ISSN:0022-4308    

DOI:10.1002/tea.3660320103

出版商:Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company    

年代:1995

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to try to determine what influences girls to choose science. Forty girls were interviewed in Grades 2, 5, 8, 11 using a semistructured protocol. The interview focused on feelings about science, science careers, peer and parental support, and how science is taught. To determine whether their responses were based on gender, each girl was asked to respond to questions as if she were a boy. The girls were highly self‐confident and positive about science. All of the girls took a strong equity position and asserted that women can and should do science. The girls liked learning science in an interactive social context rather than participating in activities that isolated them such as independent reading, writing, or note taking. Those who chose science careers were drawn to them because of strong affective experiences with a loved one and a desire to help. The interviews were analyzed through the framework of women's affective and psychological need

ISSN:0022-4308    

DOI:10.1002/tea.3660320104

出版商:Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company    

年代:1995

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractResearchers report finding correlational data to identify a positive relationship between nuclear knowledge and positive attitudes toward the use of nuclear energy. This study investigated the relationship between nuclear knowledge and nuclear attitudes and to the understanding of Science‐Technology‐Society attitudes involving technological attitude objects. This quasi‐experimental study tested the causal relationship between knowledge about nuclear power plants and attitudes toward their use in electrical generation. Subjects were presented with systematically designed communications developed to change either their knowledge about or attitude toward nuclear plants. The Standard Events of Instruction was the basis of the knowledge instruction, whereas the Learning Theory Approach and the Theory of Reasoned Action were the theoretical bases of the persuasive communication. The principal finding was that nuclear knowledge and nuclear attitude each can be changed independently of the other. Although knowledge and attitudes are correlationally linked, this study shows no evidence of a cause‐effect relat

ISSN:0022-4308    

DOI:10.1002/tea.3660320105

出版商:Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company    

年代:1995

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractThis study involved the development and application of a two‐tier diagnostic test measuring college biology students' understanding of diffusion and osmosis after a course of instruction. The development procedure had three general steps: defining the content boundaries of the test, collecting information on students' misconceptions, and instrument development. Misconception data were collected from interviews and multiple‐choice questions with free response answers. The data were used to develop 12 two‐tier multiple choice items in which the first tier examined content knowledge and the second examined understanding of that knowledge. The conceptual knowledge examined was the particulate and random nature of matter, concentration and tonicity, the influence of life forces on diffusion and osmosis, membranes, kinetic energy of matter, the process of diffusion, and the process of osmosis. The diagnostic instrument was administered to 240 students (123 non‐biology majors and 117 biology majors) enrolled in a college freshman biology laboratory course. The students had completed a unit on diffusion and osmosis. The content taught was carefully defined by propositional knowledge statements, and was the same content that defined the content boundaries of the test. The split‐half reliability was .74. Difficulty indices ranged from 0.23 to 0.95, and discrimination indices ranged from 0.21 to 0.65. Each item was analyzed to determine student understanding of, and identify misconceptions about, diffusion an

ISSN:0022-4308    

DOI:10.1002/tea.3660320106

出版商:Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company    

年代:1995

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of subject matter knowledge in science and the patterns of entering, leaving, and remaining in the teaching profession among college graduates trained to be science teachers. To do this, National Teachers Examination (NTE) Biology and General Science test scores served as the proxy for science subject matter knowledge for a sample of 83 individuals initially certified to teach science in North Carolina during a 4‐year period of time. The career patterns of these individuals as science teachers were documented and their work status was identified as nonrecruits, defectors, or career teachers. Using maximum likelihood logistical regression (MLOGIT) analysis, the relationship between career status (the dependent variable) and knowledge of science, race, gender, and the race and status (public or private) of the college from which they graduated was investigated. Of the 83 individuals in the analysis, 30 (36.1%) were identified as nonrecruits, 31 (37.3%) as defectors, and 22 (26.5%) as career teachers. Science subject matter knowledge was found to have a significant (p= .01) effect on the likelihood of being a nonrecruit versus a career teacher. The magnitude of this effect was also important, with the likelihood of being a nonrecruit increasing 120% for every 100‐point increase in score on the NTE Biology and General Science tests. Science subject matter knowledge also had a significant effect (p= .05) on the likelihood of being a defector versus a career teacher, with the likelihood increasing 80% for every 100‐point increase in NTE Biology and General Science scores. No other significant relationships were

ISSN:0022-4308    

DOI:10.1002/tea.3660320107

出版商:Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company    

年代:1995

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractThe researchers designed the study to achieve two goals: (1) determine the affect of peer collaboration on high school biology students' acquisition of concepts related to photosynthesis and (2) examine interactions in a collaborative peer group situation to determine how these interactions relate to the developpment of concepts associated with photosynthesis. Using quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques, the researchers concluded that students working in peer collaborative groups developed more scientifically correct conceptions of photosynthesis than did students working alone. However, not all group‐generated views were internalized by group members when assessed individually. Based on qualitative data, a functional relationship exists between prior knowledge and concept development. Two types of peer interaction, consonant and dissonant, were identified as enhancing concept development. When peer group roles are not assigned, roles fluctuate depending on group members' expertise or perceived expertise displaying a bidirectional zone of proximal development. This zone allows for enhanced concept development. Based on the above conclusions, the researchers recommend that (1) peer collaboration be used to help students overcome scientific misconceptions; (2) peer collaborative tasks be designed to engage students in consonant and dissonant interactions; and (3) cognitive group roles, as opposed to traditionl managerial cooperative group roles, be use

ISSN:0022-4308    

DOI:10.1002/tea.3660320108

出版商:Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company    

年代:1995

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractResearch on factors that shape recruitment and retention in undergraduate science majors currently is highly fragmented and in need of an integrative research framework. Such a framework should incorporate analyses of the various levels of organization that characterize academic communities (i.e., the broad institutional level, the departmental level, and the student level), and should also provide ways to study the interactions occurring within and between these structural levels. We propose that academic communities are analogous to ecosystems, and that the research paradigms of modern community ecology can provide the necessary framework, as well as new and innovative approaches to a very complex area. This article also presents the results of a pilot study that demonstrates the promise of this approach at the student level. We administered a questionnaire based on expectancy‐value theory to undergraduates enrolled in introductory biology courses. Itself an integrative approach, expectancy‐value theory views achievement‐related behavior as a joint function of the person's expectancy of success in the behavior and the subjective value placed on such success. Our results indicated: (a) significant gender differences in the underlying factor structures of expectations and values related to the discipline of biology, (b) expectancy‐value factors significantly distinguished biology majors from nonmajors, and (c) expectancy‐value factors significantly predicted students' intent to enroll in future biology courses. We explore the expectancy‐value framework as an operationally integrative framework in our ecological model for studying academic communities, especially in the context of assessing the underrepresentation of women and minorities in the sciences. Future research directions as well as practical implications are als

ISSN:0022-4308    

DOI:10.1002/tea.3660320109

出版商:Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company    

年代:1995

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0022-4308    

DOI:10.1002/tea.3660320102

出版商:Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company    

年代:1995

数据来源: WILEY