Опубликована Июль 10, 2009

In the United States and around the world, calls for educational reform stress the need for a scientifically literate population, prepared for the twenty-first century workforce. These calls have translated into new curricula, which in isolation, are not enough? Teachers play an essential role in the development of scientifically literate citizens. Their purposes for teaching science act as filters for acceptable learning and teaching activities. This paper examines the congruence of eight private school teachers’ purposes for teaching science, and aspects of scientific literacy in the Middle Eastern country of Lebanon. Findings are discussed in light of contextual factors that …

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Опубликована Июль 10, 2009

The late 20th century and beginning of 21st century have witnessed unprecedented rapid economic development due to advances in technology and globalization. In response to this development, a renewed call for science literacy has become louder in the USA and many other countries. Common to all science education reforms around the world is emphasis on achieving science literacy by all children before high school graduation. This paper first reviews definitions of science literacy in the literature; it then examines the status of science literacy in the USA and other countries. Following the above, this paper then presents a new notion …

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Опубликована Июль 10, 2009

The focus of this paper is on selected recent South African research studies that have explored efforts to promote the discussion, writing, and arguing aspects of scientific literacy in primary and middle schools, particularly amongst second-language learners. These studies reveal improvements in the participants’ abilities to both use the ‘science notebooks’ approach and argue their findings, as well as statistically significant improvement in their problem solving skills. The positive findings of these studies, and the call for attention to be paid to the fundamental sense of scientific literacy by a number of international researchers, resulted in the development of an …

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Опубликована Июль 10, 2009

Education and political leaders worldwide are increasingly placing emphasis on developing scientific literacy. This also is the case in Thailand with science education influenced by educational reform in 1999, in which the goals of science education are shaped by the notion of scientific literacy. Thai science education emphasizes the scientific knowledge, the nature of science, and the relationship between science technology and society. Although the school science curriculum features scientific literacy, Thai science education research, articles, national tests, and teaching and learning emphasize scientific achievement with little concern about science as a way of knowing. However, some attempts at developing …

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Опубликована Окт. 10, 2009

This paper describes the design of an educational module which aims to raise awareness and change the attitudes of elementary school students about focal endangered species in protected areas. The proposed design builds on, and extends the General Teaching Model. The educational module which was developed through this approach was pilot-tested in two Greek elementary school classes, involving 29 students who provided their opinion through a questionnaire. The results verify that the educational module had a significant effect on the cognitive level and the attitudes of the students. Therefore, it is argued that the proposed design approach can form the …

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Опубликована Окт. 10, 2009

Determination of conceptual problems which may cause alternative conceptions in science and technology textbooks is significant to increase in success of pupils and teachers. It is a vital issue to arrange books in a way removing or decreasing these faults in order to improve a better education via textbooks. This study aims to determine conceptual problems which may cause alternative conceptions in biology topics in science and technology textbooks of primary schools. In this study, the units of each textbook were analyzed page by page according to document examination method and conceptual problems were determined. The founded conceptual problems have …

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Опубликована Окт. 10, 2009

Sociocognitive conflict has been used as a teaching strategy which may contribute to change students’ conceptions about science concepts. The present paper aims at investigating the structure of the dialogic argumentation developed by students, when they are involved in science teaching sequence that have been designed to change their conceptions through sociocognitive conflict strategy. For this purpose, teaching sequence targeted at the elaboration of students’ conceptions about floating and sinking -based on sociocognitive conflict processes- were prepared and implemented among 14 years old students. Next, the dialogues which the students had during the teaching sequence were analysed with the help …

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Опубликована Янв. 10, 2009

This study examined the similarities and differences among 171 Grade 7-12 science teachers from three different countries (54 U.S, 63 Bolivian, and 54 Turkish) with respect to their attitudes toward environmental education (EE) and instructional practices. The instrument employed explored how teachers‘ knowledge, instructional practices, decisionmaking process, and cultural features influenced their EE attitudes and praxis. The instrument, which was translated into Spanish and Turkish and then back into English, contained a personal data form that included demographic questions and a three-part questionnaire. Based on the analysis completed, significant differences were found between these three countries with respect to 1) …

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Опубликована Янв. 10, 2009

Fostering young people‟s commitment to protect biodiversity is an important goal of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in both, industrial countries and designated biodiversity hotspots. However, little empirical evidence exists to describe factors that influence such commitments. Based on the Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) theory, 15 to 19-year-old Chilean (n= 216) and German (n= 217) pupils‟ commitment to protect biodiversity was investigated. Comparisons revealed that Chilean adolescents showed higher personal norms and commitments to protect biodiversity. Regression analysis showed that within the German sample, the „Schwartz‟-value universalism was an important predictor for three different kinds of behavioural commitment. In both samples, „ascription …

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Опубликована Янв. 10, 2009

Research on playfulness, science, and creativity suggests that there is a connection between having positive background experiences with science and the development of interest in science. However, there is little empirical research on where, how, and when teachers’ interests in science develop. The purpose of this research was to explore connections between preservice elementary teachers’ background science experiences and interest in science. Subjects were 53 preservice teachers in two sections of a science methods course. The data were collected by administering a self-report Science Background Experiences Survey. Students with low and high initial interest in science were significantly different on …

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