This paper describes a four-year program to advance electrical and electronics studies and their implementation in eight northern Israeli high schools. The program was begun with four schools participating, increasing to eight schools toward the end. This paper presents the teaching and learning processes of teachers and students during the program. Within the program's framework, learning materials and teaching guides were written, teachers were given in-school training and guidance, and meetings were held with teachers and headmasters so as to promote and track performance in the field. At the end of the program, more than 200 12th-grade students from eight high schools successfully passed their matriculation exam on large-scale projects. About 150 of these students had studied electronics, and the other 50 studied electricity. Prior to this program, only about 40 final projects in these fields had been undertaken in the State of Israel. Today, 10 years after the program, some 2000 final projects are submitted each year to matriculation exams.

The focus of this research was an evaluation of the impact of teacher professional development (PD) on student achievement during implementation of a reform curriculum. The PD consisted of five four‐hour workshop sessions distributed over the time teachers were implementing the reform curriculum in their classrooms. The research was conducted in a mid‐size, urban school district over the span of two years. Three groups of teachers were contrasted: teachers who continued to use the established curriculum (N = 5), teachers who implemented the reform curriculum without participating in the PD sessions (N = 5), and teachers who implemented the reform curriculum while participating in the PD sessions (N = 13). Teachers who participated in the PD had approximately a one standard deviation advantage in their students' achievement over those who did not. We collected evidence of particular features of the PD that explained the differences in student achievement. The features included: distributing the workshops throughout the implementation; engaging teachers in an active learning process situated in the curriculum; and facilitating a collaborative community of teacher professionals. This study led us to believe that not only are the individual features of the PD important, but the combination of all three together is particularly powerful.

Infusing creative thinking competence through the design process of authentic projects requires not only changing the teaching methods and learning environment, but also adopting new assessment methods, such as portfolio assessment. The participants in this study were 128 high school pupils who have studied MECHATRONICS from 10th to 12th grades (16–18 years old). By the end of 12th grade, the pupils had created 57 authentic projects. The intervention program had two parts: first, the pupils documented their project according to a creative design process that had been introduced to them. Second, the projects were assessed according to a creative thinking scale. This scale was designed to assist pupils in documenting the design process. It could be used as a guideline for teachers and pupils during the course of the project. The research examined pupils’ performance during project-based learning. The research tools included: observations of class activities, portfolio assessment, and external matriculation assessment. The findings show first that pupils learned to document their design process. Second, pupils’ projects demonstrated various levels of creative thinking skill. Evidences for high-level documentation of the projects were found in pupils’ portfolios. On the other hand, there is much to be learned about documenting teamwork and pupils’ reflection. This research could assist researchers and teachers who are interested in assessing engineering education outcomes.

Across several decades, educational researchers have investigated the contribution of the learning environment to the attainment of educational goals, such as improving academic achievement and motivation to learn. The term learning environment not only includes physical activities in the classroom (e.g. experiments kits, computers), but also includes teaching methods, the type of learning in which pupils are engaged, and assessment methods. In this research, we refined an approach to measuring the impact of a variety of classroom features on many different learning outcomes through the lens of students’ perception. A new instrument, the Design-Based Learning Environment Questionnaire (DBLEQ), was field-tested in an eighth-grade USA science classroom setting. This study examined pre-post changes for two different curricula, one emphasising design-based learning (n = 464) and another emphasising scripted inquiry (n = 248). The value of the instrument and ways of analysing its data are illustrated through the range of differences that were found between conditions over time.

This paper contrasts performances overall and by gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES) for middle school students learning science through traditional scripted inquiry versus a design‐based, systems approach. Students designed and built electrical alarm systems to learn electricity concepts over a four‐week period using authentic engineering design methods. The contrast study took place in the eighth grade of an urban, public school district, with the systems approach implemented in 26 science classes (10 teachers and 587 students) and the scripted inquiry approach implemented in inquiry groups of 20 science classes (five teachers and 466 students). The results suggest that a systems design approach for teaching science concepts has superior performance in terms of knowledge gain achievements in core science concepts, engagement, and retention when compared to a scripted inquiry approach. The systems design approach was most helpful to low‐achieving African American students.

A major goal of science education reform is to produce curricula that improve the learning of all students. In this study, the authors explore the use of design-based learning (DBL) to achieve this end. They examined two middle school science classes taught by a teacher who switched for the first time from a standard, scripted inquiry approach to a DBL approach. The researchers were particularly interested in two questions. First, will students previously labeled high and low-achievers become equally engaged by DBL? Second, will the traditional gaps in science achievement associated with race/ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic status be increased or reduced? The findings presented two aspects of learning: engagement and achievement. Engagement has the potential to highlight students' performance in a way that standardized assessment methods do not reveal. The findings of this study suggest that DBL has the potential to increase students' desire to learn, enhance students' success in science class, and increase students' interest in science topics.

Science and technology are connected to each other and are mutually inspiring. The science-technology curriculum for junior-high school in Israel suggests that teachers integrate these subjects. In addition, this curriculum calls for infusing thinking competencies into the learning subjects and for implementing alternatives in assessment methods in the classes. The current research included three stages: field research, pilot research and expanded research. In the field research, an intervention program was planned and implemented. The intervention program included a three-year inservice training workshop consisting of 224 hours each year. Quantitative and qualitative tools were used to assess teachers’ implementation of the intervention program. The findings revealed the characteristics of the science-technology learning environment and various learning outcomes. The pilot research enabled the development and validation of a questionnaire called the Science-Technology Learning Environment Questionnaire (STLEQ). The STLEQ was aimed at assessing teachers’ and pupils’ perceptions of learning environment. The conclusions from the pilot research showed differences between teachers’ and pupils’ perceptions towards the impact of learning environment characteristics on learning outcomes.

Introduction Project-based learning (PBL) that has authenticity in the pupils’ world enables the teaching of science and technology to pupils from a variety of backgrounds. PBL has the potential to enable pupils to research, plan, design, and reflect on the creation of technological projects (Doppelt, 2000). Imparting creative thinking within the design process of pupils’ projects not only requires changing the teaching methods and learning environment, but also adopting new assessment methods such as student portfolios. Engineering education, which is common in Israel, has a unique structure in that it combines practical and theoretical knowledge, synthesizes vertical and lateral thinking, and creates a rich and flexible learning environment. The CTT (Creative Thinking in Technology) program (Barak & Doppelt, 1999) integrates Co.R.T. Thinking tools (De Bono, 1986) into the technology curriculum using the LEGO-Logo learning environment for creating authentic projects. The program began in 1994. Pupils study lateral thinking tools in order to deal with different alternatives, to consider multiple factors, and to refrain from premature judgments on ideas. They use vertical thinking tools in order to document their design process and to calculate and to structure programming for the control of their projects. Earlier field research by Barak, Waks, & Doppelt (2000) showed that pupils prefer a learning environment that emphasizes planning and building activities and team projects. Pupils have stated that these aspects of a learning environment contribute to creating challenges, curiosity, imagination, and success in studying technological subjects (Doppelt & Barak, 2002). As the CTT program evolved, a Creative Thinking Scale (CTS) was

Previous research has found that the learning environment (LE) in science classrooms can have a large impact on learning and interest beyond the effects of the curriculum per se. This study dealt with a science-technology LE at the middle school level, with and without project-based learning. In order to investigate the perceptions of pupils and teachers of the LE, a questionnaire was developed. There were four groups of participants in the study. Project Teachers (PT) were twenty-one teachers who taught science-technology in the 9th grade using a project-based learning approach, as part of an intervention program which included three years of in-service training workshop, 224 hours each year. Non-project Teachers (NPT) were nineteen teachers from similar schools use more traditional approaches to teaching. Project pupils (PP) were 98 pupils from a randomly selected subset of the classrooms taught by the Project Teachers. Non-project Pupils (NPP) were 364 pupils from similar schools using more traditional approaches. All pupils had studied science-technology 6 periods per week during their 7th -- 9th grades. The pupils completed the questionnaire while they were in the second semester of grade nine (15 years old).

Project-based learning (PBL) is a well-known method for imparting thinking competencies and creating flexible learning environments. Advancing low-achieving pupils is an on-going challenge for educational systems. Routing low-achievers into low-learning tracks creates a vicious circle. In order to extract pupils and their teachers from the on-going cycle of failure, and to promote pupils cognitively and emotionally, four steps were taken: defining significant goals for the pupils as well as for the teachers, changing the learning environment, carrying out original projects taking advantage of the pupils' special skills and abilities, and changing assessment methods for project-based learning activities in a computerized environment.

Over the past two decades, the contribution that a rich learning environment makes toward attaining educational goals such as improvement in learning achievements and attitudes towards studies and school has been considered in educational research (Fraser, Giddings, & McRobbie, 1995; Fraser & Tobin, 1991; Perkins, 1992). The term rich learning environment not only includes physical devices, such as experiment kits or computers, but also the teaching technique, the type of activity pupils engage in, and the method of assessment. Associating science and technology studies with a rich, flexible, computerembedded learning environment may enable pupils to attain higher academic achievements and overcome their cognitive and affective difficulties (Barak, Waks, & Doppelt, 2000). The Creative Thinking and Technology (CTT) program (Barak & Doppelt, 1998) was developed for that purpose. The CTT program’s main goal is to cultivate creative thinking via project-based learning. The program integrates creative thinking tools from the CoRT 1 series of thinking tools (De Bono, 1986) within the technology curriculum (Barak & Doppelt, 1999). The pupils create authentic technological projects and prepare portfolios that are used for assessing the learning process. LEGO/Logo is attractive to technology education, as previous works have shown (Jarvela, 1995; Jarvinen, 1998; Kromholtz, 1998; Papert, 1991; Resnick & Ocko, 1991). The current research shows an application of LEGO/Logo by using pupils’ authentic projects for learning technology as a major subject in high school. This article concentrates on the pupils’ perspective on the preferred learning environment.

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A framework for helping low-achieving pupils through reinforcement in technology at high school is presented. Social-cognitive theory, concepts of authentic learning, learning by doing and peer learning all underpin the efforts to remove pupils from the vicious circle of low expectations and failures. The primary goal of modern technology studies is to impart pupils with high cognitive and personal competencies, as an alternative to teaching motor-based skills or memorising-based knowledge. This study's subjects were two groups of pupils who learned technology in an Israeli comprehensive high school. In tenth grade, the pupils became acquainted with the LEGO-Logo learning environment, acquired thinking tools from de Bono's CoRT program and worked in groups or individually on original projects. At the same time, they learned theoretical topics such as the physics of static mechanical systems and computerised technical drawing. In the eleventh and twelfth grades, the pupils took advanced courses in mechanical engineering, such as design of machine parts, automation and control systems. Observations in classes, interviews with the pupils and their parents, and findings from pupil questionnaires indicated an improvement in the pupils' self-efficacy and increased motivation to study at the present and in the future. The main features of the program, in the pupils' eyes, were construction activities, team projects and free study. The major ‘outputs’, in the pupils' eyes, were independence, initiative and interest in their studies.

(1999). Integrating the Cognitive Research Trust (CoRT) Programme for Creative Thinking into a Project‐based Technology Curriculum. Research in Science & Technological Education: Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 139-151.

I. Abstract This paper contrasts performance overall and by gender, ethnicity, and SES for middle school students learning science through traditional scripted inquiry versus a systems engineering, design-based approach, in which students designed and built electrical alarm systems to learn electricity concepts over a 4-week period using authentic engineering design methods. The contrast study took place in the 8 th grade of an urban, public school district, with the systems approach implemented in 26 science classes (10 teachers and 587 students) and the scripted inquiry approach implemented in contrast group of 20 science classes (5 teachers and 466 students). The results suggest that a systems design approach for teaching science concepts has superior performance in terms of knowledge gain achievements in core science concepts, engagement, and retention when compared with a guided inquiry approach. The systems design approach was most helpful to low-achieving African American students.

Imparting creative thinking to pupils through the design process of their projects requires not only changing the teaching methods and learning environment, but also adopting new assessment methods, such as portfolio assessment.