Journal of Baltic Science Education

911

Authors: Editorial Board

Contents, Vol. 17, No. 6, 2018, JBSE

918-934

Authors: Vesna Oražem, Iztok Tomažič

Wolf (Canis lupus) conservation is multidimensional. Its aspects include the consensus between different interest groups. The present research aimed to assess the attitude and knowledge of the students (N = 483 students from three schools age 14-19) enrolled in the environmentalist, veterinary and agricultural technician study programmes through a questionnaire, as their profession represents a part of this multidimensional consensus. The research results indicate that students have neutral to positive attitudes toward wolves, generally. Their knowledge of wolves, however, is limited. Agricultural technicians showed the most negative attitudes toward wolves and the lowest knowledge. Overall, correlations between all attitudinal dimensions and correlations between attitudinal dimensions and knowledge were found, with the highest correlations between conservation dimension and all other dimensions including knowledge. The research findings support the widespread assumption that education within the above-mentioned study programmes should focus also on the current socio-scientific issues of animal conservation. Special attention should be given to the education of agricultural technicians as their utilitarian view could interfere with the effective conservation of large carnivores.

945-959

Authors: Zehra Ozdilek, Seda Okumus, Kemal Doymus

This research was conducted to facilitate the conceptual understanding of the solutions that contain abstract concepts and not to understand easily. The aim of this research is to determine the effect of applied methods on the achievement level of prospective science teachers and conceptual understanding level at the particulate nature of matter in solution chemistry. The research was conducted with 58 prospective science teachers and a pre-test/posttest non-equivalent quasi-experimental design was used. Three experimental groups were determined as model supported Reading Writing Application method of cooperative learning (n=20), model supported Students Teams Achievement Divisions method of cooperative learning (n=20), and model supported individual learning method (n=18). The data collected with a Particulate Nature of Matter Test (PNMT) and a Module Test (MT). For analyzing data descriptive statistics, one–way ANOVA, and ANCOVA were used. The results showed that there was no significant effect with respect to the achievement level. According to findings from the post test of MT, all groups were more successful in terms of correct understanding of the solutions compared with the pre-tests.

972-985

Authors: Nia Erlina, Endang Susantini, Wasis, Iwan Wicaksono, Paken Pandiangan

Evidence-Based Reasoning (EBR) is a framework of inquiry-based teaching for developing scientific reasoning. This research aims to analyze the effectiveness of EBR in inquiry-based Physics teaching to improve students' scientific reasoning. Applying Slovin formula for sample determination, the research involved 139 upper-secondary school students with similar prior knowledge. This research used one group pre-test post-test design with replication. The effectiveness of teaching on improving scientific reasoning was analyzed by using Paired Sample T-test. ANOVA was used to analyze the consistency of the teaching effectiveness across in test group. The findings indicated that EBR effectively improved students' scientific reasoning in inquiry-based Physics teaching based on two main grounds. On the first, the significance was ensured by N-gain category of scientific reasoning component, which proved (a) control of variables reaching high category, (b) proportional thinking at moderate category; c) probabilistic thinking reaching moderate category, (d) hypothetical-deductive reasoning attaining low category; and (e) correlational thinking achieving low category. In addition, the level of scientific reasoning has attained the experience characterized by slightly imperfect answers. Students voiced positive response to EBR, which stated that it helped them engage in scientific reasoning in Physics learning. They also voiced the general opinion on EBR and inquiry-based learning in general.

1005-1016

Authors: Gülşah Gürkan, Sibel Kahraman

Today, there is a great discrepancy between the number of recipient patients on waiting lists for an organ transplant and the number of donated organs. Negative attitudes toward organ donation are important factors in the lack of donors. Education is an important tool to change attitudes, so it is important to determine the attitudes of teachers and pre-service teachers. The aim of this research was to develop a reliable and valid scale to evaluate pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards organ transplantation and donation (OTD). The attitude scale development process was conducted on three different pre-service teachers’ groups for the purposes of performing the exploratory factor analysis (n=208), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) (n=480) and test-retest correlation (n=62) of the scale. It was established that the scale had two factor structure consisting of a total of 20 items. It was determined that the two factors determined explain 61.749% of the total variance. The CFA values confirmed the two-factor model with acceptable goodness of fit indices. The Cronbach Alpha coefficient for the total scale was calculated as .900. Test-retest reliability was calculated as .951. Finally, the results demostrated that this scale is able to measure pre-service teachers’ attitudes related to OTD use reliably.

1034-1045

Authors: Päivi Kousa, Maija Aksela, Vesna Ferk Savec

School-industry collaboration can be an effective way to implement STSE issues to teaching. However, teachers´ negative beliefs, lack of knowledge, resources, support and opportunities to collaborate with companies can impede the efficient implementation. In this case-study, 42 Finnish and Slovenian pre-service teachers´ STSE beliefs were first examined before and after the school-industry collaboration course by survey. After the course, beliefs of 8 Finnish pre-service teachers were analyzed in more detail by open-ended questionnaires and reflective writing. The pre-service teachers were more confident to teach STSE issues after the course in both countries. However, they needed more support and knowledge from the community members they collaborated with (i.e. representatives of industries, university teacher, student colleagues and school teachers). The industry-based teaching material was considered beneficiary especially for mixed-ability classrooms and the whole course was regarded useful for future practices. The results of this research highlight the importance of pre-service teacher education and practices with STSE issues. The positive and negative beliefs should be examined frequently already during the pre-service education in order to develop tools for teacher support and encouragement. This research promotes a practical example and ideas of a local school-company collaboration.

1056-1060

Authors: Editorial Board

End page, Vol. 17, No. 6, 2018, JBSE