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- Brandstaedter, Kristina, et al.
(författare)
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Assessing System Thinking Through Different Concept-Mapping Practices
- 2012
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Ingår i: International Journal of Science Education. - : Taylor and Francis (Routledge). - 0950-0693 .- 1464-5289. ; 34:14, s. 2147-2170
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- System thinking is usually investigated by using questionnaires, video analysis, or interviews. Recently, concept-mapping (CM) was suggested as an adequate instrument for analysing students system thinking. However, there are different ways with which to use this method. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine whether particular features of CM practices affect the valid assessment of students system thinking. The particular features analysed were the medium (computer versus paper-pencil) and the directedness (highly directed versus nondirected) of CM practices. These features were evaluated with respect to their influence on (a) students performance in CM and (b) the validity of different CM practices for system thinking. One hundred fifty-four German fourth graders (mean age: 9.95 years) and 93 eighth graders (mean age: 14.07 years) participated in the study following an experimental pre-test-post-test design. Three variations of CM practices were applied: (a) highly directed computer mapping, (b) highly directed paper-pencil mapping, and (c) nondirected paper-pencil mapping. In addition to the CM task, a paper-pencil questionnaire was employed to investigate the validity of the CM practices. Results showed that the computer positively influenced student performance in CM when compared with paper-pencil. By contrast, there was no difference between highly directed and nondirected mapping. Whereas the medium rarely influenced the validity of CM for system thinking, high directedness showed a positive influence. Considering the limitations and benefits of particular CM practices, we suggest highly directed and computer-based CM as an appropriate assessment tool-in particular, with regard to large-scale assessments of system thinking.
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- Eckhardt, Marc, et al.
(författare)
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How effective is instructional support for learning with computer simulations?
- 2013
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Ingår i: Instructional science. - : Springer Verlag (Germany). - 0020-4277 .- 1573-1952. ; 41:1, s. 105-124
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The study examined the effects of two different instructional interventions as support for scientific discovery learning using computer simulations. In two well-known categories of difficulty, data interpretation and self-regulation, instructional interventions for learning with computer simulations on the topic "ecosystem water" were developed and tested using a sample of 124 eighth graders in science classes. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of instructional support for domain-specific factual, conceptual, and procedural knowledge acquisition. Students who received either only instructional support for data interpretation or only for self-regulation achieved the highest learning outcomes. However, a combination of instructional support for data interpretation and self-regulation seemed detrimental for knowledge acquisition. Students who received instructional interventions for both data interpretation and self-regulation also showed the highest values of perceived cognitive load. High cognitive load could be a reason for why a combination of particular instructional interventions does not lead to the expected positive learning outcomes.
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| 4. |
- Garrecht, Carola, et al.
(författare)
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“Don’t we all have a responsibility to act?” : Action competence as driver for young people’s climate action
- 2022
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Enabling students to engage with socioscientific issues has been described as a central aim of modern science education. This includes equipping students with the knowledge and skillsnecessary to take responsible action in the light of pressing issues such as climate change.Consistent with this aim, action competence defines the (1) knowledge, (2) willingness, and (3) efficacy that theoretically characterise those students who are able to take conscious action on climate-related issues. To date, however, there has been a lack of research on the extent to which action competence influences young people’s climate action, and there is only scattered evidence on the role that biology education can play in this regard. To address this gap, the present study examines which aspects of action competence young people consider most relevant when reporting on their climate action. Twenty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted in Sweden and Germany (N = 14 interviews per country) with young adults who are actively engaged in climate movements such as Fridays-for-Future. The interview data is analysed using the method of qualitative content analysis. Preliminary results suggest that the aspect of efficacy is particularly strong among participants while knowledge about climate change is rather seen as a threshold for action. For biology education, these results argue for a stronger link between climate-related content knowledge and its application to evaluate the effectiveness of climate-related actions.
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| 5. |
- Garrecht, Carola, et al.
(författare)
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The role of risk perception for students' climate-friendly intentions to act
- 2022
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Modelling, Assessment, and Promotion of Climate Literacy Several studies show that students often lack conceptual knowledge and show multiple misconceptions when explaining climate change (e.g, Boyes & Stanisstreet, 1993; Flener-Lovitt, 2014; Shepardson et al., 2011). Hence, it is often argued that science education should focus on conveying sufficient conceptual knowledge about climate change, its causes, consequences, and potential ways of adaptation and mitigation. However, besides scientific content knowledge, decision-making and the intention to act in a climate-friendly manner seem also to be influenced by non-scientific factors such as attitudes and value attribution (Dietz, Dan, & Shwom, 2007). The USGCRP (2009) thus promotes to focus education on climate literacy, which includes specific knowledge about climate change, as well as skills and attitudes relevant to the topic. So far, studies examining the impact of climate literacy on actual decision-making are scarce, and the general picture about other factors that contribute to young learners' conceptions of climate change – including the media, family, peers, but also emotional attachment and risk perception – remains somewhat unclear. In this related paper set, we aim to elaborate how climate literacy can be modelled and assessed, how it can be promoted through meaningful instruction, and how teacher professional development can contribute to this.
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| 6. |
- Garrecht, Carola, et al.
(författare)
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What is needed? Investigating drivers for students' climate-friendly intentions to act
- 2023
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time, and its consequences pose a severe threat to life on Earth. To address these challenges in the long term, we must adapt our behavior by making informed, climate-friendly decisions. In this regard, a growing body of research emphasizes the role of science education in fostering students' climate literacy. Drawing on a sample of 1276 upper-secondary students from Germany and Sweden, this questionnaire study investigates the role of climate literacy (i.e., knowledge, skills, and attitudes) as well as students' risk perception and value orientations in their climate-friendly intentions to act. Applying the method of sequential regression analysis, the results of our data analysis indicate that risk perception appears to be a key variable in explaining students' climate-friendly intentions to act. Cognitive factors (i.e., knowledge and skills) are also relevant to students' intentions, although less influential. For science education, the findings suggest that it may not be sufficient to focus exclusively on climate-related knowledge and skills, but that students might also need opportunities to engage in discussions about the potential consequences of climate change.
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| 9. |
- Rundgren, Carl-Johan, 1973-
(författare)
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Visual thinking, visual speech : a semiotic perspective on meaning-making in molecular life science : how visualizations, metaphors and help-words contribute to the formation of knowledge about proteins among upper secondary and tertiary level students
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Molecular life science has become one of the fastest-growing fields of scientific and technical innovation. An important issue for tomorrow’s education is to meet the challenge posed by various facets of molecular life science. Images, diagrams and other forms of visualization are playing increasingly important roles in molecular life science teaching and research, both for conveying information and as conceptual tools, transforming the way we think about the events and processes the subject covers.This thesis highlights different aspects of molecular life science education: the rapid production and flow of information, its multi- and interdisciplinary character, the complexity of life phenomena and our knowledge of them, and the high level of abstraction of the knowledge produced. This study also examines how upper secondary and tertiary students interpret visualizations of proteins. The participating upper secondary students were taking different variants of the natural science program in the second (grade 11) or third (grade 12) year. A set of 20 upper secondary students, and four third-year biochemistry students were interviewed in semistructured, revised clinical interviews. Furthermore, 31 university students participated in a group discussion and answered a questionnaire. The interviews, group discussions and questionnaires were structured around 2D illustrations of proteins and an animated representation of water molecules being transported through a channel in the cell membrane.Three critical features of the ability to visualize molecular processes were identified: the complexity of biomolecular processes, the dynamic and stochastic nature of biomolecular interaction, and extrapolation between 2D and 3D. The results also indicate that the students may possess an understanding of a process which they cannot express in words.Furthermore, the results indicate that beginner students use a kind of intermediate language when learning a new content area, frequently making use of metaphors, some that they have obtained from their teaching and some that they create themselves, i.e. spontaneous metaphors. They also make use of words that seemingly have no meaning, such as “plupp” and “flopp”. These words are here referred to as help-words. The results from this study indicate that spontaneous metaphors and helpwords do take on a meaning in learning situations and that they play a role in the meaning-making of the students. Moreover, the results indicate that difficulties in science education may to a large degree be connected to the problems of communicating the precise and general nature of scientific terms.
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| 10. |
- Thörne, Karin
(författare)
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Teaching genetics - a linguistic challenge : A classroom study of secondary teachers' talk about genes, traits and proteins
- 2012
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate how teachers talk about genetics in actual classroom situations. An understanding of how language is used in action can give detailed information about how the subject matter is presented to the students as well as insights in linguistic challenges. From the viewpoint of seeing language to be at the very core of teaching and learning, this study investigates teachers’ spoken language in the classroom in topics within genetics that are known to be both crucial and problematic. Four lower secondary school teachers in compulsory school grade 9 (15-16 years old) were observed and recorded through a whole sequence of genetic teaching. The empirical data consisted of 45 recorded lessons. The teachers’ verbal communication was analyzed using thematic pattern analysis, which is based on the framework of systemic functional linguistics (SFL). The focus of the thesis is to determine how teachers talk about the relationships between the concepts of gene, protein and trait, i.e. the functional aspects of genetics. Prior research suggests that this is a central aspect of genetics education, but at the same time it is problematic for students to understand because the concepts belong to different organizational levels. In the first study I investigated how the concepts of gene and trait were related in the context of Mendelian genetics. My results revealed that the teachers’ way of talking resulted in different meanings regarding the relationship between gene and trait: 1) the gene as an active entity causing the trait 2) the gene as a passive entity identified by the trait 3) the gene as having the trait, and 4) the gene as being the trait. Moreover it was found that the old term anlag was regularly used by the teachers as synonym for both gene and trait. In the second study I examined how teachers included proteins in their lessons, and if and how they discussed proteins as a link between different organizational levels. This study showed that teachers commonly did not emphasize the many functions of proteins in our body. The main message of all teachers was that proteins are built. Two of the teachers used proteins as a link between gene and trait, whereas two of them did not. None of the teachers talked explicitly about genes as exclusively coding for proteins, which implies that the gene codes for both proteins and traits. The linguistic analysis of teachers’ talk in action revealed that small nuances in language used by the teachers resulted in different meanings of the spoken language. Thus, my work identifies several linguistic challenges in the teaching of genetics.
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