Published: April 10, 2009

The purpose of this study was to investigate Thai students’ understanding of dilution and related concepts. The literature suggests that a complete understanding of chemistry concepts such as dilution entails understanding of and the ability to integrate mental models across three levels of representation: the macroscopic, sub-microscopic and symbolic. In this work students’ understanding was probed using the interview about events (IAE) approach employing open-ended questions, and also by analysis of student descriptions, and drawings. The research findings suggest that all students were able to answer openended questions related to dilution and related concepts. Less able students presented representations at …

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Published: April 10, 2009

The purpose of this study was to determine the predictors of student grades in introductory physics courses utilizing problem-based learning (PBL) approach and traditional lecturing. The study employed correlational/predictive methods to investigate and describe/explain relationships of students’ physics grades with their expectations, attitudes, epistemological beliefs about physics and physics learning, and demographic variables. The subjects involved in this study were 264 freshmen engineering students (PBL, n = 100; traditional, n = 164) at Dokuz Eylül University (DEU) in Izmir, Turkey. All students were surveyed at the beginning and at the end of the spring 2007 semester using the Maryland Physics …

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Published: April 10, 2009

This article reported and discussed the evaluation of a lecture, designed to change university students’ values related with sustainable ways of living. The outcomes of the study were those obtained from the evaluation of the course titled “Education and Awareness for Sustainability”, which has been offered for three years in the Department of Elementary Education, Middle East Technical University–Ankara (Turkey). The study was realized with the participation of 85 students from different faculties (faculty of education, economy, administration and engineering). The study comprised three steps: need assessment (NA), formative evaluation (FE) and summative evaluation (SE). The evaluation model of DIPO …

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Published: Jan. 10, 2009

In the first part of this article I propose a conceptual framework – based on the deficit, public debate and co-production of knowledge models articulated by (Callon, 1999) – with which to examine students’ appropriation of de socioscientific issues (SSI). The second part of this article presents the way a group of three post-secondary/preuniversity students described the attitudes, interests and capacity for understanding of citizens concerned by the controversy surrounding the use of cellular telephones, and how they viewed the conditions under which citizens could contribute to public debates. This study was conducted on the basis of an ethnographic approach. …

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Published: Jan. 10, 2009

The study of teachers’ beliefs forms part of the process of understanding how teachers conceptualize their work which in turn is important to the understanding of teachers’ practices and their decisions in the classroom. A growing body of research argues that teachers’ beliefs should be studied within a framework that is aware of the influence of culture. These studies also argue that teachers’ beliefs and practices cannot be examined out of context. This shows that the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and their practices is complex and context dependent. Some researchers have found consistencies between teachers’ beliefs and their practices whilst …

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Published: Jan. 10, 2009

The article aims to introduce Environmental Education (EE) in Finland and to discuss how it has been taken into account in Finnish nature schools. Firstly, we present EE models used in Finland. Thereafter we describe a qualitative case study on EE in nature schools (NS). The aim of the study was to get information for the development of EE. The research questions were: Who are the visitors to NSs? What are the educational aims in NSs? What kind of educational methods and approaches do NS teachers use? The resultant data for the questions from 1 to 3 is based on …

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Published: Oct. 7, 2008

With the increased global awareness of the negative impact of scientific, technological and industrial activities on the environment and copious examples of sustainable practices existing in many an indigenous community, the new South African science curriculum statement has called on science teachers to integrate school science with the Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS). In response to this call, this study used an Argumentation-Based course (A-B course) to enhance teachers’ understanding of the Nature of Science (NOS) and IKS and their ability to integrate science and IKS in their classrooms. Nine teachers participated in the course over a six-month period. Using questionnaires …

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Published: Oct. 6, 2008

In this decade of Education for Sustainable Development, it is timely to consider the methodological issues associated with researching this topic not only with adults but also with the young children who, as members of the next generation, will experience the success or otherwise of current environmental sustainability efforts. We argue that it is important when making methodological choices to recognize that both the sustainability issues themselves and the way individuals learn about these issues, are socially and culturally constructed. In this article we are interested in ways of gaining representations of individuals’ mental constructions of environmental sustainability issues. We …

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Published: June 10, 2008

Based on students‟ alternative conceptions of the topics „electric circuits‟, „electric charge flows within an electric circuit‟, „how the brightness of bulbs and the resistance changes in series and parallel circuits‟, the current study aims to present a combination of different conceptual change methods within four-step constructivist teaching model. Therefore, the author assumes that such a design may give a chance to eliminate students‟ alternative conceptions fully. Also, some suggestions were made for further research.

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Published: Jan. 10, 2009

Children’s knowledge about human anatomy can be examined through several different ways. Making a drawing of the internal features of the human body has been frequently used in recent studies. However, there might be a serious difference in results obtained from a general instruction to students (What you think is inside your body) and specific (e.g. Draw bones that are inside your body) instruction. We examined relationships between these two types of instructions using drawings of the urinary and endocrine systems as the examples with pupils aged 10-14 years. An ANCOVA showed significant relationships between general and special instruction, but …

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