iStarDB (The Astronomy Education Research Repository)
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Supporting Scientific Explanations with Drawings and Narratives on Tablet Computers: An Analysis of Explanation Patterns
No full textResearchers and educators have paid much attention to scientific explanation as it is regarded as one of the important scientific inquiry skills. Recently, Tablet computers have allowed students to draw together with text and vocal narrations as a learning strategy to prompt them to articulate their scientific explanations. However, the literature regarding exactly how students use drawing and vocal narrations on Tablet computers to explain scientific questions is still scant. Therefore, by gathering the drawings and narrations which were generated by 41 high school students, this study aimed to explore what patterns students may apply to construct their scientific explanations for the four seasons with Tablet computers. It was found that the students perceived a lower extent of using memorizing and the test-to-learn concept to learn science but perceived a higher level of deep motivation and strategy in the drawing-based scientific explanation activity than they did in their prior experience. This study also suggests five hierarchical explanation patterns when using Tablet computers in scientific explanations, including portraying life experience, reciting alternative conceptions, summarizing referential facts, and depicting comparative and analytical processes. A further analysis found that the students who adopted high-level explanation patterns (i.e., depicting comparative and analytical processes) obtained higher scores in the learning test than those who adopted low-level explanation patterns (i.e., portraying life experience, reciting alternative conceptions, and summarizing referential facts). Therefore, the explanation patterns adopted by the students played a prominent role in their scientific understandings. Educators may need to help students to apply effective explanation patterns in their scientific explanations with technology-assisted environments
Effects of two combined methods on the teaching of basic astronomy concepts
No full textThe authors mainly aimed to investigate the following question: Are there any significant effects of the first combined method of a conceptual change approach with refutation text, worksheets, and activities with respect to the second combined method of a conceptual change approach with conceptual texts, presentations, and activities on students’ misconceptions and achievement on a 3-tier posttest score measuring Grade 7 basic astronomy concepts when independent variables are controlled? There was a statistically significant effect of the first combined method with respect to the second method at the medium effect size on both misconception scores and achievement scores. This finding clearly demonstrates that use of the first combined method, which included refutation texts with worksheets, eliminated the students’ misconceptions and increased their achievement. The second combined method also increased the students’ achievement, but almost 40% of their misconceptions remained
The Role of Perspective Taking in How Children Connect Reference Frames When Explaining Astronomical Phenomena
No full textThis study investigates the role of perspective-taking skills in how children explain spatially complex astronomical phenomena. Explaining many astronomical phenomena, especially those studied in elementary and middle school, requires shifting between an Earth-based description of the phenomena and a space-based reference frame. We studied 7- to 9-year-old children (N = 15) to (a) develop a method for capturing how children make connections between reference frames and to (b) explore connections between perspective-taking skill and the nature of children’s explanations. Children’s explanations for the apparent motion of the Sun and stars and for seasonal changes in constellations were coded for accuracy of explanation, connection between frames of reference, and use of gesture. Children with higher spatial perspective-taking skills made more explicit connections between reference frames and used certain gesture-types more frequently, although this pattern was evident for only some phenomena. Findings suggest that children – particularly those with lower perspective-taking skills – may need additional support in learning to explicitly connect reference frames in astronomy. Understanding spatial thinking among children who successfully made explicit connections between reference frames in their explanations could be a starting point for future instruction in this domain
The (Variable) Stars Belong to Everyone
No full textThe authorship of this issue reminds us that, although the AAVSO is “American,” its reach and impact are international. Our members and observers come from around the world
iSTAR First Light: Characterizing Astronomy Education Research Dissertations In The iSTAR Database
No full textThere is widespread interest among discipline-based science education researchers to situate their research in the existing scholarly literature base. Unfortunately, traditional approaches to conducting a thorough literature review are unduly hindered in astronomy education research as the venues in which scholarship is reported are fragmented and widely dispersed across journals of varying disciplines. The international STudies of Astronomy education Research (iSTAR) online repository is the result of a concerted international community effort to collect and categorize existing research from peer-reviewed journal articles, dissertations/theses, and grey literature. In a “first
light” survey of over 300 U.S. dissertations, we find: (i) work in AER dates back to 1923; (ii) the number of extant dissertations is far greater than anticipated; (iii) research methods definitions have evolved; and (iv) most work has studied participants’ broad knowledge rather than specific learning targets. The surprisingly wide breadth of rarely cited research motivates us to collect more AER from across international and cross-disciplinary sources
Pre-service Teachers’ Mental Models of Basic Astronomy Concepts
No full textThe aim of the present study is to determine pre-service teachers’ mental models related to basic astronomy concepts. The study was conducted using a survey method with 293 pre-service teachers from 4 different departments; physics education, science education, primary teacher education and early childhood education. An achievement test with open-ended questions was developed for the study, and the data obtained with this tool were analysed in two stages. In the first stage, pre-service teachers’ level of understanding of basic astronomy concepts was determined and in the second stage, their mental models were defined based on these levels of understanding. It was determined that the pre-service teachers had 9 different mental models; ideal, basic, conceptual, memorizing, selective, definitional, concrete, relational and inappropriate. The analysis of data revealed that none of the pre-service teachers had an ideal model for the astronomy concepts in question, and the most common model was the inappropriate model. In addition, the results of this study put forward that pre-service teachers from different branches had similar mental models
"The Things of the Sky": Ethnoastronomy of an Indigenous Community as a Source for the Proposal of a Paradidactic Material
No full textThe aim of this study was to identify the ethnoastronomy knowledge of a northern indigenous community of Rio Grande do Sul, as source for the production of a paradidactic material to be used at the local school. The research was performed in three steps: a pedagogical workshop, a survey of ethnoastronomy knowledge and the production of a paradidactic booklet. The pedagogical workshop made public the indigenous people's traditional knowledge concerning the creation of the Sun and the Moon. The survey showed considerable traditional knowledge on astronomy around some topics, such as the creation of the Sun and the Moon, the phases of the Moon, the seasons of the year and the stars, and the paradidactic material produced was established itself as the start of a revival process of local knowledge among the community members. This experience has been an early stage of a work that should be encouraged, in order to go further towards the elucidation of ethnoastronomy of the Indians from the Guarani MBYÁ village Nhu Porá
Immersive Planetarium Visualizations For Teaching Solar System Moon Concepts To Undergraduates
No full textDigital video fulldome has long been heralded as a revolutionary educational technology; yet the discipline-based astronomy education research literature showing planetarium effectiveness has been sparse. In order to help understand to what extent immersion impacts learning and the effect of the “narrative journey” model of presentation, we conducted a pre- and post-test effectiveness study of lectures on moon systems in the Solar System presented to 781 college undergraduates under immersive and non-immersive treatment conditions. Although all students showed some learning gains immediately after instruction, those who saw presentations in an immersive fulldome planetarium showed the greatest retention, compared to control classes that witnessed the same lecture and visuals on a flat screen
in their regular classroom, and students that saw no interactive visuals. Because the same instructors, presentation visuals, and instructional outline were used for both the classroom and dome instruction using the virtual environment, the results suggest that the large display and wide field-of-view, two elements unique to the dome, resulted in greater attention, and were primarily responsible for the greater gains
Development Of The EGGS Exam Of GeoloGy Standards To Measure Students’ Understanding Of Common Geology Concepts
No full textGeoscience education researchers have considerable need for criterion-referenced, easy-to-administer, easy-to-score, conceptual surveys for undergraduates taking introductory science survey courses in order for faculty to monitor the learning impacts of innovative teaching. In response, this study establishes the reliability and validity of a 28-item, multiple-choice, pre- and post- EGGS Exam of GeoloGy Standards. EGGS addresses 11 concepts derived from a systematic analysis of the overlapping ideas from national science education reforms: NGSS, AAAS Benchmarks, Earth Science Literacy Principles, and NRC National Science Education Standards. Leveraging best-practices for creating and field-testing items, EGGS emphasizes natural student language over technical scientific vocabulary, leverages illustrations over students’ reading ability, specifically targets students’ misconceptions, and covers the range of topics most geology educators expect general education students to know. EGGS is argued to be valid and reliable with college introductory science survey students based on standard measures, including clinical interviews with students and expert review
Fantasy Universes: Inquiry Learning in Astrophysics On-Campus and Massive Open Online Courses
No full textProblem based learning, and its variants such as project-based learning and case-studies, is a widely used and highly effective type of inquiry learning. In this paper, I present a case study of applying this method to the teaching of astrophysics. There are two main novelties in my approach. Firstly, traditional problem-based learning gets the students to solve real problems, but my exercises ask them instead to solve fantasy problems. I make up a universe which is interestingly different from our own, but physically self-consistent, for example, a universe with bubbles rather than stars in the sky, that didn’t have a Big Bang. The students are given the task of discovering some interesting things about this universe. Each week, the students discuss the data they have in hand, and make proposals for future observations. The data they requested is then generated and returned to them. Week by week, the students learn to analyse their data, formulate hypotheses and propose observations. Because the universe is a different one from our own, the students cannot just look up the answers on Wikipedia. They have to apply the methods and thought processes taught in lectures to this different context. The second novelty is that these exercises were used in a series of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS), in addition to more traditional on-campus courses. These online courses have restricted options for assessment, which makes inquiry learning challenging. Student feedback suggests, however, that these exercises were highly effective in driving deep student learning and engagement, for at least a sub-set of the online students