Students In Lower Secondary Education Research Articles

Mapping lower secondary school students' conceptions of three aspects critical for understanding the nervous system.

Understanding the nervous system is an important but perhaps ambitious goal, particularly for students in lower secondary education. It is important because of its' direct role in both mental and physical health, and it is ambitious because instruction focuses on the human nervous system, which is extremely complex, and subject to numerous misconceptions. Despite its' complexity, the science curricula, both nationally and internationally, emphasize an understanding of the system, and not just knowledge of isolated facts. But what does it mean to understand this system, and what content knowledge is critical for understanding it? Unfortunately, the curricula are usually too general to answer these questions, therefore other sources of information are needed. Using the science literature, the present study defines the system level of the nervous system and proposes three basic aspects necessary to understand it: 1) neural circuit architecture, 2) synaptic action, and 3) nerve signal origin. With this background, the aim of the present study is to identify lower secondary school students' conceptions of these three aspects, and to determine how they impact students' understanding of the system. To reach this aim, the study used a questionary which allowed for a mixed method design, and the results show that many students have an immediate conception of the brain as the origin of nerve signals. In addition, many students hold the alternative conceptions that 1) synaptic action is exclusively excitatory, and that 2) neural circuits consists of neurons connected in a chain, one single neuron after another. These alternative conceptions prevent students from understanding the system. Implications for instruction are discussed in the context of conceptual learning theories, and teaching strategies are proposed. Since similar curricula goals and textbook content exist in several countries, the present results may be representative across nations.

Evaluation of Epistemic Beliefs Self-Report Questionnaires in the Czech Middle School History Classroom

Epistemic beliefs are gaining increasing importance in social science education in Czechia. Recent literature has demonstrated findings linking epistemic beliefs with various academic skills, including achievement and reading comprehension. The present study aims to explore the epistemic beliefs of adolescents specific to the domain of history. The study reviews research literature on ontological changes in students’ epistemic beliefs and their reasoning within the domain of history since the 1950s, with a particular focus on various models and measurement. The empirical part of the study investigates adapted self-report questionnaires on the epistemic beliefs of adolescents in Czech history classes in the upper grades of middle school. In the first step, the selected questionnaires were back-translated and refined by iterative sets of cognitive interviews. The finalised sets of items were administered in seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-grade classes (N = 303) in May and June 2021. The confirmatory factor analysis and follow-up correlational analysis demonstrated various degrees of support for the dimensions of the Epistemic and Ontological Cognition Questionnaire, for the dimension of Value of Integration Information, and for the dimension of Historical Methodology in Generating Historical Knowledge. Reading comprehension correlated positively with epistemic belief dimensions related to epistemic criteria of justification by multiple sources, the value of integration information, and historical methodology. Academic achievement in the form of the end-of-grade marks obtained in the subjects of history and Czech language did not show a consistent relationship with the epistemic beliefs. The potential practical and research uses of the self-report questionnaires that were investigated in regular classroom instructions are discussed. The presented study aimed to explore the domain of history that witnessed ontological changes in students’ reasoning since the 50’s (Committee on the Study of History, 1969), that gave rise to more systematic empirical studies on epistemology about history knowledge. In the 21st century, Maggioni and her colleagues (2004, 2009) constructed their self-reported questionnaire on epistemic stances on history knowledge. Ever since, following researchers further modified, advanced, and developed new measurement tools to identify student epistemic beliefs in history. Ontological theories (Kuhn et al., 2000) posited the epistemic development in college population, however, the new evidence demonstrated rudiments of epistemic reasoning in even younger population and presented its nonlinear growth (VanSledright & Reddy, 2014) contingent upon the characteristics of the learning domains (ill-structured x well-structured; Frederiksen, 1984). Since history can be viewed as an ill-structured domain, there is more room for learners to express and exchange their higher levels of epistemic beliefs compared to domains that belong among hard sciences (Barzilai & Weinstock, 2015; Kuhn & Weinstock, 2002). Therefore, history classrooms present an excellent opportunity for investigating epistemological stances of students in lower secondary education. The current study investigated the potential of epistemic beliefs measurement among the Czech history classrooms. The researchers selected assessment self-report questionnaires in the sample of students from western countries ranging from middle schools to college in the history domain (Greene et al., 2010; Stoel et al., 2017; Wiley et al., 2020). In the first step, the inspected measures were back-translated (Klassen et al., 2009) and refined by iterative sets of cognitive interviews 9/2020-5/2021 (Karabenick et al., 2007). The finalized sets of items were administered in the 7th, 8th, and 9th grade classrooms (N = 303) 5-6/2021. The confirmatory factor analysis and follow up correlational analysis demonstrated the support for the dimensions of Epistemic and Ontological Cognition Questionnaire (Greene et al, 2010), for the dimension on Value of Integration information (Wiley et al., 2020), and for the dimension focusing on Historical Methodology in generating historical knowledge (Stoel et al., 2017). The student reading comprehension was correlated to epistemic belief dimensions related to epistemic criteria of justification by multiple sources. The potential practical and research uses of the investigated self-report questionnaires in regular history classroom instructions were discussed.

The environmental citizenship opinions questionnaire: a self-assessment tool for secondary students

IntroductionWe present a validated instrument for assessing Environmental Citizenship (EC) of students in lower secondary education. The Environmental Citizenship Opinions (ECO) questionnaire focusses on general citizenship components, key sustainability competences, and Socio-Scientific Reasoning aspects. By combining these domains, our work provides a needed innovation as these different aspects of EC have not previously been covered in one single, balanced and validated measurement instrument.MethodsThe ECO questionnaire was validated through a pilot round and a subsequent large-scale study (781 lower secondary students). Several rounds of Confirmatory Factor Analysis resulted in a final model of 38 items divided in 7 first order and 5 s order constructs.ResultsThe final model fit statistics indicate near excellent quality of our model (RMSEA = 0.036, CFI = 0.93, TLI = 0.93, SRMR = 0.05), which consists of EC knowledge, EC attitudes, EC skills, EC reflection and complexity of EC issues. Calculations on the relative attribution of each of the five main constructs to overall environmental sustainability citizenship, highlight that attitudes and reflection skills are the most important constituents.DiscussionOur result present the ECO questionnaire as a valuable, valid and reliable tool to measure environmental citizenship of students. Applications in practice include monitoring student’s development and supporting teachers during the challenging task of effective teaching for EC in and outside the classroom.

The impact of country of schooling and gender on secondary school students’ conceptions of and interest in becoming an engineer in Ireland, Kenya and Sweden

BackgroundGiven the disparities in gender representation, efforts are needed to make engineering education more inclusive and attractive to young people. It is important that those entering engineering education are making this decision with sufficient understanding of what it means to be an engineer. This study explored how lower secondary education students from Ireland (n = 435), Kenya (n = 436), and Sweden (n = 361) stereotyped engineers, and their interest in becoming an engineer was examined. The Draw an Engineer Test was used to achieve this, and ordinal and logistic regression analyses were conducted to compare the effects of students’ genders and country of schooling on the genders and concepts of their drawn engineers, and on their interest in becoming an engineer in the future.ResultsA Sankey diagram illustrated significant complexity in the interaction between conceptions of engineering work and fields of engineering. Chi-square tests of association were used to examine the association between students depicting an engineer as either the same or a different gender to themselves and their interest in becoming an engineer. The results of these and the regression analyses indicate that young people’s gender explains more variance in the gender of drawn engineers and the country they are studying in explains more variance in their conception of engineers. However, most variance was explained when both students’ gender and country of study were considered together. Further, particularly for young females, drawing a female engineer as opposed to a male engineer was positively associated with increased interest in becoming an engineer.ConclusionsThere is a need to develop a greater understanding of engineering in young people to ensure they have sufficient information to make decisions regarding related educational pursuits. National-level attempts are needed to present accurate depictions of engineering, and effort needs to be invested in ensuring that young females can identify as engineers. Higher educational access needs to be considered in future work examining future career interests.

THE EFFECTS OF MODIFIED KNOW-WANT-LEARN STRATEGY IN MIXED-GENDER LOWER SECONDARY PHYSICS EDUCATION

The differences related to gender are evident in physics education from the early age of the students. Thus, it is important that the teaching strategies that are implemented in mixed-gender physics classrooms are appropriate for both boys and girls. This research examined physics achievement and metacognitive awareness of students in lower secondary education in relation to gender when the modified Know-Want-Learn (mKWL) strategy is implemented. During the study, the students were divided into the control group (where direct teaching was implemented) and the experimental group (where the mKWL strategy was implemented in physics teaching). Students’ physics achievement (estimated with knowledge tests) and metacognitive awareness (estimated with a questionnaire) before and after the pedagogical experiment, and also the students’ comments on the mKWL strategy (provided through an informal conversation) were analyzed. It was shown that the students’ achievement did not differ in relation to gender while girls showed higher metacognitive awareness in comparison with boys, and the mKWL strategy increased physics achievement and metacognitive awareness of both boys and girls. Furthermore, the students’ comments on the strategy were discussed. The proposed strategy is shown to be appropriate for both genders, and its implementation in physics classrooms can be recommended. Keywords: metacognitive awareness, physics education, quasi-experimental research, students’ achievement, students’ comments

Using sona to calculate the greatest common divisor of two integers

The Tchokwe people lived on the African continent, in Mozambique and Angola. The sona belong to their cultural tradition. The sona are drawings made in the sand by older members of the tribe to tell stories, essential in the youngests’ formation. In this article, we show a relationship between the sona and the greatest common divisor (GCD) of two integers. We recognize in the sona a rich mathematical content that allows the teaching of the GCD concept and illustrates the strength and cultural sophistication of the Tchokwe people and their mathematics. It can be a playful way of dealing with a fundamental concept with lower-secondary education students.

An investigation of the causal effect of educational expectations on school performance. Behavioral consequences, time-stable confounding, or reciprocal causality?

Educational expectations are core concepts in the sociology of education. In this study, we are interested in the potential behavioral consequences of expectations on school performance in early secondary education. The existing literature leads to contradictory hypotheses regarding the causal effect of expectations on achievement. On the one hand, expectations could act as cognitions steering individual behavior towards the attainment of a certain educational degree via preparatory commitment and effort. Such behavioral consequences should affect achievement in school. On the other hand, expectations could merely reflect students’ perceptions of opportunities without exerting an effect on future achievement. This paper studies these claims by relying on German panel data of students in lower secondary education. In the first set of models, we find that after adjusting for student fixed effects, expectations are only marginally related to grades and competences. In further models, we assess the role of stable high and low aspirations in explaining educational achievement trajectories. After adjusting for past grades via inverse probability weighting, achievement at the end of lower secondary education is similar between students with stable high expectations and those with stable low expectations. Taking together the results of these different modelling approaches, our study suggests that expectations are not drivers of achievement-related behavior.

ANALYSIS ON THE VULNERABILITY OF THE MIDDLE-SCHOOL POPULATION IN VASLUI COUNTY

The present research is part of the project called “Sustainable social and educational integration through sports activities”, which is focused on increasing both the school attendance rate for students in lower secondary education and the ISCED 3 transit rate. Vaslui county has a wide range of vulnerabilities affecting this segment of the school population. Our study aims to highlight the structure of these vulnerabilities, which are divided into 8 categories as follows: Roma students, students with one or both parents working abroad, re-migrating students, students from disorganised or single-parent families, students from child protection institutions, students whose parents are immigrants/refugees in Romania, students with special educational needs, students at risk of early school dropout. This applied research was carried out over a period of 3 months. The participating subjects are students enrolled in two middle schools that have an ISCED below 50%; their total number is 190, of whom 105 boys and 85 girls. The research methods used are: scientific documentation, survey, mathematical and statistical method, graphical method. The results of the research are reflected in the identification of vulnerability structures for students in lower secondary education from Vaslui county. The research actually makes an X-ray of the social problems faced by middle-school students in rural areas.

On the Impact of Learning Cycle Teaching on Austrian High School Students\u2019 Emotions, Academic Self-Concept, Engagement, and Achievement

Over the past several decades, empirical support for inquiry-based forms of science teaching has accumulated. Critical voices, however, also exist, claiming that minimally guided teaching approaches might be less effective than guided forms; they might even be harmful, particularly for novice students, due to the production of cognitive overload. In this study, a more guided type of inquiry-based forms of instruction was therefore selected, which can be traced back to Alfred N. Whitehead: the so-called learning cycle approach. This approach was applied to science classes with 280 socioeconomically disadvantaged students in lower secondary education at low-track schools in Austria. Using a pre-test post-test experimental-control group design, this study investigated the effects of this instructional approach not only concerning students’ cognitive development but also concerning their state and trait emotions, their behavioral engagement in class, and their academic self-concept. The results indicated that the application of the learning cycle approach had a positive impact on most of the measured students’ trait emotions and state emotions during the romance and generalization phases of a full learning cycle. It further improved the students’ behavioral engagement during lessons and strengthened their academic self-concept. Finally, it was found that the learning cycle approach positively affected the students’ cognitive development after the 2-year treatment. Suggestions for improving the implementation of this teaching approach in science classes are given; some proposals for optimizing future research on learning cycle teaching are also made.

Estimating the Medium-Term Impact of a Scholarship Program Using Standardized Test Data

In 2006, the BBVA Foundation in Mexico designed a scholarship and mentoring program that targeted vulnerable lower secondary education students in municipalities with high-intensity migration rates. We follow applicants who started lower secondary education in 2009 to estimate the impact of the Program on the probability of graduating from the next level of education. We use the records of a standardized test undertaken by all students in Mexico to identify applicants who were still enrolled three years after the Program. Our results show the Program had a positive and significant effect on upper secondary completion.

Stimulating Scientific Reasoning with Drawing-Based Modeling

We investigate the way students’ reasoning about evolution can be supported by drawing-based modeling. We modified the drawing-based modeling tool SimSketch to allow for modeling evolutionary processes. In three iterations of development and testing, students in lower secondary education worked on creating an evolutionary model. After each iteration, the user interface and instructions were adjusted based on students’ remarks and the teacher’s observations. Students’ conversations were analyzed on reasoning complexity as a measurement of efficacy of the modeling tool and the instructions. These findings were also used to compose a set of recommendations for teachers and curriculum designers for using and constructing models in the classroom. Our findings suggest that to stimulate scientific reasoning in students working with a drawing-based modeling, tool instruction about the tool and the domain should be integrated. In creating models, a sufficient level of scaffolding is necessary. Without appropriate scaffolds, students are not able to create the model. With scaffolding that is too high, students may show reasoning that incorrectly assigns external causes to behavior in the model.

The Effects of Nine-Week Summer Vacation: Losses in Mathematics and Gains in Reading

Background:Summer vacations interrupt the rhythm of learning and may result in a loss of knowledge and skills.Materials and methods:This study investigates summer learning losses in an Austrian sample with nine-week summer vacations. The results show losses as well as gains for students in lower secondary education (182 students between 10 and 12 years old).Results:Students experienced losses in arith-metic problem solving (measured by the HAWIK IV intelligence test) and spelling (measured by the Salzburg Reading-Screening, SLS-8), but gains in reading (measured by the standard-ized spelling test HSP 5-9).Conclusions:Losses or gains in a knowledge domain appear to depend on the degree of practice during the summer vacation. Contrary to American studies, students could make up for their losses within nine weeks following the re-start of school. In addition, socio-economic variables such as the mother's educational background had a small impact on sum-mer learning losses in arithmetic problem solving.

School ethnic diversity and White students’ civic attitudes in England

The current paper focuses on White British students in lower secondary education and investigates the effect of school ethnic diversity on their levels of trust and inclusive attitudes towards immigrants. Use is made of panel data of the Citizenship Education Longitudinal Study (CELS) to explore these relationships. Ethnic diversity is measured with the proportion of students in a grade identifying with a minority. In agreement with contact theory, the paper initially finds a positive relation between diversity and inclusive attitudes on immigrants. However, this link disappears once controls for social background, gender and prior levels of the outcome are included in the model. This indicates that students with particular pre-enrolment characteristics have self-selected in diverse schools and that inclusive attitudes have stabilized before secondary education. Diversity further appears to have a negative impact on trust, irrespective of the number of controls added to the model.

School Composition Effects in Spain: Accounting for Interceptand Slope Effects

Drawing on PISA 2012 data, in this paper we study the impact of school�s socio-economic composi-tion on the science test scores for Spanish lower-secondary education students. We adopt a semi-para-metric methodology that enables spillovers to affect all the parameters in the educational productionfunction. We also deal with the issue of endogenous students� sorting into schools with better socio-economic composition. The positive effect of school�s socio-economic composition is stronger whencomputed using the semi-parametric approach, suggesting the relevance of slope effects of school com-position. However, the spillovers are substantially reduced when the endogenous sorting of students iscontrolled for.

Foreign language policy addressed to Greek primary and secondary education: Teachers' viewpoints and students' attitudes towards plurilingualism

This study examines foreign language policy as addressed to Greek primary and secondary education, aiming to: i) record primary and lower secondary education students' plurilingual skills; ii) identify their attitudes to learning European languages; and iii) explore the extent to which Greek foreign language (FL) teachers are informed and the degree to which they agree with central issues of European Language Policy. This is to be achieved through: a) a brief overview of the situation of FL teaching in Greek education for the last 20 years (by presenting some curricula and official documents on FL teaching); and b) the development of a research project, conducted during the academic year 2008–2009, in which 863 primary school students and 400 students from secondary schools participated. The research project utilised two versions of a questionnaire as a means to collect information from primary and secondary education students. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 FL teachers to ...

Dropout in the Lower Tracks of Dutch Secondary Education: Predictor Variables and Variation Among Schools

This study analyses the data from a large-scale longitudinal investigation into the effect of both school and student characteristics on the dropout rate for students in lower secondary education in The Netherlands. Dropout rates were found to vary significantly between schools, but only a single school variable was identified that correlated significantly with dropout rate. The effect of relevant student characteristics (gender, achievement, parents’ level of education, minority status) did not vary significantly among schools, but for some variables the effect was found to differ between boys and girls or between minority and non-minority students.

Curriculum development in computer and information literacy in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands a national project on computer and information literacy is run by the National Institute for Curriculum Development (SLO). The national policy is that this subject must become a part of the education of all students in lower secondary education, age group 12–16 years. A school curriculum for computer and information literacy has been produced in co-operation with 100 schools. The project now continues with 200 schools. As a consequence of national policy, the emphasis in curriculum development is now towards integrating computer and information literacy into the curricula of other school subjects. In national policy and practice there is no direct relation between educational use of computers at home and information technology at school.