International Journal of Physics and Chemistry Education
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Comparing Reflective Teaching Skills of Experienced and Inexperienced Physics Teachers at Different Reflection Levels
Get PDFThe main goal of this paper is to compare reflective teaching’ skills such as observation, communication, judgment, decision making, and team working between experienced and inexperienced physics teachers at different levels of reflection (technical, contextual, and didactical level). The sample of this study consists of 60 physics teachers from 31 secondary schools in Malaysia. The quantitative and qualitative methods used to investigate the experienced and inexperienced physics teachers’ reflective teaching skills are questionnaire survey, open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interview. Results revealed that the experienced teachers were able to reflect mostly at the contextual level and inexperienced teachers reflect mostly at the technical level. Findings indicated that experienced teachers to reflect on their teaching applied reflecting teaching skills in 3 levels of reflection more than inexperienced teachers. Understanding the characteristics and differences of reflective teaching skills at different levels between experienced and inexperienced physics teachers can lead to find ways to improve these skills among physics teachers
A survey to measure perceived agency of teachers
Get PDFDissemination of reformed curriculum requires teachers to feel that they have the freedom to actually implement the curriculum. Whereas greater learning gains are found with active learning, this generally requires more time than rote lecturing. National standards which call for wide content coverage make such approaches prohibitive. This and other pressures may lead teachers to feel that they have little control over what and how they teach. Here, we assess a survey we designed to measure a “teacher's perceived agency“, which we define as “a feeling of being in control over what is taught and of how it is taught.
Student ideas and misconceptions for the atom: A Latent Class Analysis with covariates
Get PDFThe current study investigates students’ fundamental ideas and misconceptions about ontological features of atoms identity and behaviour. These conceptions are being investigated across tasks with varying context. Participants were secondary education students in eighth, tenth and twelfth grades. Latent Class Analysis (LCA), a psychometric approach, was implemented to analyze a set of four tasks, in order to identify distinct mental models, which share specific sets of misconceptions. Furthermore, the detected mental models were associated with a number of external variables, such as the age, and the three cognitive variables: formal reasoning, field dependence-independence and divergent thinking. Results indicated that age and two cognitive variables under study had significant effects on students’ mental models. Implications for theory and practice are discussed
Effect of Previous Knowledge on Students’ Cognition in Some Content Areas in Chemistry
Get PDFThis study was undertaken to determine the effect of previous knowledge on students’ cognition on some content areas in chemistry. Reading, Comprehension monitoring, Summarizing, Questioning, Instruction, and Evaluation (RCSQIE) forms the component of the previous knowledge. The sample consists of 80 senior secondary 11 students from two schools in Jos, Plateau state, Nigeria. The design of the study was the pre – test post – test experimental research design. The instruments used were Fry readability model used to determine the readability level of the selected textbook and Science Reasoning Task used to determine students cognitive level. The experimental group was given a previous knowledge of the topic before lessons by allowing them to read the topic before classes while the control group had no previous knowledge. The cognitive levels of the students were determined before and after treatment. The findings showed that the experimental group students’ cognitive level improved with previous knowledge. It was concluded that previous knowledge improves students understanding of chemistry. It was therefore recommended that teachers’ should encourage students’ to read content before lessons
Contribution of Video Analysis of Elevator Experiments to Physics Achievement
Get PDFThe purpose of the study is to examine contribution of the experimental course materials and course activities produced from video records of physics experiments carried out in an elevator cab on learning efficiency in physics course. Quantitative research methods comprise the study pattern. The study was carried out in two different schools. Experimental group consists of 27 students, while control group consists of 46 students. In the study, data was collected by applying “Demographic Questionnaire, Virtual Experimental Questioning, Motion Experiments and Activities in Elevator and Diagnostic Concept Test in Elevator (DCTE). The obtained data were interpreted after making reliability & effect size analyses and t-test & one way ANOVA statistics. Learning efficiency of the course was interpreted by calculating according to Hake’s definition of learning gain. Reliability value of data obtained from DCTE is in 0.76; and significant differences were found in control and experimental groups. It is understood that the method applied to experimental group made significant and positive contribution to academic achievement of physics courses and learning efficiency in comparison to control group. Depending on study findings, “Using Experimental Video Course Materials in Elevator” can make positive contributions to secondary education physics curriculum
Do the equilibrium constants have units? A discussion on how general chemistry textbooks calculate and report the equilibrium constants
Get PDFAn analysis of the literature concerning the dimensionality of equilibrium constants reveals that this topic manifests as a controversial issue. Based on this previous examination, this work studies if general chemistry textbooks accurately define and calculate equilibrium constants. In order to evaluate those textbooks, in the first part of this study the experimental equilibrium constants, Kp and Kc, and the thermodynamic equilibrium constant, Kº, are defined. Also, the equations that relate each constant to the other two are given. In the specific presentation of these quantities, an example is discussed both performing their accurate calculation and reporting them using the proper units. In the second part of this study, it is examined the way both first-year university chemistry textbooks and pre-university chemistry textbooks determine equilibrium constants, concentrating on how they handle the units of these quantities. Many textbooks treat Kp and Kc as dimensionless quantities. This misleading assumption is caused by a problem in the terminology used as in many cases Kp (or Kc) plays the role Kº. In order to avoid this misleading treatment of the equilibrium constants some suggestions are provided
Science Teacher Professional Development for Inclusive Practice
Get PDFMost subject teachers are not specifically educated for inclusion. Inclusive practice at classroom level remains a blind spot. This case study provides insight into the inclusive practice of two science teachers by video-based participant observation and then uses the data as a basis for professional development. The videos were recorded in an inquiry-based science class of an urban “inclusive middle school” in Austria. The two science teachers of this class reflected upon their own instruction. Three more science teachers reflected upon the others’ teaching. The focus of the study was on what the teachers noticed and reasoned as they viewed the videos. The reflective sessions were audiotaped. Grounded Theory was used to analyze and compare the data. Surprisingly, the results show that inclusion was not often addressed and it was especially difficult to discover in others’ teaching; however, implicit connections to inclusive, but not subject-specific teaching principles, can be drawn
Effects of Cooperative Instructional Strategy on Senior School Students’ Achievement in Electrochemistry
Get PDFThe poor performance of Nigerian students in School Certificate Chemistry over the years necessitates the search for alternative instructional strategies that could ensure better students’ achievement. This study investigated the effects of cooperative instructional strategy on senior secondary school students’ achievement in electrochemistry using gender and scoring levels as moderating variables. The study employed a 2 x 2 x 3 non-randomized and non-equivalent, pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental factorial design. Two intact classes in two secondary schools in Ilorin, Nigeria were involved in the study, with one class serving as the experimental class, and the other serving as control. A Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) with reliability Coefficient of 0.75 was used for the study. Data analysis was carried out using t-test and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The findings of this study revealed no significant difference in the achievement of students taught using cooperative instructional strategy and those taught using the traditional lecture-based instructional method (t=7.26, p>0.05), although students taught using cooperative instructional strategy performed better than their counterparts in the control group. However, a statistically significant difference was observed in the achievement of students based on their scoring level when taught using the cooperative instructional strategy (F=4.850, p<0.05), with the low scorers benefitting most. Hence it is recommended that chemistry teachers should consider using cooperative instructional strategy for teaching Chemistry as a way of enhancing better understanding of the subject
Scaffolding the structure of organic chemistry students’ multivariate comparative mechanistic reasoning
Get PDFProblem solving in all sciences requires the integration of multiple causal variables. Organic chemistry students often limit their reasoning about multivariate mechanism problems to single variables. To our knowledge, no teaching instrument that uses the structure of mechanistic reasoning to explicitly foster the consideration of multiple variables has been empirically evaluated to date. To fill this gap, we developed a scaffold based on findings in philosophy of organic chemistry and tested it in a qualitative interview setting. The scaffold provides a stepwise reasoning structure to compare the activation energy required for two different molecules to undergo the same type of mechanistic step. We found that the scaffold builds on what students already do when engaging in comparative mechanistic reasoning by themselves and supports their multivariate reasoning. The applicability of the structure of the scaffold in other contexts of mechanistic reasoning including physics is discussed
Peer and Self-assessment: A Mathematical Model to Improve Students’ Accountability in Laboratory Stations Model
Get PDFThere is an increasing interest in peer and self-assessment (P&SA) in science education due its importance in students’ performance in collaborative work and in the development of their metacognitive skills. We developed and tested an algorithm to help teachers organize the P&SA process. Collected data relative to the 8th and 11th grades were analyzed to examine the viability of this algorithm and to determine the degree of agreement between a student’s self-assessment and that of his/her peers. We found no significant differences between peer and self-assessment, which means that students have a fair perception of their contribution to the team. The data also suggest that the maturity of the students can be an important variable in the self-regulation learning and in metacognitive skills acquisition, since the correlation between self and peer assessment was more robust in the 11th grade