Опубликована Апрель 10, 2009

Recent research suggests that the issue of global warming is one of great concern for Australian children. This point to the need for effective teaching about this issue. Children should be properly informed about actions that help reduce carbon emissions as this may give them a sense of empowerment and go some way to alleviating concerns. This study followed the development in the knowledge of global warming of 29 primary school students in year 6 (the final year of primary) from two regional Australian schools over one school term. A hands-on science unit dealing specifically with global warming was prepared …

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Опубликована Апрель 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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Опубликована Апрель 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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Опубликована Окт. 9, 2008

This paper draws attention to the literature in the areas of learning, specifically, constructivism, conceptual change and cognitive development. It emphasizes the contribution of such research to our understanding of the learning process. This literature provides guidelines for teachers, at all levels, in their attempt to have their students achieve learning with understanding. Research about the constructive nature of students’ learning processes, about students’ mental models, and students’ misconceptions have important implications for teachers who wish to model scientific reasoning in an effective fashion for their students. This paper aims to communicate this research to teachers, textbook authors, and college …

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Опубликована Апрель 10, 2009

It is generally accepted that the environmental education deals with a wide range of environmental experiences, methods and processes. Teaching the subject of the environment should not be considered as an easy task. It should not only cover pure ecology education; but also include the citizenship responsibilities and the problems that are sourced from other interdisciplinary factors. Therefore teachers should have the responsibility to facilitate environmental issues. Hitherto no researcher has undertaken a comprehensive study that focuses on environmental education in teacher training programs. This study aims to detect basic environmental knowledge of Turkish teacher candidate at the onset of …

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Опубликована Янв. 10, 2008

Helping student to improve the problems solving skills is the primary target of the science teacher trainees. In modern science, for training the students, methods should be used for improving their thinking skills, make connections with events and concepts and scientific operations skills rather than information and definition giving. One of these methods are problem solving.With this study, it is shown that problem solving is not just solving a movement problem like in the physics as it is understood by most of the science teachers but it can be used also in social problems like environmental problems. Further more, scientific …

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Опубликована Июнь 10, 2008

An intervention study was set up through the School Civic Clubs to improve Botswana Children’s environmental knowledge, attitudes and practices. The underlying assumption in using this informal approach was based on the premise that the school time table is already overcrowded and that the infusion approach currently adopted in the country has not produced the desired results. Hence, the Civic Clubs were introduced into ten Primary schools in Botswana. Using this informal approach, the children were given requisite training in civic and environmental issues, and they engaged in various activities for a period of six weeks. Data was collected before …

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Опубликована Июнь 10, 2008

Now in its fifth year, PR2EPS is a National Science Foundation funded initiative designed to recruit high school students to attend college majoring in the physical sciences, including engineering and secondary science education, and to help ensure their retention within these programs until graduation. A central feature of the recruitment effort is a free, one-week residential summer science camp for high school students. This report describes the rationale for using a camp as a recruitment tool as well as the camp structure. Two focus questions are addressed: 1) How successful is the camp at providing a learning environment where participants …

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Опубликована Апрель 10, 2008

A questionnaire was used to explore the prevalence of ideas about global warming in Year 10 (age 15-16 years) school students in Turkey. The frequencies of individual scientific ideas and misconceptions about the causes, consequences and ‘cures’ of global warming were identified. In addition, several general findings emerged from this study. Firstly, many students believed that radioactivity is causally linked to global warming; they believed that radioactive leakage from nuclear power stations exacerbates global warming, and that reducing the global nuclear arsenal could reduce it. Secondly, students appeared to confuse the causes and consequences of global warming with those of …

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Опубликована Апрель 10, 2008

In this paper, I discussed different types of models in science education and applications of them in learning and teaching science in particular physics. Based on the literature, I categorized models as conceptual and mental models according to their characteristics. In addition to these models, there is another model called “physics model” by the physics-education community. And then, I discussed applications of these models for learning and teaching science particularly physics along with examples that can guide teachers and students in their science courses.

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