Students Argumentation in Science Lessons: a Story of Two Research Projects

The study analysed profiles of students\u27 argumentation and how lessons may develop students\u27 argumentation skills. The study was conducted at two Indonesian progressive private schools and a school located in Australian low socio-economic community. This study explored possibilities to draw together results from two different research approaches typical to each country. The Indonesian research project used paper and pencil tests and interviews to investigate students\u27 argumentation skills, while the Australian research project analysed videos of the lessons. The Indonesian study finds that there is no significant different between two types of schools and gender. The Australian classroom showed shifts in creative dispositions that include the argumentation processes but not a consistent pattern between classes. The Australian teachers actively required students to make claims, explore the robustness of these claims, transferred these claims to new settings and to think of alternative explanations that encouraged students to construct more coherent arguments. This study finds that interpreting and re-interpreting two different research approaches can produce insights that benefit both sides as it can account for the context and needs of each country. In addition, combining of two different methodologies provided perspectives often not collected through single methodologies

Implementasi Pembelajaran Berbasis Multi Representasi untuk Peningkatan Penguasaan Konsep Fisika Kuantum

Implementation of Multiple-Representation-Based Instructions to Improve the Mastery of Quantum Physics Concepts. This study aimed to design and investigate the role of multiple-representation-based instructions in the improvement of student teachers' quantum physics mastery. This study used a quasi-experimental control group pretest-posttest design as quantitative part of a mixed-methods study. The subjects were student teachers of physics in the Department of Mathematics and Science Education in a state university in Lampung Province in the 2009-2010 academic year. For assessing the quantum physics mastery, the Quantum Physics Concept Achievement Test (QPCAT) was used. The quantitative analyses were conducted using the Mann Whitney U test. The results showed that multiple-representation-based instructions had a significant effect on student teachers' quantum physics concept mastery. The results of semi-structured interviews as qualitative part of this study indicated that in the experimental group the students used a variety of representation modes in the learning process and were capable of using the most appropriate one to solve a given quantum physics concept problem

Save with Suspension Fences.

5 p

Drawing nature of science in pre-service science teacher education: Epistemic insight through visual representations

Developing pre-service science teachers’ epistemic insight remains a challenge, despite decades of research in related bodies of work such as the nature of science (NOS) in science education. While there may be numerous aspects to this problem, one critical element is that the NOS is a meta-concept that demands higher-order cognitive skills. One possible strategy to facilitate pre-service teachers’ understanding of epistemic aspects of science is visualisation. Visual representations of objects and processes can be tools for developing and monitoring understanding. Although the NOS and visualisation literatures have been studied extensively, the intersection of these bodies of literatures has been minimal. Incorporating visual tools on the NOS in teacher education is likely to facilitate teachers’ learning, eventually impacting their students’ learning of the NOS. The objective of this paper is to illustrate how the visual tools of scientific knowledge and practices aspects of the NOS can be integrated in science teacher education in order to develop pre-service teachers’ epistemic insight. The paper presents an empirical study that incorporated visual tools about the NOS in primary science teacher education. Data on 14 pre-service teachers’ are presented along with in-depth case studies of 3 pre-service teachers illustrating the influence of the teacher education intervention. The qualitative analysis of visual representations before and after the intervention as well as verbal data suggests that there was improvement in pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the NOS. Implications for future research on visualisation of the NOS are discussed

The Cenozoic Subduction History of Greater Indian Lithosphere Beneath Tibet

Abstract HKT-ISTP 2013 Opening Sessio

Californian Science Students' Perceptions of their Classoom Learning Environments.

This study utilised the What Is Happening In this Class (WIHIC) questionnaire to examine factors that influence Californian student perceptions of their learning environment. Data were collected from 665 USA middle school science students in 11 Californian schools. Several background variables were included in the study to investigate their effects on students’ perceptions, such as student and teacher gender, student ethnic background and socio-economic status (SES), and student age. Class and school variables, such as class ethnic composition, class size and school socioeconomic status were also collected. A hierarchical analysis of variance was conducted to investigate separate and joint effects of these variables. Results from this study indicate that some scales of the WIHIC are more inclined to measure personal or idiosyncratic features of student perceptions of their learning environment whereas other scales contain more variance at the class level. Also, it was found that different variables affect different scale scores. A variable that consistently affected students' perceptions, regardless of the element of interest in the learning environment was student gender. Generally speaking girls perceived their learning environment more positively than did boys

ELL’s science meaning making in multimodal inquiry: a case-study in a Hong Kong bilingual school

This paper reports on a multimodal teaching approach delivered to grade 5 elementary students in a bilingual school in Hong Kong, as part of a larger research study aimed at supporting English Language Learners (ELLs) in science class. As language demands of reading, writing and talking science place additional challenges on ELLs, there is much research interest in exploring the use of multiple modes of communication beyond the dominant use of verbal and written language. Research has shown that students develop a better scientific understanding of natural phenomena by using and alternating between a variety of representations. Yet, questions remain as to what meanings ELLs make during a multimodal discourse and, in turn, how such discourse provides support to ELLs in learning science. Drawing on social semiotics, which theorizes language as a meaning making resource comprising a range of modes (e.g. gestures and diagrams), we used a case-study approach to examine how a multimodal instructional approach provided 10 students with multiple avenues to make sense of science learning. Video recordings (capturing gestures, speech and model manipulation) and student works (drawing and writing) were collected during nine inquiry science lessons, which encompassed biology, physics and chemistry science units. Multimodal transcription allowed discourse to be analysed at a fine-grain level which, together with analysis of student works, indicated that the multimodal instructional approach provided the necessary inquiry opportunities and variety of language experiences for ELLs to build science understandings. Analysis also revealed how the affordances of modes attributed to the meaning making potentials for the ELLs and how they provided alternate communication avenues in which new meanings could be made. The findings from this study have implications for ELLs learning science within the growing multilingual Asia-Pacific region