Journal of Baltic Science Education

375

Authors: Editorial Board

Journal of Baltic Science Education, Vol. 22, No. 3, 2023 ISSN 1648-3898 /Print/, ISSN 2538-7138 /Online/

381-392

Authors: Şeyda Ferah Arslan

The attitudes of midwifery students, who are being trained to perform the profession of midwifery in the future, toward doing scientific research are determining factors in increasing the quality of midwifery and strengthening evidence-based practices. Undergraduate education is an important stage in which basic research-related perspectives and skills are gained for health professions. This descriptive study aims to determine the anxiety and attitudes of midwifery students toward scientific research and to examine the variables that affect them. It was conducted at a public university in western Türkiye and included 246 undergraduate midwifery students. Midwifery students’ anxiety toward scientific research was found to be low and their attitudes toward scientific research were positive. The attitudes of students who have experience in doing scientific research, participated in scientific congresses/symposia, have the desire to do scientific research under the guidance of a consultant and follow periodicals, were found to be more positive. Anxiety and positive attitude toward scientific research were found to be negatively related. The results of the regression analysis showed that the students’ Research Anxiety affected their Attitude Toward Scientific Research. Students’ experiences of conducting scientific research reduce anxiety and affect attitudes positively. Therefore, undergraduate students should be actively involved in scientific research and activities.

413-426

Authors: Jung-Ho Byeon, Yong-Ju Kwon

The teacher's gaze attention can trigger interaction with the student. So if the teacher fails to equal attention during class, students may be alienated from the interaction. According to this perspective, this study aimed to establish the pattern of the teacher's gaze during science lecture classes and whether the change of the gaze when the student's seat as an external factor changed. Eye tracking was conducted on six teachers during class, and the teacher's gaze fixation and movement were also analyzed after changing the student seat. According to the results, teachers mainly focused on the center of student seats, and the gaze blind spot was mainly biased forward. Even if the student's seat was changed, the gaze was focused on the center of the classroom, and the gaze blind spot differs within the individual, and the teacher tends to be unaware of it himself. Consequently, the teacher's gaze concentration pattern is generally similar, but the gaze blind spot varies depending on the teacher and can be affected by external factors. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a system and retrain program for diagnosis and feedback of teachers' attention to provide proper and high-quality education to students.

439-453

Authors: Tao Jiang, Hong-wei Jin, Wen-jie Ma, Ji-gen Chen, Ling-min Yuan

Some education systems have both quality and equality. They have achieved educational equity. This study aimed to uncover the practical wisdom of such systems in developing educational equality. A quantitative research design was used. Family capital and science achievement were the variables analyzed. They were secondary data collected by the 2018 PISA test. PISA surveyed students' family capital with questionnaires and measured students' science achievement with cognitive items. Six education systems with quality but low equality comprised the control group. Its sample size ranged from 4656 to 8312. The experiment group included nine quality and equal education systems, with sample sizes ranging from 3766 to 21490. The relative error and conditional probability were calculated to determine educational equality. Rawls' difference principle was used as a theoretical perspective. The findings showed that quality and equal education systems had three types: equal-start, equal-improvement, and egalitarian. The primary measure to improve equality in education is to ensure educational benefits for students in the bottom quartile of family capital. The development of educational equality was accompanied by a sustained reduction in the achievement gap between the disadvantaged and the advantaged. Implications for educational practice are discussed.

470-492

Authors: Ibolya Markóczi Revák, Virág Fehér, János Máth

At the time of the current global energy crisis energy awareness education in school is increasingly important. Textbooks directly helping and influencing learning play an important role in this, especially in the case of natural sciences. Thus, the aim of this research was to show how science textbooks help to educate energy awareness (EA). Regarding this, 67 Hungarian science textbooks were analysed using a quantitative textbook analysis from grade 1 to 12. When studying the knowledge on EA, the occurrence of the key concepts related to EA included in the National Core Curriculum (2020) was examined according to content, pedagogical and structural dimensions. According to the results, the most common key concepts were renewable energy, and energy saving, while the least common was the concept of energy crisis. The textbooks studied increasingly communicate key concepts in the form of definitions in the main textbook text at the level of information, moving towards the upper grades, and paying less attention to the attitude-forming elements. There are few tasks that require the application of knowledge about EA, especially those that also develop digital competence. In this form, the textbooks studied are less suited to developing an attitude toward EA, which does not help in making the right decisions in relation to EA.

506-519

Authors: Bojana Simić, Vanes Mešić, Nermin Đapo, Iva Movre Šapić, Andrej Vidak, Amina Alić, Nataša Erceg

Physics homework often boils down to solving end-of-chapter quantitative problems. For targeting different learning goals of physics education, different types of homework are needed. The aim of this research was to compare the effectiveness of simulation-based, video-based, and paper-and-pencil homework in developing an understanding about Newton’s laws and forming positive attitudes towards physics homework. 150 first-year students from the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology at the University of Zagreb (Croatia) were randomly assigned to one of the three above-mentioned homework approaches. After, students had lectures and seminars on Newton’s laws, they were administered a pre-test. In the next three weeks, the students completed three homework assignments on Newton’s laws, after which they completed a post-test. For students from all three homework approaches a substantial improvement in conceptual understanding has been observed. Although the three approaches proved to be equally effective when it comes to developing understanding, the simulation-based approach was found to be superior when it comes to developing positive attitudes towards physics homework. If one controls for target knowledge, the modality of the homework assignment does not affect cognitive outcomes, but it does affect students’ attitudes towards homework.

538-548

Authors: Shen Zhang

Scientific and technological research is important to everyone because their results affect humanity worldwide. Although science and technology bring many benefits to humanity, individuals and societies can face the negative consequences of science and technology. To prevent and solve the negative consequences of research in these fields, it is important to educate scientists and engineers to have social responsibility. However, no research has addressed pre-service science teachers’ views of social responsibility in literature. Therefore, this study aimed to explore Chinese pre-service science teachers' views on the social responsibility of scientists and engineers. The research participants were 194 pre-service science teachers. A social responsibility instrument was administered for data collection. The results showed that participants had high mean scores in five areas of social responsibility and a good awareness of the role of scientists and engineers in addressing problems and risks related to human, environmental, and societal impacts. However, they had lower mean scores in three areas requiring action or involvement. In addition, the results did not show statistical differences by gender or grade level. In light of our findings, we conclude pedagogical and practical implications for teachers and researchers in teaching social responsibility.

559-560

Authors: Editorial Board

Journal of Baltic Science Education, Vol. 22, No. 3, 2023 ISSN 1648-3898 /Print/, ISSN 2538-7138 /Online/