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1.
Current policy efforts that seek to improve learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) emphasize the importance of helping all students acquire concepts and tools from computer science that help them analyze and develop solutions to everyday problems. These goals have been generally described in the literature under the term computational thinking. In this article, we report on the design, implementation, and outcomes of an after-school program on computational thinking. The program was founded through a partnership between university faculty, undergraduates, teachers, and students. Specifically, we examine how equitable pedagogical practices can be applied in the design of computing programs and the ways in which participation in such programs influence middle school students' learning of computer science concepts, computational practices, and attitudes toward computing. Participants included 52 middle school students who voluntarily attended the 9-week after-school program, as well as four undergraduates and one teacher who designed and implemented the program. Data were collected from after-school program observations, undergraduate reflections, computer science content assessments, programming products, and attitude surveys. The results indicate that the program positively influenced student learning of computer science concepts and attitudes toward computing. Findings have implications for the design of effective learning experiences that broaden participation in computing. (Keywords: computational thinking, programming, middle school, mixed methods)  相似文献   

2.
Learners encounter science in a wide variety of contexts beyond the science classroom which collectively could be quite influential on student attitudes and abilities. But relatively little is known about the relative influence of different forms of informal science experiences, especially for the kinds of experiences that students typically access. We conduct factor and regression analyses on data collected from a large number of diverse public-school attending 6th and 8th graders drawn from two regions in the USA. Students completed a science reasoning measure and surveys of attitudes, previously completed informal science learning experiences, and demographic factors. Factor analyses identify four dimensions of informal science learning participation (in home, semiformal, nature, and museums). Regression analyses find a relative specificity of effects, with particular outcomes associated with a subset of the forms of informal science participation, highlighting the importance of controlling for correlated factors. There were also a few differences by grade level, with different experiences influencing the development of competency beliefs in science in early vs. late middle schoolers.  相似文献   

3.
Do students make their best effort in large-scale assessment studies such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)? Despite six cycles of PISA surveys from 2000 to 2015, empirical studies regarding students’ test motivation and experience of the tests are sparse. The present study examines students’ test motivation in PISA, and how closely students’ achievement correlates with students’ reported test motivation. A total of 40 students from eight schools that participated in the PISA study in 2006, 2009 and 2012 were interviewed. In addition, questionnaire data from a total of 9400 students who participated in PISA 2009 and 2012 were collected. The findings of this study indicate that students overall were motivated to do their best in the PISA study, despite the fact that these low-stakes tests have no impact on students’ grades or future school entrance. In contrast to claims in the media, where it has been suggested that Norwegian students are more relaxed towards the PISA test than students in other countries, students report that they are motivated to do their best, but girls report significantly higher test motivation than boys. Despite the policy influence of PISA and the large number of countries participating, very few studies have reported findings from students’ perspectives regarding their test motivation and experience of the test. The present study aims to fill that gap.  相似文献   

4.
Given international concerns about students' pursuit (or more correctly, non-pursuit) of courses and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, this study is about achieving a better understanding of factors related to high school students' engagement in science. The study builds on previous secondary analyses of Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) datasets for New Zealand and Australia. For the current study, we compared patterns of science engagement and science literacy for male and female students in Canada and Australia. The study's secondary analysis revealed that for all PISA measures included under the conceptual umbrella of engagement in science (i.e. interest, enjoyment, valuing, self-efficacy, self-concept and motivation), 15-year-old students in Australia lagged their Canadian counterparts to varying, albeit modest, degrees. Our retrospective analysis further shows, however, that gender equity in science engagement and science literacy is evident in both Canadian and Australian contexts. Additionally, and consistent with our previous findings for indigenous and non-indigenous students in New Zealand and Australia, we found that for male and female students in both countries, the factor most strongly associated with variations in engagement in science was the extent to which students participate in science activities outside of school. In contrast, and again for both Canadian and Australian students, the factors most strongly associated with science literacy were students' socioeconomic backgrounds, and the amount of formal time spent doing science. The implications of these results for science educators and researchers are discussed.  相似文献   

5.
6.
This study examines the influence of St. John's University Summer Science Experience and Teacher Mentoring Program on African American and Hispanic high school students' interest in science and science teaching as career goals. In the first phase of the program, high school students from six school districts in Suffolk County, Long Island (a suburb of metropolitan New York City) engaged in investigative science experiences that emphasized environmental science, chemistry, and technology and learned about effective science pedagogy. The second phase of the program functioned as a teaching practicum for the high school students, where they planned for instruction and taught middle school students investigations similar to those that they had engaged in during the summer program. Various surveys were developed to assess high school students' attitudes about science and science teaching, knowledge of effective teaching approaches, knowledge of ways to motivate younger students, and the overall impact of the program on the high students' interest in science and/or science teaching as career goals. Program evaluations reveal that over 75% of the students expressed an interest in considering science or science teaching as career possibilities. Implications for minority teacher recruitment are discussed.  相似文献   

7.
Many studies have found a strong relationship between the mathematics students study in school and their performance on an academic or school mathematics assessment but not on an assessment of mathematics literacy (ML). With many countries, like the USA, placing emphasis on finishing secondary education being mathematically literate and prepared for college or career, this raises the question about the relationship between the mathematics studied in school and any ML students may have. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) ML assessment is embedded in real-world contexts that provide an important window on how ready students are to tackle the situations and problems that await them whether they intend to pursue further education beyond high school or intend to go directly into the labour force. In this paper, we draw upon the PISA 2012 data to investigate the extent to which the cumulative exposure to rigorous mathematics content, such as that embedded in college- and career-ready standards, is associated with ML as assessed in PISA. Results reveal that both exposure to rigorous school mathematics and experiencing the instruction of this mathematics through real-world applications are significantly related to all the real-world contextualized PISA ML scores.  相似文献   

8.
Based on PISA 2009 data, this article studies the relationship between students’ computer use and their achievement in reading, mathematics and science in 23 countries. After having categorised computer use into a set of different activities according to the skills they involve, we correlate students’ PISA test-scores with an index capturing the intensity of use for each of these activities and with the total number of activities they perform. Overall, we find that students’ PISA test scores in reading, mathematics and science increase with the intensity of computer use for Gaming activities while they decrease with the intensity of computer use for activities that are more related with school curricula (i.e. Communication and Collaboration activities; Technical Operations/Info Retrieval activities; Creation of Content and Knowledge Problem Solving activities). However, the number of activities (and hence the diversification of activities), irrespective of the intensity of computer use, is positively correlated with students’ proficiency in all three PISA domains in the vast majority of countries, indicating that computers breadth of use, as opposed to intensity of use in a given activity, has some positive effect on students’ PISA test scores.  相似文献   

9.
In many countries around the world, there has been an increasing emphasis on improving science education. Recent reform efforts in the USA call for teachers to integrate scientific and engineering practices into science teaching; for example, science teachers are asked to provide learning experiences for students that apply crosscutting concepts (e.g., patterns, scale) and increase understanding of disciplinary core ideas (e.g., physical science, earth science). Engineering practices and engineering design are essential elements of this new vision of science teaching and learning. This paper presents a research study that evaluates the effects of an engineering design-based science curriculum on student learning and attitudes. Three middle school life science teachers and 275 seventh grade students participated in the study. Content assessments and attitude surveys were administered before and after the implementation of the curriculum unit. Statewide mathematics test proficiency scores were included in the data analysis as well. Results provide evidence of the positive effects of implementing the engineering design-based science unit on student attitudes and learning.  相似文献   

10.
Previous research has shown that indigenous students in Australia do not enjoy equal educational outcomes with other Australians. This secondary analysis of PISA 2006 confirmed that this continues to be the case in science literacy for secondary students. However, the analysis also revealed that indigenous Australian students held interest in science equal to that of their non‐indigenous peers, and that observed variations in science literacy performance were most strongly explained by variations in reading literacy. These findings hold important implications for teachers, teacher educators, policy‐makers, and researchers. Firstly, acknowledging and publicly valuing indigenous Australian science knowledge through rethinking school science curriculum seems an important approach to engaging indigenous students and improving their literacy in science. Secondly, appropriate professional learning for practising teachers and the incorporation of indigenous knowing in science methods training in teacher preparation seems warranted. Additionally, we offer a number of questions for further reflection and research that would benefit our understanding of ways forward in closing the science literacy gap for indigenous students. Whilst this research remains firmly situated within the Australian educational context, we at the same time believe that the findings and implications offered here hold value for science education practitioners and researchers in other countries with similar populations striving to achieve science literacy for all.  相似文献   

11.
This article describes the development and validation of the Attitudes towards Climate Change and Science Instrument. This 63-item questionnaire measures students’ pro-environmental behaviour, their climate change knowledge and their attitudes towards school science, societal implications of science, scientists, a career in science and the urgency of climate change. The results from the pilot and the final study show the questionnaire meets validity and reliability criteria. A total number of 671 secondary school students from five European countries (France, Norway, Italy, The Netherlands and Spain) completed the questionnaire. The results of the principal components factor analysis show that all scales were unidimensional. Internal reliability using Cronbach’s alpha varies between 0.71 and 0.87. Concurrent validity was shown by younger students, females and students with high science grades scoring higher on several attitudes than respectively older students, male students, or students with low science grades. Overall, correlations show weak but significant relationships between science-related attitudes on the one hand and climate change- and environment-related attitudes on the other. Based on our findings, our instrument is useful for understanding the ways in which students think about science, scientists, climate change and the environment.  相似文献   

12.
ABSTRACT

In recent years, research on students’ scientific competencies has generated much discussion. According to the PISA 2015 Assessment and Analytical Framework, both scientific competencies and attitudes towards science – interest in science, valuing scientific approaches to enquiry (or epistemological beliefs about science), and environmental awareness – are integral aspects of scientific literacy. However, few studies have focused on the relationships between them. This article examines how students’ scientific competencies are affected by their attitudes. Based on a theoretical analysis, the present study argues that the three attitudinal factors have a direct impact on scientific competencies, interest has an immediate influence on the other two attitudes, and epistemological beliefs are directly affected by environmental awareness. To test this hypothesis, a model was constructed to verify such relationships. PISA 2015 assessment instruments were used for data collection. The participants were 25,658 students from different parts of China, containing Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was employed for data analysis. The results confirmed our hypothesis. The way in which Chinese students’ attitudes affected their scientific competencies did not differ (to a statistically significant level) by gender or district. The limitations and implications of this research are discussed below.  相似文献   

13.
This study uses hierarchical linear modeling to examine the influence of a range of factors on the science performances of Hong Kong students in PISA 2006. Hong Kong has been consistently ranked highly in international science assessments, such as Programme for International Student Assessment and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study; therefore, an exploration of the factors that affect science performances of Hong Kong students can give a lens to examine how science education can be improved in Hong Kong and other countries. The analyses reveal that student backgrounds as male, at higher grade levels, and born in mainland (when in the same grade) are associated with better science performance. Among the attitudinal factors, enjoyment of science and self-efficacy in science play important roles in scientific achievements. Most of the parental factors, on the other hand, are not having significant impacts on achievement after student attitudes are taken into account, with only parents’ value of science having a small effect. School student intake is found to be a strong predictor of school average achievement, as well as a major mediator of the effects of school enrollment size and school socio-economic status. The findings differ from recently reported results, which suggested that school enrollment size was associated with achievement. This study also points out the problems of the use of science instruction time as a school-level variable to explain science achievement in Hong Kong.  相似文献   

14.
Gauging the effectiveness of specific teaching strategies remains a major topic of interest in science education. Inquiry teaching among others has been supported by extensive research and recommended by the National Science Education Standards. However, most of the empirical evidence in support was collected in research settings rather than in normal school environments. Propensity score analysis was performed within the marginal mean weighting through stratification (MMW-S) approach to examine the effects of the level of openness of inquiry teaching on student science achievement and attitudes with the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2006 data. Weighting subjects on MMW-S weight successfully balanced all treatment groups on all selected covariates. Significant effects were identified on both cognitive and attitudinal outcomes. For student science achievement, the highest score was achieved at Level 2 inquiry teaching, that is, students conduct activities and draw conclusions from data. For student science attitudes, higher level of inquiry teaching resulted in higher scores. The said conclusions were generally held in most PISA 2006 participating countries when the analysis was performed in each country separately.  相似文献   

15.
Today, science is a major part of western culture. Discussions about the need for members of the public to access and understand scientific information are therefore well established, citing the importance of such information to responsible citizenship, democracy, socially accountable scientific research and public funding (National Research Council [2009] Learning science in informal environments: People, places, and pursuits. National Academies Press). In recent years there has been an increased interest in investigating not just what visitors to informal environments have learnt after a visit, but also how visitors interact and engage with exhibits during the visit (Davidsson & Jakobsson [2012] Understanding interactions at science centers and museums: Approaching sociocultural perspectives. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers). Within the field of school visits to science museums, however, interactions between students and museum educators (MEs) remain relatively unexplored. In our study of such school visits, we are mainly interested in the interactions that take place between three agents—the students, the museum educator and the physical setting of the exhibit. Using moment-to-moment fine grain analysis of multiple interactions allowed us to identify recurring patterns between students and the museum educators around exhibits, and to examine the MEs’ mediational role during the interactions, and the practices they employ to engage students with exhibits. Our study revealed that most interactions between MEs and students consist of technical explanations of how to operate the exhibits. The interactions that do move past this stage often include two main practices, which the MEs use to promote students’ engagement with the exhibits: physical instruction and engaging the students emotionally. Understanding what is actually happening in the learning process that occurs during students’ interactions with exhibits can help museum educators and exhibit designers improve the experiences of students on school visits.  相似文献   

16.

Relationships between students’ perceptions and their non-cognitive outcomes (epistemological beliefs, self-efficacy and attitudes to science) were investigated through secondary analysis of data from 14,167 United Arab Emirates students who participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Structural equation modeling (SEM) suggested that students’ perceptions of the learning environment were related to the non-cognitive outcomes of epistemological beliefs, self-efficacy and attitudes. Also, epistemological beliefs were found to have a statistically-significant and positive relationship with self-efficacy and attitudes, and self-efficacy was significantly related to attitudes.

  相似文献   

17.
Understanding attitudes toward science and measuring them remain two major challenges for science teaching. This article reviews the concept of attitudes toward science and their measurement. It subsequently analyzes the psychometric properties of the Test of Science-Related Attitudes (TOSRA), such as its construct validity, its discriminant and concurrent validity, and its reliability. The evidence presented suggests that TOSRA, in its Spanish-adapted version, has adequate construct validity regarding its theoretical referents, as well as good indexes of reliability. In addition, it determines the attitudes toward science of secondary school students in Santiago de Chile (n?=?664) and analyzes the sex variable as a differentiating factor in such attitudes. The analysis by sex revealed low-relevance gender difference. The results are contrasted with those obtained in English-speaking countries. This TOSRA sample showed good psychometric parameters for measuring and evaluating attitudes toward science, which can be used in classrooms of Spanish-speaking countries or with immigrant populations with limited English proficiency.  相似文献   

18.
Project SEARCH (Science Education and Research for CHildren) is an outreach program designed to teach science and to foster positive attitudes toward science. Through the project, university science students bring activity-based learning, plus materials and content expertise, to local classrooms and after-school programs. Using observations, surveys, and interviews, we examined the experiences of these students as curriculum planners, teachers, and role models for the children. We found that teachers value the enthusiasm and the resources provided by the SEARCH students. Children were engaged in the activities and looked forward to the students' visits. They also see them as positive and diverse models for the role of scientist. But there were often problems in the areas of preparation, scheduling, and communication, and the classroom activities often replicated traditional didactic lessons. The SEARCH experience highlights both the value of providing diverse and challenging experiences for children, and the need for dialogue and reflection on those experiences. Despite several concerns, the SEARCH model is one that deserves expansion and further study as it is extended into new settings. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 34 : 69–88, 1997.  相似文献   

19.
Setting international benchmarks for education systems of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries is one of the goals of the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). However, some countries are not able to participate in PISA, despite their desire to set international benchmarks for their education systems. This article presents a method of setting international benchmarks for a country's school education system, without necessarily participating in PISA, by designing a test using the test items released by PISA for public consumption. The method has been implemented in a study that involved 1,500 Grade 10 students across 60 schools in Bhutan. The students were administered a mathematics test constructed from the PISA Mathematical Literacy test items. The study showed that the performance of Bhutanese students was comparable with the performance of the students from the countries that participated in PISA 2003 and that Bhutan could learn from both high- and low-performing school education systems of those countries.  相似文献   

20.
Content Evaluation of an Environmental Science Field Trip   总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1  
Two important content areas associated with informal environmental science programs are ecology/natural science topics and awareness of environmental problems/issues. This study attempted to evaluate which of these content areas may provide a more optimum learning experience. A quantitative analysis was conducted on two field trips to a science center that represented an ecological oriented program and an environmental issue presentation. Two variables that were chosen as indicators of program success—knowledge retention and attitude change—are outcomes that have been found prevalent in informal, environmental science education. These programs were administered and evaluated during the 1996/1997 school year at the Paul H. Douglas Environmental Science Center at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The results of this study showed significant gains in science related knowledge following both the ecology and issue oriented treatments. The data indicate that the focus of the program (ecology or issues) did not significantly alter the way students responded to the knowledge section of the evaluation instrument. Results showed little impact on students' affect toward park site or related subject matter following either presentation type. Authors recommend multiple research methods to better evaluate affect changes following an informal environmental science experience.  相似文献   

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