The diploma thesis "The Teacher through the eyes of the public" is focused on analyzing public opinions and attitudes towards the teacher personality. In further detail, it is focused on a teacher of the sciences, specifically science lessons and biology, and its educated subject. The diploma thesis is divided to two parts: theoretical and practical. The theoretical part describes the relation between the school and society, defines the term Teacher, and maps the teacher career with problems they can meet with during their career. Teachers of natural science/biology are described in their dedicated chapter, where the teachers themselves and their achieved educational background and selected teaching elements are analyzed. The practical part provides a questionnaire survey by method of quantitative research with a total of 144 responders. The collected data is presented in columnar graphs together with its word characterization. A Z-Score test was used in an attempt to prove the hypothesis. The first part of the survey is focused on teacher personalities. The results show that the responders perceive teacher personality as very positive and that professional experience is definitely preferred within the subject. In the second part, the results introduce that the addressed public recognize teaching...

Cognitive scientists and psychology researchers have given growing attention to evidence of the testing effect, that is, the improvement of students' recall through memory-retrieval practice in the form of quizzes and exams. While laboratory experiments consistently show dramatic positive effects on learning through the testing effect, discipline-specific education researchers have sought to generalize these findings in real, instead of simulated classrooms. The objective of this dissertation was threefold: (1) To survey the current literature on the testing-effect as it applies to learning biology at the post-secondary level. In this review, I consider how further research on the testing effect may be useful for instructors' decisions regarding its use. (2) To describe findings from a qua¬si-experimental design in a post-secondary biology class with low and high point incentives and measured student learning. Although exposure to exams predicted better learning, incentive level did not moderate this effect, an outcome that contradicted recent laboratory findings that higher incentives decreased student recall. (3) To describe findings from a study that compared student learning in conditions where cued exams were in place versus conditions in which they were absent. Student learning improved in the former condition relative to the latter. I discuss the implications of the results in all of these studies for further research and application.

This study tested an experimental approach to use in teaching the concept of functional diversity. The project culminated in a laboratory exercise for use in high schools. Experimental design consisted of representatives of three functional groups of plants, (legumes, grasses, and forbs), planted singly, and in two, or three species combinations. Legumes were represented by Trifolium repens and Medicago lupulina, grasses were represented by Cynodon dactylon and Festuca rubra, and forbs were represented by Helianthus annus and Raphanus sativa. Plants were grown inside a controlled growth chamber. During the growth phase, measurements were taken to highlight temporal differences in development. After two months, wet and dry weights of aboveground and belowground portions were measured as indicators of productivity. Research showed unique developmental patterns related to functional groups. Secondly, functional combination, not functional group number, produced a significant difference in biomass. Laboratory use involves group discussion, active-learning, and higher understanding of conservation.

The theory of evolution is the central combing theory that brings together all the tenets of biology that bring about a solid understanding of life. It is also one of the most controversial scientific theories of all time and is widely rejected by about 40% of the general public in the United States. One of the biggest reasons for low evolution acceptance is the perceived conflict between evolution and religious beliefs. Educators and researchers have been working hard to improve how we teach evolution in the classroom; some methods, such as focusing on evolution knowledge, have shown to be mixed. Sometimes it works; other times, it does not, especially with highly religious students. Other methods have shown promising, such as using culturally competent approaches when teaching highly religious students. This is where we have focused our research on reconciling religious beliefs and evolutionary theory. First, in Chapter 1, we strengthened our understanding of the theory of evolution by studying a genus of damselfly in the South Pacific. Through our molecular analyses, we described a new genus, Nikoulabasis. In Chapter 2, we studied a unique of teaching evolution to religious students. We highlighted three of the most compelling reasons students changed their minds about evolution and gave suggestions for improving evolution education in the classroom. In Chapter 3, we created and validated the predictive Factors of Evolution Acceptance and Reconciliation (pFEAR) survey tool as a way for educators to better understand what worldview factors influence students' evolution acceptance. This chapter also gives suggestions to educators on how to use the pFEAR in their classrooms. In Chapter 4, we reviewed the literature to determine the influence of popular media on students learning evolution. Evolution misconceptions come from various sources such as social interactions, religious settings, textbooks, and even teachers. But few studies looked at the influence of popular media on evolution misconceptions. In Chapter 5, we viewed and watched student mentioned evolution references and determined the accuracy with which they depicted evolution. Of the 99 references we viewed, 94% of them depicted evolution accurately.

Research suggests that Swedish secondary school biology teachers experience challenges in providing students with discussion of controversial issues. They conceive lack of knowledge in methodology and content matter of relevance. This raises the importance of managing controversial issues in Swedish biology classrooms. Little is known about biology teacher students’ perceptions of controversial issues in Sweden. This study explores what a group of teacher students perceive as central in managing controversial issues and what makes them feel prepared to meet these issues in educational settings. 8 students from a southern Swedish University were interviewed. Thematic analysis revealed 4 key themes: emotive, strategies, experience, and responsibility. This degree project demonstrates the great importance that teacher students conceive of the role of controversial issues in biology education. More need is asked of strategy development to be able to feel well prepared when dealing with controversial issues in the future teacher role. Future research should focus on perceptions in larger scale studies comparing differences regarding sex/gender, teacher educations’, programmes’ and classes’.

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VOMÁČKOVÁ V. 2016: Inquiry based education in Human Physiology lessons with using school experimental systems. MSc. Thesis. Faculty of Education, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice. 47 pp. Inquiry-based education represents a modern approach to science education. This approach aims to enhance students' interest in these subjects. Nowadays, the laboratory experimental systems are available for use in the inquiry-based tasks so students have possibilities to try in practice what a scientist's work involves. The aim of this thesis was to design inquiry based tasks related to human physiology. In these tasks various kinds of laboratory experimental systems were applied. These tasks have been verified in classes at selected primary schools and at one grammar school. A partial goal of this thesis was to investigate whether inquiry based classes using laboratory systems result in acquiring better knowledge and research skills development compared with the usual laboratory work classes, where students work according to their teacher's instructions. For these purposes a pre-test and a post-test had been created and the students were divided into two groups the experimental group was applying the inquiry based work procedures and the control group was working using the teacher's instructions. The individual tasks have been verified in practice and their impact on the students' knowledge and skills level was monitored. The results have shown that inquiry based education does not lead to worse results compared with the usual conventional teaching methods. The level of students' knowledge and skills has risen after completing the experimental classes. However, the difference between the control and experimental groups was not statistically significant.

A tese que aqui se apresenta pretende sugerir que a cultura escolar regula as modalidades de acesso dos indivíduos aos objetos da cultura científica, em contraposição à idéia de enculturação como objetivo do ensino de ciências. Para tanto, parte de uma longa discussão teórica em que o conceito de cultura, campo ou esfera é discutido. De mão desses conceitos, parte-se para definição do que seria cultura escolar uma relação pedagógica submetida a tempos, lugares e objetos específicos e cultura científica atividade humana com métodos e padrões historicamente contingentes que são avaliados em relação à sua meta e ao grau de sucesso obtido, na qual está inserida a biologia. Definidos esses campos, foi necessário, então, entender como se dá o diálogo entre essas esferas, para tanto se fez uso do conceito de hidridação, zona de encontro entre as linguagens típicas de cada um desses campos sociais. Com os conceitos construídos, escolheu-se a abordagem metodológica: tomar como objeto de análise dois textos de cientistas e dez textos de alunos sobre a mesma temática, a noção de que o DNA é a molécula portadora das informações hereditárias. Usou-se o padrão de Toulmin (1958/2006) e as marcas lingüísticas de Koch (2000) para identificar elementos dos argumentos e suas relações. A análise dos textos mostrou que os alunos fazem uso, preponderantemente, de argumentos substanciais, enquanto que cientistas constroem seus textos por meio de argumentos analíticos. A utilização diferenciada dos tempos verbais do discurso nos textos de cientistas e alunos permitiu sugerir a transformação de uma biologia funcional em uma narrativa histórica. A seleção lexical e o uso de qualificadores tornaram visível o deslizamento entre as modalidades aléticas e epistêmicas que assumiram funções diferenciadas nos dois tipos de produção textual. Essa análise nos permitiu discutir que o percurso realizado pelos estudantes para acessar as verdades científicas ou construir visões de ciências envolve etapas e processos diferenciados daqueles percorridos pelos cientistas nesses mesmos processos. Se, por um lado, não é suficiente que o objetivo do ensino de ciências seja o de propiciar a compreensão dos resultados e produtos produzidos na esfera científica, por outro lado, não são todas as regras do jogo que são acessíveis aos estudantes. Assim, o ensino de ciências deve ser visto como um processo de construção de uma visão idiossincrática de ciência que envolva a compreensão dos seus conceitos e linguagem, não para adotar essa nova cultura, mas para que se possa dialogar com ela. / The thesis presented here suggests that school culture regulates the access to objects of scientific culture, as opposed to the idea of enculturation. To pursue that, we begin with a long theoretical discussion in which the concepts of culture, field or sphere, school culture (a pedagogical relationship subject to time, specific places and objects) and scientific culture (human activity with standardized methods) are discussed. Finally, it is necessary to understand the dialogue between school culture and scientific culture. In other words, to examine their field of hybridization. After establishing the concepts, we chose as object two scientific texts and the answers of ten students, all on the same subject: the notion that the DNA molecule is the carrier of hereditary information. We use the Toulmins model of argumentation (1958/2006) and the linguistic categories of Koch (2000) to identify elements of the arguments and their relationship. The analysis of the texts have shown that students are using substantive arguments, while scientists construct their texts by means of analytical arguments. The difference between the use of verb tenses between scientific texts and those of the students suggests the transformation of a functional biology into a historical narrative. The lexical selection and use of qualifiers has made visible the interchange between the alethic and epistemic modalities which have different functions in both discourses. The analysis has allowed us to see that the path traveled by the students to access the scientific truths or to construct visions of science involves stages and processes different from those covered by the scientists. If, on the one hand, to provide an understanding of the results in the scientific sphere it is not sufficient goal for teaching science, on the other hand, not all the rules are accessible to students. Thus, the science teaching should be seen as a process of building a specific vision of science that involves the understanding of its concepts and language. Instead of inserting the students in this new culture, it should help them to exchange impressions with it.