Algunas características de investigaciones que estudian la integración de las TIC en la clase de Ciencia

En los últimos años ha aumentado el interés por el estudio de la mediación tecnológica en los procesos educativos de todos los niveles de enseñanza. En este trabajo se comunican las características encontradas en las investigaciones actuales sobre ambientes deaprendizaje que integran las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TIC) en la clase de Ciencia. El análisis de las investigaciones emplea la técnica heurística V de Gowin, como una estrategia metacognitiva que permite identificar los aspectos relevantes del proceso de investigación. Se revisaron y describieron los diferentes trabajos seleccionados para determinar las tendencias actuales en el estudio de procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje con tecnologías. Se pudo identificar que la mayoría de los trabajos analizados estudian los aspectos asociados con la efectividad didáctica del uso de las TIC y sólo unos pocos hacen referencia a los procesos interactivos que emergen de actividades de aprendizaje

The Role of Coherent Research-Based Curricular Unit in Mediating Students’ Integrated Vision of Human Impact on the Environment

[EN] The ongoing development of the high school ecology curricular unit presented in this proposal is a response to the new tide of educational reforms in the United States. This curricular unit represents an attempt to frame K-12 science curriculum around three dimensions: crosscutting concepts, disciplinary core ideas and scientific practices recently released in the report on a Framework for New K-12 Science Education (National Research Council, 2012). Integration of three dimensions into the development of agriculture-related curricular unit reflects complexity and logic inherent in science education facilitating deeper conceptual understanding. The development of this curricular unit takes place under the initiative of the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project and explores the efficacy of the agriculture-related unit on students’ integrated vision of the human impact on natural systems. Research project seeks to recognize the characteristics that identify research-based curriculum (Clements, 2007). The interdisciplinary nature of this project has the potential to investigate how close adherence to features identifying research-based curriculum can support the development of coherent curricular unit mediating students’ integrated vision of environmental issues. Mediation results of this nature have larger implications on future efficacy studies of curriculum intervention.Ghalichi, N.; Roehrig, G. (2017). The Role of Coherent Research-Based Curricular Unit in Mediating Students’ Integrated Vision of Human Impact on the Environment. En Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Higher Education Advances. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 965-973. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD17.2017.5489OCS96597

Developing and validating a new reliable instrument for assessing open distance learning educator's learning management system - TPACK

A research report submitted to the Wits School of Education, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education by combination of coursework and research Johannesburg, 2017Modern-day open and distance learning (ODL) educators are increasingly being called upon to apply different forms of knowledge to integrate web-based learning management systems (LMSs) effectively for teaching and learning. To test this assumption, this study set out to develop and validate a new reliable instrument for assessing ODL educators’ perceived learning management system technological pedagogical content knowledge (LMS-TPACK). Past empirical studies grounded in Mishra and Koehler’s TPACK framework (2006) were examined to construct the self-report survey. Quantitative data were collected from 332 educators. Descriptive analysis, exploratory factor analysis and internal consistency reliability using Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were computed. The findings reveal key LMS-TPACK constructs that have proven to be both valid and reliable. Six out of the seven subscales used to assess LMS-TPACK were found to be significant, i.e. LMS knowledge (LMS-K), pedagogical knowledge (PK), content knowledge (CK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), LMS pedagogical knowledge (LMS-PK) and LMS-TPACK, while LMS-CK failed to emerge in the factor structure. Several possible reasons are proposed for the lack or absence of LMS-CK. The resulting Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the different constructs as well as the overall instrument scale provide compelling evidence for stable internal consistency reliability. Alpha for the entire LMS-TPACK survey was found to be excellent (α = .931). Recommendations are made for improvements to the instrument and directions for future research are highlighted.MT201

Using Haptic Virtual Reality to Increase Learning Gains and Construct Knowledge of Unobservable Phenomena

This project is designed to be a compilation of ten haptic virtual reality labs using the software zSpace. The labs will follow the NYS Living Environment Standards as well as the Next Generation Science Standards for living environment as well as physical/general science topics for middle school students. The project will be a list of available laboratories along with their appropriate fit into the curriculum and a description of how they fit New York State curriculum standards for the appropriate discipline. The goal of these laboratory assignments is to increase learning gains in students by allowing them to experience scientific phenomena that can often be unrelatable and unobservable

The Primary Students’ Understanding of Scientific Models through Epistemological and Ontological Perspective

Achieving the targets of science education mostly depends on the true understanding of the fundamentals where science and the scientific efforts are embedded through the realist ontology and epistemology that science is based on. Models have a special place in science education revealing to understand the nature and status of scientific knowledge. By considering this function of models, this research puts forward the views of the primary students on scientific models. The participants of this qualitative survey research are twenty-eight 7th graders of a primary school in Izmir, Turkey. The participants are given a questionnaire and a worksheet, which were developed by the researchers, addressing both epistemological and ontological character of models. The results showed that students have generally moderate understanding of models through perceptual and ordinary reality