Between understanding and appreciation. Current science communication in Denmark (Danish original version

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kristian Hvidtfelt Nielsen

2005-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper I use the concepts “understanding of science” and “appreciation of science” to analyze selected case studies of current science communication in Denmark. The Danish science communication system has many similarities with science communication in other countries: the increasing political and scientific interest in science communication, the co-existence of many different kinds of science communication, and the multiple uses of the concepts of understanding vs. appreciation of science. I stress the international aspects of science communication, the national politico-scientific context as well as more local contexts as equally important conditions for understanding current Danish science communication.

Assessment of primary school students’ level of understanding the concepts of 2nd grade life sciences course based on different variables

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Altıntaş Gülşen

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The course of Life Sciences is one of the pivot courses taught in the first three years of primary school. Ensuring children get to know their environment and gain correct information related to their problems by making them investigate their natural and socio-cultural environment as well as providing them with necessary information, skills and behaviors for environmental adaptation are among the main purposes of Life Sciences course. The concepts to be instilled in students in line with these purposes are important. Since concepts are mostly intellectual and non-physical, they can only exist tangibly through examples. This study aims to assess Primary School Students’ Level of Understanding the Concepts of 2nd Grade Life Sciences Course Based on Different Variables. 17 concepts included in the 2nd Grade Life Sciences course within the subject of School Excitement were addressed within the study, and students were requested to define and exemplify these concepts. A total of 102 students from five different primary schools of upper-middle and lower socioeconomic classes located in Manisa and Istanbul were included in the study in line with the intentional maximum diversity sample selection. The answers given by students for each concept were categorized and analyzed in terms of liking or disliking home, school, technology and the course of Life Sciences.

Science-based occupations and the science curriculum: Concepts of evidence

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Aikenhead, Glen S.

2005-03-01

What science-related knowledge is actually used by nurses in their day-to-day clinical reasoning when attending patients? The study investigated the knowledge-in-use of six acute-care nurses in a hospital surgical unit. It was found that the nurses mainly drew upon their professional knowledge of nursing and upon their procedural understanding that included a common core of concepts of evidence (concepts implicitly applied to the evaluation of data and the evaluation of evidence - the focus of this research). This core included validity triangulation, normalcy range, accuracy, and a general predilection for direct sensual access to a phenomenon over indirect machine-managed access. A cluster of emotion-related concepts of evidence (e.g. cultural sensitivity) was also discovered. These results add to a compendium of concepts of evidence published in the literature. Only a small proportion of nurses (one of the six nurses in the study) used canonical science content in their clinical reasoning, a result consistent with other research. This study also confirms earlier research on employees in science-rich workplaces in general, and on professional development programs for nurses specifically: canonical science content found in a typical science curriculum (e.g. high school physics) does not appear relevant to many nurses' knowledge-in-use. These findings support a curriculum policy that gives emphasis to students learning how to learn science content as required by an authentic everyday or workplace context, and to students learning concepts of evidence.

Preservice Science Teachers' Beliefs about Astronomy Concepts

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Ozkan, Gulbin; Akcay, Hakan

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate preservice science teachers' conceptual understanding of astronomy concepts. Qualitative research methods were used. The sample consists of 118 preservice science teachers (40 freshmen, 31 sophomores, and 47 juniors). The data were collected with Astronomy Conceptual Questionnaire (ACQ) that includes 13…

Technology in the curriculum: A vehicle for the development of children's understanding of science concepts through problem solving

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Jane, Beverley; Smith, Leanne

1992-12-01

This research was carried out over a period of ten months with children in Grades 2 and 3 (aged 7 and 8) who were participating in a sequence of technology activities. Since the introduction into Victorian primary schools of The Technology Studies Framework P-10 (Crawford, 1988), more teachers are including technology studies in their classrooms and by so doing may assist children's understanding of science concepts. Children are being exposed to science phenomena related to the technology activities and Technology Studies may be a way of providing children with science experiences. ‘Technology Studies’ in this context refers to children carrying out practical problem solving tasks which can be completed without any particular scientific knowledge. Participation in the technology activities may encourage children to become actively involved, thereby facilitating an exploration of the related science concepts. The project identified the importance of challenge in relation to the children's involvement in the technology activities and the conference paper (available from the first author) discusses particular topics in terms of the balance between cognitive/metacognitive and affective influences (Baird et al., 1990)

Understanding Social Networks: Theories, Concepts, and Findings

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Kadushin, Charles

2012-01-01

Despite the swift spread of social network concepts and their applications and the rising use of network analysis in social science, there is no book that provides a thorough general introduction for the serious reader. "Understanding Social Networks" fills that gap by explaining the big ideas that underlie the social network phenomenon.…

Investigating inquiry beliefs and nature of science (NOS) conceptions of science teachers as revealed through online learning

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Atar, Hakan Yavuz

teachers NOS conceptions. Developing desired understanding of nature of science conceptions and having an adequate experience with inquiry learning is especially important for science teachers because science education literature suggests that the development of teachers' nature of science conceptions is influenced by their experiences with inquiry science (Akerson et. al. 2000) and implementation of science lessons reflect teachers' NOS conceptions (Abd-EL-Khalick & Boujaoude, 1997; Matson & Parsons, 1998; Rosenthal, 1993; Trowbridge, Bybee & Powell, 2000; Turner & Sullenger, 1999). Furthermore, the impediments to successful integration of inquiry based science instruction from teachers' perspective are particularly important, as they are the implementers of inquiry based science education reform. The purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between the teachers' NOS conceptions and their inquiry beliefs and practices in their classrooms and how this relationship impedes or contributes to the implementation of inquiry based science education reform efforts. The participants of this study were in-service teachers who were accepted into the online Masters Program in science education program at a southern university. Three online courses offered in the summer semester of 2005 constituted the research setting of this study: (1) Special Problems in the Teaching of Secondary School Science: Nature of Science & Science Teaching, (2) Curriculum in Science Education, and (3) Colloquium. Multiple data sources were used for data triangulation (Miles & Huberman, 1984; Yin, 1994) in order to understand the relationship between participants' NOS views and their conceptions and beliefs about inquiry-based science teaching. The study revealed that the relationship between the teachers' NOS conceptions and their inquiry beliefs and practices is far from being simple and linear. Data suggests that the teachers' sophistication of NOS conceptions influence their perception of

The Impact of Science Fiction Film on Student Understanding of Science

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Barnett, Michael; Wagner, Heather; Gatling, Anne; Anderson, Janice; Houle, Meredith; Kafka, Alan

2006-04-01

Researchers who have investigated the public understanding of science have argued that fictional cinema and television has proven to be particularly effective at blurring the distinction between fact and fiction. The rationale for this study lies in the notion that to teach science effectively, educators need to understand how popular culture influences their students' perception and understanding of science. Using naturalistic research methods in a diverse middle school we found that students who watched a popular science fiction film, The Core, had a number of misunderstandings of earth science concepts when compared to students who did not watch the movie. We found that a single viewing of a science fiction film can negatively impact student ideas regarding scientific phenomena. Specifically, we found that the film leveraged the scientific authority of the main character, coupled with scientifically correct explanations of some basic earth science, to create a series of plausible, albeit unscientific, ideas that made sense to students.

The Effect of Three Levels of Inquiry on the Improvement of Science Concept Understanding of Elementary School Teacher Candidates

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Artayasa, I. Putu; Susilo, Herawati; Lestari, Umie; Indriwati, Sri Endah

2018-01-01

This research aims to compare the effect of the implementation of three levels of inquiry: level 2 (structured inquiry), level 3 (guided inquiry), and level 4 (open inquiry) toward science concept understanding of elementary school teacher candidates. This is a quasi experiment research with pre-test post-test nonequivalent control group design.…

Grounded understanding of abstract concepts: The case of STEM learning.

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Hayes, Justin C; Kraemer, David J M

2017-01-01

Characterizing the neural implementation of abstract conceptual representations has long been a contentious topic in cognitive science. At the heart of the debate is whether the "sensorimotor" machinery of the brain plays a central role in representing concepts, or whether the involvement of these perceptual and motor regions is merely peripheral or epiphenomenal. The domain of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning provides an important proving ground for sensorimotor (or grounded) theories of cognition, as concepts in science and engineering courses are often taught through laboratory-based and other hands-on methodologies. In this review of the literature, we examine evidence suggesting that sensorimotor processes strengthen learning associated with the abstract concepts central to STEM pedagogy. After considering how contemporary theories have defined abstraction in the context of semantic knowledge, we propose our own explanation for how body-centered information, as computed in sensorimotor brain regions and visuomotor association cortex, can form a useful foundation upon which to build an understanding of abstract scientific concepts, such as mechanical force. Drawing from theories in cognitive neuroscience, we then explore models elucidating the neural mechanisms involved in grounding intangible concepts, including Hebbian learning, predictive coding, and neuronal recycling. Empirical data on STEM learning through hands-on instruction are considered in light of these neural models. We conclude the review by proposing three distinct ways in which the field of cognitive neuroscience can contribute to STEM learning by bolstering our understanding of how the brain instantiates abstract concepts in an embodied fashion.

Students' conceptions of evidence during a university introductory forensic science course

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Yeshion, Theodore Elliot

Students' Conceptions of Science, Scientific Evidence, and Forensic Evidence during a University Introductory Forensic Science Course This study was designed to examine and understand what conceptions undergraduate students taking an introductory forensic science course had about scientific evidence. Because the relationships between the nature of science, the nature of evidence, and the nature of forensic evidence are not well understood in the science education literature, this study sought to understand how these concepts interact and affect students' understanding of scientific evidence. Four participants were purposefully selected for this study from among 89 students enrolled in two sections of an introductory forensic science course taught during the fall 2005 semester. Of the 89 students, 84 were criminal justice majors with minimal science background and five were chemistry majors with academic backgrounds in the natural and physical sciences. All 89 students completed a biographical data sheet and a pre-instruction Likert scale survey consisting of twenty questions relating to the nature of scientific evidence. An evaluation of these two documents resulted in a purposeful selection of four varied student participants, each of whom was interviewed three times throughout the semester about the nature of science, the nature of evidence, and the nature of forensic evidence. The same survey was administered to the participants again at the end of the semester-long course. This study examined students' assumptions, prior knowledge, their understanding of scientific inference, scientific theory, and methodology. Examination of the data found few differences with regard to how the criminal justice majors and the chemistry majors responded to interview questions about forensic evidence. There were qualitative differences, however, when the same participants answered interview questions relating to traditional scientific evidence. Furthermore, suggestions are

Examining student conceptions of the nature of science from two project-based classrooms

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Moss, David M.

The purpose of this research was to develop descriptive accounts of precollege students' conceptions of the nature of science from two project-based classrooms, and track those conceptions over the course of an academic year. A model of the nature of science was developed and served as the criterion by which students' beliefs were evaluated. The model distinguishes between two major categories of science, the nature of the scientific enterprise and the nature of scientific knowledge. Five students were selected from each class and interviewed individually for 30-45 minutes each, six times over the year. Data from semi-structured, formal interviewing consisted of audio-recorded interviews which were transcribed verbatim. All passages were coded using codes which corresponded to the premises of the model of the nature of science. Passages in the transcripts were interpreted to develop a summary of the students' conceptions over the year. Qualitative methodologies, especially formal interviewing in conjunction with participant observation, were effective for uncovering students' conceptions of the nature of science, adding to the knowledge base in this field. The research design of the current study was a significant factor in explaining the inconsistencies seen between findings from this study and the literature. This study finds that participants at both classroom sites held fully formed conceptions of the nature of science for approximately 40 percent of the premises across the model. For two-thirds of the elements which comprise the premises, participants held full understandings. Participants held more complete understandings of the nature of scientific knowledge than the nature of the scientific enterprise. Most participants had difficulty distinguishing between science and non-science and held poor understandings of the role of questions in science. Students' beliefs generally remained unchanged over the year. When their conceptions did evolve, project

Students’ Conception on Heat and Temperature toward Science Process Skill

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Ratnasari, D.; Sukarmin, S.; Suparmi, S.; Aminah, N. S.

2017-09-01

This research is aimed to analyze the effect of students’ conception toward science process skill. This is a descriptive research with subjects of the research were 10th-grade students in Surakarta from high, medium and low categorized school. The sample selection uses purposive sampling technique based on physics score in national examination four latest years. Data in this research collecting from essay test, two-tier multiple choice test, and interview. Two-tier multiple choice test consists of 30 question that contains an indicator of science process skill. Based on the result of the research and analysis, it shows that students’ conception of heat and temperature affect science process skill of students. The students’ conception that still contains the wrong concept can emerge misconception. For the future research, it is suggested to improve students’ conceptual understanding and students’ science process skill with appropriate learning method and assessment instrument because heat and temperature is one of physics material that closely related with students’ daily life.

Scientists' conceptions of scientific inquiry: Revealing a private side of science

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Reiff, Rebecca R.

Science educators, philosophers, and pre-service teachers have contributed to conceptualizing inquiry but missing from the inquiry forum is an in-depth research study concerning science faculty conceptions of scientific inquiry. The science education literature has tended to focus on certain aspects of doing, teaching, and understanding scientific inquiry without linking these concepts. As a result, conceptions of scientific inquiry have been disjointed and are seemingly unrelated. Furthermore, confusion surrounding the meaning of inquiry has been identified as a reason teachers are not using inquiry in instruction (Welch et al., 1981). Part of the confusion surrounding scientific inquiry is it has been defined differently depending on the context (Colburn, 2000; Lederman, 1998; Shymansky & Yore, 1980; Wilson & Koran, 1976). This lack of a common conception of scientific inquiry is the reason for the timely nature of this research. The result of scientific journeys is not to arrive at a stopping point or the final destination, but to refuel with questions to drive the pursuit of knowledge. A three-member research team conducted Interviews with science faculty members using a semi-structured interview protocol designed to probe the subject's conceptions of scientific inquiry. The participants represented a total of 52 science faculty members from nine science departments (anthropology, biology, chemistry, geology, geography, school of health, physical education and recreation (HPER), medical sciences, physics, and school of environmental science) at a large mid-western research university. The method of analysis used by the team was grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1990; Glaser & Strauss, 1967), in which case the frequency of concepts, patterns, and themes were coded to categorize scientists' conceptions of scientific inquiry. The results from this study address the following components: understanding and doing scientific inquiry, attributes of scientists engaged

[Conception of the history of science in the interpretation of Bogdan Suchodolski].

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Lietz, Natalia

2011-01-01

In the article is presented the conception of the history of science in the interpretation of Bogdan Suchodolski. Having described the conception of the history of science created by George Sarton (1884-1956), whose thought was influenced by positivistic philosophy of August Comte, the idea of the history of science of Johan Nordstr6m (1891-1967), who was inspired by the system of Wilhelm Dilthey, and the materialistic conception of the history of science, which was represented, among others, by John Desmond Bernal (1901-1971), the author is making an attempt at revealing to what extent Bogdan Suchodolski was inspired by the above-mentioned visions of the history of science. Having defined the history of science as the history of scientific activity of people and their consciousness formed by the activity, Bogdan Suchodolski applied in the field of his own conception of the history of science the ideas that were put forward by German thinkers and philosophers, and were connected with a way of understanding culture as the constant development of national awareness, which can be exemplified with different dimensions of culture. Undoubtedly, identifying the history of Polish science with constitutive element of the history of national culture and paying attention to the conceptions tending not only to explaining, but also understanding phenomena, B. Suchodolski was influenced by Alfred Vierkandt's and Wilhelm Dilthey's thought. The present article includes several reflections on the conception of the history of science, which was created by B. Suchodolski. Among others, we can find here detailed information on how B. Suchodolski understood: the history of science, its subject, aim and methodology; its status in modern social consciousness and as the history of truth; relations between history of science and theory of science and scientific policy, history of science and the problem of unity and diversity of scientific thinking, history of science and ideas, history of

Investigating Undergraduate Science Students’ Conceptions and Misconceptions of Ocean Acidification

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Danielson, Kathryn I.; Tanner, Kimberly D.

2015-01-01

Scientific research exploring ocean acidification has grown significantly in past decades. However, little science education research has investigated the extent to which undergraduate science students understand this topic. Of all undergraduate students, one might predict science students to be best able to understand ocean acidification. What conceptions and misconceptions of ocean acidification do these students hold? How does their awareness and knowledge compare across disciplines? Undergraduate biology, chemistry/biochemistry, and environmental studies students, and science faculty for comparison, were assessed on their awareness and understanding. Results revealed low awareness and understanding of ocean acidification among students compared with faculty. Compared with biology or chemistry/biochemistry students, more environmental studies students demonstrated awareness of ocean acidification and identified the key role of carbon dioxide. Novel misconceptions were also identified. These findings raise the question of whether undergraduate science students are prepared to navigate socioenvironmental issues such as ocean acidification. PMID:26163563

Toward using games to teach fundamental computer science concepts

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Edgington, Jeffrey Michael

Video and computer games have become an important area of study in the field of education. Games have been designed to teach mathematics, physics, raise social awareness, teach history and geography, and train soldiers in the military. Recent work has created computer games for teaching computer programming and understanding basic algorithms. We present an investigation where computer games are used to teach two fundamental computer science concepts: boolean expressions and recursion. The games are intended to teach the concepts and not how to implement them in a programming language. For this investigation, two computer games were created. One is designed to teach basic boolean expressions and operators and the other to teach fundamental concepts of recursion. We describe the design and implementation of both games. We evaluate the effectiveness of these games using before and after surveys. The surveys were designed to ascertain basic understanding, attitudes and beliefs regarding the concepts. The boolean game was evaluated with local high school students and students in a college level introductory computer science course. The recursion game was evaluated with students in a college level introductory computer science course. We present the analysis of the collected survey information for both games. This analysis shows a significant positive change in student attitude towards recursion and modest gains in student learning outcomes for both topics.

Understandings of Nature of Science and Multiple Perspective Evaluation of Science News by Non-science Majors

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Leung, Jessica Shuk Ching; Wong, Alice Siu Ling; Yung, Benny Hin Wai

2015-10-01

Understandings of nature of science (NOS) are a core component of scientific literacy, and a scientifically literate populace is expected to be able to critically evaluate science in the media. While evidence has remained inconclusive on whether better NOS understandings will lead to critical evaluation of science in the media, this study aimed at examining the correlation therein. Thirty-eight non-science majors, enrolled in a science course for non-specialists held in a local community college, evaluated three health news articles by rating the extent to which they agreed with the reported claims and providing as many justifications as possible. The majority of the participants were able to evaluate and justify their viewpoint from multiple perspectives. Students' evaluation was compared with their NOS conceptions, including the social and cultural embedded NOS, the tentative NOS, the peer review process and the community of practice. Results indicated that participants' understanding of the tentative NOS was significantly correlated with multiple perspective evaluation of science news reports of socioscientific nature (r = 0.434, p media of socioscientific nature. However, the null result for other target NOS aspects in this study suggested a lack of evidence to assume that understanding the social dimensions of science would have significant influence on the evaluation of science in the media. Future research on identifying the reasons for why and why not NOS understandings are applied in the evaluation will move this field forward.

Investigation of students’ intermediate conceptual understanding levels: the case of direct current electricity concepts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aktan, D Cobanoglu

2013-01-01

Conceptual understanding is one of the main topics in science and physics education research. In the majority of conceptual understanding studies, students’ understanding levels were categorized dichotomously, either as alternative or scientific understanding. Although they are invaluable in many ways, namely developing new instructional materials and assessment instruments, students’ alternative understandings alone are not sufficient to describe students’ conceptual understanding in detail. This paper introduces an example of a study in which a method was developed to assess and describe students’ conceptual understanding beyond alternative and scientific understanding levels. In this study, six undergraduate students’ conceptual understanding levels of direct current electricity concepts were assessed and described in detail by using their answers to qualitative problems. In order to do this, conceptual understanding indicators are described based on science and mathematics education literature. The students’ understanding levels were analysed by assertion analysis based on the conceptual understanding indicators. The results indicated that the participants demonstrated three intermediate understanding levels in addition to alternative and scientific understanding. This paper presents the method and its application to direct current electricity concepts. (paper)

Nanotechnology and the public: Effectively communicating nanoscale science and engineering concepts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Castellini, O. M.; Walejko, G. K.; Holladay, C. E.; Theim, T. J.; Zenner, G. M.; Crone, W. C.

2007-01-01

Researchers are faced with challenges when addressing the public on concepts and applications associated with nanotechnology. The goal of our work was to understand the public's knowledge of nanotechnology in order to identify appropriate starting points for dialog. Survey results showed that people lack true understanding of concepts associated with atoms and the size of the nanoscale regime. Such gaps in understanding lead to a disappointing lack of communication between researchers and the public concerning fundamental concepts in nanoscale science and engineering. Strategies are offered on how scientists should present their research when engaging the public on nanotechnology topics

Infusion of Climate Change and Geospatial Science Concepts into Environmental and Biological Science Curriculum

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Balaji Bhaskar, M. S.; Rosenzweig, J.; Shishodia, S.

2017-12-01

The objective of our activity is to improve the students understanding and interpretation of geospatial science and climate change concepts and its applications in the field of Environmental and Biological Sciences in the College of Science Engineering and Technology (COEST) at Texas Southern University (TSU) in Houston, TX. The courses of GIS for Environment, Ecology and Microbiology were selected for the curriculum infusion. A total of ten GIS hands-on lab modules, along with two NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) lab modules on climate change were implemented in the "GIS for Environment" course. GIS and Google Earth Labs along with climate change lectures were infused into Microbiology and Ecology courses. Critical thinking and empirical skills of the students were assessed in all the courses. The student learning outcomes of these courses includes the ability of students to interpret the geospatial maps and the student demonstration of knowledge of the basic principles and concepts of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and climate change. At the end of the courses, students developed a comprehensive understanding of the geospatial data, its applications in understanding climate change and its interpretation at the local and regional scales during multiple years.

Spatial abilities, Earth science conceptual understanding, and psychological gender of university non-science majors

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Black, Alice A. (Jill)

Research has shown the presence of many Earth science misconceptions and conceptual difficulties that may impede concept understanding, and has also identified a number of categories of spatial ability. Although spatial ability has been linked to high performance in science, some researchers believe it has been overlooked in traditional education. Evidence exists that spatial ability can be improved. This correlational study investigated the relationship among Earth science conceptual understanding, three types of spatial ability, and psychological gender, a self-classification that reflects socially-accepted personality and gender traits. A test of Earth science concept understanding, the Earth Science Concepts (ESC) test, was developed and field tested from 2001 to 2003 in 15 sections of university classes. Criterion validity was .60, significant at the .01 level. Spearman/Brown reliability was .74 and Kuder/Richardson reliability was .63. The Purdue Visualization of Rotations (PVOR) (mental rotation), the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) (spatial perception), the Differential Aptitude Test: Space Relations (DAT) (spatial visualization), and the Bem Inventory (BI) (psychological gender) were administered to 97 non-major university students enrolled in undergraduate science classes. Spearman correlations revealed moderately significant correlations at the .01 level between ESC scores and each of the three spatial ability test scores. Stepwise regression analysis indicated that PVOR scores were the best predictor of ESC scores, and showed that spatial ability scores accounted for 27% of the total variation in ESC scores. Spatial test scores were moderately or weakly correlated with each other. No significant correlations were found among BI scores and other test scores. Scantron difficulty analysis of ESC items produced difficulty ratings ranging from 33.04 to 96.43, indicating the percentage of students who answered incorrectly. Mean score on the ESC was 34

Seeding science success: Relations of secondary students' science self-concepts and motivation with aspirations and achievement

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Chandrasena, Wanasinghe Durayalage

identified barriers to promoting science in schools were: the difficulty of the subject matter, lack of student interest, the large amount of subject content, lack of perceived relevance of the subject matter to day-to-day life, ineffective teacher characteristics, lack of aspirations to pursue science as a career, inadequate teaching methods, lack of adequate teacher training, lack of proper policies to reward science teachers, and inadequate support for science from the media. Overall, the results from this study provide a greater understanding of the relations of secondary students' science self-concepts and motivation with aspirations and achievement in different science domains across gender and age levels. Hence, this research makes a valuable contribution to the literature by providing new insight. The findings will be useful for science educators in planning and developing science curriculum and policies with regard to student self-concepts and motivation. Equally, science teachers may find implications for classroom practices, for the planning and conducting of science lessons, for conveying scientific concepts and principles to students more effectively, and in considering the need to generate enthusiasm about the subject in young science students. Thus, the findings may offer the necessary strategies to assist in reducing the decline of students' enrolments in science through efficacious attention to student self-concepts and motivation. The newly developed instrument provides a new opportunity for future research to confidently interrogate the psychosocial issues central to science education and promotion. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.).

Grade Level Differences in High School Students' Conceptions of and Motives for Learning Science

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Wang, Ya-Ling; Tsai, Chin-Chung

2017-08-01

Students' conceptions of learning science and their relations with motive for learning may vary as the education level increases. This study aimed to compare the quantitative patterns in students' conceptions of learning science (COLS) and motives for learning science (MLS) across grade levels by adopting two survey instruments. A total of 768 high school students were surveyed in Taiwan, including 204 eighth graders, 262 tenth graders, and 302 12th graders. In the current research, memorizing, testing, and calculating and practicing were categorized as reproductive conceptions of learning science, while increase of knowledge, applying, understanding and seeing-in-a-new-way were regarded as constructivist conceptions. The results of multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) revealed that conceptions of learning science are more constructivist as education level increases. Both tenth graders and 12th graders endorsed understanding, seeing-in-a-new-way, and the constructivist COLS composite more strongly than the eighth graders did. In addition, the results of multigroup structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis indicated that the positive relations between testing and reproductive COLS were stronger as the grade level increased, while the negative relations between reproductive COLS and deep motive were tighter with the increase in grade level.

Kindergarten Students' Levels of Understanding Some Science Concepts and Scientific Inquiry Processes According to Demographic Variables (The Sampling of Kilis Province in Turkey)

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Ilhan, Nail; Tosun, Cemal

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study is to identify the kindergarten students' levels of understanding some science concepts (LUSSC) and scientific inquiry processes (SIP) and compare their LUSSC and SIP in terms of some demographic variables. Also, another purpose of this study is to identify the predictive power of those demographic variables over the…

The impact of whole-plant instruction of preservice teachers' understanding of plant science principles

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Hypolite, Christine Collins

The purpose of this research was to determine how an inquiry-based, whole-plant instructional strategy would affect preservice elementary teachers' understanding of plant science principles. This study probed: what preservice teachers know about plant biology concepts before and after instruction, their views of the interrelatedness of plant parts and the environment, how growing a plant affects preservice teachers' understanding, and which types of activity-rich plant themes studies, if any, affect preservice elementary teachers' understandings. The participants in the study were enrolled in two elementary science methods class sections at a state university. Each group was administered a preinstructional test at the beginning of the study. The treatment group participated in inquiry-based activities related to the Principles of Plant Biology (American Society of Plant Biologists, 2001), while the comparison group studied those same concepts through traditional instructional methods. A focus group was formed from the treatment group to participate in co-concept mapping sessions. The participants' understandings were assessed through artifacts from activities, a comparison of pre- and postinstructional tests, and the concept maps generated by the focus group. Results of the research indicated that the whole-plant, inquiry-based instructional strategy can be applied to teach preservice elementary teachers plant biology while modeling the human constructivist approach. The results further indicated that this approach enhanced their understanding of plant science content knowledge, as well as pedagogical knowledge. The results also showed that a whole-plant approach to teaching plant science concepts is an instructional strategy that is feasible for the elementary school. The theoretical framework for this study was Human Constructivist learning theory (Mintzes & Wandersee, 1998). The content knowledge and instructional strategy was informed by the Principles of Plant

The Problem of Understanding of Nature in Exact Science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leo Näpinen

2014-10-01

Full Text Available In this short inquiry I would like to defend the statement that exact science deals with the explanation of models, but not with the understanding (comprehending of nature. By the word ‘nature’ I mean nature as physis (as a self-moving and self-developing living organism to which humans also belong, not nature as natura naturata (as a nonevolving creature created by someone or something. The Estonian philosopher of science Rein Vihalemm (2008 has shown with his conception of phi-science (φ-science that exact science is itself an idealized model or theoretical object derived from Galilean mathematical physics.

Conceptual Blending Monitoring Students' Use of Metaphorical Concepts to Further the Learning of Science

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Fredriksson, Alexandra; Pelger, Susanne

2018-03-01

The aim of this study is to explore how tertiary science students' use of metaphors in their popular science article writing may influence their understanding of subject matter. For this purpose, six popular articles written by students in physics or geology were analysed by means of a close textual analysis and a metaphor analysis. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the students. The articles showed variation regarding the occurrence of active (non-conventional) metaphors, and metaphorical concepts, i.e. metaphors relating to a common theme. In addition, the interviews indicated that students using active metaphors and metaphorical concepts reflected more actively upon their use of metaphors. These students also discussed the possible relationship between subject understanding and creation of metaphors in terms of conceptual blending. The study suggests that students' process of creating metaphorical concepts could be described and visualised through integrated networks of conceptual blending. Altogether, the study argues for using conceptual blending as a tool for monitoring and encouraging the use of adequate metaphorical concepts, thereby facilitating students' opportunities of understanding and influencing the learning of science.

Conceptual Change in Understanding the Nature of Science Learning: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

DiBenedetto, Christina M.

This study is the first of its kind to explore the thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and values of secondary educators as they experience conceptual change in their understanding of the nature of science learning vis a vis the Framework for K-12 Science Education published by the National Research Council. The study takes aim at the existing gap between the vision for science learning as an active process of inquiry and current pedagogical practices in K-12 science classrooms. For students to understand and explain everyday science ideas and succeed in science studies and careers, the means by which they learn science must change. Focusing on this change, the study explores the significance of educator attitudes, beliefs and values to science learning through interpretive phenomenological analysis around the central question, "In what ways do educators understand and articulate attitudes and beliefs toward the nature of science learning?" The study further explores the questions, "How do educators experience changes in their understanding of the nature of science learning?" and "How do educators believe these changes influence their pedagogical practice?" Study findings converge on four conceptions that science learning: is the action of inquiry; is a visible process initiated by both teacher and learner; values student voice and changing conceptions is science learning. These findings have implications for the primacy of educator beliefs, attitudes and values in reform efforts, science teacher leadership and the explicit instruction of both Nature of Science and conceptual change in educator preparation programs. This study supports the understanding that the nature of science learning is cognitive and affective conceptual change. Keywords: conceptual change, educator attitudes and beliefs, framework for K-12 science education, interpretive phenomenological analysis, nature of science learning, next generation science standards, science professional development

Preservice Science Teachers’ Levels of Associating The Concept of Gas Pressure with Everyday Life

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Aybüke Pabuçcu

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Through this research, it was aimed to investigate how pre-service science teachers’ use their knowledge about the concept of gas pressure in explaining some examples from everyday life. The research was carried out with 33 freshmen pre-service science teachers. The data in the research were collected through five formative assessment probes. The students were asked to work in small groups to complete the questions. Groups’ discussions were recorded. Groups’ written responses were classified in five different categories: sound understanding, partial understanding, specific misconception, no understanding, and no response. Data under these categories were given as percentages in a table. The sum of students’ responses in sound understanding and partial understanding are in the range of 37.5% and 62.5%. Results revealed that students had difficulty in understanding the gases concepts and associating these concepts with everyday life events. Moreover, many misconceptions and misuse of the ideal gas equation were determined in the students’ explanations.

Supramolecular Pharmaceutical Sciences: A Novel Concept Combining Pharmaceutical Sciences and Supramolecular Chemistry with a Focus on Cyclodextrin-Based Supermolecules.

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Higashi, Taishi; Iohara, Daisuke; Motoyama, Keiichi; Arima, Hidetoshi

2018-01-01

Supramolecular chemistry is an extremely useful and important domain for understanding pharmaceutical sciences because various physiological reactions and drug activities are based on supramolecular chemistry. However, it is not a major domain in the pharmaceutical field. In this review, we propose a new concept in pharmaceutical sciences termed "supramolecular pharmaceutical sciences," which combines pharmaceutical sciences and supramolecular chemistry. This concept could be useful for developing new ideas, methods, hypotheses, strategies, materials, and mechanisms in pharmaceutical sciences. Herein, we focus on cyclodextrin (CyD)-based supermolecules, because CyDs have been used not only as pharmaceutical excipients or active pharmaceutical ingredients but also as components of supermolecules.

Promoting Creative Thinking and Expression of Science Concepts among Elementary Teacher Candidates through Science Content Movie Creation and Showcasing

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Hechter, Richard P.; Guy, Mark

2010-01-01

This article reports the phases of design and use of video editing technology as a medium for creatively expressing science content knowledge in an elementary science methods course. Teacher candidates communicated their understanding of standards-based core science concepts through the creation of original digital movies. The movies were assigned…

Connecting Knowledge Domains : An Approach to Concept Learning in Primary Science and Technology Education

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Koski, M.

2014-01-01

In order to understand our dependency on technology and the possible loss of control that comes with it, it is necessary for people to understand the nature of technology as well as its roots in science. Learning basic science and technology concepts should be a part of primary education since it

The InVEST Volcanic Concept Survey: Exploring Student Understanding about Volcanoes

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Parham, Thomas L., Jr.; Cervato, Cinzia; Gallus, William A., Jr.; Larsen, Michael; Hobbs, Jon; Stelling, Pete; Greenbowe, Thomas; Gupta, Tanya; Knox, John A.; Gill, Thomas E.

2010-01-01

Results from the Volcanic Concept Survey (VCS) indicated that many undergraduates do not fully understand volcanic systems and plate tectonics. During the 2006 academic year, a ten-item conceptual survey was distributed to undergraduate students enrolled in Earth science courses at five U.S. colleges and universities. A trained team of graders…

Deep Understanding of Electromagnetism Using Crosscutting Concepts

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De Poorter, John; De Lange, Jan; Devoldere, Lies; Van Landeghem, Jouri; Strubbe, Katrien

2017-01-01

Crosscutting concepts like patterns and models are fundamental parts in both the American framework of science education (from the AAAS) and our proposals for a new science education framework in Flanders. These concepts deepen the insight of both students and teachers. They help students to ask relevant questions during an inquiry and they give…

Results and Implications of a 12-Year Longitudinal Study of Science Concept Learning

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Novak, Joseph D.

2005-03-01

This paper describes the methods and outcomes of a 12-year longitudinal study into the effects of an early intervention program, while reflecting back on changes that have occurred in approaches to research, learning and instruction since the preliminary inception stages of the study in the mid 1960s. We began the study to challenge the prevailing consensus at the time that primary school children were either preoperational or concrete operational in their cognitive development and they could not learn abstract concepts. Our early research, based on Ausubelian theory, suggested otherwise. The paper describes the development and implementation of a Grade 1-2 audio tutorial science instructional sequence, and the subsequent tracing over 12 years, of the children's conceptual understandings in science compared to a matched control group. During the study the concept map was developed as a new tool to trace children's conceptual development. We found that students in the instruction group far outperformed their non-instructed counterparts, and this difference increased as they progressed through middle and high school. The data clearly support the earlier introduction of science instruction on basic science concepts, such as the particulate nature of matter, energy and energy transformations. The data suggest that national curriculum standards for science grossly underestimate the learning capabilities of primary-grade children. The study has helped to lay a foundation for guided instruction using computers and concept mapping that may help both teachers and students become more proficient in understanding science.

In-Service Elementary Teachers' Understanding of Magnetism Concepts before and after Non-Traditional Instruction

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Atwood, Ronald K.; Christopher, John E.; Combs, Rebecca K.; Roland, Elizabeth E.

2010-01-01

Magnetism is a topic frequently studied in elementary schools. Since magnetism is a popular topic and is included in national science education standards, it might be assumed that elementary teachers have a good understanding of this topic and that elementary students develop a good understanding of fundamental magnetism concepts. Unfortunately,…

Academic Self-Concept: Modeling and Measuring for Science

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Hardy, Graham

2014-08-01

In this study, the author developed a model to describe academic self-concept (ASC) in science and validated an instrument for its measurement. Unlike previous models of science ASC, which envisage science as a homogenous single global construct, this model took a multidimensional view by conceiving science self-concept as possessing distinctive facets including conceptual and procedural elements. In the first part of the study, data were collected from 1,483 students attending eight secondary schools in England, through the use of a newly devised Secondary Self-Concept Science Instrument, and structural equation modeling was employed to test and validate a model. In the second part of the study, the data were analysed within the new self-concept framework to examine learners' ASC profiles across the domains of science, with particular attention paid to age- and gender-related differences. The study found that the proposed science self-concept model exhibited robust measures of fit and construct validity, which were shown to be invariant across gender and age subgroups. The self-concept profiles were heterogeneous in nature with the component relating to self-concept in physics, being surprisingly positive in comparison to other aspects of science. This outcome is in stark contrast to data reported elsewhere and raises important issues about the nature of young learners' self-conceptions about science. The paper concludes with an analysis of the potential utility of the self-concept measurement instrument as a pedagogical device for science educators and learners of science.

Understanding Gravity: The Role of a School Visit to a Science Centre

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Lelliott, Anthony

2014-01-01

This paper examines the knowledge construction processes involved when grades 7 and 8 South African students learnt about the concept of gravity while visiting an astronomy-related science centre. The literature on students' understanding of gravity identifies a number of alternative conceptions prevalent, several of which are mirrored in this…

A systematic review of concept mapping-based formative assessment processes in primary and secondary science education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hartmeyer, Rikke; Stevenson, Matt P.; Bentsen, Peter

2017-01-01

assessment: firstly, concept mapping should be constructed in teaching, preferably on repeated occasions. Secondly, concept mapping should be carried out individually if personal understanding is to be elicited; however, collaborative concept mapping might foster discussions valuable for developing students......’ understanding and for activating them as instructional resources and owners of their own learning. Thirdly, low-directed mapping seems most suitable for formative assessment. Fourthly, technology-based or peer assessments are useful strategies likely to reduce the load of interpretation for the educator......In this paper, we present and discuss the results of a systematic review of concept mapping-based interventions in primary and secondary science education. We identified the following recommendations for science educators on how to successfully apply concept mapping as a method for formative...

Connecting Earth Systems: Developing Holistic Understanding through the Earth-System-Science Model

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Gagnon, Valoree; Bradway, Heather

2012-01-01

For many years, Earth science concepts have been taught as thematic units with lessons in nice, neat chapter packages complete with labs and notes. But compartmentalized Earth science no longer exists, and implementing teaching methods that support student development of holistic understandings can be a time-consuming and difficult task. While…

A study of understanding: Alchemy, abstraction, and circulating reference in tertiary science education

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Merritt, Brett W.

Understanding is widely touted to be of paramount importance for education. This is especially true in science education research and development where understanding is heralded as one of the cornerstones of reform. Teachers are expected to teach for understanding and students are expected to learn with understanding. This dissertation is an empirical study of the concept of understanding. After analyzing various constructions of understanding in current U.S. education literature, I suggest that understanding is defined by five distinct features---they are knowledge (or knowledge base), coherence, transfer, extrapolation, and cognition--- and that these features are heavily informed and shaped by the psychological sciences. This relationship is neither good nor bad, I argue, but it means that teaching for and learning with understanding are not heavily informed and shaped by, for example, the natural sciences. Drawing from historical, philosophical, and anthropological perspectives of science, but especially from the work of Bruno Latour, I enact a radical revision(ing) of psychological notions such as "abstraction" and "transfer." The two main purposes of this re-visioning are (1) to draw critical attention to particular characteristics of a cognitive learning theory that emphasizes abstract concepts, and (2) to align many of the principles and tools used in science education more closely with those used in empirical scientific research. Finally, by bringing some examples of teaching and learning from an undergraduate biology classroom into conversation with both psychological and empirical practices and perspectives, I suggest that problematizing the current construction of understanding creates much needed room in mainstream science education for more empirical forms of learning and styles of teaching. A shift to such forms and styles, I conclude, should prove to be more inclusive and less constraining for both students and teachers.

Guidance for Science Data Centers through Understanding Metrics

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Moses, J. F.

2006-12-01

NASA has built a multi-year set of transaction and user satisfaction information about the evolving, broad collection of earth science products from a diverse set of users of the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). The transaction and satisfaction trends provide corroborative information to support perception and intuition, and can often be the basis for understanding the results of cross-cutting initiatives and for management decisions about future strategies. The information is available through two fundamental complementary methods, product and user transaction data collected regularly from the major science data centers, and user satisfaction information collected through the American Customer Satisfaction Index survey. The combination provides the fundamental data needed to understand utilization trends in the research community. This paper will update trends based on 2006 metrics from the NASA earth science data centers and results from the 2006 EOSDIS ACSI survey. Principle concepts are explored that lead to sound guidance for data center managers and strategists over the next year.

A Cross-Age Study of Student Understanding of the Concept of Homeostasis.

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Westbrook, Susan L.; Marek, Edmund A.

1992-01-01

The conceptual views of homeostasis held by students (n=300) in seventh grade life science, tenth grade biology, and college zoology were examined. A biographical questionnaire, the results from two Piagetian-like developmental tasks, and a concept evaluation statement of homeostasis were collected from each student. Understanding of the concept…

Science + Maths = A Better Understanding of Science!

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Markwick, Andy; Clark, Kris

2016-01-01

Science and mathematics share a common purpose: to explore, understand and explain the pure beauty of our universe and how it works. Using mathematics in science enquiry can enhance children's understanding of science and also provide opportunities for children to apply their mathematical knowledge to "real" contexts. The authors…

An overview of conceptual understanding in science education curriculum in Indonesia

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Widiyatmoko, A.; Shimizu, K.

2018-03-01

The purpose of this article is to discuss the term of “conceptual understanding” in science education curriculum in Indonesia. The implementation of 2013 Curriculum focuses on the acquisition of contextual knowledge in respective areas and environments. The curriculum seeks to develop students' evaluation skills in three areas: attitude, technical skills, and scientific knowledge. It is based on two layers of competencies: core and basic competencies. The core competencies in the curriculum 2013 represent the ability level to achieve the gradute competency standards of a students at each grade level. There are four mandatory core competencies for all educational levels and all subjects including science, which are spiritual, social, knowledge and skills competencies. In terms of knowledge competencies, conceptual understanding is an inseparable part of science concept since conceptual understanding is one of the basic competencies in science learning. This competency is a part of science graduation standard indicated in MoEC article number 20 in 2016. Therefore, conceptual understanding is needed by students for learning science successfully.

Opportunities to Learn in School and at Home: How can they predict students' understanding of basic science concepts and principles?

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Su; Liu, Xiufeng; Zhao, Yandong

2012-09-01

As the breadth and depth of economic reforms increase in China, growing attention is being paid to equalities in opportunities to learn science by students of various backgrounds. In early 2009, the Chinese Ministry of Education and Ministry of Science and Technology jointly sponsored a national survey of urban eighth-grade students' science literacy along with their family and school backgrounds. The present study focused on students' understanding of basic science concepts and principles (BSCP), a subset of science literacy. The sample analyzed included 3,031 students from 109 randomly selected classes/schools. Correlation analysis, one-way analysis of variance, and two-level linear regression were conducted. The results showed that having a refrigerator, internet, more books, parents purchasing books and magazines related to school work, higher father's education level, and parents' higher expectation of the education level of their child significantly predicted higher BSCP scores; having siblings at home, owning an apartment, and frequently contacting teachers about the child significantly predicted lower BSCP scores. At the school level, the results showed that being in the first-tier or key schools, having school libraries, science popularization galleries, computer labs, adequate equipment for teaching, special budget for teacher training, special budget for science equipment, and mutual trust between teachers and students significantly predicated higher BSCP scores; and having science and technology rooms, offering science and technology interest clubs, special budget for science curriculum development, and special budget for science social practice activities significantly predicted lower BSCP scores. The implications of the above findings are discussed.

Science Outside the Lab: Helping Graduate Students in Science and Engineering Understand the Complexities of Science Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Bernstein, Michael J; Reifschneider, Kiera; Bennett, Ira; Wetmore, Jameson M

2017-06-01

Helping scientists and engineers challenge received assumptions about how science, engineering, and society relate is a critical cornerstone for macroethics education. Scientific and engineering research are frequently framed as first steps of a value-free linear model that inexorably leads to societal benefit. Social studies of science and assessments of scientific and engineering research speak to the need for a more critical approach to the noble intentions underlying these assumptions. "Science Outside the Lab" is a program designed to help early-career scientists and engineers understand the complexities of science and engineering policy. Assessment of the program entailed a pre-, post-, and 1 year follow up survey to gauge student perspectives on relationships between science and society, as well as a pre-post concept map exercise to elicit student conceptualizations of science policy. Students leave Science Outside the Lab with greater humility about the role of scientific expertise in science and engineering policy; greater skepticism toward linear notions of scientific advances benefiting society; a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the actors involved in shaping science policy; and a continued appreciation of the contributions of science and engineering to society. The study presents an efficacious program that helps scientists and engineers make inroads into macroethical debates, reframe the ways in which they think about values of science and engineering in society, and more thoughtfully engage with critical mediators of science and society relationships: policy makers and policy processes.

Elementary pre-service teachers' conceptual understanding of dissolving: a Vygotskian concept development perspective

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Harrell, Pamela; Subramaniam, Karthigeyan

2015-09-01

Background and purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate and identify the nature and the interrelatedness of pre-service teachers' misconceptions and scientific concepts for explaining dissolving before, during, and after a 5E learning cycle lesson on dissolving, the intervention. Sample, design, and methods: Guided by Vygotsky's theory of concept development, the study focused specifically on the spontaneous, and spontaneous pseudo-concepts held by the 61 elementary pre-service teachers during a 15-week science methods course. Data included concept maps, interview transcripts, written artifacts, drawings, and narratives, and were thematically analyzed to classify concepts and interrelatedness. Results: Results of the study showed that spontaneous pseudo-concepts (1) dominated pre-service teachers' understandings about dissolving throughout the study, and (2) were simply associated with scientific concepts during and after the intervention. Conclusion: Collectively, the results indicated that the pre-service teachers' did not acquire a unified system of knowledge about dissolving that could be characterized as abstract, generalizable, and hierarchical. Implications include the need for (1) familiarity with pre-service teachers' prior knowledge about science content; (2) a variety of formative assessments to assess their misconceptions; (3) emphasizing the importance of dialectical method for concept development during instruction; and (4) skillful content instructors.

Grade six students' understanding of the nature of science

Science.gov (United States)

Cochrane, Donald Brian

The goal of scientific literacy requires that students develop an understanding of the nature of science to assist them in the reasoned acquisition of science concepts and in their future role as citizens in a participatory democracy. The purpose of this study was to investigate and describe the range of positions that grade six students hold with respect to the nature of science and to investigate whether gender or prior science education was related to students' views of the nature of science. Two grade six classes participated in this study. One class was from a school involved in a long-term elementary science curriculum project. The science curriculum at this school involved constructivist epistemology and pedagogy and a realist ontology. The curriculum stressed hands-on, open-ended activities and the development of science process skills. Students were frequently involved in creating and testing explanations for physical phenomena. The second class was from a matched school that had a traditional science program. Results of the study indicated that students hold a wider range of views of the nature of science than previously documented. Student positions ranged from having almost no understanding of the nature of science to those expressing positions regarding the nature of science that were more developed than previous studies had documented. Despite the range of views documented, all subjects held realist views of scientific knowledge. Contrary to the literature, some students were able to evaluate a scientific theory in light of empirical evidence that they had generated. Results also indicated that students from the project school displayed more advanced views of the nature of science than their matched peers. However, not all students benefited equally from their experiences. No gender differences were found with respect to students' understanding of the nature of science.

Science Club--A Concept

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Wegner, Claas; Issak, Nicole; Tesch, Katharina; Zehne, Carolin

2016-01-01

The following article presents a concept of a science club which was developed by two master's students as a part of their thesis and which has been developed and improved ever since. The extra-curricular concept emphasises pupils' individuality through focusing on problem based leaning, station learning, and mixed age groups. Having joined the…

Innovative learning model for improving students’ argumentation skill and concept understanding on science

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Nafsiati Astuti, Rini

2018-04-01

Argumentation skill is the ability to compose and maintain arguments consisting of claims, supports for evidence, and strengthened-reasons. Argumentation is an important skill student needs to face the challenges of globalization in the 21st century. It is not an ability that can be developed by itself along with the physical development of human, but it must be developed under nerve like process, giving stimulus so as to require a person to be able to argue. Therefore, teachers should develop students’ skill of arguing in science learning in the classroom. The purpose of this study is to obtain an innovative learning model that are valid in terms of content and construct in improving the skills of argumentation and concept understanding of junior high school students. The assessment of content validity and construct validity was done through Focus Group Discussion (FGD), using the content and construct validation sheet, book model, learning video, and a set of learning aids for one meeting. Assessment results from 3 (three) experts showed that the learning model developed in the category was valid. The validity itself shows that the developed learning model has met the content requirement, the student needs, state of the art, strong theoretical and empirical foundation and construct validity, which has a connection of syntax stages and components of learning model so that it can be applied in the classroom activities

Science teacher’s idea about environmental concepts in science learning as the first step of science teacher training

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Tapilouw, M. C.; Firman, H.; Redjeki, S.; Chandra, D. T.

2018-05-01

To refresh natural environmental concepts in science, science teacher have to attend a teacher training. In teacher training, all participant can have a good sharing and discussion with other science teacher. This study is the first step of science teacher training program held by education foundation in Bandung and attended by 20 science teacher from 18 Junior High School. The major aim of this study is gathering science teacher’s idea of environmental concepts. The core of questions used in this study are basic competencies linked with environmental concepts, environmental concepts that difficult to explain, the action to overcome difficulties and references in teaching environmental concepts. There are four major findings in this study. First finding, most environmental concepts are taught in 7th grade. Second finding, most difficult environmental concepts are found in 7th grade. Third finding, there are five actions to overcome difficulties. Fourth finding, science teacher use at least four references in mastering environmental concepts. After all, teacher training can be a solution to reduce difficulties in teaching environmental concepts.

Science and Reconnaissance from the Europa Clipper Mission Concept: Exploring Europa's Habitability

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Pappalardo, Robert; Senske, David; Prockter, Louise; Paczkowski, Brian; Vance, Steve; Goldstein, Barry; Magner, Thomas; Cooke, Brian

2015-04-01

Europa is recognized by the Planetary Science De-cadal Survey as a prime candidate to search for a pre-sent-day habitable environment in our solar system. As such, NASA has pursued a series of studies, facilitated by a Europa Science Definition Team (SDT), to define a strategy to best advance our scientific understanding of this icy world with the science goal: Explore Europa to investigate its habitability. (In June of 2014, the SDT completed its task of identifying the overarching science objectives and investigations.) Working in concert with a technical team, a set of mission archi-tectures were evaluated to determine the best way to achieve the SDT defined science objectives. The fa-vored architecture would consist of a spacecraft in Ju-piter orbit making many close flybys of Europa, con-centrating on remote sensing to explore the moon. In-novative mission design would use gravitational per-turbations of the spacecraft trajectory to permit flybys at a wide variety of latitudes and longitudes, enabling globally distributed regional coverage of Europa's sur-face, with nominally 45 close flybys, typically at alti-tudes from 25 to 100 km. This concept has become known as the Europa Clipper. The Europa SDT recommended three science ob-jectives for the Europa Clipper: Ice Shell and Ocean: Characterize the ice shell and any subsurface water, including their heterogeneity, ocean properties, and the nature of surface-ice-ocean exchange; Composition: Understand the habitability of Europa's ocean through composition and chemistry; and Geology: Understand the formation of surface features, including sites of recent or current activity, and characterize high science interest localities. The Europa SDT also considered implications of the Hubble Space Telescope detection of possible plumes at Europa. To feed forward to potential subsequent future ex-ploration that could be enabled by a lander, it was deemed that the Europa Clipper mission concept should provide the

Explorers of the Universe: Metacognitive Tools for Learning Science Concepts

Science.gov (United States)

Alvarez, Marino C.

1998-01-01

Much of school learning consists of rote memorization of facts with little emphasis on meaningful interpretations. Knowledge construction is reduced to factual knowledge production with little regard for critical thinking, problem solving, or clarifying misconceptions. An important role of a middle and secondary teacher when teaching science is to aid students' ability to reflect upon what they know about a given topic and make available strategies that will enhance their understanding of text and science experiments. Developing metacognition, the ability to monitor one's own knowledge about a topic of study and to activate appropriate strategies, enhances students' learning when faced with reading, writing and problem solving situations. Two instructional strategies that can involve students in developing metacognitive awareness are hierarchical concept mapping, and Vee diagrams. Concept maps enable students to organize their ideas and reveal visually these ideas to others. A Vee diagram is a structured visual means of relating the methodological aspects of an activity to its underlying conceptual aspect in ways that aid learners in meaningful understanding of scientific investigations.

Understanding environmental contributions to autism: Causal concepts and the state of science.

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Hertz-Picciotto, Irva; Schmidt, Rebecca J; Krakowiak, Paula

2018-04-01

The complexity of neurodevelopment, the rapidity of early neurogenesis, and over 100 years of research identifying environmental influences on neurodevelopment serve as backdrop to understanding factors that influence risk and severity of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This Keynote Lecture, delivered at the May 2016 annual meeting of the International Society for Autism Research, describes concepts of causation, outlines the trajectory of research on nongenetic factors beginning in the 1960s, and briefly reviews the current state of this science. Causal concepts are introduced, including root causes; pitfalls in interpreting time trends as clues to etiologic factors; susceptible time windows for exposure; and implications of a multi-factorial model of ASD. An historical background presents early research into the origins of ASD. The epidemiologic literature from the last fifteen years is briefly but critically reviewed for potential roles of, for example, air pollution, pesticides, plastics, prenatal vitamins, lifestyle and family factors, and maternal obstetric and metabolic conditions during her pregnancy. Three examples from the case-control CHildhood Autism Risks from Genes and the Environment Study are probed to illustrate methodological approaches to central challenges in observational studies: capturing environmental exposure; causal inference when a randomized controlled clinical trial is either unethical or infeasible; and the integration of genetic, epigenetic, and environmental influences on development. We conclude with reflections on future directions, including exposomics, new technologies, the microbiome, gene-by-environment interaction in the era of -omics, and epigenetics as the interface of those two. As the environment is malleable, this research advances the goal of a productive and fulfilling life for all children, teen-agers and adults. Autism Res 2018, 11: 554-586. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Applied data-centric social sciences concepts, data, computation, and theory

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Sato, Aki-Hiro

2014-01-01

Applied data-centric social sciences aim to develop both methodology and practical applications of various fields of social sciences and businesses with rich data. Specifically, in the social sciences, a vast amount of data on human activities may be useful for understanding collective human nature. In this book, the author introduces several mathematical techniques for handling a huge volume of data and analysing collective human behaviour. The book is constructed from data-oriented investigation, with mathematical methods and expressions used for dealing with data for several specific problems. The fundamental philosophy underlying the book is that both mathematical and physical concepts are determined by the purposes of data analysis. This philosophy is shown throughout exemplar studies of several fields in socio-economic systems. From a data-centric point of view, the author proposes a concept that may change people’s minds and cause them to start thinking from the basis of data. Several goals underlie ...

Understanding Science: Frameworks for using stories to facilitate systems thinking

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ElShafie, S. J.; Bean, J. R.

2017-12-01

Studies indicate that using a narrative structure for teaching and learning helps audiences to process and recall new information. Stories also help audiences retain specific information, such as character names or plot points, in the context of a broader narrative. Stories can therefore facilitate high-context systems learning in addition to low-context declarative learning. Here we incorporate a framework for science storytelling, which we use in communication workshops, with the Understanding Science framework developed by the UC Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) to explore the application of storytelling to systems thinking. We translate portions of the Understanding Science flowchart into narrative terms. Placed side by side, the two charts illustrate the parallels between the scientific process and the story development process. They offer a roadmap for developing stories about scientific studies and concepts. We also created a series of worksheets for use with the flowcharts. These new tools can generate stories from any perspective, including a scientist conducting a study; a character that plays a role in a larger system (e.g., foraminifera or a carbon atom); an entire system that interacts with other systems (e.g., the carbon cycle). We will discuss exemplar stories about climate change from each of these perspectives, which we are developing for workshops using content and storyboard models from the new UCMP website Understanding Global Change. This conceptual framework and toolkit will help instructors to develop stories about scientific concepts for use in a classroom setting. It will also help students to analyze stories presented in class, and to create their own stories about new concepts. This approach facilitates student metacognition of the learning process, and can also be used as a form of evaluation. We are testing this flowchart and its use in systems teaching with focus groups, in preparation for use in teacher professional development workshops.

Ausubel's understanding of concept development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Janković Aleksandar P.

2015-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents one of relatively new cognitivistic learning and cognition theories - the theory by American psychologist David Ausubel. We consider this theory to be very usable for teaching beginners or for cognition process. It is of utmost importance that first or elementary concepts concerning natural and social phenomena a pupil aquires need to be accurate, understandable and properly connected in a cause-effect sequence of conceptual systems so that items of knowledge aquired can be stable and usable. For correct understanding of Ausubel's claims concerning processes and procedures involved in the acquisition of elementary concepts, which is central to this investigation, it is necessary to address problems and questions concerning the following: the process of aquisition or construction of first concepts; how to base verbal learning; how is subsuming achieved, that is connecting of new and previously acquired concepts; what is the relation of this theory with other cognitivistic theories of learning, and, finally, what are critical views or evalutions which can make this theory truly productive in relation to teaching.

Minority Preservice Teachers' Conceptions of Teaching Science: Sources of Science Teaching Strategies

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Subramaniam, Karthigeyan

2013-01-01

This study explores five minority preservice teachers' conceptions of teaching science and identifies the sources of their strategies for helping students learn science. Perspectives from the literature on conceptions of teaching science and on the role constructs used to describe and distinguish minority preservice teachers from their mainstream…

Academic Self-Concept: Modeling and Measuring for Science

Science.gov (United States)

Hardy, Graham

2014-01-01

In this study, the author developed a model to describe academic self-concept (ASC) in science and validated an instrument for its measurement. Unlike previous models of science ASC, which envisage science as a homogenous single global construct, this model took a multidimensional view by conceiving science self-concept as possessing distinctive…

Early Science Education: Exploring Familiar Contexts To Improve the Understanding of Some Basic Scientific Concepts.

Science.gov (United States)

Martins, Isabel P.; Veiga, Luisa

2001-01-01

Argues that science education is a fundamental tool for global education and that it must be introduced in early years as a first step to a scientific culture for all. Describes testing validity of a didactic strategy for developing the learning of concepts, which was based upon an experimental work approach using everyday life contexts. (Author)

Integrating Felting in Elementary Science Classrooms to Facilitate Understanding of the Polar Auroras

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brandy Terrill

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS emphasize conceptual science instruction that draws on students’ ability to make observations, explain natural phenomena, and examine concept relationships. This paper explores integrating the arts, in the form of felting, in elementary science classrooms as a way for students to model and demonstrate understanding of the complex scientific processes that cause the polar auroras. The steps for creating felting, and using the felting artwork students create for assessing science learning, are described.

The development and validation of a two-tiered multiple-choice instrument to identify alternative conceptions in earth science

Science.gov (United States)

Mangione, Katherine Anna

This study was to determine reliability and validity for a two-tiered, multiple- choice instrument designed to identify alternative conceptions in earth science. Additionally, this study sought to identify alternative conceptions in earth science held by preservice teachers, to investigate relationships between self-reported confidence scores and understanding of earth science concepts, and to describe relationships between content knowledge and alternative conceptions and planning instruction in the science classroom. Eighty-seven preservice teachers enrolled in the MAT program participated in this study. Sixty-eight participants were female, twelve were male, and seven chose not to answer. Forty-seven participants were in the elementary certification program, five were in the middle school certification program, and twenty-nine were pursuing secondary certification. Results indicate that the two-tiered, multiple-choice format can be a reliable and valid method for identifying alternative conceptions. Preservice teachers in all certification areas who participated in this study may possess common alternative conceptions previously identified in the literature. Alternative conceptions included: all rivers flow north to south, the shadow of the Earth covers the Moon causing lunar phases, the Sun is always directly overhead at noon, weather can be predicted by animal coverings, and seasons are caused by the Earth's proximity to the Sun. Statistical analyses indicated differences, however not all of them significant, among all subgroups according to gender and certification area. Generally males outperformed females and preservice teachers pursuing middle school certification had higher scores on the questionnaire followed by those obtaining secondary certification. Elementary preservice teachers scored the lowest. Additionally, self-reported scores of confidence in one's answers and understanding of the earth science concept in question were analyzed. There was a

Evaluation of Students' Energy Conception in Environmental Science

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Park, Mihwa; Johnson, Joseph A.

2016-01-01

While significant research has been conducted on students' conceptions of energy, alternative conceptions of energy have not been actively explored in the area of environmental science. The purpose of this study is to examine students' alternative conceptions in the environmental science discipline through the analysis of responses of first year…

Kindergarten students’ levels of understanding some science concepts and scientific inquiry processes according to demographic variables (the sampling of Kilis Province in Turkey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nail İlhan

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to identify the kindergarten students’ levels of understanding some science concepts (LUSSC and scientific inquiry processes (SIP and compare their LUSSC and SIP in terms of some demographic variables. Also, another purpose of this study is to identify the predictive power of those demographic variables over the kindergarten students’ LUSSC and SIP. This study was conducted according to quantitative research design. The study group consisted of 335 kindergarten students from 20 different rural and urban schools. In the study, the scale for “Turkish Kindergarten Students’ Understandings of Scientific Concepts and Scientific Inquiry Processes” was used. According to some variables (such as mother’s education level and family structure, there was a statistically significant difference between students’ mean scores for LUSSC and between students’ mean scores for SIP. Within the scope of this study, it was found that among the predictor variables (age, family’s income level, and number of brother/sister were significant predictors for LUSSC, and number of brother/sister was a significant predictor for SIP.

Computer Science Concept Inventories: Past and Future

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Taylor, C.; Zingaro, D.; Porter, L.; Webb, K. C.; Lee, C. B.; Clancy, M.

2014-01-01

Concept Inventories (CIs) are assessments designed to measure student learning of core concepts. CIs have become well known for their major impact on pedagogical techniques in other sciences, especially physics. Presently, there are no widely used, validated CIs for computer science. However, considerable groundwork has been performed in the form…

Influence of subject matter discipline and science content knowledge on National Board Certified science teachers' conceptions, enactment, and goals for inquiry

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Breslyn, Wayne Gene

The present study investigated differences in the continuing development of National Board Certified Science Teachers' (NBCSTs) conceptions of inquiry across the disciplines of biology, chemistry, earth science, and physics. The central research question of the study was, "How does a NBCST's science discipline (biology, chemistry, earth science, or physics) influence their conceptions, enactment, and goals for inquiry-based teaching and learning?" A mixed methods approach was used that included an analysis of the National Board portfolio entry, Active Scientific Inquiry, for participants (n=48) achieving certification in the 2007 cohort. The portfolio entry provided detailed documentation of teachers' goals and enactment of an inquiry lesson taught in their classroom. Based on the results from portfolio analysis, participant interviews were conducted with science teachers (n=12) from the 2008 NBCST cohort who represented the science disciplines of biology, chemistry, earth science, and physics. The interviews provided a broader range of contexts to explore teachers' conceptions, enactment, and goals of inquiry. Other factors studied were disciplinary differences in NBCSTs' views of the nature of science, the relation between their science content knowledge and use of inquiry, and changes in their conceptions of inquiry as result of the NB certification process. Findings, based on a situated cognitive framework, suggested that differences exist between biology, chemistry, and earth science teachers' conceptions, enactment, and goals for inquiry. Further, individuals teaching in more than one discipline often held different conceptions of inquiry depending on the discipline in which they were teaching. Implications for the research community include being aware of disciplinary differences in studies on inquiry and exercising caution in generalizing findings across disciplines. In addition, teachers who teach in more than one discipline can highlight the contextual

The self-concept of chiropractic students as science students

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Shields, Robert F.

2005-01-01

Abstract Purpose To determine the self-concepts of chiropractic students as science students and if any personal variable affect their self-concepts. Participants Students in their first trimester and eighth trimester at the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic during the 1993 academic year (n=158). Methods Peterson-Yaakobi Q-Sort, National Assessment of Educational Progress, two-tailed T-test, one way analysis of variance and Spearman-rho correlation. Results The majority of students have positive self- concepts as science students and although there was a difference between the 2 trimesters, it was not significant. As a group they generally had less exposure to science compared to undergraduates from a selected science program. Variables of socio-economic status, undergraduate major, and highest completed level of education did not statistically affect their self-concept. Conclusion Chiropractic students had the self-concept that enables them to subscribe to the philosophical foundations of science and better engage in basic sciences and, later, science-based clinical research. Knowledge of this self- concept can be used in the development of a more rigorous basic science curricula and clinical research programs at chiropractic colleges with the ultimate goal of providing a more firm scientifically based foundation for the profession. PMID:19674649

Promoting Climate Literacy and Conceptual Understanding among In-service Secondary Science Teachers requires an Epistemological Perspective

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Bhattacharya, D.; Forbes, C.; Roehrig, G.; Chandler, M. A.

2017-12-01

Promoting climate literacy among in-service science teachers necessitates an understanding of fundamental concepts about the Earth's climate System (USGCRP, 2009). Very few teachers report having any formal instruction in climate science (Plutzer et al., 2016), therefore, rather simple conceptions of climate systems and their variability exist, which has implications for students' science learning (Francies et al., 1993; Libarkin, 2005; Rebich, 2005). This study uses the inferences from a NASA Innovations in Climate Education (NICE) teacher professional development program (CYCLES) to establish the necessity for developing an epistemological perspective among teachers. In CYCLES, 19 middle and high school (male=8, female=11) teachers were assessed for their understanding of global climate change (GCC). A qualitative analysis of their concept maps and an alignment of their conceptions with the Essential Principles of Climate Literacy (NOAA, 2009) demonstrated that participants emphasized on EPCL 1, 3, 6, 7 focusing on the Earth system, atmospheric, social and ecological impacts of GCC. However, EPCL 4 (variability in climate) and 5 (data-based observations and modeling) were least represented and emphasized upon. Thus, participants' descriptions about global climatic patterns were often factual rather than incorporating causation (why the temperatures are increasing) and/or correlation (describing what other factors might influence global temperatures). Therefore, engaging with epistemic dimensions of climate science to understand the processes, tools, and norms through which climate scientists study the Earth's climate system (Huxter et al., 2013) is critical for developing an in-depth conceptual understanding of climate. CLiMES (Climate Modeling and Epistemology of Science), a NSF initiative proposes to use EzGCM (EzGlobal Climate Model) to engage students and teachers in designing and running simulations, performing data processing activities, and analyzing

Instructional games: Scientific language use, concept understanding, and attitudinal development of middle school learners

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Mongillo, Geraldine

The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover the influence of instructional games on middle school learners' use of scientific language, concept understanding, and attitude toward learning science. The rationale for this study stemmed from the lack of research concerning the value of play as an instructional strategy for older learners. Specifically, the study focused on the ways in which 6 average ability 7th grade students demonstrated scientific language and concept use during gameplay. The data were collected for this 6-week study in a southern New Jersey suburban middle school and included audio recordings of the 5 games observed in class, written documents (e.g., student created game questions, self-evaluation forms, pre- and post-assessments, and the final quiz) interviews, and researcher field notes. Data were coded and interpreted borrowing from the framework for scientific literacy developed by Bybee (1997). Based on the findings, the framework was modified to reflect the level of scientific understanding demonstrated by the participants and categorized as: Unacquainted, Nominal, Functional, and Conceptual. Major findings suggested that the participants predominantly achieved the Functional level of scientific literacy (i.e., the ability to adequately and appropriately use scientific language in both written and oral discourse) during games. Further, it was discovered that the participants achieved the Conceptual level of scientific literacy during gameplay. Through games participants were afforded the opportunity to use common, everyday language to explore concepts, promoted through peer collaboration. In games the participants used common language to build understandings that exceeded Nominal or token use of the technical vocabulary and concepts. Additionally, the participants reported through interviews and self-evaluation forms that their attitude (patterns included: Motivation, Interest, Fun, Relief from Boredom, and an Alternate Learning

Understanding understanding in secondary school science: An interpretive study

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O'Neill, Maureen Gail

This study investigated the teaching of secondary school science with an emphasis on promoting student understanding. In particular, I focused on two research questions: What are the possible meanings of teaching for understanding? And, how might one teach secondary school science for understanding? After semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 secondary school science teachers, grounded theory methodology was used to interpret the data. As a result of the selective coding process, I was able to identify 14 connected components of teaching for understanding (TfU). The process of TfU involves: puzzle-solving, a specific pedagogy and a conscious decision. The teacher must be a reflective practitioner who has some knowledge of the facets of understanding. The teacher comes to a critical incident or crisis in his or her pedagogy and adopts a mindset which highlights TfU as a personal problematic. Teachers operate with student-centred rather than teacher-centred metaphors. TfU requires a firm belief in and passion for the process, a positive attitude and excellent pedagogical content knowledge. It hinges on a performance view of understanding and demands risk-taking in the science classroom. Abstracting these ideas to a theory led me to the notion of Purposive Teaching . In their purposive-driven role as pedagogues, these teachers have placed TfU at the core of their daily practice. Constraints and challenges facing TfU as well as implications of the findings are discussed. Keywords. science teaching, teaching for understanding, purposive teaching, constructivism, understanding, pedagogy, pedagogical content knowledge, memorization, meaningful learning, reflective practice.

Do Elementary Science Methods Textbooks Promote Understanding of Shadows?

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Lloyd H. Barrow

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Elementary science methods textbooks can be an important resource for future elementary teachers of science. Since shadows are a common topic in elementary school and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013. A series of ten shadows concepts were formed into a learning progression by Wizman and Fortus (2007. For this research, ten science methods textbook were read and analyzed about how each of the shadow concepts were addressed. These methods textbooks focused on a limited number of shadow concepts. Consequently, as a future reference, they are very limited in addressing all ten shadow concepts.

Biological Principles and Threshold Concepts for Understanding Natural Selection. Implications for Developing Visualizations as a Pedagogic Tool

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Tibell, Lena A. E.; Harms, Ute

2017-11-01

Modern evolutionary theory is both a central theory and an integrative framework of the life sciences. This is reflected in the common references to evolution in modern science education curricula and contexts. In fact, evolution is a core idea that is supposed to support biology learning by facilitating the organization of relevant knowledge. In addition, evolution can function as a pivotal link between concepts and highlight similarities in the complexity of biological concepts. However, empirical studies in many countries have for decades identified deficiencies in students' scientific understanding of evolution mainly focusing on natural selection. Clearly, there are major obstacles to learning natural selection, and we argue that to overcome them, it is essential to address explicitly the general abstract concepts that underlie the biological processes, e.g., randomness or probability. Hence, we propose a two-dimensional framework for analyzing and structuring teaching of natural selection. The first—purely biological—dimension embraces the three main principles variation, heredity, and selection structured in nine key concepts that form the core idea of natural selection. The second dimension encompasses four so-called thresholds, i.e., general abstract and/or non-perceptual concepts: randomness, probability, spatial scales, and temporal scales. We claim that both of these dimensions must be continuously considered, in tandem, when teaching evolution in order to allow development of a meaningful understanding of the process. Further, we suggest that making the thresholds tangible with the aid of appropriate kinds of visualizations will facilitate grasping of the threshold concepts, and thus, help learners to overcome the difficulties in understanding the central theory of life.

What conceptions of science communication are espoused by science research funding bodies?

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Palmer, Sarah E; Schibeci, Renato A

2014-07-01

We examine the conceptions of science communication, especially in relation to "public engagement with science" (PES), evident in the literature and websites of science research funding bodies in Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Oceania, and Africa. The analysis uses a fourfold classification of science communication to situate these conceptions: professional, deficit, consultative and deliberative. We find that all bodies engage in professional communication (within the research community); however, engagement with the broader community is variable. Deficit (information dissemination) models still prevail but there is evidence of movement towards more deliberative, participatory models.

Teaching science for conceptual change: Toward a proposed taxonomy of diagnostic teaching strategies to gauge students' personal science conceptions

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Shope, Richard Edwin, III

Science instruction aims to ensure that students properly construct scientific knowledge so that each individual may play a role as a science literate citizen or as part of the science workforce (National Research Council, 1996, 2000). Students enter the classroom with a wide range of personal conceptions regarding science phenomena, often at variance with prevailing scientific views (Duschl, Hamilton, & Grandy, 1992; Hewson, 1992). The extensive misconceptions research literature emphasizes the importance of diagnosing students' initial understandings in order to gauge the accuracy and depth of what each student knows prior to instruction and then to use that information to adapt the teaching to address student needs. (Ausubel, 1968; Carey, 2000; Driver et al., 1985; Karplus & Thier, 1967; Mintzes, Wandersee, & Novak, 1998; Osborne & Freyberg, 1985; Project 2061, 1993; Strike & Posner, 1982, 1992; Vygotsky, 1934/1987). To gain such insight, teachers diagnose not only the content of the students' personal conceptions but also the thinking processes that produced them (Strike and Posner, 1992). Indeed, when teachers design opportunities for students to express their understanding, there is strong evidence that such diagnostic assessment also enhances science teaching and learning (Black & William, 1998). The functional knowledge of effective science teaching practice resides in the professional practitioners at the front lines---the science teachers in the classroom. Nevertheless, how teachers actually engage in the practice of diagnosis is not well documented. To help fill this gap, the researcher conducted a study of 16 sixth grade science classrooms in four Los Angeles area middle schools. Diagnostic teaching strategies were observed in action and then followed up by interviews with each teacher. Results showed that teachers use strategies that vary by the complexity of active student involvement, including pretests, strategic questions, interactive discussion

How Role Play Addresses the Difficulties Students Perceive when Writing Reflectively about the Concepts They are Learning in Science

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Millar, Susan

A fundamental problem which confronts Science teachers is the difficulty many students experience in the construction, understanding and remembering of concepts. This is more likely to occur when teachers adhere to a Transmission model of teaching and learning, and fail to provide students with opportunities to construct their own learning. Social construction, followed by individual reflective writing, enables students to construct their own understanding of concepts and effectively promotes deep learning. This method of constructing knowledge in the classroom is often overlooked by teachers as they either have no knowledge of it, or do not know how to appropriate it for successful teaching in Science. This study identifies the difficulties which students often experience when writing reflectively and offers solutions which are likely to reduce these difficulties. These solutions, and the use of reflective writing itself, challenge the ideology of the Sydney Genre School, which forms the basis of the attempt to deal with literacy in the NSW Science Syllabus. The findings of this investigation support the concept of literacy as the ability to use oral and written language, reading and listening to construct meaning. The investigation demonstrates how structured discussion, role play and reflective writing can be used to this end. While the Sydney Genre School methodology focuses on the structure of genre as a prerequisite for understanding concepts in Science, the findings of this study demonstrate that students can use their own words to discuss and write reflectively as they construct scientific concepts for themselves. Social construction and reflective writing can contribute to the construction of concepts and the development of metacognition in Science. However, students often experience difficulties when writing reflectively about scientific concepts they are learning. In this investigation, students identified these difficulties as an inability to understand

Science, Technology and Innovation: Concepts, Theory and Policy

OpenAIRE

Zehra Taşkın; Güleda Doğan

2016-01-01

This study is a review of the book entitled “Science, Technology and Innovation: Concepts, Theory and Policy”. In the converging world, the book is an important contribution not only for the field of economy, but also information science which includes information-economy concepts.

Improving students’ understanding of mathematical concept using maple

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Ningsih, Y. L.; Paradesa, R.

2018-01-01

This study aimed to improve students’ understanding of mathematical concept ability through implementation of using Maple in learning and expository learning. This study used a quasi-experimental research with pretest-posttest control group design. The sample on this study was 61 students in the second semester of Mathematics Education of Universitas PGRI Palembang, South Sumatera in academic year 2016/2017. The sample was divided into two classes, one class as the experiment class who using Maple in learning and the other class as a control class who received expository learning. Data were collective through the test of mathematical initial ability and mathematical concept understanding ability. Data were analyzed by t-test and two ways ANOVA. The results of this study showed (1) the improvement of students’ mathematical concept understanding ability who using Maple in learning is better than those who using expository learning; (2) there is no interaction between learning model and students’ mathematical initial ability toward the improvement of students’ understanding of mathematical concept ability.

A conceptual change analysis of nature of science conceptions: The deep roots and entangled vines of a conceptual ecology

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Johnston, Adam Thomas

This research used theories of conceptual change to analyze learners' understandings of the nature of science (NOS). Ideas regarding the NOS have been advocated as vital aspects of science literacy, yet learners at many levels (students and teachers) have difficulty in understanding these aspects in the way that science literacy reforms advocate. Although previous research has shown the inadequacies in learners' NOS understandings and have documented ways by which to improve some of these understandings, little has been done to show how these ideas develop and why learners' preexisting conceptions of NOS are so resistant to conceptual change. The premise of this study, then, was to describe the nature of NOS conceptions and of the conceptual change process itself by deeply analyzing the conceptions of individual learners. Toward this end, 4 individuals enrolled in a physical science course designed for preservice elementary teachers were selected to participate in a qualitative research study. These individuals answered questionnaires, surveys, direct interview questions, and a variety of interview probes (e.g., critical incidents, responses to readings/videos, reflections on coursework, card sorting tasks, etc.) which were administered throughout the duration of a semester. By utilizing these in-depth, qualitative probes, learners' conceptions were not only assessed but also described in great detail, revealing the source of their conceptions as well as identifying many instances in which a learner's directly stated conception was contradictory to that which was reflected by more indirect probes. As a result of this research, implications regarding NOS conceptions and their development have been described. In addition, various descriptions of conceptual change have been further refined and informed. Especially notable, the influence of a learner's conceptual ecology and its extrarational influences on conceptual change have been highlighted. It is argued that

Understanding pressure: didactical transpositions and pupils' conceptions

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Kariotogloy, P.; Psillos, D.; Vallassiades, O.

1990-03-01

Using the concept of pressure two research trends-content analysis and pupils' conceptions of subject matter-are drawn together, in an attempt to understand the issues in teaching and learning specific domains of physics.

Origins Space Telescope: Science Case and Design Reference Mission for Concept 1

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Meixner, Margaret; Cooray, Asantha; Pope, Alexandra; Armus, Lee; Vieira, Joaquin Daniel; Milam, Stefanie N.; Melnick, Gary; Leisawitz, David; Staguhn, Johannes G.; Bergin, Edwin; Origins Space Telescope Science and Technology Definition Team

2018-01-01

The Origins Space Telescope (OST) is the mission concept for the Far-Infrared Surveyor, one of the four science and technology definition studies of NASA Headquarters for the 2020 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal survey. The science case for OST covers four themes: Tracing the Signature of Life and the Ingredients of Habitable Worlds; Charting the Rise of Metals, Dust and the First Galaxies, Unraveling the Co-evolution of Black Holes and Galaxies and Understanding Our Solar System in the Context of Planetary System Formation. Using a set of proposed observing programs from the community, we estimate a design reference mission for OST mission concept 1. The mission will complete significant programs in these four themes and have time for other programs from the community. Origins will enable flagship-quality general observing programs led by the astronomical community in the 2030s. We welcome you to contact the Science and Technology Definition Team (STDT) with your science needs and ideas by emailing us at ost_info@lists.ipac.caltech.edu.

Concepts of matter in science education

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Sevian, Hannah

2013-01-01

Bringing together a wide collection of ideas, reviews, analyses and new research on particulate and structural concepts of matter, Concepts of Matter in Science Education informs practice from pre-school through graduate school learning and teaching and aims to inspire progress in science education. The expert contributors offer a range of reviews and critical analyses of related literature and in-depth analysis of specific issues, as well as new research. Among the themes covered are learning progressions for teaching a particle model of matter, the mental models of both students and teachers of the particulate nature of matter, educational technology, chemical reactions and chemical phenomena, chemical structure and bonding, quantum chemistry and the history and philosophy of science relating to the particulate nature of matter. The book will benefit a wide audience including classroom practitioners and student teachers at every educational level, teacher educators and researchers in science education.

Amplification of the concept of erroneous meaning in psychodynamic science and in the consulting room.

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Brookes, Crittenden E

2007-01-01

Previous papers dealt with the concept of psyche as that dynamic field which underlies the subjective experience of mind. A new paradigm, psychodynamic science, was suggested for dealing with subjective data. The venue of the psychotherapeutic consulting room is now brought directly into science, expanding the definition of psychotherapy to include both humanistic and scientific elements. Certain concepts were introduced to amplify this new scientific model, including psyche as hypothetical construct, the concept of meaning as replacement for operational validation in scientific investigation, the synonymity of meaning and insight, and the concept of synchronicity, together with the meaning-connected affect of numinosity. The presence of unhealthy anxiety as the conservative ego attempts to preserve its integrity requires a deeper look at the concept of meaning. This leads to a distinction between meaning and erroneous meaning. The main body of this paper amplifies that distinction, and introduces the concept of intolerance of ambiguity in the understanding of erroneous meanings and their connection with human neurosis.

Towards Building Science Teachers’ Understandings of Contemporary Science Practices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Greg Lancaster

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Faculties of Education and Science at Monash University have designed a Masters unit to assist pre-service and in-service science teachers in exploring the practices of contemporary science and examine how varied understandings can influence science communication. Teachers are encouraged to explore their current understandings of the Nature of Science (NoS and to contrast their views with those known to be widely held by society (Cobern & Loving, 1998. Teachers are challenged to provide insights into their thinking relating to the NoS. In order to build understandings of contemporary science practice each teacher shadows a research scientist and engages them in conversations intended to explore the scientists’ views of NoS and practice. Findings suggest that teachers were initially uncomfortable with the challenge to express ideas relating to their NoS and were also surprised how diverse the views of NoS can be among teachers, scientists and their peers, and that these views can directly impact ways of communicating contemporary science practice.

A Chinese young adult non-scientist's epistemologies and her understandings of the concept of speed

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Cao, Ying; Brizuela, Barbara M.

2015-08-01

Past research has investigated students' epistemologies while they were taking courses that required an integrated understanding of mathematical and scientific concepts. However, past studies have not investigated students who are not currently enrolled in such classes. Additionally, past studies have primarily focused on individuals who are native English speakers from Western cultures. In this paper, we aim to investigate whether Hammer and his colleagues' claims concerning learners' epistemologies could be extended to individuals who lack advanced mathematics and science training, have had different cultural and learning experiences, and have grown up speaking and learning in another language. To this end, we interviewed a participant with these characteristics about her understandings of the concept of speed. Our findings show that previous theoretical frameworks can be used to explain the epistemologies of the individual examined in this study. The case suggests that these theories may be relevant regardless of the learner's mathematics and science background, language, educational experience, and cultural background. In the future, more cases should be examined with learners from different academic backgrounds and cultures to further support this finding.

The effects of three concept mapping strategies on seventh-grade students' science achievement at an urban middle school

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Dosanjh, Navdeep Kaur

2011-12-01

There is great concern over students' poor science achievement in the United States. Due to the lack of science achievement, students are not pursing science related careers resulting in an increase in outsourcing to other countries. Learning strategies such as concept mapping may ameliorate this situation by providing students with tools that encourage meaningful learning. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to measure the effects of three concept mapping learning strategies (concept identifying, proposition identifying, student generated) on urban middle school students' understanding of the circulatory system. Three intact classes of seventh-grade students were assigned to one of the three concept mapping strategies. The students were given a pretest on the circulatory system then learned and used their respective concept mapping strategies while learning about the circulatory system. At the conclusion of the study, students' science achievement was measured by performance on an achievement test and rubric scores of their respective concept identifying, proposition identifying, and student generated concept maps. The results of the study suggest that all three of the concept mapping strategies are effective in increasing students' science achievement. Additionally, the moderate significant correlations between the posttest and concept map scores of the current study established that concept maps are a useful measure of student knowledge. Lastly, the results of the current study also suggest that the concept identifying mapping strategy may be a useful scaffold in instructing students how to develop student generated concept maps.

Basic concepts in social sciences I

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hoede, C.

2000-01-01

In this paper the results are given of an investigation into concepts from Economics, Organization Theory, Political Science, Psychology and Sociology. The goal of this investigation was to find out whether there is a set of concepts that may be considered to be basic to all these five social

The comparative effect of individually-generated vs. collaboratively-generated computer-based concept mapping on science concept learning

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Kwon, So Young

Using a quasi-experimental design, the researcher investigated the comparative effects of individually-generated and collaboratively-generated computer-based concept mapping on middle school science concept learning. Qualitative data were analyzed to explain quantitative findings. One hundred sixty-one students (74 boys and 87 girls) in eight, seventh grade science classes at a middle school in Southeast Texas completed the entire study. Using prior science performance scores to assure equivalence of student achievement across groups, the researcher assigned the teacher's classes to one of the three experimental groups. The independent variable, group, consisted of three levels: 40 students in a control group, 59 students trained to individually generate concept maps on computers, and 62 students trained to collaboratively generate concept maps on computers. The dependent variables were science concept learning as demonstrated by comprehension test scores, and quality of concept maps created by students in experimental groups as demonstrated by rubric scores. Students in the experimental groups received concept mapping training and used their newly acquired concept mapping skills to individually or collaboratively construct computer-based concept maps during study time. The control group, the individually-generated concept mapping group, and the collaboratively-generated concept mapping group had equivalent learning experiences for 50 minutes during five days, excepting that students in a control group worked independently without concept mapping activities, students in the individual group worked individually to construct concept maps, and students in the collaborative group worked collaboratively to construct concept maps during their study time. Both collaboratively and individually generated computer-based concept mapping had a positive effect on seventh grade middle school science concept learning but neither strategy was more effective than the other. However

Social Situation of Development: Parents Perspectives on Infants-Toddlers' Concept Formation in Science

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Sikder, Shukla

2015-01-01

The social situation of development (SSD) specific to each age determines regularly the whole picture of the child's life. Therefore, we need to learn about the whole context surrounding children relevant to their development. The focus of the study is to understand parent's views on infant-toddler's science concept formation in the family…

Conceptualizing In-service Secondary School Science Teachers' Knowledge Base for Promoting Understanding about the Science of Global Climate Change

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Bhattacharya, Devarati

Efforts to adapt and mitigate the effects of global climate change (GCC) have been ongoing for the past two decades and have become a major global concern. However, research and practice for promoting climate literacy and understanding about GCC have only recently become a national priority. The National Research Council (NRC), has recently emphasized upon the importance of developing learners' capacity of reasoning, their argumentation skills and understanding of GCC (Framework for K-12 Science Education, National Research Council, 2012). This framework focuses on fostering conceptual clarity about GCC to promote innovation, resilience, and readiness in students as a response towards the threat of a changing environment. Previous research about teacher understanding of GCC describes that in spite of the prevalent frameworks like the AAAS Science Literacy Atlas (AAAS, 2007) and the Essential Principles for Climate Literacy (United States Global Climate Research Program, 2009; Bardsley, 2007), most learners are challenged in understanding the science of GCC (Michail et al., 2007) and misinformed perceptions about basic climate science content and the role of human activities in changing climate remain persistent (Reibich and Gautier, 2006). Our teacher participants had a rather simplistic knowledge structure. While aware of climate change, teacher participants lacked in depth understanding of how change in climate can impact various ecosystems on the Earth. Furthermore, they felt overwhelmed with the extensive amount of information needed to comprehend the complexity in GCC. Hence, extensive efforts not only focused on assessing conceptual understanding of GCC but also for teaching complex science topics like GCC are essential. This dissertation explains concept mapping, and the photo elicitation method for assessing teachers' understanding of GCC and the use of metacognitive scaffolding in instruction of GCC for developing competence of learners in this complex

A Functional Conceptualization of Understanding Science in the News

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Megan M.

The idea that the public should have the capacity for understanding science in the news has been embraced by scientists, educators, and policymakers alike. An oft-cited goal of contemporary science education, in fact, is to enhance students' understanding of science in the news. But what exactly does it mean to understand science in the news? Surprisingly few have asked this question, or considered the significance of its answer. This dissertation steps away from issues of science teaching and learning to examine the nature of understanding science in the news itself. My work consolidates past scholarship from the multiple fields concerned with the relationship between science and society to produce a theoretical model of understanding science in the news as a complex, multidimensional process that involves an understanding of science as well as journalism. This thesis begins by exploring the relationship between the understanding implicit in understanding science in the news and understanding science. Many assume these two ways of knowing are one in the same. To rebut this assumption, I examine the types of knowledge necessary for understanding science and understanding science in the news. I then use the literature devoted to scientific literacy to show how past research has imagined the knowledge necessary to understand science in the news. Next, I argue that one of the principle difficulties with these conceptualizations is that they define science in the news in essentially the same terms as science. They also, I suggest, oversimplify how and why public interacts with science in the news. This dissertation concludes with a proposal for one way we might think about understanding science in the news on its own terms rather than those of understanding science. This dissertation attempts to connect two fields of research that rarely intersect, despite their multiple common interests: science education and mass communication. It considers the notion of

Piloting a Geoscience Literacy Exam for Assessing Students' Understanding of Earth, Climate, Atmospheric and Ocean Science Concepts

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Steer, D. N.; Iverson, E. A.; Manduca, C. A.

2013-12-01

This research seeks to develop valid and reliable questions that faculty can use to assess geoscience literacy across the curriculum. We are particularly interested on effects of curricula developed to teach Earth, Climate, Atmospheric, and Ocean Science concepts in the context of societal issues across the disciplines. This effort is part of the InTeGrate project designed to create a population of college graduates who are poised to use geoscience knowledge in developing solutions to current and future environmental and resource challenges. Details concerning the project are found at http://serc.carleton.edu/integrate/index.html. The Geoscience Literacy Exam (GLE) under development presently includes 90 questions. Each big idea from each literacy document can be probed using one or more of three independent questions: 1) a single answer, multiple choice question aimed at basic understanding or application of key concepts, 2) a multiple correct answer, multiple choice question targeting the analyzing to analysis levels and 3) a short essay question that tests analysis or evaluation cognitive levels. We anticipate multiple-choice scores and the detail and sophistication of essay responses will increase as students engage with the curriculum. As part of the field testing of InTeGrate curricula, faculty collected student responses from classes that involved over 700 students. These responses included eight pre- and post-test multiple-choice questions that covered various concepts across the four literacies. Discrimination indices calculated from the data suggest that the eight tested questions provide a valid measure of literacy within the scope of the concepts covered. Student normalized gains across an academic term with limited InTeGrate exposure (typically two or fewer weeks of InTeGrate curriculum out of 14 weeks) were found to average 16% gain. A small set of control data (250 students in classes from one institution where no InTeGrate curricula were used) was

Elucidating elementary science teachers' conceptions of the nature of science: A view to beliefs about both science and teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Keske, Kristina Palmer

requirement for understanding the scientific enterprise. This study also offered support for the elucidation of teachers' conceptions of the nature of science through in-depth conversations rather than convergent types of assessment. Data analysis of participant responses to isolated aspects of the nature of science yielded incomplete or inconsistent pictures of how the participants saw science. A more consistent picture of science emerged as the participants' beliefs about science and knowledge construction merged. This study proposed that all science teachers need to address their beliefs about knowledge construction across contexts.

Texas Science Teacher Characteristics and Conceptual Understanding of Newton's Laws of Motion

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Busby, Karin Burk

Misconceptions of Newtonian mechanics and other physical science concepts are well documented in primary and pre-service teacher populations (Burgoon, Heddle, & Duran, 2009; Allen & Coole, 2012; Kruger, Summers, & Palacio, 1990; Ginns & Watters, 1995; Trumper, 1999; Asikainen & Hirovonen, 2014). These misconceptions match the misconceptions held by students, leaving teachers ill-equipped to rectify these concepts in the classroom (Kind, 2014; Kruger et al., 1990; Cochran & Jones, 1998). Little research has been devoted to misconceptions held by in-service secondary teachers, the population responsible for teaching Newtonian mechanics. This study focuses on Texas in-service science teachers in middle school and high school science, specifically sixth grade science, seventh grade science, eighth grade science, integrated physics and chemistry, and physics teachers. This study utilizes two instruments to gauge conceptual understanding of Newton's laws of motion: the Force Concept Inventory [FCI] (Hestenes, Wells, & Swackhamer, 1992) and a custom instrument developed for the Texas Regional Collaboratives for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching (Urquhart, M., e-mail, April 4, 2017). Use of each instrument had its strengths and limitations. In the initial work of this study, the FCI was given to middle and high school teacher volunteers in two urban school districts in the Dallas- Fort Worth area to assess current conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics. Along with the FCI, each participant was asked to complete a demographic survey. Demographic data collected included participant's sex, years of service in teaching position, current teaching position, degrees, certification type, and current certifications for science education. Correlations between variables and overall average on the FCI were determined by t-tests and ANOVA tests with a post-hoc Holm-Bonferroni correction test. Test questions pertaining to each of Newton's three laws of motion were

Assessing middle school students` understanding of science relationships and processes: Year 2 - instrument validation. Final report

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Schau, C.; Mattern, N.; Weber, R.; Minnick, K.

1997-01-01

Our overall purpose for this multi-year project was to develop an alternative assessment format measuring rural middle school students understanding of science concepts and processes and the interrelationships among them. This kind of understanding is called structural knowledge. We had 3 major interrelated goals: (1) Synthesize the existing literature and critically evaluate the actual and potential use of measures of structural knowledge in science education. (2) Develop a structural knowledge alternative assessment format. (3) Examine the validity of our structural knowledge format. We accomplished the first two goals during year 1. The structural knowledge assessment we identified and developed further was a select-and-fill-in concept map format. The goal for our year 2 work was to begin to validate this assessment approach. This final report summarizes our year 2 work.

The Nature of Science in Science Curricula: Methods and Concepts of Analysis

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Ferreira, Sílvia; Morais, Ana M.

2013-01-01

The article shows methods and concepts of analysis of the nature of science in science curricula through an exemplary study made in Portugal. The study analyses the extent to which the message transmitted by the Natural Science curriculum for Portuguese middle school considers the nature of science. It is epistemologically and sociologically…

Using Concept Maps in Political Science

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Chamberlain, Robert P.

2015-01-01

Concept mapping is a pedagogical technique that was developed in the 1970s and is being used in K-12 and postsecondary education. Although it has shown excellent results in other fields, it is still rare in political science. In this research note, I discuss the implementation and testing of concept mapping in my Advanced Introduction to…

An Empirical Study of Relationships between Student Self-Concept and Science Achievement in Hong Kong

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Wang, Jianjun; Oliver, Steve; Garcia, Augustine

2004-01-01

Positive self-concept and good understanding of science are important indicators of scientific literacy endorsed by professional organizations. The existing research literature suggests that these two indicators are reciprocally related and mutually reinforcing. Generalization of the reciprocal model demands empirical studies in different…

An analysis of the concept of teaching in elementary school science education

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Seatter, Carol Eunice Scarff

The problem for this thesis arises directly from several years of observation of science classrooms in British Columbia. The troubling phenomenon seen within numerous classrooms, taught by teachers claiming to be constructivist teachers, involved teachers fostering the idea that children can think about science in terms of their own ideas, that is, that children can think about science in common-sense terms. In the many cases I have observed, teachers justify this practice on the grounds of constructivist theory. However, this kind of "constructivist teaching" does not, in my opinion, lead to scientific reasoning. My argument begins with the premise that the development of scientific reasoning in children is necessary for science education. I will argue that the currently popular "constructivist" movement has significant potential to fail in producing scientific reasoning in children, as did its predecessor, the "discovery learning" movement of the 1960s. The incommensurable differences between scientific and common-sense reasoning are presented and discussed. This thesis examines constructivist theory in terms of its potential to hinder the development of scientific reasoning in children. Two features of the constructivist writings are examined: those which pertain to the nature of science, and those relating to the concept of teaching. A chapter on the logic of scientific inquiry is central to the thesis, as it describes and explains the concepts, forms of explanation and truth criteria unique to the discipline of science. The epistemological foundations of science education are discussed in terms of the realist/instrumentalist debate. The thesis argues in favor of a sophisticated realist view of knowledge, such as those offered by Hacking and Matthews who take into account Hanson's "theory-laden" observation without falling prey to a naive realist view. Reasoning in science is compared with children's common-sense reasoning in an attempt to further understand

Critical Phenomena in Natural Sciences Chaos, Fractals, Selforganization and Disorder: Concepts and Tools

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Sornette, Didier

2006-01-01

Concepts, methods and techniques of statistical physics in the study of correlated, as well as uncorrelated, phenomena are being applied ever increasingly in the natural sciences, biology and economics in an attempt to understand and model the large variability and risks of phenomena. This is the first textbook written by a well-known expert that provides a modern up-to-date introduction for workers outside statistical physics. The emphasis of the book is on a clear understanding of concepts and methods, while it also provides the tools that can be of immediate use in applications. Although this book evolved out of a course for graduate students, it will be of great interest to researchers and engineers, as well as to post-docs in geophysics and meteorology.

Chronotope Disruption as a Sensitizing Concept for Understanding Chronic Illness Narratives

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

Objectives: This article aims to elaborate chronotope disruption —a changed relation to time and space— as a sensitizing concept for understanding chronic illness narratives. Methods: Sixteen men and 16 women with Type 2 diabetes were purposefully sampled. Each was interviewed about his or her experience of diabetes self-management using the biographical-narrative interview method. Transcripts were inspected for key moments defined as emotionally laden stories relevant to the purpose of the research. We present dialogically inflected discursive analysis of exemplar extracts. Results: The analysis demonstrates how the concept of chronotope disruption helps identify, and understand, important aspects of patients’ chronic illness narratives. First, we investigate how medical advice can conflict with embodied experience and how progressive bodily deterioration can provoke a reevaluation of past illness (self-mis)management. Second, the increasing temporal and spatial intrusion of chronic illness into participants’ lives is examined. Finally, we focus on the masquerade of health as an attempt to manage, hide, or deny that one is physically challenged. Conclusions: Chronotope disruption offers a useful sensitizing concept for approaching chronic illness narratives and around which to organize analytical insights and to develop practice. Chronotope analysis fills an important gap in the science through compensating current health sciences’ focus on rationality, cognition, and prospective time (prediction) with a patient-oriented focus on emotionality, embodiment, and retrospective time (nostalgia). Chronotope disruption could be used to develop practice by gaining empathic understanding of patients’ life-worlds and provides a tool to examine how new technologies change the way in which the chronically ill have “being” in the world. PMID:25197985

Addressing Pre-Service Teachers' Understandings and Difficulties with Some Core Concepts in the Special Theory of Relativity

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Selcuk, Gamze Sezgin

2011-01-01

The aim of this study is to investigate pre-service teachers' understanding of and difficulties with some core concepts in the special theory of relativity. The pre-service teachers (n = 185) from the Departments of Physics Education and Elementary Science Education at Dokuz Eylul University (in Turkey) participated. Both quantitative and…

Implementation of basic chemistry experiment based on metacognition to increase problem-solving and build concept understanding

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Zuhaida, A.

2018-04-01

Implementation of the experiment have the three aspects of the goal: 1) develop basic skills of experimenting; 2) develop problem-solving skills with a scientific approach; 3) improve understanding of the subject matter. On the implementation of the experiment, students have some weaknesses include: observing, identifying problems, managing information, analyzing, and evaluating. This weakness is included in the metacognition indicator.The objective of the research is to implementation of Basic Chemistry Experiment based on metacognition to increase problem-solving skills and build concept understanding for students of Science Education Department. The method of this research is a quasi- experimental method with pretest-posttest control group design. Problem-solving skills are measured through performance assessments using rubrics from problem solving reports, and results presentation. The conceptual mastery is measured through a description test. The result of the research: (1) improve the problem solving skills of the students with very high category; (2) increase the students’ concept understanding better than the conventional experiment with the result of N-gain in medium category, and (3) increase student's response positively for learning implementation. The contribution of this research is to extend the implementation of practical learning for some subjects, and to improve the students' competence in science.

Development of preservice elementary teachers' science self- efficacy beliefs and its relation to science conceptual understanding

Science.gov (United States)

Menon, Deepika

Self-efficacy beliefs that relate to teachers' motivation and performance have been an important area of concern for preservice teacher education. This study used a mixed-methods approach to investigate the changes in preservice elementary teachers' science self-efficacy beliefs and the factors associated in a specialized elementary physics content course. In addition, the study is one of few to investigate the relationship between the changes in science self-efficacy beliefs and changes in physical science conceptual understanding. Participants included fifty-one preservice elementary teachers enrolled in two term of the physical science content course. Data collection and analysis procedures included both qualitative and quantitative measures. Data collection included implementation of Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument-B (STEBI-B) (Bleicher, 2004) and Physical Science Concept Test as pre- and post-test, two semi-structured interviews with 18 participants (nine each semester), classroom observations and artifacts. A pre-post, repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) design was used to test the significance of differences between the pre- and post-surveys across time. Results indicated statistically significant gains in participants' science self-efficacy beliefs on both scales of STEBI-B - personal science teaching beliefs and outcome expectancy beliefs. Additionally, a positive moderate relationship between science conceptual understandings and personal science teaching efficacy beliefs was found. Post-hoc analysis of the STEBI-B data was used to select 18 participants for interviews. The participants belonged to each group representing the low, medium and high initial levels of self-efficacy beliefs. Participants' responses indicated positive shifts in their science teacher self-image and confidence to teach science in future. Four categories that represented the course-related factors contributing towards science self

A Description Logic Based Knowledge Representation Model for Concept Understanding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Badie, Farshad

2017-01-01

This research employs Description Logics in order to focus on logical description and analysis of the phenomenon of ‘concept understanding’. The article will deal with a formal-semantic model for figuring out the underlying logical assumptions of ‘concept understanding’ in knowledge representation...... systems. In other words, it attempts to describe a theoretical model for concept understanding and to reflect the phenomenon of ‘concept understanding’ in terminological knowledge representation systems. Finally, it will design an ontology that schemes the structure of concept understanding based...

Implications of the Integration of Computing Methodologies into Conventional Marketing Research upon the Quality of Students' Understanding of the Concept

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Ayman, Umut; Serim, Mehmet Cenk

2004-01-01

It has been an ongoing concern among academicians teaching social sciences to develop a better methodology to ease understanding of students. Since verbal emphasis is at the core of the concepts within such disciplines it has been observed that the adequate or desired level of conceptual understanding of the students to transforms the theories…

The Conceptions of Learning Science by Laboratory among University Science-Major Students: Qualitative and Quantitative Analyses

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Chiu, Yu-Li; Lin, Tzung-Jin; Tsai, Chin-Chung

2016-01-01

Background: The sophistication of students' conceptions of science learning has been found to be positively related to their approaches to and outcomes for science learning. Little research has been conducted to particularly investigate students' conceptions of science learning by laboratory. Purpose: The purpose of this research, consisting of…

Analysis of chemical concepts as the basic of virtual laboratory development and process science skills in solubility and solubility product subject

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Syafrina, R.; Rohman, I.; Yuliani, G.

2018-05-01

This study aims to analyze the concept characteristics of solubility and solubility products that will serve as the basis for the development of virtual laboratory and students' science process skills. Characteristics of the analyzed concepts include concept definitions, concept attributes, and types of concepts. The concept analysis method uses concept analysis according to Herron. The results of the concept analysis show that there are twelve chemical concepts that become the prerequisite concept before studying the solubility and solubility and five core concepts that students must understand in the solubility and Solubility product. As many as 58.3% of the definitions of the concepts contained in high school textbooks support students' science process skills, the rest of the definition of the concept is memorized. Concept attributes that meet three levels of chemical representation and can be poured into a virtual laboratory have a percentage of 66.6%. Type of concept, 83.3% is a concept based on principle; and 16.6% concepts that state the process. Meanwhile, the science process skills that can be developed based on concept analysis are the ability to observe, calculate, measure, predict, interpret, hypothesize, apply, classify, and inference.

Students' Conceptions of the Nature of Science: Perspectives from Canadian and Korean Middle School Students

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Park, Hyeran; Nielsen, Wendy; Woodruff, Earl

2014-05-01

This study examined and compared students' understanding of nature of science (NOS) with 521 Grade 8 Canadian and Korean students using a mixed methods approach. The concepts of NOS were measured using a survey that had both quantitative and qualitative elements. Descriptive statistics and one-way multivariate analysis of variances examined the quantitative data while a conceptually clustered matrix classified the open-ended responses. The country effect could explain 3-12 % of the variances of subjectivity, empirical testability and diverse methods, but it was not significant for the concepts of tentativeness and socio-cultural embeddedness of science. The open-ended responses showed that students believed scientific theories change due to errors or discoveries. Students regarded empirical evidence as undeniable and objective although they acknowledged experiments depend on theories or scientists' knowledge. The open responses revealed that national situations and curriculum content affected their views. For our future democratic citizens to gain scientific literacy, science curricula should include currently acknowledged NOS concepts and should be situated within societal and cultural perspectives.

Examining the Conceptual Understandings of Geoscience Concepts of Students with Visual Impairments: Implications of 3-D Printing

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Koehler, Karen E.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the use of 3-D printed models as an instructional tool in a middle school science classroom for students with visual impairments and compare their use to traditional tactile graphics for aiding conceptual understanding of geoscience concepts. Specifically, this study examined if the students' conceptual understanding of plate tectonics was different when 3-D printed objects were used versus traditional tactile graphics and explored the misconceptions held by students with visual impairments related to plate tectonics and associated geoscience concepts. Interview data was collected one week prior to instruction and one week after instruction and throughout the 3-week instructional period and additional ata sources included student journals, other student documents and audio taped instructional sessions. All students in the middle school classroom received instruction on plate tectonics using the same inquiry-based curriculum but during different time periods of the day. One group of students, the 3D group, had access to 3-D printed models illustrating specific geoscience concepts and the group of students, the TG group, had access to tactile graphics illustrating the same geoscience concepts. The videotaped pre and post interviews were transcribed, analyzed and coded for conceptual understanding using constant comparative analysis and to uncover student misconceptions. All student responses to the interview questions were categorized in terms of conceptual understanding. Analysis of student journals and classroom talk served to uncover student mental models and misconceptions about plate tectonics and associated geoscience concepts to measure conceptual understanding. A slight majority of the conceptual understanding before instruction was categorized as no understanding or alternative understanding and after instruction the larger majority of conceptual understanding was categorized as scientific or scientific

The Affordable Care Act: a case study for understanding and applying complexity concepts to health care reform.

Science.gov (United States)

Larkin, D Justin; Swanson, R Chad; Fuller, Spencer; Cortese, Denis A

2016-02-01

The current health system in the United States is the result of a history of patchwork policy decisions and cultural assumptions that have led to persistent contradictions in practice, gaps in coverage, unsustainable costs, and inconsistent outcomes. In working toward a more efficient health system, understanding and applying complexity science concepts will allow for policy that better promotes desired outcomes and minimizes the effects of unintended consequences. This paper will consider three applied complexity science concepts in the context of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA): developing a shared vision around reimbursement for value, creating an environment for emergence through simple rules, and embracing transformational leadership at all levels. Transforming the US health system, or any other health system, will be neither easy nor quick. Applying complexity concepts to health reform efforts, however, will facilitate long-term change in all levels, leading to health systems that are more effective, efficient, and equitable. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Effect of the Conceptual Change Oriented Instruction through Cooperative Learning on 4th Grade Students' Understanding of Earth and Sky Concepts

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Celikten, Oksan; Ipekcioglu, Sevgi; Ertepinar, Hamide; Geban, Omer

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of the conceptual change oriented instruction through cooperative learning (CCICL) and traditional science instruction (TI) on 4th grade students' understanding of earth and sky concepts and their attitudes toward earth and sky concepts. In this study, 56 fourth grade students from the…

The Concept of Ideology in Analysis of Fundamental Questions in Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Säther, Jostein

The use of the concept of `ideology' in interpretation of science education curricula, textbooks and various practises is reviewed, and examples are given by referring to Norwegian curricula and textbooks. The term is proposed to be used in a broad sense about any kind of action-oriented theory based on a system of ideas, or any attempt to approach politics in the light of a system of ideas. Politics in this context is about shaping of education, and is related to forces (i.e., hypothetical impacts of idea systems) which may legitimise, change, or criticise social practices. The focus is (although not in every case) on the hidden, unconscious and critical aspects. The notion ideological aspects is proposed to be related to metaphysical-ontological, epistemological and axiological claims and connotations. Examples of educational issues concerning e.g., aims, compartmentalisation, integration, and fundamentally different ideas about truth, learning and man are mentioned. Searching for a single and unifying concept for the discussing of all of science education's fundamental questions seems however in vain. Therefore a wide range of concepts seems necessary to deepen our understanding of ``the fundamental questions''.

Exploring teacher's perceptions of concept mapping as a teaching strategy in science: An action research approach

Science.gov (United States)

Marks Krpan, Catherine Anne

In order to promote science literacy in the classroom, students need opportunities in which they can personalize their understanding of the concepts they are learning. Current literature supports the use of concept maps in enabling students to make personal connections in their learning of science. Because they involve creating explicit connections between concepts, concept maps can assist students in developing metacognitive strategies and assist educators in identifying misconceptions in students' thinking. The literature also notes that concept maps can improve student achievement and recall. Much of the current literature focuses primarily on concept mapping at the secondary and university levels, with limited focus on the elementary panel. The research rarely considers teachers' thoughts and ideas about the concept mapping process. In order to effectively explore concept mapping from the perspective of elementary teachers, I felt that an action research approach would be appropriate. Action research enabled educators to debate issues about concept mapping and test out ideas in their classrooms. It also afforded the participants opportunities to explore their own thinking, reflect on their personal journeys as educators and play an active role in their professional development. In an effort to explore concept mapping from the perspective of elementary educators, an action research group of 5 educators and myself was established and met regularly from September 1999 until June 2000. All of the educators taught in the Toronto area. These teachers were interested in exploring how concept mapping could be used as a learning tool in their science classrooms. In summary, this study explores the journey of five educators and myself as we engaged in collaborative action research. This study sets out to: (1) Explore how educators believe concept mapping can facilitate teaching and student learning in the science classroom. (2) Explore how educators implement concept

[The concept of "understanding" (Verstehen) in Karl Jaspers].

Science.gov (United States)

Villareal, Helena; Aragona, Massimiliano

2014-01-01

This article explores the relationship between empathy and psychopathology. It deals with the concept of "understanding" in Jaspers' General Psychopathology, 100 years after the publication of its first edition. The Jaspersian proposal has the person and his/her experience as its primary object of study, just as in Ortegas' vital reason. Jaspers' understanding is not rational but empathetic, based on the co-presence of emotional content and detailed descriptions. Jaspers' methodology is essentially pluralistic, considering both explanation and understanding, necessary for psychopathology. Despite certain limits, the concept of understanding is the backbone of the psychopathological reasoning, and has proven useful over a century of clinical practice. However, it needs a review covering the recent epistemological and clinical findings. "To be understandable" is a relational property that emerges from a semiotic process. Therefore, an effective psychology should encompass an inter-subjective process, and get away from strict rationalism.

History and Philosophy of Science as a Guide to Understanding Nature of Science

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Mansoor Niaz

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Nature of science (NOS is considered to be a controversial topic by historians, philosophers of science and science educators. It is paradoxical that we all teach science and still have difficulties in understanding what science is and how it develops and progresses. A major obstacle in understanding NOS is that science is primarily ‘unnatural’, that is it cannot be learned by a simple observation of phenomena. In most parts of the world history and philosophy of science are ‘inside’ science content and as such can guide our understanding of NOS. However, some science educators consider the ‘historical turn’ as dated and hence neglect the historical approach and instead emphasize the model based naturalist view of science. The objective of this presentation is to show that the historical approach is very much a part of teaching science and actually complements naturalism. Understanding NOS generally requires two aspects of science: Domain general and domain specific. In the classroom this can be illustrated by discussing the atomic models developed in the early 20th century which constitute the domain specific aspect of NOS. This can then lead to an understanding of the tentative nature of science that is a domain general aspect of NOS. A review of the literature in science education reveals three views (among others of understanding NOS: a Consensus view: It attempts to include only those domain-general NOS aspects that are the least controversial (Lederman, Abd-El-Khalick; b Family resemblance view: Based on the ideas of Wittgenstein, this view promotes science as a cognitive system (Irzik, Nola; c Integrated view: this view postulates that both domain general and domain specific aspects of NOS are not dichotomous but rather need to be integrated and are essential if we want students to understand ‘science in the making’ (Niaz. The following framework helps to facilitate integration: i Elaboration of a theoretical framework

Challenges and Changes: Developing Teachers' and Initial Teacher Education Students' Understandings of the Nature of Science

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Ward, Gillian; Haigh, Mavis

2017-12-01

Teachers need an understanding of the nature of science (NOS) to enable them to incorporate NOS into their teaching of science. The current study examines the usefulness of a strategy for challenging or changing teachers' understandings of NOS. The teachers who participated in this study were 10 initial teacher education chemistry students and six experienced teachers from secondary and primary schools who were introduced to an explicit and reflective activity, a dramatic reading about a historical scientific development. Concept maps were used before and after the activity to assess teachers' knowledge of NOS. The participants also took part in a focus group interview to establish whether they perceived the activity as useful in developing their own understanding of NOS. Initial analysis led us to ask another group, comprising seven initial teacher education chemistry students, to take part in a modified study. These participants not only completed the same tasks as the previous participants but also completed a written reflection commenting on whether the activity and focus group discussion enhanced their understanding of NOS. Both Lederman et al.'s (Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 39(6), 497-521, 2002) concepts of NOS and notions of "naive" and "informed" understandings of NOS and Hay's (Studies in Higher Education, 32(1), 39-57, 2007) notions of "surface" and "deep" learning were used as frameworks to examine the participants' specific understandings of NOS and the depth of their learning. The ways in which participants' understandings of NOS were broadened or changed by taking part in the dramatic reading are presented. The impact of the data-gathering tools on the participants' professional learning is also discussed.

The Cognitive Science of Learning: Concepts and Strategies for the Educator and Learner.

Science.gov (United States)

Weidman, Joseph; Baker, Keith

2015-12-01

Education is the fundamental process used to develop and maintain the professional skills of physicians. Medical students, residents, and fellows are expected to learn considerable amounts of information as they progress toward board certification. Established practitioners must continue to learn in an effort to remain up-to-date in their clinical realm. Those responsible for educating these populations endeavor to teach in a manner that is effective, efficient, and durable. The study of learning and performance is a subdivision of the field of cognitive science that focuses on how people interpret and process information and how they eventually develop mastery. A deeper understanding of how individuals learn can empower both educators and learners to be more effective in their endeavors. In this article, we review a number of concepts found in the literature on learning and performance. We address both the theoretical principles and the practical applications of each concept. Cognitive load theory, constructivism, and analogical transfer are concepts particularly beneficial to educators. An understanding of goal orientation, metacognition, retrieval, spaced learning, and deliberate practice will primarily benefit the learner. When these concepts are understood and incorporated into education and study, the effectiveness of learning is significantly improved.

The concepts of nanotechnology as a part of physics education in high school and in interactive science museum

Science.gov (United States)

Kolářová, Lucie; Rálišová, Ema

2017-01-01

The advancements in nanotechnology especially in medicine and in developing new materials offer interesting possibilities for our society. It is not only scientists and engineers who need a better understanding of these new technologies but it is also important to prepare the young people and the general public on impact of nanotechnology on their life. Knowledge from this field likewise provides the opportunities to engage and motivate high school students for the study of science. Although, the concepts of nanoscience and nanotechnology are not a part of Czech high school physics curriculum they can be successfully integrated into regular curriculum in appropriate places. Because it is an interdisciplinary field, it also provides an opportunity for the interdisciplinary connections of physics, chemistry and biology. Many concepts for understanding the nanoworld can be shown by the simple activities and experiments and it is not a problem to demonstrate these experiments in each classroom. This paper presents the proposal for integration of the concepts of nanoscience and nanotechnologies into the high school physics curriculum, and the involvement of some of these concepts into the instructional program for middle and high school students which was realized in interactive science museum Fort Science in Olomouc. As a part of the program there was a quantitative questionnaire and its goal was to determine the effectiveness of the program and how students are satisfied with it.

The Cultural Argument for Understanding Nature of Science. A Chance to Reflect on Similarities and Differences Between Science and Humanities

Science.gov (United States)

Reiners, Christiane S.; Bliersbach, Markus; Marniok, Karl

2017-07-01

, and the role of technology. Thus, the cultural argument for understanding science invites us not only to consider domain-specific concepts but also to reflect on similarities between science and the humanities by way of examples.

Students' Conceptions of the Nature of Science: Perspectives from Canadian and Korean Middle School Students

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Hyeran; Nielsen, Wendy; Woodruff, Earl

2014-01-01

This study examined and compared students' understanding of nature of science (NOS) with 521 Grade 8 Canadian and Korean students using a mixed methods approach. The concepts of NOS were measured using a survey that had both quantitative and qualitative elements. Descriptive statistics and one-way multivariate analysis of variances examined the…

Data-Intensive Science meets Inquiry-Driven Pedagogy: Interactive Big Data Exploration, Threshold Concepts, and Liminality

Science.gov (United States)

Ramachandran, Rahul; Word, Andrea; Nair, Udasysankar

2014-01-01

Threshold concepts in any discipline are the core concepts an individual must understand in order to master a discipline. By their very nature, these concepts are troublesome, irreversible, integrative, bounded, discursive, and reconstitutive. Although grasping threshold concepts can be extremely challenging for each learner as s/he moves through stages of cognitive development relative to a given discipline, the learner's grasp of these concepts determines the extent to which s/he is prepared to work competently and creatively within the field itself. The movement of individuals from a state of ignorance of these core concepts to one of mastery occurs not along a linear path but in iterative cycles of knowledge creation and adjustment in liminal spaces - conceptual spaces through which learners move from the vaguest awareness of concepts to mastery, accompanied by understanding of their relevance, connectivity, and usefulness relative to questions and constructs in a given discipline. For example, challenges in the teaching and learning of atmospheric science can be traced to threshold concepts in fluid dynamics. In particular, Dynamic Meteorology is one of the most challenging courses for graduate students and undergraduates majoring in Atmospheric Science. Dynamic Meteorology introduces threshold concepts - those that prove troublesome for the majority of students but that are essential, associated with fundamental relationships between forces and motion in the atmosphere and requiring the application of basic classical statics, dynamics, and thermodynamic principles to the three dimensionally varying atmospheric structure. With the explosive growth of data available in atmospheric science, driven largely by satellite Earth observations and high-resolution numerical simulations, paradigms such as that of dataintensive science have emerged. These paradigm shifts are based on the growing realization that current infrastructure, tools and processes will not allow

New infrastructures for knowledge production understanding e-science

CERN Document Server

Hine, Christine

2006-01-01

New Infrastructures for Knowledge Production: Understanding E-Science offers a distinctive understanding of new infrastructures for knowledge production based in science and technology studies. This field offers a unique potential to assess systematically the prospects for new modes of science enabled by information and communication technologies. The authors use varied methodological approaches, reviewing the origins of initiatives to develop e-science infrastructures, exploring the diversity of the various solutions and the scientific cultures which use them, and assessing the prospects for wholesale change in scientific structures and practices. New Infrastructures for Knowledge Production: Understanding E-Science contains practical advice for the design of appropriate technological solutions, and long range assessments of the prospects for change useful both to policy makers and those implementing institutional infrastructures. Readers interested in understanding contemporary science will gain a rich pict...

Understanding the Concept of Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sharma, Sudhir; Desgain, Denis DR

This publication is intended to enable national policy makers and other stakeholders, such as the private sector and technical experts, to acquaint themselves with the concept of NAMA. It aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) concept...... and enhance the understanding of NAMAs by explaining the underlying decisions of the Conference of the Parties in layman’s terms. The first chapter describes how the concept of NAMA emerged in the context of the negotiations on climate change. The chapter gives an overview of how the concepts of NAMA...

Understanding the biological concept "bird": A kindergarten case study

Science.gov (United States)

Buchholz, Dilek

The purpose of this qualitative, multiple case study of 14 students in a metropolitan public school in the Deep South was to find out, during a period of three months, what these kindergarten-aged children knew about birds, whether this knowledge represented current scientific thought, if such science instruction meaningfully affected their prior knowledge, and if so, what the factors during instruction that seemed to influence their understanding of the concept of bird were. The research was conducted in three phases; preinstruction interviews, instruction, and postinstruction interviews. The theoretical framework for this research was based on the Human Constructivism theory of learning (Mintzes, Wandersee and Novak, 1997). Instructional materials consisted of carefully chosen books (both fiction and non-fiction), guest speakers, field trips, a live bird in the classroom, students' observation journals, teacher-made classification and sorting activities, and picture-based concept maps. The findings suggest that young children's knowledge of birds was limited chiefly to birds' anatomical and morphological characteristics, with repeated references being made by the children to human characteristics. There was a positive, significant difference in young children's pre- and postinstruction scientific knowledge of birds. Although performance varied from child to child after instruction, most children were able to identify some common birds by name. Just one child resisted conceptual change. Kindergarten children's basic knowledge of bird behavior was limited to flight and eating. Although the children had more conceptual knowledge at the end, understanding still appeared to be shallow. The children did develop their skill in observing markedly. It also became evident that these kindergarten children needed more (a) experience in asking questions, (b) practice in techniques of visual representation, and (c) language development in order to be able to explain what they

Promoting Children's Understanding And Interest In Science Through Informal Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Bartley, Jessica E.; Mayhew, Laurel M.; Finkelstein, Noah D.

2009-11-01

We present results from the University of Colorado's Partnership for Informal Science Education in the Community (PISEC) in which university participants work in afterschool programs on inquiry-based activities with primary school children from populations typically under represented in science. This university-community partnership is designed to positively impact youth, university students, and the institutions that support them while improving children's attitudes towards and understanding of science. Children worked through circuit activities adapted from the Physics and Everyday Thinking (PET) curriculum and demonstrated increased understanding of content area as well as favorable beliefs about science.

Teachers' and Students' Conceptions of Good Science Teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Yung, Benny Hin Wai; Zhu, Yan; Wong, Siu Ling; Cheng, Man Wai; Lo, Fei Yin

2013-01-01

Capitalizing on the comments made by teachers on videos of exemplary science teaching, a video-based survey instrument on the topic of "Density" was developed and used to investigate the conceptions of good science teaching held by 110 teachers and 4,024 year 7 students in Hong Kong. Six dimensions of good science teaching are identified…

Teaching science as inquiry in US and in Japan: A cross-cultural comparison of science teachers' understanding of, and attitudes toward inquiry-based teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Tosa, Sachiko

Since the publication of the National Science Education Standards in 1996, learning science through inquiry has been regarded as the heart of science education. However, the TIMSS 1999 Video Study showed that inquiry-based teaching has been taking place less in the United States than in Japan. This study examined similarities and differences in how Japanese and American middle-school science teachers think and feel about inquiry-based teaching. Teachers' attitudes toward the use of inquiry in science teaching were measured through a survey instrument (N=191). Teachers' understanding of inquiry-based teaching was examined through interviews and classroom observations in the United States (N=9) and Japan (N=15). The results show that in spite of the variations in teachers' definitions of inquiry-based teaching, teachers in both countries strongly agree with the idea of inquiry-based teaching. However, little inquiry-based teaching was observed in either of the countries for different reasons. The data indicate that Japanese teachers did not generally help students construct their own understanding of scientific concepts in spite of well-planned lesson structures and activity set-ups. On the other hand, the observational data indicate that American teachers often lacked meaningful science content in spite of their high level of pedagogical knowledge. The need for addressing the importance of scientific concepts in teacher preparation programs in higher education institutions in the US is advocated. To the Japanese science education community, the need for teachers' acquisition of instructional strategies for inquiry-based teaching is strongly addressed.

Understanding space science under the northern lights

Science.gov (United States)

Koskinen, H.

What is space science? The answers to this question can be very variable indeed. In fact, space research is a field where science, technology, and applications are so closely tied together that it is often difficult to recognize the central role of science. However, as paradoxical as it may sound, it appears that the less-educated public often appreciates the value of space science better than highly educated policy makers and bureaucrats who tend to evaluate the importance of space activities in terms of economic and societal benefits only. In a country like Finland located below the zone, where auroras are visible during the long dark winter nights, the space is perhaps closer to the public than in countries where the visible objects are the Moon, planets and stars somewhere far away. This positive fact has been very useful, for example, in popularization of such an abstract concept as space weather. In Finland it is possible to see space weather and this rises the curiosity about the processes behind this magnificent phenomenon. Of course, also in Finland the beautiful SOHO images of the Sun and the Hubble Space Telescope pictures of the remote universe attract the attention of the large public. We also have an excellent vehicle in increasing the public understanding in the society of Finnish amateur astronomers Ursa. It is an organization for anyone interested in practically everything from visual phenomena in the air to the remote galaxies and the Big Bang. Ursa publishes a high-quality monthly magazine in Finnish and runs local amateur clubs. Last year its 80th birthday exhibition was one of the best-visited public events in Helsinki. It clearly gave a strong evidence of wide public interest in space in general and in space science in particular. Only curious people can grasp the beauty and importance of the underlying science. Thus, we should focus our public space science education and outreach primarily on waking up the curiosity of the public instead of

The Impact of Science Fiction Film on Student Understanding of Science

Science.gov (United States)

Barnett, Michael; Wagner, Heather; Gatling, Anne; Anderson, Janice; Houle, Meredith; Kafka, Alan

2006-01-01

Researchers who have investigated the public understanding of science have argued that fictional cinema and television has proven to be particularly effective at blurring the distinction between fact and fiction. The rationale for this study lies in the notion that to teach science effectively, educators need to understand how popular culture…

Assessing middle school students` understanding of science relationships and processes. Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schau, C.; Mattern, N.; Weber, R. [Univ. of New Nexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States); Minnick, K. [Minnick & Associates, Inc., Albuquerque, NM (United States)

1994-09-01

Our overall goal for this multi-year project is to develop and validate an alternative assessment format that effectively measures middle school students understanding of the relationships among selected science concepts and processes. In this project, we collaborate with the staff of the Los Alamos National Laboratory`s TOPS Program and the Programs participating teachers and their students. We also work with selected middle school science teachers from the TOPS program at Sandia National Laboratories. Our goal for this past year was to develop and field test informally a variety of potential measurement formats. This work has allowed us to identify formats to test during the validation phase of the project which will occur during the second year.

Understanding the concept of nationally appropriate mitigation action

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sharma, S.; Desgain, D.

2013-05-15

This publication is intended to enable national policy makers and other stakeholders, such as the private sector and technical experts, to acquaint themselves with the concept of NAMA. It aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) concept and enhance the understanding of NAMAs by explaining the underlying decisions of the Conference of the Parties in layman's terms. The first chapter describes how the concept of NAMA emerged in the context of the negotiations on climate change. The chapter gives an overview of how the concepts of NAMA and related MRV and financing issues have evolved through the different COPs. The second chapter clarifies the understanding of NAMAs in the context of the global temperature goal, and moves on to discuss the legal nature and scope of NAMAs. The chapter subsequently analyses the diversity of NAMAs submitted by developing countries to the UNFCCC, and ends by proposing a structure for formal submission of a NAMA. The third chapter specifically addresses the concept of measurement, reporting and verification (MRV), and describes the implications for countries implementing the MRV requirements. The last chapter discusses institutional arrangements, under the Convention, for providing financing to develop and implement NAMAs. The chapter also briefly discusses the different financial sources for implementing NAMAs, and concludes by explaining the concept of incremental cost in this specific context. (Author)

Embodied Understanding

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mark Leonard Johnson

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Western culture has inherited a view of understanding as an intellectual cognitive operation of grasping of concepts and their relations. However, cognitive science research has shown that this received intellectualist conception is substantially out of touch with how humans actually make and experience meaning. The view emerging from the mind sciences recognizes that understanding is profoundly embodied, insofar as our conceptualization and reasoning recruit sensory, motor, and affective patterns and processes to structure our understanding of, and engagement with, our world. A psychologically realistic account of understanding must begin with the patterns of ongoing interaction between an organism and its physical and cultural environments and must include both our emotional responses to changes in our body and environment, and also the actions by which we continuously transform our experience. Consequently, embodied understanding is not merely a conceptual/propositional activity of thought, but rather constitutes our most basic way of being in, and engaging with, our surroundings in a deep visceral manner.

A Formal Semantics for Concept Understanding relying on Description Logics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Badie, Farshad

2017-01-01

In this research, Description Logics (DLs) will be employed for logical description, logical characterisation, logical modelling and ontological description of concept understanding in terminological systems. It’s strongly believed that using a formal descriptive logic could support us in reveali...... logical assumptions whose discovery may lead us to a better understanding of ‘concept understanding’. The Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) model as an appropriate model of increasing complexity of humans’ understanding has supported the formal analysis....

A Formal Semantics for Concept Understanding relying on Description Logics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Badie, Farshad

2017-01-01

logical assumptions whose discovery may lead us to a better understanding of ‘concept understanding’. The Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) model as an appropriate model of increasing complexity of humans’ understanding has supported the formal analysis.......In this research, Description Logics (DLs) will be employed for logical description, logical characterisation, logical modelling and ontological description of concept understanding in terminological systems. It’s strongly believed that using a formal descriptive logic could support us in revealing...

Conceptions, Self-Regulation, and Strategies of Learning Science among Chinese High School Students

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Mang; Zheng, Chunping; Liang, Jyh-Chong; Zhang, Yun; Tsai, Chin-Chung

2018-01-01

This study explored the structural relationships among secondary school students' conceptions, self-regulation, and strategies of learning science in mainland China. Three questionnaires, namely conceptions of learning science (COLS), self-regulation of learning science (SROLS), and strategies of learning science (SLS) were developed for…

The Contribution of Conceptual Change Texts Accompanied by Concept Mapping to Eleventh-Grade Students Understanding of Cellular Respiration Concepts

Science.gov (United States)

Al khawaldeh, Salem A.; Al Olaimat, Ali M.

2010-01-01

The present study conducted to investigate the contribution of conceptual change texts, accompanied by concept mapping instruction to eleventh-grade students' understanding of cellular respiration concepts, and their retention of this understanding. Cellular respiration concepts test was developed as a result of examination of related literature…

The Effects of Visualizations on Linguistically Diverse Students' Understanding of Energy and Matter in Life Science

Science.gov (United States)

Ryoo, Kihyun; Bedell, Kristin

2017-01-01

Although extensive research has shown the educational value of different types of interactive visualizations on students' science learning in general, how such technologies can contribute to English learners' (ELs) understanding of complex scientific concepts has not been sufficiently explored to date. This mixed-methods study investigated how…

Using a Concept Inventory to Assess the Reasoning Component of Citizen-Level Science Literacy: Results from a 17,000-Student Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Nuhfer, Edward B; Cogan, Christopher B; Kloock, Carl; Wood, Gregory G; Goodman, Anya; Delgado, Natalie Zayas; Wheeler, Christopher W

2016-03-01

After articulating 12 concepts for the reasoning component of citizen-level science literacy and restating these as assessable student learning outcomes (SLOs), we developed a valid and reliable assessment instrument for addressing the outcomes with a brief 25-item science literacy concept inventory (SLCI). In this paper, we report the results that we obtained from assessing the citizen-level science literacy of 17,382 undergraduate students, 149 graduate students, and 181 professors. We address only findings at or above the 99.9% confidence level. We found that general education (GE) science courses do not significantly advance understanding of science as a way of knowing. However, the understanding of science's way of knowing does increase through academic ranks, indicating that the extended overall academic experience better accounts for increasing such thinking capacity than do science courses alone. Higher mean institutional SLCI scores correlate closely with increased institutional selectivity, as measured by the institutions' higher mean SAT and ACT scores. Socioeconomic factors of a) first-generation student, b) English as a native language, and c) interest in commitment to a science major are unequally distributed across ethnic groups. These factors proved powerful in accounting for the variations in SLCI scores across ethnicities and genders.

Etymology as an Aid to Understanding Chemistry Concepts

Science.gov (United States)

Sarma, Nittala S.

2004-01-01

Learning the connection between the roots and the chemical meaning of terms can improve students' understanding of chemistry concepts, making them easier and more enjoyable to master. The way in which using etymology to understand the meanings and relationships of chemistry terms can aid students in strengthening and expanding their grasp of…

Towards Concept Understanding relying on Conceptualisation in Constructivist Learning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Badie, Farshad

2017-01-01

and understandings over their mental structures in the framework of constructivism, and I will clarify my logical [and semantic] conceptions of humans’ concept understandings. This research focuses on philosophy of education and on logics of human learning. It connects with the topics ‘Cognition in Education......, through this constructivism to a pedagogical theory of learning. I will mainly focus on conceptual and epistemological analysis of humans’ conceptualisations based on their own mental objects (schemata). Subsequently, I will propose an analytical specification of humans’ conceptualisations...

Exploring Europa's Habitability: Science achieved from the Europa Orbiter and Clipper Mission Concepts

Science.gov (United States)

Senske, D. A.; Prockter, L. M.; Pappalardo, R. T.; Patterson, G. W.; Vance, S.

2012-12-01

Europa is a prime candidate in the search for present-day habitable environments in our solar system. Europa is unique among the large icy satellites because it probably has a saltwater ocean today beneath an ice shell that is geodynamically active. The combination of irradiation of its surface and tidal heating of its interior could make Europa a rich source of chemical energy for life. Perhaps most importantly, Europa's ocean is believed to be in direct contact with its rocky mantle, where conditions could be similar to those on Earth's biologically rich sea floor. Hydrothermal zones on Earth's seafloor are known to be rich with life, powered by energy and nutrients that result from reactions between the seawater and the warm rocky ocean floor. Life as we know it depends on three principal "ingredients": 1) a sustained liquid water environment; 2) essential chemical elements that are critical for building life; and 3) a source of energy that could be utilized by life. Europa's habitability requires understanding whether it possesses these three ingredients. NASA has enlisted a study team to consider Europa mission options feasible over the next decade, compatible with NASA's projected planetary science budget and addressing Planetary Decadal Survey priorities. Two Europa mission concepts (Orbiter and multiple flyby—call the "Clipper") are undergoing continued study with the goal to "Explore Europa to investigate its habitability." Each mission would address this goal in complementary ways, with high science value of its own. The Orbiter and Clipper architectures lend themselves to specific types of scientific measurements. The Orbiter concept is tailored to the unique geophysical science that requires being in orbit at Europa. This includes confirming the existence of an ocean and characterizing that ocean through geophysical measurements of Europa's gravitational tides and magnetic induction response. It also includes mapping of the global morphology and

Conceptions of Teaching Science Held by Novice Teachers in an Alternative Certification Program

Science.gov (United States)

Koballa, Thomas R.; Glynn, Shawn M.; Upson, Leslie

2005-01-01

Case studies to investigate the conceptions of teaching science held by three novice teachers participating in an alternative secondary science teacher certification program were conducted, along with the relationships between their conceptions of science teaching and their science teaching practice. Data used to build the cases included the…

Teaching Map Concepts in Social Science Education; an Evaluation with Undergraduate Students

Science.gov (United States)

Bugdayci, Ilkay; Zahit Selvi, H.

2017-12-01

One of the most important aim of the geography and social science courses is to gain the ability of reading, analysing and understanding maps. There are a lot of themes related with maps and map concepts in social studies education. Geographical location is one of the most important theme. Geographical location is specified by geographical coordinates called latitude and longitude. The geographical coordinate system is the primary spatial reference system of the earth. It is always used in cartography, in geography, in basic location calculations such as navigation and surveying. It’s important to support teacher candidates, to teach maps and related concepts. Cartographers also have important missions and responsibilities in this context. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the knowledge of undergraduate students, about the geographical location. For this purpose, a research has been carried out on questions and activities related to geographical location and related concepts. The details and results of the research conducted by the students in the study are explained.

Introducing a New Elementary GLOBE Book on Climate: Supporting Educators and Students in their Understanding of the Concepts Underlying Climate and Climate Change

Science.gov (United States)

Stanitski, D.; Hatheway, B.; Gardiner, L. S.; Taylor, J.; Chambers, L. H.

2016-12-01

Much of the focus on climate literacy in K-12 occurs in middle and high school, where teachers and students can dig into the science in some depth. It is important, however, to introduce this topic at an early age, building on a child's natural curiosity about the world around them - but without overwhelming them with frightening climate change impacts. In some U.S. school systems, a recent focus on standardized testing has crowded out science instruction in order to bring up literacy scores. To give teachers a resource to maintain some science instruction under these conditions, a series of Elementary GLOBE books have been developed. These fictional stories describe sound science and engineering practices that are essential for students to learn the process of science while expanding literacy skills, strongly encouraged in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The main concepts developed in a new Elementary GLOBE book on climate, titled "What in the World Is Happening to Our Climate?", will be introduced in this presentation. This book complements six other Earth System Science modules within the Elementary GLOBE curriculum and is freely available on the GLOBE website (www.globe.gov/elementaryglobe). The book discusses the concept that climate is changing in different ways and places around the world, and what happens to the climate in one place affects other locations across the globe. Supporting ideas clarify the difference between weather and climate, introduce climate science concepts, reveal the impacts of sea level rise, and help students understand that, while humans are contributing to climate change, they can also participate in solutions that address this challenge. Accompanying teacher's notes and companion classroom activities will be described to help elementary school teachers understand how to approach the subject of climate change with their students.

Can citizen science enhance public understanding of science?

Science.gov (United States)

Bonney, Rick; Phillips, Tina B; Ballard, Heidi L; Enck, Jody W

2016-01-01

Over the past 20 years, thousands of citizen science projects engaging millions of participants in collecting and/or processing data have sprung up around the world. Here we review documented outcomes from four categories of citizen science projects which are defined by the nature of the activities in which their participants engage - Data Collection, Data Processing, Curriculum-based, and Community Science. We find strong evidence that scientific outcomes of citizen science are well documented, particularly for Data Collection and Data Processing projects. We find limited but growing evidence that citizen science projects achieve participant gains in knowledge about science knowledge and process, increase public awareness of the diversity of scientific research, and provide deeper meaning to participants' hobbies. We also find some evidence that citizen science can contribute positively to social well-being by influencing the questions that are being addressed and by giving people a voice in local environmental decision making. While not all citizen science projects are intended to achieve a greater degree of public understanding of science, social change, or improved science -society relationships, those projects that do require effort and resources in four main categories: (1) project design, (2) outcomes measurement, (3) engagement of new audiences, and (4) new directions for research. © The Author(s) 2015.

Using a Concept Inventory to Assess the Reasoning Component of Citizen-Level Science Literacy: Results from a 17,000-Student Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Edward B. Nuhfer

2015-12-01

Full Text Available After articulating 12 concepts for the reasoning component of citizen-level science literacy and restating these as assessable student learning outcomes (SLOs, we developed a valid and reliable assessment instrument for addressing the outcomes with a brief 25-item science literacy concept inventory (SLCI. In this paper, we report the results that we obtained from assessing the citizen-level science literacy of 17,382 undergraduate students, 149 graduate students, and 181 professors. We address only findings at or above the 99.9% confidence level. We found that general education (GE science courses do not significantly advance understanding of science as a way of knowing. However, the understanding of science’s way of knowing does increase through academic ranks, indicating that the extended overall academic experience better accounts for increasing such thinking capacity than do science courses alone. Higher mean institutional SLCI scores correlate closely with increased institutional selectivity, as measured by the institutions’ higher mean SAT and ACT scores. Socioeconomic factors of a first-generation student, b English as a native language, and c interest in commitment to a science major are unequally distributed across ethnic groups. These factors proved powerful in accounting for the variations in SLCI scores across ethnicities and genders.

Using a Concept Inventory to Assess the Reasoning Component of Citizen-Level Science Literacy: Results from a 17,000-Student Study†

Science.gov (United States)

Nuhfer, Edward B.; Cogan, Christopher B.; Kloock, Carl; Wood, Gregory G.; Goodman, Anya; Delgado, Natalie Zayas; Wheeler, Christopher W.

2016-01-01

After articulating 12 concepts for the reasoning component of citizen-level science literacy and restating these as assessable student learning outcomes (SLOs), we developed a valid and reliable assessment instrument for addressing the outcomes with a brief 25-item science literacy concept inventory (SLCI). In this paper, we report the results that we obtained from assessing the citizen-level science literacy of 17,382 undergraduate students, 149 graduate students, and 181 professors. We address only findings at or above the 99.9% confidence level. We found that general education (GE) science courses do not significantly advance understanding of science as a way of knowing. However, the understanding of science’s way of knowing does increase through academic ranks, indicating that the extended overall academic experience better accounts for increasing such thinking capacity than do science courses alone. Higher mean institutional SLCI scores correlate closely with increased institutional selectivity, as measured by the institutions’ higher mean SAT and ACT scores. Socioeconomic factors of a) first-generation student, b) English as a native language, and c) interest in commitment to a science major are unequally distributed across ethnic groups. These factors proved powerful in accounting for the variations in SLCI scores across ethnicities and genders. PMID:27047612

Science concept learning by English as second language junior secondary students

Science.gov (United States)

Lai, Pui-Kwong; Lucas, Keith B.; Burke, Ed V.

1995-03-01

Recent Chinese migrant students from Taiwan studying science in two Australian secondary schools were found to explain the meanings of selected science concept labels in English by translating from Chinese. The research strategy involved interviewing the students concerning their recognition and comprehension of the science concept labels firstly in Chinese and then in English. Mean recognition and comprehension scores were higher in Chinese than in English, with indications that Chinese language and science knowledge learnt in Chinese deteriorated with increasing time of residence in Australia. Rudimentary signs of the students being able to switch between Chinese and English knowledge bases in science were also found. Implications for teaching science to ESL students and suggestions for further research are discussed.

Information in Our World: Conceptions of Information and Problems of Method in Information Science

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Lai

2012-01-01

Many concepts of information have been proposed and discussed in library and information science. These concepts of information can be broadly categorized as empirical and situational information. Unlike nomenclatures in many sciences, however, the concept of information in library and information science does not bear a generally accepted…

Understanding catchment behaviour through model concept improvement

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fenicia, F.

2008-01-01

This thesis describes an approach to model development based on the concept of iterative model improvement, which is a process where by trial and error different hypotheses of catchment behaviour are progressively tested, and the understanding of the system proceeds through a combined process of

Data-Intensive Science Meets Inquiry-Driven Pedagogy: Interactive Big Data Exploration, Threshold Concepts, and Liminality

Science.gov (United States)

Ramachandran, R.; Nair, U. S.; Word, A.

2014-12-01

Threshold concepts in any discipline are the core concepts an individual must understand in order to master a discipline. By their very nature, these concepts are troublesome, irreversible, integrative, bounded, discursive, and reconstitutive. Although grasping threshold concepts can be extremely challenging for each learner as s/he moves through stages of cognitive development relative to a given discipline, the learner's grasp of these concepts determines the extent to which s/he is prepared to work competently and creatively within the field itself. The movement of individuals from a state of ignorance of these core concepts to one of mastery occurs not along a linear path but in iterative cycles of knowledge creation and adjustment in liminal spaces - conceptual spaces through which learners move from the vaguest awareness of concepts to mastery, accompanied by understanding of their relevance, connectivity, and usefulness relative to questions and constructs in a given discipline. With the explosive growth of data available in atmospheric science, driven largely by satellite Earth observations and high-resolution numerical simulations, paradigms such as that of data-intensive science have emerged. These paradigm shifts are based on the growing realization that current infrastructure, tools and processes will not allow us to analyze and fully utilize the complex and voluminous data that is being gathered. In this emerging paradigm, the scientific discovery process is driven by knowledge extracted from large volumes of data. In this presentation, we contend that this paradigm naturally lends to inquiry-driven pedagogy where knowledge is discovered through inductive engagement with large volumes of data rather than reached through traditional, deductive, hypothesis-driven analyses. In particular, data-intensive techniques married with an inductive methodology allow for exploration on a scale that is not possible in the traditional classroom with its typical

Addressing pre-service teachers' understandings and difficulties with some core concepts in the special theory of relativity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Selcuk, Gamze Sezgin

2011-01-01

The aim of this study is to investigate pre-service teachers' understanding of and difficulties with some core concepts in the special theory of relativity. The pre-service teachers (n = 185) from the Departments of Physics Education and Elementary Science Education at Dokuz Eylul University (in Turkey) participated. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used in this study. Students' understanding of and difficulties with core elements (time, length, mass and density) were tested using a paper-and-pencil questionnaire (including four questions) and in-depth interviews after the instruction of related modern physics topics. The analyses of the collected data were based on quantitative and qualitative techniques. The results indicate that pre-service teachers at different academic levels have specific and considerable difficulties with proper time, time dilation, proper length, mass and relativistic density concepts. In this paper, the conclusions of the study and implications for physics teaching are discussed.

Exploring Young Children's Understanding about the Concept of Volume through Engineering Design in a STEM Activity: A Case Study

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Do-Yong; Park, Mi-Hwa; Bates, Alan B.

2018-01-01

This case study explores young children's understanding and application of the concept of volume through the practices of engineering design in a STEM activity. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. However, engineering stands out as a challenging area to implement. In addition, most early engineering education…

A Comparison of Key Concepts in Data Analytics and Data Science

Science.gov (United States)

McMaster, Kirby; Rague, Brian; Wolthuis, Stuart L.; Sambasivam, Samuel

2018-01-01

This research study provides an examination of the relatively new fields of Data Analytics and Data Science. We compare word rates in Data Analytics and Data Science documents to determine which concepts are mentioned most often. The most frequent concept in both fields is "data." The word rate for "data" is more than twice the…

Comparison of Science-Technology-Society Approach and Textbook Oriented Instruction on Students' Abilities to Apply Science Concepts

Science.gov (United States)

Kapici, Hasan Ozgur; Akcay, Hakan; Yager, Robert E.

2017-01-01

It is important for students to learn concepts and using them for solving problems and further learning. Within this respect, the purpose of this study is to investigate students' abilities to apply science concepts that they have learned from Science-Technology-Society based approach or textbook oriented instruction. Current study is based on…

Teaching 5th grade science for aesthetic understanding

Science.gov (United States)

Girod, Mark A.

Many scientists speak with great zeal about the role of aesthetics and beauty in their science and inquiry. Few systematic efforts have been made to teach science in ways that appeal directly to aesthetics and this research is designed to do just that. Drawing from the aesthetic theory of Dewey, I describe an analytic lens called learning for aesthetic understanding that finds power in the degree to which our perceptions of the world are transformed, our interests and enthusiasm piqued, and our actions changed as we seek further experiences in the world. This learning theory is contrasted against two other current and popular theories of science learning, that of learning for conceptual understanding via conceptual change theory and learning for a language-oriented or discourse-based understanding. After a lengthy articulation of the pedagogical strategies used to teach for aesthetic understanding the research is described in which comparisons are drawn between students in two 5th grade classrooms---one taught for the goal of conceptual understanding and the other taught for the goal of aesthetic understanding. Results of this comparison show that more students in the treatment classroom had aesthetic experiences with science ideas and came to an aesthetic understanding when studying weather, erosion, and structure of matter than students in the control group. Also statistically significant effects are shown on measures of interest, affect, and efficacy for students in the treatment class. On measures of conceptual understanding it appears that treatment class students learned more and forgot less over time than control class students. The effect of the treatment does not generally depend on gender, ethnicity, or prior achievement except in students' identity beliefs about themselves as science learners. In this case, a significant interaction for treatment class females on science identity beliefs did occur. A discussion of these results as well as elaboration and

The concept verification testing of materials science payloads

Science.gov (United States)

Griner, C. S.; Johnston, M. H.; Whitaker, A.

1976-01-01

The concept Verification Testing (CVT) project at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama, is a developmental activity that supports Shuttle Payload Projects such as Spacelab. It provides an operational 1-g environment for testing NASA and other agency experiment and support systems concepts that may be used in shuttle. A dedicated Materials Science Payload was tested in the General Purpose Laboratory to assess the requirements of a space processing payload on a Spacelab type facility. Physical and functional integration of the experiments into the facility was studied, and the impact of the experiments on the facility (and vice versa) was evaluated. A follow-up test designated CVT Test IVA was also held. The purpose of this test was to repeat Test IV experiments with a crew composed of selected and trained scientists. These personnel were not required to have prior knowledge of the materials science disciplines, but were required to have a basic knowledge of science and the scientific method.

Scientists' understanding of public communication of science and technology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Kristian Hvidtfelt; Kjaer, Carsten Rahbæk; Dahlgaard, Jørgen

Background Research into the field of science communication has tended to focus on public understanding of science or on the processes of science communication itself, e.g. by looking at science in the media. Few studies have explored how scientists understand science communication. At present...... and technical sciences see science communication. We wanted to map their general interest in using different media of science communication as well as their active participation in current science communication. Moreover, we wanted to find out what they think about future of science communication, and what...... science communication. Results Our respondents indicated interest in doing science communication through media aimed at a broader public. In particular, news media surfaced as the most attractive media of public communication. The respondents preferred to be in charge of science communication themselves...

Parental influences on students' self-concept, task value beliefs, and achievement in science.

Science.gov (United States)

Senler, Burcu; Sungur, Semra

2009-05-01

The aim of this study was twofold: firstly, to investigate the grade level (elementary and middle school) and gender effect on students' motivation in science (perceived academic science self-concept and task value) and perceived family involvement, and secondly to examine the relationship among family environment variables (fathers' educational level, mothers' educational level, and perceived family involvement), motivation, gender and science achievement in elementary and middle schools. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) showed that elementary school students have more positive science self-concept and task value beliefs compared to middle school students. Moreover, elementary school students appeared to perceive more family involvement in their schooling. Path analyses also suggested that family involvement was directly linked to elementary school students' task value and achievement. Also, in elementary school level, significant relationships were found among father educational level, science self-concept, task value and science achievement. On the other hand, in middle school level, family involvement, father educational level, and mother educational level were positively related to students' task value which is directly linked to students' science achievement. Moreover, mother educational level contributed to science achievement through its effect on self-concept.

Undergraduate Mathematics Students' Understanding of the Concept of Function

Science.gov (United States)

Bardini, Caroline; Pierce, Robyn; Vincent, Jill; King, Deborah

2014-01-01

Concern has been expressed that many commencing undergraduate mathematics students have mastered skills without conceptual understanding. A pilot study carried out at a leading Australian university indicates that a significant number of students, with high tertiary entrance ranks, have very limited understanding of the concept of function,…

The Effect of 7E Learning Model on Conceptual Understandings of Prospective Science Teachers on 'de Broglie Matter Waves' Subject

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Meryem Gorecek Baybars

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The object of this study is to determine the conceptual understanding that prospective Science teachers have relating "de Broglie: Matter waves" and to investigate the effect of the instruction performed, on the conceptual understanding. This study was performed at a state university located in the western part of Turkey, with the Faculty of Education-Science Teaching students (2nd year / 48 individual in the academic year of 2010-2011. The study was planned as a single group pretest-posttest design. A two-step question was used in the study, prior to and after the instruction. Lessons were conducted using the 7E learning model in the instruction process. When all these results are evaluated, it can be said that the conceptual understanding of the prospective teachers regarding "de Broglie; matter waves" has been taken place. In general, when all the sections are examined, it has been observed that the prospective teachers have more alternative concepts prior to the instruction and more scientific concepts after the instruction. In this process, besides instruction, the prospective teachers have not taken any place in a different application regarding the basic concepts of quantum physics. Therefore, it has been determined that the 7E learning model used in the research and the activities included in the 7E learning model are effective in conceptual understanding.

Conceptions of the Nature of Science and Technology: a Study with Children and Youths in a Non-Formal Science and Technology Education Setting

Science.gov (United States)

Rocha Fernandes, Geraldo W.; Rodrigues, António M.; Ferreira, Carlos Alberto

2017-05-01

This study investigated some of the aspects that characterise the understanding of the Nature of Science (NOS) and Nature of Technology (NOT) of 20 children and youths from different countries who perform scientific and technological activities in a non-formal teaching and learning setting. Data were collected using a questionnaire and semistructured interviews. A categorical instrument was developed to analyse the participants' conceptions of the following subjects: (1) the role of the scientist, (2) NOS and (3) NOT. The results suggest that the participants had naïve conceptions of NOS that are marked by empirical and technical-instrumental views. They characterised NOT primarily as an instrumental apparatus, an application of knowledge and something important that is part of their lives. They exhibited a stereotypical understanding of the role of the scientist (development of methods, demonstration of facts, relationship with technological devices, etc.).

U.S. Geological Survey Water science strategy--observing, understanding, predicting, and delivering water science to the nation

Science.gov (United States)

Evenson, Eric J.; Orndorff, Randall C.; Blome, Charles D.; Böhlke, John Karl; Hershberger, Paul K.; Langenheim, V.E.; McCabe, Gregory J.; Morlock, Scott E.; Reeves, Howard W.; Verdin, James P.; Weyers, Holly S.; Wood, Tamara M.

2013-01-01

This report expands the Water Science Strategy that began with the USGS Science Strategy, “Facing Tomorrow’s Challenges—U.S. Geological Survey Science in the Decade 2007–2017” (U.S. Geological Survey, 2007). This report looks at the relevant issues facing society and develops a strategy built around observing, understanding, predicting, and delivering water science for the next 5 to 10 years by building new capabilities, tools, and delivery systems to meet the Nation’s water-resource needs. This report begins by presenting the vision of water science for the USGS and the societal issues that are influenced by, and in turn influence, the water resources of our Nation. The essence of the Water Science Strategy is built on the concept of “water availability,” defined as spatial and temporal distribution of water quantity and quality, as related to human and ecosystem needs, as affected by human and natural influences. The report also describes the core capabilities of the USGS in water science—the strengths, partnerships, and science integrity that the USGS has built over its 134-year history. Nine priority actions are presented in the report, which combine and elevate the numerous specific strategic actions listed throughout the report. Priority actions were developed as a means of providing the audience of this report with a list for focused attention, even if resources and time limit the ability of managers to address all of the strategic actions in the report.

State of the science of maternal-infant bonding: a principle-based concept analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Bicking Kinsey, Cara; Hupcey, Judith E

2013-12-01

to provide a principle-based analysis of the concept of maternal-infant bonding. principle-based method of concept analysis for which the data set included 44 articles published in the last decade from Pubmed, CINAHL, and PyschINFO/PsychARTICLES. literature inclusion criteria were English language, articles published in the last decade, peer-reviewed journal articles and commentary on published work, and human populations. after a brief review of the history of maternal-infant bonding, a principle-based concept analysis was completed to examine the state of the science with regard to this concept. The concept was critically examined according to the clarity of definition (epistemological principle), applicability of the concept (pragmatic principle), consistency in use and meaning (linguistic principle), and differentiation of the concept from related concepts (logical principle). Analysis of the concept revealed: (1) Maternal-infant bonding describes maternal feelings and emotions towards her infant. Evidence that the concept encompasses behavioural or biological components was limited. (2) The concept is clearly operationalised in the affective domain. (3) Maternal-infant bonding is linguistically confused with attachment, although the boundaries between the concepts are clearly delineated. despite widespread use of the concept, maternal-infant bonding is at times superficially developed and subject to confusion with related concepts. Concept clarification is warranted. A theoretical definition of the concept of maternal-infant bonding was developed to aid in the clarification, but more research is necessary to further clarify and advance the concept. nurse midwives and other practitioners should use the theoretical definition of maternal-infant bonding as a preliminary guide to identification and understanding of the concept in clinical practice. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Epistemological Predictors of Prospective Biology Teachers' Nature of Science Understandings

Science.gov (United States)

Köseoglu, Pinar; Köksal, Mustafa Serdar

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate epistemological predictors of nature of science understandings of 281 prospective biology teachers surveyed using the Epistemological Beliefs Scale Regarding Science and the Nature of Science Scale. The findings on multiple linear regression showed that understandings about definition of science and…

492 Study Habit, Self-Concept and Science Achievement of Public ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Nekky Umera

student study habit and self-concept combined together and singularly predicted science ... Study skills are fundamental to academic success. A student who ... Motivation to engage or not in a task is significantly determined by self- concept or ...

Pre-service elementary teachers' understanding of scientific inquiry and its role in school science

Science.gov (United States)

Macaroglu, Esra

The purpose of this research was to explore pre-service elementary teachers' developing understanding of scientific inquiry within the context of their elementary science teaching and learning. More specifically, the study examined 24 pre-service elementary teachers' emerging understanding of (1) the nature of science and scientific inquiry; (2) the "place" of scientific inquiry in school science; and (3) the roles and responsibilities of teachers and students within an inquiry-based learning environment. Data sources consisted primarily of student-generated artifacts collected throughout the semester, including pre/post-philosophy statements and text-based materials collected from electronic dialogue journals. Individual data sources were open-coded to identify concepts and categories expressed by students. Cross-comparisons were conducted and patterns were identified. Assertions were formed with these patterns. Findings are hopeful in that they suggest pre-service teachers can develop a more contemporary view of scientific inquiry when immersed in a context that promotes this perspective. Not surprisingly, however, the prospective teachers encountered a number of barriers when attempting to translate their emerging ideas into practice. More research is needed to determine which teacher preparation experiences are most powerful in supporting pre-service teachers as they construct a framework for science teaching and learning that includes scientific inquiry as a central component.

Analysing dutch Science cafés to better understand the science-society relationship

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dijkstra, Anne M.

2017-01-01

Science cafés offer a place for information and discussion for all who are interested in science and its broader implications for society. In this paper, science cafés are explored as a means of informal science dialogue in order to gain more understanding of the science-society relationship.

The Contribution of Constructivist Instruction Accompanied by Concept Mapping in Enhancing Pre-Service Chemistry Teachers' Conceptual Understanding of Chemistry in the Laboratory Course

Science.gov (United States)

Aydin, Sevgi; Aydemir, Nurdane; Boz, Yezdan; Cetin-Dindar, Ayla; Bektas, Oktay

2009-01-01

The present study aimed to evaluate whether a chemistry laboratory course called "Laboratory Experiments in Science Education" based on constructivist instruction accompanied with concept mapping enhanced pre-service chemistry teachers' conceptual understanding. Data were collected from five pre-service chemistry teachers at a university…

How Do Students Acquire an Understanding of Logarithmic Concepts?

Science.gov (United States)

Mulqueeny, Ellen

2012-01-01

The use of logarithms, an important tool for calculus and beyond, has been reduced to symbol manipulation without understanding in most entry-level college algebra courses. The primary aim of this research, therefore, was to investigate college students' understanding of logarithmic concepts through the use of a series of instructional tasks…

Scientific approach as an understanding and applications of hydrological concepts of tropical rainforest

Science.gov (United States)

Haryanto, Z.; Setyasih, I.

2018-04-01

East Kalimantan has a variety of biomes, one of which is tropical rain forests. Tropical rain forests have enormous hydrological potential, so it is necessary to provide understanding to prospective teachers. Hydrology material cannot be separated from the concept of science, for it is needed the right way of learning so students easily understand the material. This research uses descriptive method with research subject is geography education students taking hydrology course at Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Mulawarman University. The results showed that the students were able to observe, ask question, collect data, give reason, and communicate the hydrological conditions of tropical rain forest biomes, especially related to surface ground water and groundwater conditions. Tropical rainforests are very influenced by the hydrological conditions of the region and the availability of water is affected by the forest area as a catchment area. Therefore, the tropical rainforest must be maintained in condition and its duration, so that there is no water crisis and hydrological related disasters.

On performing concepts during science lectures

Science.gov (United States)

Pozzer-Ardenghi, Lilian; Roth, Wolff-Michael

2007-01-01

When lecturing, teachers make use of both verbal and nonverbal communication. What is called teaching, therefore, involves not only the words and sentences a teacher utters and writes on the board during a lesson, but also all the hands/arms gestures, body movements, and facial expressions a teacher performs in the classroom. All of these communicative modalities constitute resources that are made available to students for making sense of and learning from lectures. Yet in the literature on teaching science, these other means of communication are little investigated and understood - and, correspondingly, they are undertheorized. The purpose of this position paper is to argue for a different view of concepts in lectures: they are performed simultaneously drawing on and producing multiple resources that are different expressions of the same holistic meaning unit. To support our point, we provide examples from a database of 26 lectures in a 12th-grade biology class, where the human body was the main topic of study. We analyze how different types of resources - including verbal and nonverbal discourse and various material artifacts - interact during lectures. We provide evidence for the unified production of these various sense-making resources during teaching to constitute a meaning unit, and we emphasize particularly the use of gestures and body orientations inside this meaning unit. We suggest that proper analyses of meaning units need to take into account not only language and diagrams but also a lecturer's pointing and depicting gestures, body positions, and the relationships between these different modalities. Scientific knowledge (conceptions) exists in the concurrent display of all sense-making resources, which we, following Vygotsky, understand as forming a unit (identity) of nonidentical entities.

Learner Characteristics and Understanding Nature of Science. Is There an Association?

Science.gov (United States)

Çetinkaya-Aydın, Gamze; Çakıroğlu, Jale

2017-11-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible associations between preservice science teachers' understanding of nature of science and their learner characteristics; understanding of nature of scientific inquiry, science teaching self-efficacy beliefs, metacognitive awareness level, and faith/worldview schemas. The sample of the current study was 60 3rd-year preservice science teachers enrolled in the Nature of Science and History of Science course. Using a descriptive and associational case study design, data were collected by means of different qualitative and quantitative questionnaires. Analysis of the data revealed that preservice science teachers' understanding of nature of science and nature of scientific inquiry were highly associated. Similarly, science teaching self-efficacy beliefs, metacognitive awareness levels, and faith/worldviews of the preservice science teachers were found to be significantly associated with their understanding of nature of science. Thus, it can be concluded that there might be other factors interfering with the learning processes of nature of science.

Non-Determinism: An Abstract Concept in Computer Science Studies

Science.gov (United States)

Armoni, Michal; Gal-Ezer, Judith

2007-01-01

Non-determinism is one of the most important, yet abstract, recurring concepts of Computer Science. It plays an important role in Computer Science areas such as formal language theory, computability theory, distributed computing, and operating systems. We conducted a series of studies on the perception of non-determinism. In the current research,…

The life of concepts: Georges Canguilhem and the history of science.

Science.gov (United States)

Schmidgen, Henning

2014-01-01

Twelve years after his famous Essay on Some Problems Concerning the Normal and the Pathological (1943), the philosopher Georges Canguilhem (1904-1995) published a book-length study on the history of a single biological concept. Within France, his Formation of the Reflex Concept in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (1955) contributed significantly to defining the "French style" of writing on the history of science. Outside of France, the book passed largely unnoticed. This paper re-reads Canguilhem's study of the reflex concept with respect to its historiographical and epistemological implications. Canguilhem defines concepts as complex and dynamic entities combining terms, definitions, and phenomena. As a consequence, the historiography of science becomes a rather complex task. It has to take into account textual and contextual aspects that develop independently of individual authors. In addition, Canguilhem stresses the connection between conceptual activities and other functions of organic individuals in their respective environments. As a result, biological concepts become tied to a biology of conceptual thinking, analogical reasoning, and technological practice. The paper argues that this seemingly circular structure is a major feature in Canguilhem's philosophical approach to the history of the biological sciences.

Crowd science and engineering: concept and research framework

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yueting Chai

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Purpose – The synthetic application and interaction of/between the internet, Internet of Things, cloud computing, big data, Industry 4.0 and other new patterns and new technologies shall breed future Web-based industrial operation system and social operation management patterns, manifesting as a crowd cyber eco-system composed of multiple interconnected intelligent agents (enterprises, individuals and governmental agencies and its dynamic behaviors. This paper aims to explore the basic principles and laws of such a system and its behavior. Design/methodology/approach – The authors propose the concepts of crowd science and engineering (CSE and expound its main content, thus forming a research framework of theories and methodologies of crowd science. Findings – CSE is expected to substantially promote the formation and development of crowd science and thus lay a foundation for the advancement of Web-based industrial operation system and social operation management patterns. Originality/value – This paper is the first one to propose the concepts of CSE, which lights the beacon for the future research in this area.

Science Communication for the Public Understanding of Nuclear Issues

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cho, Seongkyung [Myungji Univ., Yongin (Korea, Republic of)

2006-04-15

Uncertainty, stigma, risk perception, and value judgment represent characteristics of nuclear issues in the public arena. Nuclear issue, in the public arena, is a kind of risk rather than technology that we are willing to use for good purpose. There are uncertainty, stigma, risk perception, and value judgment as characteristics of nuclear. The notion of the public, here is of active, sensitive, and sensible citizens, with power and influence. The public understands nuclear issues less through direct experience or education than through the filter of mass media. Trust has been a key issue on public understanding of nuclear issues. Trust belongs to human. The public understanding process includes perception, interpretation, and evaluation. Therefore, science communication is needed for public understanding. Unfortunately, science communication is rarely performed well, nowadays, There are three important actors-the public, experts, and media. Effective science communication means finding comprehensible ways of presenting opaque and complex nuclear issues. It makes new and strong demands on experts. In order to meet that requirement, experts should fulfill their duty about developing nuclear technology for good purpose, understand the public before expecting the public to understand nuclear issues, accept the unique culture of the media process, take the responsibility for any consequence which nuclear technologies give rise to, communicate with an access route based on sensibility and rationality, have a flexible angle in the science communication process, get creative leadership for the communication process with deliberation and disagreement, make efficient use of various science technologies for science communication. We should try to proceed with patience, because science communication makes for a more credible society.

Science Communication for the Public Understanding of Nuclear Issues

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cho, Seongkyung

2006-01-01

Uncertainty, stigma, risk perception, and value judgment represent characteristics of nuclear issues in the public arena. Nuclear issue, in the public arena, is a kind of risk rather than technology that we are willing to use for good purpose. There are uncertainty, stigma, risk perception, and value judgment as characteristics of nuclear. The notion of the public, here is of active, sensitive, and sensible citizens, with power and influence. The public understands nuclear issues less through direct experience or education than through the filter of mass media. Trust has been a key issue on public understanding of nuclear issues. Trust belongs to human. The public understanding process includes perception, interpretation, and evaluation. Therefore, science communication is needed for public understanding. Unfortunately, science communication is rarely performed well, nowadays, There are three important actors-the public, experts, and media. Effective science communication means finding comprehensible ways of presenting opaque and complex nuclear issues. It makes new and strong demands on experts. In order to meet that requirement, experts should fulfill their duty about developing nuclear technology for good purpose, understand the public before expecting the public to understand nuclear issues, accept the unique culture of the media process, take the responsibility for any consequence which nuclear technologies give rise to, communicate with an access route based on sensibility and rationality, have a flexible angle in the science communication process, get creative leadership for the communication process with deliberation and disagreement, make efficient use of various science technologies for science communication. We should try to proceed with patience, because science communication makes for a more credible society

Testing primary-school children's understanding of the nature of science.

Science.gov (United States)

Koerber, Susanne; Osterhaus, Christopher; Sodian, Beate

2015-03-01

Understanding the nature of science (NOS) is a critical aspect of scientific reasoning, yet few studies have investigated its developmental beginnings and initial structure. One contributing reason is the lack of an adequate instrument. Two studies assessed NOS understanding among third graders using a multiple-select (MS) paper-and-pencil test. Study 1 investigated the validity of the MS test by presenting the items to 68 third graders (9-year-olds) and subsequently interviewing them on their underlying NOS conception of the items. All items were significantly related between formats, indicating that the test was valid. Study 2 applied the same instrument to a larger sample of 243 third graders, and their performance was compared to a multiple-choice (MC) version of the test. Although the MC format inflated the guessing probability, there was a significant relation between the two formats. In summary, the MS format was a valid method revealing third graders' NOS understanding, thereby representing an economical test instrument. A latent class analysis identified three groups of children with expertise in qualitatively different aspects of NOS, suggesting that there is not a single common starting point for the development of NOS understanding; instead, multiple developmental pathways may exist. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

Evaluation of Students' Understanding of Thermal Concepts in Everyday Contexts

Science.gov (United States)

Chu, Hye-Eun; Treagust, David F.; Yeo, Shelley; Zadnik, Marjan

2012-01-01

The aims of this study were to determine the underlying conceptual structure of the thermal concept evaluation (TCE) questionnaire, a pencil-and-paper instrument about everyday contexts of heat, temperature, and heat transfer, to investigate students' conceptual understanding of thermal concepts in everyday contexts across several school years and…

Investigating Undergraduate Science Students' Conceptions and Misconceptions of Ocean Acidification

Science.gov (United States)

Danielson, Kathryn I.; Tanner, Kimberly D.

2015-01-01

Scientific research exploring ocean acidification has grown significantly in past decades. However, little science education research has investigated the extent to which undergraduate science students understand this topic. Of all undergraduate students, one might predict science students to be best able to understand ocean acidification. What…

A Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science

Science.gov (United States)

Allison, L.; Hehn, J.; Kass, J.; O'Grady, R.; Scotchmoor, J.; Stucky, R.

2006-12-01

For many of the problems facing contemporary societies, such as potential impacts of climate change, coastal degradation, reductions of fisheries stocks, volcanic and earthquake hazards in densely populated areas, quality and availability of water, and exploitation of hydrocarbon resources and development of alternative energy sources, formulation of wise public policy depends on evaluation of the state of geoscientific research in the relevant areas. In a democratic society, public discourse about and input to policy decisions on key issues affecting the public welfare requires a public that understands the scientific research process, values the contribution of science to society, and has a working knowledge of what science can and cannot yet say about specific issues. Arguably, that ideal falls short in contemporary American society. Disturbing trends in science education, low public scientific literacy, and increasing alarms about U.S. competitiveness have all been prominent national news topics in recent years. (1) A recent National Science Board report indicated that two-thirds of Americans do not understand what science is, how it is conducted, and what one can expect from it. (2) A recent Gallup poll reports widespread and increasingly prevalent belief in pseudoscience. (3) There is a growing public complacency about and disengagement from science at the very moment when the impact of science on public life is greater than ever. (4) The Business Roundtable of major U.S. companies notes that the scientific and technical building blocks of our economic leadership are eroding at a time when many other nations are gathering strength. In response, a Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science COPUS has been initiated. Essential to COPUS is the premise that public understanding of science and the scientific process and an awareness of the impacts of scientific advancements on our quality of life are necessary to increase student interest in science as a

Understanding concepts of place in recreation research and management.

Science.gov (United States)

Linda. E. Kruger; Troy E. Hall; Maria C. Stiefel

2008-01-01

Over a 3-day weekend in the spring of 2004 a group of scientists interested in extending understanding of place as applied in recreation research and management convened a working session in Portland, Oregon. The purpose of the gathering was to clarify their understanding of place-related concepts, approaches to the study of people-place relations, and the application...

Understanding Electrochemistry Concepts Using the Predict-Observe-Explain Strategy

Science.gov (United States)

Karamustafaoglu, Sevilay; Mamlok-Naaman, Rachel

2015-01-01

The current study deals with freshman students who study at the Department of Science at the Faculty of Education. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of teaching electrochemistry concepts using Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) strategy. The study was quasi-experimental design using 20 students each in the experimental group (EG) and…

Assessing Children's Understanding of Length Measurement: A Focus on Three Key Concepts

Science.gov (United States)

Bush, Heidi

2009-01-01

In this article, the author presents three different tasks that can be used to assess students' understanding of the concept of length. Three important measurement concepts for students to understand are transitive reasoning, use of identical units, and iteration. In any teaching and learning process it is important to acknowledge students'…

Understanding Economic and Management Sciences Teachers' Conceptions of Sustainable Development

Science.gov (United States)

America, Carina

2014-01-01

Sustainable development has become a key part of the global educational discourse. Education for sustainable development (ESD) specifically is pronounced as an imperative for different curricula and regarded as being critical for teacher education. This article is based on research that was conducted on economic and management sciences (EMS)…

Integrated learning of mathematics, science and technology concepts through LEGO/Logo projects

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Lina

This dissertation examined integrated learning in the domains of mathematics, science and technology based on Piaget's constructivism, Papert's constructionism, and project-based approach to education. Ten fifth grade students were involved in a two-month long after school program where they designed and built their own computer-controlled LEGO/Logo projects that required the use of gears, ratios and motion concepts. The design of this study centered on three notions of integrated learning: (1) integration in terms of what educational materials/settings provide, (2) integration in terms of students' use of those materials, and (3) integration in the psychological sense. In terms of the first notion, the results generally showed that the LEGO/Logo environment supported the integrated learning of math, science and technology concepts. Regarding the second notion, the students all completed impressive projects of their own design. They successfully combined gears, motors, and LEGO parts together to create motion and writing control commands to manipulate the motion. But contrary to my initial expectations, their successful designs did not require numerical reasoning about ratios in designing effective gear systems. When they did reason about gear relationships, they worked with "qualitative" ratios, e.g., "a larger driver gear with a smaller driven gear increases the speed." In terms of the third notion of integrated learning, there was evidence in all four case study students of the psychological processes involved in linking mathematical, scientific, and/or technological concepts together to achieve new conceptual units. The students not only made connections between ideas and experiences, but also recognized decisive patterns and relationships in their project work. The students with stronger overall project performances showed more evidence of synthesis than the students with relatively weaker performances did. The findings support the conclusion that all three

Examining Preservice Science Teacher Understanding of Nature of Science: Discriminating Variables on the Aspects of Nature of Science

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, William I.

This study examined the understanding of nature of science among participants in their final year of a 4-year undergraduate teacher education program at a Midwest liberal arts university. The Logic Model Process was used as an integrative framework to focus the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of the data for the purpose of (1) describing participant understanding of NOS and (2) to identify participant characteristics and teacher education program features related to those understandings. The Views of Nature of Science Questionnaire form C (VNOS-C) was used to survey participant understanding of 7 target aspects of Nature of Science (NOS). A rubric was developed from a review of the literature to categorize and score participant understanding of the target aspects of NOS. Participants' high school and college transcripts, planning guides for their respective teacher education program majors, and science content and science teaching methods course syllabi were examined to identify and categorize participant characteristics and teacher education program features. The R software (R Project for Statistical Computing, 2010) was used to conduct an exploratory analysis to determine correlations of the antecedent and transaction predictor variables with participants' scores on the 7 target aspects of NOS. Fourteen participant characteristics and teacher education program features were moderately and significantly ( p Middle Childhood with a science concentration program major or in the Adolescent/Young Adult Science Education program major were more likely to have an informed understanding on each of the 7 target aspects of NOS. Analyses of the planning guides and the course syllabi in each teacher education program major revealed differences between the program majors that may account for the results.

Introduction: From "The Popularization of Science through Film" to "The Public Understanding of Science".

Science.gov (United States)

Vidal, Fernando

2018-03-01

Science in film, and usual equivalents such as science on film or science on screen, refer to the cinematographic representation, staging, and enactment of actors, information, and processes involved in any aspect or dimension of science and its history. Of course, boundaries are blurry, and films shot as research tools or documentation also display science on screen. Nonetheless, they generally count as scientific film, and science in and on film or screen tend to designate productions whose purpose is entertainment and education. Moreover, these two purposes are often combined, and inherently concern empirical, methodological, and conceptual challenges associated with popularization, science communication, and the public understanding of science. It is in these areas that the notion of the deficit model emerged to designate a point of view and a mode of understanding, as well as a set of practical and theoretical problems about the relationship between science and the public.

Mathematics and science Teachers' Understanding and Practices of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Amy Stambach

It employed qualitative methods of data collection including in-depth interviews and ... Education, Science, Technology, Scientific Research, 2003; Rwanda Education .... Rwandan science teachers were not having common understanding of ...

The Role of Science and Discovery Centres in the Public Understanding of Science

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Short, Daniel B.; Weis, Nicole

2013-01-01

The number of science and discovery centres has grown exponentially over the last two centuries. Science and discovery centres are one of the top five stimuli that influence a career choice in science. Their history, growth, impact and role in the public understanding of science are discussed. (Contains 2 tables, 7 figures, and 21 online…

Sociology and the public understanding of science: from rationalization to rhetoric.

Science.gov (United States)

Locke, S

2001-03-01

This paper contributes to the reappraisal of sociological theories of modernity inspired by the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK). As much as these theories rely on received ideas about the nature of science that SSK has called into doubt, so do they rely on ideas about the public understanding of science. Public understanding of science has been assumed to conform to the monolithic logic and perception of science associated with rationalization, leading to an impoverished view of the cognitive outlook of the modern individual. Rationalization has become the basis for the construction of theoretical critique of science divorced from any clear reference to public understanding, with the result that theory has encountered considerable problems in accounting for public scepticism towards science. However, rather than question rationalization, the more typical strategy has been to propose radical changes in the modernization process, such as postmodernism and the risk society. Against this, an alternative view of public understanding is advanced drawn from SSK and rhetorical psychology. The existence of the sociological critique of science, and SSK in particular, suggests that the meaning of science in modernity is not monolithic but multiple, arising out of a central dilemma over the universal form of knowledge-claims and their necessarily particular, human and social grounding. This dilemma plays out not only in intellectual discourses about science, but also in the public's understanding of science. This argument is used to call for further sociological research into public understanding and to encourage sociologists to recognize the central importance of the topic to a proper understanding of modernity.

Radiography – How do students understand the concept of radiography?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lundgren, S.M.; Lundén, M.; Andersson, B.T.

2015-01-01

Background: Radiography as a concept has mainly been associated with the functional role of the radiographer. The concept has been studied from a theoretical point of view. However, there is a lack of a theoretical foundation and research on the actual substance of the term radiography used in education. It is therefore important to undertake an investigation in order to determine how students after three years education understand the subject of radiography. Aim: The aim of this study was to analyse how students in the Swedish radiographers' degree program understand the concept of radiography. Method: A concept analysis was made according to the hybrid model, which combines theoretical, fieldwork and analytical phases. A summative content analysis was used to identify the number and content of statements. The empirical data were collected from questionnaires answered by radiography students at four universities in Sweden. Findings: All radiography students' exemplified radiography with statements related to the practical level although some of them also identified radiography at an abstract level, as a subject within a discipline. The attribute ‘An interdisciplinary area of knowledge’ emerged, which is an attribute on the abstract level. The practical level was described by four attributes: Mastering Medical Imaging’, ‘To accomplish images for diagnosis and interventions’, ‘Creating a caring environment’ and ‘Enabling fruitful encounters’. Conclusion: The hybrid model used was a versatile model of concept development. The results of this study have increased the understanding of what characterizes the concept of radiography in a Swedish context. - Highlights: • This concept analysis of radiography was undertaken according to a hybrid model. • In radiography humanistic aspects are emphasized, a shift from the technological perspective. • The attributes demonstrate the essence and interdisciplinary nature of radiography. • This

Computing as Empirical Science – Evolution of a Concept

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Polak Paweł

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This article presents the evolution of philosophical and methodological considerations concerning empiricism in computer/computing science. In this study, we trace the most important current events in the history of reflection on computing. The forerunners of Artificial Intelligence H.A. Simon and A. Newell in their paper Computer Science As Empirical Inquiry (1975 started these considerations. Later the concept of empirical computer science was developed by S.S. Shapiro, P. Wegner, A.H. Eden and P.J. Denning. They showed various empirical aspects of computing. This led to a view of the science of computing (or science of information processing - the science of general scope. Some interesting contemporary ways towards a generalized perspective on computations were also shown (e.g. natural computing.

Different understanding: science through the eyes of visual thinkers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sesko, S.C.; Marchant, M.

1997-09-11

The objective of this emergent study was to follow the cognitive and creative processes demonstrated by five art student participants as they integrated a developing knowledge of big science, as practiced at the Department of Energy`s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, into a personal and idiosyncratic visual, graphical, or multimedia product. The non-scientist participants involved in this process attended design classes sponsored by the Laboratory at the Art Center College of Design in California. The learning experience itself, and how the students arrived at their product, were the focus of the class and the research. The study was emergent in that we found no applicable literature on the use of art to portray a cognitive understanding of science. This lack of literature led us to the foundation literature on creativity and to the corpus of literature on public understanding of science. We believe that this study contributes to the literature on science education, art education, cognitive change, and public understanding of science. 20 refs., 11 figs.

Integrating Inquiry-Based Science and Education Methods Courses in a "Science Semester" for Future Elementary Teachers

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Madsen, J.; Fifield, S.; Allen, D.; Brickhouse, N.; Dagher, Z.; Ford, D.; Shipman, H.

2001-05-01

In this NSF-funded project we will adapt problem-based learning (PBL) and other inquiry-based approaches to create an integrated science and education methods curriculum ("science semester") for elementary teacher education majors. Our goal is to foster integrated understandings of science and pedagogy that future elementary teachers need to effectively use inquiry-based approaches in their classrooms. This project responds to calls to improve science education for all students by making preservice teachers' experiences in undergraduate science courses more consistent with reforms at the K-12 level. The involved faculty teach three science courses (biology, earth science, physical science) and an elementary science education methods course that are degree requirements for elementary teacher education majors. Presently, students take the courses in variable sequences and at widely scattered times. Too many students fail to appreciate the value of science courses to their future careers as teachers, and when they reach the methods course in the junior year they often retain little of the science content studied earlier. These episodic encounters with science make it difficult for students to learn the content, and to translate their understandings of science into effective, inquiry-based teaching strategies. To encourage integrated understandings of science concepts and pedagogy we will coordinate the science and methods courses in a junior-year science semester. Traditional subject matter boundaries will be crossed to stress shared themes that teachers must understand to teach standards-based elementary science. We will adapt exemplary approaches that support both learning science and learning how to teach science. Students will work collaboratively on multidisciplinary PBL activities that place science concepts in authentic contexts and build learning skills. "Lecture" meetings will be large group active learning sessions that help students understand difficult

Understanding students' concepts through guided inquiry learning and free modified inquiry on static fluid material

OpenAIRE

Sularso Sularso; Widha Sunarno; Sarwanto Sarwanto

2017-01-01

This study provides information on understanding students' concepts in guided inquiry learning groups and in free modified inquiry learning groups. Understanding of student concept is reviewed on the concept of static fluid case. The number of samples tested were 67 students. The sample is divided into 2 groups of students: the group is given guided inquiry learning and the group given the modified free inquiry learning. Understanding the concept of students is measured through 23 tests of it...

SKILL OF TEACHER CANDIDATES IN INTEGRATING THE CONCEPT OF SCIENCE WITH LOCAL WISDOM

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Parmin -

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Learning science is not limited to reviewing the concepts, but strengthens the identity of a nation that has a diversity of cultures. Science learning objectives that have been set in Indonesia, including the student is able to apply the science wisely, to maintain and preserve the cultural survival. The study aims to measure students' ability to relate concepts of science with local knowledge to use mind maps compiled individually. The results showed that 85% of teacher candidates are able to determine the relationship of science and local knowledge correctly. The ability to link the two domains, through the literature review, observation and interviews.

Liberal Liability. Understanding Students’ Conceptions of Gender Structures

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Linda Murstedt

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Research has shown that teaching gender theories tends to be an educational challenge and elicits student resistance. However, little is known about students’ learning processes in social science. This study aims to explore these learning processes by drawing on feminist pedagogy and conceptual change theory. The results show that when students are asked to perform analysis from a structural gender perspective, they recurrently introduce other explanatory frameworks based on non-structural understandings. The students’ learning processes involve reformulating questions and making interpretations based on liberal understandings of power, freedom of choice and equality. We argue that this process is due to the hegemonic position of the liberal paradigm as well as to the dominant ideas about science. Clarifying the underlying presumptions of a liberal perspective and a structural perspective may help students to recognise applied premises and enable them to distinguish relevant explanations.

What Are the Roles that Children's Drawings Play in Inquiry of Science Concepts?

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Chang, Ni

2012-01-01

This study was designed to identify the roles that drawing played in the process of children's acquisition of science concepts. Seventy pre-service teachers through four semesters from a Midwest University in the USA developed lesson plans on science concepts and then taught them to 70 young children ages 4-7, respectively. This experience was…

Understanding How Science Works: The Nature of Science as The Foundation for Science Teaching and Learning

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McComas, William F.

2017-01-01

The nature of science (NOS) is a phrase used to represent the rules of the game of science. Arguably, NOS is the most important content issue in science instruction because it helps students understand the way in which knowledge is generated and validated within the scientific enterprise. This article offers a proposal for the elements of NOS that…

A Thai pre-service teacher's understanding of nature of science in biology teaching

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Srisawat, Akkarawat; Aiemsum-ang, Napapan; Yuenyong, Chokchai

2018-01-01

This study was conducted on the effect of understanding and instruction of the nature of science of Ms. Wanida, a pre-service student under science education program in biology, Faculty of Education, Khon Kaen University. Wanida was a teaching practicum student majoring in biology at Khon Kaen University Demonstration School (Modindaeng). She was teaching biology for 38 Grade 10 students. Methodology regarded interpretive paradigm. The study aimed to examine 1) Wanida's understanding of the nature of science, 2) Wanida's instruction of the nature of science, 3 students' understanding of the nature of science from Wanida's instruction, and 4) the effects of Wanida's understanding and instruction of the nature of science on students' understanding of the nature of science from Wanida's instruction. Tools of interpretation included teaching observation, a semi-structured interview, open-ended questionnaire, and an observation record form for the instruction of the nature of science. The data obtained was interpreted, encoded, and classified, using the descriptive statistics. The findings indicated that Wanida held good understanding of the nature of science. She could apply the deficient nature of science approach mostly, followed by the implicit nature of science approach. Unfortunately, she could not show her teaching as explicit nature of science. However, her students' the understanding of the nature of science was good.

Stepping into Science Fiction: Understanding the Genre

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Barone, Diane; Barone, Rebecca

2014-01-01

This manuscript focuses on fifth graders' understanding of science fiction. It is argued that it is necessary for students to understand both reading strategies and the key elements of a genre for comprehension. Students read "The Giver" within literature circles and conversation and written responses about the book were used for…

Aural mapping of STEM concepts using literature mining

Science.gov (United States)

Bharadwaj, Venkatesh

Recent technological applications have made the life of people too much dependent on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and its applications. Understanding basic level science is a must in order to use and contribute to this technological revolution. Science education in middle and high school levels however depends heavily on visual representations such as models, diagrams, figures, animations and presentations etc. This leaves visually impaired students with very few options to learn science and secure a career in STEM related areas. Recent experiments have shown that small aural clues called Audemes are helpful in understanding and memorization of science concepts among visually impaired students. Audemes are non-verbal sound translations of a science concept. In order to facilitate science concepts as Audemes, for visually impaired students, this thesis presents an automatic system for audeme generation from STEM textbooks. This thesis describes the systematic application of multiple Natural Language Processing tools and techniques, such as dependency parser, POS tagger, Information Retrieval algorithm, Semantic mapping of aural words, machine learning etc., to transform the science concept into a combination of atomic-sounds, thus forming an audeme. We present a rule based classification method for all STEM related concepts. This work also presents a novel way of mapping and extracting most related sounds for the words being used in textbook. Additionally, machine learning methods are used in the system to guarantee the customization of output according to a user's perception. The system being presented is robust, scalable, fully automatic and dynamically adaptable for audeme generation.

Learner Characteristics and Understanding Nature of Science: Is There an Association?

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Çetinkaya-Aydin, Gamze; Çakiroglu, Jale

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible associations between preservice science teachers' understanding of nature of science and their learner characteristics; understanding of nature of scientific inquiry, science teaching self-efficacy beliefs, metacognitive awareness level, and faith/worldview schemas. The sample of the…

Systems in Science: Modeling Using Three Artificial Intelligence Concepts.

Science.gov (United States)

Sunal, Cynthia Szymanski; Karr, Charles L.; Smith, Coralee; Sunal, Dennis W.

2003-01-01

Describes an interdisciplinary course focusing on modeling scientific systems. Investigates elementary education majors' applications of three artificial intelligence concepts used in modeling scientific systems before and after the course. Reveals a great increase in understanding of concepts presented but inconsistent application. (Author/KHR)

Concept theory

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hjørland, Birger

2009-01-01

  Concept theory is an extremely broad, interdisciplinary and complex field of research related to many deep fields with very long historical traditions without much consensus. However, information science and knowledge organization cannot avoid relating to theories of concepts. Knowledge...... organizing systems (e.g. classification systems, thesauri and ontologies) should be understood as systems basically organizing concepts and their semantic relations. The same is the case with information retrieval systems. Different theories of concepts have different implications for how to construe......, evaluate and use such systems. Based on "a post-Kuhnian view" of paradigms this paper put forward arguments that the best understanding and classification of theories of concepts is to view and classify them in accordance with epistemological theories (empiricism, rationalism, historicism and pragmatism...

Understanding statistical concepts using S-PLUS

CERN Document Server

Schumacker, Randall E

2001-01-01

Written as a supplemental text for an introductory or intermediate statistics course, this book is organized along the lines of many popular statistics texts. The chapters provide a good conceptual understanding of basic statistics and include exercises that use S-PLUS simulation programs. Each chapter lists a set of objectives and a summary.The book offers a rich insight into how probability has shaped statistical procedures in the behavioral sciences, as well as a brief history behind the creation of various statistics. Computational skills are kept to a minimum by including S-PLUS programs

Emergence, concept, and understanding of Pan-River-Basin (PRB

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Ning Liu

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In this study, the concept of Pan-River-Basin (PRB for water resource management is proposed with a discussion on the emergence, concept, and application of PRB. The formation and application of PRB is also discussed, including perspectives on the river contribution rates, harmonious levels of watershed systems, and water resource availability in PRB system. Understanding PRB is helpful for reconsidering river development and categorizing river studies by the influences from human projects. The sustainable development of water resources and the harmonization between humans and rivers also requires PRB.

Concept Analysis and the Advance of Nursing Knowledge: State of the Science.

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Rodgers, Beth L; Jacelon, Cynthia S; Knafl, Kathleen A

2018-04-24

Despite an overwhelming increase in the number of concept analyses published since the early 1970s, there are significant limitations to the impact of this work in promoting progress in nursing science. We conducted an extensive review of concept analyses published between 1972 and 2017 to identify patterns in analysis and followed this with exploration of an exemplar related to the concept of normalization to demonstrate the capabilities of analysis for promoting concept development and progress. Scoping review of peer-reviewed literature published in the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) in which the terms "concept analysis," "concept clarification," and "concept derivation" appeared in any part of the reference. The original search returned 3,489 articles. This initial pool was refined to a final sample of 958 articles published in 223 journals and addressing 604 concepts. A review of citations of the original analysis of the concept of normalization resulted in 75 articles selected for closer examination of the process of concept development. Review showed a clear pattern of repetition of analysis of the same concept, growth in number of published analyses, preponderance of first authors with master's degrees, and 43 distinct descriptions of methods. Review of the 75 citations to the normalization analysis identified multiple ways concept analysis can inform subsequent research and theory development. Conceptual work needs to move beyond the level of "concept analysis" involving clear linkage to the resolution of problems in the discipline. Conceptual work is an important component of progress in the knowledge base of a discipline, and more effective use of concept development activities are needed to maximize the potential of this important work. It is important to the discipline that we facilitate progress in nursing science on a theoretical and conceptual level as a part of cohesive and systematic development of the discipline

The Social Science Teacher. 1972. Collected Conference Papers: Social Science Concepts Classroom Methods.

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Noble, Pat, Ed.; And Others

Papers in this publication are collected from a conference on social science concepts and classroom methods which focused on the theories of Jerome Bruner. The first article, entitled "Jerome Bruner," outlines four of Bruner's themes--structure, readiness, intuition, and interest--which relate to cognitive learning. Three…

Secondary School Students' Understanding of Science and Their Socioscientific Reasoning

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Karahan, Engin; Roehrig, Gillian

2017-08-01

Research in socioscientific issue (SSI)-based interventions is relatively new (Sadler in Journal of Research in Science Teaching 41:513-536, 2004; Zeidler et al. in Journal of Research in Science Teaching 46:74-101, 2009), and there is a need for understanding more about the effects of SSI-based learning environments (Sadler in Journal of Research in Science Teaching 41:513-536, 2004). Lee and Witz (International Journal of Science Education 31:931-960, 2009) highlighted the need for detailed case studies that would focus on how students respond to teachers' practices of teaching SSI. This study presents case studies that investigated the development of secondary school students' science understanding and their socioscientific reasoning within SSI-based learning environments. A multiple case study with embedded units of analysis was implemented for this research because of the contextual differences for each case. The findings of the study revealed that students' understanding of science, including scientific method, social and cultural influences on science, and scientific bias, was strongly influenced by their experiences in SSI-based learning environments. Furthermore, multidimensional SSI-based science classes resulted in students having multiple reasoning modes, such as ethical and economic reasoning, compared to data-driven SSI-based science classes. In addition to portraying how participants presented complexity, perspectives, inquiry, and skepticism as aspects of socioscientific reasoning (Sadler et al. in Research in Science Education 37:371-391, 2007), this study proposes the inclusion of three additional aspects for the socioscientific reasoning theoretical construct: (1) identification of social domains affecting the SSI, (2) using cost and benefit analysis for evaluation of claims, and (3) understanding that SSIs and scientific studies around them are context-bound.

An Overview of the Jupiter Europa Orbiter Concept's Europa Science Phase Orbit Design

Science.gov (United States)

Lock, Robert E.; Ludwinski, Jan M.; Petropoulos, Anastassios E.; Clark, Karla B.; Pappalardo, Robert T.

2009-01-01

Jupiter Europa Orbiter (JEO), the proposed NASA element of the proposed joint NASA-ESA Europa Jupiter System Mission (EJSM), could launch in February 2020 and conceivably arrive at Jupiter in December of 2025. The concept is to perform a multi-year study of Europa and the Jupiter system, including 30 months of Jupiter system science and a comprehensive Europa orbit phase of 9 months. This paper provides an overview of the JEO concept and describes the Europa Science phase orbit design and the related science priorities, model pay-load and operations scenarios needed to conduct the Europa Science phase. This overview is for planning and discussion purposes only.

The influence of authentic scientific research experiences on teachers' conceptions of the nature of science (NOS) and their NOS teaching practices

Science.gov (United States)

Moriarty, Meghan A.

This study explored the influence of teachers' authentic scientific research experiences (ASREs) on teachers' conceptions of the nature of science (NOS) and teachers' NOS instruction. Twelve high school biology teachers participated in this study. Six of the participants had authentic scientific research experience (ASRE) and six had not participated in authentic scientific research. Data included background surveys, modified Views of the Nature of Science (VNOS) questionnaires, interviews, and teaching observations. Data was coded based on the eight NOS understandings outlined in 2013 in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Evidence from this study indicates participating in authentic scientific research as a member of a scientific community has dual benefits of enabling high school science teachers with informed understandings of the NOS and positioning them to teach with the NOS. However, these benefits do not always result from an ASRE. If the nature of the ASRE is limited, then it may limit teachers' NOS understandings and their NOS teaching practices. The results of this study suggest that participation in ASREs may be one way to improve teachers' NOS understandings and teaching practices if the experiences themselves offer a comprehensive view of the NOS. Because ASREs and other science learning experiences do not always offer such experiences, pre-service teacher education and professional development opportunities may engage science teachers in two ways: (1) becoming part of a scientific community may enable them to teach with NOS and (2) being reflective about what being a scientist means may improve teachers' NOS understandings and better position them to teach about NOS.. Keywords: nature of science, authentic scientific research experiences, Next Generation Science Standards, teaching about NOS, teaching with NOS.

On the importance of PURE - Public Understanding of Renewable Energy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Broman, Lars; Kandpal, Tara C.

2013-09-15

Public understanding of science (PUS) is a central concept among science communicators. Public understanding of renewable energy (PURE) is proposed as an important sub-concept of PUS. The aim of this paper is to interest and invite renewable energy scientists to join a PURE research project. Four separate important questions for a PURE research project can be identified: (A) Is PURE important? (B) Which issues of PURE are the most important ones, according to renewable energy scientists? (C) What understanding of renewable energy has the general public today, worldwide? (D) How to achieve PURE?.

Understanding the Influence of Learners' Forethought on Their Use of Science Study Strategies in Postsecondary Science Learning

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Dunn, Karee E.; Lo, Wen-Juo

2015-01-01

Understanding self-regulation in science learning is important for theorists and practitioners alike. However, very little has been done to explore and understand students' self-regulatory processes in postsecondary science courses. In this study, the influence of science efficacy, learning value, and goal orientation on the perceived use of…

Investigating High School Students' Understanding of Chemical Equilibrium Concepts

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Karpudewan, Mageswary; Treagust, David F.; Mocerino, Mauro; Won, Mihye; Chandrasegaran, A. L.

2015-01-01

This study investigated the year 12 students' (N = 56) understanding of chemical equilibrium concepts after instruction using two conceptual tests, the "Chemical Equilibrium Conceptual Test 1" ("CECT-1") consisting of nine two-tier multiple-choice items and the "Chemical Equilibrium Conceptual Test 2"…

["Chemistry of Concepts”and “Historical Sense”. On Philosophical Concept Formation].

Science.gov (United States)

Blättler, Christine

2015-06-01

"Chemistry of Concepts" and "Historical Sense". On Philosophical Concept Formation. The question concerning concepts and their relations to objects and words has had a long and controversial history. Recently, it is challenged by an anew turn towards objects and an emphasized object-oriented ontology. The article argues that one reason for this is the reduction of concepts towards pure rational constructions and offers arguments for alternative understandings. In this context, the article proposes a re-reading of Nietzsche's particular approach and shows that Nietzsche's thought is decisively shaped by the sciences of his time, especially physiology and chemistry. Before the background of the recent increase in research interest on Nietzsche and the sciences the article examines place and function of the sciences related to the genealogy and justification of concepts. Opposing a strong naturalist reading it makes a plea for understanding Nietzsche's epistemological critique concerning concepts systematically as a triple one: philological, physiological, and historical. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Prospective Physics Teachers' Level of Understanding Energy, Power and Force Concepts

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Saglam-Arslan, Aysegul; Kurnaz, Mehmet Altan

2009-01-01

The aim of this study is to determine prospective physics teachers' level of understanding of the concepts of energy and the related concepts of force and power. The study was carried out with the participation of 56 physics education department students at a university in Karadeniz region. All participants had previously taken an introductory…

Integrating international relations and environmental science course concepts through an interactive world politics simulation

Science.gov (United States)

Straub, K. H.; Kesgin, B.

2012-12-01

During the fall 2012 semester, students in two introductory courses at Susquehanna University - EENV:101 Environmental Science and POLI:131 World Affairs - will participate together in an online international relations simulation called Statecraft (www.statecraftsim.com). In this strategy game, students are divided into teams representing independent countries, and choose their government type (democracy, constitutional monarchy, communist totalitarian, or military dictatorship) and two country attributes (industrial, green, militaristic, pacifist, or scientific), which determine a set of rules by which that country must abide. Countries interact over issues such as resource distribution, war, pollution, immigration, and global climate change, and must also keep domestic political unrest to a minimum in order to succeed in the game. This simulation has typically been run in political science courses, as the goal is to allow students to experience the balancing act necessary to maintain control of global and domestic issues in a dynamic, diverse world. This semester, environmental science students will be integrated into the simulation, both as environmental advisers to each country and as independent actors representing groups such as Greenpeace, ExxonMobil, and UNEP. The goal in integrating the two courses in the simulation is for the students in each course to gain both 1) content knowledge of certain fundamental material in the other course, and 2) a more thorough, applied understanding of the integrated nature of the two subjects. Students will gain an appreciation for the multiple tradeoffs that decision-makers must face in the real world (economy, resources, pollution, health, defense, etc.). Environmental science students will link these concepts to the traditional course material through a "systems thinking" approach to sustainability. Political science students will face the challenges of global climate change and gain an understanding of the nature of

Increasing the understanding of chemical concepts: The effectiveness of multiple exposures

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Bius, Janet H.

Chemistry is difficult because it has multilevels of knowledge with each level presenting challenges in vocabulary, abstract thinking, and symbolic language. Students have to be able to transfer between levels to understand the concepts and the theoretical models of chemistry. The cognitive theories of constructivism and cognitive-load theory are used to explain the difficulties novice learners have with the subject of chemistry and methods to increase success for students. The relationship between external representations, misconceptions and topics on the success of students are addressed. If students do not know the formalisms associated with chemical diagrams and graphs, the representations will decrease student success. Misconceptions can be formed when new information is interpreted based on pre-existing knowledge that is faulty. Topics with large amount of interacting elements that must be processed simultaneously are considered difficult to understand. New variables were created to measure the number of times a student is exposed to a chemical concept. Each variable was coded according to topic and learning environment, which are the lecture and laboratory components of the course, homework assignments and textbook examples. The exposure variables are used to measure the success rate of students on similar exam questions. Question difficulty scales were adapted for this project from those found in the chemical education literature. The exposure variables were tested on each level of the difficulty scales to determine their effect at decreasing the cognitive demand of these questions. The subjects of this study were freshmen science majors at a large Midwest university. The effects of the difficulty scales and exposure variables were measured for those students whose exam scores were in the upper one-fourth percentile, for students whose test scores were in the middle one-half percentile, and the lower one-fourth percentile are those students that scored the

Investigating the Interrelationships among Conceptions of, Approaches to, and Self-Efficacy in Learning Science

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Lanqin; Dong, Yan; Huang, Ronghuai; Chang, Chun-Yen; Bhagat, Kaushal Kumar

2018-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations between primary school students' conceptions of, approaches to, and self-efficacy in learning science in Mainland China. A total of 1049 primary school students from Mainland China participated in this study. Three instruments were adapted to measure students' conceptions of learning science,…

Should Science be Taught in Early Childhood?

Science.gov (United States)

Eshach, Haim; Fried, Michael N.

2005-09-01

This essay considers the question of why we should teach science to K-2. After initial consideration of two traditional reasons for studying science, six assertions supporting the idea that even small children should be exposed to science are given. These are, in order: (1) Children naturally enjoy observing and thinking about nature. (2) Exposing students to science develops positive attitudes towards science. (3) Early exposure to scientific phenomena leads to better understanding of the scientific concepts studied later in a formal way. (4) The use of scientifically informed language at an early age influences the eventual development of scientific concepts. (5) Children can understand scientific concepts and reason scientifically. (6) Science is an efficient means for developing scientific thinking. Concrete illustrations of some of the ideas discussed in this essay, particularly, how language and prior knowledge may influence the development of scientific concepts, are then provided. The essay concludes by emphasizing that there is a window of opportunity that educators should exploit by presenting science as part of the curriculum in both kindergarten and the first years of primary school.

The influence of role-specific self-concept and sex-role identity on career choices in science

Science.gov (United States)

Baker, Dale R.

Despite much effort on the part of educators the number of females who choose science careers remains low. This research focuses on two factors which may be influencing females in their choice of careers. These factors are role-specific self-concept in science and self perception in terms of stereotypical masculine and feminine characteristics. In addition logical ability and mathematics and science courses were also examined as factors in career choice. Females preferring science related careers and females preferring nontraditional careers such as police, military and trades were found to have a positive role-specific self-concept and a masculine perception of themselves. Females preferring traditional careers such as teacher or hairdresser had a poor role-specific self-concept and a more feminine perception of themselves. Males as a group were found to have a more positive role-specific self-concept than females. Logical ability was also related to a science career preference for both males and females. Males expected to take more higher level math courses than females, while females preferring science careers expected to take the most higher level science courses.

Advanced Concepts, Technologies and Flight Experiments for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise

Science.gov (United States)

Meredith, Barry D.

2000-01-01

Over the last 25 years, NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) has established a tradition of excellence in scientific research and leading-edge system developments, which have contributed to improved scientific understanding of our Earth system. Specifically, LaRC advances knowledge of atmospheric processes to enable proactive climate prediction and, in that role, develops first-of-a-kind atmospheric sensing capabilities that permit a variety of new measurements to be made within a constrained enterprise budget. These advances are enabled by the timely development and infusion of new, state-of-the-art (SOA), active and passive instrument and sensor technologies. In addition, LaRC's center-of-excellence in structures and materials is being applied to the technological challenges of reducing measurement system size, mass, and cost through the development and use of space-durable materials; lightweight, multi-functional structures; and large deployable/inflatable structures. NASA Langley is engaged in advancing these technologies across the full range of readiness levels from concept, to components, to prototypes, to flight experiments, and on to actual science mission infusion. The purpose of this paper is to describe current activities and capabilities, recent achievements, and future plans of the integrated science, engineering, and technology team at Langley Research Center who are working to enable the future of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise.

Science Teachers' Understanding and Practice of Inquiry-Based Instruction in Uganda

Science.gov (United States)

Ssempala, Fredrick

High school students in Uganda perform poorly in science subjects despite the Ugandan government's efforts to train science teachers and build modern science laboratories in many public high schools. The poor performance of students in science subjects has been largely blamed on the inability by many science teachers to teach science through Inquiry-Based Instruction (IBI) to motivate the students to learn science. However, there have been no empirical studies done to establish the factors that influence science teachers' understanding and practice of IBI in Uganda. Most of the published research on IBI has been conducted in developed countries, where the prevailing contexts are very different from the contexts in developing countries such as Uganda. Additionally, few studies have explored how professional development (PD) training workshops on inquiry and nature of science (NOS) affect chemistry teachers' understanding and practice of IBI. My purpose in this multi-case exploratory qualitative study was to explore the effect of a PD workshop on inquiry and NOS on chemistry teachers' understanding and practice of IBI in Kampala city public schools in Uganda. I also explored the relationship between chemistry teachers' NOS understanding and the nature of IBI implemented in their classrooms and the internal and external factors that influence teachers' understanding and practice of IBI. I used a purposive sampling procedure to identify two schools of similar standards from which I selected eight willing chemistry teachers (four from each school) to participate in the study. Half of the teachers (those from School A) attended the PD workshop on inquiry and NOS for six days, while the control group (those from School B) did not. I collected qualitative data through semi-structured interviews, classroom observation, and document analysis. I analyzed these data by structural, conceptual and theoretical coding approach. I established that all the participating chemistry

Seeding Science Success: Psychometric Properties of Secondary Science Questionnaire on Students' Self-Concept, Motivation, and Aspirations

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Chandrasena, Wanasinghe; Craven, Rhonda G.; Tracey, Danielle; Dillon, Anthony

2014-01-01

Every sphere of life has been revolutionised by science. Thus, science understanding is an increasingly precious resource throughout the world. Despite the widely recognised need for better science education, the percentage of school students studying science is particularly low, and the numbers of students pursuing science continue to decline…

First-Year University Science and Engineering Students' Understanding of Plagiarism

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Yeo, Shelley

2007-01-01

This paper is a case study of first-year science and engineering students' understandings of plagiarism. Students were surveyed for their views on scenarios illustrating instances of plagiarism in the context of the academic work and assessment of science and engineering students. The aim was to explore their understandings of plagiarism and their…

Development and Validation of the Life Sciences Assessment: A Measure of Preschool Children's Conceptions of Basic Life Sciences

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Maherally, Uzma Nooreen

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a science assessment tool termed the Life Sciences Assessment (LSA) in order to assess preschool children's conceptions of basic life sciences. The hypothesis was that the four sub-constructs, each of which can be measured through a series of questions on the LSA, will make a significant…

Food-Based Science Curriculum Increases 4th Graders Multidisciplinary Science Knowledge

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Hovland, Jana A.; Carraway-Stage, Virginia G.; Cela, Artenida; Collins, Caitlin; Díaz, Sebastián R.; Collins, Angelo; Duffrin, Melani W.

2013-01-01

Health professionals and policymakers are asking educators to place more emphasis on food and nutrition education. Integrating these topics into science curricula using hand-on, food-based activities may strengthen students' understanding of science concepts. The Food, Math, and Science Teaching Enhancement Resource (FoodMASTER) Initiative is a…

Students' Self-Concept and Their Achievement in Basic Science ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The study investigated the relationship between students self-concept andtheir academic performance in Basic Science. It further examines genderdifference in students performance. The study adopted ex-post factorresearch design and made use of 300 students all from Public Schools. Theadapted Version of ...

Alienation: A Concept for Understanding Low-Income, Urban Clients

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Holcomb-McCoy, Cheryl

2004-01-01

The author examines the concept of alienation and how it can be used to understand low-income, urban clients. A description is presented of 4 dimensions of alienation: powerlessness, meaninglessness, normlessness, and social isolation. Case illustrations are provided, and recommendations are made for counseling alienated clients. This article…

The effects of collaborative concept mapping on the achievement, science self-efficacy and attitude toward science of female eighth-grade students

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Ledger, Antoinette Frances

This study sought to examine whether collaborative concept mapping would affect the achievement, science self-efficacy and attitude toward science of female eighth grade science students. The research questions are: (1) Will the use of collaborative concept mapping affect the achievement of female students in science? (2) Will the use of collaborative concept mapping affect the science self-efficacy of female students? (3) Will the use of collaborative concept mapping affect the attitudes of females toward science? The study was quasi-experimental and utilized a pretest-posttest design for both experimental and control groups. Eighth grade female and male students from three schools in a large northeastern school district participated in this study. The achievement test consisted of 10 multiple choice and two open-response questions and used questions from state-wide and national assessments as well as teacher-constructed items. A 29 item Likert type instrument (McMillan, 1992) was administered to measure science self-efficacy and attitude toward science. The study was of 12 weeks duration. During the study, experimental group students were asked to perform collaborative concept map construction in single sex dyads using specific terms designated by the classroom teacher and the researcher. During classroom visitations, student perceptions of collaborative concept mapping were collected and were used to provide insight into the results of the quantitative data analysis. Data from the pre and posttest instruments were analyzed for both experimental and control groups using t-tests. Additionally, the three teachers were interviewed and their perceptions of the study were also used to gain insight into the results of the study. The analysis of data showed that experimental group females showed significantly higher gains in achievement than control group females. An additional analysis of data showed experimental group males showed significantly greater gains in

The relationship between nature of science understandings and science self-efficacy beliefs of sixth grade students

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Parker, Elisabeth Allyn

Bandura (1986) posited that self-efficacy beliefs help determine what individuals do with the knowledge and skills they have and are critical determinants of how well skill and knowledge are acquired. Research has correlated self-efficacy beliefs with academic success and subject interest (Pajares, Britner, & Valiante, 2000). Similar studies report a decreasing interest by students in school science beginning in middle school claiming that they don't enjoy science because the classes are boring and irrelevant to their lives (Basu & Barton, 2007). The hypothesis put forth by researchers is that students need to observe models of how science is done, the nature of science (NOS), so that they connect with the human enterprise of science and thereby raise their self-efficacy (Britner, 2008). This study examined NOS understandings and science self-efficacy of students enrolled in a sixth grade earth science class taught with explicit NOS instruction. The research questions that guided this study were (a) how do students' self-efficacy beliefs change as compared with changes in their nature of science understandings?; and (b) how do changes in students' science self-efficacy beliefs vary with gender and ethnicity segregation? A mixed method design was employed following an embedded experimental model (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007). As the treatment, five NOS aspects were first taught by the teachers using nonintegrated activities followed by integrated instructional approach (Khishfe, 2008). Students' views of NOS using the Views on Nature of Science (VNOS) (Lederman, Abd-El-Khalick, & Schwartz, 2002) along with their self-efficacy beliefs using three Likert-type science self-efficacy scales (Britner, 2002) were gathered. Changes in NOS understandings were determined by categorizing student responses and then comparing pre- and post-instructional understandings. To determine changes in participants' self-efficacy beliefs as measured by the three subscales, a multivariate

The Science Operations Concept for the ExoMars 2016 Trace Gas Orbiter

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Frew, D.

2014-04-01

The ExoMars 2016 Science Operations Centre (SOC) based at the European Space Astronomy Centre is responsible for coordinating the science planning activities for the Trace Gas Orbiter. Science planning will involve all members of the ExoMars 2016 science ground segment (SGS), namely the SOC at ESAC, the Russian SOC at IKI, the orbiter instrument teams and the science management of the 2016 mission represented by the science working team (SWT) that is chaired by the project scientist. The science operations concept for the mission builds on the legacy inherited from previous ESA planetary missions, in particular from Mars Express for the core plan validation aspects and from the Smart-1 lunar mission for the opportunity analysis and longterm planning approach. Further concept drivers have been derived from the ExoMars 2016 mission profile in the areas of orbit predictability, instrument design and the usage of TGO as a relay for surface assets including the ExoMars 2018 rover. This paper will give an over view of the entire uplink planning process as it is conducted over 3 distinct planning cycles. The Long Term Plan (LTP) establishes the baseline science plan and demonstrates the operational feasibility of meeting the mission science goals formulated by the science working team (SWT) at science management level. The LTP has a planning horizon of 6 months. Each month of the baseline science plan is refined with the instrument teams within the Medium Term Plan (MTP) to converge on a frozen attitude request and resource envelopes for all of the observations in the plan. During the Short Term Planning cycle the SOC will iterate with the teams to finalise the commanding for all of the observations in the plan for the coming week. The description of the uplink planning process will focus on two key areas that are common to all of the planning cycles mentioned above: • Science Plan Abstraction: Interacting with the science plan at the appropriate level of abstraction to

ANALYSIS LEARNING MODEL OF DISCOVERY AND UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT PRELIMINARY TO PHYSICS LEARNING OUTCOMES SMA

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Sri Rosepda Sebayang

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This study aims: 1 to determine whether the student learning outcomes using discovery learning is better than conventional learning 2 To determine whether the learning outcomes of students who have a high initial concept understanding better then of low initial concept understanding, and 3 to determine the effect of interaction discovery learning and understanding of the initial concept of the learning outcomes of students. The samples in this study was taken by cluster random sampling two classes where class X PIA 3 as a class experiment with applying discovery learning and class X PIA 2 as a control class by applying conventional learning. The instrument used in this study is a test of learning outcomes in the form of multiple-choice comprehension test initial concept description form. The results of research are: 1 learning outcomes of students who were taught with discovery learning is better than the learning outcomes of students who are taught by conventional learning, 2 student learning outcomes with high initial conceptual understanding better than the learning outcomes of students with low initial conceptual understanding, and 3 there was no interaction between discovery learning and understanding of initial concepts for the student learning outcomes.

Effect of science magic applied in interactive lecture demonstrations on conceptual understanding

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Taufiq, Muhammad; Suhandi, Andi; Liliawati, Winny

2017-08-01

Research about the application of science magic-assisting Interactive Lecture Demonstrations (ILD) has been conducted. This research is aimed at providing description about the comparison of the improvement of the conceptual understanding of lesson on pressure between students who receive physics lesson through science magic-assisting ILD and students who receive physics lesson through ILD without science magic. This research used a quasi-experiment methods with Control Group Pretest-Posttest Design. The subject of the research is all students of class VIII in one of MTs (Islamic junior high school) in Pekalongan. Research samples were selected using random sampling technique. Data about students' conceptual understanding was collected using test instrument of conceptual understanding in the form of multiple choices. N-gain average calculation was performed in order to determine the improvement of students' conceptual understanding. The result of the research shows that conceptual understanding of students on lesson about pressure who received lesson with ILD using science magic is higher than students who received lesson with ILD without science magic . Therefore, the conclusion is that the application of science magic ILD is more effective to improve the conceptual understanding of lesson on pressure.

How Pre-Service Teachers' Understand and Perform Science Process Skills

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Chabalengula, Vivien Mweene; Mumba, Frackson; Mbewe, Simeon

2012-01-01

This study explored pre-service teachers' conceptual understanding and performance on science process skills. A sample comprised 91 elementary pre-service teachers at a university in the Midwest of the USA. Participants were enrolled in two science education courses; introductory science teaching methods course and advanced science methods course.…

Profile of Metacognition of Mathematics and Mathematics Education Students in Understanding the Concept of Integral Calculus

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Misu, La; Ketut Budayasa, I.; Lukito, Agung

2018-03-01

This study describes the metacognition profile of mathematics and mathematics education students in understanding the concept of integral calculus. The metacognition profile is a natural and intact description of a person’s cognition that involves his own thinking in terms of using his knowledge, planning and monitoring his thinking process, and evaluating his thinking results when understanding a concept. The purpose of this study was to produce the metacognition profile of mathematics and mathematics education students in understanding the concept of integral calculus. This research method is explorative method with the qualitative approach. The subjects of this study are mathematics and mathematics education students who have studied integral calculus. The results of this study are as follows: (1) the summarizing category, the mathematics and mathematics education students can use metacognition knowledge and metacognition skills in understanding the concept of indefinite integrals. While the definite integrals, only mathematics education students use metacognition skills; and (2) the explaining category, mathematics students can use knowledge and metacognition skills in understanding the concept of indefinite integrals, while the definite integrals only use metacognition skills. In addition, mathematics education students can use knowledge and metacognition skills in understanding the concept of both indefinite and definite integrals.

Sciences literacy on nutrition program for improving public wellness

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Rochman, C.; Nasrudin, D.; Helsy, I.; Rokayah; Kusbudiah, Y.

2018-05-01

Increased wellness for a person becomes a necessity now and for the future. Various ways people do to get fit include following and understanding nutrition. This review will inventory the concepts of science involved to understand the nutritional program and its impact on fitness levels. The method used is a quantitative and qualitative descriptive mixed method based on treatment to a number of nutrition group participants in a nutrition group in Bandung. The concepts of science that are the subject of study are the concepts of physics, chemistry, and biology. The results showed that the ability of science literacy and respondent's wellness level varies and there is a relationship between science literacy with one's wellness level. The implications of this research are the need for science literacy and wellness studies for community based on educational level and more specific scientific concepts.

Seeking missing pieces in science concept assessments: Reevaluating the Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment through Rasch analysis

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Lin Ding

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Discipline-based science concept assessments are powerful tools to measure learners’ disciplinary core ideas. Among many such assessments, the Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment (BEMA has been broadly used to gauge student conceptions of key electricity and magnetism (E&M topics in college-level introductory physics courses. Differing from typical concept inventories that focus only on one topic of a subject area, BEMA covers a broad range of topics in the electromagnetism domain. In spite of this fact, prior studies exclusively used a single aggregate score to represent individual students’ overall understanding of E&M without explicating the construct of this assessment. Additionally, BEMA has been used to compare traditional physics courses with a reformed course entitled Matter and Interactions (M&I. While prior findings were in favor of M&I, no empirical evidence was sought to rule out possible differential functioning of BEMA that may have inadvertently advantaged M&I students. In this study, we used Rasch analysis to seek two missing pieces regarding the construct and differential functioning of BEMA. Results suggest that although BEMA items generally can function together to measure the same construct of application and analysis of E&M concepts, several items may need further revision. Additionally, items that demonstrate differential functioning for the two courses are detected. Issues such as item contextual features and student familiarity with question settings may underlie these findings. This study highlights often overlooked threats in science concept assessments and provides an exemplar for using evidence-based reasoning to make valid inferences and arguments.

Seeking missing pieces in science concept assessments: Reevaluating the Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment through Rasch analysis

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Ding, Lin

2014-02-01

Discipline-based science concept assessments are powerful tools to measure learners' disciplinary core ideas. Among many such assessments, the Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment (BEMA) has been broadly used to gauge student conceptions of key electricity and magnetism (E&M) topics in college-level introductory physics courses. Differing from typical concept inventories that focus only on one topic of a subject area, BEMA covers a broad range of topics in the electromagnetism domain. In spite of this fact, prior studies exclusively used a single aggregate score to represent individual students' overall understanding of E&M without explicating the construct of this assessment. Additionally, BEMA has been used to compare traditional physics courses with a reformed course entitled Matter and Interactions (M&I). While prior findings were in favor of M&I, no empirical evidence was sought to rule out possible differential functioning of BEMA that may have inadvertently advantaged M&I students. In this study, we used Rasch analysis to seek two missing pieces regarding the construct and differential functioning of BEMA. Results suggest that although BEMA items generally can function together to measure the same construct of application and analysis of E&M concepts, several items may need further revision. Additionally, items that demonstrate differential functioning for the two courses are detected. Issues such as item contextual features and student familiarity with question settings may underlie these findings. This study highlights often overlooked threats in science concept assessments and provides an exemplar for using evidence-based reasoning to make valid inferences and arguments.

An exploration of middle school science teachers' understandings and teaching practice of science as inquiry

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Castle, Margaret Ann

understanding of science increases (Akkus, Gunel & Hand, 2007; Gibson, 2002; Liu, Lee & Linn, 2010). As a result, it is important to explore middle school science teachers' definition of science as inquiry because of its importance in how their understandings are reflected in their practice. Researchers must witness, first- hand, what is taking place in middle school science classrooms with respect to the teaching of scientific inquiry before recommendations for improvements can be made. We must also allow opportunities for middle school science teachers to broach, examine, explore, interpret and report implementation strategies when practicing the elements of scientific inquiry as a science content area. It then stands to reason that more research needs to be done to: (1) assess teachers' knowledge related to reform-based teaching, (2) investigate teachers' views about the goals and purposes of inquiry, and (3) investigate the processes by which teachers carry out SI and motivation for undertaking such a complex and difficult to manage form of instruction. The purpose of this study was to examine middle school science teachers' understandings and skills related to scientific inquiry; how those understandings and skills were translated into classroom practice, and the role the school district played in the development of such understandings and skills.

Mars Science Laboratory Using Laser Instrument, Artist's Concept

Science.gov (United States)

2007-01-01

This artist's conception of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory portrays use of the rover's ChemCam instrument to identify the chemical composition of a rock sample on the surface of Mars. ChemCam is innovative for planetary exploration in using a technique referred to as laser breakdown spectroscopy to determine the chemical composition of samples from distances of up to about 8 meters (25 feet) away. ChemCam is led by a team at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Centre d'Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements in Toulouse, France. Mars Science Laboratory, a mobile robot for investigating Mars' past or present ability to sustain microbial life, is in development at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for a launch opportunity in 2009. The mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif., for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Exploring children's understanding of death: through drawings and the Death Concept Questionnaire.

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Bonoti, Fotini; Leondari, Angeliki; Mastora, Adelais

2013-01-01

To investigate whether children's understanding of the concept of death varies as a function of death experience and age, 52 children aged 7, 9, and 11 years (26 had a personal death experience), drew a picture reflecting the meaning of the word death and completed the Death Concept Questionnaire for examination of Human and Animal Death. The results showed that the 2 methodological tools used offered complementary information and that children's understanding of death is related both to age and past experience. Children with death experience seem to have a more realistic understanding of death than their inexperienced age-mates. As regards to the effect of age, our findings support the assumption that the different components of death develop through different processes.

Test of understanding of vectors: A reliable multiple-choice vector concept test

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Barniol, Pablo; Zavala, Genaro

2014-06-01

In this article we discuss the findings of our research on students' understanding of vector concepts in problems without physical context. First, we develop a complete taxonomy of the most frequent errors made by university students when learning vector concepts. This study is based on the results of several test administrations of open-ended problems in which a total of 2067 students participated. Using this taxonomy, we then designed a 20-item multiple-choice test [Test of understanding of vectors (TUV)] and administered it in English to 423 students who were completing the required sequence of introductory physics courses at a large private Mexican university. We evaluated the test's content validity, reliability, and discriminatory power. The results indicate that the TUV is a reliable assessment tool. We also conducted a detailed analysis of the students' understanding of the vector concepts evaluated in the test. The TUV is included in the Supplemental Material as a resource for other researchers studying vector learning, as well as instructors teaching the material.

Students’ conceptions analysis on several electricity concepts

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Saputro, D. E.; Sarwanto, S.; Sukarmin, S.; Ratnasari, D.

2018-05-01

This research is aimed to analyse students’ conceptions on several electricity concept. This is a descriptive research with the subjects of new students of Sebelas Maret University. The numbers of the subject were 279 students that consisted of several departments such as science education, physics education, chemistry education, biology education and mathematics education in the academic year of 2017/2018. The instrument used in this research was the multiple-choice test with arguments. Based on the result of the research and analysis, it can be concluded that most of the students still find misconceptions and do not understand electricity concept on sub-topics such as electric current characteristic in the series and parallel arrangement, the value of capacitor capacitance, the influence of the capacitor charge and discharge towards the loads, and the amount of capacitor series arrangement. For the future research, it is suggested to improve students’ conceptual understanding with appropriate learning method and assessment instrument because electricity is one of physics material that closely related with students’ daily life.

Learning of science concepts within a traditional socio-cultural ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The learning of science concepts within a traditional socio-cultural environment were investigated by looking at: 1) the nature of \\"cognitive border crossing\\" exhibited by the students from the traditional to the scientific worldview, and 2) whether or not three learning theories / hypotheses: border crossing, collaterality, and ...

Using the Tower of Hanoi Puzzle to Infuse Your Mathematics Classroom with Computer Science Concepts

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Marzocchi, Alison S.

2016-01-01

This article suggests that logic puzzles, such as the well-known Tower of Hanoi puzzle, can be used to introduce computer science concepts to mathematics students of all ages. Mathematics teachers introduce their students to computer science concepts that are enacted spontaneously and subconsciously throughout the solution to the Tower of Hanoi…

The Relationship between Science Achievement and Self-Concept among Gifted Students from the Third International Earth Science Olympiad

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Chang, Chun-Yen; Lin, Pei-Ling

2017-01-01

This study investigated the relationship between gifted students' academic self-concept (ASC) and academic achievement (AC) in earth science with internationally representative high-school students from the third International Earth Science Olympiad (IESO) held in Taiwan in 2009. The results of regression analysis indicated that IESO students' ASC…

Effectiveness of Science-Technology-Society (STS) Instruction on Student Understanding of the Nature of Science and Attitudes toward Science

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Akcay, Behiye; Akcay, Hakan

2015-01-01

The study reports on an investigation about the impact of science-technology-society (STS) instruction on middle school student understanding of the nature of science (NOS) and attitudes toward science compared to students taught by the same teacher using traditional textbook-oriented instruction. Eight lead teachers used STS instruction an…

‘Sometimes They Are Fun and Sometimes They Are Not’: Concept Mapping with English Language Acquisition (ELA and Gifted/Talented (GT Elementary Students Learning Science and Sustainability

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Katrina Marzetta

2018-01-01

Full Text Available This study presents an ‘education for sustainability’ curricular model which promotes science learning in an elementary classroom through equity pedagogy. A total of 25 fourth-grade students from an urban, public school in Denver, Colorado participated in this mixed-methods study where concept maps were used as a tool for describing and assessing students’ understanding of ecosystem interactions. Concept maps provide a more holistic, systems-based assessment of science learning in a sustainability curriculum. The concept maps were scored and analyzed using SPSS to investigate potential differences in learning gains of English Language Acquisition (ELA and Gifted/Talented (GT students. Interviews were conducted after the concept maps were administered, then transcribed and inductively coded to generate themes related to science learning. Interviews also encouraged students to explain their drawings and provided a more accurate interpretation of the concept maps. Findings revealed the difference between pre- and post-concept map scores for ELA and GT learners were not statistically significant. Students also demonstrated an increased knowledge of ecosystem interactions during interviews. Concept maps, as part of an education for sustainability curriculum, can promote equity by providing diverse learners with different—yet equally valid—outlets to express their scientific knowledge.

Relationships between Prospective Elementary Teachers' Classroom Practice and Their Conceptions of Biology and of Teaching Science.

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Meyer, Helen; Tabachnick, B. Robert; Hewson, Peter W.; Lemberger, John; Park, Hyun-Ju

1999-01-01

Discusses three prospective elementary teachers' conceptions of teaching science and selected portions of their knowledge base in life science. Explores how these teachers' conceptions, along with their teaching actions, developed during the course of a teacher-education program. Contains 21 references. (Author/WRM)

Science Understanding through Playground Physics: Organized Recess Teaching (SUPPORT)

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Kincaid, Russell

2010-03-01

From 1995-2007, U.S. science students in grade four scored higher than the scaled TIMSS average, but their scores did not improve over this time. Moreover, in the area of physical science, the U.S. scored significantly lower than several Asian countries, as well as Russia, England, and Latvia (TIMSS). Methods to enhance student achievement in science are still being sought. An approach to utilizing playground equipment as a teaching tool for a variety of physics concepts was developed as a physical science teaching method. This program established an appropriate set of experiments, coordinated the effort with local school districts, and implemented a brief pilot study to test the teaching methodology. The program assigned undergraduate middle school science education majors to teach small groups of fourth grade students. The experimental group used the newly developed ``Playground Physics'' methodology while the control group used traditional approaches. Follow up activities will include an expansion of the duration and the scope of the program.

Appropriating religion: understanding religion as an object of science

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Donald Wiebe

1999-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper, the author focuses on the study of religion as a scientific project, for it is the scientific interest in religion which has constituted the grounds for admitting the study of religion into the curriculum of the modern Western university. Despite that academic legitimation, however, the study of religion in the setting of the modern research university is not held in high esteem relative to the other sciences. It if the scientific study of religion is to be legitimately ensconced in the modern research university, the notion of religion will have to be wholly appropriated by science; only then will we be able to establish a conceptual foundation from which to make valid knowledge claims about religion on a level commensurate with the pronouncements of the natural and social sciences. Indeed, to go one step further, given the hold on the concept of religion by those committed to the humanistic study of religion, we might need to talk here not of the appropriation but of expropriation of religion by science—that is, of wresting ownership of the concept from the humanists by using it solely as a taxonomic device to differentiate and explain a peculiar range of human behaviour demonstrated in religious practices.

Test of Understanding of Vectors: A Reliable Multiple-Choice Vector Concept Test

Science.gov (United States)

Barniol, Pablo; Zavala, Genaro

2014-01-01

In this article we discuss the findings of our research on students' understanding of vector concepts in problems without physical context. First, we develop a complete taxonomy of the most frequent errors made by university students when learning vector concepts. This study is based on the results of several test administrations of open-ended…

Moral distress: a comparative analysis of theoretical understandings and inter-related concepts.

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Lützén, Kim; Kvist, Beatrice Ewalds

2012-03-01

Research on ethical dilemmas in health care has become increasingly salient during the last two decades resulting in confusion about the concept of moral distress. The aim of the present paper is to provide an overview and a comparative analysis of the theoretical understandings of moral distress and related concepts. The focus is on five concepts: moral distress, moral stress, stress of conscience, moral sensitivity and ethical climate. It is suggested that moral distress connects mainly to a psychological perspective; stress of conscience more to a theological-philosophical standpoint; and moral stress mostly to a physiological perspective. Further analysis indicates that these thoughts can be linked to the concepts of moral sensitivity and ethical climate through a relationship to moral agency. Moral agency comprises a moral awareness of moral problems and moral responsibility for others. It is suggested that moral distress may serve as a positive catalyst in exercising moral agency. An interdisciplinary approach in research and practice broadens our understanding of moral distress and its impact on health care personnel and patient care.

New concepts of science and medicine in science and technology studies and their relevance to science education.

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Wang, Hsiu-Yun; Stocker, Joel F; Fu, Daiwie

2012-02-01

Science education often adopts a narrow view of science that assumes the lay public is ignorant, which seemingly justifies a science education limited to a promotional narrative of progress in the form of scientific knowledge void of meaningful social context. We propose that to prepare students as future concerned citizens of a technoscientific society, science education should be informed by science, technology, and society (STS) perspectives. An STS-informed science education, in our view, will include the following curricular elements: science controversy education, gender issues, historical perspective, and a move away from a Eurocentric view by looking into the distinctive patterns of other regional (in this case of Taiwan, East Asian) approaches to science, technology, and medicine. This article outlines the significance of some major STS studies as a means of illustrating the ways in which STS perspectives can, if incorporated into science education, enhance our understanding of science and technology and their relationships with society. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier B.V.

New concepts of science and medicine in science and technology studies and their relevance to science education

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Hsiu-Yun Wang

2012-02-01

Full Text Available Science education often adopts a narrow view of science that assumes the lay public is ignorant, which seemingly justifies a science education limited to a promotional narrative of progress in the form of scientific knowledge void of meaningful social context. We propose that to prepare students as future concerned citizens of a technoscientific society, science education should be informed by science, technology, and society (STS perspectives. An STS-informed science education, in our view, will include the following curricular elements: science controversy education, gender issues, historical perspective, and a move away from a Eurocentric view by looking into the distinctive patterns of other regional (in this case of Taiwan, East Asian approaches to science, technology, and medicine. This article outlines the significance of some major STS studies as a means of illustrating the ways in which STS perspectives can, if incorporated into science education, enhance our understanding of science and technology and their relationships with society.

Teaching secondary science constructing meaning and developing understanding

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Ross, Keith; McKechnie, Janet

2010-01-01

Now fully updated in its third edition Teaching Secondary Science is a comprehensive guide to all aspects of science teaching, providing a wealth of information and ideas about different approaches. With guidance on how children understand scientific ideas and the implications this has on teaching, teachers are encouraged to construct their own meanings and become reflective in their practice. Relating science to government agendas, such as the National Strategies, Assessment for Learning and Every Child Matters, this new edition reflects and maps to changes in national standards. Ke

Health Habit: A Concept Analysis.

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Opalinski, Andra S; Weglicki, Linda S; Gropper, Sareen S

2018-01-01

The aim of this article is to provide clarity of the concept of health habit. Using Walker and Avant's (1983; 2010) method for conducting a concept analysis, the authors identify the attributes and characteristics of health habit, its theoretical and practical application to nursing, and sample cases to further illustrate the concept. Empirical and conceptual literature was used to inform this concept analysis. Articles and one book from 1977 to 2014 were reviewed from PsycINFO, Medline, Cumulative Index to Nursing Health Literature (CINAHL), Science Direct, EBSCOhost and Web of Science. Offering a clear definition and conceptual model of health habit provide the foundation to identify/develop appropriate measures of the concept and guide further investigation of understanding the development and sustainability of healthy habits. Additional research is needed to test the conceptual relationships between health habits and outcome variables as they apply to different groups across the age continuum. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Remote sensing science - new concepts and applications

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Gerstl, S.A.; Cooke, B.J.; Henderson, B.G.; Love, S.P.; Zardecki, A.

1996-10-01

This is the final report of a one-year, Laboratory-Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The science and technology of satellite remote sensing is an emerging interdisciplinary field that is growing rapidly with many global and regional applications requiring quantitative sensing of earth`s surface features as well as its atmosphere from space. It is possible today to resolve structures on the earth`s surface as small as one meter from space. If this high spatial resolution is coupled with high spectral resolution, instant object identification can also be achieved. To interpret these spectral signatures correctly, it is necessary to perform a computational correction on the satellite imagery that removes the distorting effects of the atmosphere. This project studied such new concepts and applied innovative new approaches in remote sensing science.

The understanding of the concept of business in terms of the concepts of GAME/SPORT with the example of business English idioms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Milošević Ivan

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This paper focuses on the potential understanding of the concept of BUSINESS in terms of the concepts of GAME and SPORT with the examples of Business English idioms (idiomatic expressions. Namely, in the light of the cognitive linguistics, meaning is considered to be not only a linguistic phenomenon, but a conceptual phenomenon as well. Such vantage point enables a lexico-semantic interpretation of linguistic units from a conceptual perspective, which includes the forming of correspondences between two concepts, with one concept being understood in terms of the other. The analysis includes 24 Business English idioms which stem from the conceptual domain of GAME/SPORT and is aimed at establishing the conceptual mapping (primarily via a cognitive mechanism known as the conceptual metaphor between the above stated source and the target domains, which prove a potential understanding of the concept of BUSINESS on the basis of the concepts of SPORT and GAME.

A behavioral science framework for understanding kawaii

OpenAIRE

Nittono, Hiroshi

2010-01-01

Kawaii is a key concept that characterizes modern Japanese culture. It is often translated into English as “cute," but asubtle difference of nuance exists between the two words. Although many books and articles have been published onthis subject, these discussions are mostly limited to the fields of humanities and sociology. In this paper, I put forward aframework for research on kawaii from a behavioral science perspective. First, I provide an overview of kawaii,including a summary of its di...

Writing Like a Scientist: Exploring Elementary Teachers' Understandings and Practices of Writing in Science

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Glen, Nicole J.; Dotger, Sharon

2013-10-01

This qualitative study examined the connections between elementary teachers’ conceptions of how scientists use writing and how the teachers used writing during science lessons. Data collected included lesson observations, interviews, handouts to students, and curriculum resources. The findings revealed that teachers in this study thought scientists write for several purposes: the presentation of data, observations, experiences, procedures, and facts. The teachers used writing tasks that mirrored this with their students. The teachers also had a limited definition of creativity in writing, and when they had students write creatively in science it was to add in fictional elements. Implications of this study include providing teachers with better models for how and why scientists write, including these models in more inquiry-based science lessons, and directly relating concepts of nature of science to elementary science writing.

How Contextualized Learning Settings Enhance Meaningful Nature of Science Understanding

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Bilican, K.; Cakiroglu, J.; Oztekin, C.

2015-01-01

Exploring different contexts to facilitate in-depth nature of science (NOS) views were seen as critical for better professional development of pre-service science teachers, which ultimately would assure better students' NOS understanding and achieve an ultimate goal of current science education reforms. This study aimed to reduce the lack of…

The pursuit of understanding: A study of exemplary high school students' conceptions of knowledge validation in science and history

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Boix Mansilla, Veronica Maria

The study presented examined 16 award-winning high school students' beliefs about the criteria by which scientific theories and historical narratives are deemed trustworthy. It sought to (a) describe such beliefs as students reasoned within each discipline; (b) examine the degree to which such beliefs were organized as coherent systems of thought; and (c) explore the relationship between students' beliefs and their prior disciplinary research experience. Students were multiple-year award-winners at the Massachusetts Science Fair and the National History Day---two pre-collegiate State-level competitions. Two consecutive semi-structured interviews invited students to assess and enhance the trustworthiness of competing accounts of genetic inheritance and the Holocaust in science and history respectively. A combined qualitative and quantitative data analysis yielded the following results: (a) Students valued three standards of acceptability that were common across disciplines: e.g. empirical strength, explanatory power and formal and presentational strength. However, when reasoning within each discipline they tended to define each standard in disciplinary-specific ways. Students also valued standards of acceptability that were not shared across disciplines: i.e., external validity in science and human understanding in history. (b) In science, three distinct epistemological orientations were identified---i.e., "faith in method," "trusting the scientific community" and "working against error." In history students held two distinct epistemologies---i.e., "reproducing the past" and "organizing the past". Students' epistemological orientations tended to operate as collections of mutually supporting ideas about what renders a theory or a narrative acceptable. (c) Contrary to the standard position to date in the literature on epistemological beliefs, results revealed that students' research training in a particular discipline (e.g., science or history) was strongly related to

Adolescents' Motivation to Select an Academic Science-Related Career: The Role of School Factors, Individual Interest, and Science Self-Concept

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Taskinen, Päivi H.; Schütte, Kerstin; Prenzel, Manfred

2013-01-01

Many researchers consider a lacking interest in science and the students' belief that science is too demanding as major reasons why young people do not strive for science-related careers. In this article, we first delineated a theoretical framework to investigate the importance of interest, self-concept, and school factors regarding students'…

Making Learning Last: Teachers' Long-Term Retention of Improved Nature of Science Conceptions and Instructional Rationales

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Mulvey, Bridget K.; Bell, Randy L.

2017-01-01

Despite successful attempts to improve learners' nature of science (NOS) conceptions through explicit, reflective approaches, retention of improved conceptions is rarely addressed in research. The issue of context for NOS instruction has implications for this retention. Whether to contextualise has been the question occupying science educators'…

Two-year study relating adolescents' self-concept and gender role perceptions to achievement and attitudes toward science

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Handley, Herbert M.; Morse, Linda W.

To assess the developmental relationship of perceptions of self-concept and gender role identification with adolescents' attitudes and achievement in science, a two-year longitudinal study was conducted. A battery of instruments assessing 16 dimensions of self-concept/gender role identifications was employed to predict students' achievement and attitudes toward science. Specific behaviors studied included self-concept in school and science and mathematics, attitudes toward appropriate gender roles in science activities and careers, and self-perceptions of masculine and feminine traits. One hundred and fifty-five adolescents, enrolled, respectively, in the seventh and eighth grades, participated in the study. Through Fisher z transformations of correlation coefficients, differences in relationships between these two sets of variables were studied for males and females during the two years. Results indicated that students' self-concepts/gender role perceptions were related to both achievement and attitudes toward science, but more related to attitudes than achievement. These relationships became more pronounced for students as they matured from seventh to eighth graders.

Understanding Science Teaching Effectiveness: Examining How Science-Specific and Generic Instructional Practices Relate to Student Achievement in Secondary Science Classrooms

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Mikeska, Jamie N.; Shattuck, Tamara; Holtzman, Steven; McCaffrey, Daniel F.; Duchesneau, Nancy; Qi, Yi; Stickler, Leslie

2017-01-01

In order to create conditions for students' meaningful and rigorous intellectual engagement in science classrooms, it is critically important to help science teachers learn which strategies and approaches can be used best to develop students' scientific literacy. Better understanding how science teachers' instructional practices relate to student…

The Concept of Embodied Knowledge for Understanding Organisational Knowledge Creation

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Matsudaira, Yoshito; Fujinami, Tsutomu

Our goal in this paper is to understand, in the light of intuition and emotion, the problem-finding and value judgments by organisational members that are part of organisational knowledge creation. In doing so, we emphasise the importance of embodied knowledge of organisations as an explanatory concept. We propose ways of approaching intuition and sense of value as these are posited as objects of research. Approaches from the first, second, and third-person viewpoints result in a deeper grasp of embodied knowledge of organisations. Important in organisational knowledge creation is embodied knowledge of organisations, which has a bearing on problem-finding before any problem-solving or decision making takes place, and on value judgments about the importance of problems that have been found. This article proposes the concept of embodied knowledge, and, by introducing it, gives a profound understanding of that facet of organisational knowledge creation characterised by tacit knowledge held by organisational individuals.

Making a Map of Science: General Systems Theory as a Conceptual Framework for Tertiary Science Education.

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Gulyaev, Sergei A.; Stonyer, Heather R.

2002-01-01

Develops an integrated approach based on the use of general systems theory (GST) and the concept of 'mapping' scientific knowledge to provide students with tools for a more holistic understanding of science. Uses GST as the core methodology for understanding science and its complexity. Discusses the role of scientific community in producing…

Clinical caring science as a scientific discipline.

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Rehnsfeldt, Arne; Arman, Maria; Lindström, Unni Å

2017-09-01

Clinical caring science will be described from a theory of science perspective. The aim of this theoretical article to give a comprehensive overview of clinical caring science as a human science-based discipline grounded in a theory of science argumentation. Clinical caring science seeks idiographic or specific variations of the ontology, concepts and theories, formulated by caring science. The rationale is the insight that the research questions do not change when they are addressed in different contexts. The academic subject contains a concept order with ethos concepts, core and basic concepts and practice concepts that unites systematic caring science with clinical caring science. In accordance with a hermeneutic tradition, the idea of the caring act is based on the degree to which the theory base is hermeneutically appropriated by the caregiver. The better the ethos, essential concepts and theories are understood, the better the caring act can be understood. In order to understand the concept order related to clinical caring science, an example is given from an ongoing project in a disaster context. The concept order is an appropriate way of making sense of the essence of clinical caring science. The idea of the concept order is that concepts on all levels need to be united with each other. A research project in clinical caring science can start anywhere on the concept order, either in ethos, core concepts, basic concepts, practice concepts or in concrete clinical phenomena, as long as no parts are locked out of the concept order as an entity. If, for example, research on patient participation as a phenomenon is not related to core and basic concepts, there is a risqué that the research becomes meaningless. © 2016 Nordic College of Caring Science.

Predicting Turkish Preservice Elementary Teachers' Orientations to Teaching Science with Epistemological Beliefs, Learning Conceptions, and Learning Approaches in Science

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Sahin, Elif Adibelli; Deniz, Hasan; Topçu, Mustafa Sami

2016-01-01

The present study investigated to what extent Turkish preservice elementary teachers' orientations to teaching science could be explained by their epistemological beliefs, conceptions of learning, and approaches to learning science. The sample included 157 Turkish preservice elementary teachers. The four instruments used in the study were School…

Relationship of sex, achievement, and science self-concept to the science career preferences of black students

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Jacobowitz, Tina

Science career preferences of junior high school-aged students, while not stable predictors of ultimate career choice, do serve to direct and maintain individuals along the paths to careers in science. In this study, factors relevant to science career preferences of black eighth grade students were investigated. This issue is of particular import to blacks since they are severely underrepresented in the scientific fields. The sample consisted of 113 males and 148 females in an inner city junior high school. The Science Career Preference Scale, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, and the Self-Concept of Ability Scale (Form B-Science) were administered. Mathematics and science grades were obtained from class rating sheets. Treatment of the data involved multiple regression analysis according to a hierarchical model. Results showed that of all the independent variables, sex was the strongest predictor of science career preferences, accounting for 25% of the criterion variance. The findings suggest that early adolescent science career preferences are related more to interests that are consonant with sex-role considerations than realistic assessment of mathematics or science achievement.

Changes in Pre-service Science Teachers' Understandings After Being Involved in Explicit Nature of Science and Socioscientific Argumentation Processes

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Kutluca, A. Y.; Aydın, A.

2017-08-01

The study explored the changes in pre-service science teachers' understanding of the nature of science and their opinions about the nature of science, science teaching and argumentation after their participation in explicit nature of science (NOS) and socioscientific argumentation processes. The participants were 56 third-grade pre-service science teachers studying in a state university in Turkey. The treatment group comprised 27 participants, and there were 29 participants in the comparison group. The comparison group participants were involved in a student-centred science-teaching process, and the participants of the treatment group were involved in explicit NOS and socioscientific argumentation processes. In the study, which lasted a total of 11 weeks, a NOS-as-argumentation questionnaire was administered to all the participants to determine their understanding of NOS at the beginning and end of the data collection process, and six random participants of the treatment group participated in semi-structured interview questions in order to further understand their views regarding NOS, science teaching and argumentation. Qualitative and quantitative data analysis revealed that the explicit NOS and socioscientific argumentation processes had a significant effect on pre-service science teachers' NOS understandings. Furthermore, NOS, argumentation and science teaching views of the participants in the treatment group showed a positive change. The results of this study are discussed in light of the related literature, and suggestions are made within the context of contribution to science-teaching literature, improvement of education quality and education of pre-service teachers.

Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics: Concepts of reading, understanding and interpretation

OpenAIRE

Paul Regan

2012-01-01

Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics is a popular qualitative research interpretive method aiming to explore the meaning of individual experiences in relation to understanding human interpretation. Gadamer identifies that authentic engagement with reading requires awareness of the inter-subjective nature of understanding in order to promote a reflective engagement with the text. The main concepts of Gadamer’s view of reading and understanding are explored in this paper in relation ...

Influence of Precollege Experience on Self-Concept among Community College Students in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering

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Starobin, Soko S.; Laanan, Frankie Santos

Female and minority students have historically been underrepresented in the field of science, mathematics, and engineering at colleges and universities. Although a plethora of research has focused on students enrolled in 4-year colleges or universities, limited research addresses the factors that influence gender differences in community college students in science, mathematics, and engineering. Using a target population of 1,599 aspirants in science, mathematics, and engineering majors in public community colleges, this study investigates the determinants of self-concept by examining a hypothetical structural model. The findings suggest that background characteristics, high school academic performance, and attitude toward science have unique contributions to the development of self-concept among female community college students. The results add to the literature by providing new theoretical constructs and the variables that predict students' self-concept.

Understanding science teaching effectiveness: examining how science-specific and generic instructional practices relate to student achievement in secondary science classrooms

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Mikeska, Jamie N.; Shattuck, Tamara; Holtzman, Steven; McCaffrey, Daniel F.; Duchesneau, Nancy; Qi, Yi; Stickler, Leslie

2017-12-01

In order to create conditions for students' meaningful and rigorous intellectual engagement in science classrooms, it is critically important to help science teachers learn which strategies and approaches can be used best to develop students' scientific literacy. Better understanding how science teachers' instructional practices relate to student achievement can provide teachers with beneficial information about how to best engage their students in meaningful science learning. To address this need, this study examined the instructional practices that 99 secondary biology teachers used in their classrooms and employed regression to determine which instructional practices are predictive of students' science achievement. Results revealed that the secondary science teachers who had well-managed classroom environments and who provided opportunities for their students to engage in student-directed investigation-related experiences were more likely to have increased student outcomes, as determined by teachers' value-added measures. These findings suggest that attending to both generic and subject-specific aspects of science teachers' instructional practice is important for understanding the underlying mechanisms that result in more effective science instruction in secondary classrooms. Implications about the use of these observational measures within teacher evaluation systems are discussed.

IS THE INQUIRY-BASED SCIENCE EDUCATION THE BEST?

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Milan Kubiatko

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The science education is fighting with a relatively big problem. Many academicians, teachers and also laic society are still perceiving difficulty in understanding of concepts from science subject and lack of interest about this group of subjects. In the past the teaching process was very formal focused on the memorizing of the facts without any deeper understanding of the processes in the nature. Pupils and students knew all definitions about concepts in the science subjects, but practical application was on the low level. The academicians, teachers and other people interested in the science education were eager to change system of education.

Effectiveness of Instruction Based on the Constructivist Approach on Understanding Chemical Equilibrium Concepts

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Akkus, Huseyin; Kadayifci, Hakki; Atasoy, Basri; Geban, Omer

2003-01-01

The purpose of this study was to identify misconceptions concerning chemical equilibrium concepts and to investigate the effectiveness of instruction based on the constructivist approach over traditional instruction on 10th grade students' understanding of chemical equilibrium concepts. The subjects of this study consisted of 71 10th grade…

Mastery of Scientific Argumentation on the Concept of Neutralization in Chemistry: A Malaysian Perspective

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Heng, Lee Ling; Surif, Johari; Seng, Cher Hau; Ibrahim, Nor Hasniza

2015-01-01

Purpose: Argumentative practices are central to science education, and have recently been emphasised to promote students' reasoning skills and to develop student's understanding of scientific concepts. This study examines the mastery of scientific argumentation, based on the concept of neutralisation, among secondary level science students, when…

Learning the 'grammar of science': The influence of a physical science content course on teachers' understanding of the nature of science

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Hanuscin, Deborah L.

This research examined the development of practicing K--8 teachers' views of the nature of science (NOS) within a physical science content course. Reforms in science education have called for the teaching of science as inquiry. In order to achieve the vision of the reforms, teachers must understand science, both a body of knowledge and as a process, but also the very nature of science itself-or the values and assumptions inherent in the construction of scientific knowledge. NOS has been deemed a critical component of scientific literacy, with implications for making informed decisions about scientific claims. Research has indicated that despite the emphasis of reforms, teachers generally do not possess accurate views of NOS. Recent work in science education has led to the recommendation that efforts undertaken within teacher education programs to improve teachers' understanding of NOS can be enhanced through relevant coursework in other academic areas, including the sciences. The purpose of this dissertation was to provide an empirical basis for this recommendation, by examining the development of teachers' views of NOS within a physical science content course. To this end, the researcher employed qualitative methodology including participant observation, interview, document analysis, and questionnaire to assess teacher participants' views of the nature of science and the impact of their experience in the content course on these views. As a result of this research, implications for both the course design and science teacher education have been described. In addition, various aspects of the community of practice that characterizes the classroom that inhibit the development of understandings about the nature of science are identified. It is argued that instruction in NOS should be approached from the perspective that builds bridges between the communities of practice of learners and of scientists.

Introduction: contexts and concepts of adaptability and plasticity in 20th-century plant science.

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Baranski, Marci; Peirson, B R Erick

2015-04-01

Nowhere is the problem of understanding the complex linkages between organisms and their environments more apparent than in the science of plants. Today, efforts by scientists to predict and manage the biological consequences of shifting global and regional climates depend on understanding how organisms respond morphologically, physiologically, and behaviorally to changes in their environments. Investigating organismal "adaptability" (or "plasticity") is rarely straightforward, prompting controversy and discourse among and between ecologists and agricultural scientists. Concepts like agro-climatic adaptation, phenotypic plasticity, and genotype-environment interaction (GxE) are key to those debates, and their complex histories have imbued them with assumptions and meanings that are consequential but often opaque. This special section explores the diverse ways in which organismal adaptability has been conceptualized and investigated in the second half of the 20th century, and the multifarious political, economic, environmental, and intellectual contexts in which those conceptions have emerged and evolved. The papers in this section bring together perspectives from the histories of agriculture, population ecology, evolutionary theory, and plant physiology, cutting across Asian, North American, and British contexts. As a whole, this section highlights not only the diversity of meanings of "adaptability" and "plasticity," but also the complex linkages between those meanings, the scientific practices and technologies in which they are embedded, and the ends toward which those practices and technologies are employed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Exploring Students' Conceptions of Science Learning via Drawing: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

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Hsieh, Wen-Min; Tsai, Chin-Chung

2017-01-01

This cross-sectional study explored students' conceptions of science learning via drawing analysis. A total of 906 Taiwanese students in 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th grade were asked to use drawing to illustrate how they conceptualise science learning. Students' drawings were analysed using a coding checklist to determine the presence or absence…

Promoting Prospective Elementary Teachers' Learning to Use Formative Assessment for Life Science Instruction

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Sabel, Jaime L.; Forbes, Cory T.; Zangori, Laura

2015-01-01

To support elementary students' learning of core, standards-based life science concepts highlighted in the "Next Generation Science Standards," prospective elementary teachers should develop an understanding of life science concepts and learn to apply their content knowledge in instructional practice to craft elementary science learning…

Thinking about television science: How students understand the nature of science from different program genres

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Dhingra, Koshi

2003-02-01

Student views on the nature of science are shaped by a variety of out-of-school forces and television-mediated science is a significant force. To attempt to achieve a science for all, we need to recognize and understand the diverse messages about science that students access and think about on a regular basis. In this work I examine how high school students think about science that is mediated by four different program genres on television: documentary, magazine-format programming, network news, and dramatic or fictional programming. The following categories of findings are discussed: the ethics and validity of science, final form science, science as portrayed by its practitioners, and school science and television science. Student perceptions of the nature of science depicted on the program sample used in this study ranged from seeing science as comprising tentative knowledge claims to seeing science as a fixed body of facts.

Towards a Common Understanding of the Health Sciences.

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Stucki, G; Rubinelli, S; Reinhardt, J D; Bickenbach, J E

2016-09-01

The aim of health sciences is to maintain and improve the health of individuals and populations and to limit disability. Health research has expanded astoundingly over the last century and a variety of scientific disciplines rooted in very different scientific and intellectual traditions has contributed to these goals. To allow health scientists to fully contextualize their work and engage in interdisciplinary research, a common understanding of the health sciences is needed. The aim of this paper is to respond to the call of the 1986 Ottawa Charter to improve health care by looking both within and beyond health and health care, and to use the opportunity offered by WHO's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) for a universal operationalization of health, in order to develop a common understanding and conceptualization of the field of health sciences that account for its richness and vitality. A critical analysis of health sciences based on WHO's ICF, on WHO's definition of health systems and on the content and methodological approaches promoted by the biological, clinical and socio-humanistic traditions engaged in health research. The field of health sciences is presented according to: 1) a specification of the content of the field in terms of people's health needs and the societal response to them, 2) a meta-level framework to exhaustively represent the range of mutually recognizable scientific disciplines engaged in health research and 3) a heuristic framework for the specification of a set of shared methodological approaches relevant across the range of these disciplines. This conceptualization of health sciences is offered to contextualize the work of health researchers, thereby fostering interdisciplinarity. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Determining Students' Conceptual Understanding Level of Thermodynamics

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Saricayir, Hakan; Ay, Selahattin; Comek, Arif; Cansiz, Gokhan; Uce, Musa

2016-01-01

Science students find heat, temperature, enthalpy and energy in chemical reactions to be some of the most difficult subjects. It is crucial to define their conceptual understanding level in these subjects so that educators can build upon this knowledge and introduce new thermodynamics concepts. This paper reports conceptual understanding levels of…

Short-Form Science

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Murphy, Beth; Hedwall, Melissa; Dirks, Andrew; Stretch, Elizabeth

2017-01-01

Reading provides a unique window into the history and nature of science and the norms of scientific communication and supports students in developing critical-reading skills in engaging ways. Effective use of reading promotes a spirit of inquiry and an understanding of science concepts while also addressing expectations of the Common Core State…

Understanding leadership in the environmental sciences

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Louisa S. Evans

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Leadership is often assumed, intuitively, to be an important driver of sustainable development. To understand how leadership is conceptualized and analyzed in the environmental sciences and to discover what this research says about leadership outcomes, we conducted a review of environmental leadership research over the last 10 years. We found that much of the environmental leadership literature focuses on a few key individuals and desirable leadership competencies. The literature also reports that leadership is one of the most important of a number of factors contributing to effective environmental governance. Only a subset of the literature highlights interacting sources of leadership, disaggregates leadership outcomes, or evaluates leadership processes in detail. We argue that the literature on environmental leadership is highly normative. Leadership is typically depicted as an unequivocal good, and its importance is often asserted rather than tested. We trace how leadership studies in the management sciences are evolving and argue that, taking into account the state of the art in environmental leadership research, more critical approaches to leadership research in environmental science can be developed.

An Assessment of Students' Understanding of Ecosystem Concepts: Conflating Ecological Systems and Cycles

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Jordan, Rebecca; Gray, Steven; Demeter, Marylee; Lui, Lei; Hmelo-Silver, Cindy E.

2009-01-01

Teaching ecological concepts in schools is important in promoting natural science and environmental education for young learners. Developing educational programs is difficult, however, because of complicated ecological processes operating on multiple levels, the unlimited nature of potential system interactions (given the openness of systems), and…

Examining the Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect on Students' Self-Concept of Learning Science in Taiwan Based on the TIMSS Databases

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Liou, Pey-Yan

2014-08-01

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between student self-concept and achievement in science in Taiwan based on the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) model using the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003 and 2007 databases. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine the effects of the student-level and school-level science achievement on student self-concept of learning science. The results indicated that student science achievement was positively associated with individual self-concept of learning science in both TIMSS 2003 and 2007. On the contrary, while school-average science achievement was negatively related to student self-concept in TIMSS 2003, it had no statistically significant relationship with student self-concept in TIMSS 2007. The findings of this study shed light on possible explanations for the existence of BFLPE and also lead to an international discussion on the generalization of BFLPE.

Correlation of Students' Brain Types to Their Conceptions of Learning Science and Approaches to Learning Science

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Park, Jiyeon; Jeon, Dongryul

2015-01-01

The systemizing and empathizing brain type represent two contrasted students' characteristics. The present study investigated differences in the conceptions and approaches to learning science between the systemizing and empathizing brain type students. The instruments are questionnaires on the systematizing and empathizing, questionnaires on the…

The understanding of core pharmacological concepts among health care students in their final semester.

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Aronsson, Patrik; Booth, Shirley; Hägg, Staffan; Kjellgren, Karin; Zetterqvist, Ann; Tobin, Gunnar; Reis, Margareta

2015-12-29

The overall aim of the study was to explore health care students´ understanding of core concepts in pharmacology. An interview study was conducted among twelve students in their final semester of the medical program (n = 4), the nursing program (n = 4), and the specialist nursing program in primary health care (n = 4) from two Swedish universities. The participants were individually presented with two pharmacological clinically relevant written patient cases, which they were to analyze and propose a solution to. Participants were allowed to use the Swedish national drug formulary. Immediately thereafter the students were interviewed about their assessments. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. A thematic analysis was used to identify units of meaning in each interview. The units were organized into three clusters: pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, and drug interactions. Subsequent procedure consisted of scoring the quality of students´ understanding of core concepts. Non-parametric statistics were employed. The study participants were in general able to define pharmacological concepts, but showed less ability to discuss the meaning of the concepts in depth and to implement these in a clinical context. The participants found it easier to grasp concepts related to pharmacodynamics than pharmacokinetics and drug interactions. These results indicate that education aiming to prepare future health care professionals for understanding of more complex pharmacological reasoning and decision-making needs to be more focused and effective.

Photoelectric effect experiment for understanding the concept of quantization of radiation energy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yeimy Gerardine Berrios Saavedra

2016-09-01

Full Text Available This study forms part of research on the teaching of physics. The question that directed it was: How a proposed classroom, based on the photoelectric effect experiment helps pres-service teachers of physics of the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional to expand their understanding of the concept of quantization energy of radiation? The construction of the theoretical framework developed on the one hand, with scientific ideas about the quantization of energy, and moreover, with the educational proposals of teaching for understanding. This pedagogical approach was guided by the investigative gaze of the study methodology based on design, taking as main element the use of learning tools such as the task to Predict, Experiment and Explain (PEE. It was found that these tasks fomented the initial understandings of students about the concept, while they enriched and transformed progressively their models and scientific ideas, promoting aspects of scientific work in developing curiosity, imagination and motivation.

Pre-Service Physics Teachers' Understanding of the Relational Structure of Physics Concepts: Organising Subject Contents for Purposes of Teaching

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Koponen, Ismo; Nousiainen, Maija

2013-01-01

Good conceptual understanding of physics is based on understanding what the key concepts are and how they are related. This kind of understanding is especially important for physics teachers in planning how and in what order to introduce concepts in teaching; connections which tie concepts to each other give direction of progress--there is "flux…

Critical Phenomena in Natural Sciences: Chaos, Fractals, Selforganization and Disorder: Concepts and Tools

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Franz, S

2004-01-01

Since the discovery of the renormalization group theory in statistical physics, the realm of applications of the concepts of scale invariance and criticality has pervaded several fields of natural and social sciences. This is the leitmotiv of Didier Sornette's book, who in Critical Phenomena in Natural Sciences reviews three decades of developments and applications of the concepts of criticality, scale invariance and power law behaviour from statistical physics, to earthquake prediction, ruptures, plate tectonics, modelling biological and economic systems and so on. This strongly interdisciplinary book addresses students and researchers in disciplines where concepts of criticality and scale invariance are appropriate: mainly geology from which most of the examples are taken, but also engineering, biology, medicine, economics, etc. A good preparation in quantitative science is assumed but the presentation of statistical physics principles, tools and models is self-contained, so that little background in this field is needed. The book is written in a simple informal style encouraging intuitive comprehension rather than stressing formal derivations. Together with the discussion of the main conceptual results of the discipline, great effort is devoted to providing applied scientists with the tools of data analysis and modelling necessary to analyse, understand, make predictions and simulate systems undergoing complex collective behaviour. The book starts from a purely descriptive approach, explaining basic probabilistic and geometrical tools to characterize power law behaviour and scale invariant sets. Probability theory is introduced by a detailed discussion of interpretative issues warning the reader on the use and misuse of probabilistic concepts when the emphasis is on prediction of low probability rare - and often catastrophic - events. Then, concepts that have proved useful in risk evaluation, extreme value statistics, large limit theorems for sums of independent

Using Guided Reinvention to Develop Teachers' Understanding of Hypothesis Testing Concepts

Science.gov (United States)

Dolor, Jason; Noll, Jennifer

2015-01-01

Statistics education reform efforts emphasize the importance of informal inference in the learning of statistics. Research suggests statistics teachers experience similar difficulties understanding statistical inference concepts as students and how teacher knowledge can impact student learning. This study investigates how teachers reinvented an…

Students concept understanding of fluid static based on the types of teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Rahmawati, I. D.; Suparmi; Sunarno, W.

2018-03-01

This research aims to know the concept understanding of student are taught by guided inquiry based learning and conventional based learning. Subjects in this study are high school students as much as 2 classes and each class consists of 32 students, both classes are homogen. The data was collected by conceptual test in the multiple choice form with the students argumentation of the answer. The data analysis used is qualitative descriptive method. The results of the study showed that the average of class that was using guided inquiry based learning is 78.44 while the class with use conventional based learning is 65.16. Based on these data, the guided inquiry model is an effective learning model used to improve students concept understanding.

Study Habit, Self-Concept and Science Achievement of Public and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study compared study habit, self-concept and science achievement of students in public and private junior secondary schools in Ogun State, Nigeria. Twelve secondary schools were randomly selected from Egba and Ijebu divisions of the state. A sample of three hundred and sixty (360) students participated in the ...

Understanding leadership in the environmental sciences

OpenAIRE

Evans, L.; Hicks, C.; Cohen, P.; Case, P.; Prideaux, M.; Mills, D.

2015-01-01

Leadership is often assumed, intuitively, to be an important driver of sustainable development. To understand how leadership is conceptualised and analysed in the environmental sciences and to discover what this research says about leadership outcomes, we conducted a review of environmental leadership research over the last ten years. We find that much of the environmental leadership literature we reviewed focuses on a few key individuals and desirable leadership competencies. It also reports...

Identifying and Investigating Difficult Concepts in Engineering Mechanics and Electric Circuits. Research Brief

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Streveler, Ruth; Geist, Monica; Ammerman, Ravel; Sulzbach, Candace; Miller, Ronald; Olds, Barbara; Nelson, Mary

2007-01-01

This study extends ongoing work to identify difficult concepts in thermal and transport science and measure students' understanding of those concepts via a concept inventory. Two research questions provided the focal point: "What important concepts in electric circuits and engineering mechanics do students find difficult to learn?" and…

Changing Preservice Science Teachers' Views of Nature of Science: Why Some Conceptions May Be More Easily Altered than Others

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Mesci, Gunkut; Schwartz, Renee' S.

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to assess preservice teachers' views of Nature of Science (NOS), identify aspects that were challenging for conceptual change, and explore reasons why. This study particularly focused on why and how some concepts of NOS may be more easily altered than others. Fourteen preservice science teachers enrolled in a NOS and…

A Dual Case Study: Students' Perceptions, Self-Efficacy and Understanding of the Nature of Science in Varied Introductory Biology Laboratories

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Quigley, Dena Beth Boans

Since World War II, science education has been at the forefront of curricular reforms. Although the philosophical approach to science education has changed numerous times, the importance of the laboratory has not waned. A laboratory is meant to allow students to encounter scientific concepts in a very real, hands-on way so that they are able to either recreate experiments that have given rise to scientific theories or to use science to understand a new idea. As the interactive portion of science courses, the laboratory should not only reinforce conceptual ideas, but help students to understand the process of science and interest them in learning more about science. However, most laboratories have fallen into a safe pattern having teachers and students follow a scientific recipe, removing the understanding of and interest in science for many participants. In this study, two non-traditional laboratories are evaluated and compared with a traditional laboratory in an effort to measure student satisfaction, self-efficacy, attitudes towards science, and finally their epistemology of the nature of science (NOS). Students in all populations were administered a survey at the beginning and the end of their spring 2016 laboratory, and the survey was a mixture of qualitative questions and quantitative instruments. Overall, students who participated in one of the non-traditional labs rated their satisfaction higher and used affirming supportive statements. They also had significant increases in self-efficacy from pre to post, while the students in the traditional laboratory had a significant decrease. The students in the traditional laboratory had significant changed in attitudes towards science, as did the students in one of the non-traditional laboratories. All students lacked a firm grasp of the tenets of NOS, although one laboratory that includes explicit discussions of NOS saw improvement in at least on tenet. Data for two non-major biology laboratory populations was

Science and religion: implications for science educators

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Reiss, Michael J.

2010-03-01

A religious perspective on life shapes how and what those with such a perspective learn in science; for some students a religious perspective can hinder learning in science. For such reasons Staver's article is to be welcomed as it proposes a new way of resolving the widely perceived discord between science and religion. Staver notes that Western thinking has traditionally postulated the existence and comprehensibility of a world that is external to and independent of human consciousness. This has led to a conception of truth, truth as correspondence, in which our knowledge corresponds to the facts in this external world. Staver rejects such a conception, preferring the conception of truth as coherence in which the links are between and among independent knowledge claims themselves rather than between a knowledge claim and reality. Staver then proposes constructivism as a vehicle potentially capable of resolving the tension between religion and science. My contention is that the resolution between science and religion that Staver proposes comes at too great a cost—both to science and to religion. Instead I defend a different version of constructivism where humans are seen as capable of generating models of reality that do provide richer and more meaningful understandings of reality, over time and with respect both to science and to religion. I argue that scientific knowledge is a subset of religious knowledge and explore the implications of this for science education in general and when teaching about evolution in particular.

Understanding structural conservation through materials science:

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fuster-López, Laura; Krarup Andersen, Cecil

2014-01-01

with tools to avoid future problems, it should be present in all conservation-restoration training programs to help promote students’ understanding of the degradation mechanisms in cultural materials (and their correlation with chemical and biological degradation) as well as the implications behind......Mechanical properties and the structure of materials are key elements in understanding how structural interventions in conservation treatments affect cultural heritage objects. In this context, engineering mechanics can help determine the strength and stability found in art objects as it can...... provide both explanation and prediction of failure in materials. It has therefore shown to be an effective method for developing useful solutions to conservation problems. Since materials science and mechanics can help conservators predict the long term consequences of their treatments and provide them...

The social construction of competence: Conceptions of science and expertise among proponents of the low-carbohydrate high-fat diet in Finland.

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Jauho, Mikko

2016-04-01

The article looks at conceptions of science and expertise among lay proponents of the low-carbohydrate high-fat diet in Finland. The research data consist of comments on a webpage related to a debate on the health dangers of animal fats screened in Finnish national television in autumn 2010. The article shows that contrary to the prevailing image advocated by the national nutritional establishment, which is based on the deficit model of public understanding of science, the low-carbohydrate high-fat proponents are neither ignorant about scientific facts nor anti-science. Rather, they express nuanced viewpoints about the nature of science, the place of individual experience in nutritional recommendations and the reliability of experts. Inspired by discussions on the social construction of ignorance, the article argues that the low-carbohydrate high-fat proponents are engaged in what it callsthe social construction of competencewhen they present their position as grounded in science and stylize themselves as lay experts. © The Author(s) 2014.

Understanding the Influence of Learners' Forethought on Their Use of Science Study Strategies in Postsecondary Science Learning

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Dunn, Karee E.; Lo, Wen-Juo

2015-11-01

Understanding self-regulation in science learning is important for theorists and practitioners alike. However, very little has been done to explore and understand students' self-regulatory processes in postsecondary science courses. In this study, the influence of science efficacy, learning value, and goal orientation on the perceived use of science study strategies was explored using structural equation modeling. In addition, the study served to validate the first two stages of Zimmerman's cyclical model of self-regulation and to address the common methodological weakness in self-regulation research in which data are all collected at one point after the learning cycle is complete. Thus, data were collected across the learning cycle rather than asking students to reflect upon each construct after the learning cycle was complete. The findings supported the hypothesized model in which it was predicted that self-efficacy would significantly and positively influence students' perceived science strategy use, and the influence of students' valuation of science learning on science study strategies would be mediated by their learning goal orientation. The findings of the study are discussed and implications for undergraduate science instructors are proposed.

Concepts in catalysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boudart, M.

1992-01-01

This paper reports on concept in catalysis which are very important in heterogeneous catalysis, even today, when in spite of surface science, the complexity of events at a real catalytic surface is still evading the understanding necessary for design. In this paper the authors will attempt to give an update on evolving concepts in heterogeneous catalysis. The topics include: counting active centers on metal surfaces; the notion of turnover frequency for a catalytic cycle; the concept of structure (in) sensitive reactions; the ensemble (geometric) vs. The ligand (electronic) effect following Sachtler's school; the idea of a rate determining step and of a most abundant reactive intermediate; the effect of surface non-uniformity on catalytic kinetics; what makes catalytic cycles turnover

Western Australian High School Students' Understandings about the Socioscientific Issue of Climate Change

Science.gov (United States)

Dawson, Vaille

2015-05-01

Climate change is one of the most significant science issues facing humanity; yet, teaching students about climate change is challenging: not only is it multidisciplinary, but also it is contentious and debated in political, social and media forums. Students need to be equipped with an understanding of climate change science to be able to participate in this discourse. The purpose of this study was to examine Western Australian high school students' understanding of climate change and the greenhouse effect, in order to identify their alternative conceptions about climate change science and provide a baseline for more effective teaching. A questionnaire designed to elicit students' understanding and alternative conceptions was completed by 438 Year 10 students (14-15 years old). A further 20 students were interviewed. Results showed that students know different features of both climate change and the greenhouse effect, however not necessarily all of them and the relationships between. Five categories of alternative conceptions were identified. The categories were (1) the greenhouse effect and the ozone layer; (2) types of greenhouse gases; (3) types of radiation; (4) weather and climate and (5) air pollution. These findings provide science educators a basis upon which to develop strategies and curriculum resources to improve their students' understanding and decision-making skills about the socioscientific issue, climate change.

Dynamic Diversity: Toward a Contextual Understanding of Critical Mass

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Garces, Liliana M.; Jayakumar, Uma M.

2014-01-01

Through an analysis of relevant social science evidence, this article provides a deeper understanding of critical mass, a concept that has become central in litigation efforts related to affirmative action admissions policies that seek to further the educational benefits of diversity. We demonstrate that the concept of critical mass requires an…

Developing Conceptions of Fair Contest Procedures and the Understanding of Skill and Luck.

Science.gov (United States)

Thorkildsen, Theresa A.; White-McNulty, Lisa

2002-01-01

Contrary to assumptions about aversive effects of competition on achievement motivation, in this study young people saw academic contests as fair. When participants completed structural interviews on fair ways to organize science contests and on differentiation of skill and luck, age-related trends in their conceptions of procedural justice were…

Conceptions of the Nature of Science Held by Undergraduate Pre-Service Biology Teachers in South-West Nigeria

Science.gov (United States)

Adedoyin, A. O.; Bello, G.

2017-01-01

This study investigated the conceptions of the nature of science held by pre-service undergraduate biology teachers in South-West, Nigeria. Specifically, the study examined the influence of their gender on their conceptions of the nature of science. The study was a descriptive research of the survey method. The population for the study comprised…

Concept Communication and Interpretation of Illness: A Holistic Model of Understanding in Nursing Practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Nordby, Halvor

To ensure patient communication in nursing, certain conditions must be met that enable successful exchange of beliefs, thoughts, and other mental states. The conditions that have received most attention in the nursing literature are derived from general communication theories, psychology, and ethical frameworks of interpretation. This article focuses on a condition more directly related to an influential coherence model of concept possession from recent philosophy of mind and language. The basic ideas in this model are (i) that the primary source of understanding of illness experiences is communicative acts that express concepts of illness, and (ii) that the key to understanding patients' concepts of illness is to understand how they depend on patients' lifeworlds. The article argues that (i) and (ii) are especially relevant in caring practice since it has been extensively documented that patients' perspectives on disease and illness are shaped by their subjective horizons. According to coherentism, nurses need to focus holistically on patients' horizons in order to understand the meaning of patients' expressions of meaning. Furthermore, the coherence model implies that fundamental aims of understanding can be achieved only if nurses recognize the interdependence of patients' beliefs and experiences of ill health. The article uses case studies to elucidate how the holistic implications of coherentism can be used as conceptual tools in nursing.

Undergraduate Students' Earth Science Learning: Relationships among Conceptions, Approaches, and Learning Self-Efficacy in Taiwan

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Kuan-Ming; Lee, Min-Hsien; Tsai, Chin-Chung; Chang, Chun-Yen

2016-01-01

In the area of science education research, studies have attempted to investigate conceptions of learning, approaches to learning, and self-efficacy, mainly focusing on science in general or on specific subjects such as biology, physics, and chemistry. However, few empirical studies have probed students' earth science learning. This study aimed to…

Theoretical Insights for Developing the Concept of Social Technologies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rūta Tamošiūnaitė

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Purpose—Social technologies continue to grow in popularity in society. Even though the term “social technology” is most commonly used to refer to new social media such as Twitter and Facebook, a redefinition of this concept based on the original definition is needed. Nowadays the concept of “social technology” has several aspects, which destabilize the dominant image of technology. It emphasizes the social sciences and the humanities as shapers of society, reconsiders the strength of “soft technologies.” The aim of this paper is to provide rich insight into the concept of social technologies’ and to develop the meaning of social technologies in information and knowledge society by analysing new needs and application forms of social technologies. Findings—the research contributed to the understanding of the concept of social technologies. Based on the analysis and synthesis of the scientific literature, a theoretical framework for defining social technologies was developed. Research limitations/implications—the research is limited in a few aspects. For a deeper understanding of social technologies and for developing technological perspectives in social sciences a broader theoretical, as well as empirical, research is necessary. In order to generalise the research findings, further research should include different dimensions from the perspective of other sciences. Article Type: conceptual paper.

Theoretical Insights for Developing the Concept of Social Technologies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Monika Skaržauskaitė

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Purpose—Social technologies continue to grow in popularity in society. Even though the term “social technology” is most commonly used to refer to new social media such as Twitter and Facebook, a redefinition of this concept based on the original definition is needed. Nowadays the concept of “social technology” has several aspects, which destabilize the dominant image of technology. It emphasizes the social sciences and the humanities as shapers of society, reconsiders the strength of “soft technologies.” The aim of this paper is to provide rich insight into the concept of social technologies’ and to develop the meaning of social technologies in information and knowledge society by analysing new needs and application forms of social technologies.Findings—the research contributed to the understanding of the concept of social technologies. Based on the analysis and synthesis of the scientific literature, a theoretical framework for defining social technologies was developed.Research limitations/implications—the research is limited in a few aspects. For a deeper understanding of social technologies and for developing technological perspectives in social sciences a broader theoretical, as well as empirical, research is necessary. In order to generalise the research findings, further research should include different dimensions from the perspective of other sciences.

The Relationship between Preservice Science Teachers' Attitude toward Astronomy and Their Understanding of Basic Astronomy Concepts

Science.gov (United States)

Bektasli, Behzat

2016-01-01

Turkish preservice science teachers have been taking a two-credit astronomy class during the last semester of their undergraduate program since 2010. The current study aims to investigate the relationship between preservice science teachers' astronomy misconceptions and their attitudes toward astronomy. Preservice science teachers were given an…

Readiness for hospital discharge: A concept analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Galvin, Eileen Catherine; Wills, Teresa; Coffey, Alice

2017-11-01

To report on an analysis on the concept of 'readiness for hospital discharge'. No uniform operational definition of 'readiness for hospital discharge' exists in the literature; therefore, a concept analysis is required to clarify the concept and identify an up-to-date understanding of readiness for hospital discharge. Clarity of the concept will identify all uses of the concept; provide conceptual clarity, an operational definition and direction for further research. Literature review and concept analysis. A review of literature was conducted in 2016. Databases searched were: Academic Search Complete, CINAHL Plus with Full Text, PsycARTICLES, Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection, PsycINFO, Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) and SocINDEX with Full Text. No date limits were applied. Identification of the attributes, antecedents and consequences of readiness for hospital discharge led to an operational definition of the concept. The following attributes belonging to 'readiness for hospital discharge' were extracted from the literature: physical stability, adequate support, psychological ability, and adequate information and knowledge. This analysis contributes to the advancement of knowledge in the area of hospital discharge, by proposing an operational definition of readiness for hospital discharge, derived from the literature. A better understanding of the phenomenon will assist healthcare professionals to recognize, measure and implement interventions where necessary, to ensure patients are ready for hospital discharge and assist in the advancement of knowledge for all professionals involved in patient discharge from hospital. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Secondary School Students' Understanding of Science and Their Socioscientific Reasoning

Science.gov (United States)

Karahan, Engin; Roehrig, Gillian

2017-01-01

Research in socioscientific issue (SSI)-based interventions is relatively new (Sadler in "Journal of Research in Science Teaching" 41:513-536, 2004; Zeidler et al. in "Journal of Research in Science Teaching" 46:74-101, 2009), and there is a need for understanding more about the effects of SSI-based learning environments…

Using Laboratory Activities Enhanced with Concept Cartoons to Support Progression in Students' Understanding of Acid-Base Concepts

Science.gov (United States)

Ozmen, Haluk; Demircioglu, Gokhan; Burhan, Yasemin; Naseriazar, Akbar; Demircioglu, Hulya

2012-01-01

The aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness of an intervention based on a series of laboratory activities enhanced with concept cartoons. The purpose of the intervention was to enhance students' understanding of acid-base chemistry for eight grade students' from two classes in a Turkish primary school. A pretest-posttest non-equivalent…

Models and Materials: Bridging Art and Science in the Secondary Curriculum

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Pak, D.; Cavazos, L.

2006-12-01

Creating and sustaining student engagement in science is one challenge facing secondary teachers. The visual arts provide an alternative means of communicating scientific concepts to students who may not respond to traditional formats or identify themselves as interested in science. We have initiated a three-year teacher professional development program at U C Santa Barbara focused on bridging art and science in secondary curricula, to engage students underrepresented in science majors, including girls, English language learners and non-traditional learners. The three-year format provides the teams of teachers with the time and resources necessary to create innovative learning experiences for students that will enhance their understanding of both art and science content. Models and Materials brings together ten secondary art and science teachers from six Santa Barbara County schools. Of the five participating science teachers, three teach Earth Science and two teach Life Science. Art and science teachers from each school are teamed and challenged with the task of creating integrated curriculum projects that bring visual art concepts to the science classroom and science concepts to the art classroom. Models and Materials were selected as unifying themes; understanding the concept of models, their development and limitations, is a prominent goal in the California State Science and Art Standards. Similarly, the relationship between composition, structure and properties of materials is important to both art and science learning. The program began with a 2-week institute designed to highlight the natural links between art and science through presentations and activities by both artists and scientists, to inspire teachers to develop new ways to present models in their classrooms, and for the teacher teams to brainstorm ideas for curriculum projects. During the current school year, teachers will begin to integrate science and art and the themes of modeling and materials

Research and Teaching: Factors Related to College Students' Understanding of the Nature of Science--Comparison of Science Majors and Nonscience Majors

Science.gov (United States)

Partin, Matthew L.; Underwood, Eileen M.; Worch, Eric A.

2013-01-01

To develop a more scientifically literate society, students need to understand the nature of science, which may be affected by controversial topics such as evolution. There are conflicting views among researchers concerning the relationships between understanding evolution, acceptance of evolution, and understanding of the nature of science. Four…

Attitudes toward Science: Measurement and Psychometric Properties of the Test of Science-Related Attitudes for Its Use in Spanish-Speaking Classrooms

Science.gov (United States)

Navarro, Marianela; Förster, Carla; González, Caterina; González-Pose, Paulina

2016-01-01

Understanding attitudes toward science and measuring them remain two major challenges for science teaching. This article reviews the concept of attitudes toward science and their measurement. It subsequently analyzes the psychometric properties of the "Test of Science-Related Attitudes" (TOSRA), such as its construct validity, its…

Science Song Project: Integration of Science, Technology and Music to Learn Science and Process Skills

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiyoon Yoon

2017-07-01

Full Text Available It has been critical to find a way for teachers to motivate their young children to learn science and improve science achievement. Since music has been used as a tool for educating young students, this study introduces the science song project to teacher candidates that contains science facts, concepts, laws and theories, and combines them with music for motivating their young children to learn science and improve science achievement. The purpose of the study is to determine the effect of the science song project on teacher candidates’ understanding of science processing skills and their attitudes toward science. The participants were 45 science teacher candidates who were enrolled in an EC-6 (Early Childhood through Grade 6 program in the teacher certification program at a racially diverse Texas public research university. To collect data, this study used two instruments: pre-and post-self efficacy tests before and after the science teacher candidates experienced the science song project and final reflective essay at the end of the semester. The results show that while developing their songs, the participating teacher candidates experienced a process for science practice, understood science concepts and facts, and positively improved attitudes toward science. This study suggests that the science song project is a science instruction offering rich experiences of process-based learning and positive attitudes toward science.

Philosophical conceptions of the self: implications for cognitive science.

Science.gov (United States)

Gallagher

2000-01-01

Several recently developed philosophical approaches to the self promise to enhance the exchange of ideas between the philosophy of the mind and the other cognitive sciences. This review examines two important concepts of self: the 'minimal self', a self devoid of temporal extension, and the 'narrative self', which involves personal identity and continuity across time. The notion of a minimal self is first clarified by drawing a distinction between the sense of self-agency and the sense of self-ownership for actions. This distinction is then explored within the neurological domain with specific reference to schizophrenia, in which the sense of self-agency may be disrupted. The convergence between the philosophical debate and empirical study is extended in a discussion of more primitive aspects of self and how these relate to neonatal experience and robotics. The second concept of self, the narrative self, is discussed in the light of Gazzaniga's left-hemisphere 'interpreter' and episodic memory. Extensions of the idea of a narrative self that are consistent with neurological models are then considered. The review illustrates how the philosophical approach can inform cognitive science and suggests that a two-way collaboration may lead to a more fully developed account of the self.

Financial Understanding: A Phenomenographic Access to Students’ Concepts of Credits

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sandra Speer

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Financial education has become a more popular part of general education in schools. Different social and economic backgrounds as well as experiences influence the students’ conceptualization of the same financial phenomenon. Therefore, phenomenography is an appropriate research strategy for investigating students’ deeper understanding of financial core concepts. Our research concentrates on ‘credit’ as a central phenomenon. Thirteen focus groups made up of secondary school students and university students in Germany discussed varying examples of taking out a loan. Systematizing students’ conceptualizations, the outcome space consists of four main categories: attitudes, needs, credit terms and calculation. On a deeper level we found further subcategories. The results of our explorative study can guide a chronology of teaching different concepts as well as further research.

Designing problem-based curricula: The role of concept mapping in scaffolding learning for the health sciences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susan M. Bridges

2015-03-01

Full Text Available While the utility of concept mapping has been widely reported in primary and secondary educational contexts, its application in the health sciences in higher education has been less frequently noted. Two case studies of the application of concept mapping in undergraduate and postgraduate health sciences are detailed in this paper. The case in undergraduate dental education examines the role of concept mapping in supporting problem-based learning and explores how explicit induction into the principles and practices of CM has add-on benefits to learning in an inquiry-based curriculum. The case in postgraduate medical education describes the utility of concept mapping in an online inquiry-based module design. Specific attention is given to applications of CMapTools™ software to support the implementation of Novakian concept mapping in both inquiry-based curricular contexts.

Supporting Staff to Develop a Shared Understanding of Science Assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Sampey, Carol

2018-01-01

Assessment is not something that stands alone and teachers need support to develop their understanding of both assessment practices and the subject being assessed. Teachers at Shaw Primary School were fortunate to take part in the Teacher Assessment in Primary Science (TAPS) project and, in this article, the outlines how science and assessment can…

Uexküllian Umwelt as science and as ideology: the light and the dark side of a concept.

Science.gov (United States)

Stella, Marco; Kleisner, Karel

2010-06-01

The concept of Umwelt, in particular the interpretation originally developed by Jakob von Uexküll, played an important role in the development of biological thought of the first half of the twentieth century. The theory of Umwelt (Umweltlehre) was one of the most original ideas that appeared in German biology at that time. It was the first attempt to introduce subjectivity into a science about organisms; it laid down the foundations of behavioural research and inspired the development of ethology. However, the theory of Umwelt has also been used to support more sinister activities and even some dangerous ideologies. The concept of Umwelt is of interest not only to historians: within some intellectual circles, it is still broadly used today. Our aim was to analyse the notion's historic development within the context of biological thought of the first half of the 20th century. In particular, we focus (1) on how the concept was adopted and adapted for various, often widely diverging purposes; (2) on interactions between the Umweltlehre and other contemporary worldviews. We argue that in order to understand the developments that occurred in twentieth century biology, one needs to properly appreciate the role which Umweltlehre played in these. Even more importantly, the Umweltlehre is a worldview that influenced not only science but also politics and social affairs. In this respect it functioned rather like a number of other scientific and ideological frameworks of that time, such as Synthetic Darwinism.

Children's conceptions of physical events: explicit and tacit understanding of horizontal motion.

Science.gov (United States)

Howe, Christine; Taylor Tavares, Joana; Devine, Amy

2014-06-01

The conceptual understanding that children display when predicting physical events has been shown to be inferior to the understanding they display when recognizing whether events proceed naturally. This has often been attributed to differences between the explicit engagement with conceptual knowledge required for prediction and the tacit engagement that suffices for recognition, and contrasting theories have been formulated to characterize the differences. Focusing on a theory that emphasizes omission at the explicit level of conceptual elements that are tacitly understood, the paper reports two studies that attempt clarification. The studies are concerned with 6- to 10-year-old children's understanding of, respectively, the direction (141 children) and speed (132 children) of motion in a horizontal direction. Using computer-presented billiards scenarios, the children predicted how balls would move (prediction task) and judged whether or not simulated motion was correct (recognition task). Results indicate that the conceptions underpinning prediction are sometimes interpretable as partial versions of the conceptions underpinning recognition, as the omission hypothesis would imply. However, there are also qualitative differences, which suggest partial dissociation between explicit and tacit understanding. It is suggested that a theoretical perspective that acknowledges this dissociation would provide the optimal framework for future research. © 2013 The British Psychological Society.

Understanding Mathematic Concept in Relation and Function Method through Active Learning Type Group to Group Distributed LKS

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Kudri, F.; Rahmi, R.; Haryono, Y.

2018-04-01

This research is motivated by the lack of understanding of mathematical concepts students and teachers have not familiarize students discussed in groups. This researchaims to determine whether an understanding of mathematical concepts junior class VIII SMPN 2 in Ranah Batahan Kabupaten Pasaman Barat by applying active learning strategy group to group types with LKS better than conventional learning. The type of research is experimental the design of randomized trials on the subject. The population in the study were all students VIII SMPN 2 Ranah Batahan Kabupaten Pasaman Barat in year 2012/2013 which consists of our class room experiment to determine the grade and control class with do nerandomly, so that classes VIII1 elected as a experiment class and class VIII4 as a control class. The instruments used in the test empirically understanding mathematical concepts are shaped by the essay with rt=0,82 greater than rt=0,468 means reliable tests used. The data analysis technique used is the test with the help of MINITAB. Based on the results of the data analisis known that both of the sample are normal and homogenity in real rate α = 0,05, so the hypothesis of this research is received. So, it can be concluded students’ understanding mathematical concept applied the active Group to Group learning strategy with LKS is better than the students’ understanding mathematical concept with Conventional Learning.

Exploring the practicing-connections hypothesis: using gesture to support coordination of ideas in understanding a complex statistical concept.

Science.gov (United States)

Son, Ji Y; Ramos, Priscilla; DeWolf, Melissa; Loftus, William; Stigler, James W

2018-01-01

In this article, we begin to lay out a framework and approach for studying how students come to understand complex concepts in rich domains. Grounded in theories of embodied cognition, we advance the view that understanding of complex concepts requires students to practice, over time, the coordination of multiple concepts, and the connection of this system of concepts to situations in the world. Specifically, we explore the role that a teacher's gesture might play in supporting students' coordination of two concepts central to understanding in the domain of statistics: mean and standard deviation. In Study 1 we show that university students who have just taken a statistics course nevertheless have difficulty taking both mean and standard deviation into account when thinking about a statistical scenario. In Study 2 we show that presenting the same scenario with an accompanying gesture to represent variation significantly impacts students' interpretation of the scenario. Finally, in Study 3 we present evidence that instructional videos on the internet fail to leverage gesture as a means of facilitating understanding of complex concepts. Taken together, these studies illustrate an approach to translating current theories of cognition into principles that can guide instructional design.

Levels of abstraction in students' understanding of the concept of algorithm : the qualitative perspective

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Perrenet, J.C.; Kaasenbrood, E.J.S.

2006-01-01

In a former, mainly quantitative, study we defined four levels of abstraction in Computer Science students' thinking about the concept of algorithm. We constructed a list of questions about algorithms to measure the answering level as an indication for the thinking level. The answering level

The influence of teachers' conceptions on their students' learning: children's understanding of sheet music.

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López-Íñiguez, Guadalupe; Pozo, Juan Ignacio

2014-06-01

Despite increasing interest in teachers' and students' conceptions of learning and teaching, and how they influence their practice, there are few studies testing the influence of teachers' conceptions on their students' learning. This study tests how teaching conception (TC; with a distinction between direct and constructive) influences students' representations regarding sheet music. Sixty students (8-12 years old) from music conservatories: 30 of them took lessons with teachers with a constructive TC and another 30 with teachers shown to have a direct TC. Children were given a musical comprehension task in which they were asked to select and rank the contents they needed to learn. These contents had different levels of processing and complexity: symbolic, analytical, and referential. Three factorial ANOVAs, two-one-way ANOVAs, and four 2 × 3 repeated-measures ANOVAs were used to analyse the effects of and the interaction between the independent variables TC and class, both for/on total cards selected, their ranking, and each sub-category (the three processing levels). ANOVAs on the selection and ranking of these contents showed that teachers' conceptions seem to mediate significantly in the way the students understand the music. Students from constructive teachers have more complex and deep understanding of music. They select more elements for learning scores than those from traditional teachers. Teaching conception also influences the way in which children rank those elements. No difference exists between the way 8- and 12-year-olds learn scores. Children's understanding of the scores is more complex than assumed in other studies. © 2013 The British Psychological Society.

Examining Teachers' Hurdles to `Science for All'

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Southerland, Sherry; Gallard, Alejandro; Callihan, Laurie

2011-11-01

The goal of this research is to identify science teachers' beliefs and conceptions that play an important role in shaping their understandings of and attempts to enact inclusive science teaching practices. We examined the work products, both informal (online discussions, email exchanges) and formal (papers, unit plans, peer reviews), of 14 teachers enrolled in a master's degree course focused on diversity in science teaching and learning. These emerging understandings were member-checked via a series of interviews with a subset of these teachers. Our analysis was conducted in two stages: (1) describing the difficulties the teachers identified for themselves in their attempts to teach science to a wide range of students in their classes and (2) analyzing these self-identified barriers for underlying beliefs and conceptions that serve to prohibit or allow for the teachers' understanding and enactment of equitable science instruction. The teachers' self-identified barriers were grouped into three categories: students, broader social infrastructure, and self. The more fundamental barriers identified included teacher beliefs about the ethnocentrism of the mainstream, essentialism/individualism, and beliefs about the meritocracy of schooling. The implications of these hurdles for science teacher education are discussed.

THE CONCEPT OF SENCE IN THE WORLD, METAPHYSICS AND SCIENCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michal Sicinski

2007-01-01

Full Text Available The notion of objective sense is commonly used in various contexts, and is also frequently misused. It has been often criticised in the context of natural sciences during the last 200 years - the period of positivistically oriented science. In the ancient Greek philosophy the problem of Nature possessing its own sense was stressed, and from the problem the first germs of science started in the Ionic and Pythagorean schools. Contrary to that, Aristotelean approach initiated the positivist tradition which banned from science the question of Nature as possessing an internal sense, and the scholastics introduced a concept of Nature's sense being not intrinsic but granted to it by the divine action. The mathematisation of physics caused that the the divine action started to be interpreted as "mathematical", and in consequence, the sense of Nature was seen as expressed by mathematics. Later on, this mathematically expressed sense of Nature, as seen in physical theories, started to be perceived as independent from God and having not much to as supernatural: inside the mathematical science there was no place for any anthropomorphic Creators.Recently, however when in the newest physics the mathematical structures have already been perceived not only as a language but also as a kind of ultimate reality, a place for quasi-religious feeling of mystery hidden in these structures has been welcome. It means that within the field of modern physical theories there is no place for the traditional religious concepts, but there is a place for a kind of mystics of objective mathematics in the Pythagorean style, related to the modern "new spirituality" mysticism.The situation is completely different in the area of less mathematised branches like biology. The tensions between science and religion are strong there, and the alternative is as follows: traditional religiousness versus traditional atheism, but not a neutral science separated from religion versus a non

University Students Alternative Conceptions On Circular Motion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ian Phil Canlas

2015-08-01

Full Text Available This study attempted to find out university students alternative conceptions on circular motion. An 18-item researcher-compiled and content-validated questionnaire was administered to twenty-six 26 students taking up a program in Bachelor in Secondary Education-Physical Science in their second year enrolled in a course on mechanics. Results revealed that majority of the students possess alternative conceptions on circular motion specifically along velocity acceleration and force. Moreover results showed the inconsistencies in the students understanding of circular motion concepts.

University Student Conceptions of Learning Science through Writing

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Ellis, Robert A.; Taylor, Charlotte E.; Drury, Helen

2006-01-01

First-year undergraduate science students experienced a writing program as an important part of their assessment in a biology subject. The writing program was designed to help them develop both their scientific understanding as well as their written scientific expression. Open-ended questionnaires investigating the quality of the experience of…

Semio-Linguistic Creative Actualization of the Concept “Information About the Future” in the Science Fiction Discourse

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrey Vladimirovich Olyanich

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the cognitive category of "semio-linguistic creativity", that serves as a tool for implification of the concept "Information about the future" in the science fiction discourse. The correlation between the categories of future and information is studied in semio-linguistic aspect; the conceptual core, internal and external zones of the concept "Information about the future" are explored in connection with the concepts "Future", "Myths" and "Expectations" that are viewed as belonging to the science fiction discourse. The following issues are considered: coordination between axiological and imaginative spheres of the concept "Information about the future"; the mechanism of transforming information from present and past into the future by means of literary imagination, which is aimed at constructing the imaginary hyper-reality with the use of concepts that belong to contemporary reality; it is stated that such activity lays the basis for multiple forecasts. After the analysis of the novels by Vasily Golovachev, a famous Russian science fiction writer, the authors present their interpretation of the process of science-fiction discourse unfolding that involves groups of signs from the following semio-linguistic clusters (The Man as a species; Food; Space, Earth, their semantic content is directly related to the needs of the future. The proposed algorithm of analysis may be applied to studying other semio-linguistic clusters: "Habitat," "Communications", "Social Environment", "Transport", "Technology", that may explicate the concept "Information about the future".

Learning about a Level Physics Students' Understandings of Particle Physics Using Concept Mapping

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Gourlay, H.

2017-01-01

This paper describes a small-scale piece of research using concept mapping to elicit A level students' understandings of particle physics. Fifty-nine year 12 (16- and 17 year-old) students from two London schools participated. The exercise took place during school physics lessons. Students were instructed how to make a concept map and were…

Proportional Reasoning: An Essential Component of Scientific Understanding

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Hilton, Annette; Hilton, Geoff

2016-01-01

In many scientific contexts, students need to be able to use mathematical knowledge in order to engage in scientific reasoning and problem-solving, and their understanding of scientific concepts relies heavily on their ability to understand and use mathematics in often new or unfamiliar contexts. Not only do science students need high levels of…

Measuring University students' understanding of the greenhouse effect - a comparison of multiple-choice, short answer and concept sketch assessment tools with respect to students' mental models

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Gold, A. U.; Harris, S. E.

2013-12-01

The greenhouse effect comes up in most discussions about climate and is a key concept related to climate change. Existing studies have shown that students and adults alike lack a detailed understanding of this important concept or might hold misconceptions. We studied the effectiveness of different interventions on University-level students' understanding of the greenhouse effect. Introductory level science students were tested for their pre-knowledge of the greenhouse effect using validated multiple-choice questions, short answers and concept sketches. All students participated in a common lesson about the greenhouse effect and were then randomly assigned to one of two lab groups. One group explored an existing simulation about the greenhouse effect (PhET-lesson) and the other group worked with absorption spectra of different greenhouse gases (Data-lesson) to deepen the understanding of the greenhouse effect. All students completed the same assessment including multiple choice, short answers and concept sketches after participation in their lab lesson. 164 students completed all the assessments, 76 completed the PhET lesson and 77 completed the data lesson. 11 students missed the contrasting lesson. In this presentation we show the comparison between the multiple-choice questions, short answer questions and the concept sketches of students. We explore how well each of these assessment types represents student's knowledge. We also identify items that are indicators of the level of understanding of the greenhouse effect as measured in correspondence of student answers to an expert mental model and expert responses. Preliminary data analysis shows that student who produce concept sketch drawings that come close to expert drawings also choose correct multiple-choice answers. However, correct multiple-choice answers are not necessarily an indicator that a student produces an expert-like correlating concept sketch items. Multiple-choice questions that require detailed

The concept of competence and its relevance for science, technology, and mathematics education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ropohl, Mathias; Nielsen, Jan Alexis; Olley, Christopher

2018-01-01

. In contrast to earlier ed-ucational goals that focused more on basic skills and knowledge expectations, competences are more functionally oriented. They involve the ability to solve complex problems in a particular context, e.g. in vocational or everyday situations. In science, technology, and mathematics...... education, the concept of competence is closely linked to the concept of literacy. Apart from these rather cognitive and af-fective perspectives influenced by the need to assess students’ achievement of de-sired learning goals in relation to their interest and motivation, the perspectives of the concept...

Learning and Understanding System Stability Using Illustrative Dynamic Texture Examples

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Liu, Huaping; Xiao, Wei; Zhao, Hongyan; Sun, Fuchun

2014-01-01

System stability is a basic concept in courses on dynamic system analysis and control for undergraduate students with computer science backgrounds. Typically, this was taught using a simple simulation example of an inverted pendulum. Unfortunately, many difficult issues arise in the learning and understanding of the concepts of stability,…

Exploring Social Learning through Upstream Engagement in Science and Technology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mortensen, Jonas Egmose

This discussion paper deliberates on how the concept of social learning can be used for evaluating upstream engagement initiatives in science and technology.  The paper briefly introduces to the concept of upstream engagement and a concrete case, the UK Citizen Science for Sustainability project...... (SuScit), as an outset for discussing how the concept of social learning can be used for analysing and understanding relations between citizen participation, Science and research, and sustainability. A number of relevant research questions and methodological considerations are distilled...

Enhancing Teacher and Student Engagement and Understanding of Marine Science Through Classroom Citizen Science Projects

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Goodale, T. A.

2016-02-01

Overview This paper presentation shares findings from a granted funded project that sought to expand teacher content knowledge and pedagogy within the fields of marine science and coastal resource management through the implementation of classroom citizen science projects. A secondary goal was to increase middle and high school student interest and participation in marine science and natural resources research. Background A local science & engineering fair has seen a rapid decline in secondary student participants in the past four years. Research has demonstrated that when students are a part of a system of knowledge production (citizen science) they become much more aware, involved and conscious of scientific concepts compared to traditional school laboratory and nature of science activities. This project's primary objectives were to: (a) enhance teacher content expertise in marine science, (b) enrich teacher professional learning, (c) support citizen science classroom projects and inspire student activism and marine science engagement. Methods Project goals were addressed through classroom and meaningful outdoor educational experiences that put content knowledge into field based practices. Teachers learned to apply thier expanded content knowlege through classroom citizen science projects that focus on marine resource conservation issues such as fisheries management, water quality, turtle nesting and biodiversity of coastal ecosystems. These projects would eventually become potential topics of citizen science research topics for their students to pursue. Upon completion of their professional development, participants were urged to establish student Marine Science clubs with the goal of mentoring student submissions into the local science fair. Supplemental awards were possible for the students of project participants. Findings Based on project measures participants significantly increased their knowledge and awareness of presented material marine science and

Investigation of Preservice Science Teachers' Comprehension of the Star, Sun, Comet and Constellation Concepts

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Cevik, Ebru Ezberci; Kurnaz, Mehmet Altan

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study is to reveal preservice science teachers' perceptions related to the sun, star, comet and constellation concepts. The research was carried out by 56 preservice science teachers (4th grade) at Kastamonu University taking astronomy course in 2014-2015 academic year. For data collection open-ended questions that required…

Proportional Reasoning Ability and Concepts of Scale: Surface Area to Volume Relationships in Science

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Taylor, Amy; Jones, Gail

2009-01-01

The "National Science Education Standards" emphasise teaching unifying concepts and processes such as basic functions of living organisms, the living environment, and scale. Scale influences science processes and phenomena across the domains. One of the big ideas of scale is that of surface area to volume. This study explored whether or not there…

Final Project Report "Advanced Concept Exploration For Fast Ignition Science Program"

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

STEPHENS, Richard B.; McLEAN, Harry M.; THEOBALD, Wolfgang; AKLI, Kramer; BEG, Farhat N.; SENTOKU, Yasuiko; SCHUMACHER, Douglas; WEI, Mingsheng S.

2014-01-31

The Fast Ignition (FI) Concept for Inertial Confinement Fusion has the potential to provide a significant advance in the technical attractiveness of Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) reactors. FI differs from conventional “central hot spot” (CHS) target ignition by decoupling compression from heating: using the laser (or heavy ion beam or Z pinch) drive pulse (10’s of ns) to create a dense fuel and a second, much shorter (~10 ps) high intensity pulse to ignite a small region of it. There are two major physics issues concerning this concept; controlling the laser-induced generation of large electron currents and their propagation through high density plasmas. This project has addressed these two significant scientific issues in Relativistic High Energy Density (RHED) physics. Learning to control relativistic laser matter interaction (and the limits and potential thereof) will enable a wide range of applications. While these physics issues are of specific interest to inertial fusion energy science, they are also important for a wide range of other HED phenomena, including high energy ion beam generation, isochoric heating of materials, and the development of high brightness x-ray sources. Generating, controlling, and understanding the extreme conditions needed to advance this science has proved to be challenging: Our studies have pushed the boundaries of physics understanding and are at the very limits of experimental, diagnostic, and simulation capabilities in high energy density laboratory physics (HEDLP). Our research strategy has been based on pursuing the fundamental physics underlying the Fast Ignition (FI) concept. We have performed comprehensive study of electron generation and transport in fast-ignition targets with experiments, theory, and numerical modeling. A major issue is that the electrons produced in these experiments cannot be measured directly—only effects due to their transport. We focused mainly on x-ray continuum photons from bremsstrahlung

The effect of a pretest in an interactive, multimodal pretraining system for learning science concepts

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bos, Floor/Floris; Terlouw, C.; Pilot, Albert

2009-01-01

In line with the cognitive theory of multimedia learning by Moreno and Mayer (2007), an interactive, multimodal learning environment was designed for the pretraining of science concepts in the joint area of physics, chemistry, biology, applied mathematics, and computer sciences. In the experimental

Changes in Pre-Service Science Teachers' Understandings After Being Involved in Explicit Nature of Science and Socioscientific Argumentation Processes

Science.gov (United States)

Kutluca, A. Y.; Aydin, A.

2017-01-01

The study explored the changes in pre-service science teachers' understanding of the nature of science and their opinions about the nature of science, science teaching and argumentation after their participation in explicit nature of science (NOS) and socioscientific argumentation processes. The participants were 56 third-grade pre-service science…

The Relationships among Scientific Epistemic Beliefs, Conceptions of Learning Science, and Motivation of Learning Science: A Study of Taiwan High School Students

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Ho, Hsin-Ning Jessie; Liang, Jyh-Chong

2015-01-01

This study explores the relationships among Taiwanese high school students' scientific epistemic beliefs (SEBs), conceptions of learning science (COLS), and motivation of learning science. The questionnaire responses from 470 high school students in Taiwan were gathered for analysis to explain these relationships. The structural equation modeling…

Developing an Understanding of Higher Education Science and Engineering Learning Communities