Eessõna

Ligikaudu kümme aastat on nn Rocardi raporti "Science education now: A renewed pedagogy for the future of Europe" avaldamisest saadik olnud loodusteaduslik ja matemaatikaharidus Euroopa Liidus varasemast suurema tähelepanu all. Selle eesmärk on suurendada loodusteadustes, inseneri- ja matemaatikavaldkonnas karjääri valivate inimeste hulka, et tagada liikmesriikide areng neile erialadele tugineva innovatsiooni kaudu. Ka Euroopa Komisjoni hiljutises raportis "Science education for responsible citizenship" (2015) rõhutatakse, et tulevikusuundumused eeldavad kõigi ühiskonnaliikmete senisest paremat arusaamist loodusteadustest ja tehnoloogiast, et tagada nende aktiivne ja vastutustundlik osalemine otsustusprotsessis ja teadmistepõhises innovatsioonis. Muutus algab aga koolist, kus tuleb senisest enam pöörata tähelepanu loodusteadusliku-tehnoloogiaalase kirjaoskuse kõrgematele tasemetele. &nbsp

Editorial: Concept mapping: Improving learning and understanding

Concept mapping has undergone significant evolution over the past half-century. Initially developed by Joseph Novak and his graduate students as a graphic representation to model the science understanding of elementary school students through interviews, it has now become a widely used knowledge representation tool across age groups and in a broad range of domains. Although mainly used to support meaningful learning, its application has expanded to an ever-increasing variety of applications. Those of us who have worked with concept maps for years and seen their potential continually seek to improve their use, with a focus on understanding how to construct effective maps, how the maps can support knowledge construction and learning, and how they can aid in the development of higher-order thinking skills and knowledge integration. Such improvements can come in various forms, including software tools that support these efforts. This special issue showcases a selection of papers from the 9th International Conference on Concept Mapping that aim to improve and extend the use of concept mapping to enhance learning, understanding, and knowledge construction and sharing. Each author offers a unique perspective within this common theme

Using Concept Mapping in Professional Education

Concept mapping is a powerful tool of thought representation. This paper reveals the trends and best usages of concept mapping especially in professional education. As defined here, concept mapping is a graphical display of thinking, a technique for idea representation, and a process for, among other things, problem solving, strategy planning, and thought development. Viewed as a methodological process, concept mapping allows a person to construct relations among different aspects of a subject, to make connections, and to display relations of ideas and constituent parts of thoughts. The concept mapping method is based on the theory of meaningful learning, which posits that knowledgin- memory is saved in propositional and relative ways. The generation of a concept map allows the display of propositional knowledge in a form that can be inspected from various angles, revealing a variety of points of view, scenarios, and models of idea construction. The process is seen to be beneficial for myriad types of decision-making. Concept mapping is used in many fields of education, though in some more than in others. Concept mapping has gained a great deal of recognition in science education, both in the literature and in the practice. But how is concept mapping viewed in the professions? Has it been researched? What is the future of concept mapping in vocational and professional education? The intent of this article is to answer these questions. The approach is to find and cull success significant pieces of research on concept mapping within medical, veterinary, legal and engineering instructional contexts. We identified 311 such research articles and analyzed them. The analysis shows that the main usage of concept mapping in the professions is as a learning tool, often combined with assessment

Õpilaste loodusteadusliku kirjaoskuse tasemete muutus gümnaasiumiõpingute jooksul

Uurimuse eesmärk on longituuduuringule tuginedes kirjeldada gümnaasiumiõpilaste loodusteadusliku kirjaoskuse kujunemise protsessi dünaamikat. Töös kasutatud originaalinstrument koosneb neljast osast: neljast kontekstipõhisest ülesandest, teaduse olemuse ja enesehinnangu küsimustikest ning mõistekaardist. Representatiivse valimiga uuringus osalesid õpilased 42 koolist. Uurimistulemustest ilmneb, et õpilaste loodusteadusliku kirjaoskuse tase kasvab gümnaasiumi jooksul minimaalselt. Õpilaste tulemused 10. ja 12. klassis on sarnased nii aineteadmiste reprodutseerimises, kõrgemat järku kognitiivsetes oskustes, teaduse olemuse mõistmises, enesehinnangus ja ka mõistekaardi kasutamises. Seega, kuigi õppekava on kompetentsuspõhine, näitavad uurimistulemused, et õpilaste loodusteadusliku kirjaoskuse taseme muutus tuleneb pigem aineteadmiste juurdekasvust kui muudest komponentidest. Seetõttu on vaja alustada hariduspoliitilist diskussiooni loodusteaduslike õppeainete õpetamise nüüdisajastamiseks.  Summar

Students’ Self-Efficacy and Values Based on A 21st Century Vision of Scientific Literacy – A Pilot Study

AbstractThe world in the 21st century in which we live is much different than that which has been experienced in the last century. A huge shift has been the replacing of “manpower” with modern digital technology both in the world of work and in our every-day life. In turn this has led to a shift in the skills, attributes and even values needed with which no machine is able to compete, for example, attention to communication and collaboration skills. Today, the goals of education need to respect this shift in student needs and ensure students gain the skills needed for success in both a global market and an urban society. This pilot study is geared towards determining students’ self-efficacy in 21st century skills and values associated with a modern conception of scientific literacy and also explores the degree to which students recognize the importance of these skills and values, so as to be successful in their future lives

Cmapanalysis: an extensible concept map analysis tool

Concept maps are used extensively as an assessment tool, and the literature is abundant with studies on the use of concept maps for assessment and on the assessment of concept maps. The assessment of concept maps can be an arduous process, in particular when assessing a large number of maps. CmapAnalysis is a software tool that facilitates performing various analysis measures on a collection of concept maps. A set of measures that consider size, quality and structure properties of the maps are included. The program is designed to be extensible, allowing users to add their own measures. The program is not intended to replace the individual evaluation of concept maps by teachers and instructors, as it does not capable of “understanding” the content of the maps. It is aimed at researchers who are looking for more general trends and measures across a large number of maps, and who can extend it with their own measures. The output of CmapAnalysis is an Excel spreadsheet that can be further analyzed

Improving learning and understanding through concept mapping

It is widely accepted that concept maps are a meaningful learning tool. Even so, the use of concept mapping as a meaningful learning tool is probably less common than the use of concept mapping as an assessment tool. In first place, the easiest thing to with a student’s concept map is to apply a rubric and give it a grade. And second, teachers often believe that by using a meaningful learning tool, their students are learning meaningfully while constructing their concept maps. We are then missing on the greatest power of the concept map, its use as a tool to learn meaningfully. In this paper we examine the difference between using concept maps for learning and for assessment, and propose steps on how to move towards the use of the tool to improve students’ learning and understanding

IKT ja teised läbivad teemad üldhariduskooli õppekavas

Tiigrihüppe Sihtasutuse tellimusel Tallinna Ülikooli poolt läbi viidud uuring.Käesolev uuring keskendub läbiva teema „Infotehnoloogia ning meedia“ rakendamisele Eesti koolides. Uuringu peaeesmärgiks on hetkeolukorra kaardistamine, mis võimaldaks paremini planeerida teadmistepõhisesse infoühiskonda jõudmise efektiivseid strateegiaid eelkõige uue riikliku õppekava arendamise kontekstis.http://www.innovatsioonikeskus.ee/sites/default/files/tekstifailid/IKT_ja_teised_labivad_teemad_UHK_oppekavas2008.pd

Large scale studies with concept mapping

Concept mapping is a method for determining the achievement of knowledge. Concepts are linked with labelled lines to proposition and so the concepts create a graphical structured meaningful relationship. There are many ways to use concept mapping in research as data collecting and assessment instrument. Changing the conditions (like focus question about the concept map, lists of concepts, given structure of concept map etc.) also change the results. For a valid research is necessary to analyse the study and define the aims before collecting the data. Probably the most comfortable concept mapping constructing opportunity is to use special Internet based environment and analysing program � that makes data collection easier and more objective. This article brings out, what kind of problems may occur, when concept mapping method is used as a research instrument in a large scale study and it also tries to define how to select the a valid instrument for a study. Researchers want to analyse students' knowledge, but instead sometimes they can only control whether they were able to create concept maps. The study brought out, that the quality of concept maps does not depend on concept maps creating frequency and computer handling skills.Los mapas conceptuales son un método para determinar los logros de aprendizaje. Los conceptos se unen mediante líneas etiquetadas y, de esta forma, los conceptos crean una relación significativa estructurada gráficamente. Existen muchas vías para usar mapas conceptuales en investigación como instrumento de recogida de datos y cómo instrumento de evaluación. Cambiando las condiciones (como la pregunta de enfoque, la lista de conceptos, una estructura dada del mapa conceptual, etc.) también cambian los resultados. Probablemente la forma más cómoda de construir mapas conceptuales sea usar un programa de análisis basado en un entorno de Internet, que hace la toma de datos más fácil y objetiva. Este artículo resalta los distintos problemas que pueden aparecer cuando los mapas conceptuales son usados como instrumento de investigación en un estudio a gran escala e intenta definir también cómo seleccionar un instrumento válido para un estudio. Los investigadores desean analizar el conocimiento de los estudiantes, pero en muchos casos sólo controlan si fueron capaces de crear mapas conceptuales. El estudio hizo evidente que la calidad de los mapas conceptuales no depende de la frecuencia de realización de mapas conceptuales ni de las habilidades para el manejo del ordenador

Suggestions for teacher education from concept mapping studies

In order to enhance primary and secondary education, teaching and learning methods need to be continuously developed as well as, of course, promote teaching quality dependent on teacher personality, teacher professional development, teacher self-development, etc. Teacher professional development gives the novice teacher access to a wide set of teaching methods and assessment opportunities, especially geared to flexible learning and assessment methods, which can be considered for adoption. One such flexible method is the use of concept mapping. This article describes the results of several studies, where concept mapping method was used, giving many didactical suggestions for using concept mapping for learning and especially for assessment. Additionally, considerations are introduced on using concept maps as a research instrument