Journal of Baltic Science Education

651

Authors: Editorial Board

Contents, JBSE, Vol. 18, No. 5, 2019

654-667

Authors: Rahmi Qurota Aini, Arif Rachmatullah, Minsu Ha

Student attitudes toward science have been one of the longstanding topics in science education research. Even though Indonesia has a unique educational system in which cultural, religious, and cognitive aspects are incorporated in the science K-12 curriculum, a limited number of studies have explored Indonesian students’ attitudes towards science. This research aimed to examine students’ attitudes toward science and the interaction between academic grade level and gender in Indonesian primary and middle school. Thirty items from five components of the BRAINS instrument were administered to 1587 Indonesian students from fourth grade through ninth grade to measure their attitude toward science. Rasch analysis, two-way ANOVA, and structural equation modeling path analysis were used to answer the proposed research questions. The current research found that Indonesian students’ attitudes toward science were significantly affected by academic level, however, gender only affected three components of attitude (control belief, attitude toward the behavior, and intention). Female students showed a higher attitude toward science than male students in general. The trends in every component of the students’ attitudes decreased from primary school to middle school. The present research provides a deeper discussion by considering the socio-cultural and educational history of Indonesia.

681-691

Authors: Mustafa Cansiz, Nurcan Cansiz

The aim of this research was twofold. The first aim was to revise the existing scientific literacy framework developed by Boujaoude in accordance with the current literature about scientific literacy. The second aim was to explore how the aspects of scientific literacy were reflected in the Turkish science curriculum using the revised framework. The impact of science and technology on environment resulted in the need for both scientifically and environmentally literate individuals and therefore, any framework examining scientific literacy should include the interaction between science, technology, society, and environment as an aspect. Moreover, a new aspect was suggested for the framework, the affective side of science, considering the affective outcomes of science education. Finally, the science curriculum from grades 3 to 8 was analyzed using the revised framework. Results showed that the revisions on the framework resulted in a more rigorous framework which evaluates scientific literacy more precisely. Moreover, the results about the analysis of science curriculum indicated that the knowledge of science and the investigative nature of science were reflected in the objectives of the curriculum more than other aspects. The results and implications were discussed.

708-716

Authors: Jana Fancovicova, Milan Kubiatko

Children’s concept of biological phenomena differs from scientific thought in many aspects. The revelation of wrong concepts contributes to better education, especially when that information is described in a specific field of science. Not only children, but also adults often use anthropomorphic and theological explanations to express their ideas, which confirm their lack of understanding of biological phenomena. A great deal of research has proved retaining of children’s misconceptions in the fields of zoology and botany. How accurate, however, are their ideas about organisms of a microscopic size? The aim of the research was to find out the influence of selected factors (perceived vulnerability, grade, gender and type of group) on concepts about diseases among lower secondary school students. The research sample consisted of 400 students of lower secondary education from Slovakia. Data were collected through Likert type questionnaires. The correlation was found between perceived vulnerability to diseases, age and concepts about diseases. The statistically significant difference in the results between boys and girls was not confirmed. The higher impact should be aimed at their importance for humans and nature for a better understanding of this concept.

732-747

Authors: Jianqiang Ye, Dimei Chen, Lingxin Kong

In order to explore the development of research of science teacher(RST), 904 articles from the Web of Science (WoS) core set based on bibliometric methods through R software were analyzed in this research. Specifically, it examined the co-occurrence relations of countries/regions, major journals, most cited references, and hot keywords from the macroscopic, mesoscopic and microscopic level of RST. The results showed that the core strength of RST is mainly from traditional industrialized countries such as the United States, Australia, and Britain. And some top journals in science education (such as Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Science Education) has to pay more attention on RST, it may also appeal to lots of top journals in general teacher education (such as Journal of Teacher Education, Teaching and Teaher Education). The research on science teachers was guided by several educational theories about teacher research, such as the teacher epistemological belief, reflective practice, and PCK. Moreover, theories in science education such as scientific literacy, scientific conceptual change also becomes the theoretical basis for science teachers’ teaching practice and scientific inquiry instructing. The knowledge, key competences, dispositions, and professional development of science teacher are the main keywords and hot topics in the field of RST.

768-779

Authors: Mirjana Maričić, Stanko Cvjetićanin, Branko Anđić

The widely explored but still unresolved question about the contribution of the application of different ways of performing experiments in the integrated natural sciences is addressed in this research. The aim was to determine the contribution of demonstration hands-on experiments (DHE) and student hands-on experiments (SHE) in relation to conventional teaching method (CTM) on the quality and durability of 3rd grade students (between 9 and 10 years of age) from primary school. The research involved 180 students, further divided into three groups: E1 (experimental group 1, where content was learned through DHE), E2 (experimental group 2, where content was learned through SHE) and C (control group, where content was learned through CTM). The results of the research point to the fact that priority should be given to the DHE and SHE over the CTM in the realization of air-related content in the 3rd grade. SHE should be used more than DHE when it comes to teaching this specific content.

793-805

Authors: Leon Yufeng Wu, Nathan M. Truong, Hsin-Yen Lu, Yuen-Hsian Tseng, Chun-Yen Chang

By investigating scholarly output in science communication from 1997 to 2018, this research sought evidence that science education has been increasingly focusing on communication methods to reach the public. Through an automatic scientometric method, this study analyzed 1300 articles published in two leading journals in the field of science communication. As a result, seven trends were revealed and categorized into three themes: Public engagement with science (PES); Media and science (MS); and Issues in science (IS). Furthermore, PES and MS scholarly output were found increased significantly. The findings confirmed the goal of this research. However, it then suggested a research area of bridging science education and science communication that is currently less explored. Given increased focus towards PES and MS, these fields are primed for further collaboration to more engage the public in science learning.