Journal of Baltic Science Education

1-2

Authors: Editorial Board

Cover page, JBSE, Vol. 18, No. 1, 2019

4-5

Authors: Andrej Šorgo

It is evident that almost nobody is satisfied with contemporary (science) education, however, critique and proposed solutions to the perceived educational problems are sometimes established from opposite reasoning. Nowadays we can witness, for example, debates about position, role and effect of digital mobile technologies, social networks, and many other issues on behaviour and performance of students. Suggestions about their place in science education are on a scale between transforming education toward digital technologies and calls to prohibit, at least some of them, on the other end. Unfortunately enough argumentation too many times follows patterns recognized as ‘The demon-haunted world’ (Sagan, 1995) and a vocabulary and argumentation in line with Frankfurt’s (2005) famous essay ‘On bullshit’.

19-38

Authors: Amani K. Hamdan Alghamdi, Sun Young Kim

This research examines the impact of a science methods course on the beliefs of female pre-service teachers (PSTs) in Saudi Arabia. Forty-seven female PSTs enrolled in a diploma of education programme at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (IAU) took a 16-week science methods course aimed at promoting their beliefs about their own self-efficacy, science teaching strategies, and science content knowledge (SCK). The PSTs completed a 30-item questionnaire on science teaching beliefs (five- point Likert Scale) both before and after taking the course. Data analysis revealed that the PSTs’ beliefs regarding their own self-efficacy changed after the course (statistically significant t=2.792, p 0.01) with scores indicating increased beliefs. Although increases were also observed for beliefs regarding science teaching methods and strategies and science content knowledge, they were very slight and not statistically significant. Overall, mean scores fell within the ‘neither agree nor disagree’ category for all three themes, ranging from 2.98 to 3.24. As one of the first studies in Saudi Arabia on PSTs’ science teaching beliefs, this research filled a gap in the existing literature. Grounded in the moderate scores for all three themes, recommendations for future science education course design are tendered as are suggestions for future research.

51-62

Authors: Dek Ngurah Laba Laksana, I Wayan Dasna, I Nyoman Sudana Degeng

This research aimed to identify the effects of inquiry-based learning on the conceptual understanding of students with various learning styles in the multimedia learning environment. This research was factorial experiment with the quasi-experimental design. There were total of 157 primary school students in Bali, Indonesia being involved as the subjects of the study. There were two instruments used in this research. The first instrument was a questionnaire adapted from Index of Learning Style (ILS) developed by Felder and Soloman for measuring the verbal-visual learning styles. The second instrument was the conceptual understanding test for measuring students’ conceptual understanding in the form of multiple-choice test. The research discovered three findings as follows: (1) there is a significant difference in terms of conceptual understanding between students who are taught by inquiry-based learning and direct instruction strategy, (2) there is a significant difference in terms of students conceptual understanding between visual and verbal students, (3) there is a significant interaction between different learning strategies (inquiry based learning and direct instruction strategy) and students’ learning styles (visual verbal) toward students conceptual understanding.

77-89

Authors: King-Dow Su

This research focuses on students’ 5 hierarchical levels of Ordered Multiple-Choice (OMC) items for their extensive conceptualized understanding in the particulate nature of matter (PNM) chemistry. The basic framework for OMC items is to link students’ conceptual understanding levels with possible cognitive responses. Developed as the substantial learning perspective, OMC item approaches benefit students with dominant formulations in directing a new impetus on individual mental constructions. This research attempts to establish the validity and reliability through assessing students’ understanding levels. The main methodology of innovative OMC design manifests students’ verified responsive accumulations; with 5 hierarchical mental conceptualizations from naive understanding up to complete systemic PNM understanding. OMC findings offer students more choices to determine the most appropriate corresponding answer towards different conceptualization levels and to set their individual responses at the medium understanding levels. All contribution of this research gives students’ future perspectives in more collaborative engagements with further administering OMC items.

105-116

Authors: Jelena Ž. Maksimović, Jelena S. Osmanović

Self-concept, understood as an impression or idea one has about oneself, represents a significant precondition for the professional improvement of teachers, as well as for the advancement of teaching itself and students’ development of their own positive self-concept. This research aimed to examine the idea of self-concept with the purpose of determining the manner in which primary and secondary school teachers perceive themselves. The factors to be analyzed in relation to the variables, work experience and pay satisfaction, were defined by means of the scale of estimates and factor analysis. The obtained results showed that accepting oneself, self-improvement, self-satisfaction and job satisfaction, as well as the initiative and openness to change varied depending on work experience and pay satisfaction. Work experience, not pay satisfaction, proved to have an impact on the teachers’ perception of the relationship with their colleagues, whereas the perception of personal and teaching qualities did not depend on the aforementioned variables.

132-146

Authors: Zvonka Cencelj, Metka Kordigel Aberšek, Boris Aberšek, Andrej Flogie

Literacy, in particular functional literacy in various fields and especially in the field of STEM, is becoming an increasing problem in modern-day society. The question arises, can the school system develop the kind of functional literacy in students, which allows them to fulfil, in real life, their personal and professional needs related to the competence of reading and creating written texts from the field of science, technology and engineering? The present research aimed to explore how students in today's schools are trained in functional literacy, especially in the fields of technology and engineering, and what kind of literacies in the field of STEM they are able to (or should be able to) master competently. The present research showed that students achieve relatively poor results in the area of functional literacy, both regarding their science literacy, and especially their technology and engineering literacy, which is a result of a lack of competence on behalf of mother-tongue teachers to develop this kind of functional literacy. Functional literacy should be developed by teachers of individual areas of STEM subjects.