University Science Education Research Articles

The Contribution of Integrative Physics Textbooks in Higher Education and Their Impact on Islamic Education Goals

This study examines the dominance of the modern scientific perspective in university science education, which often separates natural sciences from faith-based values. To bridge this gap, developing Physics textbooks that integrate a faith-based approach is crucial. The research explores how Physics textbooks can contribute to achieving Islamic educational goals in universities, employing a qualitative method including literature reviews and textbook analysis. The findings reveal that integrative Physics textbooks can significantly contribute to linking Physics concepts with Islamic values, creating a holistic learning approach. This study proposes a concept for integrative Physics teaching materials, incorporating the history of science and the philosophy of science, preparing students to master Physics and develop strong faith.

Determining Science Education Students’ Career Aspirations and Future Career Perspectives: A Narrative Inquiry

Despite achieving similar college degrees, students venture into different paths post-graduation. Having a career plan with career aspirations and future career perspectives is essential for an individual to have a more straightforward career path. This qualitative narrative inquiry research determined science education students’ career aspirations and future career perspectives. Nineteen college science education students in a state university in Zambales, Philippines, were asked about their written narratives describing their career aspirations and future career perspectives. Data from the participants were subjected to thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke’s (2006) framework. Findings showed that science education students’ career aspirations were (a) to teach and inspire students, (b) to pursue advanced studies, (c) to take licensure examinations, (d) to work abroad, and (e) to shift career. Meanwhile, the science education students’ perspectives toward their career after 10 years were (a) to become successful in the teaching field, (b) inspiring and teaching the students, (c) contented in the chosen profession, and (d) willing to embark on another journey. Based on the findings, researchers recommended the creation of career guidance and career management programs among graduating students to provide more apparent career aspirations and career perspectives among them as they become future professionals.

Molecular and genetics inquiry program using Drosophila eyes absent gene.

The aim of this study was to develop molecular genetics inquiry programs using the eyes absent gene of Drosophila melanogaster. The program was composed of various molecular genetics experiments, including mutation observation, cross-breeding, searching for genetic information in web databases, gDNA extraction, and PCR. Each experiment was designed to include a reasoning process, thus aligning the program closely with the structure of authentic scientific research. This program was also developed with a modular design to provide flexibility in its implementation. The program was implemented for middle school students affiliated with a university science education institute for the gifted, and surveys indicated that students had positive experiences with the program. Our findings suggest that the program provides students with a contextual understanding of how authentic research is conducted. Finally, we suggest ways to implement the program effectively.

Challenges of University Science and Technology Ethics Education in the New Era of Artificial Intelligence

New artificial intelligence has emerged strongly with an unstoppable trend. The emergence of ChatGPT has brought new impacts and challenges to education and ethics. The importance of science and technology ethics education is unprecedentedly prominent in such an era. Science and technology ethics should be an important basic quality necessary for young people in the new era of science and technology. As the main front for personnel training and scientific research, universities shoulder the important mission of finding the direction of scientific research and implementing the main responsibility of science and technology ethics management. Starting from the characteristics of ChatGPT generative artificial intelligence itself, This study aims to analyze the threat of artificial intelligence to higher education academic ethics (including the academic dishonesty and inertia of thoughts), privacy security and credit crisis, false information fabrication, algorithmic bias and discrimination in artificial intelligence by studying the current situation of science and technology ethics education in colleges and universities. Based on the analyses, the study explores new directions and paths for the future development of universities science and technology ethics education.

A Two-Eyed Seeing Teaching and Learning Framework for Science Education

Worldwide, education jurisdictions are looking for authentic ways to address First Nations perspectives in the K-12 curriculum, including science education. At the same time, there have been ongoing efforts to integrate authentic and engaging approaches to teaching science, including those that are student-centred, inquiry-based, multimodal, and linked to meaningful contexts. Both goals may be realised through the principle of Two-Eyed Seeing (TES), which seeks to integrate the strengths of Indigenous ways of knowing with one eye, and Western ways of knowing with the other eye, for the benefit of all students. This theoretical paper presents a Two-Eyed Seeing for Science Education (TESSE) Framework, which brings together two pedagogical models. One is from a contemporary science perspective, the 5Es representation-rich inquiry approach, which scaffolds authentic student-centred conceptually focused learning experiences. The other is from an Indigenous perspective, the 8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning, which illustrates different ways of knowing—many of which are familiar with First Peoples across the world (e.g., place-based, visual, holistic). The TESSE Framework aims to act as a strengths-based interface between the two knowledge systems to support a culturally responsive approach to teaching and learning science. It is designed to support meaningful connections through curriculum and pedagogy in ways that are contextually relevant to place. Through empirical investigation and in collaboration with local communities, the Framework has the potential to inform current approaches to science education in schools and universities and provide a pathway towards decolonisation and reconciliation.

An effective intervention using STEM instruction for improving preservice science teachers’ self-efficacy

ABSTRACT Background Science teacher education programs are considered to play a critical role in preparing future science teachers who are more innovative and capable of effectively implementing integrated STEM education. Purpose This research investigates the effectiveness of a professional development program enriched by the skills-based science, technology, engineering, and mathematics model (SB-STEM-M) on preservice science teachers’ self-efficacy. Sample The participants of this study are twenty preservice teachers in a state university science education program. Design and Methods This research was carried out over 14 weeks using mixed-methods research, with the implementation process consisting of three stages, with the last stage involving the preservice teachers’ preparation of SB-STEM activity sets alongside evaluations, and feedback. The quantitative data in the research were obtained using the Self-Efficacy and Concerns about STEM Education Instrument, which was used as a pre-and post-test. The qualitative data were obtained through the activity sets and videos the preservice teachers prepared based on SB-STEM-M as well as through interview forms and focus group interviews. Results The results from the quantitative and qualitative data analyses show the preservice teachers’ STEM self-efficacy to have improved using the professional development program enriched with SB-STEM-M, while no change had occurred regarding their STEM concerns like information and evaluation, management, consequence and refocusing. Conclusion The three-stage intervention process applied to the preservice teachers enabled them to both develop original STEM activity sets in accordance with SB-STEM-M as well as to increase their STEM self-efficacy. The activity sets and videos the preservice teachers prepared reveal evidence that they had achieved the capacity to have their classrooms apply the activity sets in their future professional life. The data obtained through the interview forms and focus group interviews reveal them to have learned to integrate scientific process and reasoning skills into STEM disciplines.

Chutes and Ladders: Gendered Systems of Privilege and Marginalization in University Science Teaching

This article reports on how gender shapes the work of university science faculty. Theories of gender as a social system are used to disentangle how individuals, social interactions, and institutions (re)produce inequality by sustaining occupational gender segregation in higher education science. The study uses qualitative data from an ethnography of six teaching faculty at a large research-intensive public university in the United States. These teaching faculty, largely women in a department in which the majority are men, are ineligible for tenure and institutionally positioned as having lower status. The disadvantages are experienced in different ways across all the women on the teaching faculty. In contrast, men on the teaching faculty are recognizable as scientists and are by default treated with respect. As such, they are elevated regardless of their skill as teachers. This study offers a theoretical contribution to the current understanding of gendered occupations by suggesting that the experiences of the science teaching faculty can be conceptualized as chutes and ladders. Ladders are mechanisms reserved for the elevation of men. Chutes are reserved for women because regardless of how women approach their work, the gender system is constructed to hold them back.

Digital Research Skills in Secondary Science Education: A Guiding Framework and University Teachers’ Perception

This study focuses on the perceived gap between the required and actual level of <i>digital research skills</i> (DRS) of students entering tertiary science education. By combining existing frameworks for research skills and digital literacy skills, a guiding framework of DRS was constructed. The DRS framework incorporates seven categories and is evaluated using an exploratory qualitative study employing semi-structured interviews with university teachers (<i>N</i> = 15). The level of DRS at the start of university science education and university teachers’ perceptions of first-year students’ level of DRS have been investigated. The results show that the skills of writing a research paper using digital tools, using proper resources, and analysing, transforming, and visualising data were generally found to be wanting.

Research on the teaching of classes on probability distributions and hypothesis testing in high school mathematics departments and universities

Data is a prevalent concept in today's world. We are in an era of Big Data and the field of data science is possibly more important than it ever has been. Associate Professor Chieko Matsumoto, School of Education, University of Fukui, Japan, is an expert in data science who is conducting research on statistics and data science education in upper secondary schools and universities, with a focus on the concept of statistical hypothesis testing. Matsumoto's goal is to quantify what is lacking in the current mathematics curriculum in order to put forward recommendations to overcome challenges facing statistics and data science education. She and her team want to develop teaching materials and practical guidance on statistics and data science education. Their research approach and methods are developed with a focus on probability distributions and hypothesis testing. The researchers will conduct a questionnaire survey of upper secondary school teachers to clarify the various teaching problems and teaching difficulties that teachers encounter when teaching statistical hypothesis testing. The team is yet to obtain permission to conduct a large-scale questionnaire and so the researchers have been conducting small-scale interviews to establish an understanding of teaching difficulties faced by upper secondary school teachers.

지구과학 동영상 강의 학습 중 동영상 유형에 따른 초등 예비교사의 Mind Wandering

Objectives This study examines the attention of elementary school pre-service teachers according to the two types of lectures, Picture-In-Picture (PIP) and Lecture Capture (LC), while watching science video lecture s using a eye-tracking device. Mind Wandering (MW) was collected and analyzed for this purpose.
 Methods The participants were 18 pre-service teachers (12 women, 6 men), and the task was a video lecture for a university earth science education lecture, and the theme was a lecture on how to guide the rotation of the earth, orbit, and phase change of the moon to elementary school students. Data were collected with the Tobii Pro Spectrum eye- tracking device, and when sections with a fixed duration of 400 ms or more lasted for more than 2 seconds were determined as the MW section. The MW was analyzed according to two image types. Attention and MW inducing factors were identified through interviews and screen analysis.
 Results As a result, it was found that the LC type had a shorter MW Duration due to a significant difference than the PIP type. This suggests that the LC type is more effective in maintaining the learner's attention than the PIP type. The gaze plot during MW shows a phenomenon in which gaze movement is fixed to one place, and in the LC type, gaze fixing to the instructor was remarkable. During video lectures, factors such as repeated explanations, static screens, difficulty of learning tasks, and task familiarity were identified as factors that could cause MW. In addition, pre-service teachers preferred the LC type to the PIP type.
 Conclusions Developing video lectures in LC type will help maintain attention, and the design of video lectures should avoid repeated explanations, static screens, high-level cognitive load presentations, and learning tasks that can cause students to get tired of, and should be developed to continuously provide visual or auditory stimuli.

The Effect of Using Interactive Simulation in Science Laboratory on Knowledge Levels of Science Laws and Computational Thinking Skills

Today, teaching strategies and methods changing with technology require a radical transformation in the teaching of science laws, which form the basis of science subjects. In this study, computational thinking skills, which will allow students to use information and communication technologies in today's conditions and the effect of these skills on their knowledge levels about science laws were examined. A university in the Central Anatolian Region of Turkey served as the institution that provided the study sample, which consisted of 61 science preservice teachers who were enrolled in the university's Science Teaching Department. In this study, pretest-posttest control group design, one of the experimental designs, was used. The participants were randomly assigned to either the experimental group or the control group, with 30 people assigned to the experimental group and 31 participants assigned to the control group. To collect data, an achievement test with 20 questions aiming to measure the success levels of science laws by the researchers and the "Computerized Thinking Scale" for university students was used. At the end of the research process, it was concluded that the achievements of the students in the experimental group were significantly different from the students in the control group, and there was a significant difference in favor of the experimental group in all sub-dimensions of computational thinking and computational thinking.

“西迁精神”融入高校思政课教育教学若干问题研究

“西迁精神”融入高校思政课教育教学若干问题研究

‘Transformative’: the threshold learning outcomes for science

The Science Threshold Learning Outcomes (TLOs) are a consensus set of academic standards for Australian university Science education. They were developed by Prof. Brian Yates and Prof. Sue Jones, supported by Dr Jo-Anne Kelder, during 2010–2011. The co-authors of this paper are key figures in Australian Science education, and in this manuscript, we have used a reflective semi-structured interview approach to describe the process of developing the Science TLOs and consider their subsequent effect on tertiary science education in Australia. This manuscript documents Sue and Brian’s impact on science curriculum through the lenses of leadership, community and practice. We have a twofold aim: first to draw lessons for harnessing consensus in scientific communities on the value and purpose of a tertiary science education, and second to celebrate the success of these influential and impactful leaders in our community. We demonstrate how work to develop the TLOs has transformed tertiary science education in Australia.

Fata ho poto: Tongan science learners and engagement, enjoyment and success in secondary school and university settings

Engagement and success are prominent in education discussions, research and policy in Aotearoa New Zealand and globally. Yet, little is known about how successful Tongan science learners define engagement, enjoyment or success, and which teaching and learning experiences have enhanced or detracted from their engagement, enjoyment and success during their studies. This article shares the stories of 26 successful Tongan science learners who participated in talanoa (open discussion without an agenda) about their engagement, enjoyment and success in secondary and university science education in Aotearoa, and, for some, their schooling in Tonga. The Manulua framework (Fonua, 2021) informed how their stories were gathered, analysed and woven together. The article presents the Fata ho poto model to demonstrate how engagement, enjoyment and success are considered by successful Tongan science learners. This model is useful for those increasing Tongan and Moana/Pacific learning achievement. It offers important insights related to the role of education policy and practice in shaping notions of engagement, enjoyment and success among Tongan and Moana/Pacific learners.

Editorial

Editorial

Reducing Misconception of Force Concepts Through Learning Conceptual Change Model with Cognitive Conflict Approach

This type of research is quantitative research that aims to reduce students' misconceptions through learning a conceptual change model with a cognitive conflict approach (CCM-CCA). The population in this study were students of the Physics Education Study Program, the University of Mataram, and students of the Surabaya State University Science Education Study Program. The sample in this study amounted to 56 second-semester students at both universities, each of which amounted to 29 people. The CCM-CCA used has been validated in Focus Group Discussion (FGD) activities and has been declared valid in content and construct so that it is appropriate to use. Data in this study were obtained through misconceptions tests, observations of conceptual changes and cognitive conflicts, and the interview process. Data analysis in this study used descriptive analysis by looking at the comparison of the percentage of students who had misconceptions before and after being given treatment and analyzing the level of cognitive conflict. The results of this study indicate that the CCM-CCA learning model is effective in reducing student misconceptions. Conceptual changes and cognitive conflicts that occur in students are included in the high and very high categories, and the results of structured interviews show that students experience 4 thought processes while learning CCM-CCA which helps students to change their conceptions from initially experiencing misconceptions to understanding scientific concepts.

Online Verbal Argumentative Interaction (OVAI) in an Online Science Class During the Covid-19 Pandemic

As we begin the third decade of the twenty-first century, argument and debate are not habitual practices of university science education. This can be explained by the hegemony of instructor-centered traditional approaches in many of these practices. The Covid-19 pandemic has not only pushed university education online but also seems to provide an unforeseen opportunity to develop deep educational transformations. Here, we report on the case of a university online science course that, because of the Covid-19 crisis, used online verbal argumentative interaction (OVAI) to provide students with explicit opportunities to co-construct reason-based and/or evidence-based arguments and counterarguments in an undergraduate-centered science learning environment. The written arguments and counterarguments co-constructed by forty students (20 females and 20 males, 19–24 years old) during OVAI sessions were analyzed to determine their quality. Also, students’ opinions about the use of OVAI in times of Covid-19 were documented. The results indicate that the students co-constructed high-quality arguments and counterarguments in the OVAI sessions. Most importantly, participants showed positive impressions about the use of OVAI in university online science education. The outcomes carry important educational implications considering the growing university online science courses in the pandemic and post-pandemic eras.

Investigating University Science Teachers’, Students’ and Learning Designers’ Perspectives of Mobile Learning

Mobile devices such as mobile phones and tablets have become valuable teaching and learning tools in science education due to their accessibility and affordability. The adoption of mobile devices to support mobile learning (m-learning) has proliferated at all levels of education. Science education researchers have explored discipline-specific m-learning practices, often with a focus on approaches supporting inquiry-based learning (Liu et al., 2020) but much of this research has occurred in school contexts (Burden & Kearney, 2016). Therefore, the author conducted a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) (Liberati et al., 2009) guidelines to investigate research trends and gaps in m-learning in university science education. Twenty-four high-quality papers published between 2011- 2021 were selected for examination using stringent criteria. The SLR focused on the research foci, methods, outcomes, study contexts and featured pedagogical approaches from these 24 studies. The SLR findings indicated that most studies adopted quantitative research methods and reported positive learning outcomes. There was an emphasis on formal settings, as well as collaborative and inquiry-based learning (IBL) pedagogical approaches. The SLR identified the following future m-learning research directions in university science education contexts: increase the number of qualitative studies; consider the views of both students and teachers; explore the adoption of m-learning approaches in more informal spaces; conduct deeper examinations of IBL and field-based pedagogies; and explore the use of networked (or connectivist) science learning approaches through social media. The SLR findings have subsequently been used to guide a current doctoral project that investigates how mobile technologies are being used in university science education. The following research questions guide this project: 1: How are university science teachers using distinctive pedagogical features of mobile learning? How do learning designers (LDs) support these approaches? How do students experience these pedagogies? 2: To what extent are these digital practices perceived as pedagogically innovative by teachers, students and LDs? Burden et al.’s (2019) innovative digital pedagogical principles, which were derived from Law et al. (2005) innovation dimensions with ICT, are used in this study. Three distinct mobile pedagogical features from the iPAC theoretical framework (Kearney et al., 2020), collaboration, authenticity and personalisation, are also adopted as a socio-cultural lens for this study. The first phase of this study is a global-scale survey for university science teachers. The second phase obtains data from Australian universities: 4 case teachers (class observations, interviews and a questionnaire); selected students from their classes (4 focus groups, a questionnaire and 8 student journals) and 4 LD interviews. Collected data are analysed in statistical software such as SPSS and NVIVO to draw meaningful interpretations. The SLR findings, and further details on the work-in-progress doctoral-level study will be shared in this poster.

Online Teaching Platform and Effective Teaching and Learning of Science Education in Nigerian Public Universities

The study investigated the online teaching platform and effective teaching and learning of science education in Nigerian public universities. A survey research design was adopted for the study, and it was carried out in three public universities committed to science education courses in Nigeria. Sixty-five teaching staff and sixty students were selected using a stratified random sampling technique to respond to questionnaires from the three tertiary institutions. The instruments used for data collection were questionnaires titled: Science Education Students Online Questionnaire (SESOQ) and Science Education Lecturers Online Questionnaire (SELOQ). The questionnaires gathered information from both lecturers and students based on the online teaching and learning platform. Mean, and standard deviation (SD) were used to analyze the data generated in the study. Results from the study revealed that the teaching and learning platform of science education in Nigerian public universities need a dramatic turnaround on the part of the lecturers and students, among other. Therefore, the study recommends, among others, that stakeholders in education should help to resolve problems confronting science education lecturers’ effective teaching and students’ effective learning using the online platform in Nigerian public Universities.

A Process of Pedagogical Change in College Science Education: Instructor Perspectives

A Process of Pedagogical Change in College Science Education: Instructor Perspectives