This study aims to find out the influences of science teachers’ teaching implementations in addressing the students’ common misconceptions on their conceptual understanding on photosynthesis. The study was conducted in a school in Hong Kong with an international setting. A total of thirty-one Year 9 students participated in this study. Eighteen students were taught by Teacher A, the intervention group, who carried out the intervention to identify the common students’ misconceptions on photosynthesis and attempt to change the students’ misconceptions by carrying out different teaching activities. On the other hand, thirteen students were taught by Teacher B, the control group, who taught according to the Year 9 Science curriculum plans of their school and had focussed on delivering the expected concepts to be acquired by the students. Students’ conceptual understanding was assessed through the use of 4 different instruments, including the two-tier multiple choice question developed by Haslam and Treagust (1987) and the cartoon concept developed by Naylor and Keogh (2000), before and after the teaching of the topic. Results showed that the intervention group had better conceptual understandings on the plants’ food and the harnessing the Sun’s energy by plants during photosynthesis while the control group had better conceptual understandings on respiration in plants and the limiting factors on photosynthesis in plants. Overall, the intervention group had not developed a better conceptual understanding nor less misconception compared to the control group. Open ended teaching strategies (self-exploration, whole class or group discussions etc.) had limited the conceptual understanding amongst the lower achievers and the formation of misconception ‘plants respire only at night’ in the intervention group. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Early childhood has been proven critical for science learning and development, but there is a dearth of empirical research comparing the effects of different teaching approaches in the Chinese context. This study had three main objectives: (1) to observe early science teaching systematically in urban kindergartens in Mainland China; (2) to develop three different teaching approaches (constructivist, instructivist and combined) for a science curriculum for 5-year-olds based on these observations and current views on appropriate early science pedagogy; (3) to implement and examine the effectiveness of the differing approaches to early science teaching. In Study 1, classes in three kindergartens rated as good, average and unsatisfactory by the government regulatory body were video-recorded in their science classrooms with 6 lessons on appointed topics and 6 on self-chosen topics. Teaching behaviors were analyzed in terms of the instructional approach and its effectiveness. The results indicated variations in teaching approaches across the kindergartens. The teacher from the unsatisfactory kindergarten adopted a typical instructivist approach in science teaching, whereas the other two teachers gave children hands-on experiences as well as group discussions and direct instructions; nevertheless, there was poor connectedness among them. All three teachers were weak in considering the scientific conceptions embedded in the topics as well as the children’s prior conceptions when planning their teaching. To examine the appropriateness of teaching approaches in a Chinese context, the researcher developed three sets of early science programs for 5-year-olds, each of which contained three topics: ants, trees, and shadows. The three programs adopted instructivist, constructivist, and combined approaches. Employing the above programs, Study 2 was conducted in another kindergarten rated as average by the regulatory body. The participants were 4 qualified teachers and their 117 five-year-old students. The children were assigned randomly to four groups, one using an instructivist approach, one a constructivist approach, one combined approaches, and a control group. During the 15-week intervention, each group had science lesson once a week. Three teachers were invited to implement the provided programs and accepted ongoing training. The fidelity of their implementation of the curricula was also assessed. Pretest, posttest, and follow-up (12 weeks delayed) tests were administered to the children, covering three aspects of their science learning: content (curriculum-related and general knowledge about science), process (observation, scientific thinking, and problem-solving skills), and attitude (scientific interest and curiosity as well as approaches to learning). A repeated measures ANOVA yielded a significant main effect of time but no effect of group. Further analyses indicated that the combined approach was more effective than the control group’s approach in promoting children’s development of conceptual knowledge and curiosity. These findings provide empirical evidence about the teaching and learning of science in kindergartens in a Chinese context. The study has implications for the reform in early science teaching approach and corresponding in-service teacher training in Mainland China. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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This investigation examines how Ms. Jones scaffolds students' science language development. The study closely investigates the instructional strategies she used to help her students move from "informal Science talk" to "formal Science talk," and looks at the strategies she implemented under the scope of the anticipated themes of verbal cues, nonverbal cues, and praise. "Informal science talk" is defined in this study as a limited domain of discourse with little or no science vocabulary, while "formal science talk" is defined as an extended discourse that included the appropriate uses of science-specific vocabulary. In Ms. Jones' classroom the goal is to teach for understanding and lifelong learning, in accordance with the book How People Learn (National Research Council 2000), which contains implications for the teaching of Science. According to the standards of that book, Ms. Jones has the required subject knowledge, and an understanding of how students learn and the short- and long-term outcomes of such learning. She has created a classroom environment that fosters student thinking through participation in high-quality lessons and laboratory experiments. Through an iterative process of questioning and answering, students are given the opportunity to think about what they are learning and to also self- assess and be able to understand what they do not know. The research method used was a case study, that allowed the researcher to study, interpret and present an in-depth investigation of one teacher and how she scaffolded her students' language of school Science (LSS) development with technical vocabulary as an integral part of that process. The method of analysis was developed from a sociocultural perspective of learning. Classroom observations were conducted, and recorded via fieldnotes and videotaping of lessons for five weeks during the Spring of 2005 and four weeks during the Spring of 2006. The themes that emerged showed that the teacher's instructional designs were embedded in the Inquiry Model (Data Set II--Spring 2005) and the Science Process Skills Model (Data Set II--Spring 2006). The findings of the study reveal the characteristics of a superior type of learning environment organized around the instructional designs that Ms. Jones used. Her technique promoted the development of rich science language integrated with the vocabulary of the domain. Ms. Jones' medium of instruction was "talk." She overtly used verbal cues to promote her students science language development, which was the language of school science and reflected the different domains of the subject at the elementary grades (the Nature of Science, Life, Earth, and Physical Sciences). This study shows that a knowledgeable teacher not only knows the subject matter; she also knows how to give the right feedback, what demonstrations or analogies to use, and how to engage students in scientific investigations while providing appropriate support (scaffolding). / text

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The purpose of this study was to redefine and validate science education curricular goals for grades K-12 in the 1980s. Goals were obtained through a survey of recent educational literature. The goals were then compiled into an instrument, Science Education Curricular Goals for Validation, which was mailed to 100 science educators for validation by ranking each of the goals on a 1-7 scale (with 1 being the least important and 7 being the most important). The science educators were randomly selected from the membership of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, an organization dedicated to research in science education with a United States membership of 582 as of October 1980. The sample of 100 science educators represented 17% of the total United States membership. Medians and ranks for each of the 17 goals were calculated and the additional goals suggested by respondents, organized with minimal editing, were reported. The results of the study indicated that, although there was some agreement on the initial 17 goals in the instrument, there was also considerable disagreement as evidenced by the suggestions from respondents of 41 additional goals. The highest goal was one dealing with the processes, concepts, principles, and generalizations of sciences. The lowest ranked goal was one dealing with the integration of the humanities and the sciences. In the additional 41 goals suggested by respondents, there were several that were in direct opposition to those in the original 17 or to those additionally suggested by respondents. It was concluded that considerable further research is needed before a cohesive set of science education curricular goals can be established.

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