Бюллетень новых поступлений за январь 2015 года

There is an interest among Swedish teachers to locate teaching outdoors. This study focuses on four teachers in grades 4-6, to explore their intentions and objectives with regular teaching outdoors. Data sources consist of semi-structured interviews, descriptions on successful activities, and reflections on metaphors.   The use of intentional analysis and Bloom’s revised taxonomy on teachers’ objectives show that the teachers stress the out-of-school learning that draws on the actual world and concrete material. Yet their objectives with these authentic experiences are diverse.  Two teachers have mainly cognitive objectives with a holistic view of knowledge where outdoor and indoor interact. To become knowledgeable, each individual student needs teaching in this proper context. The other two teachers primarily have affective objectives, in a dichotomy between learning theoretical knowledge indoors, and learning practical, concrete knowledge outdoors. They consider the outdoor arena as crucial for students with learning difficulties

Learning to design biology lessons based on socioscientific inquiry based learning (SSIBL)

In recent times there has been increased interest in how issues surrounding science for and with society are conceptualised, presented and discussed in science classrooms in a way that promotes responsible and active citizenship. One approach to enabling this way of teaching science is through socio-scientific inquiry-based learning (SSIBL). To promote the teaching of science using SSIBL, teachers need to have the appropriateteaching repertoire. Our aim was to explore how secondary science pre-service teachers conceptualise SSIBL through the way in which they operationalize it in their lesson plan designs and classroom materials. Participants included 424 pre-service science teachers in two UK and one Swedish Higher Education Institutions, across three academic years. Data collected include the lesson plans and materials designed to teach science using SSIBL (117 in total). A theory-driven approach was used for the analysis of the lesson designs. Most PSTs planned SSIBL lessons using biology topics, suggesting that biology topics provide particular affordances for developing competence and confidence in teaching using a SSIBL approach, which could then be applied in the teaching of other science disciplines. Our findings also revealed a tension between a willingness to engage students in dialogic learning environments while at the same time designing more structured inquiries for students to enage in. Finally, emphasis was placed on subject matter first, and the use of SSIBL contexts as end-of-unit lessons,rather than as contexts for teaching Biology subject matter. Implications for teacher education are discussed

Science for Life : Characteristics of Socio Scientific Issues that are interesting to different pupils

We present initial results from a research project aiming at investigating how pupils and teachers develop interest and knowledge in science when working with socio-scientific issues (SSI). The theoretical framework developed for modelling and analysing authentic socio-scientific cases has been submitted to the conference (Ekborg et al.). So far, research concerning work with SSI has not particularly discussed the characteristics of the content of the issues. We need more detailed knowledge about what features in content and organization of the SSI that affect the development of interest, knowledge and self-efficacy among the pupils. The socio-scientific cases developed and used in this project are relevant according to characteristics of SSI described by Ratcliffe & Grace (2003) and to the national curriculum. During the autumn 2007 approximately 2000 pupils in Sweden have worked with one or several ases. A questionnaire-based instrument was used to measure the affective domain of students’ attitudes towards and interest in science. The students were asked to answer one questionnaire before starting to work with the first case and a second questionnaire after finishing a case. The theoretical base for development of the instrument and a description of how we will consider the multivariate characteristics of student and the situation (and in later stages of the research project - the learning outcomes) has also be en submitted to the conference (Lindahl & Winberg,). On the poster the first preliminary results of which components of the tasks are most influential on students’ interest to work with socio-scientific issues in secondary school will be presented. How do the task characteristics relate to students’ affective and cognitive experiences during the work with the cases? Will e.g. the context influence boys and girls differently

Student reasoning while investigating plant material

In this project, 10-12 year old students in three classes, investigated plant material to learn more about plants and photosynthesis. The research study was conducted to reveal the students’ scientific reasoning during their work. The eleven different tasks helped students investigate plant anatomy, plant physiology, and the gases involved in photosynthesis and respiration. The study was carried out in three ordinary classrooms. The collected data consisted of audio-taped discussions, students’ notebooks, and field notes. Students’ discussions and written work, during the different plant tasks, were analysed to see how the students’ learning and understanding processes developed. The analysis is descriptive and uses categories from a modified general typology of student’s epistemological reasoning. The study shows students’ level of interest in doing the tasks, their struggle with new words and concepts, and how they develop their knowledge about plant physiology. The study confirms thatstudents, in this age group, develop understanding and show an interest in complicated processes in natural science, e.g. photosynthesis

Teachers’ aims of laboratory work in secondary school in Sweden

Upprättat; 2005; 20100511 (perhog

Working with socio-scientific issues . Students’ and teachers’ experiences

We present a research project aiming at investigating how teachers and students in lower secondary school experience work with socio-scientific issues (SSIs). Our interest concerns the importance the actual content has for the students‘ interest and learning and how students‘ gender and attitudes towards science, affect their experience. Another interest is how the teachers describe their work with the cases, the students‘ learning and what difficulties they encounter in the work. We have compared students‘ and teachers‘ experiences of the SSI work. Data have been collected by questionnaires with students and teachers and interviews with teachers. The teachers confirm results from this and other studies that students are interested in working with socio-scientific issues. However some of results are contradictory. The teachers felt safe with content and work forms but they still arranged SSI as something special and even if they were comfortable with group work they generally did not seem to know how to facilitate the students‘ work. Both students and teachers found the work interesting and the teachers but not the students judged that the students learnt as much science as usual. Both students and teachers perceived critical thinking, search for information, and ability in argumentation as learning outcomes that were developed during the work with the case

The Development of Pre-school Student Teachers´ Attitudes Towards Science and Science Teaching During Their University Studies

Considerable concern has been raised in Sweden about decreasing interest in science among young people. One key to improving attitudes towards science is an early positive contact with science. Numerous studies have however shown that elementary and pre-school teacher generally have negative attitudes towards science and science teaching, as well as poor science content knowledge. As a consequence, science teaching in pre-schools often is fragmented. A pre-school teacher education that prepares student teachers for teaching science with confidence has therefore been put forward as a way of increasing quality science teaching in pre-schools. In this longitudinal study, attitudes towards science and science teaching of students enrolled in a science and art oriented pre-school teacher programme were followed during their first years of university studies. The results show that the socialization process into the scientific discourse takes time, and that one full year of exposure to activities with scientific content was needed for skeptical attitudes towards science to change. The results also indicate that dominant attitudes, norms and behaviors of the pre-school professional culture may clash with developing science teaching skills. Pre-school teacher education therefore also needs to communicate about these contradicting cultures

Students experience of working with Socio Scientific Issues - a quantitative study in secondary school

We present results from a research project aiming at investigating how students in lower secondary school experience work with socio-scientific issues (SSI). The socio-scientific cases developed and used in this project are relevant according to characteristics of SSI and to the national curriculum. Approximately 1600 students in Sweden have worked with one or several SSI cases. A questionnaire-based instrument was used to measure the affective domain of students’ attitudes towards and interest in science before starting to work with the case and a second questionnaire after finishing a case. According to the students’ self-reported experience, all cases were interesting and related to a current issue. Most cases were equally interesting to boys and girls, the only exception was ”You are what you eat”, which girls found more interesting than boys did. Almost all students claim that they learnt new facts, learnt to argue for their standpoint and to search and scrutinize information during the work with the cases. They do not, however, claim that they learnt more science than during ordinary lessons. This research project will continue with a qualitative approach studying classroom work with SSI to ascertain the link between SSI curricula and the learning of science content