1,721,047 research outputs found
Related Data for: Questioning patterns in STEM learning: A case study
No full textThis chapter documents the types of questions raised by both teachers and students when engaging in integrated STEM problem solving and the level of reasoning of their responses. Questions play a critical role in creative thinking, conceptual learning, and problem-solving. Using deductive coding, we identified questions asked over the course of 36 lessons where Grade 8 students presented their ideas after engagement with integrated STEM problem solving and designed prototypes using one of two teaching approaches. The questions were then coded as ontic (simple or complex), causal or epistemic. Subsequentially, the responses of students to the questions were coded as pre-structural, uni-structural, multi-structural, relational, or extended abstract according to the SOLO taxonomy. Although we did not find statistical differences in the questions raised between approaches, our results show that ontic questions were the most used during integrated STEM problem solving while epistemic questions were least used. Students’ responses displaying transfers of knowledge at the extended abstract level of understanding were least evident out of all the levels of the SOLO taxonomy. Our findings support prior research that basic ontic questions are the most commonly used in class
Related Data for: Unravelling ideas and artefacts: Tracking progression of ideas during STEM learning
No full textThis study tracks the progression of students’ ideas by understanding how ideas are adopted or rejected. Understanding the discourses that lead to idea progression could help illumine sense-making and decision-making processes within student group discussions. Student-generated artefacts in the form of vertical farming prototypes were analysed. These artefacts were from four groups of students who were engaged in an integrated STEM activity to improve existing vertical farming solutions in land-scarce Singapore. In the authors’ analysis to understand how the final prototype came to being, they examined the progression of ideas through lesson phases of envisioning, sketching, collaborative modelling, feedback, and evaluation. A coding scheme was used to track whether ideas were rejected, improved, or assimilated in the final prototype. Idea maps were generated to track key developments of ideas. The findings revealed that groups that took greater risks in generating more ideas had more rejected ideas and were also more engaged in the feedback process. This resulted in richer idea development. Idea fluency was highly varied across all four groups. This suggests that group engagement and a culture of reflection and monitoring could significantly improve idea quality, although the lack of curriculum time could limit desired divergent idea generation
Related Data for: Applying concepts of plant nutrition in the real-world: Designing vertical farming systems
No full textThis integrated STEM activity on the design of a vertical farming system has biology as the lead discipline and relates to the concept of photosynthesis. Students investigated the optimal design of vertical farms that will deliver appropriate amounts of water, sunlight and carbon dioxide to plants such that there will be optimal yield. Through design, testing and refinement of their design, students appreciate the connections between photosynthesis, food supply and design
International Science Education Conference 2024 (24 - 26 Jun 2024)
No full textA/P Tan Aik Ling (far left) takes a photo with delegates after her presentation
STEM education from Asia: Trends and perspectives
No full textAsia is the largest continent in the world. Five out of the top ten high performing economies in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 are located in Asia. Why do Asian students perform so well in STEM-related subjects? This book answers this by examining the STEM education policies and initiatives in Asian economies, as well as the training programmes undertaken by STEM teachers in Asia.
The book is broken into four sections, each accompanied by a passage of commentary that summarizes the key takeaways of the chapters. Section one focuses on STEM policy environments and how various countries have developed policies that promote STEM as an integral part of national economic development. Section two focuses on STEM teacher education in the Philippines and Thailand, while section three focuses on STEM curriculum design, context, and challenges in four Asian economies. The fourth and final section focuses on presenting snapshots of STEM education research efforts in Malaysia, South Korea, and Singapore.
Written by Asian academics, this book will provide valuable insights to policy makers, educators, and researchers interested in the topic of STEM education, especially in the Asian context.
Chapters 7 and 11 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license available at https://www.taylorfrancis.co
Representations of nature of science in new Korean science textbooks: the case of ‘scientific inquiry and experimentation’
Full text linkNature of science (NOS) is becoming a core component of both science education research and curriculum policy around the globe. In particular, how textbooks should portray NOS aspects have been of keen interest to science educators. This chapter outlines the background and motivations for Korea’s new compulsory subject, scientific inquiry and experimentation (SIE), and analyses how textbooks for this subject present NOS aspects using historical episodes. The aim is to help textbook authors and policymakers by examining the opportunities and challenges of Korea’s new NOS curricular initiative. The results indicate that textbooks tend to focus on the cognitive and epistemic characteristics of science, with a limited representation of social and institutional NOS aspects. While textbooks often included multiple NOS aspects that underlie each historical episode, in most cases, these aspects were only implicitly addressed without proper cues for students’ reflection about them. Based on these findings, we discuss implications for textbook authors and science teachers
Singaporean Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions Of STEM Epistemic Practices And Education
Full text linkIntegrated Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education is perceived to be the magic bullet for progressive and futuristic learning. It is widely touted as a way to develop 21st century competencies and scientific literacy. Despite the ubiquitous use of the term STEM, understanding of STEM education remains largely diffused. This study serves as a first in contributing a Singaporean narrative on perceptions of STEM education. To discern the diversity and prevalence of understanding of STEM education, 16 undergraduate preservice teachers (PST) responded to a series of questions. Out of the 16, nine PSTs were randomly selected for an interview to further elucidate their perceptions. Responses were coded and organized with respect to a validated conceptual lens. PSTs presented ideas that were similarly reported in other studies such as workforce readiness and making interdisciplinary connections, suggesting some perceptions are universal. New ideas such as STEM education transcending school contexts also emerged from the data. Further, PSTs could distinguish the epistemic practices of science and engineering to some extent. Their understanding of the knowledge-building processes in each discipline appeared to be emerging with generally accurate descriptions of certain epistemic practices. Some PSTs demonstrated ease in blending epistemic practices of both disciplines. However, PSTs harboured some potentially limiting conceptions of engineering such as a focus on physical products
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
- …
