Effect of Summer Science Camp on tur Gifted Students’ Views of Nature of Science

This study examines the effect of a summer science camp involved in explicit-reflective Nature of Science (NOS) instruction on tur gifted students’ views of NOS. During the teaching intervention, six experienced faculties and two teachers taught six explicit-reflective NOS activities (90 minutes per day through a seven-day period) to 30 gifted students drawn from three Science and Art Centers (SACs). An open-ended Views of NOS Questionnaire was used to assess the students’ NOS views before and after the summer science camp. The pre-test results showed that nearly half of the participants fell into either the informed level or the transitional level of the NOS. After the teaching intervention, findings revealed that the number of students, who held naïve views of empirical, creative and imaginative aspects reduced, and the students improved to the transitional view, not informed one. In addition, a few students’ views of the tentative aspect in the NOS changed from naïve and transitional views into informed ones. These slight improvements in the views are likely due to the gifted students’ pre-existing knowledge of the NOS and supplying comprehensive instruction and training through limited time. A residential summer science program is recommended to overcome the encountered pitfalls and to educate the tur gifted students. © 2014, © 2014 — World Council for Gifted and Talented Children. All rights reserved

Using an animated case scenario based on constructivist 5e model to enhance pre- service teachers' awareness of electrical safety

The objective of this study is to get pre-service teachers to develop an awareness of first aid knowledge and skills related to electrical shocking and safety within a scenario based animation based on a Constructivist 5E model. The sample of the study was composed of 78 (46 girls and 32 boys) pre-service classroom teachers from two faculties of education at two tur Universities. For the purpose of this qualitative study, an open-ended "Electrical Safety Awareness Questionnaire" was used to assess the participants' acquisition, retention and awareness levels in the beginning, at the end and five weeks after the implementation of the intervention. A one-group pretest-posttest design was adopted to measure the outcomes. Interpretative analysis was used to analyze the data. Results showed that when the subject was electricity, using an animated case scenario based on a constructivist 5E model was effective in teaching first aid knowledge and helping pre-service teachers acquire and retain technical skills about the electric shock. © 2013 Educational Consultancy and Research Center