The impact of the knowledge and beliefs of Egyptian science teachers in integrating an STS based curriculum

publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticleThe failure of much curriculum innovation has been attributed to the neglect by innovators of teachers’ perceptions. The purpose of this study was to investigate inservice science teachers views of integrating Science, Technology and Society (STS) issues into the science curriculum and identify the factors that influence their decisions concerning integrating STS issues (or not). The study used mixed methods (questionnaire and interviews) with Egyptian science teachers who teach science courses for 12- to 14-year-old students. The findings indicate that unless curriculum developers take account of teachers’ beliefs and knowledge and the sociocultural factors that shape or influence those beliefs in designing and planning new STS curriculum materials, these materials are unlikely to be implemented according to their intended plan

The experiences and personal religious beliefs of Egyptian science teachers as a framework for understanding the shaping and reshaping of their beliefs and practices about Science-Technology-Society (STS)

This research investigates the role of experience in relation to teachers' beliefs and practices. The study adopted a social-cultural constructivist perspective using an interpretive approach. The research was guided by teachers' interpretations of their experiences related to teaching science through Science-Technology-Society (STS) issues. These interpretations are re-interpreted to find meaningful conceptual categories (grounded in the data) from which to build a model to understand the influence of experiences within socio-Islamic culture on teachers' beliefs and practices. Data was collected from ten teachers using interviews and observations. The findings of this study suggest that it was mainly teachers' personal religious beliefs and experiences that shaped their beliefs and practices. The research also led to a model, constructed on the basis of the data analysis, which suggests an explanation of how teachers' personal religious beliefs and experiences influence their beliefs and practices

Consistencies and inconsistencies between science teachers’ beliefs and practices

publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticleTo gain a better understanding of teachers’ beliefs about teaching, as compared with their in-reality classroom practices, case studies were constructed with four science teachers in different schools in Egypt. The main aims of this article were to provide an answer to the research question, ‘To what extent do science teachers’ beliefs correspond to their practices?’ and to explore the contextual factors that can explain the difference, the consistency or inconsistency, between teachers' beliefs and practices. The study collected data for each teacher using semi-structured interviews, notes taken while observing classes, and teachers’ notes, journals, and lesson plans concerned with STS lessons. The data were analysed using the constant comparative method around common themes, which were identified as distinctive features of teachers’ beliefs; these same themes were then compared with their practices. Results showed that a few of the in-service science teachers’ pedagogical beliefs aligned with constructivist philosophy. Some of the teachers’ beliefs were consistent with their practices, especially the traditional beliefs, while some of teachers’ practices were conflicted with their beliefs in different contexts

Challenges to STS Education: Implications for Science Teacher Education

Copyright © 2007 Sage PublicationsAs future citizens, students must make decisions requiring an understanding of the interaction of science and technology and its interface with society. STS education has been strongly identified with meeting this goal, but putting theory into practice has so far been difficult. This article asks, "What are the challenges influencing science teachers to implement STS education in the science classroom?" The author investigated using a mixed method research technique incorporating multiple sources of qualitative and quantitative data (questionnaire, interviews, field notes, and classroom observations). Constraints affecting teachers' practices in teaching science through STS education were identified and can be categorized into impersonal, interpersonal, and personal constraints. Findings indicated interactions within and between external and internal constraints. Suggestions are made for implementing change in various aspects of science teacher education

Learning and Teaching in the Knowledge Society: Challenges and Potentials

The knowledge society is a changing society in which information expands rapidly and circulates continuously around the globe; money and capital flow in a restless and relentless search for new investment opportunities; organizations continually restructure themselves; government policies undergo volatile shifts as electorates become more and more capricious; and multicultural migration keeps reconstituting the communities in which we live. There are many aspects of the era of the knowledge society. Also, there are many factors and agents that can facilitate or hinder the transition to the knowledge society. This paper will just focus on teachers’ concerns and roles on the knowledge society. The paper will start by introducing the students’ concerns as end-users of the educational services. Then I will move on to introduce what knowledge society means and what are the roles and responsibility in this era and how can we support teachers in the knowledge society to develop and be helped to develop capacities for taking risks, dealing with change, and undertaking inquiries when new demands and novel problems repeatedly confront them. Keywords: learning, teaching, knowledge, challenges, potential

The Experiences and Personal Religious Beliefs of Egyptian Science Teachers as a framework for understanding the shaping and reshaping of their beliefs and practices about Science-Technology-Society (STS)

This research investigates the role of experience in relation to teachers’ beliefs and practices. The study adopted a social-cultural constructivist perspective using an interpretive approach. The research was guided by teachers’ interpretations of their experiences related to teaching science through Science-Technology-Society (STS) issues. These interpretations are re-interpreted to find meaningful conceptual categories (grounded in the data) from which to build a model to understand the influence of experiences within socio-Islamic culture on teachers’ beliefs and practices. Data was collected from ten teachers using interviews and observations. The findings of this study suggest that it was mainly teachers’ personal religious beliefs and experiences that shaped their beliefs and practices. The research also led to a model, constructed on the basis of the data analysis, which suggests an explanation of how teachers’ personal religious beliefs and experiences influence their beliefs and practices. Personal religious beliefs; Egyptian science teachers; Teachers’ experiences; Religious schema; Teachers’ beliefs and practices; Pedagogical beliefs, Science; Technology and Society (STS); social context; Teacher educatio

Science Teachers’ Beliefs: Perceptions of Efficacy and the Nature of Scientific Knowledge and Knowing

As we write this chapter, teachers across the United States are preparing for their first days of school. Besides the excitement associated with teaching students who are newly energized after a long summer break, science teachers also come into the school year with a host of beliefs that may well shape the ways in which they teach and may ultimately have some bearing on their students’ overall experiences with science. Although there are countless beliefs that teachers hold with regard to science, in this chapter we focus specifically on two beliefs that have received the most research attention—teachers’ self-efficacy, which describes their beliefs about their capability to teach science, and their epistemic beliefs, which describe their beliefs about the nature of scientific knowledge and knowing. Science has been described by many as one of the most difficult school subjects (Drew, 2011; Dweck, 2006; National Academies of Science, 2011). For this reason, the National Academies of Science has noted that a strong sense of competence is critical for success in science and for persistence in science-related careers. For science teachers in particular, this same robust sense of competence is required both to understand science and to teach it well, as teachers who feel incompetent in science are more likely to avoid teaching it (Grindrod, Klindworth, Martin, & Tytler, 1991; Skamp, 1995). Given the importance of competence beliefs in learning and teaching science, we focus on one of the most well-studied constructs dealing with this belief—teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching science. Besides self-efficacy, scholars and practitioners alike have documented the regrettable lack of sophistication that students have with regard to their basic scientific literacy. For example, many students in middle school believe that science is composed entirely of absolute truths (BouJaoude, 1996), and that the development of scientific knowledge leaves little room for creativity and imagination (Griffiths & Barman, 1995; Lederman & O’Malley, 1990; Smith, Maclin, Houghton, & Hennessey, 2000). These troubling cases can be traced to teachers not understanding the complex nature of scientific knowledge well enough to communicate that level of sophistication to their students (Brickhouse, 1990; Duschl & Wright, 1989; Hashweh, 1996; Keys & Bryan, 2001). They can also be traced to institutional structures, such as an undue emphasis on testing, which can lead some science teachers to avoid teaching about the complexities of science (Brickhouse & Bodner, 1992; Munby, Cunningham, & Lock, 2000). The development of students’ deep understanding and appreciation for the complexity of science starts first with teachers. Teachers must have a deep level of understanding about the complexity of scientific knowledge. That is, they must understand that knowledge in science is connected to other fields of knowledge; that scientific knowledge is often revised with new evidence; that scientists often disagree; and that scientific knowledge must be justified with evidence from multiple sources and multiple experiments. Teachers must also possess the selfefficacy to lead their students through learning activities that model that complexity. Being able to teach in such a manner is certainly no easy task. It requires substantial skills in planning and organizing. It requires teachers to possess excellent classroom management skills, the ability to engage and motivate students, as well as the ability to connect these rich learning activities to the standards on which students will be tested. Given these issues that science teachers must grapple with, we chose to study science teachers’ self-efficacy and their epistemic beliefs about science.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/bookchapters/1002/thumbnail.jp

دراسة كفاءة توليد الطاقة ومعالجة المياه في خلايا الوقود الميكروبية لطبقة الرواسب

دُرست خلايا الوقود الميكروبية لطبقة الرواسب من حيث توليد الطاقة الكهربائية ومعالجة المياه. وبهدف تصميم خلية الوقود الميكروبية لطبقة الرواسب (Sediment Microbial Fuel Cell) (SMFC)، أُحضرت الرواسب من سرير نهر الصنوبر، حيث جرى توصيفها لبيان المحتوى العضوي وعناصر التغذية فيها. زودت الخلية بمنظومة تهوية سطحية، وبدأ العمل فيها. حيث تمت مراقبة مؤشرات التيار الكهربائي ومؤشرات تلوث المياه بمرور الزمن. لاحقاً تم تغيير نمط التهوية وأُجريت القياسات السابقة لتوليد الكهرباء، ومؤشرات تلوث المياه، وتمت مقارنتها مع المرحلة السابقة. أظهرت نتائج النمط الأول من التهوية أنّ القيمة العظمى لتيار الدارة القصيرة [Short Circuit Current (ISC)] بلغت (0.905) mA، بينما بلغت القيمة العظمى لجهد الدارة المفتوحة [[Open Circuit Voltage (VOC) (0.390) V. في حين لوحظ ارتفاع في قيم التيار والجهد الكهربائي في النمط الثاني من التهوية، حيث بلغت القيمة العظمى لتيار الدارة القصيرة (1.240) mA، والقيمة العظمى لجهد الدارة المفتوحة (0.430) V. عند وصل الدارة إلى مقاومة خارجية R= 100 Ω، بلغت شدة التيار الكهربائي IR= 0.805 mA، والجهد VR=0.084 V، وبلغت كثافة التيار الناتج (3.18) mA/m2، وكثافة الطاقة (0.269) mW/m2. بالنسبة لتحاليل المياه فقد لوحظ ارتفاع في قيم الـ pH التي بلغت (8.90)، كما ارتفعت كفاءة إزالة الـ COD والـفوسفات والنترات والأملاح المنحلة الكلية، حيث بلغت: 72.11%، 62.70%، 35.60%، 30.61%، على الترتيب

Isolated Type Immunoglobulin G4 Sclerosing Cholangitis: The Misdiagnosed Cholangiocarcinoma

Immunoglobulin G4 sclerosing cholangitis (IgG4-SC), firstly described in 2004, is the biliary manifestation of a recently described multisystem immune-mediated disease known as IgG4-related disease. IgG4-SC is a unique and rare type of cholangitis of unknown etiology and its precise prevalence rate is still unclear. It is characterized by bile duct wall thickening and high levels of systemic serum IgG4 plasma cells. Differential diagnoses for IgG4-SC include benign (primary sclerosing cholangitis) as well as malignant (extra-hepatic cholangiocarcinoma) diseases. Discrimination between these entities is very important, due to the fact that they have different biological behaviors and different therapeutic strategies. The rare IgG4-SC subgroup with its puzzling manifestations carries a hefty diagnostic challenge for the treating physicians, and inaccurate diagnosis can lead to unnecessary morbid surgical procedures. With the paucity and relative weakness of available data in the current literature, one needs to carefully review all available parameters. A low threshold of suspicion is required to try and prevent missing IgG4-SC. IgG4-SC is highly responsive to steroid treatment, especially during the early inflammatory phase, while delay in management could lead to fibrosis and organ dysfunction. On the other hand, cholangiocarcinoma is treated by means of surgery and/or chemotherapeutic agents

Exploring creative thinking in graphically mediated synchronous dialogues

publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticleThis paper reports on an aspect of the EC funded Argunaut project which researched and developed awareness tools for moderators of online dialogues. In this study we report on an investigation into the nature of creative thinking in online dialogues and whether or not this creative thinking can be coded for and recognized automatically such that moderators can be alerted when creative thinking is occurring or when it has not occurred after a period of time. We outline a dialogic theory of creativity, as the emergence of new perspectives from the interplay of voices, and the testing of this theory using a range of methods including a coding scheme which combined coding for creative thinking with more established codes for critical thinking, artificial intelligence pattern-matching techniques to see if our codes could be read automatically from maps and ‘key event recall’ interviews to explore the experience of participants. Our findings are that: (1) the emergence of new perspectives in a graphical dialogue map can be recognized by our coding scheme supported by a machine pattern-matching algorithm in a way that can be used to provide awareness indicators for moderators; (2) that the trigger events leading to the emergence of new perspectives in the online dialogues studied were most commonly disagreements and (3) the spatial representation of messages in a graphically mediated synchronous dialogue environment such as Digalo may offer more affordance for creativity than the much more common scrolling text chat environments. All these findings support the usefulness of our new account of creativity in online dialogues based on dialogic theory and demonstrate that this account can be operationalised through machine coding in a way that can be turned into alerts for moderators