Goal Of Science Education Research Articles

Teaching and Learning Science in the 21st Century: Challenging Critical Assumptions in Post-Secondary Science

It is widely agreed upon that the goal of science education is building a scientifically literate society. Although there are a range of definitions for science literacy, most involve an ability to problem solve, make evidence-based decisions, and evaluate information in a manner that is logical. Unfortunately, science literacy appears to be an area where we struggle across levels of study, including with students who are majoring in the sciences in university settings. One reason for this problem is that we have opted to continue to approach teaching science in a way that fails to consider the critical assumptions that faculties in the sciences bring into the classroom. These assumptions include expectations of what students should know before entering given courses, whose responsibility it is to ensure that students entering courses understand basic scientific concepts, the roles of researchers and teachers, and approaches to teaching at the university level. Acknowledging these assumptions and the potential for action to shift our teaching and thinking about post-secondary education represents a transformative area in science literacy and preparation for the future of science as a field.

Students as curriculum critics: Standpoints with respect to relevance, goals, and science

AbstractThis article presents the findings of an ethnographic interview study that examined the ways students experienced a justice‐centered AP chemistry course at an urban neighborhood high school. Justice‐centered science pedagogy is an approach to teaching science that treats inequity in science education as one component of larger systems of oppression. The analysis of interview transcripts, which included pattern matching and coding, revealed variation in the ways students' viewed the relevance of the curriculum, the goals of science education, and science itself. These results underscore the importance of researchers and teachers taking seriously students' ideas about the means and ends of their own science education. Three standpoints with respect to science curriculum are proposed to explain the variations in students' perspectives and suggest implications for science educators. These standpoints trouble recent research that examines motivation in high school science classes and add nuance to research that investigates relationships between science learning and social agency by reframing these problems in terms of curriculum and issues of oppression.

The Development of Scientific Literacy through Nature of Science (NoS) within Inquiry Based Learning Approach

Understanding of science instructional leading to the formation of student scientific literacy, seems not yet fully understood well by science teachers. Because of this, certainly needs to be reformed because science literacy is a major goal in science education for science education reform. Efforts of development science literacy can be done by help students develop an information conception of the Nature of Science (NoS) and apply inquiry approach. It is expected that students’ science literacy can develop more optimal by combining NoS within inquiry approach. The purpose of this research is to produce scientific literacy development model of NoS within inquiry-based learning. The preparation of learning tools will be maked through Research and Development (R & D) following the 4-D model (Define, Design, Develop, and Disseminate) and Borg & Gall. This study is a follow-up of preliminary research results about the inquiry profile of junior high school students indicating that most categories are quite good. The design of the model NoS within inquiry approach for developing scientific literacy is using MER Model in development educational reconstruction. This research will still proceed to the next stage that is Develop.

Elementary school children’s understanding of science: The implementation of an extracurricular science intervention

The promotion of students’ achievement and competence in the so-called STEM disciplines is one cornerstone of current educational research and practice. In particular, as early as elementary school, the fostering of an adequate understanding of science is a normative goal of science education. It facilitates students’ science learning and enables them to understand the nature and development of scientific knowledge. Based on the relevance of the promotion of young children’s understanding of science, a corresponding science intervention was recently developed and successfully evaluated in a first study under highly controlled conditions. The goal of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of this intervention when implemented in practice. One hundred seventeen third- and fourth-grade students and 10 trained course instructors participated in this study. We applied a randomized block design with waitlist control groups and repeated measures. The results revealed that children assigned to the intervention compared with children assigned to the waitlist control group showed better inquiry-related methodological competencies (a better understanding of the scientific inquiry cycle and experimentation strategies) and a higher need for cognition. The findings point to the successful implementation of the intervention and are compared with the results of the first study.

Adolescents as agents of healthful change through scientific literacy development: A school-university partnership program in New Zealand

BackgroundScientific literacy development is widely emphasized as the overarching goal of science education. It encompasses development of understanding of the nature of science as well as knowledge, attitudes, and values that contribute to empowering adolescents to engage with and make evidence-based decisions about socioscientific issues. Scientific literacy development is enhanced when learning is contextualized in exploration of socioscientific issues.Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) associated with a combination of obesity and adverse environmental exposures are examples of pressing health-related SSIs facing the world today. Evidence emerging from the field of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) has identified adolescence as a key life-phase where population-wide education-based interventions that empower teens to engage in science-based health-promoting behaviors could significantly change the course of this epidemic. To achieve this, learning resources that support scientific and health literacy development contextualized in issues linking NCD risk and DOHaD are required.The Healthy Start to Life Education for Adolescents Project is a school-university partnership program designed to support scientific and health literacy development, knowledge translation, and participant-led actions relating to NCD risk prevention. This study assesses the impact of program participation in a cohort of 11–14-year-olds in New Zealand. Evaluation comprised analysis of individually matched questionnaires, pre-, 3 months, and 12 months post-intervention (n = 201) and 6 months post-intervention interviews (n = 40).ResultsPositive engagement in science learning occurred. Positive changes in health-related awareness and attitudes 3 months post-intervention were sustained to 12 months. Adolescents reporting pre-intervention dietary behaviors associated with increased obesity risk reported sustained positive behavior changes (p < .001). Qualitative evidence revealed that these changes resulted from application of scientific and health literacy. This has the potential to improve long-term health outcomes for adolescents and their future offspring. Furthermore, feedback from parents demonstrated that adolescents became science communicators within their families.ConclusionsWe demonstrated that contextualized learning promoting scientific and health literacy development facilitated knowledge translation. This allowed adolescents to decide if, and how, to use scientific evidence in relation to their current and future wellbeing. Exploration of the transferability of scientific and health literacy capabilities, and impacts on future health would enhance understanding of the value of the intervention.

Teaching traditions in science education in Switzerland, Sweden and France: A comparative analysis of three curricula

Classroom actions rely, among other things, on teaching habits and traditions. Previous research has clarified three different teaching traditions in science education: the academic tradition builds on the idea that simply the products and methods of science are worth teaching; the applied tradition focuses on students’ ability to use scientific knowledge and skills in their everyday life; and the moral tradition opens up a relationship between science and society, focusing on students’ decision making concerning socio scientific issues. The aim of this paper is to identify and discuss similarities and differences between the science curricula in Sweden, France and Western Switzerland in terms of teaching traditions. The study considers the following dimensions in the analysis: (1) the goals of science education as presented in the initial recommendations of the curricula; (2) the organization and division of the core contents; and (3) the learning outcomes expected from the students in terms of concepts, skills and/or scientific literacy requirements. Although the three traditions are taken into account within the various initial recommendations, the place they occupy in the content to be taught is different in each case. In the Swedish curriculum, our analyses show that the three traditions are embedded in the initial recommendations and in the expected outcomes. On the other hand, in the Western-Swiss and French curricula, the three traditions are embedded in the initial recommendations but only academic tradition can be found in the expected outcomes. Therefore, the Swedish curriculum seems to be more consistent regarding teaching traditions. This may have some consequences on teaching and learning practices, which will be discussed in the article. Moreover, our analyses enable us to put forward definitions of teaching tradition.

How the environment is positioned in the Next Generation Science Standards: a critical discourse analysis

The purpose of this paper is to describe how the environment and environmental issues are conceptualized and positioned in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) to examine underlying assumptions about the environment. The NGSS are a recent set of science standards in the USA, organized and led by Achieve Inc., that propose science education goals based on the National Research Council report, A Framework for K-12 Science Education. Drawing from critical discourse analysis, we present a detailed textual analysis of the NGSS to identify the positioning of the environment with respect to humans and human activity. This analysis shows patterns in the ways that the environment is conceptualized and inscribed in the standards as an entity separate from people through both exclusion and ambiguity. We also discuss findings about how agency is more often ascribed to actions or activities rather than people and when solutions to environmental issues are included, the focus is on technoscientific solutions. Finally, we provide implications for considering scientific and environmental literacy, education for action, and the role of standards documents in shaping educational practice.

Teaching Explicitly and Reflecting on Elements of Nature of Science: a Discourse-Focused Professional Development Program with Four Fifth-Grade Teachers

The nature of science (NOS) has become a central goal of science education in many countries. This study refers to a developmental work research program, in which four fifth-grade elementary in-service teachers participated. It aimed to improve their understandings of NOS and their abilities to teach it effectively to their students. The 1-year-long, 2012–2013, program consisted of a series of activities to support teachers to develop their pedagogical content knowledge of NOS. In order to accomplish our goal, we enabled teacher-researchers to analyze their own discourse practices and to trace evidence of effective NOS teaching. Many studies indicate the importance of examining teachers’ discussions about science in the classroom, since it is teachers’ understanding of NOS reflected in these discussions that will have a vital impact on students’ learning. Our proposal is based on the assumption that reflecting on the ways people form meanings enables us to examine and seek alternative ways to communicate aspects of NOS during science lessons. The analysis of discourse data, which has been carried out with the teacher-researchers’ active participation, indicated that initially only a few aspects of NOS were implicitly incorporated in teacher-researchers’ instruction. As the program evolved, all teacher-researchers presented more informed views on targeted NOS aspects. On the whole, our discourse-focused professional development program with its participatory, explicit, and reflective character indicated the importance of involving teacher-researchers in analyzing their own talk. It is this involvement that results in obtaining a valuable awareness of aspects concerning pedagogical content knowledge of NOS teaching.

Group Problem Solving in Class Improves Undergraduate Learning.

Developing methods for improving student learning is a long-standing goal in undergraduate science education. However, the extent to which students working on problems in small groups versus individually results in improved learning among undergraduate science students has not been evaluated in a randomized controlled trial. We have performed such a trial with 80 students in an undergraduate biochemistry class, in which students were randomized to either learning in groups or learning individually. All students participated in the same class, which consisted of a lecture with periodic breaks for students to solve problems using an audience response system. Students in the individual learning condition answered these questions on their own, but students in the group-based learning condition answered these questions in an assigned group of four students. At the end of the class, all students then took the same exam as individuals. The exam had two types of questions—recall questions, in which students had to simply recall information provided to them, and predict questions, in which students had to apply their new knowledge to a new context. Students in the individual and group-based learning conditions performed similarly well on recall questions. However, students who had been in the group-based learning condition performed significantly better as individuals on the predict questions. This suggests that learning in groups may be more effective than individual learning for undergraduate science students, particularly for applying their knowledge to new contexts; this highlights the potential need for pedagogical approaches in undergraduate science courses that incorporate learning in groups.

An assessment of civic scientific literacy in Japan: development of a more authentic assessment task and scoring rubric

ABSTRACTScientific literacy has been measured by a variety of assessment tools in the past few decades. International surveys such as Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) emphasize the importance of scientific literacy. Scientific literacy is now regarded as a significant learning goal in science education. TIMSS assesses the mastery of scientific knowledge and method, while PISA focuses on the use of scientific knowledge and methods in measuring scientific literacy. On the other hand, adults’ scientific literacy has been measured mainly from the perspective of mastery of scientific knowledge and skills, although a great deal of the research in this area highlights the importance of use of scientific knowledge and skills, and decision-making in an authentic context. It is considered necessary to propose a new tool that can assess unmeasured aspects of the scientific literacy of adults as described above, particularly focusing on civic scientific literacy required for citizens in democratic society. In this paper, the author describes the development of the Assessment of Civic Scientific Literacy (ACSEL). A total of 401 Japanese general citizens aged over 20 years old participated in this study via an Internet Research System. First of all, the reliability and validity of ACSEL are examined in order to confirm whether it can be practically used or not. Secondly, the author reports the responses for each item. Finally, the individual contributions of gender, age, and educational background on civic scientific literacy scores are investigated to identify determinants.

Using analogy to learn about phenomena at scales outside human perception

Understanding and reasoning about phenomena at scales outside human perception (for example, geologic time) is critical across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Thus, devising strong methods to support acquisition of reasoning at such scales is an important goal in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. In two experiments, we examine the use of analogical principles in learning about geologic time. Across both experiments we find that using a spatial analogy (for example, a time line) to make multiple alignments, and keeping all unrelated components of the analogy held constant (for example, keep the time line the same length), leads to better understanding of the magnitude of geologic time. Effective approaches also include hierarchically and progressively aligning scale information (Experiment 1) and active prediction in making alignments paired with immediate feedback (Experiments 1 and 2).

Spotlighting shared goals for science education and communication

van den Sanden and Vries curate reflections and insights about the shared goals, practices and processes which bring together academics and practitioners in science education and communication. The book spotlights areas of productive overlap but is just the beginning for meaningful collaboration.

Strange bedfellows in science teacher preparation: conflicting perspectives on social justice presented in a Teach For America—university partnership

Teach For America (TFA), a widespread and well-known route into the teaching profession, frequently partners with university-based education programs to prepare and certify its corps members. However, university-based teacher education programs frequently emphasize very different understandings of socially just education and priorities for training teachers from those of TFA. Accordingly, science teachers trained through TFA-university partnerships encounter conflicting understandings of science education, justice, and urban communities as they are introduced to teaching practice. In this ethnographic case study we explored the experiences and reactions of a cohort of TFA corps members in a science methods course as they engaged with TFA’s perspective focused primarily on enhancing students’ social mobility and the methods course emphasizing democratic equality through scientific engagement. The study considers intersections between TFA’s approach to teacher preparation and sociocultural perspectives on equitable science teaching. The study also lends insight into the contradictions and challenges through which TFA science teachers develop understandings about their role as science teachers, purposes and goals of science education, and identities of the students and communities they serve.

Implications of R.S. Peters’ notion of ‘cognitive perspective’ for science education

This paper discusses R.S. Peters’ notion of ‘cognitive perspective’, which, through careful reading, can be interpreted as a wider perspective resulting from an awareness of the relationships of one’s knowledge and understanding to one’s own life. This interpretation makes cognitive perspective a holistic notion akin to that of worldview, and also points to the possibility for students to experience a change of outlook on the world, as a result of learning science. Given the ongoing debate regarding the notion scientific literacy and the problems associated with it, the development of cognitive perspective can be considered the primary goal of school science education, as it provides an alternative way to think about what it means for a student to be educated in science. Such a goal, in turn, points to the importance of teaching for the (practical and emotional) significance of scientific facts and ideas, as awareness of such significance does not necessarily follow the acquisition of content knowledge and the application of the latter in everyday contexts. The paper also attempts to clarify the notion of utility of scientific knowledge, as an understanding of such notion is crucilal for understanding the implications of the development of cogintive perspective for school science education.

Research on Relationships between Two Kinds of Scientific Epistemology Held by High School Science Teachers from Beijing and New York*

Epistemological belief in science refers to the characteristics of scientific and the development of cognitive or views of scientific knowledge, which is personal scientific philosophy belief (Elder, 2002). The nature of science (NOS) and scientific inquiry (SI) are the core proposition of scientific literacy, which belong to the category of epistemological belief in science. Researchers explain the NOS with the two concepts of a way to acquire knowledge and epistemology, in other words, science is way to understand the world (Matthews, 1998). Epistemological belief in science is big conception, in which the NOS and SI is often confused, and they have certain relationship, but also great difference. SI is referred to the process of scientific development, as result of the practice and hypothesis of this process, the production has inevitable characteristics, which related to the NOS. Epistemological belief in science of teachers mainly includes the understanding of the NOS, SI, and so on. In science teaching, teachers not only enable students to learn scientific knowledge, but also to train students' basic skills and methods of thinking through the process of scientific generation, therefore, promote the international K-12 science education advocates to explore the teaching methods and course contents which take inquiry as the core goals. When inquiry teaching is advocated, the inner relationship between the NOS and SI is often ignored, this dynamic relationship of which directly affects teachers' scientific teaching and their epistemological development.Literature ReviewThe researchers suggest the epistemological belief in science should be the main part of science education (e.g., Chinn & Malhotra, 2002; Duschl & Grandy, 2005), because students not only need to understand the scientific content, but also the evolution of scientific ideas and the process of proof. Inquiry teaching is considered to be the most appropriate teaching strategies in science education, to participate in the inquiry process could help students to understand the scientific (Sandoval, 2005). American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS, 1989) indicates that the standards of science education are the core objective of science education, and science education should teach students the concepts and processes of science. Therefore, it is very important to test the way that students participate in science learning activities, which could build their views of science. The scientific process is bridge between the epistemological belief and science education, including the construction and demonstration of concepts. The epistemological belief is related to the nature of knowledge, and understanding the nature of scientific is an important aspect of understanding of science meaningfully, many researchers study the epistemological belief from the perspective of teaching practice (e.g. Hammer & Elby, 2003; Wang, Wen, & Jou, 2016). One of the goals of science education is to guide students to develop the effectual conception of nature of scientific knowledge, referring to the development of views on the results of scientific to guide them to participate meaningfully in the current and future scientific study (Chai, Deng, Wong, & Qian, 2010). This concept itself includes the belief and practice, used to understand how to construct and support the meaningful participation of the scientific learning environment, to support the development of students' epistemological belief in science.The research on epistemological belief proposed that personal belief in the nature of can affect the interpretation of the cognitive learning and information (Kuhn, Cheney, & Weinstock, 2001; Schommer-Aikins & Hutter, 2002). Tsai (1999), Yager and Lutz (1995) and others studies indicated that teachers could enhance students' views of NOS promoted from positivism to constructivism through STS teaching (with social themes related to science and technology, using the role playing, debates, group discussion and other teaching methods). …

Cross-curricular approaches in Inquiry-based Science Teaching

AbstractOne of the most important goals of science education is to develop understanding of natural systems. It is impossible to comprehensively understand the functioning of natural systems only by knowledge of one subject (physics, chemistry, biology, etc.). Therefore the application of the cross-curricular approach in teaching of science subjects is required. Besides the scientific knowledge the understanding of science research methods is important, too. This can be obtained with the use of inquiry-based activities in science lessons that provide possibilities to show students how science works. The aim of this paper is to introduce the strategy for the use of cross-curricular approaches in inquiry-based activities in science education that was implemented within the Chain Reaction project. The project targeted 14- to 16-year-old students who in groups investigated an interdisciplinary research problem and then presented their findings and experiences at national or international events. Cosmic Web Site represents an example of the activity that encourages students to learn various topics of physics as well as to use their knowledge and skills obtained at computer science lessons. The feedback from the teachers involved in Chain Reaction that was gained with the help of evaluation questionnaires indicates a positive impact of the used approach to the development of students’ skills and motivation to learn science subjects.

How Relevant Is R.S. Peters’ Conception of Education to Science Education?

This paper discusses R.S. Peters’ concept of education, particularly his notion of cognitive perspective and its relevance to school science education. In light of the problems inherent in any attempt to define the notion of scientific literacy, it is argued that the development of cognitive perspective can be considered an important, if not the ultimate, goal of school science education. Such a goal not only provides an alternative way to view the development of scientific literacy, but it also points to a conception of scientific literacy that is neither too narrow nor too broad. In view of recent reform efforts that promote a utilitarian and instrumentalist conception of school science education, Peters’ notion of cognitive perspective can provide food for thought for all those interested in a science education that educates students in science by helping them understand the personal and the wider significance of scientific knowledge. Such a conception of school science education is in line with the view that education and learning should make students change their outlook on the world. In addition, such a conception can enrich the ongoing dialogue on scientific literacy as the primary goal of school science education.

한국 2009 개정 초등 과학과 교육과정과 미국 초등 과학과 교육과정 비교분석 - 3~4학년군 지구와 우주영역을 중심으로 -

The purpose of this paper was to analyze the characteristics of Korean science curriculum and the differences with the other country. For this purpose, the USA was selected as the target country for comparison. The comparison focused on goals and contents in science curriculum document. The goals for science education in both countries were similar. But the goal setting level was different. Also, four objectives were suggested in Korean curriculum and nine objectives in the USA to achieve the general objective. Korean curriculum was composed of such grades system as 3rd & 4th grades, 5th & 6th grades and content area as 'materials and energy', 'life and the earth' in content system. And the USA composed in the such grade system as K, Grade 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Also the elements to be learned is suggested in the strand. And in the area of the earth and space in the Korean Curriculum, there are elements emphasized in the content area, cognitive area, context category and practical activities learning objective category. But the USA covered most of those elements evenly. Korean curriculum focused on learning of certain elements in certain grades, but the USA curriculum is to learn several elements evenly in every grade. It will be future topics of research to investigate the effect of curriculum with different emphasis of improving students' scientific knowledge and learning through further study.

A framework for understanding the characteristics of complexity in biology

Understanding the functioning of natural systems is not easy, although there is general agreement that understanding complex systems is an important goal for science education. Defining what makes a natural system complex will assist in identifying gaps in research on student reasoning about systems. The goal of this commentary is to propose a framework that explicitly defines the ways in which biological systems are complex and to discuss the potential relevance of these complexity dimensions to conducting research on student reasoning about complexity in biology classrooms. We use an engineering framework for dimensions of complexity and discuss how this framework may also be applied to biological systems, using gene expression as an example. We group dimensions of this framework into components, functional relationships among components, processes, manifestations, and interpretations within biological systems. We explain four steps that discipline-based education researchers can use to apply these dimensions to explore student reasoning about complex biological systems.

A Survey of Biology Teachers Use of Activity-Oriented, Laboratory Practical Exercises to Promote Functional Biology Education

A major goal of science education is fostering students’ intellectual competencies such as independent learning, problem-solving, decision-making and critical thinking. This goal can only be achieved when students are actively involved in the teaching-learning process through activity-based, practical-oriented instructional methods involving the use of laboratories. This study therefore, investigated the extent to which the biology teachers employ activity-oriented, laboratory/practical instructional methods in order to improve the learning outcome of their students. The descriptive survey involved 73 Biology teachers randomly selected from all the six education zones of Anambra state, Nigeria. Four research questions were posed and four hypotheses were formulated to guide the conduct of the study. A 32-item structured questionnaire which has reliability co-efficient of 0.82 was used to collect data. Data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and t-tests. Results show that Biology teachers adopt practical-oriented strategies in teaching biology, conduct practical activities to a high extent, and perceive practical exercises as essential to effective teaching and learning of the subject. Provision of adequate number of laboratory materials, employment of adequate number of biology teachers, making provision for well designed laboratory activities in the curriculum and training of teachers on how to effectively combine theory with practical are some of the strategies that will encourage biology teachers to conduct practical lessons. There was no significant difference between male and female biology teachers in their responses to the different aspects investigated. Based on these findings, some recommendations were made that include that curriculum designers should incorporate guides for practical activities that go with each topic in the curriculum so as to encourage the teachers to teach theory with practical as a unified whole to increase students’ understanding and internalization of the facts and ideas taught.