Опубликована Июль 10, 2009

This paper revisits the discussion about the objectives of scientific literacy-oriented chemistry teaching, its connection to the German concept of Allgemeinbildung, and the debate of science through education vs. education through science. About 10 years ago the sociocritical and problem-oriented approach to chemistry teaching was suggested using these starting points. In this paper its central assumptions and criteria for structuring lesson plans are presented as they have been refined along a series of lesson plans developed by participatory action research in recent years. The summarized teaching approach intends to more thoroughly promote reflection on scientific questions in the framework of …

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Опубликована Июль 10, 2009

The focus of this paper is on selected recent South African research studies that have explored efforts to promote the discussion, writing, and arguing aspects of scientific literacy in primary and middle schools, particularly amongst second-language learners. These studies reveal improvements in the participants’ abilities to both use the ‘science notebooks’ approach and argue their findings, as well as statistically significant improvement in their problem solving skills. The positive findings of these studies, and the call for attention to be paid to the fundamental sense of scientific literacy by a number of international researchers, resulted in the development of an …

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Опубликована Июль 10, 2009

The late 20th century and beginning of 21st century have witnessed unprecedented rapid economic development due to advances in technology and globalization. In response to this development, a renewed call for science literacy has become louder in the USA and many other countries. Common to all science education reforms around the world is emphasis on achieving science literacy by all children before high school graduation. This paper first reviews definitions of science literacy in the literature; it then examines the status of science literacy in the USA and other countries. Following the above, this paper then presents a new notion …

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Опубликована Июль 10, 2009

In the United States and around the world, calls for educational reform stress the need for a scientifically literate population, prepared for the twenty-first century workforce. These calls have translated into new curricula, which in isolation, are not enough? Teachers play an essential role in the development of scientifically literate citizens. Their purposes for teaching science act as filters for acceptable learning and teaching activities. This paper examines the congruence of eight private school teachers’ purposes for teaching science, and aspects of scientific literacy in the Middle Eastern country of Lebanon. Findings are discussed in light of contextual factors that …

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Опубликована Июнь 10, 2008

Based on students‟ alternative conceptions of the topics „electric circuits‟, „electric charge flows within an electric circuit‟, „how the brightness of bulbs and the resistance changes in series and parallel circuits‟, the current study aims to present a combination of different conceptual change methods within four-step constructivist teaching model. Therefore, the author assumes that such a design may give a chance to eliminate students‟ alternative conceptions fully. Also, some suggestions were made for further research.

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Опубликована Апрель 10, 2009

The purpose of this study was to determine the predictors of student grades in introductory physics courses utilizing problem-based learning (PBL) approach and traditional lecturing. The study employed correlational/predictive methods to investigate and describe/explain relationships of students’ physics grades with their expectations, attitudes, epistemological beliefs about physics and physics learning, and demographic variables. The subjects involved in this study were 264 freshmen engineering students (PBL, n = 100; traditional, n = 164) at Dokuz Eylül University (DEU) in Izmir, Turkey. All students were surveyed at the beginning and at the end of the spring 2007 semester using the Maryland Physics …

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Опубликована Апрель 10, 2009

This article reported and discussed the evaluation of a lecture, designed to change university students’ values related with sustainable ways of living. The outcomes of the study were those obtained from the evaluation of the course titled “Education and Awareness for Sustainability”, which has been offered for three years in the Department of Elementary Education, Middle East Technical University–Ankara (Turkey). The study was realized with the participation of 85 students from different faculties (faculty of education, economy, administration and engineering). The study comprised three steps: need assessment (NA), formative evaluation (FE) and summative evaluation (SE). The evaluation model of DIPO …

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Опубликована Апрель 10, 2009

Recent research suggests that the issue of global warming is one of great concern for Australian children. This point to the need for effective teaching about this issue. Children should be properly informed about actions that help reduce carbon emissions as this may give them a sense of empowerment and go some way to alleviating concerns. This study followed the development in the knowledge of global warming of 29 primary school students in year 6 (the final year of primary) from two regional Australian schools over one school term. A hands-on science unit dealing specifically with global warming was prepared …

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Опубликована Янв. 10, 2009

Children’s knowledge about human anatomy can be examined through several different ways. Making a drawing of the internal features of the human body has been frequently used in recent studies. However, there might be a serious difference in results obtained from a general instruction to students (What you think is inside your body) and specific (e.g. Draw bones that are inside your body) instruction. We examined relationships between these two types of instructions using drawings of the urinary and endocrine systems as the examples with pupils aged 10-14 years. An ANCOVA showed significant relationships between general and special instruction, but …

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Опубликована Янв. 10, 2009

In the first part of this article I propose a conceptual framework – based on the deficit, public debate and co-production of knowledge models articulated by (Callon, 1999) – with which to examine students’ appropriation of de socioscientific issues (SSI). The second part of this article presents the way a group of three post-secondary/preuniversity students described the attitudes, interests and capacity for understanding of citizens concerned by the controversy surrounding the use of cellular telephones, and how they viewed the conditions under which citizens could contribute to public debates. This study was conducted on the basis of an ethnographic approach. …

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