Journal of Baltic Science Education

1123

Authors: Editorial Board

Journal of Baltic Science Education, Vol. 21, No. 6A, 2022 ISSN 1648-3898 /Print/, ISSN 2538-7138 /Online/

1126-1142

Authors: Sevil Akaygun, Ebrunur Arkun

Periodic table is an important tool of chemistry for understanding the structure, function, and properties of the elements. Periodic table representations given in upper-secondary school chemistry textbooks are critical as they introduce chemical concepts. This study aimed to explore the features of periodic table representations given in Turkish upper-secondary school chemistry textbooks and the opinions of chemistry teachers who were using these textbooks in their classes. This qualitative study was composed of two stages. In the first stage, seven different upper-secondary school chemistry textbooks commonly used in Turkey were selected and analyzed by content analysis based on five criteria; type, content, portrayal, periodic trends, and color, emerged from the data. In the second stage, interviews were conducted by seven chemistry teachers who were actively using these textbooks in their classes. The results showed that generally teachers liked the basic, color-coded, recent, accurate periodic table representations to introduce the concepts. While teaching, they mostly preferred to show a complete periodic table first, and then the segmented ones. For the periodic trends, they agreed to include numerical values on the periodic table for letting students make sense of these values instead of having arrows that may cause memorization.

1165-1180

Authors: Miloš S. Kozić, Dragica D. Trivic

Industry field trips provide the contexts that enable students to improve their understanding of chemical concepts and processes. The aim of this research study was to explore to what extent students improve their understanding of water, solutions, mixtures, and the methods used for separating mixture components in the context of the waterworks, and what their views towards such an approach are. The sample consisted of 36 students aged 13 to 14 years, equally divided into the experimental and control group. The teaching unit Water and its significance for the living world was realised within the context of the waterworks in the experimental group, while in the control group it was realised using a conventional approach at school. Prior to the elaboration of the teaching unit the students from both groups had been tested using a pre-test, and upon the completion they were tested using a post-test. The views of the experimental group were examined using a questionnaire. The obtained results showed that the activities in the context of waterworks improved the understanding of the studied concepts, that students recognised the relevance of the applied context for their personal and societal life, as well as for their own future professional activities.

1191-1204

Authors: Katerina Salta, Dionysios Koulougliotis

The pivotal role of motivation in fostering science learning has long been recognized and it is a field of active research worldwide. This research aimed at examining the effect of three different factors (used as independent variables) on shaping the motivation of undergraduate students for chemistry and physics learning via multiple regression analysis. Motivation (dependent variable) was measured via the use of the chemistry and physics-specific versions of Science Motivation Questionnaire II (SMQ II). The participants were 281 full-time undergraduate students in three different academic departments of a Greek tertiary education institution. Students’ gender was shown to exert an effect of small size on their motivation for chemistry and physics learning, while a larger, however mostly small effect, was observed with regard to the students’ academic major. Students’ academic experience from the attendance of physics and chemistry courses was measured via an instrument which was developed specifically for this research, and it was shown to be the most influential factor affecting their respective learning motivations. In addition, strong evidence was provided that the academic experiences acquired during tertiary education have a significantly more intense effect in configuring students’ motivation to learn either chemistry or physics relative to the ones obtained in the immediate past referring to the previous educational grade (secondary education).