, retention-test design. Parametric tests, such as MANOVA, one-way ANOVA and t-tests were used to identify any differences in gender, teaching approach, number of nets per concept map and their interactions.

Results: Type of teaching approach had an effect on concept map structure but not on students' longer-term learning success. Students of the teacher-centred approach produced more net structures than those students who participated in the hands-on instruction. Subsequent analyses showed in total more net structures for female groups. The interaction of gender and number of nets per concept map showed a significant effect on students' longer-term learning success.

Conclusion: The study suggests that Kinchin's classification scheme for assessing concept map quality may be a good indicator of students' learning success when applied in combination with a knowledge test.  相似文献   

19.
Aspects of chemistry content knowledge held by 265 UK-based pre-service teachers (PSTs) were probed using 28 diagnostic questions in five chemistry concept areas, Particle theory and changes of state, Mass conservation (taught to 11–14-year-olds), and Chemical bonding, Mole calculations and Combustion reactions (taught to 14–16-year-olds). Data were collected over six years from academically able science graduates starting a full-time, university-based teacher education programme of one academic year duration. PSTs in three sub-cohorts (‘chemists', ‘physicists' and ‘biologists' on the basis of their undergraduate degrees) demonstrated similar levels of content knowledge (CK) for Particle theory and changes of state and Mass conservation. Biologists demonstrated statistically significantly weaker understanding than chemists and physicists in Chemical bonding, Mole calculations and Combustion reactions. Forty-four ‘triads' each comprising one chemist, physicist and biologist, matched by academic and personal backgrounds, showed that chemists outperformed biologists and physicists in Chemical bonding and Combustion reactions. The findings suggest that non-chemists' CK is insufficient for teaching these chemistry concepts in high schools, despite their possession of ‘good' Bachelor of Science degrees. These data have implications for science teacher education, including how best to prepare science graduates from diverse backgrounds for teaching specialist science subjects to 11–16-year-olds.  相似文献   

20.
This paper explores high school students' and teachers' preferences towards constructivist Internet‐based learning environments. The study proposes a framework, including two dimensions and five aspects, to illustrate the features of the Internet‐based learning environments. Based upon this framework, the Constructivist Internet‐based learning environment survey improvement (CILESI) was developed, which includes the scales of ease of use, multiple sources, student negotiation, reflective thinking, critical judgement and epistemological awareness. Questionnaire responses gathered from 630 high school students in Taiwan suggested that the CILESI showed adequate reliability in assessing students' preferences. Male students placed more emphasis on the student negotiation, critical judgement and epistemological awareness enhanced by the Internet‐based learning environments than female students did. In addition, the teachers of the sampled students (n?=?78) were also surveyed by CILESI. The teachers tended to express stronger preferences on the ease of use of the Internet‐based learning environments than did their students. However, students, when compared with their teachers, seemed to express more preferences towards the features of student negotiation, reflective thinking, critical judgement and epistemological awareness of Internet‐based learning environments.  相似文献   

设为首页 | 免责声明 | 关于勤云 | 加入收藏

Copyright©北京勤云科技发展有限公司  京ICP备09084417号