bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Conceptual change strategies and cooperative group work in chemistry
Authors: Basili Patricia A. , Sanford Julie P. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThis study conducted at a suburban community college tested a method of conceptual change in which treatment students worked in small cooperative groups on tasks aimed at eliciting their misconceptions so that they could then be discussed in contrast to the scientific conceptions that had been taught in direct instruction. Categorizations of student understanding of the target concepts of the laws of conservation of matter and energy and aspects of the particulate nature of gases, liquids, and solids were ascertained by pre‐ and posttesting. Audiotapes of student verbal interaction in the small groups provided quantitative and qualitative data concerning student engagement in behaviors suggestive of the conditions posited to be part of the conceptual change process (Posner, Strike, Hewson & Gertzog, 1982). Chi‐square analysis of posttests indicated that students in treatment groups had significantly lower (p < 0.05) proportion of misconceptions than control students on four of the five target concepts. Students who exhibited no change in concept state had a higher frequency of verbal behaviors suggestive of “impeding” conceptual change when compared to students who did change. Three factors emerged from qualitative analysis of group interaction that appeared to influence learning: (a) many students had flawed understanding of concepts that supported the target concepts; (b) student views towards learning science affected their engagement in assigned tasks, (c) “good” and “poor” group leaders had a strong influence on group success.
A case study of two exemplary biology teachers
Authors: Treagust David F. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractResearch has indicated that most science classrooms are not intellectually demanding and place little emphasis on small group discussions and laboratory activities. However, successful science programs and competent science teaching that can provide models for other science teachers do exist. This study sought to document the teaching practices of two exemplary biology teachers of grades 11 and 12 by means of an interpretive research methodology. Both teachers had a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of the content they were to teach and had a range of teaching strategies that could be used without a great deal of thought. Their expectations for student performance were high, consistent, and firm. Students were expected to complete a high level of academic work in discussions, in problem work, and in laboratory activities, and were encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning. A distinctive feature of these biology classes was the high level of managerial efficiency, where lessons were busy occasions for both teacher and students; students had little opportunity for off‐task behavior. Both teachers actively monitored the behavior of both high‐ and low‐ability students by moving around the room and speaking with individuals, while still maintaining control of the entire class. By manipulating questioning and the social environment, both teachers encouraged students to engage in work, gave effective praise to the whole class and to individuals, encouraged student input by referring to it, helped students to effectively use their time, and gave marks for completion of set work. Compared to research with less‐successful teachers, these teaching behaviors contributed to exemplary practice.
Effects of discovery and expository instructional methods on the attitude of students to biology
Authors: Ajewole Gabriel Adeniyi 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThe effects of discovery and expository instructional methods on the attitude of students to biology was investigated. The sample consisted of 240 Form IV biology students randomly drawn from six selected secondary schools in the Oyo state of Nigeria. They were assigned into two groups—experimental and control. The experimental group was exposed to the discovery method, and the control group was taught using the expository method. The science class of Form IV in each of the six schools was selected intact for the study. A nonrandomized pretest‐posttest control group design was employed. The major instrument was the 40–item Scientific Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ). It is a Likert‐type questionnaire using five scales. Two hypotheses were tested. Analyses of the results showed that the experimental group evinced a significantly more favorable attitude to biology than the control group (t = 8.87, p < 0.01). It was also found that the high, average‐, and low‐ability groups in the experimental class evinced a more favorable attitude to biology than their counterparts in the control class. However, there was no significant difference in the attitude of male and female students exposed to the discovery and expository methods (F1,227 = 0.07, p > 0.999). The article concludes with a recommendation that science learning using the discovery method may enable the learner to evince more a favorable attitude toward problem recognition and problem solving than when learning is done by the expository method.
Enhancing learning using questions, adjunct to science charts
Authors: Holliday William G. , Benson Garth 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThis study supported two hypotheses. First, adjunct questions interacted with a science chart so powerfully that content established as difficult to learn in the pilot and in this study's control groups became easier to learn when charted. Second, students familiar with the chart test before instruction (test exposure) were better prepared to take this test after instruction. This adjunct‐question study examined the generalizability of selective‐attention and academic‐studying hypotheses to a modified science chart medium. About 300 high school students were randomly assigned to four conditions each including a vitamin chart (chart only, test exposure, importance of questions emphasized to students by teachers, and combinational conditions—test exposure and question importance) across 16 biology classrooms. Then these same students were again randomly assigned within each classroom to a control and to four question treatments no questions, questions focusing on easy‐to‐learn charted content, questions focusing on difficult‐to‐learn charted content, and a combinational treatment.
Role of the epistemic subject in Piaget's genetic epistemology and its importance for science education
Authors: Niaz Mansoor 
Published: October 2006

AbstractAccording to Piaget, a fundamental epistemological distinction must be made between the psychological and the epistemic subject. The epistemic subject is studied by the genetic epistemologist who charts development through a “common universal rationality, which develops,” whereas the psychological subject is studied by the developmental/cognitive psychologist by focusing on accidental contingencies surrounding particular people and their individual differences. The epistemic subject as compared to the psychological subject is an idealized abstraction, viz., that set of underlying epistemic structures common to everyone at the same level of development. The objective of this study is to investigate the degree to which investigators in science education conceptualize the difference between the epistemic and the psychological subjects. It is argued that just as the ideal gas law (based on the theoretical formulation of Maxwell and Boltzmann) provides a “general model” to which the real gases approximate under different experimental conditions, so we can consider (by abduction) the epistemic subject to be an “ideal knower” to which the real (psychological) subjects approximate to varying degrees. The difference between the epistemic and the psychological subjects, however, cannot be used as an “epistemological shield” in defense of Piagetian theory. Any test of the Piagetian theory must involve psychological or real subjects. Empirical testability, however, need not be equated to being scientific. An analogy is drawn between Galileo's idealization, which led to the discovery of the law of free‐fall, and Piaget's epistemic subject. Research conducted in science education shows that at least for some critics the wide variations in the age at which individuals acquire the different Piagetian stages is crucial for rejecting the theory. It is argued that the real issue is not the “proportion of heterogeneity” but the understanding that Piaget, by neglecting individual differences, attempts to build a general model applicable across types of situations/subjects. The distinction between the epistemic and the psychological subjects is important not for defending Piaget's theory (which has serious theoretical flaws) but to understand epistemic transitions, for example, the one between Piaget's epistemic subject and Pascual‐Leone's metasubject. It is concluded that failure to understand the distinction between the epistemic and the psychological subjects would lead to misconstruing the significance of our research findings and, what is more serious, to a lack of a historical perspective.
Teaching/learning styles, performance, and students' teaching evaluation in S/T/E/S‐focused science teacher education: A quasiquantitative probe of a case study
Authors: Toller Uri 
Published: October 2006

AbstractIn response to the new needs for S/T/E/S‐literate science teachers, an S/T/E/S‐oriented ISMMC‐IEE combination model of instruction was implemented in two specially designed undergraduate courses and one graduate course within college science teacher training programs. These three courses served as case studies for class‐based, quasiquantitative pilot investigation aimed at gaining a deeper insight into some of the issues involved in the implementation in college of nontraditional, open‐ended, problem‐solving‐oriented teaching strategies which are in dissonance with the cognitive or affective styles and functional paradigms of most students. This probe into the dissonance issue revealed that prospective teachers are capable of handling the new instructional model and do gain in their higher‐level cognitive learning. However, undergraduates perceive these courses to be either difficult or not in accord with their needs, and their appreciation of the instructional techniques and style employed is different from that of graduate students accordingly. The current study suggests that although the ISMMC‐IEE model is useful in S/T/E/S‐oriented courses in science teacher training programs, special attention to the implementation stage is required to close the gap between students' and S/T/E/S educators' functional paradigms.
The development of reasoning on the balance beam
Authors: Roth Wolff‐Michael 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThe study described in this article examined the factors in the development of reasoning on the balance beam. The results of this and other investigations by the author led to the development of a model of problem solving and of the transition between levels of performance, that is, from novice to expert behaviors in a specific problem domain. The sample for this study consisted of 34 nonscience majors enrolled in Physical Science I at the University of Southern Mississippi. The results of this study showed (a) significant correlations between the predictor variables of numerical inductive reasoning ability and ratio span and the dependent measure of amount of practice until mastery of balance beam problems, (b) that there existed significant differences on the predictors between subjects who used the ratio scheme versus those who used the product‐moment rule to do balance beam problems, (c) that the sequence of behaviors until mastery of the balance beam was not invariant, and (d) that there existed significant negative correlations between individuals' tendencies to avoid unsuccessful algorithms and the frequency of incidences of monitoring the learning process on one side and the amount of practice and the construct of short‐term storage space on the other side. The results of this and other studies by the author are used to develop a model of problem solving and of the development of problem‐solving behaviors. This model also includes recent findings in short‐term memory and problem‐solving research. The implications of this model for instruction are discussed.
A study of the nature of students' understandings about the concept of burning
Authors: Boujaoude Saouma B. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to identify and characterize students' understandings about the concept of burning. Naturalistic data‐collecting strategies used in this study included participant observation and interviewing. Twenty eighth graders were interviewed using the “interview‐about‐events” technique, a variation of the Piagetian interview. The interviews were audiotape recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using the process of analytic induction. The analysis showed that students' understandings about burning were fragmented, inconsistent, and at variance with scientific knowledge. These understandings are analyzed using Olson's (1977) characterization of common sense and scientific knowledge.
The concept map as an advance organizer
Authors: Willerman Marvin , Mac Harg Richard A. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThe objective of this study was to determine if a concept map used as an advance organizer can improve the science achievement of eighth‐grade students. Eighty‐two eighth‐grade students in four science classes participated in this study. The experimental group completed the concept map at the beginning of the science unit under the teacher's supervision. At the end of the two‐week unit a science test was administered to the experimental and the control group. The results of a one‐tailed t test indicated that there was a significant difference between the two groups. The effect size is 0.40. It appears that the concept map can provide the classroom teachers with a meaningful and practical structured approach for using advance organizers in their classes.
A method to quantify major themes of scientific literacy in science textbooks
Authors: Chiappetta Eugene L. , Fillman David A. , Sethna Godrej H. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractScience textbooks are frequently used to convey a great deal of the information that students receive in science courses. They influence how science teachers organize the curriculum and how students perceive the scientific enterprise. An overreliance on these teaching aids often results in an overemphasis on terminology and vocabulary, and presents a false impression of the nature of science. As a result of their importance, a method was developed to assess the curricular emphasis in science textbooks. The procedure is explained in a 25‐page manual to train researchers to determine the relative emphasis that has been given to (a) science as a body of knowledge, (b) science as a way of investigating, (c) science as a way of thinking, and (d) the interaction among science, technology, and society. Textbooks in the areas of life science, earth science, physical science, biology, and chemistry were used in the analyses. Interrater agreements of at least 80% and kappas of at least 0.73 were achieved in the content analyses among two experienced researchers and one science teacher who were given the training manual to learn the assessment procedure.
Development of explanation: Incremental and fundamental change in children's physics knowledge
Authors: Metz Kathleen E. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractIn contrast to predictions or actions, explanations require articulating a model that accounts for the physical phenomenon. Therefore, examination of children's explanations provides a more powerful window onto their developing understanding of causality. This study investigates children's developing causal knowledge, by analyzing changes in the content and form of the explanations they generate, across the age span of three to nine years. The study aims to examine the balance of incremental versus fundamental change and the forms each takes in children coming to understand one physical domain, the working of gears. Thirty‐two subjects, ages, 3, 5, 7, and 9, participated in the study. The experimenter elicited each subject's predictions and explanations about what would happen when you turned the knob in a series of gear configurations. Age trends in the explanation type subjects generated revealed broad progress in their understanding of causality within the domain and a complex picture of fundamental and incremental changes. Parsing the sequence of explanation types at points of fundamental change, three phases of development emerged: (a) function of the object as explanation, (b) connections as explanation, and (c) mechanistic explanation. Analysis of development from one phase to the next revealed two forms of fundamental change: radical substitution (where one explanation is supplanted by the next) and transforming incorporation (where one explanation forms the basis for the next and yet is itself transformed in the context of the fundamentally new way of conceptualizing causality). Analysis of development within the individual phases revealed incremental change primarily in the forms of differentiation and decomposition.
The scientific theory profile: A philosophy of science model for science teachers
Authors: Loving Cathleen C. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractA model called the Scientific Theory Profile was developed for use with preservice and inservice science teachers or with graduate students interested in the various ways scientific theories are perceived. Early indications—from a survey of institutions with science education programs and a survey of current science methods texts—are that too little emphasis is placed on what contemporary writings reveal about the nature and importance of scientific theories. This prompted the development of the Profile. The Profile consists of a grid, with the x‐axis representing methods for judging theories (rational vs. natural), and the y‐axis representing views on reigning scientific theories as being the Truth versus models of what works best (realism vs. anti‐realism). Three well‐known philosophers of science who were selected for detailed analysis and who form the “keystone” positions on the Profile are Thomas Kuhn, Carl Hempel, and Sir Karl Popper. The hypothesis was that an analysis of the writings of respected individuals in philosophy and history of science who have different perspectives on theories (as well as overarching areas of agreement) could be translated into relative coordinates on a graph; and that this visual model might be helpful to science teachers in developing a balanced philosophy of science and a deeper understanding of the power of reigning theories. Nine other contemporary philosophers, all influenced by the three originals, are included in brief analyses, with their positions on the grid being relative to the keystones. The Scientific Theory Profile then forms the basis for a course, now in the planning stages, in perspectives on the nature of science, primarily for science teachers, with some objectives and activities suggested.
Students' transition from an engineering model to a science model of experimentation
Authors: Schauble Leona , Klopfer Leopold E. , Raghavan Kalyani 
Published: October 2006

AbstractThis study investigates the hypothesis that when children are engaged in science experiments, the goal of which is to understand relations among causes and effects, they often use the engineering model of experimentation, characterized by the more familiar goal of manipulating variables to produce a desired outcome. Sixteen fifth‐ and sixth‐graders worked on two experimentation problems consistent with the engineering and science models, respectively. The context in which these problems were framed was also varied, to encourage adoption of either an engineering or science model. Over six 40‐min sessions, the group achieved significant increases in the percentages of inferences about variables that were both correct and valid. Improvement was greatest for those who began with the engineering problem and then went on to the science problem. The science model was associated with broader exploration, more selectiveness about evidence interpreted, and greater attention to establishing that some variables are not causal. The findings suggest that research on scientific inquiry processes should attend not only to the science content students are reasoning about, but also to their beliefs about the goals of inquiry.
How can comprehension adjunct questions focus students' attention and enhance concept learning of a computer‐animated science lesson?
Authors: Holliday William G. , McGuire Barry 
Published: October 2006

AbstractTwo focusing hypotheses were evaluated. First, do adjunct questions, focusing on science concepts and inserted after computer‐animated sequences, selectively alter students' attentional or practice processing and thus produce differential learning effects? Theoretically, such questions selectively focus students' attention and enhance concept learning of focused concepts. Second, do these questions still provide enough metacognitive scaffolding to produce differential learning effects when only the first 8 out of 12 sequences are followed by focusing questions? Eighth‐grade students (n = 160) were randomly assigned to a control group (lesson alone) or one of four treatment groups (lesson plus 12 questions focusing either on heat or on temperature, or lesson plus the same first 8 questions on heat or temperature followed by 4 placebo questions). Two significant two‐way interactions with widely varying F ratios supported the differential focusing hypotheses (12 questions—more robust interaction, 8—less robust interaction).
Expertise and the organization of knowledge: Unexpected differences among genetic counselors, faculty, and students on problem categorization tasks
Authors: Smith Mike U. 
Published: October 2006

AbstractChi, Feltovich, and Glaser (1981) observed that experts (physics faculty) organized problems into groups according to the underlying physics law or principle applicable, whereas the groupings of novice physics students focused on objects, literal physics terms, and physical configurations in the problems. Replication of these findings in a number of similar studies has led to the general acceptance of the proposition that the mental schemes used by experts to organize information within a content domain are organized according to the “deep structure” of the domain, whereas the schemes of novices are bound by “surface” dimensions.Categorizations of genetics problems produced by genetics counselor and faculty experts in comparison to student novices obtained in the present study, however, are inconsistent with a deep structure/surface structure dichotomy. As expected, faculty experts focused almost exclusively on conceptual principles, but student sorts focused primarily on problem knowns and unknowns. The expert counselor sortings unexpectedly resembled those of the students in this regard. Counselors also emphasized solution techniques to be used, whereas students emphasized the verbatim wording of the problem statement. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that as expertise is attained, a person restructures his/her knowledge of the domain into a framework that is based on critical dimensions that facilitate the daily use of that knowledge. Implications for theoreticians, researchers, and teachers are drawn. Whenever possible, future studies of expertise should include noneducator experts; teachers should help students develop the ability to construct and reconstruct the organizational frameworks of their knowledge so as to facilitate the effective use of that knowledge in the face of change.