Journal of Baltic Science Education

109-110

Authors: Editorial Board

Cover page, Vol. 11, No. 2, 2012, JBSE

112-114

Authors: Agnaldo Arroio

Motivation, to be successful, and Natural Science Education is no exception in this context should have to rely on a rich repertoire of experiences on which to build conceptual learning by students. These experiences could pave the way to making meaning of them, which in turn supports learning. It also helps to entertain, create or re-create a sense of wonder, which becomes an authentic incentive for learning. It is therefore important to think of education in a systemic conception, not just limiting the student’s experiences to what can possibly take place in the classroom. Therefore, the role of alternative learning environments becomes critical as a prelude, a complement to follow-up the school-based learning process. Experience comes from interaction with a learning environment. There is great development of hardware that allows us to use powerful computers that support the design of several visualizations with scientific models, especially dynamic models, simulations and interactive modeling software that can be displayed and manipulated in a virtual format and by remote access.

127-140

Authors: Şafak Uluçınar Sağır

In this study, the relationships between the attitudes and anxieties of 6th, 7th and 8th grade students about science have been examined. The data have been gathered from a personal data form, anxiety towards science and attitude towards science questionnaires. The effects of such factors, as obtaining assistance with science and technology from outside the classroom, age, gender, class level, school-type variables have been investigated according to their impact on the attitudes and perceptions of the students towards science, and on their anxiety towards science. It has been found that when the students received science-related assistance, it caused significant differences in their attitudes toward science and related anxieties, yet there was no significant difference in terms of gender. Moreover, school-type and class level affect students' attitudes and anxieties towards science. It is believed that increasing the positive science attitudes of the students and decreasing their anxiety will improve success.

153-163

Authors: Tamby Subahan Mohd Meerah, Mohd Fairuz Ahmad Harail, Lilia Halim

The purpose of this research is to investigate secondary students’ knowledge and attitude towards biotechnology and its application. A questionnaire was administered to 214 (16 years old) students who are either taking Biology or General Science. The questionnaire contained 15 items measuring students’ knowledge and also 28 items measuring students’ attitude towards biotechnology. The students’ level of knowledge is high but limited only to medical issues. Students showed positive attitude towards biotechnology applications that are related to medical and economic purposes. However, students are unaware of ethical issues related to biotechnology applications. The t-test showed that there was no significant difference of students’ knowledge of biotechnology in terms of gender. However, there was a significant difference in terms of students’ attitude towards biotechnology between Biology and General Science students. These findings serve as initial input of Malaysian secondary students’ knowledge and attitudes towards biotechnology and its application.

175-183

Authors: Meryem Selvi

Plants are indispensable living elements of the world due to their role in sustaining of life. However, many studies have shown that in general children and adults’ knowledge and perceptions about plants are limited and they both find animals more interesting than plants. The purpose of this study was to adapt Plant Attitude Scale (PAS) developed by Fancovicova and Prokop (2010) into Turkish and to investigate the validity and reliability of the scale. Five hundred seventeen primary school students participated in the study. To determine the structural validity of PAS, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted. The Cronbach alpha coefficient was calculated for the dimensions of scale. Results of the study indicate that Turkish version of the PAS is valid and reliable for measuring attitudes toward plants.

194-196

Authors: Editorial Board

End page, Vol. 11, No. 2, 2012, JBSE

1-2

Authors: Editorial Board

Cover page, JBSE, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2012

4-6

Authors: Bulent Cavas

It is clear from many studies that European students’ interest in science, mathematics and technology has been declining while their grade levels have increased. Another alarming issue for Europe is recruitment of students for science and technology related careers. According to the ROSE Project results, extremely few girls wish to become scientists, and even for boys the percentage is low. And in Europe, around 50% of boys gave a positive response to the question: “I would like to get a job in technology”, but very few girls indicated that they would like to pursue such a career option (Sjoberg and Schreiner, 2010). These kinds of results from project reports highlight the urgent need for more effective action on the teaching and learning of science in schools.

16-28

Authors: Deborah Chetcuti, Paul Pace

Teaching and assessment in Environmental Education (EE) is rather complex because it needs to address the learners’ ability to ask questions, solve problems, and develop positive values. Portfolio assessment is a holistic way to evaluate the growth and development of skills and values in EE by providing a cumulative record of work carried out by students in a variety of contexts and allowing students to reflect on the process of how their views and values change. The main aim of this paper was to discuss the process of the development and implementation of a European Portfolio for Environmental Education by TEPEE (Towards a European Portfolio for Environmental Education) Network, within seven European countries. The paper narrates the development and implementation of EPEE through the eyes of the TEPEE scientific committee coming from the seven partner countries. Their views about the advantages and disadvantages of the use of portfolios within the context of EE were collected by means of questionnaires using open-ended questions. The results of the study suggest that the main advantage of using portfolio assessment is that it provides a holistic picture of the learning and growth of students in different contexts and situations. The major asset was the enthusiasm and motivation it raised among the teachers using it. The major difficulty was trying to change the assessment culture of teachers who were used to more traditional forms of assessment.

43-54

Authors: Tuna Gencosman, Mustafa Doğru

The main purpose of this study was to determine the effect of teaching the "Force and Motion" unit of the Science and Technology class using the Student Teams-Achievement Divisions (STAD) technique on self efficacies, test anxiety and academic achievements of seventh grade students. The STAD technique was applied to the experiment group; the existing program based on constructivism to control-1 group, and traditional teaching methods to control-2 group. The analysis of the obtained data was achieved by using the one-way variance analysis (ANOVA). In conclusion, it was determined that the experiment group was more effective than the control groups in respect to self-efficacy and academic achievement. Moreover, significant improvements were obtained in the exam anxiety of the students in the experiment and control-1 groups compared to the group where traditional teaching methods were used.

67-77

Authors: Petar Jandric

This paper explores development of the discipline of e-learning. It develops the evolutionist model of e-learning development and compares it with the diffusionist model of e-learning development. Using transdisciplinary research methodology, it develops the diffusionist-evolutionist model of e-learning development. The diffusionist aspect of the model concentrates to practical issues such as introducing e-learning into educational institutions. The evolutionist aspect of the model concentrates to theoretical issues such as comparative studies of historical developments. On such basis, the diffusionist-evolutionist model provides a single practical framework for describing small-scale and large-scale e-learning development. Following methodological restrictions, the diffusionist-evolutionist model does not reflect any natural principle. As a research principle, it only aims at improving our current descriptions of e-learning development.

94-102

Authors: Bulent Cavas, Pinar Cavas, Yasemin Ozdem, Miia Rannikmae, Hamide Ertepinar

The main aim of this research is to analyse ten volumes of Journal of Baltic Science Education (JBSE) according to the authors’ nationality and research topics of the articles published in the journal between 2002 and 2011. The journal published ten volumes, 27 issue and 166 articles since 2002. The articles were submitted by 343 authors from 31 countries. Statistical analyses show that the authors from Turkey are ranking highest in terms of the number of published papers. Latvia and Lithuania follow Turkey as second and third countries. The study found out that the articles regarding learning-conception, teaching, learning-context and goals, policy and curriculum most frequently investigated by the researchers. However, in 2002-2011, there is no article related to informal learning. The researchers gave less attention to cultural, social and gender issues when compared other research topics in the scope of JBSE.

216-218

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

In recent years education space is saturated with various discussions and thoughts about the so-called digital teaching and learning. New technologies consistently and rather aggressively keep penetrating into educational practice. Therefore, we have to discuss in essence the urgent problems of digital teaching, to analyse the emerging challenges both for the teachers and students. On the other hand, it would be impossible to single out any one age group people. It is urgent both for the pupils and teachers of comprehensive schools and for the teachers and students of higher schools. However, it can be basically asserted, that for younger students these questions are much more urgent. Their experience in the sphere of new technologies is varied and at the same time inadequate to current teaching and learning practice. Let’s say, not a small part of today’s youth use the services of various social networks such as, Facebook, Twitter and other. The problem is that very often we don’t know or poorly know what the educational meaning and use of such services is. Moreover, how to effectively use new technologies which are actively used by the pupils, in educational sense? Sometimes an impression is made that existing educational practice reacts unwillingly to such challenges. It is obvious, that a rather sudden shift takes place in the system “classical pedagogy” – “online pedagogy”, isn’t it? There is also another shift in the system that is closely related with this shift, “from teaching to learning”. It can be confidently asserted, that the latter shift is considerably overestimated and groundlessly given too much importance. Effective and productive learning is not possible without a proper teaching. These are two education system elements which are closely interrelated and influence each other. Only the weight of these elements differs in certain age periods. Therefore, a narrow and primitive interpretation of this shift is not acceptable. After all, in real educational practice also the third significant shift occurs, or more exactly, problem situation in the system “digital activities” – “non-digital activities is observed. How to keep a proper balance?

229-242

Authors: Pavol Prokop, Muhammet Usak, Mehmet Erdogan

In this study 103 children (aged 7 – 12 years) from two distinct countries with relatively low (Slovakia) and high (Turkey) wolf population density were interviewed to examine children's overall interest in wolves, their knowledge of wolves, the effects of their keeping pets and their reading stories about wolves. Children in both countries showed considerable factual knowledge about wolves, but the importance of wolves in nature was poorly understood. Perceptions of wolves in stories were generally negative and there was a significant effect from stories which generated fear and sympathy towards wolves suggesting that stories may have a significant impact on children's emotions. Turkish children reported their experience with less drastic stories about wolves and their interest in wolves was significantly higher and their fear of wolves was conversely lower, compared to the reactions of Slovakian children. The more the students were engaged in nature related activities, e.g. watching natural history films and walking in areas of nature, the less they demonstrated fear of wolves.

261-276

Authors: Sebastian P. Szyjka, Frackson Mumba, Kevin C. Wise

This study describes the modification of an instrument originally developed for measuring attitudes towards statistical graphs to instead measure elementary pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards line graphs in science. As a result of context-modification and in utilizing Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), the finalized instrument comprises 32-items that incorporate constructs of enjoyment, confidence, usefulness and learning preferences. The revised instrument was found to exhibit adequate ranges of internal consistency and reliability. Based on a variety of completed analyses, the revised instrument appears to have maintained original psychometric fidelity and is recommended for use as an assessment of pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards line graphs in science.

285-299

Authors: Sharareh Majidi, Terhi Mäntylä

Textbooks often provide teachers and students a conception of how scientific knowledge is organized. Therefore, it is of interest to recognize what is the picture of knowledge conveyed by the textbooks. In this study, the knowledge organization in three university physics textbooks is analyzed from the viewpoint of how the basic elements in the topics of Biot-Savart and Ampère’s law are structurally linked. The method of analysis is based on the interpretative analysis, which (a) recognizes basic elements of knowledge and (b) identifies the categories of links that connect basic elements. Concept maps are used to represent knowledge organization of textbooks. The results indicate that content knowledge of textbooks consist of somehow identical basic elements but different categories of links and thus different knowledge organizations. The possibility to recognize these differences in the curriculum materials is a first step towards developing more effective teaching and learning solutions and curriculum plans.

144-145

Authors: Jongwon Park

Divergent thinking, which indicates the capacity to generate multiple alternatives or solutions, received attention as a component of creative thinking after the “Sputnik shock” of the late 1950s. Since then, numerous special programs for fostering creativity in convergent, critical, associational or analogical thinking have been developed. As a result, an article in 1993 reported that there were about 250 programs for improving creativity, and in 1998, a researcher classified various teaching strategies used in the programs into 170 types.

156-167

Authors: Mustafa Cakir

The purpose of this study was to situate prospective secondary science teachers in an authentic scientific investigation, that of hypothesis testing of inheritance patterns of cats, and then to examine prospective teachers’ developing understandings of basic Mendelian genetics, scientific inquiry, and their perceptions of the learning environment. The context of the study was a teaching and learning course focused on inquiry and technology. Data obtained from the twelve participants included: a) pre-post tests of Mendelian genetics concepts; b) videotaped class presentations; c) inquiry project reports; d) audio taped semi-structured interviews; and e) classroom discussions and observations. The findings suggest that engagement in hypothesis testing, within a socio-constructivist framework; can be used to support the integrated acquisition of conceptual knowledge in science. After the module, there was clear evidence that inquiry-based instruction, enriched with computer simulation and collaboration, promoted students’ conceptual understanding of Mendelian genetics and understandings of scientific inquiry.

183-194

Authors: Maija Nousiainen, Ismo T. Koponen

In this study, a parsimonious set of quantities is developed to characterise and evaluate the quality of concept maps. It is shown here how such a set can be based on measurements of the connectivity, clustering and cohesion of concept maps. A structural model of the data is introduced so that concept maps can be evaluated and classified by using only two quantities called here richness of content (D) and quality of structure (q). The model is used in monitoring changes in the concept maps (N=33) consisting of two sets of maps (initial and final ones), made before and after teaching. Such an approach gives access to monitor changes of the concept maps during a teaching sequence.

72

Authors: Bulent Cavas

The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in science education has become widespread and been developed increasingly by many science educators in our digital time. Students’ and teachers’ use of new technologies both in the classrooms and out of school have enhanced science learning more meaningful and permanent. In recent years, new technologies such as scientific visualizations, statistical modeling, real time data collection, dynamic modeling software, and collaborative group work environments has been used widely in science education. However, many researches have showed that the success and effect of these technologies use in the classroom highly depend on teachers’ knowledge, skills and experiences in this area. It is apparent that, in the innovative classroom environments that are designed with ICT tools, the expenditures will be in vain if science teachers have no enough knowledge, skills and experiences in these technologies.

87-97

Authors: Özlem Sadi, Jale Cakiroglu

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of hands-on activity enriched instruction on sixth grade students’ achievement and attitudes toward science. In this study, Science Achievement Test and Science Attitude Scale were used to assess students’ achievement on sense organs and students’ attitudes toward science respectively. Two teachers with four classes and total of 140 sixth grade students were participated in this study. One class of each teacher was assigned as experimental group and treated with hands-on activity enriched instruction and other class was assigned as control group and treated with traditional instruction. The Science Achievement Test and the Science Attitude Scale were administered twice as pre-test and after three week treatment period as a post-test to both experimental and control groups to measure students’ achievement and attitudes. Multivariate Analyses of Covariance (MANCOVA) results revealed that hands-on activity enriched instruction were more effective than traditional instruction. However, the statistical results failed to show a significant difference between the experimental and control groups’ attitudes toward science.

114-126

Authors: George Vorvilas, Thanassis Karalis, Konstantinos Ravanis

In the present paper, a genre-based conceptual framework for interpreting and designing content for learning objects is proposed. Learning objects are considered here as multimodal macrogenres. These macrogenres are constituted of content objects which are in fact types of digital microgenres. The successful and coherent information linking of these content objects inside a LO can be achieved through particular rhetorical relations. The knowledge of the several types of digital microgenres as well as the rhetorical relations between them, can equip an author/teacher with a repertoire of semiotic concepts, which make him capable of interpreting already made material, as well as creating new and coherent material, in order to affect and motivate students in particular ways, through his intended communicative and educational purposes.