The effect of interest and engagement in learning science on adults' scientific competency and environmental action

Although existing research has documented the significant relationship among student interest, engagement, and learning outcome, limited studies have investigated how adults’ interest and engagement in learning science are related to their scientific competency and environmental action. This study used 2012 and 2015 national datasets which were collected from face-to-face interviews representing how the interest and engagement of Taiwan citizens in understanding and exposure to science in society synergistically interact with their scientific competency and environmental action. Results showed that engagement in learning is more predictive to scientific competency and environmental action than interest. In addition, engagement in visiting science museums appears to be a superior venue for promoting adults’ environmental action than watching science related TV programs. These findings reveal an effective strategy of promoting adult environmental action through science communication and the importance of deep science learning

Supportive conditions and mechanisms of teachers’ professional development on inquiry-based science teaching through a learning community

Background and purpose: As clear mechanisms for motivating and engaging teachers in learning and working collaboratively with colleagues are scarce, this study explored supportive conditions of promoting teacher professional development on inquirybased science teaching in a Professional Learning Community (PLC) and examined how teachers’ professional development impacted their students’ learning outcomes. Design and methods: Two apurposively selected lead teachers along with their PLC colleagues and students participated in this study. Results: The qualitative results reveal that the interactive domain, in which PLC teachers work collaboratively in sharing teaching lessons and developing assessment items, plays a critical role in promoting their professional development. The quantitative results, indicating that the students of the two lead teachers outperformed their counterparts on scientific competencies, Provide support that advancement of teacher's professional development is beneficial to student learning outcome. Conclusion: These results strengthen our understanding of the essential supportive conditions and mechanisms that an effective model must have for teachers’ professional development, which can lead to better student learning outcomes

A science for citizenship model: Assessing the effects of benefits, risks, and trust for predicting students’ interest in and understanding of science-related content

This study showcases the Science for Citizenship Model (SCM) as a new instructional methodology for presenting, to secondary students, science-related technology content related to the use of science in society not taught in the science curriculum, and a new approach for assessing the intercorrelations among three independent variables (benefits, risks, and trust) to predict the dependent variable of triggered interest in learning science. Utilizing a 50-minute instructional presentation on nanotechnology for citizenship, data were collected from 301 Taiwanese high school students. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and paired-samples t-tests were used to analyze the fitness of data to SCM and the extent to which a 50-minute class presentation of nanotechnology for citizenship affected students’ awareness of benefits, risks, trust, and triggered interest in learning science. Results of SCM on pre-tests and post-tests revealed acceptable model fit to data and demonstrated that the strongest predictor of students’ triggered interest in nanotechnology was their trust in science. Paired-samples t-test results on students’ understanding of nanotechnology and their self-evaluated awareness of the benefits and risks of nanotechology, trust in scientists, and interest in learning science revealed low significant differences between pre-test and post-test. These results provide evidence that a short 50-minute presentation on an emerging science not normally addressed within traditional science curriculum had a significant yet limited impact on students’ learning of nanotechnology in the classroom. Finally, we suggest why the results of this study may be important to science education instruction and research for understanding how the integration into classroom science education of short presentations of cutting-edge science and emerging technologies in support of the science for citizenship enterprise might be accomplished through future investigations

Investigation of effective strategies for developing creative science thinking

The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of the creative inquiry-based science teaching on students’ creative science thinking and science inquiry performance. A quasi-experimental design consisting one experimental group (N = 20) and one comparison group (N = 24) with pretest and post-test was conducted. The framework of the intervention focused on potential strategies such as promoting divergent and convergent thinking and providing an open, inquiry-based learning environment that are recommended by the literature. Results revealed that the experimental group students outperformed their counterparts in the comparison group on the performances of science inquiry and convergent thinking. Additional qualitative data analyses from classroom observations and case teacher interviews identified supportive teaching strategies (e.g. facilitating associative thinking, sharing impressive ideas, encouraging evidence-based conclusions, and reviewing and commenting on group presentations) for developing students’ creative science thinking

Exploring the significant predictors of convergent and divergent scientific creativities

Despite that the importance of scientific creativity has been emphasized in literature, limited attention has been paid to the identification of multiple path estimates of scientific creativity. This two-stage study investigated significant predictors and pathway effects of divergent and convergent scientific creativities. Stage one was focused on the development and validation of instruments. At stage two, convenience samples of 307 elementary students from four different schools were asked to respond to the creativity learning environment questionnaire, scientific creativity test, and science inquiry test. The results of structured equation modeling analyses supported that there is a synergistic effect of creativity learning environment and performance of science achievement on student performance of science inquiry and scientific creativity. In addition, this study identified that creativity learning environment and performance of science achievement are significant predictors of divergent scientific creativity while science inquiry plays a critical role on student convergent scientific creativity

Exploring the assessment of and relationship between elementary students’ scientific creativity and science inquiry

The purposes of this study were to (a) develop and validate instruments to assess elementary students’ scientific creativity and science inquiry, (b) investigate the relationship between the two competencies, and (c) compare the two competencies among different grade level students. The scientific creativity test was composed of 7 open-ended items designed to assess divergent creativity and 2 open-ended items to assess convergent creativity. The science inquiry tests were composed of an open-ended inquiry (O-inquiry) test and a multiple-choice inquiry test (M-inquiry). The aforementioned instruments were verified with satisfactory validities and reliabilities in a pilot study. A total of 321 elementary students from grades 3, 4, 5 and 6 participated in the study to determine the performance differences detected by these instruments. It was found that both convergent and divergent creativity were significantly (p < .001) related with O-inquiry and M-inquiry. Analyses of variance revealed that there were significant grade-level main effects for scientific creativity and science inquiry. Post-hoc pair-wise comparisons revealed significant gaps between the 3rd graders’ performances on scientific creativity and science inquiry and the performances of 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. Implications for curricular design and science teaching are discussed

Exploring the role of visitors’ self-identity in marine museum learning

As research of self-identity, self-concept, and self-efficacy in the discourse of environmental education is scarce, this study attempted to explore the role of visitors’ self-identity in marine museum learning. With the use of on-site data collection, investigators of this study collected 144 completed questionnaire surveys from marine museum visitors. Seventeen of these visitors were randomly selected and agreed for an individual 30-minute follow-up interview to solicit their views of environmental awareness and responsibility. Results revealed that visitors who viewed themselves as explorer/facilitator (E&F) outperformed visitors who viewed themselves as experience seeker/recharger on self-concept and self-efficacy. In addition, E&F visitors tended to have a better understanding of conservation, sustainability, human–nature interaction, and science communication. All visitors did possess similar levels of interest and enjoyment during their museum visit. The above results provide insights into the important role of self-identity in the learning outcomes of self-concept, self-efficacy, and environmental awareness and responsibility among museum visitors

The impact of museum interpretation tour on visitors' engagement and post-visit conservation intentions and behaviours

This study investigated the effect of marine museum interpretation on visitors' learning engagement and post‐visit behaviours. On‐site survey, follow‐up online survey and interview were used for data collection. Structural equation modelling was utilised to analyse the quantitative data. Additional classification of data from the open‐ended questions and interviews provided more detailed insights into the quantitative findings. Overall, this study revealed that a short interpretation tour experience has the potential to create long lasting impacts on visitors' pro‐environmental behaviours. The findings support the practical implication of using interactive interpretation for promoting visitors' pro‐environmental attitudes and behaviours