Assessing students’ understanding of models of biological processes: a revised framework     

Susanne Jansen  Marie-Christine P. J. Knippels  Wouter R. van Joolingen 《International Journal of Science Education》2019,41(8):981-994

Models are very important tools when learning and communicating about science. Models used in secondary school biology education range from concrete scale models, such as a model of a skeleton, to abstract concept-process models, such as a visualisation of meiosis. Understanding these concept-process models requires a profound understanding of the concept of models and how they are used in biology. This study evaluates an existing framework for its use in assessing students’ understanding of biological concept-process models. Four additions were required to extend the applicability of the framework to concept-process models. We were also able to give an indication of students’ current level of understanding of these models, showing room for improvement in all aspects of understanding. Since concept-process models have a central place in many scientific disciplines, it is important that students have a deep understanding of the nature, application and limitations of these models. The current study contributes to assessing the way students reason with concept-process models. Knowing how to improve students’ view on the use of concept-process models in biology may lead to higher scientific literacy.  相似文献   

Chemical-warfare techniques for insect control: insect 'pests' in Germany before and after World War I     

Jansen S 《Endeavour》2000,24(1):28-33

During World War I, chemical-warfare practices were introduced into economic entomology in Germany. Fritz Haber, 'the father of chemical warfare', realized that Germany could not win the war and thus looked for 'civilian' uses for his chemical arsenal. Before the war, there was a rhetoric of dangerous 'masses' of insects but the large-scale techniques needed to deal with them had not been developed. The gap between rhetoric and practices enabled entomology to integrate chemical weapons into its working methods. This article traces transformations in the ways of seeing insects and their control from the mid-nineteenth century to after World War I.  相似文献   

Mega‐planning in Population     

Sarah C. Clark  Margo Murray 《Performance Improvement Quarterly》2005,18(3):17-25

ABSTRACT Clark and Murray examine the six Critical Performance Factors for Mega planning in an example drawn from the five‐year history of the population program of a major west coast philanthropy. In this article, the authors describe the salience and scope of the population issue as it is relates to other global trends; the steps the foundation took to “scope” the program and establish measurable impacts. It rates performance against the critical factors, then looks at some specific country impacts five years later. This analysis will be incorporated into the plan revision. Summary and What Next Indications are that our funding and the work of the grantees are having good impact in the country programs. Systematic, comprehensive reviews involving outside/inside experts, quantitative and qualitative data will be completed in all five country programs by mid‐2005. Also in 2005, the Board will work with staff and outside experts to examine the results of grant making and review and discuss our long term, overall approach. Much has changed since 1998. We will review those changes and see if any longer term shifts in funding emphasis will be appropriate. This effort to refresh our strategic thinking will allow us to revise, as appropriate, the stated missions of the population work, its assumptions, and how it fits into the overall work and goals of the Foundation.  相似文献   

Big change question: can and should school change in the developing world be guided by research from the developed world?     

Jonathan Jansen 《Journal of Educational Change》2009,10(2-3):239-243

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Educating the teacher educator—A Ugandan case study     

Margo C. O'Sullivan 《International Journal of Educational Development》2010

Who educates teacher educators? How are teacher educators educated and prepared for their roles and tasks? This article uses a review of a two-year full-time Diploma in Teacher Education (DTE) for teacher educators in Uganda to engage with these questions. The article begins with a presentation of the Ugandan teacher education context and a literature review, focusing mainly on teacher educator knowledge, preparation, roles and tasks. It then presents the review process and discusses the main findings that emerged, exploring their implications for the education of teacher educators in Uganda and internationally. The main implications concern the critical role of teacher education pedagogy, context, teacher educator knowledge, tasks and roles, reflective practice, practitioner research, and the background, capacities and education of the educator of teacher educators.  相似文献   

The reconceptualisation of learner-centred approaches: a Namibian case study     

Margo O&#x;Sullivan 《International Journal of Educational Development》2004,24(6):137

The case study, which explored the implementation of learner-centred approaches, emerged from an action research study of a three-year INSET (In-service Education and Training) programme for 145 unqualified primary teachers in Namibia. A learner-centred curriculum was introduced in Namibia soon after her Independence from South Africa in 1990. It was considered an effective antidote to the stifling teacher-centred practices used within the previous apartheid system. The case study raises questions about the implementation of learner-centred approaches. Data emerged which indicated their non-implementation, and reasons are presented to explain this: teacher professional capacity at the time of the study, limited resources, cultural factors and learner background. Efforts within the INSET programme to support teachers’ implementation of learner-centred approaches led to their reconceptualisation. The study indicated the effectiveness of developing teachers’ skills in the use of whichever approaches, methods and skills best bring about learning. The study highlights the usefulness of an adaptive approach—examining the realities within which teachers work and experimenting with strategies that seek to achieve student learning within the limitations of these realities. The focus is on learning-centred rather than learner-centred approaches.  相似文献   

A cross-national survey of cultural expectations and sex-role standards in reading     

John Downing  Carol A. Dwyer  Dina Feitelson  Mogens Jansen  Ritva Kemppainen  Hilkka-Liisa Matihaldi  David R. Reggi  Takahiko Sakamoto  Hugh Taylor  Derek V. Thackray  Douglas Thomson 《Journal of Research in Reading》1979,2(1):8-23

Cultural expectations and sex-role standards about reading in Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, Israel, Japan, and U.S.A. were investigated. A picture test showing various activities and objects including reading and books was administered in each country to six sub-samples that approximated to the levels: students in grades I, IV, VIII, and XII, college students, and adults. Subjects had to ascribe the activity or object as being appropriate for either a boy or a girl. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that cultural expectations and sex-role standards about reading are congruent within one country but that they differ between countries. In particular, boys in Canada and the U.S.A. rapidly learn to perceive reading as a feminine activity, whereas Danish and Japanese males at all ages consistently view reading as acceptable masculine behaviour.  相似文献   

Do individual differences in children’s curiosity relate to their inquiry-based learning?     

Tessa J. P. van Schijndel  Brenda R. J. Jansen  Maartje E. J. Raijmakers 《International Journal of Science Education》2018,40(9):996-1015

This study investigates how individual differences in 7- to 9-year-olds' curiosity relate to the inquiry-learning process and outcomes in environments differing in structure. The focus on curiosity as individual differences variable was motivated by the importance of curiosity in science education, and uncertainty being central to both the definition of curiosity and the inquiry-learning environment. Curiosity was assessed with the Underwater Exploration game (Jirout, J., & Klahr, D. (2012). Children's scientific curiosity: In search of an operational definition of an elusive concept. Developmental Review, 32, 125–160. doi:10.1016/j.dr.2012.04.002), and inquiry-based learning with the newly developed Scientific Discovery task, which focuses on the principle of designing informative experiments. Structure of the inquiry-learning environment was manipulated by explaining this principle or not. As intelligence relates to learning and possibly curiosity, it was taken into account. Results showed that children's curiosity was positively related to their knowledge acquisition, but not to their quality of exploration. For low intelligent children, environment structure positively affected their quality of exploration, but not their knowledge acquisition. There was no interaction between curiosity and environment structure. These results support the existence of two distinct inquiry-based learning processes – the designing of experiments, on the one hand, and the reflection on performed experiments, on the other – and link children's curiosity to the latter process.  相似文献   

Constructing more meaningful relationships: Mnemonic instruction for special populations   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Margo A. Mastropieri  Thomas E. Scruggs 《Educational Psychology Review》1989,1(2):83-111

This article describes a model for reconstructing associative learning tasks along the dimensions of meaningfulness and concreteness, and for providing pictorial elaborations between stimulus and response information to promote learning in a variety of content domains. The research reviewed is of direct relevance to students with histories of learning failure in schools; we argue that such elaborative strategies are suitable especially for these handicapped learners. Initial investigations of mnemonic techniques involving the use of keywords and pegwords are described. Next, the broader approach of reconstructive elaborations, incorporating such strategies as the keyword method, is described. Several recent field investigations are presented, in which this approach was implemented in classrooms over extensive time periods. Finally, we discuss future applications, with particular reference to the transfer issue.  相似文献   

On the politics of performance in South African education: Autonomy, accountability and assessment     

Jonathan D. Jansen 《Prospects》2001,31(4):553-564

The South African obsession with performance-based pedagogies, as I have shown, has negative implications for resolving equity problems in educational reforms; it threatens to negate a political debate about ‘goals’ in favour of a technician’s debate about ‘ends’; and it fragments knowledge into meaningless tasks that assign value to external behaviours rather than the multiplicity of ways in which learning and valuing can be experienced (if not always expressed). The real danger to building a strong democratic culture through education is that what should be vibrant debates about ‘what’s worth knowing’ could be effectively silenced in a performance assessment system that only values, through a complex assessment system, that which is worth doing. Such an understanding of education is, unfortunately, entrenched in a global network of economic and technological processes that make such pursuits appear both normal and inevitable.  相似文献