Goal Of Science Education Research Articles

Exploring the Autonomy of South African School Science Students when Doing Investigative Inquiries for a Science Fair

This mixed methods research explored the autonomous experiences of South African school students when participating in a science fair. A prominent global goal for school science education is for students to partake in scientific inquiry in order to acquire understanding of science concepts, the processes and skills of science, and the nature of science. This places a demand on teachers as it requires a change in pedagogy from a teacher-centred to a student-centred approach. Student autonomy, has been described as both a rationale for and a characteristic of students doing scientific inquiry. In this research, a quantitative survey questionnaire was administered to 50 students participating in a science fair. The questionnaire sought to establish the autonomy level of students when doing their investigative inquiry projects and the degree of support they received. Thereafter, 5 students were interviewed to elaborate upon their responses and to describe in detail their experiences of doing the projects. The findings of this study revealed that the students enjoyed optimal autonomy and perceived their experience as being empowering and stimulating. It is also suggested that science fairs can provide an opportunity for students to enjoy autonomy in choosing their own topic for inquiry, in designing the inquiry, in doing the inquiry, and arriving at their own conclusions. This autonomy can enable students to experience authentic inquiry, show their creativity and demonstrate critical thinking skills.

Testing a methodology for the development of socioscientific issues to enhance middle school students’ argumentation and reasoning

ABSTRACT Background An overarching goal of school science education is to prepare young people for a rapidly changing and complex world. Middle school science students need more than a basic understanding of science concepts in preparation for further study. Rather, they need the skills to question and evaluate evidence and make decisions about complex scientific issues that impact themselves, society and the environment. Purpose The purpose of this study was to test a three-phase methodology for developing socioscientific issues that can be used in the classroom to engage middle school students, support their decision-making skills, enable them to construct an argument and use rational reasoning patterns. Sample The context of this research was four Australian Year 7 (12 years old) classrooms where students were studying the topic of water use. Design and Methods This exploratory study tested a three-phase methodology that included: (1) development of the socioscientific issues in consultation with experienced science teachers; (2) trialling with 68 Year 7 students in three diverse schools with teacher support and writing frames; and, (3) testing with 52 different Year 7 students from two schools to measure argument quality. Results The findings showed that all students, including those with low literacy levels, were able to engage with the socioscientific issues. The majority of students also were able to construct an argument that could be assessed for argument quality based on structure, type of reasoning and types of categories. Factors that facilitated engagement with the issues were personal relevance, collaborative whole-class discussion, scaffolding, and explicit literacy support. Conclusion The conclusion was that the three-phase methodology for developing socioscientific issues was effective in the contexts in this study. The findings also supported further testing of the methodology in other contexts.

Preservice Science Teachers\u2019 Strategies in Scientific Reasoning: the Case of Modeling

The development of scientific reasoning competencies is a key goal of science education. To better understand the complex construct of scientific reasoning, which includes modeling as one style of reasoning, thorough investigations of the underlying processes are needed. Therefore, in this study, a typology of preservice science teachers’ modeling strategies was developed. Thirty-two preservice science teachers were videotaped while engaging in the modeling task of investigating a black box. Following a qualitative content analysis, sequences of modeling activities were identified. By transforming these sequences of modeling activities into state transition graphs, six types of modeling strategies were derived, differing in the homogeneity and complexity of their modeling processes. The preservice science teachers engaged in activities of (1) exploration only; (2a) exploration and development with a focus on development; (2b) exploration and development with a focus on exploration; (2c) exploration and development, balanced; (3a) exploration, development, and drawing predictions from a model once; or (3b) exploration, development, and repeatedly drawing predictions from a model. Finally, this typology is discussed regarding the process of its development and its potential to inform and guide further research as well as the development of interventions aiming to foster competencies in scientific modeling.

Enhancing the pedagogical practice of South African Physical Sciences teachers in inquiry-based teaching through empowerment evaluation

ABSTRACT Scientific inquiry has been advocated as a common curriculum goal in school science education in South Africa, and also throughout the world. In South Africa, the introduction of inquiry-based instruction in a reformed science curriculum has met with serious challenges, such as the under-preparedness of in-service teachers. The purpose of this study was to capture, portray and develop the pedagogical practice of Physical Sciences teachers in inquiry-based teaching using an empowerment evaluation approach. The study is a multiple case study in inquiry-based teaching of three Physical Sciences teachers in South Africa using a mixed methods design. Empowerment evaluation is the use of evaluation concepts, techniques, and findings to foster improvement and self-determination. Underlying an inquiry-based pedagogy is the assumption that science education is not merely about knowing-acquisition, but understanding how scientific knowledge is generated, evaluation of knowledge claims and conducting scientific research. Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews, a pedagogical orientation instrument, and classroom observations. The findings reveal that through empowerment evaluation, teacher practices in the classroom shifted towards an inquiry-based approach. The empowerment evaluation approach thus offers a viable and sustained form of professional development that is likely to empower teachers in assessing, planning, implementing and evaluating what they do.

Biology student’s Understanding of Nature of Science (NOS) and metacognitive awareness at higher education

The nature of science (NOS) is a crucial aspect of scientific literacy and also a major goal in science education. To achieve science education goal, students’ knowledge and metacognition are highly required. This study described Biology student’s understanding of NOS and their metacognition at higher education. This study was a survey of semester-four students. Data on NOS was from the Views of Nature of Science (VNOS) questionnaire form B, and students’ metacognition data was from the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) questionnaire. Data were analyzed descriptively. The results showed that the average of biology students’ NOS understanding is 60.35%. Based on seven aspects of NOS understanding studied, the highest achievement is in the empirical-based science aspect (68.69%), the lowest performance is in the subjective science aspect which is full of theoretical content (49.49%). Students’ Metacognitive regulation has a lower average (77.4%) than metacognitive knowledge (81.33%). It is found that Biology student’s NOS understanding is still weak, and their metacognition still needs to be fixed. This research suggests that biology student’s NOS understanding and metacognitive awareness still needs to be upgraded through the learning process so that students would be scientifically-literate and successful in their higher education.

EVALUATING SCIENTIFIC REASONING ABILITY: THE DESIGN AND VALIDATION OF AN ASSESSMENT WITH A FOCUS ON REASONING AND THE USE OF EVIDENCE

Scientific reasoning ability (SRA) is widely recognized as an essential goal for science education. There is much discussion on the design and development of assessment frameworks as viable tools to foster SRA. However, established assessments mostly focus on the level of students reasoning attainment. Student ability to use evidence to support reasoning is not adequately addressed and evaluated. In this study, the 6-level SRA assessment framework was conceptualized and validated iteratively via synthesizing literature and a Delphi study. Guided by the framework, an SRA assessment tool adopting and adapting PISA test items and self-created items was developed and administered to 593 secondary students (including 318 8th Graders and 275 9th Graders) in mainland China. Pearson correlation analysis of SRA assessment score and their scores in scientific reasoning provided criterion-related validation for the former (Pearson correlation = .527). Rasch analysis conducted further confirmed the validity and reliability of the SRA test and the assessment framework. Combing quantitative and qualitative methods, the study provides a valid and reliable analytical framework of SRA. It can inform the design of SRA assessments in various science education contexts for diversified audiences. Keywords: Complexity of Scientific Reasoning, Evidence in Reasoning, Rasch Modeling, Scientific Reasoning Ability (SRA).

Middle School Science Teachers’ Conceptions of Assessment Practice Throughout a Year-long Professional Development Experience

ABSTRACTClassroom assessment and the use of student performance data to inform instructional decisions have significant potential to help students meet the learning goals of science education. Research has shown that process-oriented assessment practices are challenging and sometimes ignored aspects of teaching, partly because teachers’ conceptions of assessment practice do not reflect a cycle of assessment that continually informs instruction. This study explores middle school science teachers’ conceptions of assessment practice based on drawn conceptual models and interviews that were gathered as part of a year-long professional development intervention. Results indicate that participants initially conceived of assessment practice in terms of tangible elements. Changes were seen, however, across the PD as several teachers developed conceptions that were more iterative, in which frequent assessment was used to inform future instruction. These findings raise important questions for how PD can most effectively support teachers’ adoption of research-based conceptions of quality science assessment practices.

Examining how classroom communities developed practice-based epistemologies for science through analysis of longitudinal video data.

Recent reforms in science education emphasize having students develop and refine core disciplinary ideas through participation in science knowledge–building practices. Supporting students’ meaningful participation in these practices is challenging, in part because our understanding of how this kind of participation develops is underexplored. This paper characterizes the epistemic dimension of classroom scientific practice—the underlying assumptions and criteria guiding students’ knowledge-building work—in moment-to-moment interactions, and how their use of these criteria shifted over time. These patterns of change illustrate how, by 8th grade, students were more consistently using sophisticated disciplinary forms of epistemic criteria than they were in 6th grade. The shifts toward disciplinary sophistication were cumulative over time and across content areas, suggesting that they reflected a shift in something other than content knowledge gains. Yet these cumulative shifts did not occur in a clean, predictable progression toward sophistication. This study documents the details of these shifts over time and across content areas. By providing an empirical account of the evolution of students’ knowledge-building work in practice over time, this study argues for the centrality of epistemic learning goals in science education and proposes implications for how to measure and support students’ meaningful participation in scientific practices in contextually valid ways. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

Challenging endocrinology students with a critical-thinking workbook.

A central goal of science education is to help students develop higher order thinking skills to enable them to face the challenges of life. Accordingly, science instructors are now urged to craft their classrooms such that they serve as not only spaces for disseminating information, but also an arena through which students are encouraged to think scientifically and develop critical-thinking skills. This project aimed to develop a workbook that helps postsecondary students learn endocrinology and engages them in critical thinking. Each of the five chapters focuses on a different topic rooted within core biological concepts relevant to endocrinology. Such topics were identified on cross-referencing seminal reports on science education. Tenants of Numrich's Sequence of Critical-Thinking Tasks were used to guide the development of chapter sections with the intent of engaging students in critical thinking over time by way of practice and scaffolded guidance. Chapter sections of modeling, event sequencing, clinical application, research and communication, and simulation, target different skills presented in Numrich's framework. Students' learning, experiences, and behaviors were used to evaluate the workbook and inform the revision of the workbook into the publicly available second edition.

ANALISIS MANAJEMEN LABORATORIUM IPA TERHADAP KOMPETENSI PESERTA DIDIK

Natural Sciences learning laboratory activities are an integral part of teaching and learning activities, This shows how important the role of laboratory activities to achieve the goals of science education. Through laboratory activities, students will be given the opportunity to encourage curiosity and the desire to try, test and reason the theories obtained. The purpose of this study was to analyze the management of a science laboratory in SMP Negeri 4 Sojol. The research method uses qualitative methods and descriptive analysis. The research subjects were the head of the laboratory and the science subject teacher and the students at SMP Negeri 4 Sojol. Data collection techniques through observation, interviews and student learning outcomes. Based on the results of the study, the availability of natural science practicum tools in SMP Negeri 4 Sojol, the average availability of practical tools and materials 68.33% classified as complete categories, the average presentation of the feasibility of practical tools and materials 90.67% included in the excellent category based on the Ministry of Education number 24 of 2007. the effectiveness of practicum implementation in SMP Negeri 4 Sojol is classified as effective category with an average presentation of practicum at 85%. Coupled with an average increase in cognitive competencies average preetest 58 increase in posttest by as much as 87 in addition to the average value of competence in the areas of psychomotor average preetest obtained 60 and posttest 90 showed a significant increase competency knowledge and skills of learners. Success in the cognitive domain will also have a positive impact on the development of the psychomotor domain (skills) of students. Management of laboratory facilities and infrastructure planning in improving the quality of learning in schools must be planned by the head of the laboratory, planning science teachers by preparing learning tools and identifying the subject matter to be practiced in the laboratory, laboratory administration governance supported by good organization from the leadership of policy makers in school. Implementation of laboratory facilities and infrastructure management in improving the quality of learning in schools including procurement, inventory, storage, structuring, use, and maintenance. Supervision carried out by the principal is in accordance with the provisions, to be more efficient the school should make a program or schedule of supervision processes to be more controlled and run well and smoothly.

Expanding our views of science education to address sustainable development, empowerment, and social transformation

On 25 September 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution, which took effect 1 January 2016, to transform the world to better meet human needs and the requirements of economic transformation, while protecting the environment, ensuring peace and realizing human rights. Since 1987, there have been several global initiatives oriented toward sustainable development, yet science educators have often remained silent with respect to ensuring the goals of science education are linked intrinsically to the central tenets of sustainable development. Why such silence? Where are the voices of science educators?In this position statement, I offer a rationale for expanding our views of science education to address sustainable development, empowerment, and social transformation. Science education ought to be a primary vehicle for addressing the current and emerging global challenges facing humanity. All too often, science educators merely focus upon fostering awareness and concern for global challenges. Such an orientation falls short of the education discourse that ought to be oriented toward addressing the goals, aspirations, desires, and needs of youth, who presently number 1.8 billion and represent the largest segment of the global population being underserved. The active engagement of youth in sustainable development efforts is imperative to achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda. Youth are not mere beneficiaries of the 2030 Agenda; they have a critical role in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).I offer a rationale for why science educators ought to become active agents in facilitating the engagement of youth in addressing global challenges facing humanity. Youth are demanding action; science educators ought to enable learners and communities to transform and reinvent the world they are inheriting.

Proceedings of the Symposium on International Science and Engineering Education: An Overview

Proceedings of the Symposium on International Science and Engineering Education: An Overview

2009 개정 및 2015 개정 교육과정에 따른 초등과학 식물의 구조와 기능 단원의 성취기준 및 탐구활동 비교 분석

The purpose of this study is to examine comparatively the achievement standards and inquiry activities of “the structure and function of plants” unit according to the 2009 revision and 2015 revision of elementary school science national curriculum. There were decreased the number of achievement standards and inquiry activities of unit “the structure and function of plants” in 2015 revised rather than 2009 revised science national curriculum. However, there was a little bit differences between learning contents of them. For inquiry activity types of “the structure and function of plants” presented in science textbooks, there were more diverse in the 2015 revised elemenatry school science textbooks than the 2009 revised elemenatry school science textbooks, and even more inquiry process skills in the 2015 revision of elementary school science textbooks were than in the 2009 revision. it was found out that learning contents should be harmonized in aspects of balancing learning objective domains and considering environment curricula. In order to achieve the goal of elementary school science education on the basis of science national curriculum in elementary school, the consistency between science textbooks and science national curriculum should be considered and that can be contribute to the development of future science national curriculum.

The Scientific Literacy Profile of Tsunami Disaster Mitigation of Non-Science Undergraduate Student in Universitas Negeri Surabaya

Scientific literacy needs to be developed in the school as the primary goal of science education. The purpose of the research is to describe the scientific literacy profile of a tsunami disaster for non-science undergraduate students in Universitas Negeri Surabaya. The research is a qualitative descriptive study using questionnaires and interviews for collecting the data. The sample of the study was 73 first-year non-science students from Universitas Negeri Surabaya. Based on the data analysis, it was found that the scientific literacy of non-science undergraduate students in the tsunami disaster is below average, with 40.67 scores. The fact that Indonesia had a Tsunami disaster in Aceh and Palu was not igniting student curiosity about this disaster. This phenomenon leads the student to have low scientific literacy. The student assumes that Surabaya has little risk of having a Tsunami, so they think they do not need to acknowledge the scientific facts related to Tsunami.

Extending the Utility of the Views of Nature of Science Assessment through Epistemic Network Analysis

An understanding of how science is enacted and how scientific knowledge is generated, or the nature of science (NOS), is a major goal of science education. NOS views have almost exclusively been assessed using the Views of Nature of Science (VNOS) suite of instruments, which consists of open-ended questions. The purpose of this study was to investigate the utility of performing an Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) from VNOS-B responses, using the group as the unit of analysis. Traditional scoring of the VNOS responses demonstrated that overall, participants shifted from emerging to more sophisticated views across all elements. An ENA provided a quick visualization of how participants connected NOS ideas. With regard to accuracy of participants’ NOS understandings as a group, findings from traditional VNOS analysis and ENA converged on two main points, improvement of overall quality of knowledge and the identification of missing elements of NOS from responses. Some changes in participants’ NOS understanding were identifiable in results from only the ENA. For example, prior to instruction, ENA showed three naive ideas about empiricism. After instruction, no naive statements remained in the responses about the empirical nature of science. ENA extends the traditional VNOS analysis by enabling the pinpointing of particular ideas that are meaningful to the group, indicating clusters of ideas that are related, and illustrating the way informed, transitional and naive ideas intermingle.

2015 개정 과학과 교육과정에 따른 초등학교 과학 교과의 탐구활동 유형 분석- 3~4학년군 과학 교과서를 중심으로 -

In this study, the types of inquiry activities presented in grade 3 and 4 science textbooks according to the 2015 revised science curriculum were analyzed. They were compared according to grade level and five areas. The science textbooks for elementary 3rd and 4th graders contain many different types of inquiry activities, and are designed to cultivate science and core competencies through student-focused inquiry classes. As a result of analyzing the types of inquiry activities presented in the five areas of motion and energy(physics), materials(chemistry), life(life sciences), earth and space(earth sciences), and integration, the experiment and observation activities were the most common. Earth and space were the most simulated because of the nature of subjects that were difficult to experiment and observe. In order to achieve the goal of science education in elementary school, inquiry activities should be presented in consideration of students’ cognitive level, curriculum content, and subject areas.

Effects of an extracurricular science intervention on elementary school children's epistemic beliefs: A randomized controlled trial.

BackgroundFurther developing students’ thinking about knowledge and knowing in science (epistemic beliefs) is considered a normative goal of science education in many countries around the world, even for elementary‐school‐aged children.AimsThe goal of the present study was to introduce and evaluate a new intervention in science education aimed at developing children's epistemic beliefs, epistemic curiosity, and investigative interests. The intervention included an inquiry‐based learning approach as well as reflections on epistemic issues because these methods are currently seen as most promising for fostering students’ epistemic beliefs.SampleData were collected from 65 elementary school children in Grades 3 and 4 (58.46% boys, age: M = 8.73, SD = 0.60) who participated in a voluntary extracurricular STEM enrichment programme in south‐west Germany.MethodsWe investigated the effectiveness of the intervention by applying a randomized block design with a treated control group and repeated measures. The effectiveness of the intervention was analysed via multiple linear regression analyses.ResultsThe results indicated that the children assigned to the intervention developed more sophisticated epistemic beliefs and a higher level of epistemic curiosity than the children assigned to the control condition. No intervention effects were found on investigative interests.ConclusionsThe results provide initial evidence for the effectiveness of the intervention and demonstrate that it is possible to improve epistemic beliefs among elementary school children in Grades 3 and 4. The study provides a starting point for understanding how young children develop epistemic beliefs.

Using Socioscientific Issues to Enhance Students’ Emotional Competence

The premise of our study is that emotional competence (EC) serves as a foundational contributor to the achievement of science education goals in the context of socioscientific issues (SSIs). EC is a set of abilities necessary to accomplish adaptive goals in emotionally arousing situations. We contend that the development of EC is conducive to learning and character development in the SSI context. Therefore, we set out to develop and implement an EC intervention SSI program (called EC-SSI) and to verify the program’s effect on students’ EC, and “character and values.” We developed a nine-lesson program using two SSI scenarios: the Coltan mining problem and a designer baby dilemma. We collected data using questionnaires and student worksheets from 26 tenth graders and applied a mixed method approach to data gathering and analysis. We found that the program significantly improved students’ EC and “character and values.” From these results, we conclude that instructional strategies to improve students’ EC can be applied in SSI instruction and can positively affect student’s empathy and emotion regulation. We suggested that SSIs can provide an appropriate context for the improvement of students’ EC in science education and educators consider EC training integration at appropriate stages of science learning. We also recommend follow-up research to examine how students’ EC development impacts their SSI decision-making.

SCIENTIFIC REASONING DEVELOPMENT WITHIN INFORMAL FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT USE IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL PHYSICAL SCIENCE LESSONS

Scientific reasoning, though not explicitly taught in classrooms, is promoted as a major goal for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education at all levels, worldwide. Literature also indicates that the time spent by learners explaining and justifying their ideas strongly correlates with learning improvement. In Swaziland, however, reports from school science inspectors and school leaving examiners point to weak evidence of scientific reasoning skills from school-based and high-stake examinations. This contradicts the main education goal at this level – producing learners who can use science phenomena awareness for reasoning through diverse life contexts. The study was conceived within the interplay between cognitive and sociocultural theories of constructivism. It focuses on how senior secondary school Physical Science teachers use informal formative assessment (IFA), and how the assessments so used support scientific reasoning. Through the qualitative inquiry approach a multiple case study design was used where four teachers in the Manzini Region were purposively sampled and their lessons observed. The data were then analysed through content analysis and Furtak, Harding, Beinbrech, Shavelson, and Shemwell (2008)’s analytical framework. The study revealed that teachers initiated learner-centred dialogues to address misconceptions and ask further clarification questions. Practical work and contingency based oral questions generated a reach variety of scientific reasoning levels while cases where teachers treated none response moments by supplying answers generated the least reasoning levels. All in all, by diligently using IFA to support learning, teachers realised opportunities for assisting learners migrate from concrete operational to formal thinking levels.

Chemistry Teachers’ Views about Scientific Inquiry: A Study in East Java Province of Indonesia

Scientific inquiry is a part of scientific literacy which is probably one of the main goals of science education. This paper reports a preliminary study on chemistry teachers’ understanding about scientific inquiry carried out using a Questionnaire of Views about Scientific Inquiry (VASI) with background of chemistry knowledge. Sample of the study is 32 chemistry teachers of senior and vocational high schools. Results showed that (1) the chemistry teachers held more informed views than science teachers reported in the previous study and (2) the pattern of chemistry teachers’ understanding about aspects of scientific inquiry is the same as senior high school students’ understanding. These indicate that (1) the complexity of leraning material people learned may be influences their inference ability and (2) the first year university chemistry students’ understanding of scientific inquiry are the strengthening of the perception they get from their teachers when they were school students.