Опубликована Окт. 10, 2013

Internationally, learning science through investigation is promoted as a preferred pedagogical approach. Research presented takes a view that such learning depends on how teachers understand science investigation. Teachers‘ understanding of science investigation was an aspect of an interpretive case study of the phenomenon of science investigation exploring the links between learning, motivation and assessment in year 11 science. Data were collected through a population survey of year 11 science teachers (n=165) in the greater Wellington region through a postal questionnaire (response rate 61%). In addition, all year 11 science teachers in a typical coeducational, middle size, urban secondary school were …

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Опубликована Янв. 10, 2013

The present study explores the use of a conventional school ground of a primary school and its potential as a space for creative play and environmental learning. Children’s play behavior and views of the school ground are explored, as well as their vision for its improvement. The research constitutes part of a wider school ground project and was carried out in a primary school in Volos city, Greece, during the 2010-2011 schoolyear. Geographical and participatory design methods were used that capture children’s experience of space and their will for participation in redesigning their school ground. They included mapping of the …

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Опубликована Янв. 10, 2013

Science teachers frequently select science news articles as supplementary teaching materials; however, the literature indicates that students encounter difficulties in examining and evaluating the news content and textual elements. This paper reports an instructional strategy of utilizing science news articles and investigates its effectiveness in enhancing students’ cognitive learning outcomes. In this quasi-experimental study, 118 seventh graders from four classes in one secondary school in Taiwan took part in the Science News Instruction (SNI). After eight weeks of instruction about Genetics and Reproduction, all students were requested to present their written arguments to the selected science news article. Two of …

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Опубликована Янв. 10, 2013

Achieving a sustainable future requires that individuals adopt sustainable behaviors, which are often learned and cemented at a young age. Yet, traditional education efforts have been inadequate in fostering transformative change, in part because many programs focus on fact-heavy, teacher-centered techniques while neglecting the practices that behavioral and sustainability scholars highlight as central to creating change. To address this gap, the present research integrates three critical yet mostly disparate bodies of research— educational pedagogy, behavior change, and sustainability competencies. This interdisciplinary approach to education was implemented and evaluated with a small group of students during an intensive summer program and …

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Опубликована Окт. 11, 2012

Inquiry-based learning [IBL] enhances students’ critical thinking abilities and help students to act as a scientist through using scientific method while learning. Specifically, inquiry as a teaching approach has been defined in many ways, the most important one is referred to nature of constructing knowledge while the individuals possess a question about natural worlds and explore the answers for the questions. The aim of this content analysis study was to analyze research related to inquiry based teaching through published research reports in the form of full papers and theses by Turkish researchers. For these purpose national and international journals and …

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Опубликована Июнь 4, 2012

The purpose of this study is to construct a structural equation model to examine the links among attitudes, values, and behaviors pertaining to sustainability, participation in outdoor recreation as well as gender and tendency to follow mass media for university students. The data were collected by on-line administration of a survey to 958 students at Middle East Technical University during February-June of 2008. It needs to be stressed that gender emerged as a strong factor explaining sustainability-related attributes. It was reflected that female students having higher tendency to follow media held more favorable attitudes and behaviors toward sustainable life styles, …

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Опубликована Окт. 10, 2012

Students are making choices in middle school that will impact their desire and ability to pursue STEM careers. Providing middle school students with accurate information about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) careers enables them to make more knowledgeable choices about courses of study and career paths. Practical ways of helping students understand the nature of science careers are limited. This study investigates using video interviews of STEM professionals as a method for better informing students about STEM career possibilities. ANCOVA analysis was used to compare treatment and comparison student interest in pursuing STEM careers before and after viewing video interviews …

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Опубликована Окт. 10, 2012

Learning about global problems, such as climate change, is not only a cognitive endeavor, but also involves emotions evoked by the seriousness and complexity of these problems. Few studies, however, have explored how young people cope with emotions related to climate change. Since coping strategies could be as important as the emotions themselves in influencing whether young people will acquire knowledge concerning climate change, as well as ethical sensibility and action competence, it is argued that it is important for teachers to gain insight into how young people cope with this threat. Thus, the aim of this study was to …

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Опубликована Апрель 10, 2012

This study investigated Ontario science and biology teachers’ practices and attitudes toward animal dissection and dissection alternatives. The data was collected through a mixed methods approach involving online surveys (n=153) and subsequent telephone interviews (n=9) with secondary school science and biology teachers. The findings indicate that teachers identify strengths and drawbacks to both dissection and alternatives, but the majority continue to strongly favour traditional dissection and see it as vital to biology education. Further, although teachers expressed concerns with dissection, their concerns were overshadowed by an overall dissatisfaction with alternatives. It is argued that teachers need to engage more deeply …

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Опубликована Апрель 10, 2012

This is a longitudinal study aimed at revealing the beliefs of prospective science teachers in the College of Education at Sultan Qaboos University/Sultanate of Oman about science teaching. To achieve this aim a Draw-A-Science-Teacher-Test Checklist (DASTT-C) tool was used. The study sample consisted of (45) prospective science teachers in the College of Education at Sultan Qaboos University. The instrument was applied to the sample three times: before the Science Method I course, after finishing this course and after finishing the Science Method II course and the Practicum. The results revealed that after completing the Science Methods I course, prospective science …

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