The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to investigate prospective elementary teachers’ conceptual understanding of buoyancy. Specifically, the study aimed to identify the scientifically accepted conceptions, and misconceptions that preservice teachers hold about buoyancy using an instructional intervention. Presently, there is a gap in the research literature concerning how preservice teachers understand floating and sinking as it relates to the scientific concept of buoyancy. Conceptions were analyzed using pre/post concept maps, and interviews. Findings showed that preservice teachers had scientifically accepted conceptions and misconceptions about buoyancy as a force and that both conceptions interacted with associated concepts of buoyancy (gravity, weight, mass, density, etc.). Overall, preservice teachers showed a significant deficiency in their content knowledge of buoyancy at the end of the study. Implications include (1) the need for teacher educators to review the science content courses prospective teachers are required to take for certification; and, (2) the need for elementary teachers to understand the concept of buoyancy and all related concepts in order to develop and implement curricula related to the topic of buoyancy.
This study examined the impact of microteaching experiences of preservice elementary teachers enrolled in a science teaching methods course. The microteaching lessons targeted the physical science concepts represented in the Texas Educational Agency’s exam for early childhood through sixth grade teacher certification. The results of this study demonstrate that targeting preservice elementary teachers’ specific areas of weakness in content through microteaching, feedback, and reflection can have a positive impact on the science subject teacher certification exam passing rate. Additionally, this type of intervention provides preservice teacher programs with another technique to improve science content understanding.
An online curriculum about biological evolution was designed according to the Promoting Evidentiary Reasoning and Self-Regulation Online (PERSON) theoretical framework to support evidentiary reasoning and self-regulation. An efficacy study was conducted with 83 suburban high school biology students using design-based research methods. Data sources and instruments included the Biological Evolution Assessment Measurement (BEAM), self-regulatory ability measures, discussion forum posts, and embedded evidence based reasoning assessments. Findings revealed that BEAM posttest scores were significantly greater than pretest scores for items designed to measure evidentiary reasoning. Performance on daily evidentiary reasoning tasks strongly predicted BEAM posttest scores. Self-regulatory ability did not significantly predict BEAM gain scores. Further, self-regulatory ability was not demonstrably improved as a result of this intervention. Implications for designing science instruction in asynchronous online learning environments to support evidentiary reasoning and self-regulation are discussed.
— This exploratory case study evaluated perceived presence of students and teachers after learning science topics on a 3-dimensional, haptic-enabled, virtual reality system. Twenty students and teachers completed four, one hour sessions with the instructional technology exploring biology and physical science content. Participants were interviewed and surveyed to evaluate their perception of presence via four constructs: control, sensory, distraction, and realism. Additional questions assessed changes in participants’ acquired skills from sessions. Results indicated the survey had high reliability for all constructs. Differences between students’ and teachers’ responses showed students perceived their virtual experience as more realistic than teachers. Students more than teachers reported improved gains science process skills (analyzing data, reporting results, recognizing error) and understandings of the nature of science (tentativeness and sociocultural context of science). When asked how this technology was regarded as a viable instructional option for learning science, students ranked the virtual technology higher than teachers as more interesting and increasing their understanding. Results showed students ranked zSpace as the most preferred instructional option and teachers ranked hands-on activities with materials as their most preferred instructional option.
For years science curriculum reformers have bemoaned curricula that are “a mile wide and an inch deep.” The tendency for high school science to be “[content]-dominate and textbook centered” leads to science courses bloated with facts and equations at the expense of a deep understanding of science as a process and way of knowing about the world. One reason for the excess of content in US national science standards documents is a reliance on identifying the so-called core ideas of science. Core ideas do not provide constraining factors and so the favorite topic of everyone is included leading to the expanding of science content over the last three decades. Selecting and organizing science content based on a narrative framework suggests a way to constrain and organize content in a way that students, already prone to organizing new information in narrative forms, can more easily manage. This article will lay out the basic structure of the narrative framework and apply it to construct a scope and sequence for the first-year secondary chemistry course.
Many researchers argue that science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) instruction contribute to the national economy and educators attempt to develop integrated instructional programs. In the current study, the effect of a problem-based STEM activity on students’ attitudes, career perceptions and career interests was investigated by using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The participants are 22 students attending a state secondary school in Turkey. In order to investigate the students’ attitudes towards STEM before and after the implementation of the problem-based learning (PBL) activity, the STEM attitude scale was used and to investigate their career interests, the STEM career interest questionnaire and the scale of interests in STEM-related occupations were employed. Following the application, a semi-structured interview form was used to determine students’ opinions about problem-based STEM activities. The findings revealed that the students’ attitudes towards STEM disciplines, STEM career perceptions and interests in STEM-related occupations significantly increased. The students’ interests particularly in the occupations related to engineering and technology were found to have considerably increased. The students’ interview results also support these findings. During their interviews, the students stated that problem-based STEM instruction is effective in their learning and developing the skills of the 21 st century, is making the class more enjoyable, is increasing their interest in the profession of engineering and is helping them to select their future career. As a result, integration of PBL with STEM positively affects students’ attitudes and career perceptions who are in the pursuit of their future career.
Physics and physical science content are essential for many professional fields, and they are an important component of scientific literacy. Yet, students are commonly less engaged in physics learning at all levels. Funds of knowledge approaches to science instruction build upon learners’ real-world experiences and interests in order to make science learning more relevant and engaging. This study investigates how college undergraduates’ football experiences elicit physical science content knowledge with a larger goal of developing physical science instruction that better connects to learners. This exploratory interpretive study utilized individual interviews and a focus groups with 22 college students to elicit their ideas about a variety of common football contexts: kicking, pursuit, throwing, and football deflation. The analysis identified several physical science concepts elicited by particular football scenarios, particular football experiences that could be utilized in science instruction, and some misconceptions or points of confusion about physical science concepts. Implications for curricular development, teacher education, and research are provided.
The importance of culture and social interactions in disciplinary learning and language development within specific social practices and contexts is now an agreed-upon notion in the science education literature. In a pivotal article in 1990, Lemke introduced the idea of manual-technical operations as one of four modes making up the “hybrid language of science”. Our aim in this paper is to further unpack the concept of manual-technical operations as a mode, thereby contributing to the more complex understanding of when and how this mode enhances meaning-making and communication of ideas. Drawing from researchers in diverse disciplines, we present a visual of the complex and integrated manual-technical operations mode. It is our hope that the theoretical model proposed in this manuscript will allow researchers to develop analytic frameworks to capture and assess change in the manual-technical operations mode of the hybrid language of science.
This experimental study was conducted in one public school in Trinidad with the aim of observing the effect of drama on the achievement and attitude towards science, of a group of upper primary school science students when taught a science unit. The experimental group was taught using drama-based instruction and activities while the control group received instruction via the traditional approach. A science unit entitled ‘Forces’ which consisted of five lessons was taught to both groups over a 2-week period. A science attitude test and a summative achievement test were administered to both groups before and after the treatment. The results revealed a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of both groups in respect of achievement levels for the unit of work. Mean ranked scores for attitudes towards science also showed a statistically significant difference in favor of the experimental group.
This study compared the effects of Individualised Instructional Strategy (IIS) and Cooperative Learning Instructional Strategy (CLIS) on male and female senior secondary school students’ academic achievement in Organic Chemistry. 2 research questions and 3 hypotheses guided the study. The design was quasi-experimental. The Population comprised 3,366 SSII chemistry students. A sample of 602 students from 6 schools (339 males and 263 females) was drawn from the population using balloting technique. The experimental groups were taught with IIS and CLIS while the control groups were taught with Lecture method, in each of the sampled schools. Both the experimental and control groups were taught organic chemistry by their regular chemistry teachers. The instruments used for the study were Chemistry Achievement Test on Organic Chemistry (CATOC), Cooperative Learning Instructional Manual and Learning Activity Package Manual which were validated by three experts. The reliability of the CATOC was determined using K-R 20 with index of .82. The research questions were answered using mean with standard deviation while the null hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Covariance. The findings revealed that both IIS and CLIS significantly enhanced students’ achievement in Organic Chemistry better than the Lecture method, but the CLIS was more effective than the IIS. The researcher recommended among others, that chemistry students should be exposed to student-centred and activity-based teaching strategies such as the Individualised Instructional Strategy and Cooperative Learning Instructional Strategy, for enhanced students’ academic achievement.
A project-based engineering education unit was implemented in a primary school in Cambodia. An effectiveness study was conducted to investigate students’ attitudes and expectations of engineering as a profession and students’ self-perceived 21 st century skills. The findings revealed that prior to the curriculum implementation both male and female students had positive attitudes toward engineering, positive beliefs toward the role of engineering in their lives, and highly favorable perceptions about their perceived 21 st century skills. Results indicated no significant increase in overall students’ attitudes and expectations of engineering, or self-perceived 21 st century skills. Yet, students who had an average mean score of less positive feelings on the pre-assessment showed significant increases in their attitudes and expectations toward engineering, as well as their self-perceived 21 st century skills. These findings indicate that students at the primary level in Cambodia are either already enthusiastic about engineering or are significantly more so once exposed to an engineering curriculum. The importance of incorporating engineering principles into the Cambodian curriculum are discussed.
Analogies have been widely used as tools for teaching difficult science concepts. The purposeful use of appropriate analogies can facilitate analogical thinking and help students develop the necessary transfer required for lifelong learning. Analogical thinking facilitates the development of higher order thinking skills among students. In this study the experiences of Trinidadian physics teachers on the importance of analogies as an instructional tool and the extent of its usage in physics teaching and learning were explored. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies were employed in this study. The findings revealed that, in general, Trinidadian physics teachers do in fact use analogies their pedagogical practice but that the analogies used are mostly simplistic and with illustrative character. Some teachers use analogies deliberately to help students build new knowledge by transferring and applying prior knowledge and skills to new learning situations.
Black girls represent a unique subpopulation of science learners. Black girls are unique because they consistently outperform Black boys in science. Despite this trend, Black girls often face dual marginalization in STEM classrooms and professions. Racial and gender marginalization can inhibit the success of Black girls in science if researchers, teachers and parents do not address the most salient factors. This exploratory analysis investigates how the specialized science content knowledge of Black girls is differentiated on the NAEP and how the dispositions, opportunities to learn, and parental involvement mechanisms are characterized by the NAEP assessment data. This within-group, content-specific analysis identifies teaching and learning strengths and weaknesses for Black girls that are difficult to assess using between-group designs. This study offers educators, researchers, and parents a holistic view of the performance profile of Black girls, as learners and doers of science. The results indicate that Black girls possess a basic understanding in life and physical sciences, however earth science remains the greatest challenge. Overall, the data shows that Black girls have a positive academic disposition towards science, yet are not engaged with the content. Recommendations for, researchers, teachers, parents and other educational stakeholders to further meet the needs of Black girls in science are provided.
This quasi-experimental study examined how the approach of mobile learning and authentic practice (MobiLAP) may foster scientific citizenship among ninth grade students. It was hypothesized that students that form identities as citizen scientists may have more favorable attitudes to contribute to citizen science, have greater interest in science and technology and may be more interested in pursuing education and careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The treatment group participated in an authentic citizen science project where they studied climate change, spent time in nature and used mobile devices to observe and report phenological data. The control group had a “business as usual” classroom experience studying climate change. The Scientific Citizenship, STEM Interest and Mobile Learning Survey (SCI-ML) instrument was developed to understand students’ citizen science identity formation and was administered to both groups pre and post intervention. The instrument was found to be highly reliable for both the entire scale and each of the four subscales. Findings revealed that the MobiLAP approach had a significant impact on participant attitudes toward citizen science identity and careers in STEM areas, but no significant improvement in attitudes toward mobile learning or learning science and technology.
