Journal of Baltic Science Education

289-290

Authors: Editorial Board

Cover page, Vol. 14, No. 3, JBSE, 2015

292-294

Authors: Bulent Cavas

It has been revealed by The Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Union that scientific studies and their outcomes, carried out within the last 15 years, haven't been adequately shared within the society. In this context, the search for project applications, reviewing efficient communication strategies between European citizens and science was initiated by the European Union’s Science and Society action plan in 2001. The European Union further developed action plans, under its FP7 program which began in 2007, with a view to increasing participation within society and to enhance two-way dialogues and larger interactions through actualizing Science in Society’s action.

311-326

Authors: Murat Tezer, Gulsum Yildiz Aşıksoy

Various studies have demonstrated that students who have high levels of academic high levels of academic self-efficacy are better at overcoming obstacles, have higher targets and are more confident. So, the aim of this research was to determine the self-efficacy levels of engineering students regarding physics, and to analyse the effect of their alma mater, class levels, the type of engineering programme in which they are being educated and academic success variables on their self-efficacy regarding physics. In the present research “Physics self-efficacy scale” including two factors which were developed by the authors was used to collect the data. Considering one of the independent variables, such as their alma mater, it can be seen that students who graduated from private high schools had a higher level of self-efficacy. In addition, compared to other students, those in their first year had a higher level of self-efficacy, which led to greater academic success.

339-350

Authors: Shyang-Chyuan Fang, Tai-Yi Yu

This study establishes a behavioral model for university students by utilizing the theories of planned behavior and value-belief-norm, and proposes key latent variables for risk perception toward climate change to establish a structural equation model. Partial least squares analyses and three indicators are utilized to test the reliability, validity, and goodness-of-fit of the model. This study establishes a mixed model with formative and reflective indicators, and assesses both environmental concern and personality traits as formative indicators. Using standardized path coefficients, eight out of 10 paths demonstrate statistical significance, indicating that environmental value and environmental attitudes influence environmental behavior. Three of the five included personality traits (e.g., agreeableness, extraversion, and openness) demonstrate a positive correlation with environmental behavior and environmental attributes. Individuals’ risk perception positively influences their environmental value, environmental attitudes, and environmental behavior with respect to climate change.

366-378

Authors: Ayşe Nesibe Köklükaya

Science teaching emerged due to an attempt to understand the world around us and a sense of wonder at nature and survived until today by means of being supported by new research and findings. The implementation of science in schools is carried out with curriculums. The main purpose of the curriculum of science courses is to train all students in science literacy regardless of their individual differences. According to the educational program of sciences courses, audiovisual aids used in education with a learning objective which is one of these aids is one of the most effective ways to ensure permanent learning. Within this concept the purpose of the study is to determine the opinions of pre-service science teachers about the curriculum of the science lesson based upon the stories in the 3-Idiots movie. In this research, phenomenology research was used. As a data gathering tool, three semi-structured interview questions prepared accordingly to “3- Idiots” movie were used. According to the participants, the science curriculum must be lead in investigating, interrogating, criticising, curiosity and reconnoitering in terms of features that must be acquired for being scientifically literate individuals.

391-400

Authors: Namudar İzzet Kurbanoğlu, Ahmet Akın

University students’ achievements in organic chemistry depend on cognitive variables. In addition, non-cognitive variables such as anxiety levels also have an impact on students’ organic chemistry achievements. The aim of this study was to develop a measurement tool assessing the anxiety levels of university students in organic chemistry lessons. In this study, the Organic Chemistry Anxiety Scale (O-CAS) consisting of 24 items was developed, its validity and reliability was analysed. All the items are positively worded to indicate increased anxiety. Factor analytic evidence from a sample (n=340) of university organic chemistry students indicated that the O-CAS measured three constructs. Additional analysis with a second sample (n=297) showed that scores on these anxiety constructs were internally consistent, with Cronbach’s alphas ranging from 0.87 to 0.92 and were 0.95 for the overall scale. Further, the result of analysis of the third sample (n=195) indicated that there was a statistically significant relationship between organic chemistry anxiety and organic chemistry achievement of students. According to these results, the O-CAS can be used as a valid and reliable instrument in chemistry education.

411-416

Authors: Editorial Board

End page, Vol. 14, No. 3, 2015, JBSE

157-158

Authors: Editorial Board

Cover page, Vol. 14, No. 2, JBSE, 2015

160-161

Authors: Milan Kubiatko

I would like to thank the editor of the journal, who offered me to write an editorial. When I was thinking about the topic, which would be interesting for the readers of journals, I got more ideas. One of the topics, which is more and more discussed is the problem of publication. Where should the author send his manuscript? He/she should choose a shorter way or try to send his own manuscript to the journal with the demanding reviewing process. But, the author is the person who makes the final decision, our effort is to evoke only thinking about the importance of academic work.

172-182

Authors: Dilek Sultan Acarli, Melek Yaman Kasap

Smoking is a worldwide problem that threatens people’s health. The average age of smokers has decreased with each passing day. Thus, studies focusing on preventing children or teenagers from starting smoking or studies aiming to help people quit smoking are one of the most effective ways of the fight against smoking. In order to prevent smoking behavior of young people it is necessary to thoroughly examine the reasons of such behavior. In this study, smoking behavior of high school students was examined in the framework of Planned Behavior Theory, which is a socio-psychological theory (TPB, Ajzen, 1985). With the structural equation model, which was constructed by taking TPB components into account, factors affecting students’ smoking behavior were determined. Theory of Planned Behavior has explained the smoking behaviors of the participants in 72%. It was seen that the most important TPB component that affects students’ behavior is attitude, which is followed by subjective norm and perceived behavior control, respectively. The results indicate that one should work on attitude first and foremost, and thus on behavioral beliefs in order to make changes in the students’ tendency to smoke, in other words, in their behavior.

194-206

Authors: Petr Kacovsky

This study describes a research focused on grammar school students’ misconceptions in the context of common, everyday thermal phenomena. Almost 500 Czech grammar school students from 24 classes were asked to fill in the reduced version of the Thermal Concept Evaluation in order to measure the asset of traditional instruction in eliminating scientifically incorrect ideas; the reached normalized gain of 0.23 signalizes poor effectiveness of instruction as a whole. In some areas, Czech students’ results were quite poor (questions dealing with phase transitions), while other ones turned out to be surprisingly good in comparison with foreign studies (e.g. perception of “cold” as a scientifically disproved concept). Besides questions regarding thermal phenomena, the test included four statements designed for studying possible relationships between students’ scores and their attitudes. Those who declared “fondness for physics” showed better results both in the pre-test and the post-test; however, the normalized gain turned out to be independent of the attitudes established.

216-226

Authors: Namudar İzzet Kurbanoğlu, Fatma Koç Nefes

The context-based questions have promise and potential to reduce the test anxiety of students and improve their attitudes towards science. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of context-based questions on test anxiety and science attitude of students. The research design employed was a quasi-experimental equivalent control group with a pre-test and post-test design. Samples were 70 secondary school students, selected from the 185 seventh grade students at a public school in Turkey. Test Anxiety and Science Attitude Scales were used to measure their test anxiety and attitude towards science, respectively. The results of the data analysis indicated that the context-based questions significantly reduced the test anxiety of the students in the experimental group and improved their attitudes towards science. In contrast, the conventional questions increased the test anxiety of the control group students, but no significant effect in science attitude was found among them. Further, the results showed that there was a relationship between the pre- and post-test scores of the test anxiety and science attitude of both the experimental and control groups.

237-253

Authors: Ahmet Tekbiyik

This research examines the influence of Jigsaw, which is a collaborative learning (CL) method, on students’ views and decision-making processes concerning the use of nuclear energy. The research included 60 fourth-year undergraduate students attending the science teacher training program of a university in Turkey in the 2013–2014 academic year. In the research, firstly an attempt was made to provide students with scientific literacy on the subject through Jigsaw method. Then the groups formed for the Jigsaw method created argumentative texts in which they expressed their views. In the end, the students developed positive attitudes and supported the establishment of nuclear power plants in Turkey. They had negative views about the use of nuclear energy before teaching. Their views turned to positive after teaching to a great extent. It was seen that gaining enough knowledge to do logical reasoning through teaching was influential on their capability to reach positive decisions. Furthermore, it was revealed that decision-making processes are affected by variables such as scientific literacy, awareness, and suggestions for reducing risks.

267-274

Authors: Glykeria Fragkiadaki, Konstantinos Ravanis

Children construct representations of concepts and physical phenomena and these representations are critical to education. The natural phenomenon of clouds is perceivable and also observable by young children in everyday life. Moreover, it is a subject approached by the early childhood science education curriculums. However, in several studies it is noticed that the related children’s representations are often incompatible with the scientific model, mainly because of its character, which is macroscopic and not immediately observable. In this research, clouds representations framed by children aged 4.5-6 years old are studied. The sample consisted of sixteen (16) children (7 boys and 9 girls) from one public kindergarten in an urban area of Greece. Data were collected through expanded, open type conversations between children pairs and one of the researchers. The results of the qualitative analysis of the conversations show that these children use different types of representations, the majority dominated by the nature of the substance under study. The outcome of the research results indicates the potentials of preschool children to perceive clouds as autonomous natural entities.

284-288

Authors: Editorial Board

End page, Vol. 14, No. 2, 2015, JBSE

1-2

Authors: Editorial Board

Cover page, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2015, JBSE

4-6

Authors: André du Plessis

The South African Department of Basic Education (DoBE) has been promoting constructivist learning principles, the development of higher order thinking, the implementation of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) (Department of Education, 2004; Du Plessis, 2014) and the development of critical outcomes such as problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration, self-management, finding and analysing information, developing effective communicating skills, assisting learners to use science and technology effectively as well as promoting effective learning strategies (Department of Education, 2004). The use of ICTs to promote teaching and learning has also been high on the agenda of the DoBE (2004; 2007). However, it appears that the use of ICT within South African schools is ‘bolted-on’ on to the curriculum as an added extra, resulting that integration with school subjects is minimal (Du Plessis, 2010). The above is probably prevalent outside the South African context too in many other schools all over the globe.

20-33

Authors: Ebru Öztürk

The study attempts to determine whether or not Facebook is an environment suiting the Community of Inquiry Framework by investigating the cognitive, social, and teaching presence perceptions of students in Facebook groups and to examine the impact of group size on the CoI model. Additionally, whether or not these three types of presences predicted academic success and motivation were investigated. The data were analyzed through logistic regression analysis, independent samples t-test and the Pearson correlation coefficient. The study was conducted in a blended course, where Facebook was utilized for online discussions. The study revealed that the relation between cognitive, social, and teaching presences was significant and at a high-level. The high correlation determined among the social, cognitive, and teaching presence perceptions of students in learning communities created on Facebook leads to the consideration that Facebook is a suitable online environment for the COI framework. It is understandable, that all presence perceptions are higher in smaller groups when group impacts are investigated. Other conclusions derived from the study are that academic success was only predicted by cognitive presence and motivation was predicted by both cognitive and teaching presences.

45-63

Authors: Jongwon Park, Youngmin Kim, Young-Shin Park, Jongseok Park, Jin-Su Jeong

This study aimed to improve science teaching in a practical way by activating teachers’ potential teaching expertise or professional knowledge. We developed an alternative in-service approach, the Practical On-site Cooperation Model (POCoM), according to the following principles: (1) the “bottom-up” approach, where observed problems in science classes are improved practically and immediately without any pre-determined teaching plan or materials; (2) “cooperation” between researchers and teachers to improve teaching; (3) “naturalistic settings” where various real problems occur in actual teaching and learning situations; and (4) “gradual improvement” rather than revolutionary change. The POCoM was applied with three science teachers, and 24 classes were observed. We found about 65%–96% teaching improvement. The analysis of the cooperation processes and science teaching in classrooms identified seven types of successful improvements and five types of unsatisfactory cases, including their reasons and features.

85-95

Authors: Edy Hafizan Mohd Shahali, Lilia Halim, Sattar Rasul, Kamisah Osman, Zanaton Ikhsan, Faszly Rahim

The Bitara-STEMTM Training of Trainer Programme is a short-term professional development programme aimed to increase STEM teachers or facilitators’ abilities to teach integrated STEM education and to increase their efficacy, beliefs and attitudes of integrated STEM teaching. The programme involves 35 facilitators, representing a broad spectrum of STEM fields. Pre- and post-test results of the participants’ beliefs, attitudes, perceived efficacy and content knowledge in the context of integrated STEM teaching revealed significant changes. The findings also revealed (i) knowledge of integrated STEM teaching to be related to facilitators’ efficacy for teaching integrated STEM and (ii) facilitators’ attitudes to be related to beliefs of integrated STEM teaching. The outcomes of this study provide evidence that a relatively short-term professional development can have a significant impact on facilitators’ beliefs, attitudes, efficacy and knowledge of integrated STEM teaching and STEM concepts.

109-120

Authors: Marjanca Kos, Janez Jerman

This research examined the ways in which children observe flowering plants, namely: which features they perceive as significant, whether the skill of observing flowering plants develops with age, and what is the difference between genders. The research involved 174 children: 89 children aged 5 and 85 children aged 10 who were given the task of choosing the plant they recognised as the same as each of the 10 given test plants among a total of 37 plants which looked more or less similar to the test plants. The analysis of the plant combinations the children most frequently mismatched showed, that colour is the feature to which they attribute the most importance. Shape turned out to be considered more important to the children than size. Older children revealed better plant observation skills than younger ones with the girls achieving better results than the boys in both age groups. The findings show that children's observation skills develop with age, and corroborate the need to support the development of observation in the educational process.

132-141

Authors: Costin Pribeanu, Alexandru Balog, Vincentas Lamanauskas, Violeta Šlekienė

The rapid expansion of social networking websites (SNW) is raising several issues regarding the influence it has on the modern school. As many authors mentioned, the proliferation of social networks among university people is changing the educational processes. In order to find out how Facebook could support education, a social learning perspective is needed. In turn, this requires to measure the social capital and to analyze its educational potential. The aim of this research is to elaborate a theoretically grounded and empirically validated multi-dimensional model, measuring the social capital that is embedded in the Facebook networks of Lithuanian university students. This is a pilot research carried out between September and December, 2014. In this respect, the research limitation reveals itself; therefore, a wider theoretical and empirical research is necessary, analyzing the usage of Facebook in the university student population. The research is significant, because it is prepared and validated a multidimensional model of the bridging social capital as perceived by university students that are using Facebook.

155-156

Authors: Editorial Board

End page, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2015, JBSE

761-762

Authors: Editorial Board

Cover page, Vol. 13, No. 6, JBSE

764–766

Authors: Andris Broks

Science and Technology Education (STE) along with Artistic and Pragmatic Education today is continuously and fast developing branch of education to satisfy actual needs of modern life. It follows the development of scientific research of real life phenomena and implementation of corresponding results in practice. In other words, changes within our life are closely connected with corresponding changes in our education, because educational activities of any person as well as society in total mean specially organized gaining of life experience (knowledge, values, skills) for life (cognition, consideration, behaviour).

776–788

Authors: Tolga Gok

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of peer instruction (PI) on performance, gender gap, conceptual learning and problem solving in physics. The students enrolled in two sections of a physics course were selected; one section was treatment group (TG) and the other section was control group (CG). 42 students in TG were instructed with PI whereas 56 students in CG were instructed with conventional instruction. Data were collected using Force Concept Inventory, final examination problems, and students’ opinions about the instruction. The results indicated that PI had more positive effect on students’ conceptual learning and problem solving than conventional instruction. The conceptual learning with PI did not show any statistically significant difference between female and male students in TG. However, the quantitative problem solving performance after PI revealed that male students performed better than female students. The female and male students’ conceptual learning and problem solving performance did not change noticeably in CG. The students in TG also changed their perspective on solving a problem and understanding a concept. They found the method helpful to connect the quantitative solution with related concepts.

802-808

Authors: Namudar İzzet Kurbanoğlu

University students’ achievements in biology laboratory do not depend only on cognitive variables, but also on non-cognitive variables such as anxiety levels. The aim of this study was to develop a measurement tool assessing the anxiety levels of university students in a biology laboratory class. In this study, the Biology Laboratory Anxiety Scale (B-LAS) consisting of 15 items was developed, and analysed its validity and reliability. All items are positively worded to indicate increased anxiety. The sample consisted of 685 science teacher candidates (450 female and 235 male) who take Biology and/or Biology laboratory classes at three different Faculties of Education. The validity of the scale was first assessed by expert review. Exploratory factor analysis was performed to assess structural validity, and revealed a one-dimensional structure. The loading values of all 15 items varied between 0.61 and 0.80, and explained 53% of the total variance. Cronbach's alpha coefficient of internal consistency was calculated as 0.93 and the split-half test correlation was 0.85. According to these results B-LAS can be used as a valid and reliable instrument in science education.

821–827

Authors: Frackson Mumba, Vivien Mweene Chabalengula, Asiana Banda

This study compared male and female pre-service science teachers’ understanding of the effect of phase changes and physical transformation of matter on the size of particles, spaces between particles, speed of particles, and number of particles. Data were collected using a questionnaire that has 36 items. Both gender groups had sound understanding of the effect of phase change on speed, spaces, and number of particles in a substance, and the effect of compression on speed, number, size and spaces between particles in solids and liquids. However, most female pre-service teachers had low understanding of the effect of phase change on the size of the particles in solids, liquids and gases as most of them incorrectly believed that heating increases the size of the particles and cooling decreases the size of particles. The results have implications for science teaching and learning and teacher education.

839–855

Authors: Melis Arzu Uyulgan, Nalan Akkuzu, Şenol Alpat

In this research, the comprehension levels and misconceptions of university students on the subject of molecular geometry were determined via a two-tier diagnostic test consisting of 25 items developed by researchers. It was applied on 110 university students. The reliability and validity tests and item analyses were conducted in relation to the test, and the difficulty and discrimination indices of the items were detected. The reliability coefficient of the test was found to be 0.856 while the mean difficulty value of the test was 0.487. According to the findings obtained from the second tier of the test containing open end questions, the students had a great deal of wrong information and numerous misconceptions in relation to the molecular geometry. Such statements as “atoms move in the resonance structure” and “bond angles of two molecules having a trigonal pyramidal shape cannot be different” are counted among the most important misconceptions determined in the study.

870–882

Authors: Eralp Bahcivan

This study was conducted to examine the relationships among pre-service science teachers’ (PSTs’) teaching and learning conceptions, scientific epistemological beliefs and science teaching efficacy beliefs. 310 Turkish PSTs from different regions of the country participated in the study. Three different instruments were validated by confirmatory factor analyses. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that participants’ constructivist conceptions of teaching and learning promoted sophisticated science related epistemologies. Sophisticated epistemologies, to some extent, also contributed participants’ science teaching efficacy beliefs. Certain assumptions were not supported by the results which pointed out that curricular reform in teacher education system met expectations partly. Implications were presented considering the results.

896-900

Authors: Editorial Board

End page, Vol. 13, No. 6, 2014, JBSE

589-590

Authors: Editorial Board

Cover, JBSE, Vol. 13, No. 5, 2014

592–595

Authors: Todar Lakhvich

A couple of months ago I came back to the University after vacations: well rested, full of ideas and having strong desire to tell the students everything I knew about my “beloved” organic chemistry. The counterpart was even better (in all the cases they were younger: “cela se passe de commentaries”): a large majority of the students are smart, attractive, and well put together. Just seemed to be the best time and place for effective teaching-learning (as we like to say in articles) process. As usual, I had a joy during the first lecture (feeling happy of touching once more I liked so much and engaging in my own understanding of the subject) and after the first seminar where students followed generally the logics and the way of professor thinking. However, a few days later during the classes followed by the romantic period of our acquaintance I faced the problem: the students barely understood some very easy things. Not because they didn’t know, not because they were lazy, vs they could understand the more difficult things (I work at Medical University with the highest students’ percentile). They couldn’t understand very simple things because sometimes we were speaking in different languages. To some extent and in some cases, it’s a problem of interlingual interference of the mother tongue (Chittima Kaweera, 2013): one third of my students are overseas and we need to communicate in international languages like English or Russian. But misunderstanding is taking place for communication even with native speakers: and the problems are basically the same we face with foreigners. I thought about the phenomenon for years, tried to explore the problem empirically and now I’m convinced – communication is a very complex process which consists of many subunits and some of them are within the formal command of Lexis and Grammar, without taking into account, the Context.

608-621

Authors: Orhan Ercan

This study implemented multimedia learning material developed for the 5th grade science course topic "Food and Healthy Nutrition" and examined its effect on students' academic achievement and science attitudes. The study used a control group, a pre-test-post-test quasi experimental research design, and a convenience sample consisting of 62 5th grade students. The research instruments were an achievement test and a science attitude scale. During the implementation process the experiment group learned using multimedia learning material and the control group learned with traditional methods. Data were analyzed using an independent-samples t test, a paired-samples t-test, and ANCOVA statistics. According to the findings there is a statically significant difference between post-test achievement scores of the experimental and control groups, with the experimental group scoring higher. Also there is a statically significant difference between students' post-test scores in terms of gender, favoring females over males. In terms of science attitude there is also a significant difference between post-test scores of the experimental and control groups. In conclusion it may be said that multimedia learning promotes more effective learning in science education.

637–649

Authors: Mei-Lun Chen, Shi-Jer Lou, Wei-Fang Tsai, Chih-Cheng Tsai

This study adopts both quantitative and qualitative methods. There are 23 subjects in the experimental group and the control group. The experimental group received the “Green Giant Growth Group” test once a week for a total of 7 times. The measurement tools were scale of self-concept, Chinese well-being and horticultural effectiveness. With respect to data analysis, the researcher adopted descriptive statistics and analysis of covariance. Feedback and interviews were included in the qualitative analysis. According to the findings of this study, horticultural activities can enhance students’ self-concept, sense of control, self-satisfaction, sense of achievement and social skills. Based on the results of interviews, by participating in horticultural activities, students increase their interpersonal relationship skills. Their behaviors match social norms, and they are more responsible, open-minded and peaceful. In line with previous research findings, this study proposes suggestions for future researchers to apply horticultural activities in education or guidance.

662–673

Authors: Katrin Soika, Priit Reiska

Conceptual acquisition is an important aspect of science education, especially with regard to committing things to long term memory. Three case studies were carried out to examine approaches to conceptual acquisition in science education. The aim of these studies was to determine whether concept mapping method is a valid research method. To answer the question, studies were developed. Two of them used animation to describe abstract topics in chemistry. The aim of the third study was to compare the differences in higher taxonomy concept maps, created in an allocated timeframe. The findings of the studies indicate that the use of voiced interactive animation without teacher explanation does not lend itself to superior concept acquisition. As a result of the study it was concluded that concept mapping as an assessment method provides a unique possibility to visualize the structure of students’ conceptual achievements. Based on the outcomes it is recommended concept mapping should be used more as an assessment or research method.

695–708

Authors: Zehra Ozdilek

This study presents pre-service science teachers’ views about implementing a case study and which skills they improved as a result of using the method. Sixteen participants in a chemistry class were the subjects in the 2013 summer school term. In the teaching about the properties of chromium, students watched selected parts of the movie Erin Brockovich in four sections. Each part of the movie was followed with a question, and students were then given about 15-20 minutes to find out the answer to the question by using Internet-based resources in the classroom environment. Qualitative data were collected by having participants respond in writing to open-ended questions and through semi-structured interviews. Overall, students’ reactions to the method were positive. The results showed that students found it to be an effective instructional method, despite having some difficulties with the expectations of the method and this method has provided many benefits for pre-service teachers.

726–739

Authors: Jesper Haglund, Fredrik Jeppsson, Johanna Andersson

This study investigates primary school children’s (7-8 year-old, N = 25) ideas of mixing of marbles and of heat, expressed in small-group predict-observe-explain exercises, and drawings representing the children’s own analogies in a classroom setting. The children were typically found to predict that marbles of two different colours would mix when rocked back and forth on a board. This idea of mixing is slightly more advanced than previously reported in the literature. The children’s ideas of heat included reference to warm objects, their own bodies when exercising, and the process of one warm solid object heating another object in direct contact. In addition, through scaffolding, some of the children expressed a substance view of heat. Finally, the potential and challenges in probing children’s ideas through a combination of data collection techniques in a classroom setting are reflected upon.

756-760

Authors: Editorial Board

End page, Vol. 13, No. 5, JBSE, 2014