Relevance Of Science Education Research Articles

The Evolution of Science Education

In the context of the 21st century, the landscape of science education in Indonesia has undergone significant transformations, driven by technological advancements and evolving pedagogical approaches. This study aims to explore these developments, focusing on the current trends and challenges faced by educators and learners in the field of science education. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the research integrates both quantitative and qualitative data, including surveys of science educators and students, interviews with educational experts, and analysis of educational policy documents. This comprehensive methodology allows for a nuanced understanding of the state of science education in Indonesia, encompassing perspectives from various stakeholders. The findings reveal a paradigm shift towards more interactive and technology-integrated teaching methods, highlighting an increased emphasis on developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills among students. However, challenges such as unequal access to technological resources, varying levels of teacher preparedness for new teaching modalities, and the need for curriculum updates to reflect contemporary scientific advancements are prominent. The study concludes that while there is a positive trend towards more dynamic and engaging science education in Indonesia, addressing these challenges is crucial for ensuring equitable and effective science education for all students in the 21st century. This research provides valuable insights for policymakers, educators, and curriculum developers in enhancing the quality and relevance of science education in Indonesia.

Our Friend the Atom: An Imagery Analysis of Disney's Science Book.

In this article, we analyze images from the book “Our Friend the Atom,” written by the astrophysicist Heinz Haber in 1957 and developed in the Disney Science Department. In addition to analyzing the work, we investigate its relevance for science education. After the US attack on two Japanese cities with atomic bombs, there was a severance of opinions on nuclear technologies. On one side, it had an association with the destruction arising from the war. On the other, a narrative highlighted the advantages of using nuclear power for developments that would benefit humanity. Haber and Disney’s book aim to explain how such power works and supports its use for the good, despite the danger of destruction. Our goal is to contextualize the book’s content and its visual imagery and identify aspects to contribute to the science curriculum. We summarized the historical elements of the post-war period and Walt Disney’s entertainment approach and political stance. We discuss how it made a dialogue between a scientific concept and the general public through the book. For the matter of this article, we chose to examine one of the figures in the book, which represents through an illustration how chain reactions work to generate atomic power. For such, we followed a four-step methodology proposed by Silva and Neves Em Aberto, 31(103). (2018) to achieve an imagery analysis, giving us an understanding of the visual language contained in the book. It considers its visual choices, as shapes and colors, content, relations that involve the image, and interpretation of the picture as a whole by the reader. We came to understand the book’s importance as scientific literacy was achieved through its illustrations, text, and popularity.

Assessing the knowledge and attitude of elementary school students towards environmental issues in Rawalpindi

Educational institutions need to increase their efforts in the modern era of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) to educate their students for a sustainable future. Teachers and curriculum is the key ingredient to educate children and teenagers to be leaders of tomorrow in protecting the environment. This quantitative study was conducted to examine elementary school students' knowledge and attitudes towards environmental issues in Rawalpindi. The environment is directly and indirectly affected by humanity. The environment is getting polluted day by day due to which it becomes difficult to live in such a massive environment. To achieve this, there is a need to develop knowledge and attitudes in each individual. For this purpose, the population of the study consisted of all the public and private schools of the Rawalpindi. A hundred students of the ten schools, five public and five private schools of Rawalpindi, were taken as a sample for data collection. To check the attitudes of students' the questionnaire-based Relevance of Science Education (ROSE) Project was used to measure a student's attitudes and to measure the knowledge of students' self-made knowledge assessment test was used to collect the data from 7thgrade students'. The study examined the knowledge and attitude of elementary school students in public and private schools. The study also checked and compared students' knowledge and attitudes in public and private schools of Rawalpindi. Data was analyzed on SPSS software; Cross tabulation and chi-square were used to check students' knowledge. The Independent t-test was used to measure the attitudes of students. The results indicated no significant difference between government and private school students' knowledge and attitudes. Private school students' had slightly more knowledge than public school students but this difference was not significant. The public and private school students had a positive attitude towards environmental issues. Students owned environmental problems and were highly motivated to solve these problems. They were agreed to take action for the betterment of the future. As a result, sustainable development from elementary school to university necessitates a paradigm shift in our educational systems. Indeed, a sustainable way of life is impossible to achieve without a proper education system that teaches our youth how to integrate sustainability principles into their daily lives and work. Significant progress has been made in integrating environmental values into current curricula, developing new approaches and producing educational content for effective EE implementation in both programmes, since it was a government initiative to integrate environmental concepts into established curricula, devise different approaches and prepare training materials for ef Teacher teaching is therefore important in both Pakistani education systems to improve vital thinking skills and to react positively to the world about potential Pakistanis.

Os jovens brasileiros e a sua preferência pela disciplina Ciências

O projeto ROSE (The Relevance of Science Education) busca compreender dados atitudinais e emocionais de jovens acerca da Ciência e Tecnologia a partir de dados coletados em um questionário já aplicado em mais de 40 países. Os resultados do ROSE-Brasil mostraram que os jovens apresentam um alto interesse pela disciplina ciências, mas que gostam mais de outras disciplinas. Este artigo tenta compreender como os jovens brasileiros se comportam frente à essa divergência ao redor do interesse e da preferência pela disciplina de ciências. Para alcançar nosso objetivo utilizamos os dados brutos da amostra ROSE-Brasil 2011, e nos valeremos de métodos de análises estatísticas. Os jovens brasileiros dividem-se em quatro grupos: Prioridade não específica (3,98%), esse grupo não tem interesse pelas aulas de ciências, mas prefere a disciplina a outras; Baixa prioridade (20,26%), não possuem nem interesse, nem preferência pela disciplina ciências; Prioridade específica (30,6%) possuem interesse e preferem a disciplina ciências a outras; Outras prioridades (45,14%) grupo mais expressivo encontram-se os jovens que têm interesse mas não preferem a disciplina ciências. Desses grupos três são mais representativos da realidade dos jovens brasileiros, tornando relevante investigar as diferenças entre os interesses e hábitos ligados à ciência e tecnologia dos jovens de cada grupo para subsidiar a criação de estratégias que tornem o ensino de ciências mais atrativo.

Modern Pedagogical Practice of Natural Science Training of Future Psychologists in Higher Educational Institutions

The educational process is a dynamic phenomenon that changes and develops under the influence of various factors of a social, economic, political, regulatory, material, technical and technological nature, which, in our opinion, determines the need for constant updating of its content in accordance with the requirements of the time. The impetus for the transformation of the content of the natural scientific training of future psychologists, taking into account current trends in the present and current state of development of the neurobiological sciences, was the conceptual basis of the study. Let us characterize the modern practice of natural-science training of future psychologists in higher educational institutions of Ukraine and the peculiarities of creating an integrative course "Fundamentals of modern neurobiology" as a factor that will contribute to the transformation of the content of natural-science training of future psychologists, taking into account current trends in the present and current state of development of neurobiological sciences. The study confirms the feasibility and necessity of transforming the content of modern science education of future psychologists, carried out in higher educational institutions, and factors identified by students-psychologists (the relevance of science education, the lack of the results of modern scientific research in the educational material, the lack of the necessary educational and methodical literature, outdated teaching methods, little free time) that prevent them from improving their quality.

Important but not for me as a girl: French students' attitudes towards secondary school science

W hile the role of science and technology is extremely important for the contemporary society, while expertise in science and technology has proved to be politically a key issue, western countries have observed a decline in students’ interest in both studying and pursuing careers in scientific subject areas. In the present article, the purpose is to document how French students relate to their school science classes, with a data from a Relevance of Science Education (ROSE) questionnaire-based study involving 2395 students (1264 girls; 1131 boys). The findings of our research show some interesting gender differences and there is no sense to treat girls as though they were a homogeneous group.

INTERCULTURAL LEARNING: CHALLENGES FOR CURRENT SCIENCE EDUCATION

In the time of curricular reforms across the Europe another chance appeared towards increasing learners´ interest in science education, particularly in relation to the future job selection in the field of natural sciences and technology. Innovations in natural science instruction can be conducted in various ways, e.g. (Bílek & Klečková, 2006): (1) learners´ interest in natural sciences and their instruction (What am I interested in?; What would I like to learn?; What learning content should be learned?) – answers to these questions were discussed i.e. in the analysis of the international comparative study ROSE (Relevance of Science Education) (ROSE Project, 2018), (2) context of instruction (optimally – “school science”, application context, social context, personality context), (3) learning content (standards; Framework and School programmes; traditions; new topics) or (4) competences (key competences; “scientific literacy“; activities in natural science).

THREE DISTINCTIVE GROUPS AMONG JAPANESE STUDENTS IN TERMS OF THEIR SCHOOL SCIENCE PREFERENCE : FROM PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF JAPANESE DATA OF AN INTERNATIONAL SURVEY 'THE RELEVANCE OF SCIENCE EDUCATION' (ROSE)

The Relevance of Science Education’ (ROSE) is an international survey project, whose aim is to provide insight into factors that relate to the relevance of the contents as well as the contexts of Science and Technology curricula, organized and managed by Svein Sjoberg and his team of University of Oslo. Its target population is 15 year-old students, who are supposed to be in the final stage of their compulsory education in respective countries. It focuses on students’ emotions like interests, attitudes, values, future plans, perceptions of science, technology and/or environment as well as on their prior experiences, not on their achievement. At present, about 30 countries (mainly from Asian, African, European countries) are involved in the project. Comprehensive international comparative analysis has not yet begun, but national teams are permitted to begin to analyse respective countries’ data set by themselves in advance. The present report proposes an analytical framework, by which students can be divided into three distinctive groups (Specific Priority Group, Other Priority Group, and Poor Priority Group) in terms of their ‘School Science Preference,’ and argues for its applicability and usability to obtain information on characteristics of respective groups’ interests in learning topics and out-of-school experiences, in order to improve science teaching through preliminary analysis of ROSE data.

My science class and expected career choices—a structural equation model of determinants involving Abu Dhabi high school students

This study is about Abu Dhabi high school students’ interest in science in different contexts. The survey was conducted in connection with the international project, the Relevance of Science Education (ROSE). The sample consists of 5650 students in public and private schools. A structural equation model (SEM) is developed to capture the links between the various constructs. The model hypothesize that students’ future job expectations have several significant determinants or constructs related to their interest in science, out-of-school experiences, attitude toward science, opinion about science class, and opinion about environmental challenges. Exploratory factor analysis of each of the original ROSE dimensions provided the factors and constructs for the SEM. Summated scores of factors are used for the SEM analysis. Constructs with the highest total effect are “my science class,” “my attitude toward science,” and “my interest in science.” Both “my out-of-school experiences” and “my opinion of environmental challenges” have low direct effects. In this study, descriptive statistics of items are presented, and the implications for curriculum development, teacher professional development programs, and other education strategies in Abu Dhabi are discussed. The study resulted in a comprehensive framework and model of factors and determinants that demonstrate an overall relationship to better understand what might trigger students to think about their expected future careers. Results show that just making science lessons interesting or informing students about social significance of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is not enough to sway young people toward STEM careers. The current study goes one step further in an attempt to link the various dimensions in a unified SEM to better understand the effects of the various elements on each other.

Student Motivation in STEM Careers at Three Northwest Universities of Mexico

Mexico hosts a large number of modern firms, notably in the sectors of aerospace, automobiles, foods and beverages, which employ high-skilled and well-educated workers. Therefore, Graduates from Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields are both in high demand in the labor market and among the most highly paid. Even though, 30.9% of Mexican employers report having faced difficulties finding people with the necessary skills to fill vacancies in STEM areas. Three universities in the northwest region of Mexico conformed a STEM network aiming to promote enrollment, retention and gender equality on STEM careers. An instrument based on Questionnaire ROSE-Q or “Relevance of Science Education” allowed gathering information that allows measuring relevant indicators to support the design of actions and strategies. The project was carried out with funds granted in 2016 from the National Council on Science and Technology (CONACYT). The main indicators impacting the STEM career choice of students are about cultural training, youth identity, and gender equity.

Variation by Gender in Abu Dhabi High School Students’ Interests in Physics

Abu Dhabi high school students’ interest in physics in different contexts was investigated with a survey conducted in connection with the international project, The Relevance of Science Education (ROSE). The sample consisted of 2248 students in public and private schools. Means of most items that belong to the school physics context for both girls and boys were below the score of (3.0). The most interesting topics for both genders were connected with fantasy items. The least interesting items (particularly for girls) were connected with artifacts and technological processes. Girls assigned the highest scores for “why we dream” and “life and death.” Boys assigned the highest scores for “inventions and discoveries” and “life outside of earth.” The main message of the study is that new curricular approaches and textbooks can be developed through combining technological and human contexts. The implications for curriculum development, teacher professional development programs, and other education strategies in Abu Dhabi are discussed in light of the ROSE survey.

Chinese students’ science-related experiences: Comparison of the ROSE study in Xinjiang and Shanghai

Background: Students’ daily-life experiences may render favorable effects on the students’ affective domain like interest, enthusiasm, motivation, joy, curiosity, awareness, and eagerness to learn science as not commonly found in the classroom environment. However, no rigorous research has been reported on those aspects in Mainland China despite many recent studies done in various Western countries.Purpose: This paper aims to report and compare the science-related experiences of ninth-graders from two places (in Urumqi City of Xinjiang province and Shanghai) in China through a large-scale survey of their junior secondary three students.Sample: The sample consists of 4115 students in Urumqi City (from 28 schools) and Shanghai (from 25 schools).Design and methods: This study adopted a Likert scale questionnaire instrument, as translated from the international Relevance Of Science Education (ROSE) Project. From a confirmatory factor analysis of the data, we identify and focus on six factors which are directly correlated with students’ science-related experiences outside school environment in Xinjiang and Shanghai and employ relevant factor scores to compare the gender, regional, and socioeconomic effects.Results: As revealed by the t-test, gender and regional differences were statistically significant in affecting (1) students’ outdoor living experience, (2) hands-on experience of transportation, and (3) their daily-life experience with do-it-yourself tools and models. In all three aspects, boys and Xinjiang students possessed richer experiences than girls and Shanghai students, respectively.Conclusions: Based on ANOVA tests, Shanghai students’ out-of-school science-related experiences were more often significantly affected by various socioeconomic variables (including their parents’ education and occupation and their family income) than Xinjiang students. From cross-regional comparison, Chinese students had much fewer science-related experiences than those of Greek and Finnish students. The limitations and educational implications of the present study are also discussed.

SCIENCE AND MATH TEACHERS’ COLLABORATION: HOW TO DEVELOP IT SEEKING PUPIL’S SUCCESS AT SCHOOL

The importance of science and technology is obviously increasing. Such spheres as biotechnology, environmental security, biochemistry, synthetic biology, neurobiology and other have been strongly affected and even changed by science and technology progress. And that affect is growing. It is paradoxical, but over the last decade a decreased youth interest in science and technologies has been observed in many world countries. One of the first serious research studies on that question was initiated and carried out by IOSTE (International Organization for Science and Technology Education, http://ioste.nmmu.ac.za/). The research “The Relevance of Science Education”, http://roseproject.no/) showed that there are essential differences among various countries. One of the most worrying problems is, that in so-called developed countries (e.g., Japan, Norway, Finland, Great Britain and other) the youth interest in science and technologies is poor, the biggest part of youth do not relate their career with science and technologies. Whilst, in so-called developing countries (e.g., Uganda, Philippines, Trinidad and Tobago, Botswana and other) the youth relate their future career with science and technology development and think that this is a guarantee for better life and success. The first international comparative research was carried out in 2004 and repeated in 2008. The results, basically, were similar.

AS CONCEPÇÕES DE UNIVERSITÁRIOS INGRESSANTES E CONCLUINTES DO CURSO DE CIÊNCIAS BIOLÓGICAS DA UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA MARIA (UFSM) RELACIONADAS A QUESTÕES DE CIÊNCIA E TECNOLOGIA

The aim of this research is from the Voice of freshmen students and graduating in Biological Sciences in the UFSM, describe their conceptions and positions on issues of Science and Technology. We used an adaptation of the international research titled The Relevance of Science Education (ROSE). The results obtained revealed an unrest ahead to the professional identity built by the college students during the academic education, regardless of qualifications chosen – Bachelor or Licensee Degree. The freshmen are more optimistic than the students in the final of the Course, which triggers a discussion about curricular reforms to collaborate with the construction of a professional identity according to the choice of future profession.

O currículo de Ciências e o interesse dos estudantes brasileiros: uma aproximação necessária

<span>O desencanto dos estudantes pela carreira científica tem provocado um movimento em prol de se ouvir o que os alunos têm a dizer das aulas de ciências e dos temas científicos de maior interesse. Um desses movimentos é o projeto </span><em>The Relevance of Science Education</em><span> (ROSE), implementado em mais de 40 países e objeto de estudo do trabalho aqui descrito. A pesquisa encontra-se dentro do campo da avaliação educacional. A amostra, de representatividade nacional, envolveu 2365 estudantes, oriundos de 84 escolas. Os dados obtidos revelam que o brasileiro possui grande interesse pelos temas científicos abordados na escola, sendo os temas de maior interesse aqueles relacionados à Biologia Humana. Especificamente sobre a evolução biológica, tema bastante controverso no currículo de Biologia, observamos que os jovens estudantes brasileiros estão abertos à discussões sobre o tema.</span>

Malaysian teacher trainees' practices on science and the relevance of science education for sustainability

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the practice of teacher trainees on science and the relevance of science education. The study focuses on teacher trainees' practice on science teaching and its relevance to understanding science education.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed a survey method using questionnaires. The samples consist of 80 teacher trainees, majoring in Science Education, from a teachers training institute in Malaysia. The teacher trainees were asked to complete a set of questionnaires on the relevance of their content knowledge of science to Science Education, application of student's home culture in classroom science and in infusing moral education in classroom lessons. The data obtained from the questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive statistical and inferential statistical (independent samples t‐test).FindingsThe results showed that the female trainees' practice of science and the relevance of science education is significantly higher than that of their male counterparts. Besides that, the findings indicate that there is no significant difference between the male and female trainees on their practices of students' home culture applied in classroom science and applying moral education in teaching science. The findings also indicated there is a need to bring in students' home culture into the teaching and learning of science.Practical implicationsFindings of this paper suggest one approach that could be adopted to make science education more relevant to the students understanding is by incorporating teaching strategies that are designed to promote content learning through a cultural relevant curriculum. This will make schools a better place to inculcate environmental concerns for a sustainable future.Originality/valueThis paper highlights the need to educate trainee teachers (male and female) and bring them closer to gain cooperation and commitment to achieve sustainability. The paper also proposes the need to bring in students' home culture, priorities and concern into the teaching and learning of science.

Mainstreaming ESD into Science Teacher Education Courses: A Case for ESD Pedagogical Content Knowledge and Learning as Connection

In this case study, researchers evaluated national education policies in Zambia, analysed a localised science (Chemistry 5070) syllabus, assessed a university teaching methods course, and evaluated 54 mathematics and science education students’ perceptions on mainstreaming education for sustainable development (ESD) into their courses. ESD was a salient matter in education policies and in the preamble to Chemistry 5070, but not in the university teaching methods course. The chemistry syllabus included ESD issues in the ‘notes’ section, but was lacking in guidance on teaching and learning approaches to integrate the issues. The university Teaching Methods course did not include content and methods to assist teachers to effectively teach Chemistry 5070 and to integrate ESD issues into it. Students surveyed had some awareness of ESD issues and most were inclined to suggest that ESD issues must be mainstreamed into their courses, especially in educational theory courses; few students suggested natural sciences as carrier subjects for ESD. The findings pointed to a discrepancy among educational policies, school Chemistry 5070 and the university teaching methods courses. A paradigm shift is recommended in order that the quality and relevance of science education be viewed via the metaphor of ‘learning as connection’ and that Shulman’s (1986) pedagogical content knowledge model be adapted so that content and pedagogy of science courses are inclusive of social and humanistic issues such as those advocated in ESD discourse.

Et meningsfullt naturfag for dagens ungdom?

Can school science become more attractive, interesting and meaningful for young people of today? The point of departure for raising this question is the decline in enrolment in studies in science and technology (S&T) that is apparent in many OECD countries. We draw on perspectives from literature on late modernity and identity construction and we use data from the international comparative project ROSE (the Relevance of Science Education) to shed light on how young people perceive S&Tand some of their criteria for their educational choices. Our focus is on the Nordic situation, but we also provide comparisons with other cultures. We show that young people in all kinds of countries share a positive view on the importance S&T for society and the future development. We note, however, some remarkable differences when it comes to the willingness to engage in S&T-related studies and careers. We use Norwegian data to illustrate the values and concerns that are important for the choice of future jobs for young people. We suggest that there is a mismatch between these values and the values that young people meet in science at school. We argue that science curricula must change to accommodate some of the values of the young generation.

Exploring a ROSE-garden: Norwegian youth’s orientations towards science – seen as signs of late modern identities

The thesis is based on the view that science teaching must build on an understanding of the students' culture, priorities and concerns. The empirical material is collected through the ROSE project. ROSE (The Relevance of Science Education) is a comparative project meant to shed light on affective factors of importance to the learning of science and technology. The target population is students towards the end of lower secondary school (age 15). The research instrument was developed in cooperation with an international group of science educators. The resulting questionnaire consisted mostly of closed questions addressing the students' interests, attitudes, plans, views on the environmental challenges, etc. This thesis uses data from more than 26 000 students in 25 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and South America. The research aims were to develop a student typology based on the Norwegian data, to characterise the student types' orientations towards science, and to study Norwegian youth's interests against a background of students from less modernised countries. The results can be summarised under three main conclusions: - Norwegian students can be divided into five student types with distinct orientations towards science. - Students' interests in science are sex-specific. - There are some characteristic cross-national patterns in youth's interests that follow a modern–traditional divide. The results are discussed in the light of sociological theories on youth in late modern societies, especially by drawing on perspectives on the late modern project of identity construction. The students' responses in the questionnaire are interpreted as identity expressions, and the typology is seen as signs of five different social identities. The study has an explorative and data-driven approach. The next step of the analysis has been successively adjusted according to the previous step and results. The following is a brief account for the way through the data material and a summary of the results

Science for all or science for some: What Swedish students want to learn about in secondary science and technology and their opinions on science lessons

This article presents Swedish results from ‘the Relevance of Science Education’ (ROSE) study, which is a large world wide comparative research project based at the University of Oslo. The Swedish sample consisted of 751 students, most of whom were 15 years old, from 29 schools and data were collected inspring 2003. Student opinions about science lessons are presented in relation to enrolment intentions for upper secondary school together with what they want to learn about in science and technology.The findings indicate that secondary science instruction seems to address only a minority of the students, those that have chosen science or technology in their further education. At the same time, all students have interest in science and technology and many seem most interested in some important issues in societal development. The results are discussed from the perspective of learners and contribute to the debate about establishing a scientific literacy approach in compulsory education.