Teaching science and technology at primary school level: theoretical and practical considerations for primary school teachers' professional training.

This paper focuses on the importance of starting science and technology education at a young age and at the consequential importance of providing primary school teachers with enough professional background to be able to effectively incorporate science and technology into their teaching. We will discuss a large-scale program in The Netherlands that is aimed at the professionalization of elementary school teachers in the field of science and technology. Theoretical and practical considerations will be provided for the three pillars that ideally should be included in teacher training programs in this domain: (1) Primary school teachers’ knowledge of and competency in scientific concepts and scientific reasoning; (2) Primary school teachers’ attitude towards science (in terms of cognitive, affective, and behavioural dimensions of attitude); and (3) Primary school teachers’ pedagogical competency to enhance inquiry-based learning

Implicit STEM ability beliefs predict secondary school students’ STEM self-efficacy beliefs and their intention to opt for a STEM field career

Despite the widely-accepted view that low self-efficacy beliefs negatively influence students’ intention to opt for a STEM field oriented study or career path, it remains unclear how to effectively stimulate these beliefs in students who do seem to have the ability and motivation to opt for a STEM career. A suggestion from previous literature is that students’ implicit beliefs about the malleability of their learning ability can have a major impact on their self-efficacy beliefs, and, importantly, that these implicit beliefs are malleable themselves. Even though this relation between implicit beliefs, self-efficacy, and STEM field aspirations has been suggested multiple times, there is no empirical evidence to support this claim. The goal of the current study was to examine whether implicit beliefs about the malleability of STEM ability are associated with secondary school students’ intention to opt for a STEM field bachelor’s degree, using a Structural Equation Modelling approach. Furthermore, we examined the mediating role of STEM-oriented self-efficacy beliefs on the relationship between implicit ability beliefs and STEM intention. We used a Likert-type questionnaire, consisting of subscales to measure ability beliefs, self-efficacy, and intention to opt for a STEM degree of secondary school students in their fifth grade (n = 483). Results showed that there is a positive relation between implicit STEM ability beliefs and the intention to opt for a STEM field bachelor degree, and that this relation is partly mediated by self-efficacy beliefs. Incremental STEM ability beliefs predicted positive self-efficacy beliefs and increased STEM intention. These findings provide a foundation for a novel approach to stimulate and motivate students for the STEM field, namely by stimulating incremental beliefs about their STEM ability

Improving primary teachers’ attitudes toward science by attitude-focused professional development

This article provides a description of a novel, attitude-focused, professional development intervention, and presents the results of an experimental pretest-posttest control group study investigating the effects of this intervention on primary teachers’ personal attitudes toward science, attitudes toward teaching science, and their science teaching behavior. The training course integrated an explicit focus on attitudes towards (teaching) science with an inquiry-based learning approach and refrained from recipe-like, pre-structured, and content-based instruction examples. Results show that the training course had profound positive effects on primary teachers’ professional attitude towards teaching science. Teachers improved in self-efficacy beliefs regarding science teaching, felt less dependent on context factors, and enjoyed science teaching more. In addition, the training course had positive effects on teachers’ personal attitude towards science, including improved self-efficacy and relevance beliefs, and decreased anxiety. Furthermore, there was a large effect on teachers’ science teaching behavior in the classroom and on the number of science related activities they engaged in during their personal lives. These results show that an attitude-focused approach is more effective in changing teachers’ attitudes and science teaching behavior compared to merely being engaged in science teachin

Modeling the relation between students’ implicit beliefs about their abilities and their educational STEM choices

Despite the large body of research on students’ educational and career choices in the field of technology, design, and science, we still lack a clear understanding of how to stimulate more students to opt for a study path or career within the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). In this article, we outline a new theoretical framework to describe how students’ implicit belief about the malleability of their intelligence can be an important precursor of their STEM educational and career choice behavior. Based on the different bodies of literature about STEM choices and about students’ implicit beliefs about their abilities, we present three hypothetical pathways, in the form of testable models, that describe potential relations between the implicit theories that students may hold regarding the malleability of their STEM ability and students’ intentions to pursue a STEM career. Each pathway outlines a specific mediating factor influencing this relation: (a) self-efficacy beliefs, (b) stereotypical thinking, and (c) motivational beliefs. These pathways provide more insight into the underlying mechanisms that may affect STEM choice behavior. In our view, such a theoretical underpinning is a necessary prerequisite for further scientific investigation into the potential relations between students’ implicit beliefs about their potential development, relevant psychological variables, and STEM choice behavior. Furthermore, we believe it provides a theoretical foundation for practical interventions that aim to stimulate STEM choice behavior

Proportions of “accurate” and “not accurate” scores per coding question included in the ACCURATE variable.

<p>The proportions (in %) of categorization into “not accurate” (value  =  0) versus “accurate” (value  =  1) for the 4 coding questions (see text left to the bar graph) that were used to calculate the value of the composite variable “ACCURATE”. Each article received a score of 0 or 1 for each of these 4 questions, and the total score for “ACCURATE” was the average of these 4 scores, resulting in a total score between 0 and 1.</p

Summary and specification of the independent variables.

<p>Summary and specification of the independent variables.</p

Distributions of Tone categories by News Wave, Topic, and Media Type.

<p>Values inside the bars are the percentages of the tone categories (see gray-scale coding legend above the bar graphs) within each category of the independent variables. Absolute numbers of articles are indicated between brackets behind the News wave, Topic and Media Type categories left to the bar graphs. A. Tone distribution for News wave versus regular reporting periods. B. Tone distribution for the different Topics. C. Tone distribution for the different Media Types.</p

Details of the coded articles.

<p>^* Source: Institute for Media Auditing (HOI), <a href="http://www.hoi-online.nl/" target="_blank">http://www.hoi-online.nl/</a>.</p><p>^**Source: National Research Multimedia (NOM), <a href="http://www.nommedia.nl/" target="_blank">http://www.nommedia.nl/</a>.</p

Average accuracy values by Topic, Tone, Media Type and by Tone per Media Type.

<p><b>A</b>. The average accuracy values for the different Topics. <b>B</b>. The average accuracy values (bars, left vertical axis) for the different Tone categories. The proportion of News articles and Commentaries (as % of all articles) is additionally plotted for each tone category (lines, right vertical axis). <b>C</b>. The average accuracy values for the different Media Types. <b>D</b>. The average accuracy values by Tone category for the three newspaper types separately. All graphs: error bars indicate s.e.m.</p