The International Organization for Science and Technology Education (IOSTE)

The International Organization for Science and
Technology Education (IOSTE)
II.IOSTE Eurasian Regional Symposium & Brokerage Event Horizon 2020 –
Science with and for Society
Symposium Programme & Abstracts Book
24-26 April 2015
İSTANBUL - TURKEY
1
IOSTE
The International Organization for Science and Technology Education
http://www.ioste.org
IOSTE Eurasian Regional Symposium & Brokerage Event Horizon 2020 - Science with and for Society
Symposium Programme & Abstracts Book
Edited by Bulent CAVAS & Gultekin CAKMAKCI
April - 2015
Istanbul – TURKEY
http://www.ioste2015.org
IOSTE Eurasian Regional Symposium & Brokerage Event Horizon 2020 is supported by
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Preface
The International Organization for Science and Technology Education (IOSTE) was established to advance the
cause of education in science and technology as a vital part of the general education of the peoples of all
countries and to provide scholarly exchange and discussion in the field of science and technology education.
Consistent with our mission to encourage the peaceful and ethical use of science and technology in the
service of humankind, IOSTE opposes the use of science and technology by government or other
organizations for military purposes against civilians. Its origins can be traced to a Symposium on World
Trends in Science Education convened in August 1979 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. At the third
symposium, held in Brisbane (Australia) in 1984, the informal circuit of ‘World Trends’ was transformed into
a formal organization with members from over sixty countries.
Today, IOSTE has members from about eighty countries, and is officially recognized by UNESCO as a nongovernmental organization. Membership of the International Organization for Science and Technology
Education is open to all who subscribe to its Constitution.
We are deligted to see educators, teachers, researchers, and policy makers from around the world at the
IOSTE Eurasia Regional Symposium and Brokerage Event Horizon 2020-EU Framework Programme for
Research and Innovation, which will be held in Istanbul, Turkey. The aim of the brokerage event is to provide
information about Horizon 2020 calls for proposals related to science, technology, engineering and
mathematics (STEM) education and bring all stakeholders together (universities, research institutions, civil
society organizations, SMEs, public bodies, science centers etc.) to promote partnerships among potential
coordinators and partners in a fruitful networking environment.
Kind regards,
Bulent Cavas, Dokuz Eylul University, Turkey ([email protected])
Pierre Clement, Université Aix-Marseille, France ([email protected])
Gultekin Cakmakci, Hacettepe University, Turkey ([email protected])
Istanbul 2015
Turkey
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Table of Contents
Preface ....................................................................................................................................................3
PROGRAMME..........................................................................................................................................9
24 APRIL 2015 .....................................................................................................................................9
25 APRIL 2015 ...................................................................................................................................17
26 APRIL 2015 ...................................................................................................................................22
ABSTRACTS............................................................................................................................................26
Science with and for Society under a Cultural Historical Perspective. A New Emerging Paradigm ....26
The Pathway to High Quality Science Education ..................................................................................27
Possible Interaction among Teachers’ Knowledge, Practices and Values: An International Survey ..27
Scientix Workhop: How to Involve STEM Teachers in European Projects ...........................................28
Getting Students Nearer To Electrochemistry Within Inquiry And Technology Based Activities: A
Case-Study From Portugal ....................................................................................................................29
Enhancing science teachers’ professional knowledge on inquiry-based science teaching .................30
Scientix - the importance of collaboration between Science Education projects ...............................30
Investigation of dimensions of scientific problem solving process at primary level............................31
P-prims as resources of misunderstandings in chemistry ....................................................................32
SUN - School-based professional development for science teachers ..................................................32
Enhancing Students’ Learning by Increasing the Enthusiasm of Teachers: The Impact of the PROFILES
Project in Italy .......................................................................................................................................33
Experiences of Preservice Science Teachers regarding Group Work in Science Methods Course ......34
Inquiry Based Science Education in Georgia ........................................................................................35
A Delphi study on health education for primary teachers ...................................................................36
The experience of Spanish Students using the IBSE strategies: Carbon dioxide in carbonated
beverage, the gas we drink! .................................................................................................................37
Analysis of newspaper news for health education: an IBSE experience .............................................38
The principle of least action or the re-introduction of final causes in physics ....................................39
Pre-Service Science Teachers' Scientific Process Skills: Inquiry Based Laboratory Activities in Real
Environment versus Virtual Environment ............................................................................................39
The Influence of Inquiry Based Laboratory Activities on Pre-Service Science Teachers' Attitudes
toward Chemistry Lesson and Chemistry Laboratory ..........................................................................40
SciVis - Making Science Visible .............................................................................................................41
SciVis - Making Science Visible .............................................................................................................42
4
Concept of The Waves In Physics : Historical, Epistemological And Didactic Considerations .............43
Secrets of Japanese High Performance in TIMSS and PISA ..................................................................43
An Example of Japanese Science Teaching Materials: Moon Phases Model .......................................44
Computer-supported Inquiry-based Design with Traces of Creativity in Prospective Science Teacher
Education ..............................................................................................................................................45
Effect of Group Composition on Motivation of Students in Group .....................................................45
Skills For Teaching The Future Environmentally & Science Literate Citizens: An Inquiry Case Study In
Crete, Greece ........................................................................................................................................47
The Untold Story of Teachers during the First Five Years of Teaching ................................................48
Meaningful Problem Solving: a Project to Improve Cognitive Abilities in Europe ...............................49
Where are we in integrating entrepreneurship in science curricula? .................................................50
Fostering learning with examination procedures ................................................................................50
Addressing Creationists’ Aversion to Evolution ...................................................................................51
A Review of Studies Related to Atom Concept in Science Education Literature .................................52
Science Camps in Europe ......................................................................................................................52
Sense of time ........................................................................................................................................53
The competency approach : situation and questioning .......................................................................54
Evaluation on Prospective Science Teachers’ Experimental Design Related to Scientific Process Skills
..............................................................................................................................................................54
Children As Researchers in Primary Schools in Europe: Dissemination of The Project .......................55
University students' understanding of the image formed by a lens ....................................................55
Is STEM for all? Environmental education as a case study ..................................................................56
Pre-Service Science Teachers’ Perceptions of Scientific Practices .......................................................57
The Quality of Middle Grade Students' Written Arguments ................................................................58
The concept map: effective teaching tool for understanding geometrical optics concepts ...............59
Interaction among peers: a valuable resource for science teachers ...................................................59
Kitchen in Preschool Science Education Activities And Basic Science Process Skills Acquisition ........60
After The Dust Has Settled - The Outcome of Recent Online Learning Initiatives ...............................61
A local Science Education Network in Austria – the case of Vienna ....................................................62
The Austrian Network “Ecologizing of Schools” (ECOLOG) ..................................................................62
Teaching Strategies of Science Teachers for Genetics Topic ...............................................................63
Science Teachers’ Teaching Strategies for Environmental Education .................................................64
A Review of Elementary Students’ Conceptual Understandings of Atom ...........................................65
5
The Maker’s of Future & The Future of Maker’s ..................................................................................66
Creating professional blending for occupational eHealth ....................................................................67
BioScientix – A study program to link research and teaching ..............................................................68
A project idea on working definition of IBSE in Europe through artificial intelligence ........................69
Bridging The Gap Between Research And Practice In Science Education. A Participatory Model For
Teacher-Researcher Collaborations .....................................................................................................70
The Sinus-Program: How To Engage Experienced Science Teachers Into Collaboration .....................71
Sun – School-Based Professional Development For Science Teachers ................................................72
Analysis of kindergarten children’s weather-related knowledge structures .......................................73
Sustainability from a Perspective of Turkish Decision Makers of the Future ......................................74
Mobile Digital Story Software for Science and Nature Activities in Preschool ....................................75
A Beginning Science Teacher’s PCK and Content Knowledge in Cell Division Topics ..........................75
Examining the Characteristics of Science Centres in Ankara ...............................................................76
Wearable Devices, Data and The Science Classroom ...........................................................................77
Relationships among pre-service science teachers’ epistemological beliefs and epistemological
world views ...........................................................................................................................................78
IBSE in Pakistan: Issues in Implementation and Students’ Assessment ...............................................79
The Continuous Professional Development Programme: “PROFILES - Education through Science” An Important Step in Professionalizing the Science Teaching Carrier .................................................80
The Effect of Blended Learning and Social Media-Supported Learning on The Students’ Attitude and
Self-Learning Skill in Science Education................................................................................................81
Light Green Actions versus Dark Green Actions ...................................................................................82
Pre-Service Teachers’ Plausibility Perceptions and Their Willingness to Take Action about Global
Climate Change .....................................................................................................................................83
Bringing Science Education near the Students’ Needs - Specific Results of PROFILES Curricular
Delphy Study on Science Education in Romania ..................................................................................84
Environmental Moral Reasoning in Outdoor Recreation Contexts ......................................................85
Promoting Contextualized Learning in Food Science and Health Education - The EduForHealth
Project ...................................................................................................................................................86
The IRRESISTIBLE project in Science Education: How can RRI become a permanent aspect of science
teaching? ..............................................................................................................................................87
Raising Awareness of the Importance of Responsible Research and Innovation among Young People
and Science Teachers - The IRRESISTIBLE Project ................................................................................88
Students’ views regarding IBSE – a report on the implementation of the PROFILES project in Poland
..............................................................................................................................................................89
6
Contemporary Learners in a classroom without walls: The role of ICT in science eductation ............90
Process Skills Acquisition By Pre-Service Science Teachers A Necessary Tool For Effective Science
Teaching And Achieving Nigeria’s Vision 20-20-20 ..............................................................................91
Bogner and Wiseman’s Model of Ecological Values: a possible approach to investigate
Environmental Perceptions about marine and coastal ecosystems ....................................................91
In-service teacher education: initial motivation for a distance education course about Biology
teaching ................................................................................................................................................92
The progress what we have done so far in Turkish Teacher Education with some outcomes as well
as shortcomings ....................................................................................................................................93
Evaluating the Science Points in Scope of Finland, China, Singapore, Korea, OECD and Turkey Related
to PISA 2012 Information Communication Technology (ICT) Questionnaires .....................................94
Perception and connectedness with marine environments: the perspective of teachers from a
Brazilian seaside town ..........................................................................................................................94
Preservice Science Teachers’ Views on the Traineeship Applications in School Experience Course...95
Teachers’ Ownership towards a new Innovation .................................................................................96
An Explanatory Study of Students' Ideas Related to the Context Based Instruction on Cleaning
Materials Topic in Chemistry ................................................................................................................97
Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE)- Key to S&T Innovation and Economic Development in ECO
Region ...................................................................................................................................................98
Learning about sleeping through PROFILES Three Stage Model: Teacher students’ experiences ......99
Laboratory Safety Questionnaire: Development, Validity And Reliability .........................................100
Determining the Effectiveness of the PROFILES Professional Development Programme, based on
Identified Teacher`s Needs .................................................................................................................100
European Researchers’ Night .............................................................................................................101
A Case Study from SAILS (Strategies for Assessment of Inquiry Learning in Science) project: The
Trace of Acids, Bases, and Salts ..........................................................................................................102
A Case Study from SAILS (Strategies for Assessment of Inquiry Learning in Science) project:
Identification of Gas ...........................................................................................................................102
Determining The Opinions of Estonian Stakeholders About 21st Century Skills – As Part of The
Profiles’ Delphi Study ........................................................................................................................103
Students' self-efficacy and values based on a 21st century vision of scientific literacy ....................103
Students’ Evaluation of the use of PROFILES Modules to Promote the Learning of Competences .104
Learning How To Control The Scientific Process Skills Through 3-Stage Model: 7th Grade Absorption of Light Unit .....................................................................................................................105
Cross-cultural research on students' understanding of nature of science and technology in the
context of natural hazards and disasters and its implication to society ............................................105
7
Promoting relevance in science education for the future - selected evidence from the PROFILES
project.................................................................................................................................................107
LoTeGum: What is happening at the Gymnasium—an Estonian example ........................................107
The Implementation of 3 IBSE-PROFILES Modules in Primary Schools in Turkey ..............................108
Management education model, a new strategyfor learners to develop self-efficacy in mathematics
classroom ............................................................................................................................................108
The importance of managing education model combined with the attributes of cultural intelligence
and transformational leadership concepts in teaching “processing addition” ..................................109
Comparing the Role of Managing Education Model and Traditional Education in improving Children
Philosophical Mindedness ..................................................................................................................110
A review on the relationship between education and labor market: A critical survey ....................111
Setting the steps of management education model in the secondary school considering the students
level of development and studying its effect on their learning .........................................................111
Strategies For Assessment In Inquiry Learning In Science (SAILS) .....................................................112
MASCIL (mathematics and science for life) ........................................................................................113
Innovation Networks in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (INSTEM) .....................113
STEM Teacher Training Innovation for Gender balance (STING) .......................................................114
More South Korean teachers are instructed, less they are hereditarianist .......................................114
Is there an evolution, from 2005 to 2015, of the Lebanese pre-service teachers’ conceptions related
to questions of biology, health and environment? ............................................................................116
Teachers’ conceptions of evolution in Russia ....................................................................................116
Teachers’ conceptions of gender equality in France and Turkey .......................................................117
Is there a Correlation between Health Promotion and Preservation of Environment? An analysis of
Teachers’ Conceptions in 30 countries...............................................................................................118
Studying the Effect of Teaching the Book Thinking & Research through Using Management
Education Model on Students’ Self- Efficacy ......................................................................................119
Preparation of thin layers from a natural material for separating various organic compounds:
Implications for science teaching .......................................................................................................119
8
IOSTE Eurasian Regional Symposium &
Brokerage Event Horizon 2020
PROGRAMME
24 APRIL 2015
Time Period
Room
Details
8:45 - 9:15
Fazıl Say
Auditorium
Opening Ceremony
Enver Yücel, Founder and Chairman of Bahçeşehir-Uğur
Educational Institutions
Şenay Yalçın, The Rector of Bahçeşehir University
Hae-Ae Seo, President of IOSTE
Manzoor Hussain Soomro, President of Economic Cooperation
Organization Science Foundation (ECOSF)
Mohammad Reza Behrangi, Vice President of IOSTE
Hakan Karataş, Director of International Collaboration &
Horizon 2020 National Coordinator, TÜBİTAK
Devrim Karaaslanlı, CEO, Bahçeşehir Schools
Özlem Dağ, Deputy Director General, In Charge of Marketing and
Institutional Communications-Bahcesehir Schools
Ali Rıza Lüle, Deputy Director General, In Charge of Education
Muhammad Ashraf, Chairman, Pakistan Science Foundation
John Oversby, IOSTE Board Member-University of Reading, UK
Miia Rannikmae, ICASE Executive Committee Member
Jack Holbrook, ICASE Executive Committee Member
Bulent Cavas, Symposium Co-chair
Pierre Clement, Symposium Co-chair
Gultekin Cakmakci, Symposium Co-chair
09:15 - 10:00
Fazıl Say
Auditorium
Chair: Jack
Holbrook
Keynote Speaker # 1
Science with and for Society under a Cultural Historical
Perspective: A New Emerging Paradigm
Katerina Plakitsi / GREECE
10:00 - 10:30
Coffee & Tea Break
9
10:30 – 12:00
Fazıl Say
Auditorium
Chair:
Gultekin
Cakmakci
Brokerage Event H2020-Science with and for Society
Presentation of the already funded EU projects (e.g. H2020,
FP7, LLP Projects or Erasmus+)
3 mins oral presentation
PROFILES
Jack Holbrook
S-TEAM
Peter van Marion
CHAIN
Marika Kapanadze
ARK OF INQUIRY
Zeynep Hülagü, Bulent Cavas
ENGINEER
Jack Holbrook
ESTABLISH
Miia Rannikmae
TRACES
Emilio Balzano & Francesco Cuomo
SAILS
Gultekin Cakmakci, Buket Akkoyunlu & Metin Sardag
MASCIL
Martin Bilek, Ahmet Ilhan Sen & Gultekin Cakmakci
BIOHEAD CITIZEN
Pierre Clement
IRRESISTIBLE
Jan Apotheker, Sevil Akaygün, Gabriel Gorghiu
FuLL SCIENCE
Bulent Cavas & Cagla Bulut
10
CREATIVE LITTLE SCIENTISTS
Sofoklis Sotiriou
GREENET
Sofoklis Sotiriou
EduForHealth
Gabriel Gorghiu, Claudia Lavinia Buruleanu, Laura Monica
Gorghiu
SCICAMP
Martin Lindner
EPOQUE
Katerina Plakitsi
MINDSET
Katerina Plakitsi
CARIPSIE
Buket Akkoyunlu, Derya Şahhüseyinoğlu
INSTEM
Martin Lindner, Peter van Marion, Emilio Balzano, Gultekin
Cakmakci & Francesco Cuomo
EUROPEAN RESEARCHERS’ NIGHT IN TURKEY
Hamide Ertepınar, Ayşegül Kınık
CHANGING WITH THE CLIMATE
John Oversby
STING
Gultekin Cakmakci, Seref Yardimoglu
H2020 Proposal Ideas for the New Calls
The Maker’s of Future & The Future of Maker’s
Yasemin Ozdem Yilmaz, Kader Bilican, Bulent Cavas / TURKEY
A Project Idea on Working Definition of IBSE in Europe
Through Artificial Intelligence
Murat Kahveci
11
12:00-13:30
Lunch
13:30-14:00
Fazıl Say
Auditorium
Chair: Marika
Kapanadze
Keynote Speaker # 2
The Pathway to High Quality Science Education
Sofoklis Sotiriou / GREECE
14:00-14:30
Fazıl Say
Auditorium
Chair: Miia
Rannikmae
Keynote Speaker # 3
Horizon 2020-Science with and for Society
Sonay Aydın, TÜBİTAK / Turkey
14:30-15:15
Fazıl Say
Auditorium
Discussant:
Katerina
Plakitsi
Mini symposium: “How not to tell science teachers how to
teach”
The Sinus-Program: How To Engage Experienced Science
Teachers Into Collaboration
Martin Lindner / GERMANY
Sun – School-Based Professional Development For Science
Teachers
Peter van Marion, Astrid Johansen / NORWAY
Bridging The Gap Between Research And Practice In Science
Education. A Participatory Model For Teacher-Researcher
Collaborations
Emilio Balzano, Francesco Cuomo, Ciro Minichini, Marco Serpico
/ ITALY
15:15-15:30
15:30-17:00
Coffee & Tea Break
Fazıl Say
Auditorium
Chair: John
Oversby
Contemporary Learners in a classroom without walls: The
role of ICT in science education
Susan Rodrigues / UK
Computer-supported Inquiry-based Design with Traces of
Creativity in Prospective Science Teacher Education
Andrej Sorgo, Martin Bilek / SLOVENIA, CZECH REPUBLIC
Teachers’ Ownership towards a new Innovation
Keinonen Tuula, Hartikainen-Ahia Anu, Kärkkäinen Sirpa /
FINLAND
12
15:30-17:00
Room: D304
Chair: Pierre
Clement
Addressing Creationists’ Aversion to Evolution
Leslie Sandra Jones / USA
Skills For Teaching The Future Environmentally & Science
Literate Citizens: An Inquiry Case Study In Crete, Greece
Maria Kalathaki / GREECE
Cross-cultural research on students' understanding of nature
of science and technology in the context of natural hazards
and disasters and its implication to society
David Cerulli, Jack Holbrook, Ülo Mander / ESTONIA
A Review of Elementary Students’ Conceptual
Understandings of ‘Atom’
Elvan Şahin, Ayhan Yılmaz, Sinem Demirci /TURKEY
15:30-17:00
Room: D305
Chair: Gabriel
Gorghiu
WORKSHOP: Wearable Devices, Data and The Science
Classroom
Joseph Makokha, Stanford University / USA
17:00-18:00
Poster Area
Chair:
Liberato
Cardellini
Determining the Opinions of Estonian Stakeholders about
21st Century Skills – As Part of The Profiles’ Delphi Study
Anne Laius, Tormi Kotkas, Miia Rannikmäe / ESTONIA
Students’ Evaluation of the use of PROFILES Modules to
Promote the Learning of Competences
Klaara Kask, Jack Holbrook, Miia Rannikmäe / ESTONIA
A Case Study from SAILS (Strategies for Assessment of Inquiry
Learning in Science) project: The Trace of Acids, Bases, and
Salts
Uğur Boyraz, Metin Şardağ / TURKEY
A Case Study from SAILS (Strategies for Assessment of Inquiry
Learning in Science) project: Identification of Gas
Berna Obalı, Metin Şardağ / TURKEY
P-prims as Resources of Misunderstandings in Chemistry
Tóth Zoltán / HUNGARY
University students' understanding of the image formed by a
lens
Djanette Blizak / ALGERIA
13
The concept map: effective teaching tool for understanding
geometrical optics concepts
Samia Remli, Djanette Blizak / ALGERIA
Analysis of kindergarten children’s weather-related
knowledge structures
Katalin Daru/ HUNGARY
Meaningful Problem Solving: a Project to Improve Cognitive
Abilities in Europe
Liberato Cardellini / ITALY
Inquiry Based Science Education in Georgia
Marika Kapanadze, Ekaterine Slovinsky / GEORGIA
SciVis - Making Science Visible
Martin Lindner, Sandra Rudolph / GERMANY
Children As Researchers In Primary Schools In Europe:
Dissemination Of The Project
Buket Akkoyunlu, Derya Şahhüseyinoğlu / TURKEY
Analysis of newspaper news for health education: an IBSE
experience
Esther Charro-Huerga, Elena Charro, Angela Gómez-Niño /
SPAIN
The experience of Spanish Students using the IBSE strategies:
Carbon dioxide in carbonated beverage, the gas we drink!.
Elena Charro, Esther Charro-Huerga, Angela Gómez-Niño /
SPAIN
Kitchen In Preschool Science Education Activities And Basic
Science Process Skills Acquisition
Naciye Saltikalp Kaya / TURKEY
A Delphi study on health education for primary teachers
Esther Charro-Huerga, Elena Charro, Angela Gómez-Niño /
SPAIN
14
Students’ views regarding IBSE – a report on the
implementation of the PROFILES project in Poland
Elwira Samonek-Miciuk, Ryszard M. Janiuk / POLAND
Bogner and Wiseman’s Model of Ecological Values: a possible
approach to investigate Environmental Perceptions about
marine and coastal ecosystems
Suzana Ursi, Naomi Towata / BRAZIL
Perception and connectedness with marine environments:
the perspective of teachers from a Brazilian seaside town
Geisly França Faton, Flávio Augusto de Souza Berchez, Suzana
Ursi / BRAZIL
Preparation of thin layers from a natural material for
separating various organic compounds: Implications for
science teaching
M'hammed Lahmek, Mellal Fethi / ALGERIA
IBSE in Pakistan: Issues in Implementation and Students’
Assessment
M. Ashraf, Mirza Habib Ali / PAKISTAN
The IRRESISTIBLE project in Science Education: How can RRI
become a permanent aspect of science teaching?
Margherita Venturi, Eugenio Bertozzi, Barbara Pecori / ITALY
European Researchers’ Night
Colette Renier, Bulent Cavas, Duygu Seyman / TURKEY
Examining the Characteristics of Science Centres in Ankara
Mine KAYA, Jale Çakıroğlu / TURKEY
Evaluating the Science Points in Scope of Finland, China,
Singapore, Korea, OECD and Turkey Related to PISA 2012
Information Communication Technology (ICT)
Questionnaires
Devrim Akgunduz / TURKEY
In-service teacher education: initial motivation for a distance
education course about Biology teaching
Pércia Paiva Barbosa, Suzana Ursi/ BRAZIL
15
The Implementation of 3 IBSE-PROFILES Modules in Primary
Schools in Turkey
Funda Tunaboylu, Sebnem Filiz Yapıcı, Filiz Bademli / TURKEY
18:00-20:00
Welcome Dinner of Brokerage Event H2020 &
Bilateral Meetings
16
25 APRIL 2015
Time
Place
Details
09:00-10:00
Fazıl Say
Auditorium
Chair: Pierre
Clement
Mini Symposium: Biohead Citizen
Teachers’ conceptions of gender equality in France, Turkey,
Lebonan, Russia, Korea
Is there a Correlation between Health Promotion and
Preservation of Environment? An analysis of Teachers’
Conceptions in 30 countries
Jérémy Castéra & Pierre Clément / FRANCE
Teachers’ conceptions of gender equality in France and
Turkey
Pierre Clément & Jérémy Castéra, Hulya Hamurcu, Bulent Cavas,
Yasemin Gunay / FRANCE - TURKEY
Is there an evolution, from 2005 to 2015, of the Lebanese preservice teachers’ conceptions related to questions of biology,
health and environment?
Paula Abou Tayeh, Pierre Clément & Jérémy Castéra, Iman Khalil
/ LEBANON
Teachers’ conceptions of evolution in Russia
Frédéric Charles Pierre Clément / FRANCE
More South Korean teachers are instructed, less they are
hereditarianist
Hae-Ae Seo, Jérémy Castéra & Pierre Clément / SOUTH KOREA –
FRANCE
10:00-10:30
10:30-12:00
Coffee & Tea Break
Fazıl Say
Auditorium
Chair:
Manzoor H.
Soomro
Light Green Actions versus Dark Green Actions
Umut Alper, Ceren Öztekin, Elvan Şahin / TURKEY
After The Dust Has Settled - The Outcome of Recent Online
Learning Initiatives
Joseph Makokha / USA
Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE)- Key to S&T
Innovation and Economic Development in ECO Region
17
Manzoor H. Soomro / PAKISTAN
10:30-12:00
Room:D302
Chair: Ahmet
İlhan Şen
A Review of Studies Related to Atom Concept in Science
Education Literature
Serkan Ekinci, Ahmet İlhan Şen / TURKEY
The Quality of Middle Grade Students' Written Arguments
Kader Bilican, Mehmet Aydeniz / TURKEY - USA
Sense of time
Khadraoui Mohamed, Khiari Chamsedine / ALGERIA
10:30-12:00
Room: D305
Chair: Hae-Ae
Seo
Pre-Service Science Teachers’ Perceptions of Scientific
Practices
Ebru Kaya, Deniz Saribas, Sibel Erduran / TURKEY
SciVis - Making Science Visible
Sandra Rudolph, Martin Lindner / GERMANY
Getting Students Nearer To Electrochemistry Within Inquiry
And Technology Based Activıties: A Case-Study From
Portugal
Carla Morais, José Barros, Luciano Moreira, Nuno Francisco,
João Paiva / PORTUGAL
10:30-12:00
Room:D306
Chair: Shuichi
Yamashita
Laboratory Safety Questionnaire: Development, Validity and
Reliability
Simge Akpullukçu, Bülent Çavaş / TURKEY
Secrets of Japanese High Performance in TIMSS And PISA
Shuichi Yamashita / JAPAN
An Example Of Japanese Science Teaching Materials: Moon
Phases Model
Ikkei Sakuraba, Shuichi Yamashita, Naoki Sagawa / JAPAN
Science Teachers’ Teaching Strategies for Environmental
Education
Murat Aydemir, Nurdane Aydemir / TURKEY
12:00-13:30
Lunch
18
13:30-15:00
Room: D302
Chair: Laura
Monica
Gorghiu
Bringing Science Education near the Students’ Needs Specific Results of PROFILES Curricular Delphy Study on
Science Education in Romania
Laura Monica Gorghiu, Gabriel Gorghiu / ROMANIA
Teaching Strategies of Science Teachers for Genetics Topic
Murat Aydemir, Jale Çakıroğlu, Ceren Öztekin / TURKEY
Effect of Group Composition on Motivation of Students In
Group
Volkan Atasoy / TURKEY
13:30-15:00
Room: D305
Chair: Doris
Elster
Evaluation on Prospective Science Teachers’ Experimental
Design Related To Scientific Process Skills
Elif Benzer, Gülfem Muslu Kaygısız, Melike Hıdıroglu / TURKEY
BioScientix – A study program to link research and teaching
Doris Elster / GERMANY
Preservice Science Teachers’ Views on the Traineeship
Applications in School Experience Course
Murat Berat Uçar, Fatma Melike Hıdıroğlu, Cemal Aküzüm/
TURKEY
13:30-15:00
Room:D306
Chair:
Mohammadre
za Behrangi
MINI SYMPOSIUM FOR IRAN
The importance of Management education model, a new
strategy for learners to develop self-efficacy in mathematics
classroom
Behrangi, Mohammadreza; Zebarjadi, Arash
Studying the Effect of Teaching the Book Thinking &
Research through Using Management Education Model on
Students’ Self- Efficacy
Behrangi, Mohammadreza; Khosravi, Hamid
Managing education model combined with the attributes of
cultural intelligence and transformational leadership
concepts in teaching “processing addition”
Atiyeh Bourbour; Behrangi, Mohammadreza
19
Setting the steps of management education model in the
secondary school considering the students level of
development and studying its effect on their learning
Atiyeh Bourbour; Gholami, Zohreh
A review on the relationship between education and labor
market: A critical survey
Zahra Danial; Atiyeh Bourbour
Comparing the Role of Managing Education Model and
Traditional Education in improving Children Philosophical
Mindedness
Laya Rahimzadeh
13:30-15:00
Room:D307
Discussant:
Miia
Rannikmäe
Learning How to Control The Process of Scientific Skills
Through 3-Stage Model: 7th Grade - Absorption of Light Unit
Simge Akpullukcu, Çağla BULUT, Duygu SEYMAN, Bulent Cavas
/ TURKEY
LoTeGum: What is happening at the Gymnasium—an
Estonian example
Miia Rannikmäe, Priit Reiska, Jack Holbrook / ESTONIA
Where are we in integrating entrepreneurship in science
curricula?
Sedat Uçar / TURKEY
13:30-15:00
Room:D311
Chair: Pinar
Cavas
Mobile Digital Story Software for Science and Nature
Activities in Preschool
Gokben TURGUT, Tarık Kışla / TURKEY
Investigation of dimensions of scientific problem solving
process at primary level
Ibolya Revák – Markóczi / HUNGARY
What is the impact of PROFILES Type Modules on Students’
Motivation to Learn Science?
Bulent Cavas, Pinar Cavas, Cagla Bulut/TURKEY
20
13:30-15:00
Fazıl Say
Auditorium
Chair: Gabriel
Gorghiu
The Continuous Professional Development Programme:
“PROFILES - Education through Science” - An Important Step
in Professionalizing the Science Teaching Carrier
Gabriel Gorghiu, Laura Monica Gorghiu, Luminita Mihaela
Draghicescu / ROMANIA
An Explanatory Study of Students' Ideas Related to the
Context Based Instruction on Cleaning Materials Topic in
Chemistry
Ridvan Elmas, Omer Geban/ TURKEY
Pre-Service Teachers’ Plausibility Perceptions and Their
Willingness to Take Action about Global Climate Change
Gaye Defne Ceyhan, Ebru Zeynep Muğaloğlu / TURKEY
15:00-15:30
15:30-17:00
Coffee & Tea Break
Fazıl Say
Auditorium
Chair: Gina
Mihai
Scientix Workshop: How to Involve STEM Teachers in
European Projects
Moderated by Gina Mihai, Scientix
Elaine Manton, STEM Co-ordinator, Loreto Grammar School,
U.K.
Bosiljko Đerek, Math and Physics teacher, Croatia
Norbertas Airošius, Educational & IT Expert, Lithuania
18:00-20:00
Bosphorus Sightseeing Cruise Tour with Cocktail for
Brokerage Event H2020 & Bilateral Meetings
21
26 APRIL 2015
Time Period
Room
Details
09:00 - 10:00
Fazıl Say
Auditorium
Chair: Leslie
Sandra Jones
Keynote Speaker # 4
Possible Interaction among Teachers’ Knowledge, Practices
and Values: An International Survey
Pierre Clement, Université Aix-Marseille / FRANCE
10:00 - 10:30
Coffee Break
10:30 - 12:00
Fazıl Say
Auditorium
Chair: Franz
Rauch
Workshop: The Austrian Network “Ecologizing of Schools”
(ECOLOG)
Franz Rauch, Mira Dulle, Alpen-Adria-University Klagenfurt /
AUSTRIA
10:30 - 12:00
Room: D302
Chair: Peter
van Marion
A Study on Pre-service Science Teachers’ Environmental
Friendly Behaviours and Optimism Perceptions
Umut Alper, Ceren Öztekin, Elvan Şahin / TURKEY
SUN - School-based professional development for science
teachers
Peter van Marion, Astrid Johansen / NORWAY
Experiences of Preservice Science Teachers regarding Group
Work in Science Methods Course
Volkan Atasoy, Jale Çakıroğlu / TURKEY
10:30 - 12:00
Room:D305
Chair: Shu-Nu
Chang
Rundgren
Enhancing science teachers’ professional knowledge on
inquiry-based science teaching
Shu-Nu Chang Rundgren, Carl-Johan Rundgren / SWEDEN
The Untold Story of Teachers during the First Five Years of
Teaching
Emine Sahin, Funda Savasci Acikalin / TURKEY
Learning about sleeping through PROFILES Three Stage
Model: Teacher students’ experiences
Sirpa Kärkkäinen, Merja Metsola, Sini Kontkanen / FINLAND
22
10:30 - 12:00
Room:D306
Chair: John
Oversby
Is STEM for all? Environmental education as a case study
John Oversby / UK
Creating professional blending for occupational eHealth
Marjo Rissanen / FINLAND
Pre-Service Science Teachers' Scientific Process Skills:
Inquiry Based Laboratory Activities in Real Environment
versus Virtual Environment
Ayfer Mutlu, Burcin Acar-Sesen/ TURKEY
12:00-13:30
13:30-15:00
Lunch
Fazıl Say
Auditorium
Chair: Miia
Rannikmae
15:00 - 15:30
15:30 - 17:00
Mini Symposium: Promoting relevance in science education
for the future - selected evidence from the PROFILES project
Claus Bolte, Mira Dulle, Avi Hofstein, Jack Holbrook, Rachel
Namlook, Miia Rannikmae, Franz Rauch, Sabine Streller /
GERMANY, ESTONIA, UK, ISRAEL, AUSTRIA
Coffee & Tea break
Fazıl Say
Auditorium
Chair: Jack
Holbrook
Interaction among peers: a valuable resource for science
teachers.
Emilio Balzano, Francesco Cuomo, Ciro Minichini, Marco Serpico
/ ITALY
Determining the Effectiveness of the PROFILES Professional
Development Programme, based on Identified Teacher`s
Needs
Ana Valdmann, Jack Holbrook, Miia Rannikmae / ESTONIA
Fostering learning with examination procedures
Antti J. Rissanen / FINLAND
23
15:30 - 17:00
Room:D305
Chair: Martin
Lindner
Sustainability from a Perspective of Turkish Decision Makers
of the Future
Elvan Şahin / TURKEY
Science Camps in Europe
Martin Lindner, Christian Kubat, Uffe Sveegard, Linda
Ahrenkiel/GERMANY
The progress what we have done so far in Turkish Teacher
Education with some outcomes as well as shortcomings
Lütfullah Türkmen / TURKEY
15:30 - 17:00
Room:D306
Chair:
Liberato
Cardellini
A Beginning Science Teacher’s PCK and Content Knowledge in
Cell Division Topics
Mehmet Şen / TURKEY
Enhancing Students’ Learning by Increasing the Enthusiasm
of Teachers: The Impact of the PROFILES Project in Italy
Liberato Cardellini / ITALY
The Influence of Inquiry Based Laboratory Activities on PreService Science Teachers' Attitudes toward Chemistry Lesson
and Chemistry Laboratory
Ayfer Mutlu, Burcin Acar-Sesen / TURKEY
15:30 - 17:00
Room:D307
Chair: Miia
Rannikmae
The Effect of Blended Learning and Social Media-Supported
Learning on The Students’ Attitude And Self-Learning Skill in
Science Education
Devrim Akgündüz, Orhan Akınoğlu / TURKEY
The Competency Approach : Situation And Questioning
Boumghar Said / ALGERIA
Students' Self-Efficacy and Values Based on A 21st Century
Vision of Scientific Literacy
Kerti Ait, Miia Rannikmäe, Jack Holbrook / ESTONIA
24
15:30 - 17:00
Room:D311
Chair: Nilay
Öztürk Özel
The principle of least action or the re-introduction of final
causes in physics
Mystapha OLDACHE, Mohamed KHADRAOUI, Chams-eddine
KHIARI/ ALGERIA
Relationships among pre-service science teachers’
epistemological beliefs and epistemological world views
Nilay Öztürk Özel, Özgül Yilmaz Tüzün / TURKEY
Concept of The Waves In Physics : Historical, Epistemological
And Didactic Considerations
MAZOUZE Brahim, LOUNIS Ali / ALGERIA
15:30 - 17:00
Room:D302
Chair: Franz
Rauch
Environmental Moral Reasoning in Outdoor Recreation
Contexts
Busra Tuncay-Yuksel, Ozgul Yilmaz-Tuzun / TURKEY
A local Science Education Network in Austria – the case of
Vienna
Franz Rauch, Mira Dulle / AUSTRIA
Process Skills Acquisition By Pre-Service Science Teachers A
Necessary Tool For Effective Science Teaching And Achieving
Nigeria’s Vision 20-20-20
Barnabas A. Gankon /NIGERIA
17:00-17:15
Fazıl Say
Auditorium
Closing Ceremony
25
ABSTRACTS
Science with and for Society under a Cultural Historical
Perspective. A New Emerging Paradigm
Katerina Plakitsi, University of Ioannina / GREECE
The speech aims to contribute to an emergent agenda for Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT)
and science education. It especially focuses on the application of activity theory in formal and
informal science education. This focus leads to rethinking scientific literacy, as well as to rethinking
the role of information and communication technologies. We claim that the traditional dualistic
framework does not help us understand current complex social transformations. More than ever
before, there is a need for an approach that can dialectically link the individual with the social
structure. From its very beginnings, CHAT considered this task as a priority. Today activity theory is
becoming truly international and multidisciplinary, providing a theoretical framework which
establishes science education as participation in the community. Moreover, CHAT addresses the gap
between theory and praxis. Also, it could achieve the scope of interdisciplinary science education in
multicultural world. Consequently, a new mentality, which sees situated science education as part
of society, has emerged. This could reform science education from its core in a physical and logical
way, while lifelong learning activities take place. We test our CHAT proposal in four different types
of settings: (1) science teaching programs for schools enriched by using the History and Philosophy
of Science and ICT technologies, (2) school environmental science curricula and textbooks for
compulsory education, critically related to PISA, (3) university and schools science teaching lab
activities, and (4) science into science museums/centers. Our group’s activity is to design and
develop some science teaching learning sequences with ICT tasks, workshops, scenarios and other
tools which incorporate societal, cultural, historical elements of science. We also use the basic
principles of activity theory to analyse the participation of students in actions focusing on the
relationships between subject (students, teacher) and object (e.g. concept of electromagnetism)
and on the influence of intermediary artifacts (e.g. technological tools/plattforms, mental
tools/elements from history and philosophy of science). Tools mediate the transformation of the
object for the transition of students from the practical-experiential knowledge to the school version
of scientific knowledge. This way science will be attractive for young learners to follow a career in
them including any individual independently of race, origin, sex, religion etc. The @fise group also
promotes teachers’ improvement through their dialogical interactions with critical friends.
Overall, the @FISE group at the University of Ioannina, works intensively on the cultural dimension
of STEM Education. Within this frame, it leads and/or participates to many international Symposia;
to different ERASMUS+ and FP7 projects (e.g. ÉPOQUE, @MINDSET, ISWA); to new fruitful HORIZON
2020-Science with and for Society programs.
26
The Pathway to High Quality Science Education
Sofoklis Sotiriou, Ellinogermaniki Agogi / GREECE
Following the recommendations of the "Science Education Now: A renewed Pedagogy for the
Future of Europe" report (Rocard, 2007), the Pathway Supporting Action is bringing together
experts in the field of science education research and teachers' communities, scientists and
researchers involved in pioneering scientific research, policy makers and curriculum developers to
promote the effective widespread use of inquiry and problem based science teaching techniques in
primary and secondary schools in Europe and beyond. The aim of the project is to set the pathway
toward a standard-based approach to teaching science by inquiry, to support the adoption of
inquiry teaching by demonstrating ways to reduce the constrains presented by teachers and school
organisation, to demonstrate and disseminate methods and exemplary cases of both effective
introduction of inquiry to science classrooms and professional development programmes, and
finally to deliver a set of guidelines for the educational community to further explore and exploit
the unique benefits of the proposed approach in science teaching. In this way the project team aims
to facilitate the development of communities of practitioners of inquiry that will enable teachers to
learn from each other.
Possible Interaction among Teachers’ Knowledge, Practices and
Values: An International Survey
Pierre Clement, Université Aix-Marseille / FRANCE
It is today admitted that science teaching is not limited to the scientific content, and also involves
the teachers’ practices, the pedagogical content. It is less admitted that these two poles (K =
scientific knowledge, and P = social practices) can be in interaction with a third pole, the teachers’
values (V). I proposed the KVP model to analyse teachers’ or students’ conceptions as possible KVP
interactions between their knowledge, values and practices.
27
Scientix Workhop: How to Involve STEM Teachers in European
Projects
Moderated by Gina Mihai, Scientix, Elaine Manton, STEM Co-ordinator, Loreto Grammar School,
U.K. Bosiljko Đerek, Math and Physics teacher, Croatia, Norbertas Airošius, Educational & IT Expert,
Lithuania
The Scientix workshop will focus on the involvement of STEM teachers in projects aiming to
improve science education in Europe at primary / secondary level. It will consist of three parts:



Introduction to the workshop and to the three guest STEM teachers who will act as
“testers”.
Participants will then have a chance to share how they have integrated teachers in their
projects in groups and their main points will be presented to the teachers. These teachers
will help adapt the messages in order to get approval from their hierarchies to join the
projects in the future.
Finally, the main conclusions will be integrated into a presentation on the results of the
lessons learnt from different European STEM projects following the Scientix Projects
Networking Event of the 20th Feb 2015.
28
Getting Students Nearer To Electrochemistry Within Inquiry And
Technology Based Activities: A Case-Study From Portugal
Carla Morais, José Barros, Luciano Moreira; Nuno Francisco; João Paiva / Portugal
The debates of contemporary society involve – either directly or indirectly – a certain degree of
scientific knowledge. Scientific literacy has become a pre-requisite to participate in discussions that
otherwise would be limited to experts. Furthermore, it is a criterion of social mobility that affects
social stratification. Since school curricula sometimes fail to promote scientific literacy, one must
seek complementary pedagogical strategies to approach this subject and to reach more students.
This paper presents a module (i.e., a set of pedagogical strategies used to approach science through
social and ethical problems) selected and adapted in the framework of a European project
PROFILES. “Do you need Chemistry in order to be a good bone surgeon?” was designed so as to
motivate students for the study to the introductory electrochemistry considering that chemistry’s
field is normally perceived as difficult. It involves the concepts of oxidation and reduction reactions,
electrochemical series and metals activities and was applied for three years in a Portuguese
Secondary class. The motivational scenario was an important engine to enable a strong focus on the
item. Beginning with one question, students proposed several other questions before the
implementation of the simulated computational experience. In order to structure learning, the
teacher and the students collaboratively constructed conceptual maps with the concepts address in
the activity. The students felt motivated and enjoyed to interact with the simulator, which revealed
to be an effective predicting tool of non-virtual experiment observations and results. Some of the
pre and post experiment questions were filled up by relevant facts and full answers with a good
positive criticism. Finally, students used the software in homework tasks and in the preparation of
written test. This is rather important since some evidence suggested that students do not consider
web resources as legitimate or effective means for serious studying. The module improved teacher
and student’s motivation. Although teachers expressed concerns with (1) the fact that the tool
extended the official curriculum; (2) the virtual nature of the experiment and (3) the availability of
alternative concepts of the redox behavior. These obstacles were overcome by the performing of a
real laboratorial experiment proposed by the national chemistry curriculum, which suggests that a
period of overlapping may be relevant to assist teachers in the transition from usual practices to
new approaches. Students not only obtained good academic results, but they also became more
interested in the theme through a social standpoint, as an event from outside the scope of the
research shows. When the students participated in the European researchers' night, they revealed
interest especially in biotechnology, trying to learn more about the subject. Thus, the approach
succeeded to promote scientific literacy and creative practice through innovative teaching materials
with interdisciplinary socio-scientific issues/scenarios and the educational symbiosis between
technology and non-virtual experiments. In the future, it will be relevant to (1) adapt new science
teaching materials combined with intervention in curriculum; (2) disseminate this module to other
29
educators in an interactive forum and in teachers’ continuing professional development courses; (3)
monitor students’ reflective practice.
Enhancing science teachers’ professional knowledge on inquirybased science teaching
Shu-Nu Chang Rundgren, Carl-Johan Rundgren / Sweden
Inquiry-based science education (IBSE) has been addressed in science education internationally
during the past decades, and the new Swedish curriculum from 2011 also emphasize the need to
develop students’ inquiry skills. However, to what extent school teachers in Sweden have
developed their professional knowledge on IBSE has only been focused in a small number of studies
in Sweden and it was found that in-service teachers were not well-informed about the ideas of IBSE
(Lunde, Rundgren, & Chang Rundgren, in press). Therefore, in the PROFILES project in Sweden, we
could create time and space for in-service teachers to develop and reflect on IBSE. The purpose of
this presentation is to share our experiences on the development of PROFILES with in-service
science teachers (primary and lower secondary school levels) in Sweden during year 2012 to 2014. A
model termed context-inquiry-assessment (CIA) continuously professional development (CPD) is
introduced in the presentation together with suggestions on different teacher professional
development approaches (e.g. design-based, learning study and action research) (Chang Rundgren,
in press) as well as the detailed professional reflection on pedagogical content knowledge (PCK).
Scientix - the importance of collaboration between Science
Education projects
Gina Mihai / Belgium
Advances in research are carried out by teams more often than by isolated people, nowadays. The
same happens with projects. Scientix, the community of science education in Europe is not only a
network for people involved in the field. It also promotes collaboration between projects in order to
find synergies and support each other. In this presentation we will highlight the Scientix Projects
Networking Events: aims, formats, results so far and upcoming events.
30
Investigation of dimensions of scientific problem solving process
at primary level
Ibolya Revák - Markóczi / Hungary
The motivation of research was to induce what the results of the PISA measurements concerning
the Hungarian students’ insufficient science problemsolving achievements at the age of 15 between
2000 and 2012. So we started to investigate the results of this problem and search the
methodological opportunities for the problemsolving development. One of the first steps is to
investigate and develop pupils’ problem solving abilities from primary level. Objectives of the
investigation were the investigaion of basic structure of problem solving process at the age of 6-10,
detection of the impact of the age characteristics and the experimental project and conclusions
proposals concerning development. The questions of research related to the structure of the
problem solving process and relative frequency of phases and the higher level of abstracion of the
problem solving process, namely the way of declaration in goal setting and problem definition and
the application of science language in the expression of the phases. The sample consists of the same
students from 1st to 4th grade who came from Hungary and Germany (Nexperimantal group = 86;
Ncontrol group = 74).We devised a theoretical model of problemsolving process on basic of Pólya’s
cognitive model (1957), Gick’ and Holyoak’s reductive model (1980) and the Japanese model
applied by Aravena and Caamano ( 2007) for our investigation. We adapted Murphy and at al’.
(1996) model for the explicit development of problem solving. We built this method into our
„Rostock Model” international developmental program between Germany and Hungary 2008 –
2012 that was an experimental didactical program concerning development and investigation of
school starters’ science thinking. In the frame of this project we worked out an interdisciplinary
theme (WATER). We developed teaching units for every grade, prepared teachers for experimental
teaching and evaluated the impact of the program. We applied a longitudinal measurement (three
measurements in every school year) of problem solving process development. During the semistructured personal interview we made students solve simple science problem tasks. We used a
three-level evaluation: level 1 - whether phases of problem solving exist or not, level 2 - the way of
the declaration of goal setting and problem definition, level 3 - the level of using science language.
The most important conlusion is that the structure of the problem solving process is the
consequence of age caharacteristcs, and a development programme can influence only phases that
sudents are ready to enbrace and learn. The existance of critical elements on higher level
abstraction in 4th grade raises the question whether these students are in the stage of formal
thinking or not. There are two main aspects of our invetsigation, namely one: proposal: when, what
can be developed: two: what is the method that is proper for the development of the problem
solving process.
31
P-prims as resources of misunderstandings in chemistry
Tóth Zoltán / Hungary
The misunderstandings are imaginations, notions and interpretations that are scientifically
incorrect. Among the cognitive resources of misunderstanding in science, phenomenological
primitives (p-prims) must be emphasized. P-prims are simple abstractions of personal common
everyday experiences, and support the development of ideas that are intuitively accepted. P-prims
were proposed by diSessa (1993), and were used mainly in physics (diSessa, 1993; Hammer, 1996).
P-primes are qualified as follows (Werby, 2010): it is not a formally learned concept; it describes a
phenomenon; it is a bit of knowledge based on personal observations; it may be a useful problemsolving tool as a cognitive shortcut. The role of p-prims in learning chemistry is not a widely studied
field on cognitive resources of misunderstandings (Taber, 2008; Garcia-Franco and Taber, 2009;
Taber and Garcia-Franco, 2009; 2010). The aim of this study is collecting, exploring and classifying
the p-prims-based misunderstandings in chemistry. More than two hundred Hungarian secondary
school students were involved in this survey. The main types of the p-prims explored in chemistry
are the follows: - More is better/stronger/bigger: ‘The atomic radius increases with the atomic
number in a period.’ ‘The more concentrated carbonic acid is stronger than the hydrochloric acid in
less concentration.’ ‘The boiling point of the hydrogen halogenates increases with the molar mass.’
‘The pyrimidine is stronger base than pyridine, because pyrimidine contains two nitrogen atoms.’ Wet is heavier: ‘The wet air is heavier than the dry air.’ - Harder is more stable: ‘Among the
allotropic forms of the pure carbon diamond is the more stable, because diamond is hardest
mineral.’ - Equilibrium is equation: ‘In equilibrium the concentrations of the products and the initial
materials are the same.’ - Ugly is harmful: ‘During the electrolyses of water between iron electrodes
an ugly precipitate is formed indicating the harmful pollutants dissolved in water.’- More symmetry
is more stability: ‘Sodium ion (Na+) is more stable than sodium atom (Na).’The detailed results of
our survey will be shown as poster presentation. This work was supported by OTKA (K-105262).
SUN - School-based professional development for science teachers
Peter van Marion, Astrid Johansen / Norway
SUN is a school-based professional development program for science teachers. The major aim of
the program is to stimulate an evolutionary process in which individual science teachers, who,
although being members of the school’s science department, operate mostly on their own, become
active members of a professional learning community in their school. SUN is based on the idea that
teachers who work collaboratively on shared areas of inquiry, stimulate each other and challenge
each other to make professional steps. For some teachers the first big step is simply to start talking
about what they do in the class room, something many may never have done before. Through
questions from their colleagues they may be challenged and reflect more on their own teaching
32
practice. They may be encouraged to make new steps such as trying out some new approach or
teaching method. Gradually through the whole series of workshops, step-by-step, the teachers
become more confident and more willing to share. This process, carefully guided by external science
educators from our university, leads to more openness and willingness to meet new challenges and
take new steps. A learning community is built, and it offers a powerful way of engaging its members
in reflecting upon their own teaching practice. Since 2008, we have used the SUN-approach to
professional development for science teachers in more than 20 secondary schools. Here, we will
describe the SUN-programme in more details and summarize and present some of our experiences
from different SUN schools. We will in particular discuss the role of the school leaders.
Enhancing Students’ Learning by Increasing the Enthusiasm of
Teachers: The Impact of the PROFILES Project in Italy
Liberato Cardellini / Italy
An indication of the state of education in a country is given by the Programme for International
Student Assessment (PISA) international survey. Unfortunately, according to this study, the status of
health of education in Italy is not very good. There are many factors that make modest the impact
of the teaching on students’ learning. One of these is the lack of social recognition of the
professionalism of the teacher. Another is the many bureaucratic commitments that have little to
do with teaching problems. The dissatisfaction of teachers is a very negative factor because it kills
the enthusiasm. As it has been rightly observed, “Teachers’ subject and pedagogical content
knowledge, alongside their teaching style, are vital factors, but it is often their enthusiasm that
captures a pupil’s interest and motivates them to study a subject.” (European Commission, 2004).
During the four years of the project life, more than 1300 teachers in Italy have been informed of the
existence of the project PROFILES. For many teachers, the news came with the request to
participate in the Delphi study and the ten newsletters. About 530 teachers and school
administrators know the philosophy and objectives of the project. Teachers involved in the project
belong to three regions and many use in practice the philosophy of the project, albeit in varying
degrees. The success of the project lies in the type of long-term teacher professional development
courses tailored to the professional needs of teachers. The professional development consisted in
seminars and workshops: the backbone was the presentation of the cooperative learning, the use of
summaries and concept mapping, and problem solving. After two or three joint meetings,
professional development has often focused on the solution of the difficulties that individual
teachers encountered when s/he tried to put into practice the new teaching ideas. Articles to study,
teaching materials, suggestions, help from other teachers, discussions face to face, by phone, by email have established a friendly environment. Because the teachers need to evolve over time, the
professional development takes place by means of a continuous interactive path. “Individual
teachers will have different, and often multiple, learning needs, will be in different learning stages,
33
at different points along the professional continuum, and this will be true at every points during the
implementation of your plan.” (Loucks-Horsley and al. 2010, p. 164) To support and encourage this
effort, teachers have had the opportunity to share their experiences and best practices in the
newsletters and to take part in some conferences. To communicate their experience gives value and
visibility to their work and reinforces the sense of ownership and the desire to continue to improve
professionally. We are engaged in the production of a publication with the best practices and
experiences developed by teachers.
Experiences of Preservice Science Teachers regarding Group Work
in Science Methods Course
Volkan Atasoy, Jale Çakıroğlu / Turkey
In educational settings, group work which means that individuals are gathered to work together to
do collective tasks is used as pedagogical technique. In addition to primary and secondary
education, higher education is another environment in which group work was seen as incentive for
learning (Chiriac, 2014). In the literature, it was stated that group work has some benefits with
respect to students’ learning, level of reasoning, level of critical thinking, communication, selfesteem and attitude towards other people or subject matter (Ragan, 1993; Rutherford, Mathur, &
Quinn, 1998; Topsakal, 2010; Yıldırım & Girgin, 2012). In spite of studies like above conducted to
students, there are limited studies which examine undergraduate students in terms of group work
in the literature (Chiriac, 2014). Moreover, as undergraduate students, group work studies including
preservice teachers are required (Zou, Kim, & Kerekes, 2011). According to Watson, Miller and
Patty (2011), this group work studies should be increased in teacher education program. Therefore,
in order to respond this call, this study was conducted with preservice science teachers in science
methods course. For this, firstly 35 preservice students enrolled in this course were divided into
groups which were composed of three or four people in each group. Then, each week new science
teaching method was taught. Then, these groups were asked to prepare lesson plans in the light of
this science teaching method. In total, there were nine science teaching methods and they prepared
nine lesson plans. At the end of semester, in order to learn experience of preservice science
teachers regarding group work, semi-structured interview was implemented to three groups. Two
of them included four people in each. One group was composed of three people. Responses to
interview questions were analyzed by content analysis method. In this analysis phase, another
researcher independently analyzed these responses as well. Then, these two analyses were
compared and contrasted. Any differences were resolved through discussion. After analysis, it was
founded that group work helped preservice science teachers to increase learning, sense of
responsibility and critical thinking ability. In addition, preservice science teachers reported that in
group work, they faced some problems such as acting free in group, waste of time, feeling bored. In
conclusion, from preservice teachers’ perspectives, group work has disadvantages and advantages.
This advantages are in parallel to findings of Ragan, 1993; Rutherford, Mathur, & Quinn, 1998;
Topsakal, 2010; Yıldırım & Girgin, 2012. The reason why preservice science teachers founded group
work as beneficial in terms of many respects may be that preparing lesson plan was complex task to
do individually. Therefore, working with group was helpful for them to understand teaching method
34
and prepare lesson plan. In addition to these advantages, some disadvantages of this group work
were reported. The reason of them may be related to inexperience of preservice teachers about
working in group. This study will provide empirical information regarding group work in teacher
education program. These findings will be fruitful for teacher educators to conduct effective group
work in their classroom.
Inquiry Based Science Education in Georgia
Marika Kapanadze, Ekaterine Slovinsky / Georgia
There are many projects in Europe funded by the European Commission, trying to promote and
implement IBSE in the school systems in Europe and beyond (such as projects supported by the EC
FP6 and FP7 programs). Two of those FP7 projects –PROFILES (2010 - 2015) and Chain Reaction
(2013 – 2016) are successfully implemented in Georgia. Ilia State University, member of the
consortium of the both projects, develops the project activities in Georgia. PROFILES is the acronym
of “Professional Reflection Oriented Focus on Inquiry-based Learning and Education through
Science” and is the name of a consortium which consists of 22 partners from 21 countries. The
PROFILES project ’’promotes science teacher professionalism through a continuous professional
development programme to support teacher self-reflection on the innovative ideas in the project
linked to stakeholders views, inquiry-based learning, student-centred approaches and a thrust for
science education that enhance students’ learning in knowledge, skills, attitudes and values’’. In
order to achieve the project aims, PROFILES supports the adaption, creation and development of
materials to enhance Inquiry-Based Science Education in the partners’ countries. The support in
adopting and/or creating these materials usually takes place in PROFILES-based science teachers’
CPD programmes. PROFILES based-CPD programmes correspond to a specific frame, the PROFILES
CPD model. It usually consists of at least 40 hours of course-work (seminars, lectures, workshops
etc.). Project “Chain Reaction” provides a strong and sustainable IBSE framework both for teacher
educators and for teachers, along with resources tailored to each partner's individual cultural and
curricular needs. Participating science teachers are able to build their knowledge and skills, learning
independently as well as being part of a wider teacher network. Chain Reaction is rooted in problem
solving and inquiry based learning principles, aiming to actively involve students in their science
studies, and enable them to experience the excitement and challenges of experimental and
investigative science. Participating teachers are in turn briefed through a dedicated course in each
partner country. Once fully confident with the IBSE approach encouraged by Chain Reaction the
participating teachers deliver a series of exciting and student - focused lessons which explore
research-based projects. Implementation of these projects fostering the development of Education
for Sustainable Development (ESD) and help the students and teachers for understanding of
sustainability issues. Using critical thinking, reasoning and problem solving skills, students in the 1416 age groups work together to research scientific scenarios, based around "The Earth and the
Universe" topic areas during three years - 2013 - 2016. Only five schools with ten science teachers
35
are participants of the project during each year. Poster will present the results of the
implementation of both EU projects in Georgia. - The structure of the CPD courses of the both
projects will be discussed; - PROFILES new modules, created by Georgian teachers will be
presented;- Results of students’ investigations during the implementation of PRBs (Pupil
Research Briefs, “Chain Reaction”) will be shown.
A Delphi study on health education for primary teachers
Esther Charro-Huerga, Elena Charro, Angela Gómez-Niño / SPAIN
In this work we try to identify the key points in the various fields of health education that can
improve the healthy life in today's society. Numerous authors have agreed on the importance of
improving health culture in society in general, and more particularly among the students before
university. However, it is difficult to unravel what fails in educational practice as well as what are
the topics of a good health education. Through the use of the Delphi technique we collect the views
of more than one hundred individuals belonging to the different groups related to the field of
health and teaching. From the cluster analysis that has been taken place in the second round, a set
of six concepts has been found. Because of the need and importance of quality training, one of the
areas susceptible to use this inquiry is higher education. Since these activities have great power
trainer, the formation of future primary teachers is, specifically, an ideal space for it. the teaching
training must be extended to the University teachers in order to train future teachers. Under this
scenario, the Delphi technique has been used in order to know which are the keys to improve their
science education. The statistical analysis of the data collected from several questionnaires to
various stakeholders (more than one hundred belonging to students, high school teachers,
university faculty and teacher educators, scientists and researchers) are shown in this work. The
first results from the third and last round of the Delphi study are also shown and discussed. And
from this point, we show how have been developed new Module using the results from the Delphi
study. New IBSE modules have been developed by some of the stakeholders participating in the
Delphi study, which involve inquiry strategies in the health education field and the environmental
one. The Curricular Delphi Study on Health Education is based on a fixed group of participants
throughout the different rounds. A number of 126 stakeholders participated in the first round, who
was asked in written and electronic form to fill out the Delphi questionnaires. In order to identify
concepts regarding science education that are considered important, the participants were in part II
of round 2 asked to combine from the given set of 88 categories those categories that seem
especially important to them in their combination. The results of the hierarchical cluster analyses
are based on the form sheets which the participants were asked to fill out in the second part of the
questionnaire. Every participant filled out 1 form sheet. The identification and content-related
profiling of conceptions about desirable science education was based on hierarchical cluster
analyses of the data of the total sample collected in the second part of round took place in several
36
consecutive steps. From the cluster analysis that has been taken place in the second round, a set of
six concepts has been found.
The experience of Spanish Students using the IBSE strategies:
Carbon dioxide in carbonated beverage, the gas we drink!
Elena Charro, Esther Charro-Huerga, Angela Gómez-Niño / SPAIN
Several studies have shown the convenience of approaching the science teaching from an inquiry
based approach because it increases students´ interest and attainments levels and stimulates both,
students and teachers motivations. This change in science teaching, from mainly deductive to
inquiry-based methods, implies directly to teachers, key players in the science teaching renewal.
Teacher’s abilities, self-efficacy and ownership in the implementation of new methods of teaching
and their motivation and collaborative reflection with other teachers are essential elements for the
success of any scientific education renewal. Moreover, we consider that such shift must be
extended to University teachers in charge of training future teachers. Because of the need and
importance of quality training, one of the areas susceptible to use this inquiry is higher education.
Since these activities have great power trainer, the formation of future primary teachers is,
specifically, an ideal space for it. The European project PROFILES (Bolte et al 2011) promotes IBSE
through raising the self-efficacy of science teachers to take ownership of more effective ways of
teaching students, supported by stakeholders. In this work, we present the description and
reflexion of the experience of how a Spanish teacher developed the module "The gas we drink.
Carbon dioxide in carbonated beverages”. Students were asked to plan an investigation in order to
identify which was the beverage with the most dioxide concentration. The competences involved
were: Investigative skills, manipulative skills, cooperative-work skills, concept understanding, theory
development and application, experimental-error analysis, and communication skills. The
curriculum content are related with Chemistry, and in particular with the properties of gases, gas
laws, ideal gas law, Henry law and the solubility. The kind of activity is mainly related with Group
work in the lab (in groups of 3-5) students. We carried out participant observation, and we also
administered a questionnaire to the students. The preliminary results are showed in this work,
where the students gains are widely discuss. The experience of applying IBSE teaching-learning
materials with students of the Degree (in Primary Teacher Education) of the School of Education of
the University of Valladolid (Spain) is presented here. We carried out participant observation. The
application of the module was satisfactory, since it allowed the development of the abovementioned competences, and moreover promoted a very “natural” revision or extension of
curricular contents. This fact supports the need for developing activities in which such competence
is promoted also in University students. Within this intended outcome, and by means of the
training/ intervention linked to stakeholder support, a key target is to convince teachers that
37
methods they have studied and tried can and will strongly improve the quality of their own science
teaching.
Analysis of newspaper news for health education: an IBSE
experience
Esther Charro-Huerga, Elena Charro, Angela Gómez-Niño / SPAIN
The experience of applying PARSEL teaching-learning materials with students of the Degree in
Teacher (in Primary Education) Training of the School of Education of the University of Valladolid
(Spain) is presented here. In particular, the IBSE experience consisting in the analysis of
newspaper/magazine news about socio-healthy issues was conducted in the context of the
compulsory subject “Health Education”, and in particular, in a part devoted to Science, Technology,
and Society. The use of such module allowed us to follow an inquiry-based strategy in science
education. The convenience of approaching science education from an inquiry-based strategy has
been underlined by several studies, which adduce that both the level of interest and the
achievements of students are enhanced, as well as teachers’ motivation Moreover, some authors
consider that such shift must be extended to University teachers in charge of training future
teachers. The module “Analysis of Newspaper and magazine news about socio-scientific issues”
bases on the use of spreading publications dealing with science and technology to facilitate
students the comprehension of the tensions occurring among science, technology, society and the
health, and to treat socio-healthy conflicts in class. The inquiry-based strategy promoted by this
module constitutes the central axis of the European project PROFILES, which aims at raising the
self-efficacy of science teachers to take ownership of more effective ways of teaching students.
Remarkably, PROFILES seeks to meaningfully raise teacher skills in developing creative, scientific
problem-solving and socio-scientific decision-making abilities in students. News were selected by
the students and supervised by the teacher who has limited and distributed the topic for the
selection of the news to be discussed in the classroom. Students worked in small groups consisting
in 2 or 3 people that read, discussed, and reflected around one of the news, to finally expose and
discuss its basic contents and their reflection on the news to the rest of their classmates. Moreover,
the professor took advantage of the substantive knowledge raised by ever newspaper/magazine
news to review or further develop contents included in the curricula of the subject, “Health
Education”. The experience was designed for the students to improve the following competences:
(1) development of substantive knowledge, (2) development of epistemological knowledge, (3)
development of reasoning competences, (4) development of communication competences, and (4)
construction of a reflexive and critical attitude in relation to the ethic and moral consequences of
the scientific and technological development. In advanced, students were given the criteria that
would be later used to assess their performance in such competences, which included: correct
concept use, STS-E relations comprehension, information selection, critical analysis, conclusions
38
quality, and presentation and discussion of the conclusions. The application of the module was
satisfactory, since it allowed the development of the above-mentioned competences, and moreover
promoted a very “natural” revision or extension of curricular contents.
The principle of least action or the re-introduction of final causes
in physics
Mystapha OLDACHE, Mohamed KHADRAOUI, Chams-eddine KHIARI / Algeria
The principle of least action is a powerful mathematical tool which allows one to find or establish
many fundamental equations of physics. It also allows the connection of quite different fields such
as optics and mechanics, for example. This principle, discovered by Maupertuis in the 18th century,
generalized Fermat's principle in optics which was discovered in the 17th century. Criticized by neoCartesians because it is based on final causes, the principle of least action imposed itself only when
its compatibility with the Newtonian formulation of mechanics was proven. This principle is a
beautiful illustration of variational methods which are now a subject of common use in physics.
Pre-Service Science Teachers' Scientific Process Skills: Inquiry
Based Laboratory Activities in Real Environment versus Virtual
Environment
Ayfer Mutlu, Burcin Acar-Sesen / Türkiye
Scientific process skills are physical and mental skills which are used for collecting and organizing
knowledge, explaining phenomenon, solving problems (Carin & Bass, 2001) and promoting scientific
process skills is one of the main purposes of science education (Huppert, Lomask & Lazarowitz,
2002). Inquiry based laboratory environment provides students to undertake observing objects and
events, posing questions, designing investigations, proposing explanations, collecting and analyzing
data, comparing proposed explanations with new data (Acar-Sesen &Tarhan, 2013).On the other
hand, laboratory works in real environment have some limitations such as dangerous and expensive
chemicals, equipment, crowded classroom, lack of time etc. (Yılmaz, 2005; Millar, 2004; Ayas et al.,
2002). Virtual laboratories that simulate real laboratory environment, can be effective to overcome
this limitations. Although inquiry-based learning have perceived as an effective instructional
approach, there is no study on comparing inquiry-based approach in real and virtual chemistry
laboratory. For this reason, this study aimed to investigate the effect of inquiry based laboratory
activities in real and virtual environment on first grade pre-service science teachers’ scientific
process skills. For this purpose, eight inquiry based laboratory activities related to thermochemistry,
chemical kinetic, chemical equilibrium, acids and bases, electrochemistry were developed in the
context of undergraduate General Chemistry course. Inquiry based virtual chemistry laboratory
were developed using same activities. Two software for student and administrator were prepared.
39
Software and worksheets were reviewed by two chemistry educators and one computer educator
and then it was piloted with five pre-service science teachers.
Instructions were conducted by participation of thirty-four pre-service science teachers, which were
randomly assigned to two groups. Inquiry based learning activities was performed by Group-1 and
Group-2 in real laboratory and in virtual environment respectively during eight weeks. While
conducting laboratory activities, pre-service science teachers in both group study on defining
problem, formulating hypothesis, planning experiment, finding, comparing results and hypothesis.
Scientific process skills test, developed by Burns, Okey and Wise (1985) and translated in Turkish by
Ateş and Bahar (2001)was used before and after the instructions for data collection. According to
Mann-Whitney-U test results, while there was no significant difference between pre-test mean
scores (U=131.500, p>0.05), there was significant difference between post-test mean scores
(U=84.000, p<0.05) in favour of Group-1. In addition, while no significant differences between pretest mean scores for each sub-dimensions were found, significant difference between post-test
mean scores for designing investigation skills was found(U=93.500, p<0.05) in favour of Group1.According to the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test results, it was obtained that there were significant
differences between pre and post test scores for each sub-dimensions(instead of designing
investigation and data and graph interpretation skills in Group-2). Results underlined that inquiry
based laboratory activities in real environment are more effective than in virtual environment for
promoting pre-service science teachers' scientific process skills especially designing investigation
skills.
The Influence of Inquiry Based Laboratory Activities on PreService Science Teachers' Attitudes toward Chemistry Lesson and
Chemistry Laboratory
Ayfer Mutlu, Burcin Acar-Sesen / Turkey
Laboratory is a unique learning environment and it has rich benefits in promoting positive attitudes,
increasing interest, and motivating students to learn science and especially chemistry (Freedman,
1997; Hofstein & Lunetta, 2004; Thompson & Soyibo, 2002). In many undergraduate school science
programs, laboratories have been used in a traditional cookbook laboratory settings, to verify
scientific facts and not promote laboratory or science process skills to investigate the natural
phenomena. In contrast to traditional laboratory setting, students are able to observe several
events, write hypothesis, design an investigations, collect and interpret data, compare hypothesis
and their results in the inquiry-based laboratory environment. In this study, it was aimed to
investigate and compare the influence of inquiry based laboratory instruction versus traditional
laboratory instruction on first grade pre-service science teachers’ attitudes toward chemistry lesson
and chemistry laboratory. For this purpose, eight inquiry based laboratory activities related to
40
thermochemistry, chemical kinetic, chemical equilibrium, acids and bases, electrochemistry were
developed in the context of undergraduate General Chemistry course. First of all, literature was
reviewed and students’ understanding and learning difficulties were determined. After the learning
objectives were identified, worksheets for each inquiry-based laboratory activities were prepared
and they were reviewed by two chemistry educators and then it was piloted with five pre-service
science teachers. Instructions were conducted by participation of thirty-four pre-service science
teachers, which were randomly assigned to experimental (N=17) and control groups(N=17).While
instruction in the experimental group was accomplished via inquiry based laboratory activities, the
same laboratory activities were performed based on traditional approach in the control group
during eight weeks. Attitude toward chemistry scale developed by Acar (2008) and attitude toward
chemistry laboratory scale developed by Tarhan (2008) was used before and after the instructions
for data collection. According to Mann-Whitney U test results, while there was no significant
difference between attitude toward chemistry scale pre-test mean scores (U=139.000, p>0.05),
there was significant difference between post-test mean scores (U=4.500, p<0.05) in favour of
experimental group. Moreover, while there was no significant difference between attitude toward
chemistry laboratory scale pre-test mean scores (U=129.000, p>0.05), there was significant
difference between post-test mean scores (U=18.500, p<0.05) in favour of experimental group.
Results underlined that inquiry based laboratory instruction is effective learning approach for
promoting pre-service science teachers' attitudes toward chemistry lesson and chemistry
laboratory. For this reason, it can be suggested that laboratory activities based on inquiry based
learning should be developed and used in the pre-service education curriculum and chemistry
classes widely.
SciVis - Making Science Visible
Sandra Rudolph, Martin Lindner / Germany
This presentation shows the intentions, the methods and the start of the work of one of the first
ERASMUS+ projects funded under the new scheme of the new EU programme for education,
training, youth and sport for collaborative projects. The visibility of the work of (natural) scientists
and engineers is one of the requirements of the new EU-Framework, as mentioned in the RRI paper
(Responsible
Research
and
Innovation,
by
EU
commission,
see
http://ec.europa.eu/research/swafs/index.cfm?pg=library&lib=rri). Often this visibility is made in a
one-way-construction, via flyers, advertising videos, exhibitions, invitation to open days etc.
Information is seen as a basic need to engage people into decision processes typical for our modern
society. As this society is based on science and technology, any illiteracy in this field leads to a
disability of joining public discussion and decision processes. In other words: an independent,
responsible citizen of today needs a basic knowledge and all relevant information to fully
participating in our society. As long as information on Science and technology is limited to the so41
called "specialists", the participation of citizens is reduced to that space the specialists allow the
public to join in. And as long as the scientists themselves design any information, public
understanding is limited. This problem will be addressed in our project by introducing interactive
information tools. Interactive means to enable any visitor to ask his or her own question or to
proceed the information given in his or her own speed or his or her individual connection to
knowledge already existing. This enables an individualized learning process, in which any
information is proceeded in an own way. Gaining knowledge in an own, self-directed way helps also
to foster emancipation. As long as a person is able to solve problems on his or her own, this
experience leads to confidence in one’s own strength. This makes a person independent from the
feeling; the experts mentioned above are alone responsible to help our society out of scientific or
technological problems. Every citizen is able to join the information, the discussions, and the
decision process. To summarize: the demand of RRI needs citizens, who are able to proceed
information on their own and to use the results to participate in the public decision making. From
our experience as researchers on science education more interactive methods would be more
effective. This means to include questions, concerns, and interest of people into any information
about technical and scientifical outcomes. How could this been improved in reaching large groups
of people? The ERASMUS+ project “SciVis” tries to introduce more interactive methods to inform
the public about scientifical outcomes. These methods are: - Interactive screens in public places; Science camps; - Online games; - Online courses (MOOCs);- Newspapers; - Science exhibitions. The
consortium consists of 3 universities, one science center and a publisher. They are located in
southeast Europe (Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia). We started our work in December
2014 and will end in two years time with an international conference in Berlin.
SciVis - Making Science Visible
Martin Lindner, Sandra Rudolph / Germany
This poster gives an overview on of one of the first ERASMUS+ projects funded under the new
scheme of the new EU programme for education, training, youth and sport for collaborative
projects. The visibility of the work of (natural) scientists and engineers is one of the requirements of
the new EU-Framework, as mentioned in the RRI paper (Responsible Research and Innovation, by
EU commission, see http://ec.europa.eu/research/swafs/index.cfm?pg=library&lib=rri). Often this
visibility is made in a one-way-construction, via flyers, advertising videos, exhibitions, invitation to
open days etc. Information is seen as a basic need to engage people into decision processes typical
for our modern society. As this society is based on science and technology, any illiteracy in this field
leads to a disability of joining public discussion and decision processes. In other words: an
independent, responsible citizen of today needs a basic knowledge and all relevant information to
fully participating i our society. As long as information on Science and technology is limited to the
so-called "specialists", the participation of citizens is reduced to that space the specialists allow the
42
public to join in. And as long as the scientists themselves design any information, public
understanding is limited. This problem will be addressed in our project by introducing interactive
information tools. Interactive means to enable any visitor to ask his or her own question or to
proceed the information given in his or her own speed or his or her individual connection to
knowledge already existing. This enables an individualized learning process, in which any
information is proceeded in an own way. Gaining knowledge in an own, self-directed way helps also
to foster emancipation. As long as a person is able to solve problems on his or her own, this
experience leads to confidence in one’s own strength. This makes a person independent from the
feeling; the experts mentioned above are alone responsible to help our society out of scientific or
technological problems. Every citizen is able to join the information, the discussions, and the
decision process. To summarize: the demand of RRI needs citizens, who are able to proceed
information on their own and to use the results to participate in the public decision making. From
our experience as researchers on science education more interactive methods would be more
effective. This means to include questions, concerns, and interest of people into any information
about technical and scientifical outcomes. How could this been improved in reaching large groups
of people?
Concept of The Waves In Physics : Historical, Epistemological And
Didactic Considerations
MAZOUZE Brahim, LOUNIS Ali, / ALGERIA
The waves occupy an important place in the physics academic program. The wave phenomenon is
relatively renowned difficult to both teachers as well as to learners. Some of these difficulties would
find an origin in the genesis of the concept of the wave itself and would be, according to the
research carried in didactics, in part similar to those encountered by scientists and philosophers
throughout the course of history. For that purpose, we present in this work the historical,
epistemological and didactic considerations which are able to clarify and to allow a better
understanding of the wave field. In fact, chronology knowledge, ideas evolution and postures
regarding the wave concept can only be beneficial for any elaboration or renovation of academic
program.
Secrets of Japanese High Performance in TIMSS and PISA
Shuichi YAMASHITA / Japan
I would like to talk about the secrets of Japanese high performance in TIMSS and PISA. TIMSS 2011
results in Science (samples of students G4:261,339 in 50 countries, G8:239,960 in 42 countries)
revealed that the Japanese students have the highest average achievement. PISA 2012 results in
Science (samples of students G10:510,000 in 65 countries) showed that Japanese students remain
higher performers, Japanese classrooms were conducive for learning, even though they allot less
43
time for science classes (165 minutes per week, the OECD average 200 minutes per week). In spite
of Japanese student's excellent performance, how teachers conduct the lesson is still a mystery to
foreigners. I had observed science lessons in England, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, Thailand
and Papua New Guinea. Japanese science lessons are better than other countries in terms of lesson
structures, practical works, board works, and developing teaching materials (I will show you the
example of teaching materials on the next the workshop). The Japanese course of study promotes
scientific inquiry as the core feature of the science learning program at the elementary and lower
secondary level, with an emphasis on students’ first-hand involvement with practical science
activities. The TIMSS 1999 video study clarified the characteristics of the Japanese grade 8 science
lessons and teachings in Japan. The study compared the four relatively higher-achieving countries
(Japan, Australia, Czech Republic, and Netherlands) with the United States of eighth-grade science
lessons (Each country was obtained samples from 100 schools). The study concluded five points
related to the Japanese science lessons and teaching features, namely;
1) Independent practical work played a crucial role in the development of main ideas.
2) During and after practical work, Japanese students were guided by a teacher or a textbook.
3) Sixty five percent of the lessons included only basic content.
4) Making connections between main ideas and evidence.
5) Spent less lesson time developing science ideas through real-life issues.
I would like to emphasize that these features are constantly being improved every year since 1999
at the session.
An Example of Japanese Science Teaching Materials: Moon Phases
Model
Ikkei SAKURABA, Shuichi YAMASHITA, Naoki SAGAWA / Japan
Japanese course of study for elementary and secondary school which was announced in 1999, did
not take up moon phases for its contents. However, the course of study had included moon phases
since 2008. Therefore, Japanese university students and young teachers who had been taught
under 1999 course of study were never taught moon phases when they were in elementary and
secondary school. From this situation, we had to develop new teaching materials to assist them in
their teaching skill and scientific understanding. We are trying to develop new moon phases model
named “Michikake model”. The original model was first made for elementary level science, and had
good points: (1) three-dimensional, which makes it easier to understand the location of planets, (2)
easy to understand where the moon and the sun are in each moon age, and why the moon shows
up in the shape we see from earth, (3) inexpensive to buy for all of the students in your class.
However, the original model had to improve for secondary level science. For example, we have to
teach the relationships between the azimuth, diurnal motion and the earth’s rotation at secondary
level science. To make these contents easier to teach and learn, we put a small circle sheet on the
middle of the original material. On our workshop, not only you can see the “Michikake model”, but
also make them for yourself as well.
44
Computer-supported Inquiry-based Design with Traces of
Creativity in Prospective Science Teacher Education
Andrej Šorgo, Martin Bilek, / Slovenia, Czech Republic
It is well known that many well established, traditional teaching practices do not produce
appropriate outcomes that allow citizens to understand nature in all its complexity, to be lifelong
learners, to use technology, or to be able to compete in the labour market and to solve personal
and societal problems in a complex and unpredictable world (Šorgo, 2011). Recognizing that
contemporary key-words in science education, trying to reach above lower-level cognitive levels are
'inquiry-based', 'computer-supported', and 'creativity-oriented', we tried hard to prepare first-hand
experience to our students – prospective teachers, connecting all three challenges in one task. The
term of inquiry has many different meanings in education and it is mostly connected with terms
scientific inquiry, inquiry learning and inquiry teaching. We can define the inquiry-based instruction
as such type of instruction where systematic inquiry as student’s activity is included to find
information, truth or knowledge and to solve problems and produce ideas or artefacts. In recent
decades technology, particularly ICT, was naively recognized by many as a solution to contemporary
educational problems. To maximize the effect of emerging technologies, pre-service and in-service
teachers should be supported in building complex knowledge about how to meaningfully integrate
content, pedagogy and technologies (Šorgo, 2011). Regardless different views on the nature of
creativity it is accepted that all people are creative at some level and that creativity can be
nurtured. Development of creativity can and should be a part of teaching in schools and key factor
in these processes are teachers (Šorgo et al. 2011). Our work was performed as part of university
courses in Didactics of Biology at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (University of
Maribor) and in Didactics of Chemistry at the Faculty of Science (University of Hradec Králové) with
students from the double major subjects teaching oriented programmes (incl. Biology and/or
Chemistry)Data loggers LabPro® and LabQuest® equipped with a set of Vernier’s sensors and
different versions of programme Logger Pro® (http://www.vernier.com) were used in computersupported laboratory. In computer-supported inquiry-based design with traces of creativity in the
problem based work, students develop their own experiments. Working on their task students show
great creativity and build proficiency and confidence in integration ICT in previously unknown
settings in the sense of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) (Mishra and Koehler,
2006).
Effect of Group Composition on Motivation of Students in Group
Volkan Atasoy / Turkey
Group work means working together on assigned task and it is seen as incentive for learning at all
level of education from compulsory to higher education (Chiriac, 2014). However, placing people in
45
group do not cause group to work effectively. In group environment, there are many factors to
influence working in a group such has composition of group; task chosen for group work; beliefs,
values, attitudes and motivation between group members (Goodman & Dabbish, 2011; Gillies &
Boyle, 2010; Harrington & Fine, 2006). Among these factors, group composition has major influence
on group work since it promotes motivation in group (Abrami, Chambers, Poulsen, DeSimone, &
Howden, 1995). Concerning this issue, Keith, Jessica, Matthew and Kennon (2008) investigated
influence of selection of group membership on motivation of students. They founded that groups
constructed by students have more intrinsic motivation than groups constructed by teacher of
course. In Turkey, although there are many studies which compare group work learning and
traditional learning approach (e.g. Topsakal, 2010; Yıldırım & Girgin, 2012), studies which examined
relationship between group compositions on motivation were limited. Therefore, in the light of
Keith et al. (2008)’ study, current study was conducted to examine influence of group composition
on motivation of students in group. For this study, preservice science teachers’ two classes
conducting group work were selected. One of these classes is science methods course in which
group composition was made by students. Another course was practice teaching course in which
group composition was made by the professor of course. At the end of group work of these courses,
students in two groups from each class were interviewed. Data were analyzed content analysis
approach. Their responses to interview questions were analyzed independently by second coder
who is researcher in science education. Then, these two analyses were compared. Any
disagreement was resolved with discussion. As a result, the researcher and second coder reached
97% agreement in their analyses. In analysis, it was reported that students who form groups by
themselves enjoyed group work. In addition, they stated that they improved friendship and
communication with each other. On the other hand, students whose groups was constructed by the
professor of the course declared that they faced difficulties with working together. For example,
they could not gather in common environment and communicate effectively. Therefore, they added
that they did not want to work willingly with their group since this situation reflected their
performance in group. This result was consistent with study of Keith, Jessica, Matthew & Kennon
(2008). The reason why group composition influence motivation is that group work is demanding
job; therefore, some people who can communicate easily and are comfortable to work with other
people was asked in group. In conclusion, it was seen that group formation is important component
regarding motivation of students towards group work. Therefore, in education setting, group
composition can be taken into consideration from teacher educators or teachers Moreover, this
kind of studies which investigate factors related to efficiency of group work should be conducted to
make contribution to related literature.
46
Skills For Teaching The Future Environmentally & Science Literate
Citizens: An Inquiry Case Study In Crete, Greece
MARIA KALATHAKI / GREECE
In a different view of learning than the traditional which is mainly used in the classrooms where are
taught the Science cognitive objects, are with social participation and community engagement.
These provide the vehicle for science to act in the real world. Environmental Education and
Education for the Sustainable Development have principal objective to engage students in
environmental research/inquiry/discovery as practiced in the real world. Environmental Education
in Greek Secondary Education is voluntary implemented mainly through school projects, and at the
Environmental Education Centres. The School Projects of Environmental Education have 5 months
duration, are designed and implemented beyond the school curriculum and timetable, jointly by
students and teachers, completely differently from the school courses into design, content,
methodology, assessment in order to satisfy students’ needs for education, communication and
social participation. In an effort of discovering the environment around of a Cretan school with local
communities, teachers designed and implemented an Environmental Education Project, with the
subject of “Forest, Biodiversity and Quality of Life” based on the principles of the Education for the
Sustainable Development. Many and varied activities took place inside and outside the classrooms,
with school and local communities, for the protection and exploitation of two distant and different
natural environments which are situated on the south and north of Crete. The program aimed to
update, aware and mobilize students on issues related to the forests, wetlands, biodiversity,
sustainability and quality of life, to develop an anti-consumer model by highlighting the traditional
way of life and to involve them in the care-management of natural ecosystems. Ultimate objective
was to infuse them in the development entrepreneurship in their place, in the future, exploiting the
integrated approach of science subjects that linked to the environment and the sustainable
development. Objectives of the research, which is presented in this paper, were to draw attention
to the skills that teachers need and cultivate, during their involvement in such type of projects, with
emphasis in the application of discovery teaching method. The aims, actions, activities and process
of the project archival material retrieved from the Application Form (AF), the Final Report (FR) of
the project and the interviews of three involved teachers. They examined in structured and defined
way, making discourse analysis and were codified in 5 different categories of demanded skills for
inquiry based teaching the future science and environmentally literate citizens: Critical Thinking and
Problem Solving, Communication, Foundation of Requirements for Lifelong Learning, Promotion of
the Sustainable Development, Cultivation of the Active Environmentally Literate Citizen.
47
The Untold Story of Teachers during the First Five Years of
Teaching
Emine Sahin, Funda Savasci Acikalin, / Turkey
Research has shown that beginning practice affects future practice. The first five years of teaching
practice influence future teaching practices (Appletin & Kindt, 2002), and the quality and growth of
beginning teachers for the rest of their careers (Huling-Austin, 1990) since teaching behaviors
cultivated during this critical period. Unfortunately, during the one- to- three- year transition
period, educators also decide whether to remain in the profession or leave the profession (Weiss,
1999; Inman &Marlow, 2004). Even though extensive research has been undertaken to understand
the challenges and the needs of teachers in their first 5 years of practice in western countries,
Turkish literature has not paid enough attention to determine the challenges and needs of teachers
in their first five years. The aim of this study is to explore the challenges and the needs of teachers
in their first 5 years of practice. In this qualitative study, the 14 subjects consist of middle school
and elementary school teachers from urban private, urban public schools, and rural public schools.
Teachers were purposively selected. Interview Questionnaires were informed by a careful review of
the literature on early career teachers’ experiences and a pilot study. Four teachers participated in a
pilot study. The data gathered from pilot study were used to try out procedure that tested whether
the time frame for interviews, and the number and the level of the interview questions so that
changes and improvement could be made for the full study. Semi-structured interviews were
conducted in the coffee shops and in the science laboratories. Interviews took about 60 to 90
minutes and conducted on two different days. The results allowed identifying and emphasizing the
following problems: organization and control of the class, the scarcity of material resources and
facilities, the relationships relationship among teachers, students and school administrators, the
planning, the teaching methodology, student and parent violence against teachers, and language
problems in minority classrooms. Surprisingly, the data from interviews has shown that teachers in
their first five years, who worked as a substitute teacher, gain valuable confidence, improve
capabilities necessary for success in their teaching careers since they experience the “feel of what
it’s like” to make dozens of decisions during a day of instructing, interacting, and managing a
classroom of students on their own.
48
Meaningful Problem Solving: a Project to Improve Cognitive
Abilities in Europe
Liberato Cardellini / Italy
The development of students’ higher-order cognitive skills has become one of the most important
goals of science education. According to Jonassen (2004), “Learning to solve problems is the most
important skill that students can learn in any setting.” Critical thinking, reflection, argumentation,
communication, working with peers, and the abilities to learn with some autonomy are qualifiers of
meaningful and quality required to education in Europe. (European Commission, 2001; Dublin
descriptors) An important aspect of meaningful learning is knowing how to do something.
Procedural knowledge is knowledge of a sequence of operations that can be applied to a class of
tasks. It is also a crucial aspect that is expressed in the resolution of problems. “In understanding
procedural knowledge we start with problem solving because it seems that all cognitive activities
are fundamentally problem solving in nature” (Anderson, 1995). An impediment to the systematic
use of problem solving is the unfamiliarity of teachers with problem solving techniques. Purpose of
this project is to teach the general techniques of solution through the solution of logic problems.
Logic problems have some didactic advantages: 1. do not require specific knowledge of the matter;
2. they are not resolved by the use of formulas; 3. they are fun. They have already been usefully
used in chemistry courses. (Cardellini, 2006). Teachers are key players in the renewal of science
education. A better perception of the value of problem solving can convince the use of this teaching
tool. Teachers will begin with logic problems to interest and motivate students to work significantly
on the problems, highlighting aspects of the representation and analysis of the problem. Students
will be trained to explain and argue every single step and the solution of the problem. The next step
is to train students with the use of the worked example method. A worked example provides
learners with detailed information concerning a problem solution. A worked example not only
shows the sequence of steps, but also comments on them with explanations and their motivation.
Teachers provide students worked problems, solved with the intention to “direct attention
appropriately and reduce cognitive load” (Ward & Sweller, 1990, p. 1) Students will study the
worked examples in cooperative groups. Teachers will suggest appropriate problems to be solved,
either in groups or individually.
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Where are we in integrating entrepreneurship in science
curricula?
Sedat Uçar / Turkey
Many students do not prefer to take science courses during the high school if those courses are not
mandatory and they do not pursue career in the science related fields in college education. As a
result of that, countries face the shortage of qualified workforce in the field of science and
technology. Science educators are searching strategies to promote students’ interests to these
courses. Teaching entrepreneurship through science classes could be a promising method to
motivate students and increase their attitude toward science and science related carriers.
Entrepreneurship education has been promoted in many European countries in the last decade.
Especially the Europe 2020 strategy strongly emphasizes the entrepreneurship education through
different programs such as Youth on the Move program, An Agenda for New Skills and Jobs program
and Innovation Union programs. Parallel to that trend many countries tend to integrate
entrepreneurial education into their national curriculum from primary school (ISCED level1) to
secondary education (ISCED level 2 and 3). The purpose of this paper is to compare different
countries' practices in integrating entrepreneurship education into school curriculum and to
generate the overall highlights for entrepreneurship education in school curriculum.
Fostering learning with examination procedures
Antti J. Rissanen / Finland
Assessments are often aimed for ranking students or just for producing general accountability. In
common STEM studies at the NDU students take exams at the end of each course period. As such
summative assessment is ruling even though student learning with self-assessment is supported
with portal activities. Despite of the importance of assessment in education it is often based on
tradition or simply related to the material from the textbook publisher. Our curricula define most of
the courses in such a way that no suitable external ready-made assessment material is available. A
well prepared assessment reflects those concepts and skills that the lecturer had emphasized. The
exam judgment criteria need to be aligned with the reflective approach. Teachers and students
share responsibility for learning. It is recognized that instructor’s effectiveness is not defined on the
basis of what he or she does as a teacher but rather on what students are able to do. The issue how
to implement ideas of active learning even in exams forms the research question in this study. Can
effective learning take place even in the assessment stage? Exams should measure student’s
knowledge and skill. However, exams could also support comprehensively other educational
aspects like student learning in a long run, creative thinking, and motivational aspects. Careful exam
analysis may also inform teachers how to develop courses. In the NDU lecturers have tried to
develop applied science courses in a way that related exams could have a more versatile function.
50
Hence, the structure of our enhanced paper and pencil examination contains multiple task types.
This type of an exam tries to measure beside substance knowledge, also skills to apply essential
information on substance area, critical thinking, abstract reasoning, and innovative skills. In this
approach exams may include in the first stage surprising features for students even though
preliminary training is given in lectures and in Moodle. However, at the same time a more versatile
structure in exams may motivate and inspire students. As well, students learn that exams do not
follow rigid, formal structures that might change their preparing routines for exams. Later even in
demanding courses students would try to do their best and might organize and refresh their existing
knowledge with the information grains picked from the examination sheet. To construct such an
examination is demanding and also more difficult to plan and grade in the early stage. In the long
run it can lead to better learning, give information how to allocate learning resources, and give
satisfaction for the teaching team. In this study action research and observations have been utilized
as a method frame.
Addressing Creationists’ Aversion to Evolution
Leslie Sandra Jones / USA
About seven years ago when members of my department were shocked to receive copies of the
Atlas of Creation in their mailboxes, they asked me why. It was a fair question because I am the
designated Science Educator in our Biology department, and I happen to study the
Evolution/Creationism controversy. At the time, I wondered what was happening in Turkey because
this was the only country listed with lower acceptance of evolution than the USA in the widely
publicized study by Miller et al. in 2005. Since then, it has been interesting to compare the ways this
issue plays out in both countries. About 17 years ago I started what has become an ongoing Action
Research project when I realized that students in my biology courses were so aversive to learning
about evolution. At that time I did not work in the “Bible Belt” which is the extremely religious part
of the southeastern USA, and when I actually moved to a university in this comparatively
conservative region the resistance increased by orders of magnitude. Critical ethnography has
helped me realize that objections to evolution are espoused as biological ignorance shrouded in
political rhetoric rather than genuine theistic concerns. I have found the conceptual change
approach, which Posner et al. (1982) developed as a teaching strategy, to be a useful analytic
framework for demonstrating why educational efforts in the USA have failed to convince some
students of the validity of biological evolution. For many students, pre-collegiate exposure to
evolution has been so limited that the theory has little chance of being intelligible. Many
creationists have been convinced that evolution is absolutely incompatible with the biblical
explanation of creation. Having made sense of the origin of life in terms of the religious
explanations, they subsequently do not see how the apparently alternative evolutionary account
could be plausible. Because traditional, scientific presentations of evolution do not have the
51
appearance of truth or reason to people holding strong religious worldviews, doing any more than
passing tests about the subject is hardly fruitful. When it comes to the final dimension of conceptual
change theory, I have chosen to deliberately reverse the idea of creating dissatisfaction with
existing ideas because I do not consider it necessary for creationists to replace their existing
religious beliefs.
While the essence of the evolution/creation debate centers on differing explanations of the history
of the natural world, the persistence of this controversy is the consequence of discord that actually
centers on the mistaken belief that religion and science must be competing sources of authority. I
employ a variety of instructional strategies to help students resolve the misconceptions that are
impediments to understanding scientific explanations of biological evolution. Most importantly, I
spend time using participatory activities that reveal the fact that controversy is a social rather than
primarily religious and scientific issue before I present the Theory of Evolution, especially when I
teach biology courses that are part of the pre-service teacher curriculum.
A Review of Studies Related to Atom Concept in Science Education
Literature
Serkan Ekinci, Ahmet İlhan Şen / Turkey
A rich variety of results in many studies revealed that students’ subsequent learning is in a robust
relation with their conceptions. To improve students’ understandings, for several decades,
researchers in physics education have investigated their conceptions about various concepts. For
instance, Wandersee, Mintzes, and Novak (1994) revealed that most research focused on students’
conceptions related to concepts in mechanics. They also indicated that there were very few studies
dealing with concepts in modern physics. Nevertheless, there have been important contributions to
modern physics education in the last twenty years, and in this study, we particularly aim to draw a
general framework of students’ conceptions about the atom’s structure with a review of related
studies. With the help of this framework, we are able to discuss 1) how students conceptualize the
structure of an atom, and 2) the concepts/subjects that may contribute or prevent students to
develop an understanding related to atom’s structure. Other important results will be also
discussed.
Science Camps in Europe
Martin Lindner, Christian Kubat, Uffe Sveegard, Linda Ahrenkiel / Germany
Science camps are one answer to the lack of young peoples interest in STEM, trying to engage them
in scientific questions and helping them developing a positive attitude towards these fields. Not
only the career decisions, but also the development of scientific literacy is the aim of these camps.
Being held by many and various organizations, science camps have no common strategy, no
52
continuing financial support nor a scientifically prove for the outcome. The project wants to
establish a network with three aims: 1. Connect different camp organizers to form a strong
connection among European countries, exchange best practice and research on development of
these camps. 2. Connect summer camps to local companies with technical and science products as
well as regional universities, technical universities and other academic institutions working in the
STEM field. 3. Extract practical ideas and research based results from the science camp inquire
based programs to bring them to classroom practice in schools located to the science camp regions.
The partners have a wide regional range as well as a background from public to private and from
universities to non-profit-organizations. They are exerienced in science camps, science contests and
have all in all thousands of particpants per year. The project will be organized through three panEuropean conferences, helping to build the network, adjusting the strategy of evaluation and
forming a common understanding of best practice. These results will be spread in regional
workshops and offered as models for schools. Parallel to this the network wants to foster
collaboration among the organizers of science camps, local companies (especially SME) and regional
universities and other academic institutions. This is planned to involve stakeholders and to convince
local people to support future camps. Interested persons from other countries are invited and will
be informed by the results of our work since the beginning of 2013 throughout Europe. The
program was funded as COMENIUS network and has 7 partners from Denmark, Germany, Slovakia,
Serbia, Portugal and Spain.
Sense of time
Khadraoui Mohamed, Khiari Chamsedine / Algerie
What is the sense? In short, is the sense of the physical mechanisms (transfer of information tools
on the nature of things) that lets you transfer to the brain, which is actually the five senses of
hearing and sight, smell, touch and taste. Each gate (eye, ear, nose, skin and tongue) is responsible
for the transfer of part of the reality-called sensory content, so when five human contents. What is
time? Augustin (430 450 BC) Said : What is time? If no one asks me, I know. If you asked me to
explain that I can not. Time one of the deepest mysteries of the world, no one can accurately
determine what it is, we feel the time and we know Time and time to name a few time and are
many. Experiments show that the sense of time varies from one age group to the other age group,
have been adopted in these experiments and the way the interview, where he underwent the first
age group, a youth group to the next question: What is your estimate per minute? He was a
researcher in his hand chronological and every young man Researched that is 60 seconds, and all
experiments showed that this category minute least of which is estimated as when counting and
signal ends of the respondent stop researcher clock, and finds that it did not reach the 60 seconds,
but up to 58 or 59 seconds. The same question was put on the second age group category Senate
and the result was that the Senate can afford more than one minute 60 seconds. The time is linked
53
to the depths of the human is available for change can be fast or slow. There are other experiences
we are dealing with in the rest of the intervention.
The competency approach : situation and questioning
Boumghar Said / Algiers
Develop skills in the training process requires reviewing not only programs but also educational
organization, learning materials (textbooks), practices and initial and continuous training of
teachers. Focus on the only change programs to improve the education system can even be an
impasse as shown by our teacher survey concerned about the feasibility of the physics program of
the final year science class developed in the framework of the competency-based approach (CPA). It
appears from this survey that the main problems in the acquisition of knowledge are first in the
application of programs within the allotted time in the training and preparation of teachers remains
insufficient rather than content. In this paper we will try to highlight the ambiguity of the term,
which present in the educational world, thereby justifying our questions about the necessity of the
application of this approach to learning, having held the constraints it presents.
Evaluation on Prospective Science Teachers’ Experimental Design
Related to Scientific Process Skills
Elif Benzer, Gülfem Muslu Kaygısız, Melike Hıdıroglu / Turkey
The purpose of this study is to find out the prospective science teachers’ level of designing
experiments related to scientific process skills and their views on these experiments. In order to do
this, 50 prospective science teachers (35 female, 15 male) educated in a state university in Istanbul
are chosen as participants. The research is conducted in Science Education Laboratory II class. Case
study was used in this qualitative research. The data were collected through two questionnaires,
which are found reliable and valid statistically. The first questionnaire was designed to find out the
design of the experiments related to the scientific process skills. It consists of 38 questions and 6
parts (writing the statement of the problem, forming hypothesis, determining variables, desining
the experiment, drawing tables and charts, writing results and interpretation. The questionnaire
was a 3 point likert-scale. The second questionnaire was given to the teacher candidates to evaluate
the experiments they designed and conducted in the lab. It consists of 6 open-ended questions and
datas were analysed by coding. The results of the study revealed that the most problematic part in
designing experiments for the prospective science teachers was drawing tables and charts. Also, it
was found that the prospective science teachers think that designing experiments related to
scientific process skills is useful; and they learned how to design these experiments better during
the Lab class and they will use these activities in their own classes in the future.
54
Children As Researchers in Primary Schools in Europe:
Dissemination of The Project
Buket Akkoyunlu, Dr. Derya Şahhüseyinoğlu / Turkey
In the presentation CARIPSIE Project will be explained briefly and then how dissemination of the
Project results has been planned and implemented will be shared. The main aim of the CARIPSIE
project was to explore, compare and identify the best ways to teach young children of all abilities in
primary schools and pre schools the skills they need to become active researchers and how this
could be further developed and embedded in their curricula. It encouraged comparative research to
topics so that children from the seven project countries learned from each other. This empowered
children who contributed to existing knowledge providing adults who worked professionally with
them, new insight into the children’s own perspectives. There were eight project partners
representing different European regions, The project worked in parallel to local primary and pre
primary schools in each partner country. These schools had set up an LLP project called CAR
(Children as Researchers). The main activities of these two projects involved the sharing of expertise
and good practice via real and electronic links plus visits and conferences for lecturers, students,
teachers and children to trial materials and methods. It was also include student teaching practice.
After the Project, the Project results have been disseminated in schools.
University students' understanding of the image formed by a lens
Djanette BLIZAK / ALGERIA
One of the main objectives of teaching physics and perhaps the most important is to develop in
students a rich and comprehensive understanding of the concepts. However, some studies indicate
that students are able to solve mathematical equations and they come easily to memorize formulas
and physical laws, but fail to solve conceptual problems. This has been verified in our work
developed in the case of teaching geometric optics (GO). We proposed, in the Biology department,
to 78 first-year university students, a test that includes questions about image formation. Analysis
of the results showed that a significant number of students participating in this study have
successful used the Descartes conjugation relationship for thin lenses and refraction law , to give
the position, size and nature of image, but most of them have misconceptions about image
construction and propagation of light. We also discussed the main causes of these misconceptions
and how best to fix them.
55
Is STEM for all? Environmental education as a case study
John Oversby / UK
There are many international organisations aimed at fostering research-based science education
(and a few for technology education) but IOSTE has a unique place in this community as seen in the
extract from its constitution below. IOSTE identifies science and technology education with the real
and changing needs of humankind as a whole and with specific needs of its component
communities and nations. IOSTE wants to continue and strengthen its tradition and considers that
S&T education should: * Highlight S&T education for citizenship and for informed, critical, and
active participation in democracy * Stress the relationship between science, technology and society
* Emphasize the cultural and human values of S&T * Promote equity in S&T and S&T education *
Advance S&T education for a just and sustainable development and consider how S&T education
can contribute to the fight against poverty, discrimination and injustice * Encourage the peaceful
and ethical use of S&T in the service of humankind * Encourage cultural diversity and international
understanding through S&T education * Stimulate international collaboration in the domains of
research and development and promote cooperation with other international organizations. In
addition, IOSTE is committed to non-military progress in both science and technology education.
This presentation takes from some elements of science education, mainly, and focuses on justice
and equty across the world. It adopts a radical stance, questioning whether the model we have for
scientific development is either just or equitable. This has implications for education in schools.
Food for sovereignty
A basic human right is to have sufficient nutritious food. Since the 1940s, the Green Revolution has
been proposed as a solution to food hunger. This section compares its successes in (more food
grown, higher yields, surplus to sell, greater food variety, disease resistance, with its failures, such
as accessibility for the rich compared with the poor, overuse of irrigation leading to soil salinity, high
dependence on water, dependence on seed from manufacturers, increased use of pesticides and
the effect on wildlife, emphasis on mechanisation leading to the poor being unable to farm. A
modern movement, known as seed swap, aims to reintroduce seed variety (but challenged by
corporate patents) , and adaptations to local conditions, benefiting small farmers and producing
long term environmental stability.
Energy: fossil fuels amnd renewables
Energy (especially for heating and cooking) is also a basic human right. This section will deal with
issues of fossil fuel extraction (including taking over land and environmental degradation, and issues
of fracking), fossil fuel transport vs localism, and large scale use (e.g. for electricity by corporates)
56
and compare these with use of renewable energy as a counter case study. It will place these within
a context of the power of control.
Mineral resources and trade
Many natural mineral resources are distributed in pockets around the world, often in poor
countries, but used most in rich countries. This section will focus on the examples of copper and tin.
Copper ore is extracted in large quantities from open cast mines in the Congo, using large machines
manufactured elsewher, and local labour, which is cheap, supervised by expatriots. Much tin is
extracted with local labour in Bolivia and transported from the interior by animal packs to the coast
where it is shipped to other countries for smelting. The value of both copper and tin is determined
by specialist markets, such as in London. The issue of smelting locally and adding economic value
will be discussed.
The presentation will conclude with a discussion of why these cases are not better known and
information available in schools being dominated by those with power to produce it.
Pre-Service Science Teachers’ Perceptions of Scientific Practices
Ebru Kaya, Deniz Saribas, Sibel Erduran / TURKEY
The teaching and learning of scientific practices are currently being promoted in school science
across the world, for instance, in the context of the Next Generation Science Standards in the
United States. This study aims to investigate pre-service science teachers’ perceptions of scientific
practices based on a theoretical model of scientific practices. This model is based on an
interdisciplinary account of scientific practices and draws on the relationships between the various
epistemic, cognitive and social features of scientific practices. The key components of the model are
(a) epistemic components such as scientific activities (such classification, experimentation and
observation), data, model, explanation, prediction, (b) cognitive components such as
representations, and reasoning, and (c) social components such as discourse, and social certification
of scientific claims. The study was conducted with 10 pre-service science teachers in a science
teacher education program. In order to develop students’ understanding of scientific practices, 3
structured workshops on scientific practices were carried out. These workshops aimed to
consolidate pre-service teachers’ understanding of the model by reviewing its application to
particular science examples and begin to design lesson plans to incorporate them into teaching
practice. As part of the workshops, pre-service science teachers engaged in a task on acids and
bases positioned using the scientific practices model. We traced pre-service science teachers’
perceptions based on the model through the use of pre and post-interviews. The data gathered
57
from these interviews were investigated based on qualitative data analysis. The results show that
even though the codes emerged from the data are consistent with the theoretical model
particularly after the implementation of the workshops, pre-service teachers’ understanding of
scientific practices as a holistic set of interrelated ideas was limited. Based on the results of the
study, some implications for teacher education and developmental aspects of teaching expertise
are highlighted.
The Quality of Middle Grade Students' Written Arguments
Kader Bilican, Mehmet Aydeniz / Turkey
There has been an increasing emphasis in helping students to engage in epistemic practices of
science in recent years across the globe (Erduran & Jime´nex-Aleixandre, 2008). In the context of
science education argumentation is viewed as an epistemic practice that must be practiced by all
students while learning science (Kuhn, 2010). In this study, our analyses focused on students’
written discourse in a 6th grade science class across five argumentation tasks and over the course of
one semester. The research question that guided our inquiry is: How does the quality of students’
written arguments change over time and through sustained practice? This study took place at an
urban elementary school located in major city in Turkey which is a public school. Participants
consisted of 37 (22M, 15F) sixth graders. Through the current study, students learned 5 core
concepts through argumentation for five argumentation tasks over 6 weeks in the spring semester
of 2014. The argumentation tasks consisted of competing claims around core curricular concepts.
The participants engaged in six argumentation tasks but four of them were used as data source.
Consistent with our research questions we used the Claim, Evidence and Reasoning Framework
(CER) (McNeill & Krajcik, 2011) to evaluate the quality of students’ written arguments. First, we
evaluated students’ arguments based on the quality and quantity of evidence used by the students.
Second, we evaluated students’ reasoning skills based on their ability to link evidence and claim to
develop a warrant to justify their claims. Students were given scores for each component of an
argument based on their performance for each task, and an overall score for each argument they
constructed (see Appendix B). Then, we compared their scores across the tasks to evaluate the
progress of quality of students’ written arguments. Third, we identified the weaknesses and
strengths in students’ arguments across four tasks. Findings reveal several patterns regarding
students’ use of claim, evidence, and reasoning across 4 tasks. First, the results show that
participants did not successfully used the scientifically accurate claim to justify. While they
increasingly got better at picking to defend the right claim from task 1 to task 4, this improvement
was not significant. Second, the results show that there was not a consistent pattern in students’
use of evidence across four tasks. While the majority of students (more than 60%) received a score
of 1 and 2 combined on tasks 1, 2, and 3, only %46.7 received a score of 1 and 2 combined on task
3. Results show that students’ performance on reasoning aspect of argumentation also did not lead
58
to any consistent patterns. Overall, as the results of this case study indicate students have difficulty
in developing quality scientific arguments. Based on our analyses of students written and verbal
arguments, we conclude that lack of disciplinary knowledge is the main limitation to students’
progress in forming sophisticated arguments over time.
The concept map: effective teaching tool for understanding
geometrical optics concepts
Samia REMLI, Djanette BLIZAK / Algeria
In recent years the concept map has become an effective learning and teaching technique. For this
reason, this study investigates the effect of using the concept maps in teaching geometrical optics
on the conceptual understanding of first year university students. For this purpose, 52 students
were randomly selected then divided in to two equal groups: the experimental group was taught by
using concept maps and control group was taught by traditional method. Data were collected using
the conceptual Understanding of Geometrical Optics Test. The finding showed that before
instruction, university’s students have important misconceptions about vision and propagation of
light. After teaching of geometrical optics, the study shows that using concept maps has greater
effect on conceptual understanding.
Interaction among peers: a valuable resource for science teachers
Emilio Balzano, Francesco Cuomo, Ciro Minichini, Marco Serpico / Italy
We present insights emerging from interviews (N=20) and focus groups (N=50) with primary and
secondary Italian school teachers carried out in the framework of the project TRACES
(Transformative Research Activities – Cultural difference and Education in Science) funded by the
European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme. The analysis is focussed on teachers’
views of interaction with their colleagues as a resource for their work and pays special attention to
highlight the role of structural constraints in enhancing or hindering forms of significant
collaboration. Interaction among colleagues is generally perceived as a fundamental tool for a
collective cultural growth. Training among peers is valued as the main source of teachers’
professional development during their career especially through the sharing of know-how and ideas
with more expert colleagues. Teachers underlined the importance of sharing actual classroom
activities with colleagues as an opportunity to merge different sensibilities, expertise and
experiences. While many teachers would not be keen in sharing their practice with colleagues as
they feel comfortable with their consolidated ways of teaching, many other see the habit of working
together as necessary in order to deepen and make more interdisciplinary the way contents are
presented. Having sometimes the opportunity to play the role of active observer while a colleague
is conducting a classroom activity can also be a way to compare teaching methodologies and learn
59
from each other. Otherwise, a teacher always working alone in the classroom has often few time,
many pupils and official requests to satisfy and is sometimes forced to limit her/his instructional
practice to a transmission of contents approach rather than promoting actual learning processes.
Even if many teachers are used to find some time to discuss together about their work, schools are
not based on a culture of cooperation. According to teachers, most of their effective interactions
happen in informal situations. A good organization of teachers’ workload and timetable is perceived
as a necessary condition for good teaching. On the other hand, the official modalities of interaction
do not represent a guarantee for actual cooperation. Time institutionally appointed to teachers’
meeting is often perceived as inadequate. Interaction too often tends to crystallize around tasks
perceived as bureaucratic requirements such as the yearly programme development. This results in
teachers developing the tendency to reproduce their ways of teaching, relying on their
competences and their previous experiences. Documentation of teachers’ experiences is perceived
as a necessary tool in order to promote the sharing of ideas within single schools and beyond.
Although teachers value the contribution that a documentation of experiences in the form of
written or multimedia materials available to all colleagues can give to their work, they also pointed
out that the way their work is organized in the Italian system does not promote this kind of practice:
there is no officially appointed working time devoted to activities such as documentation and
production of materials, while teachers are supposed to fulfil a number of bureaucratic tasks that
are much less relevant to their actual teaching practice.
Kitchen in Preschool Science Education Activities And Basic
Science Process Skills Acquisition
Naciye Saltikalp Kaya / TURKEY
Preschool, trying to recognize investigate the child's environment, willing to communicate with the
environment , curious, is strong and inquisitive imagination , the society 's values and that society 's
cultural structure began to acquire appropriate behavior and habits, is the period that the basis of
personality. In preschool education program , not learning products , the process is important. How
will teach methods of information is important . To improve the quality of children's learning , to
facilitate their learning , to make them willing to learn , to encourage research and learning are
among the many goals of the new approach used in meaningful render the preschool . Can establish
cause-and- effect relationships in this period , which can produce problems in identifying solutions
to cultivate creative individuals living children , trying , making observations , prepare learning
environment that allows him to explore is extremely important . Events will be held in the kitchen in
this context ; each school and at home , and fun in the kitchen due to the presence of charge , as
well as the preparatory activities among ideal qualities of life by providing educational and
children's sense of responsibility. The realization of effective science education is the most
important institutional power of science process skills. Scientific process skills, students learn the
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ways to access information, a tool for understanding scientific studies, science education is for
students to gain an important purpose intended. Science Process Skills; Thinking skills used in
problem solving process when creating a knowledge. Children during science education,
observation, analysis, prediction, classification, they perform many scientific processes like to
experiment. Kitchen activities, gives children the opportunity to be used by the scientific process.
The study included 30 pre-school to kindergarten 3-5 years participated in continuing education
students. Each age group; kitchen activities appropriate to their level of development planned and
implemented. Applications were photographed with the permission of the family. Each activity in
pre-school studies, structured according to cognitive gains in educational programs; post-event
analysis are reported in accordance with the scientific process skills. As well as with the work of the
scientific process skills; It was observed that children also learn some science event. Children have
used the kitchen tools, they embody the predictions by measuring. Resulting product used in the
pre-school period, kitchen science education activities is not important , the process is important .
Pre- school activity should be in contact with the kitchen while the child . Attention should be drawn
to the changes in taste, smell , should be guidelines to use their sense of touch . Children should be
active participation in the activity . An environment free from hazards must be created. In addition,
the cooking process can not be carried out in school and classroom activities should be planned
differently than a simple and convenient environment. As well as planned activities in the home
must be shared in class feedback .
After The Dust Has Settled - The Outcome of Recent Online
Learning Initiatives
Joseph Makokha / USA
The past four years have witnessed a rise in initiatives aimed at advancing Online Learning by
universities, private enterprises and even governments. At leading research universities in the
United States, resources were directed towards this mission in form of "experiments" which
brought together scholars and researchers in the fields of education, computing, and curriculum
design among others. STEM subjects, which normally require greater teaching resources than
others, gained from some of the tools and innovations resulting from this surge in Online Learning.
This session will explore the path and outcomes of Online Learning from the perspective of a
participant in university initiatives that targeted undergraduate, secondary and primary school
students (K-16). It will include demonstrations of Online Learning platforms and tools for developing
such instruction.
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A local Science Education Network in Austria – the case of Vienna
Franz Rauch, Mira Dulle / Austria
For the past ten years, the Science Education Network in Vienna, Austria has supported the quality
improvement of science lessons through inquiry-based science education (IBSE) and the continuous
professional development of teachers. The network accumulates experiences and expertise
developed in the nation-wide IMST project (Innovations Make Schools Top) as well as the EU FP7
project PROFILES (Professional Reflection Oriented Focus on Inquiry-based Learning and Education
through Science) (Bolte et al., 2012). The development of the Science Education Network Vienna
was evaluated via qualitative (interviews, case study, self-evaluation, reflective papers) and
quantitative (questionnaires) data. This paper investigates the factors that support the continuation
of an educational network over a long period of time, as well as the added value for teachers
participating in such a network. Evaluative findings show that the development of the Science
Education Network in Vienna depends on three main factors: the common topic of interest (IBSE),
the supply of new impulses and fresh inputs, and the dynamic and flexible reaction of the network
to changes. The added value for teachers is seen in the fields of exchange of experience and
information, cooperation with other local, national and international networks, as well as
continuous professional development and the improvement of instruction.
The Austrian Network “Ecologizing of Schools” (ECOLOG)
Franz Rauch, Mira Dulle / Austria
The lines of reasoning currently being pursued in Austria focus on the notion of sustainable
development, on environmental education, on development education and international peace, as
well as civic education, and have sparked a debate on the nature of education in general (Rauch &
Steiner 2006). In the wake of current social trends and structural transformation, networks in
educational contexts have become increasingly attractive in educational systems and are seen as
being essential to promote Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Austria. How can ESD
be implemented as a nation-wide network and what are the effects in Austria? The contribution will
answer this question with a special focus on the ECOLOG programme and network that has existed
in Austria since 1996. Having proclaimed “school autonomy” in the 1990s, the central
administration in Austria has been focusing increasingly on contextual steering activities, whilst
delegating responsibilities to decentralised units (Posch & Altrichter 1993; Fullan 2007; Rauch &
Scherz 2009). Intermediate structures (Czerwanski et al. 2002) such as networks are expected and
conceived to fill a structural gap and take over functions traditionally assigned to the hierarchy.
Social network theories (Castell 2000; Dalin 1999) serve as an important theoretical basis underlying
the formation of ESD-networks in Austria, like the ECOLOG programme and network. Supported by
the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education and Women’s Affairs, ECOLOG aims at promoting and
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integrating an ecological approach into the development of individual schools. Attempts are being
made to embed the programme in Austria’s federal states through regional networks (Rauch &
Pfaffenwimmer 2014). Including over 450 Austrian schools and 6 colleges for teacher education,
ECOLOG can be seen as an interface between environmental education and school development.
Throughout the 14 years of the ECOLOG programme, a series of evaluations, inquiries and studies
have been written, based on interviews, questionnaires and observational data (Payer et al. 2000;
Heinrich & Mayr, 2005; Rauch & Schrittesser, 2003; Rauch & Dulle, 2011). The results show that
ECOLOG schools, which are living a sustainable everyday culture, can influence the environmental
consciousness and competencies of pupils positively. Furthermore, the following aspects are
important for the success of ESD-activities at schools: communication encouraging a common
understanding of ESD, support of the head teachers, the openness of the ECOLOG concept, which
allows a wide range of issues and fosters creativity, personal engagement of single teachers as well
as teamwork, commitment to quality development and assurance. Networks in ESD carry out
creative projects and thereby try to raise the attractiveness of ESD. ECOLOG shows that networks in
education offer goal-oriented exchange processes among teachers, which support their professional
development. It is necessary to maintain a balance of action & reflection (goal-directed planning
and evaluation) and autonomy & networking (analysis of one’s own situation), but also support by
“critical friends“ in order to set up a sustainable support system for schools.
Teaching Strategies of Science Teachers for Genetics Topic
Murat Aydemir, Jale Çakıroğlu, Ceren Öztekin / Turkey
The purpose of the study was the investigation of teachers’ teaching strategies for the topic of
genetics. The framework of the study was based on pedagogical content knowledge (PCK)
(Shulman, 1986). Knowledge of teaching strategies as a PCK component was examined in this study
with two sub-dimensions offered by Magnusson, Krajcik, and Borko (1999); namely representation
and activities. Although the literature of genetics includes many difficulties of students (Lewis,
2004), there was a gap in studies investigating what the teachers’ teaching strategies used for
genetics topics as a difficult topic (Howarth, 2006). This study tried to give specific examples of
teaching strategies used by experienced teachers in real classroom environment. Moreover,
Loughran, Berry, and Mulhall (2004) underlined that there was a scarcity of concrete examples of
teachers’ PCK. This study aimed to provide information about experienced teachers’ PCK and how
they used this knowledge in teaching for genetics topic. The strategies used by teachers may be
applied in professional development activities for in-service and pre-service education and they may
help teachers not to reinvent the wheel or all strategies again during teaching genetics topic. Study
was a qualitative case study (Merriam, 1998). Five - experienced science teachers (four female, one
male teacher and their teaching experiences ranged from 14 to 30 years) taught 8th grade science
course at elementary public school in Ankara-Turkey participated in the study. The data of the study
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were collected through classroom observation during teaching of the genetics topic and interviews.
The observation provided useful information or data about teachers’ pedagogical application and
teaching strategies, which are the reflection of teachers’ owned PCK. The researchers tried to
observe a concrete pedagogic action that is employed for a particular reason in response to
teachers’ PCK and components (Loughran, Berry, & Mulhall, 2000). Result of the study includes only
a part of result of dissertation study and whole data exceed the scope of this study. In this study,
teaching strategies were presented with representation and activities sub-dimensions. The
representation was categorized in the subtitles of illustrations, examples, and analogies. The
example of “illustration” used by one of the teachers was that she recommended her students not
to use Uu, Ss, Iı, and similar letters for genetic traits in order to prevent confusion. The “example” as
representation used by another participants was mainly use of human traits in her examples of
genetic traits and she stated she did not prefer to use pea traits in the classrooms. The example of
“analogies” used by teacher was the analogy of computer program for genotype-phenotype
relationship. The activities were categorized in the subtitles of problem solving, genetics computer
simulations and construction of pedigree. One of the teachers used problem solving based on the
hereditary disease problems. The genetics computer simulations were used to simulate genetics
crossing besides of using blackboard for crossing by one of the participants. Another teacher gave
the homework of constructing students’ own pedigree. She expected from her students to select a
trait and construct their own pedigree.
Science Teachers’ Teaching Strategies for Environmental
Education
Murat Aydemir, Nurdane Aydemir / Turkey
The purpose of the study was the investigation of teachers’ teaching strategies for the topic of
environmental education. The framework of the study was based on pedagogical content
knowledge (PCK) (Shulman, 1986). Knowledge of teaching strategies as a PCK component was
examined in this study with two sub-dimensions offered by Magnusson, Krajcik, and Borko (1999);
namely representation and activities. Environmental educators often maintain that primary school
education should endeavor to improve and protect the environment through producing an
environmentally informed, committed and active citizenry, but research show that the
implementation of environmental education in primary schools is problematic and has limited
success (Cutter, 2002). The reasons for these shortcomings are far from clear; with the help of the
present study, it might gave more insight to the question of how can the effectiveness of
environmental education be increase. The literature also highlighted that there was a gap in studies
investigating what the teachers’ teaching strategies used for environmental education (Michail,
Stamou, & Stamou, 2007). This study tried to give specific examples of teaching strategies used by
experienced teachers in real classroom environment. Moreover, Loughran, Berry, and Mulhall
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(2004) underlined that there was a scarcity of concrete examples of teachers’ PCK. This study aimed
to provide information about experienced teachers’ PCK and how they used this knowledge in
teaching for genetics topic. The strategies used by teachers may be applied in professional
development activities for in-service and pre-service education and they may help teachers not to
reinvent the wheel or all strategies again during teaching genetics topic. Study was a qualitative
case study. Seven - experienced 4-8th grade elementary teachers who conduct elementary science
and technology course in Ankara-Turkey participated in the study. The data of the study were
collected through classroom observation during teaching of the genetics topic and interviews. The
observation provided useful information or data about teachers’ pedagogical application and
teaching strategies, which are the reflection of teachers’ owned PCK. The researchers tried to
observe a concrete pedagogic action that is employed for a particular reason in response to
teachers’ PCK and components (Loughran, Berry, & Mulhall, 2000). In this study, teaching strategies
were presented with representation and activities sub-dimensions. The representation was
categorized in the subtitles of illustrations, examples, and analogies. The example of illustration
used by one of the teachers was recycle logo and she changed the number of the arrows in the
recycle logo based on classroom discussion. Another teacher gave example of Centaurea
tchihatcheffii (Yanardöner in Turkish) endangered species of Gölbaşı, Ankara. Another participant
used waiting in a car in a sunny day as an analogy for the global warming. The activities were
categorized in the subtitles of experiment, computer programs, and homework on garbage. A
teacher made global warming experiment representing temperature increase in a jar that is tapped
and stayed in front of a lamp. Another participant used computer program to show footprint of
students. Another teacher gave homework based on calculation and classification of students’
home garbage in a week.
A Review of Elementary Students’ Conceptual Understandings of
Atom
Elvan Sahin, Ayhan Yilmaz, Sinem Demirci / Turkey
The concept of ‘atom’ has been regarded as core concept in science teaching since it is required to
develop a sound understanding of this concept for learning other concepts (Cokelez, 2012). From
such a point of view, it is inevitable for researchers on science education to highly focus on teaching
and learning process of the concept of ‘atom’. Thus, the present study could be considered as an
initial attempt to portray elementary school students’ understandings of this concept based on the
results of previous studies, and the recommended teaching approaches to overcome the difficulties
in teaching such an abstract concept. For this specified purpose, research articles published in
international and national journals was documented and content analysis was used to be able to
display conceptual understandings pertinent to the concept of atom. First of all, it appeared that
initial research studies concentrated on elementary students’ key misconceptions regarding atoms
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and molecules while defining mental models of these students on the concept of ‘atom’ has evolved
as a more recent issue in the latest years. Concerning the size of an atom, the students hold a belief
in that they are macroscopic. More specifically, they think that it is not possible to see an atom with
the unaided eye, but mistakenly believe that it can be visualized with a powerful microscope (e.g
Brehelin, 1994; Charlet-Brehelin, 1998; Cokelez, 2012; Griffiths and Preston, 1992; Harrison and
Treagust, 1996). Regarding the shape of an atom, the drawings of the students have been
categorized from two different perspectives; analogical and epistemologic approach. Analogical
approach identifies student depictions as particle model, composition atom model, ball model, solar
system model, confusion-atom molecule, group of atoms, and electron cloud model (e.g Cokelez
and Dumon, 2005; Cokelez, 2012). It seemed that electron cloud model, composition or solar
system model were linked to the appearance of an atom by students at higher grade level. It is
worthy here to note that a significant number of students at lower grade could not provide any
response for the shape of an atom which indicates that they could not elaborate any mental model
about the concept of the atom. Researchers (Ozgur and Bostan, 2007; Polat-Yaseen, 2012) focusing
on student understanding of the concept of atom from an epistemological perspective point out
misconceptions or mental models may originate from epistemological obstacles on atom concept.
In other words, students may have conceptualize the term of atom similar to the scientists from
ancient times. Thus, student depictions on the shape of an atom were categorized based on the
historical development of the atomic models. Many researchers reported that student mental
models were associated with Rutherford’s and Bohr’s atomic models. Interestingly, Polat-Yaseen
(2012) found out that Turkish students at sixth grade developed mental models similar to the
atomic bomb picture. These findings have further implications in that the limitations of the
historical atom models should be provided in science teaching process. In other words, history and
philosophy of science should be integrated in teaching the concept of atom.
The Maker’s of Future & The Future of Maker’s
Yasemin Ozdem Yilmaz, Kader Bilican, Bulent Cavas / Turkey
Project Background: The significant drop rates on choosing STEM based careers among students is
a threat to countries, which put forward innovation and research as a main track of their growth.
Therefore, there has been a huge emphasis on making effective cooperation among science,
industry, formal and informal educational institutions, and society. Among the efforts, education
reforms have a significant role to make science more attractive to students, to increase students’
interest and self –efficacy toward science and innovative areas. Consequently, there has been an
emerging call on specifically science education movement that favors scientific literacy which
embracing learning in the areas of science, engineering, technology, math as well as innovative
thinking, creative problem solving and inquiry. Considering the fact that students are first
introduced these aforementioned issues in science classrooms, the current form of in-school
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science learning is far fall beyond the expectations of society’s need. Additionally, students are
mostly turned off for research and innovative activities and less likely choose STEM based careers
based on their negative experience with school science. Therefore, there is an emerging need to
design and arrange activities that allow students to pose questions, design and communicate their
solutions as well as present their results for a science learning that targets their future careers in
STEM areas. Project Aim: A response to that call, we aim to plan and develop efficient, attractive
and purposeful maker spaces, which will bring K-16 level students to pose their questions, find their
innovative solutions and pursue their own creative problem solving plan to make their projects and
project ideas come alive. Moreover they could able to communicate their projects with the
opportunities of designing tools for their project and share it with public. In this way, they will be
given chance to work like both scientists and engineers, and could be able to experience the
appetite of innovative thinking and research. In other words, the overarching aim of the project is to
attract K-16 students to Making, and thus engage them in practices of engineering and science in
ways that are both appealing and approachable, as well as encourage them to realize the relevance
of engineering and design in their lives and as a career path.
Project Work Plan: Working with a rich array of stakeholders, such as schools, science and art
museums, employers, educators, and scientists, the project will
•
identify, network, and pilot STEM learning experiences through Maker Spaces that will result
in a set of skills that aligns with future workforce needs.
•
organize and disseminate a range of pilot experiences in the form of fairs, programs and
exhibits that engage real and current challenges in science and engineering to promote students’
creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, and self-efficacy.
•
build and mobilize creative and sustainable Maker Spaces for a different learning experience
that promotes culture of learning by doing and experimentation in collaboration with other
stakeholders.
Creating professional blending for occupational eHealth
Marjo Rissanen / Finland
In knowledge intensive areas blended eHealth programs offer often deeper, contextual, and also
more powerful learning experiences than typical single model approaches. However, blending is not
necessarily a straightforward guarantee for a more efficient learning outcome in occupational
health area. Hence, applied blending schemata should be evaluated in a versatile way. This
evaluation should cover planning, design, implementation, and evaluation phases whenever any
new innovative solution for the target area is planned. This study proposes and considers quality
theoretical frame approach in assessing the functionality of an intended blended model at the
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macro level. It is useful to consider in which way an intended blended model fulfils its mission and in
which way implemented it may enhance customer, process, and product quality of the invention.
Effectiveness and ethical requirements need as well constant attention of designers. When
predicting the impact of blending ideas the project may have also its specific quality parameter set
which needs attention.
Nowadays many blended eHealth programs include versatile tools for self-paced learning,
professional support, and peer support with different mix between online and face-to-face periods.
Nevertheless, more consideration is needed to find out what are the other possibilities for adequate
blending in the occupational health area? Attention is needed to find out, what kinds of cognitive
levels predominate in the application or in the program in question, as well as contextual
consideration to find out in which levels blended solutions may offer more quality. This study
represents design research paradigm and concentrates on theoretical problem analysis and frames
of design. Literature which covers areas of eHealth, quality theory, occupational health, and
cognitive aspects of learning supports the consideration of this dilemma.
BioScientix – A study program to link research and teaching
Doris Elster / Germany
Teachers in higher education are asked to develop research oriented modules, encouraging the
students´ abilities in independent research right from the start of their study. Accordingly teachers
in higher education have to walk a tightrope in order to equip the students with the necessary skills,
including basic scientific knowledge on the one hand and to develop courses promoting a critical
and independent research oriented attitude on the other. An example for an initiative that links
research and teaching is the project BioScientix. This is a six-Credit-Point-module for ongoing
biology teachers in the second semester of their Bachelor study program. The goal is to develop an
innovative learning environment, a „Community of Practice (CoP)“ (Wenger, 1998) of scientists,
science educators and media educators to link research and teaching. The CoP has a blended
learning (Reinmann, 2005) structure, where face-to-face meetings and exchange via an e-learning
platform are offered (Elster, 2010). Teacher students deepen their scientific knowledge being
members of research groups of the departments of ecology and cell biology. They explain the
scientific content didactical and medial with “explain-it” videos. On the system level the affordances
(Gibson, 1977) and the arrangement of the learning environment is the main research question of
BioScientix. On the personal level the participants’ professional development, their development of
subject knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is of interest. We investigate these
questions using qualitative and quantitative methods: questionnaires (pre-post-design) and
participants’ portfolios and videos. In 2014, 16 biology teacher students participated in the
BioScientix study program. They developed seven “explain-it” videos to different research fields.
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They evaluated the videos with peers and teachers of higher education and developed them further
in an iterative process. The evaluation findings demonstrate an increase of subject and didactical
knowledge of the participating teacher students. Most of them highlight the relevance of the
BioScientix for the future career as teachers.
A project idea on working definition of IBSE in Europe through
artificial intelligence
Murat Kahveci / Turkey
Relevant Call: Science with and for Society
Make scientific and technological careers attractive to young students, and foster sustainable
interaction between schools, research institutions, industry and civil society organisations
Scope : Inquiry-based science education (IBSE) is generally recognized as “effective” in teaching
science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics at schools across Europe. To
support and sustain young generations’ interest in STEM fields, EU has invested in many projects
that aim to disseminate already proven best practices for teaching through inquiry. Given this fact
and the large scale of already-made investments, a functionally working framework on what
“inquiry” means for all stakeholders like teachers, researchers, policymakers, and publishers is yet
to be done. The working framework of inquiry-based science education in Europe will reflect the
most up-to-date definition and methodologies that are based on existing practices by EU
investments. Secondly, given the advancements in e-learning technologies, a massive teacher
certification on commonly shared understandings of inquiry and best practices on inquiry
methodologies is possible. For example, the Cisco Learning Network certifies over 1,5 million people
each year from distance. Third, an online platform of the best inquiry activities that are qualitytagged by the working framework should be made available to all European science educators and
researchers. This platform will serve as a repository of all working models and methodologies of
IBSE activities yet to be available for teacher’s everyday use. This platform will function like a peerreviewed learning object repository. However, this platform will expand in time by user data (i.e.
practicing teachers) about the usefulness and some other predefined criteria of the materials in use.
Thus, by advanced algorithms, this platform will serve as a live metrics of all materials that are
linked to.
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Bridging The Gap Between Research And Practice In Science
Education. A Participatory Model For Teacher-Researcher
Collaborations
Emilio Balzano, Francesco Cuomo, Ciro Minichini, Marco Serpico / Italy
While there is broad consensus both in research literature and in teachers' perceptions that
research in science education can be a valuable – or as well 'indispensable' (Duit, 2006) –
prerequisite for improving instructional practice, studies also show that a tension exists between
research and practice which is rooted in a complex of factors. As Ratcliffe (2005) suggested, for
example, "research evidence had to be seen as transferable, to have resonance with teachers’
experience and beliefs, and to have a rigorous methodology" for teachers to perceive it as
convincing. An important factor contributing to the impact of research on practice is teachers’
perceived relevance of research results to their everyday practice. As any other research sector,
research in science education is specialized in its language and norms, which are established and
recognized by its reference community. In order to set up an effective dialogue with the different
communities of practitioners, mediation is needed in terms of what content is identified as most
relevant and what language is appropriate. Cooperation programmes involving researchers and
teachers represent an important means of mediation between the worlds of research and practice
from which both sides can benefit if the proper conditions are realized. Based on 30+ years of
experience of cooperation with teachers in our research group, we developed a model of
cooperation that aims at maximizing impact on teachers practice. We present findings from eight
cooperation programmes implemented in Italian schools of different grades operating in different
socio-economic contexts with 94 teachers participating in total. The programmes were carried out
in the framework of a project funded by the European Commission under the Science in Society
action of the 7th Framework Programme called TRACES (Transformative Research Activities –
Cultural difference and Education in Science). The programmes involved 1/2-day monthly sessions
over the course of year. All discussions and activities carried out during each session were recorded.
A qualitative study was conducted on transcriptions and field notes in terms of content analysis.
Our findings support the effectiveness of a model of cooperation based on a participatory approach
which involved teachers making decisions about both the content and the structure of the
programme, such as the disciplinary and pedagogical issues to address, the link to the planned
curriculum, the use of research findings, the interaction in the classroom. The intervention model
also implied following elements: peer‐to‐peer interaction (each actor is considered an expert in
their own field even if roles are different); situated content (work is based on materials produced by
the workgroup); 'authentic' process (classroom activities are a crucial component, that is, the
proposed pedagogy is demonstrated and validated in the authentic context of participating
teachers). In avoiding a top-down approach, in which researchers play the role of 'teaching teachers
how to teach,' this intervention model promotes a sense of ownership of the programme and the
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content and pedagogical issues addressed on behalf of both researchers and teachers involved
which represents another factor contributing to maximizing impact.
The Sinus-Program: How To Engage Experienced Science Teachers
Into Collaboration
Martin Lindner / Germany
SINUS ('Increasing the efficiency of science and mathematics instruction') was started in 1998.
Learning from the first five years of the SINUS-Program in 2003 a broad transfer programme was
launched (SINUS Transfer). These activities now are in a third status: after developing and testing
the strategy and concepts the programme in the first phase and getting experience in transferring
the basic strategies to new teachers in the second phase the programme came into a phase of
dissemination where the work was transferred to teachers and types of schools which were not
involved before. This is not longer done on national level, but on the level of Federal States. The
SINUS program became famous when it was identified as a model program for European Science
Education development programs. When the European High Level Group on Science Education, led
by Michel Rocard, searched for a model to deal with Science Education in 2007, they interviewed
the leader of SINUS, Manfred Prenzel, and took the strategy and politics of SINUS into their report
(Science Education Now – A Renewed Pedagogy of the Future of Europe). This report became the
basis for the launch of 45 Mio Euro for more than 12 European Science Education programs in the 7.
Framework. Prominent examples are ESTABLISH, SysCatalist, S-Team, PROFILES, SAILS, etc.
On national level, SINUS did not only influence many Science and Math teachers, teacher educators
and researchers. Researchers involved into the program became leading researchers in classroom
research and in the “Didactic” field of the academies. They were leading the committees on
formulating the National standards in 2003 for Mathematics and the Natural Sciences Biology,
Chemistry and Physics. This influenced the textbooks, and by this lead to a more “open” teaching in
the subjects. And, also important: many participants of the SINUS teams became subject team
leaders in their schools, headmasters, teacher educators or researchers. Teachers who join the
programme meet regularly over a period of at least 2 or 3 years six or eight times a year, usually in
the afternoon. They work in teams of 3 - 10 persons. The meetings are filled with classroom
orientated development work by focussing on subject issues and methods and combining
experience from different teachers. The meetings are used to develop usable tasks, lessons or
whole curricula for classroom work. When the members of the team gather again they will evaluate
the experiences which were made in lessons held in between. The work is coordinated on regional
and state level by professionals. Usually these are teachers who receive a reduction of their weekly
workload. Another important feature of the programme work is to use the methods of learning,
which should be preferred in classroom work. In our meetings only short introduction lectures are
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held. The essential work takes place in workshops with high activity of the members. The results are
published predominantly on the home pages of the programmes so that all participants of the
teams could join the developmental process. Joining a learning structure like this works as a model
for teaching and learning which helps to break the Socratic method, which still is dominating
German classroom teaching and also to finish the role of teachers as single combatant and enforce
team-work at schools. And more, the way of teaching changed from teacher-centred towards a
more open approach. Together with a more experimental based way of classroom work is described
by the term of “inquiry based science education” (IBSE). This abbreviation became also famous
through the Rocard report. This presentation will give insights it the work of SINUS and present
results of the scientific evaluation of the program.
Sun – School-Based Professional Development For Science
Teachers
Peter van Marion, Astrid Johansen / Norway
SUN is a school-based professional development program for science teachers. The major aim of
the program is to stimulate an evolutionary process in which individual science teachers, who,
although being members of the school’s science department, operate mostly on their own, become
active members of a professional learning community in their school. SUN is based on the idea that
teachers who work collaboratively on shared areas of inquiry, stimulate each other and challenge
each other to make professional steps. For some teachers the first big step is simply to start talking
about what they do in the class room, something many may never have done before. Through
questions from their colleagues they may be challenged and reflect more on their own teaching
practice. They may be encouraged to make new steps such as trying out some new approach or
teaching method. Gradually through the whole series of workshops, step-by-step, the teachers
become more confident and more willing to share. This process, carefully guided by external science
educators from our university, leads to more openness and willingness to meet new challenges and
take new steps. A learning community is built, and it offers a powerful way of engaging its members
in reflecting upon their own teaching practice. Since 2008, we have used the SUN-approach to
professional development for science teachers in more than 20 secondary schools. Here, we will
describe the SUN-programme in more details and summarize and present some of our experiences
from different SUN schools. We will in particular discuss the role of the school leaders.
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Analysis of kindergarten children’s weather-related knowledge
structures
Katalin Daru / Hungary
If we accept the basic tenet of cognitive linguistics, namely that there is an inherent interaction
between language and cognitive structures, we can draw conclusions about the cognitive structures
based on the analysis of the linguistic system. But in order to access the mental lexicon, we need
tests or other instruments. Word association tests are widely used methods for exploring people’s
mental lexicon. This is a powerful technique in the field of psychology and linguistics and it spreads
to other areas of science. Science educators noticed that scientific thinking and conceptual change
can be observed by using this technique (Ercan et. al. 2010). Nakiboglu (2008) used word
association test for assessing non major science students’ knowledge structure before and after
general chemistry instruction. He combined the Garskof and Houston method (RC) (1963) and the
conceptual mapping technique for presentation his results. Kostova and Radoynovska (2008) used
free word association test for studying conceptual structures of teachers and students. Sendur et.
al. (2011) studied pre-service chemistry teachers’s understanding about acids and bases. In Hungary
Tóth and Ludányi (2007) combinated phenomenography with knowledge space theory to study
thinking patterns in describing an atom. In recent research, we examined the conceptual structure
of 4-7 year-old children through eight weather-related concepts (weather, precipitation, wind, rain,
spring, summer, autumn, winter), using a word association technique. Our hypothesis was that
there are differences in conceptual net and knowledge structure between boys and girls
furthermore between school starters and „held back” children. Children were asked to tell as many
response words as they can think of in association with each stimulus word. From the responses
means of associations were calculated. Relatedness coefficients (RC) between concepts and the
strength of the connections also were determined and we compared children’s network of
connections to the peer mesh. The study has shown rich conceptual nets among boys and girls. Boys
have fewer but stronger connections between the stimulus words and girls have more but weak
ties. Boys associated more concepts with the stimulus words weather and summer, while girls
preferred winter, wind and spring, and they associated more with these words than boys. The
stimulus word precipitation was unknown by the majority of children, so they associated with
paronymous words. In case of concept weather the response words were categorized and the
hierarchy of the categories was determined by using knowledge space theory. It was found that
critical learning path characteristic of the boys was similar to that of older children group, while the
critical learning path of the girls was similar to that of younger children group. It was also found that
the knowledge structures of the older children contained more connections than those of the
younger children. The results of this study are more useful input into our further research. This work
was supported by OTKA K-105262 project
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Sustainability from a Perspective of Turkish Decision Makers of
the Future
Elvan Sahin / Turkey
People around the world are aware of the fact that current economic, social, and environmental
trends are not sustainable. Life styles of underdeveloped nations with especially large human
populations and industrialized nations having high per-capita consumption has been linked to
current threats to achieve sustainable development (Webster, 2004). Policy makers, scientists,
educators, and many other experts from various professions could rapidly create a list of problems
that humans come across with in our unsustainable planet – lack of safe drinking water, drastic
increase in fish catch per year, drug and alcohol abuse, mental health problems, poverty, increased
pollution, etc. Increasing public awareness, and providing education and training are depicted as a
key agent to move society toward sustainability (McKeown, 2002). However, people do not possess
a common vision of what sustainable societies will look like and how they will function (McKeown,
2002). Thus, it becomes a controversial issue to develop some education programs for sustainable
development. The main idea behind the present study was that the young people are future
decision makers, planners, and educators of a sustainable society. In this aspect, this study aimed to
portray perceptions of Turkish teacher candidates from sustainability standpoint. The data were
gathered from 225 pre-service elementary teachers by asking their own perceptions of
sustainability. The participants were in their third or fourth year in an elementary education
program at a public university in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. The results were examined through
content analysis. Results: ıt was found out that pre-service teachers associated ‘sustainability’ with
depletion and unfair distribution of natural resources. Furthermore, they were of the opinion that
population growth and unconscious use of technology are responsible for this unsustainable trend.
To tackle with such problems, some precautions (decreasing waste, disseminating recycling
facilities, preventing contamination in natural resources, etc.) were placed in their suggestions.
Unfortunately, they demonstrated anthropogenic reasons (e.g future generations, having a healthy
body, human survival) to enhance wise use of natural resources. In this aspect, it is plausible to
assume that the students’ world views and their values guided their conceptualizations of
sustainability. These university students from a teacher education program could not develop a
sound understanding of sustainability. Although they enrolled some courses on sustainability and
environmental issues, they did not grasp the complexity of these challenges and the
interrelatedness of different aspects of sustainability.
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Mobile Digital Story Software for Science and Nature Activities in
Preschool
Gokben Turgut, Tarik Kisla / Turkey
Storytelling is a method that has been used effectively in education from ancient times. The
storytelling method with the rapid development of technology has been improved and became
known as "digital story". Digital storytelling method can be used at every level of education. Today,
there are many shareware and/or freeware that can be used to be created digital stories by users.
However, there is no Turkish software that implements digital storytelling methods for preschoolers
to the best of our knowledge. The purpose of this study is to develop a mobile digital storytelling
software that can be used by children for creating their stories about the topics related to science
and nature. Software has been called as "storyteller beans" (MaBe). The software has been
developed using C-objective programming language with Xcode environment. The software has an
user-interface that includes image/sound library about science and nature, and painting tools.
Furthermore, users can import their images and sounds into MaBe software. ADDIE development
model has been used in software design process. In this study, we have presented information
about process of software development, features of MaBe with screenshots, and we have given
some suggestions about the use of the MaNe in a course. In addition, we have argued about the
possible effects of MoBe based on the literature.
A Beginning Science Teacher’s PCK and Content Knowledge in Cell
Division Topics
Mehmet Şen / Turkey
Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is a type of teacher knowledge that is planned, enacted and
reflected by the teachers in classrooms (Park & Oliver, 2008). While forming this knowledge,
teachers care students’ needs and apply suitable instructional strategy and assessment techniques
for selected grade level (Shulman, 1986; 1987). PCK is a dynamic and topic specific construct (Abell,
2008) that means teachers’ PCK develops over time in teaching specific topics. Cell division topics
were selected as specific topic in this qualitative case study because teaching and learning these
topics are highly difficult (Brown, 1990; Lewis-Wood Robinson, 2000). Findings of the current study
about a beginning teachers’ PCK and content knowledge in cell division topics may give some insight
about the quality of science teaching in Turkish context. One novice elementary science teacher
working in private schools who had one year experience participated in this case study. Data were
collected by use of semi-structured interviews and teacher drawings in 2013 August. Codes and
themes were mostly formed by deductive coding which are also found in PCK literature. Teacher’s
Nature of Science views as Syntactic content knowledge was evaluated by use of Views of Nature of
Science Questionnaire C (Lederman et al., 2002). Teacher’s substantive content knowledge about
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cell division was evaluated based on conceptual understanding and ontological status. Results
revealed that science teacher had informed views about syntactic structures apart from subjective
NOS. In terms of substantive structures; teacher had sound understanding and was in process
category about mitosis process, meiosis process, chromosome, sentriol, asexual reproduction,
zygote, mitosis in plant cell, and meiosis in plant cell. However, science teacher had partial
understanding and was in matter category about cell division concepts which are DNA, gene, sister
chromatids, sexual reproduction, somatic cell, and gamete. Moreover, science teacher had few
misconceptions such as “alleles are smaller than genes”, and “number of chromosome reduces in
meiosis-2”. Furthermore, science teacher had no view about cell cycle, kinethecore, interkinesis,
and the relationship between cell division and genetics. Regarding PCK; science teacher had
schooling goals as orientation towards science aiming to make students as scientific literate people.
Science teacher had some problems about why cell division topics place in curriculum, and
objectives found in curriculum. Moreover, teacher could not extended her views about prerequisite knowledge to learn cell division and could not give specific examples of students’
misconceptions about cell division. Teacher preferred to assess students’ conceptual
understandings and SPS by using both traditional (multiple choice questions and matching) and
alternative assessment technics (modelling and project preparation). Teacher reported that teacher
centered instructions dominate her classrooms such as direct instruction, questioning and teacher
led laboratory work. In conclusion, although beginning science teacher had grasp understanding in
content knowledge in general, she did not have rich PCK in cell division topics. These findings
support the view that grasp content knowledge does not insure rich PCK because PCK develops with
experience.
Examining the Characteristics of Science Centres in Ankara
Mine Kaya, Jale Çakıroğlu / Turkey
Over the last several decades, science centres have gained prominence and influence in the field of
science education. These institutions play a critical role in supporting public understanding of
science and communicate science to their visitors in a variety of ways, including through exhibitions,
programs, planetarium shows and special events. The purpose of the present study was to analyze
the general situation of the science centers in Ankara. In this study, science centre structure,
exhibitions, visitors and explainers’ views were examined. In this respect, the following research
question was guided in this study; ‘‘What are the general characteristics of the science centres in
Ankara with respect to physical structure, explainers’ background and their pedagogical content
knowledge and visitor profile?’’. In this study, data were collected from four science centers in
Ankara using the Science Centre Questionnaire (SCQ) and semi – structured interview. The SCQ was
developed by the researchers and it is composed of 38 items; including 6 demographic information
questions, 23 multiple choice items, 6 short answers and 1 open-ended question. Moreover, semi –
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structured interview was conducted with 5 explainers. The result of the study indicated that
exhibition number is not sufficient in the investigated science centres with respect to other
countries such as USA and European ones which are successful in this area. It is because of the fact
that exhibition area is small and/or is not arranged orderly. Moreover, most of the exhibitions are
related to physics topics especially optics subject. In addition, apart from Ankara Child Museum and
Science Centre which is private corporation, the others do not have any entrance fee. For this
reason, most of the science centres address people from all strata. The result of the interview also
showed that explainers’ qualification is not adequate in terms of pedagogical knowledge. Explainers
suggested that teachers should be informed about curriculum connection with the science centre in
order to promote meaningful learning in science for students. It was found that maintenance of the
exhibitions are problematic because there is not any employee who has adequate education related
to exhibition maintenance. Because of being relatively new field in Turkey, science centres should
be improved in terms of explainers and exhibitions mostly.
Wearable Devices, Data and The Science Classroom
Joseph Makokha / USA
Wearable devices are increasingly showing up in the modern classroom. From the recent Google
Glass Explorer experiment to the more established health and fitness bands, wearables seem to
provide new opportunities to collect data that might lead to new insights in daily life, and learning.
Might we be able to measure learning based on data from wearable devices? What about the many
possibilities arising from the diverse data collection affordances arising from these devices? We will
examine these devices from a STEM perspective, including demonstrations of some devices
(possibly including Google Glass)
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Relationships among pre-service science teachers’ epistemological
beliefs and epistemological world views
Nilay Öztürk Özel, Özgül Yilmaz Tüzün / Turkey
Epistemological beliefs refer to individuals’ understanding of what knowledge is, what is its source
and its degree of certainty (Hofer, 2001). Epistemological world views refer to sum of beliefs and
assumptions teachers hold about the nature and acquisition of knowledge (Schraw & Olafson,
2002). It is important to note that while epistemological beliefs involves beliefs about a particular
dimension of knowledge such as source and certainty, epistemological world views are the set of
beliefs involving explicit and implicit beliefs, attitudes, and assumptions about the acquisition,
structure, representation and application of knowledge (Schraw & Olafson, 2002). Related
literature suggests that epistemological beliefs are crucial for both science learning and teaching
(Hofer, 2001; Schommer, 1990). There are studies proposing that epistemological beliefs influence
the way teachers teach and their choices regarding the methods they use in the classroom
(Schommer-Aikins, 2004). Differently, few studies investigated teachers’ epistemological world
views and its relation to classroom practices and epistemological beliefs of teachers. Thus, the
present study aimed to investigate three main research questions: 1-) What are Turkish pre-service
science teachers’ (PSTs) epistemological beliefs? 2-) What are Turkish PSTs’ epistemological world
views (realist, contextualist, and relativist)? and 3-) What is the relationship between Turkish PSTs’
epistemological beliefs and epistemological world views? The sample of the study consists of 472
junior and senior PSTs. Two instruments were utilized: 1-) Epistemological Beliefs Inventory
(Bendixen, Schraw & Dunkle, 1998) and 2-) Epistemological World View Scale (Schraw & Olafson,
2002). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that Turkish adapted version of EBI as a five-factor
model showed a good fit. The descriptive statistics regarding the dimensions of EBI revealed that,
Turkish PSTs displayed moderately sophisticated epistemological beliefs. Among the
epistemological world views, the mean value for relativist world view was the highest. Results also
revealed that realist world view was significantly and positively correlated with simple knowledge,
innate ability, omniscient authority and quick learning. Contextualist world view was significantly
and negatively correlated with certain knowledge and positively correlated with innate ability
dimension of EBI. Finally, relativist world view was significantly and negatively correlated with quick
learning. Findings of the present study revealed that the Turkish adapted version of EBI showed
satisfactory results in defining epistemological belief dimensions. This finding demonstrated that
epistemological beliefs are a set of more or less independent beliefs in Turkish context. The mean
values of EBI dimensions showed that Turkish PSTs’ possess moderate level of sophistication
regarding epistemological beliefs. Findings have also revealed that the mean scores for the three
epistemological world views (realist, contextualist, relativist) were significantly different from each
other and relativist approach was the highest preferred by Turkish PSTs’. The present study also
showed that PSTs’ epistemological beliefs are related to their epistemological world views. Findings
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tell us that as moving from realist to relativist world views, teachers epistemological beliefs become
more sophisticated. Thinking inversely, if teacher educators and policy makers aim to develop PSTs’
epistemological beliefs, teacher world views about teaching start to shift from realist perspectives
to relativist perspectives.
IBSE in Pakistan: Issues in Implementation and Students’
Assessment
M. Ashraf, Mirza Habib Ali / Pakistan
Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF), a Federal Government Organization established in 1973 through
an act of the Parliament for promotion, popularization and funding of S&T research having bearing
on socio-economic needs of the country. PSF [www.psf.gov.pk] has two subsidiary organizations viz;
Pakistan Museum of Natural History (PMNH) [www.pmnh.gov.pk] and Pakistan Scientific and
Technological Information Centre (PASTIC) [www.pastic.gov.pk] and a Science Wing for execution of
its statutory functions. Pakistan, being a thickly populated country, with most of its population in
rural areas needs enhancement of science awareness programs and initiation of new techniques for
attracting the youth towards science. The overall literacy rate is ~ 57.7%. There were only 53,621
researchers in S&T sector in 2009 (PCST Survey, 2009). The Low literacy rate and extremely low
scientific manpower reflect the need of in-depth renewal of Education System of Pakistan. PSF has
been given the mandate, under S&T Policies of Government of Pakistan to create science awareness
at grass root level. Recently, the responsibility of Education has been shifted to the Provincial
Governments which demands PSF, being a Federal Government body, to take action for
improvement of science education by introducing new teaching methodologies in Pakistan with
emphasis on Inquiry Based Science Education-IBSE. PSF has a strong Network with 15 Sub-Offices in
various cities and towns of the country. Almost, all universities are on clientele list of PSF and
running research projects funded by PSF. In addition, PSF has developed contacts with schools at
grassroots level for developing science culture in the society. PSF and Academie des sciences
France has signed MoU, mainly for conducting joint activities such as conferences and workshops on
IBSE for promotion of science education. Three international training workshops on IBSE have been
organized for Pakistani Teachers and Learning Facilitators of PSF. IBSE in Pakistan is relatively new,
though the teachers, nominated by their authorities who willingly come to participate in the IBSELAMAP workshops, are reluctant to adopt the approach and also facing problems in applying the La
main a la pate in class rooms.
Formative Assessment in Conventional Pakistani system is carried out by means of monthly tests,
Weekly Tests, Sudden tests, home assignments, and oral questing during classes. Grades are
awarded on the basis of paper pencil tests and not on the basis of pupils' skills, which promotes
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Rote Learning and memorization instead of skill development. LESSONS
LEARNT/RECOMMENDATIONS
• Teacher Training workshops in consultation with Teacher Training Institutes
• Involvement of Policy makers for Implementation of IBSE through National system of education,
PSF is highlighting the need through wide media coverage.
• Exploring the funds from Government, Donors and Industry, as IBSE in turn can give them skilled
manpower.
The Continuous Professional Development Programme:
“PROFILES - Education through Science” - An Important Step in
Professionalizing the Science Teaching Carrier
Gabriel Gorghiu, Laura Monica Gorghiu, Luminita Mihaela Draghicescu / Romania
It can be expressed that in Romania, the FP7 project entitled: “PROFILES - Professional Reflection
Oriented Focus on Inquiry-based Learning and Education through Science” No. 5.2.2.1 - SiS-20102.2.1, Grant Agreement No. 266589, was a real success, mainly due to the specific Continuous
Professional Development Programme dedicated to Science teachers, based on promoting the
Inquiry teaching and learning strategy (IBSE) in secondary education. In fact, for achieving the
objectives of this strategy and for promoting an integrated approach of the Science curriculum, a
full teaching / learning / evaluation process has to be designed, in accordance to the specific
principles of the constructivist theory. The Continuous Professional Development Programme
called: “PROFILES - Education through Science”, was accredited at the national level, subsuming 60
hours, in total. 15 credits have been awarded for those 87 teachers who graduated the full
programme and implemented their PROFILES Modules in classrooms. In this respect and taking into
account the specificity of the CPD programme, each participant teacher designed a PROFILES
Module that has a specific structure, based on the following Units:
a) Introduction - contains information related to the approached problem, proposed number of
hours and level of students, estimated time and specific competencies that have to be acquired by
the students;
b) Students’ Activities - presents, in a detailed way, the proposed didactic scenario and particular
students’ tasks, but also the necessary resources for achieving the imposed tasks;
c) Teachers’ Guide - illustrates the objectives that must be accomplished, the didactic strategy and
the estimated learning results;
d) Evaluation - offers a guide for assessment strategy;
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e) Teacher’s Notes - contains theoretical information and guidance related to the implementation
process.
This paper underlines the importance of CPD Programmes for Science teachers in the actual context
(dominated by a great declining interest in Science studies among young people), in order to
contribute to the professionalization of their teaching carrier. At the same time, this work
emphasizes on the Science subjects that can be implemented in the classrooms as PROFILES
Modules, in accordance to the actual Romanian curricula. On the other hand, several limitations are
illustrated, mostly taking into account the small number of hours allocated to Science education in
present. Anyway, the concluding results of the implementation process are clear positive - the
students became the beneficiaries of several active learning experiences, being involved in
contextualized activities, which encourage them to work in groups, to discover and build their
knowledge, to offer solutions to actual issues. More, in many cases, students play several roles, the
teacher assuming the important role of learning facilitator.
The Effect of Blended Learning and Social Media-Supported
Learning on The Students’ Attitude and Self-Learning Skill in
Science Education
Devrim Akgündüz, Orhan Akınoğlu / Türkiye
The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of blended learning and social media
supported learning on the students’ attitude and self-learning skill in Science Education. This
research took place with the 7th grade 74 students attending to a middle school in Kadikoy, Istanbul
and carried out “Our Body Systems” unit at 2011-2012 Academic Year. The design of the study was
pretest–posttest control group design. Control Group is taught by using the traditional face to face
approach with the 5E learning cycle, one of the experimental groups received blended learning
model (face to face and internet supported learning) with the 5E learning cycle and the other
experimental group received social networking supported based on face to face approach and the
5E learning cycle model. Data were collected using the Science Teaching Attitude Scale and the SelfLearning Skill Scale Quantitative data were analyzed by ANOVA and t-Tests and Kolmogorov
Smirnov-Z Test of SPSS 17 Statistic Program. As a result, while blended learning experimental group
increase attitude and self-learning skill significantly than control group; social media supported
learning group has a positive impact on attitude and self-learning skill, although this change didn’t
make a significant difference compared with control group.
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Light Green Actions versus Dark Green Actions
Umut Alper, Ceren Öztekin, Elvan Şahin / Turkey
The purpose of this study is to adapt Behaviour Inventory of Environmental Action (BIEA) scale into
a culture carrying the characteristics of Turkish citizens and to investigate the environmentally
friendly behaviour profiles of Turkish pre-service science teachers. BIEA was developed to assess
five categories of environmental behaviours, namely; ecomanagement, consumer, persuasion,
political and legal actions (Marchinkowski, 1988). After the translation process, the scale was
administered to 1497 pre-service science teachers from 18 universities around Turkey. The
adaptation of the scale was performed considering content, construct, convergent, discriminant,
and nomological validity issues. Explanatory factor analysis results indicated two factor structure,
explaining the 40.51% of the total variance. Ecomanagement, consumer actions and two items
reflecting persuasion of these actions were loaded to the first factor (15 items, α=.84). This
subcategory was named as “light green actions” reflecting actions performing directly in the nature
to or with a monetary support. On the other hand, second factor consist of political and legal
actions, and three items reflecting persuasion of political and legal actions (16 items, α=.90). This
factor called as “dark green actions” reflecting political means and enforcing existing laws (Kagawa,
2007). Reliability and validity results supported that BIEA scale can be used to assess the Turkish
pre-service science teachers’ environmentally friendly behaviours with two categories rather than
representing the categories pointed out by Marcinkowski (1988). Descriptive statistics revealed that
Turkish pre-service science teachers sometimes engaged in environmentally friendly behaviours
(M=2.57, SD=.56). Pre-service science teachers had higher scores on light green action items
(M=3.12, SD=.68) compared to mean scores gained by dark green actions (M=1.90, SD=.97),
meaning that they preferred to engage in actions depending on physical action, monetary support
or financial pressure more than political and legal actions. Specifically, third quarter of pre service
science teachers were reported that they always used an alternative form of transportation, that
more than one quarter of them avoided purchasing products directly associated with damaging to
wildlife or their habitats. On the other hand, more than half of the participants claimed that they
never paid membership fees to or donated money to conservation/environmental groups. It is
noteworthy that Turkish national campaigns are upholding the resource conservation and recycling
which might be given as a sample of the denser attention to light green activities. Nevertheless, the
financial support which is a component of light green activities is not so favoured by Turkish people
because of the fact that they are unwilling to spend their money for environmental issues. With
respect to dark green actions, relatively few claimed that they either always supported or voted for
a “pro” environmental law, regulations or programs (10%), that they reported the illegal collection
of live plants and animals to authorities (7%). Only 1% stated that they wrote letters to elected
officials encouraging them to support environmental protection. Results indicated that the preservice science teachers commonly engaged actions addressing responsibility as consumers such as
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changing habits, saving energy and/or water, recycling rather than actions referring political means
to help prevent or resolve environmental issues, legal actions referring support or enforce existing
laws. As pre-service teachers have important role for the capability to enhance the EFB of new
generations, they should be more aware and conscious about both light and dark green actions.
Pre-Service Teachers’ Plausibility Perceptions and Their
Willingness to Take Action about Global Climate Change
Gaye Defne Ceyhan, Ebru Zeynep Muğaloğlu / Turkey
People experience the consequences of global climate change (GCC) in various forms and degrees
every day. According to the fifth assessment report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(2014), recent climate change introduces several serious potential threats to the world with
economical, biological, and climatic consequences. Moreover, human influence increases the
impacts on climate system. Hence, GCC is considered as one of the accelerating socio-scientific issue
in education. Plausibility is one of the key variables in developing conceptual understanding of
socio-scientific issues. In this study, we focused on the plausibility perceptions of teacher candidates
and their intention to take action about GCC. Specifically, the relationship between participants’
willingness to take action and their plausibility judgments about GCC was examined. The sample of
the study includes 80 pre-service preschool teachers from a public university in Istanbul. The study
was carried out during the spring semester of 2015. Voluntary participation, confidentiality and
flexibility of dropping out from the study were emphasized to all participants at the beginning of the
applications. The data collection instruments of the study are; plausibility perceptions measure and
the degree of willingness to act scale. Psychometric properties of questionnaire were tested in
previous studies. The aims of the instruments are respectively to rate the degree of the plausibility
of the statements and to imply how likely the participants are to undertake action for climate
change. Descriptive analysis was conducted in order to investigate pre-service teachers’ perceptions
of plausibility and their intention to take action about GCC. A Spearman's rank-order correlation
was run to assess the relationship between plausibility perceptions and willingness to act about GCC
in pre-service preschool teachers. There was a moderate positive correlation between plausibility
perceptions and willingness to act about GCC, rs (78) = .50, p < .0005. According to the results,
human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases cause the increase in current global average
temperatures was found highly plausible. Whereas, they find greatly implausible that even if
greenhouse gas concentrations are stabilized at current levels, human caused climate change and
sea level rise will continue for centuries. For taking climate friendly actions, majority of the
participants were willing to take actions such as switching off un-used electrical devices and paying
more taxes to have more trees planted in the world. However, they were unwilling to pay more for
electricity that was produced from nuclear power stations. The findings and the analysis of data will
be discussed and interpreted in conjunction with other research findings in the literature. The
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results of this study lend itself to discussions and suggestions for environmental educators,
educational policy makers and researchers.
Bringing Science Education near the Students’ Needs - Specific
Results of PROFILES Curricular Delphy Study on Science Education
in Romania
Laura Monica Gorghiu, Gabriel Gorghiu / Romania
One of the reasons for the continuous declining of young students’ interest in Science is offered by
the lack of connections between the scientific content taught in schools and its specific relevance
for the students’ lives. Taking into account this fact, proposals have been made related to the fact
that Science should be taught in strong correlation to the students’ personal needs, but also to the
most important aspects of the contemporary life. Students, teachers and experts (so called
stakeholders) have been asked in order to offer ideas and point of views related to the aims and
contents of Science education. In this respect, in the frame of the FP7 project entitled: “PROFILES Professional Reflection Oriented Focus on Inquiry-based Learning and Education through Science”
No. 5.2.2.1 - SiS-2010-2.2.1, Grant Agreement No. 266589, an International Curricular Delphi Study
on Science Education was develop, involving and engaging various stakeholders, trying to gather
their views and opinions related to the aspects of scientific literacy that are considered to be
relevant and pedagogically desirable for individuals, in the actual society. As methodology, the
Delphy tool is a consecrated research instrument, able to establish a consensus among experts, but
being less used in the area of education. The paper illustrates the process of holding the PROFILES
Curricular Delphi Study on Science Education in Romania. In this sense, it tries to offer a picture of
the desirable Science education, from the perspective of different selected groups - from the
educational sector to non-scientists -, considering a target group composed by: a) 21 students
(pupils); b) 43 teacher students, teachers and trainee teachers; c) 22 educators, didactics & inservice teacher educators; d) 20 scientists; e) 25 others - people who are not directly involved with
Sciences. With the view to identify (empirically) the concepts regarding Science education
considered to be important, the participants expressed their opinions related to the situations,
contexts or motives where scientific literacy is useful, the fields of science considered as significant,
and the qualifications possible to be attained. The stakeholders’ statements were analyzed and a
set of 60 categories were established, followed by a hierarchical cluster analyses that defined 3
major clusters to be taken into consideration (which are consistent to the PROFILES Delphy study
clusters in partner countries): a) awareness of the sciences in current, social, globally relevant and
occupational contexts relevant in both educational and out-of-school settings; b) intellectual
education in interdisciplinary scientific contexts; c) general science-related education and
facilitation of interest in contexts of nature, everyday life and living environment.
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In the respect to the study results, it is agreed that Science education has to develop and offer
specific learning environments that take into consideration the students’ needs. The PROFILES
activities proved to have an important impact on students, for most of them, understanding Science
being equivalent to become familiar with issues that help them explaining real life situations,
improving their lives, or acting as active citizens.
Environmental Moral Reasoning in Outdoor Recreation Contexts
Busra Tuncay-Yuksel, Ozgul Yilmaz-Tuzun / Türkiye
Based on the important role of the “individual” for the solution of environmental problems, today
many of the environment‒related projects and educational programs focus on individual acts such
as making changes in our lifestyles (e.g., consumption preferences). For the success of these
projects and educational programs we should first have enough understanding about
environmental perceptions and reasoning of individuals. Similarly, it will be more possible to foster
pro-environmental approaches and behaviors in the society if we increase our understanding about
the factors that influence individuals’ perceptions about and reactions to the environmental issues.
Environmental issues typically incorporate moral issues in their nature and thus are regarded as
moral issues as well. Accordingly, studying environmental moral reasoning is a promising way to
provide explanations about how individuals perceive environmental issues and why they react to
certain environment-related situations in the way they do. Correspondingly, researchers of the
study examined environmental moral reasoning of 1524 pre-service science teachers (PSTs). The
reason for choosing PSTs as the sample of the study was based on the importance of pre-service
teacher education, whose scope goes beyond teacher candidates and potentially includes the
students of those future teachers. Rest and his colleagues’ (Rest, Narvaez, Bebeau, & Thoma, 1999)
Neo-Kohlbegian approach was adopted for the investigation of environmental moral reasoning
patterns. In line with this approach, PSTs were presented with scenarios representing
environmental dilemmas taking place in outdoor recreation contexts (i.e.., hiking, picnicking, fishing,
camping). Each scenario had nine statements that reflected a different moral reasoning type. Two
dimensions were indicative of the moral reasoning types of the statements: reference group (i.e.,
self, other people, nature/ecosystem/biosphere) and the issues of welfare, aesthetic or justice.
Respondents were asked to rate the importance of the statements for their decision making in the
dilemma contexts on a five point Likert type scale. Moreover, for each scenario, they were asked to
indicate the statement that they agreed most. Exploratory factor analyses (EFA) were conducted via
SPSS to investigate factor structures of the PSTs’ responses to the scenarios. Factor analyses clearly
revealed two-factor solutions for each of the environmental dilemma. Then, the obtained factor
structures were tested for cross-validation with two confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) applied to
the two random subsamples via AMOS. Model fit indices supported the exploratively obtained twofactor solutions. However, distribution of the moral reasoning types showed differences across
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scenarios. Results were indicative of the influence of dilemma contexts, namely perceived
naturalness of the environment described in the scenarios, on environmental moral reasoning
patterns. As the contexts described in the scenarios became more natural/pristine, PSTs’ moral
concerns about the nature itself (ecocentric moral reasoning) diverged from other moral
considerations. For more “developed” dilemma contexts, issues of aesthetic and justice seemed to
converge egocentric (i.e., self-centered) and anthropocentric (i.e., human-centered) moral
considerations with the ecocentric ones. On the other hand, PSTs showed the highest degree of
agreement with statements reflecting ecocentric moral reasoning for all of the scenarios.
Implications of the findings for environmental education are discussed.
Promoting Contextualized Learning in Food Science and Health
Education - The EduForHealth Project
Gabriel Gorghiu, Claudia Lavinia Buruleanu, Laura Monica Gorghiu / Romania
The Erasmus+ project entitled “Let’s make it better! Raising the awareness of the triad nutritionhealth-food safety in school education” - code 2014-1-RO01-KA200-002931 -, aims (based on a
deeply Needs Analysis) to restore the place of Food Science Education and related subjects in the
culture of the young people, in order to raise their personal development and well-being. The high
incidence of diet-related diseases and also food borne diseases is a major challenge nowadays,
being obvious that the problem rooted largely from the early childhood education. The project
proposes activities focused firstly on enhancing of the relevance of the learning offered in
education, taking into account that the healthy and sustainable habits acquired by pupils through
awareness and deeply understanding of the food science behind it, will contribute on long term to
the quality of life and society welfare. Other activities are designed so that to enhance the quality of
the learning of Food Science, based on the materials provided, on the teaching and learning
methods chosen in order to replace memorizing with meaningful experiments and also on the best
practices gathered by the partnership and shared to teachers and their students. The enhancing of
the key-competences of pupils in pre-primary, primary and secondary education, including basic
and digital skills, represents an important end point of the project. The main outputs of the project
are the Critical Analysis of the Curricula (at the national level of each partner, from pre-primary to
secondary level) and the training programme dedicated to teachers (and to students, as endbeneficiaries) in the area of nutrition and food safety. The training materials, the virtual laboratories
(digital games and intelligent digital stories), the portfolios for classroom implementation, the
project web page are an inseparable part of the training process. Good Practices Guidelines for
School Education, Nutrition Guidelines for Children and Food Safety Guidelines for Children will be
other results of the project activities, taking into account the need of their implementation in the
current activities of teachers, students and all the interested parties.
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The project impact will occur both during the life of the project and beyond, because the teachers
from the target groups will be able to optimize their own work in diversity, the students will
enhance the basic life-skills inside the network nutrition-health-food safety, developing their
personality and influencing their future employment, the stakeholders involvement will help young
people and adults to integrate in the diversity of the European languages and cultures. Reinforcing
links between education and the world of work is a target objective, based on the involving of
various stakeholders in the frame of different Multiplier Events (Health World Day, International
Family Day etc.). Not last, carrying out different activities in the frame of the partnership, structured
cross-border cooperation will be promoted, the project sustainability being this way underlined.
The IRRESISTIBLE project in Science Education: How can RRI
become a permanent aspect of science teaching?
Margherita Venturi, Eugenio Bertozzi, Barbara Pecori / Italy
The EU funded IRRESISTIBLE-project (Project Coordinator: Jan Apotheker, University of Groeningen,
Netherlands) develop activities designed to foster the involvement of high school and elementary
students and the public in Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). The latter is defined as a
transparent, interactive process by which societal actors and innovators become mutually
responsive to each other with a view to ethical acceptability, sustainability and societal desirability
of the innovation process and its marketable products to allow a proper embedding of scientific and
technological advances in our society. Within the proejct, the general research question (GRQ)
investigated by the Bologna Community of Learners (CoL) is the way in which the different
dimensions of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) can become a stable and permanent
component of school teaching. In this respect, a teaching module have been developed to
understand if and how the privileged contexts of the IRRESISTIBLE project can provide insights for
inserting the aspects of RRI that concern a cutting edge research topic in school reality. We selected
nanotechnology because (i) in the reformed Italian school-curriculum (2010) it is one of the possible
topics of modern physics to be addressed at grade 12 of the scientific-oriented Upper Secondary
School, and (ii) it lends itself to create synergies between the curricula of physics and chemistry. The
CoL is composed of researchers in physics, chemistry and science education, museum experts, and
teachers of physics and chemistry belonging to different secondary school types and teaching levels.
Teachers' activities share the perspective of using nanotechnology as a mean for introducing RRI
issues at school, but each of them provides a specific contribution to GRQ, by proposing a specific,
possible way of doing it. We aim to identify criteria of a flexible teaching module that will later allow
other teachers to modify and make choices to suit the needs of her/his specific students. Case
studies are being prepared to answer specific research questions: (i) impact on the school
curriculum, (ii) effectiveness of the collaboration between school and university, and (iii)
effectiveness of the collaboration between school and science centre. For this purpose we collected
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videotape recordings of teachers’ and experts’ lectures, students’ discussions, students’ exhibits,
and interviews of teachers and students. Results concerning the attractiveness and the feasibility of
introducing RRI aspects into school teaching highlight the aspects that will have a big impact on the
future of the project.
Raising Awareness of the Importance of Responsible Research and
Innovation among Young People and Science Teachers - The
IRRESISTIBLE Project
Jan Apotheker, Sevil Akaygün, Gabriel Gorghiu / The Netherlands; Turkey; Romania
Starting with 2010, one of the Science in Society frameworks of the European Union has been
oriented on the development of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). As stipulated in the EU
programmatic documents (2013), RRI refers to the “comprehensive approach of proceeding in
research and innovation in ways that allow all stakeholders that are involved in the processes of
research and innovation at an early stage: (a) to obtain relevant knowledge on the consequences of
the outcomes of their actions and on the range of options open to them; (b) to effectively evaluate
both outcomes and options in terms of societal needs and moral values; (c) to use those
considerations - (a), (b) - as functional requirements for design and development of new research,
products and services." Practically, RRI claim for closer cooperation between society and research.
In this respect, the FP7 project entitled: “IRRESISTIBLE - Including Responsible Research and
Innovation in Cutting Edge Science and Inquiry-based Science Education to Improve Teacher's
Ability of Bridging Learning Environments” No. 5.2.2 - SiS-2013-2.2.1-1, Grant Agreement No.
612367, try to make young people more aware about RRI issues. In the frame of the project, 14
participant institutions from 10 countries (universities, science centres, museums) cooperate in
depth, by using their expertise in linking formal and informal/non-formal learning, organizing
activities which emphasize on strengthening the relation between research and society among
young people, with a particular focus on school students and their teachers as intermediates. The
RRI aspects which are considered to be included in the training activities proposed by the project
are: (a) Engagement - joint participation of researchers and civil society in the research and
innovation process; (b) Gender equality - unlocking the full potential of society; (c) Science
education - creative education to foster the future needs of society; (d) Ethics - including societal
relevance and acceptability of research and innovation outcomes; (e) Open access - free, online
access to the results of publicly funded research; (f) Governance - responsibility of policy makers to
develop harmonious models for RRI. The teacher training process is based by the efforts made by
the Community of Learners - CoL (set up in each project partner country). The CoLs gather together
Science teachers, formal and informal/non-formal education experts, researchers and industry
representatives. The training modules developed by the CoL members address scientific topics most of them derived from cutting edge research taking place in partner universities: healthy
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ageing, genomics and oceanography, climate change, renewable energy sustainability,
nanomaterials / nanoscience / nanotechnology. The designed modules are used in classrooms (in
the frame of formal learning activities), as well as in the Science centres or museums (taking the
form of informal/non-formal learning activities). During the implementation of the modules,
students develop exhibits integrating RRI issues. The exhibitions are built in Science centres and
museums. Moreover, project results will be presented at national/international conferences and
the module materials will be disseminated through Scientix network.
Students’ views regarding IBSE – a report on the implementation
of the PROFILES project in Poland
Elwira Samonek-Miciuk, Ryszard M. Janiuk / POLAND
Several different initiatives have been launched in the past few years in order to encourage
students to learn science subjects and enhance their motivation and learning outcomes, including
initiatives which were aimed at promoting inquiry-based science education (IBSE) among teachers
and educators throughout Europe. These actions have been taken based on documents endorsed
by the European Commission (2007), and projects related to “Science Education”, which were
financed from FP7. It is worth emphasising, however, that the effectiveness of such initiatives
largely depends upon the students’ willingness to participate in classes organised based on the
principles of IBSE and on their awareness of the benefits such classes can bring them. A substantial
amount of data concerning students’ attitude towards IBSE has been gathered in Poland during the
implementation of the PROFILES project (2010), which “promotes IBSE through raising the selfefficacy of science teachers to take ownership of more effective ways of teaching students,
supported by stakeholders”. Some of the data were collected in a survey regarding optimizing
scientific literacy, which included the question: “What conditions need to be met if students are to
participate actively in science lessons and to pursue further education related to science?”. The
analysis of the students’ answers to this question showed that most of them thought it was
necessary to equip laboratories with more teaching aids and increase the number of practical
classes at the laboratory, which would make it possible for them to perform practical tasks
independently. More data concerning the issue were delivered by the teachers, who gave their
opinions on the lessons where they had used the modules prepared according to the principles of
IBSE. They observed that initially better students were move involved in the lessons. However,
weaker students gradually became more and more active during the lessons. Based on the teachers’
own observations and the opinions expressed by the students in class or during individual
conversations, the teachers were able to confirm that the students had a positive attitude towards
the teaching methods that had been used in class. Other surveys carried out among the students
who took part in the lessons showed that it was important for the students that they make an effort
and cooperate well during their lessons, which is characteristic of IBSE-based lessons, if carried out
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correctly. Last but not least, the students’ positive attitude towards IBSE is confirmed by the quality
of the projects they delivered as part of the lessons. To sum up, the majority of the students
surveyed were of the opinion that the way science subjects are taught should be changed according
to the principles of IBSE. It should be borne in mind, however, that teaching such lessons requires
proper preparation on the part of the teachers, since if this condition is not met, they will not only
fail to achieve the goals set in IBSE, but they may also cause students to have a negative approach
towards this method of teaching and learning (Samonek-Miciuk & Janiuk, 2014).
Contemporary Learners in a classroom without walls: The role of
ICT in science eductation
Susan Rodrigues / England
In their everyday world, students are in essence tapping into their cultural capital and a form of
collective ‘intelligence’. But while teachers, teacher educators and others in positions of power talk
about technology integration, for most of our students it is a matter of immersion, at least in their
everyday life. Selwyn, Boraschi and Özkula (2009) posit pupils bring experience and knowledge of
digital media- the technology they encounter in schools bears little similarity to the way they
communicate and discover information outside of formal education. Some commentators suggest
that the experience of learners outside school has changed significantly in the last 50 years but
formal education has failed to keep up with this change. To a certain extent we continue to teach as
if not much has changed in terms of classroom ontology and epistemology. But given the way our
students use technology in their everyday lives, we need to see a change in ontology and
epistemology in formal learning environments. Instead of seeing teaching as the delivery of fixed
content, and learning as the ability to reproduce this content, teaching needs to include the
capacity to facilitate access to a collective intelligence and learning needs to be seen as an
equivalent ‘mashup’- where learners integrate and use collective intelligence to develop their own
combination of data connections and functionality. We need to move away from a view of
technology and digital objects as supplementary material to be deployed within well entrenched
teaching models and stagnant learning environments. This paper takes us on a quick journey to
illustrate how technology has evolved in the last few decades and how that compares with the way
it has been used in science classrooms to do what we normally do but perhaps with a higher tech
specification. It also shows what could be done to ensure that our students have access to a
classroom without walls and hence access to a collective intelligence. Students’ expectations are
changing- expectations around how they learn, where they learn and how they are treated are
changing. We need to take on board and address these changes. We describe a project that
addresses these issues and shows how Pupils/Students used the power of links, the power of
collaboration, the power of content and reach, the power of friends to work with students in other
schools and to work with a forensic anthropologist to solve a fictional ‘crime’.
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Process Skills Acquisition By Pre-Service Science Teachers A
Necessary Tool For Effective Science Teaching And Achieving
Nigeria’s Vision 20-20-20
Barnabas A. Gankon, B. C. Uzoechi / NIGERIA
Nigeria as a nation has remained in the status of a developing country for a very long time. The
desire to shift base to being one of the developed countries brought about the vision 20-20-20. This
vision has to do with the desire to be one of the top 20 most developed countries by the year 2020.
The paper, “Process Skills Acquisition by Pre-service Science Teachers a Necessary Tool for Effective
Science Teaching and Achieving Nigeria’s Vision 20-20-20” stressed what process skills are, their
relevance to pre-service teachers and learners and the teaching strategies through which they are
acquired and imparted in learners. Recommendations on how the acquisition of process skills by
pre-service science teacher can bring about the realization of Nigeria’s dream child – Vision 20-2020 are proffered.
Bogner and Wiseman’s Model of Ecological Values: a possible
approach to investigate Environmental Perceptions about marine
and coastal ecosystems
Suzana Ursi, Naomi Towata / Brazil
Some of the most emblematic approaches in Environmental Perception researches aims to
understand how individual are distributed on a continuum from a biocentric to an anthropocentric
view. The Bogner and Wiseman´s Model of Ecological Values can be considered an evolution of this
approach, which, however, has a two-dimensional nature. The model postulates that Preservation
(P) and Utilization (U) are two important but not necessarily related components of Environmental
Perception. Preservation is a biocentric dimension and utilization is an anthropocentric
dimension.The model allows for individuals to be placed in one of four Cartesian quadrants: (P+U+)
individual with a strong desire to protect the environment, however at the same time believe that
the primary purpose of environment is to benefit humans; (P-U-) individual with a lack of interest in
the environmental issues; (P-U+) individual with apathy toward preservation and a view of
environmental as a source to be used for the benefit of humans; (P+U-) individual with deep
concern about preservation. Bogner and Wiseman developed a measurement instrument consists
of an extensive list of items with Likert-type responses. Such items are grouped into 2 high-order
factors: Preservation (composed by 3 primary factors - intent of support, care with resources,
enjoyment of nature) and Utilization (composed by 2 primary factors - altering nature, human
dominance). More recently, Johnson and Manoli (2008) simplified the instrument and developed
“The Environment Questionnaire” (TEQ), using 16 items grouped in the same way. The aim of this
work was to adapt the general items of TEQ specifically to evaluate the perception about marine
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and coastal environments. We change all the general situations described in TEQ items to subjects
related to marine and coastal environments (i.e. “Weeds should be killed because they take up
space from plants we need” by “Slimy seaweeds of seashore should be removed because they take
up space from other organisms that we can use.”). After this initial items adaptation, we realized a
pilot testing with 64 children (11-14 years old) from two schools of São Paulo city (Brazil). During
and after the test, students were allowed to ask any doubts they have. Most of students did not
have any difficulty to understand the instrument. However, some of the youngest students did not
know the meaning of words as “mangrove” and “organisms”. The pilot test results showed that
most students were located at the P+U+ category (56%), followed by P+U- (39%) and P-U- (5%). We
expect that the new instrument based on TEQ can be useful on researches aim to better understand
the perception of marine and coastal environments. It may contribute to the development of future
Environmental Educational programs specially focus on the preservation of these important
ecosystems, that are often neglected in environmental discussions due to the apparent distance
between then and our everyday lives. Finally, we highlight that Environmental Perception is a very
complex concept. Therefore, the best approach to understand it is the use of a variety of research
methods, being TEQ an additional contribution to this process.
In-service teacher education: initial motivation for a distance
education course about Biology teaching
Pércia Paiva Barbosa, Suzana Ursi / Brazil
In Brazil, several reasons make the importance of in-service teacher education even more acute,
such as deficiencies in pre-service education and the precarious conditions of teaching. The National
Education Guidelines and Framework Law has pointed out the Distance Education as an important
tool for in-service teacher education. However, one of the chief challenges in this process is
motivation. While many teachers come from an intrinsically motivated place, others do not.
Understanding the motivations of teacher are among the chief challenges for the development of
well succeed in-service education strategies. Recently, a new curriculum were adopted for basic
education in São Paulo State. A governmental program (REDEFOR) were developed for in-service
teacher education, aiming to help teacher with the new approaches. As part of this program, a
distance education course about Biology teaching were applied by a public university for free.
Therefore, this study aimed to identify the main motivations of 53 Biology teachers to participate in
this course. They were investigated through a survey composed by 7 open questions and applied at
the beginning of the course: What is motivation?; What is your motivation to learn?; What is your
motivation to teach?; What were the motivations that led you to make your application to the
course?; What are the main goals you want to achieve with the course?; What actions you intend to
develop to achieve those goals?; Do you think that distance education is as motivating as face-toface education? Explain your answer. The results showed that most of teacher define motivation as
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achieve goals or consider that motivation is something that guide individual behavior. The main
motivations to learn (as well as to make the course application) were to improve Biology knowledge
and teaching strategies. The possibilities of helping the personal development of students were the
main motivations for teaching. About the ways to achieve the goals, most of teacher said that study
and effort are fundamental actions. They also declared that the practical application of teaching
strategies discussed in the course could help achieve the initial goals. 50% of teachers considered
Distance Education more motivating than face-to-face education. “Flexible schedules” was the main
reason declared by teachers. However, 20% of them declared the opposite position. Most of these
teachers believed that face-to-face interaction is necessary to learning. A neutral position was
showed by 30% of teachers. These results provided some elements to attract Biology teachers to
distance in-service education programs as well as to the construction of courses that are more
related with their initial motivations and goals, contributing to the improvement of science
education.
The progress what we have done so far in Turkish Teacher
Education with some outcomes as well as shortcomings
Lütfullah Türkmen / Turkey
Turkey as a country has a long history in its current locations more than seven hundred years.
Despite of its long history, when we look at the history of teacher education in Turkey, almost we
can get more than 150 years ago. In fact, the history of teacher education of Turkey goes back to
similar time frame with the other countries especially in the western part of the world. During this
time period, teacher education has made some significant progress in Turkish context. Some of the
most significant developments during this time period are mostly related to the level of Teacher
Education Institutions from secondary education to higher education levels. Currently, almost all
Teacher Education Institutions have been in higher education level since the middle of 1970’s. On
the other hand, the progress in the level of teacher education Institutions that we have made is
remarkable but the problems in teacher education are going to be so complex that almost we could
not show the capacity of overcoming the problems in Teacher Education in Turkish context. The
main purpose of this oral presentation is to underline some of the problems that we are face to face
in Turkish context. Briefly, some of them are summarized as the following and the remains will be
discussed elaborately during the Symposium will be held in Istanbul, April, 2015. One of the most of
important problems in Teacher Education Area is that who are going to be a teacher and with what
kind of the teacher education that the teacher candidates have to take is not clear.
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Evaluating the Science Points in Scope of Finland, China,
Singapore, Korea, OECD and Turkey Related to PISA 2012
Information Communication Technology (ICT) Questionnaires
Devrim Akgunduz / Turkey
This study was carried out in order to evaluate the science points in scope of Finland, China,
Singapore, Korea, OECD and Turkey related to PISA 2012 Information Communication Technology
(ICT) questionnaires’. As part of the study, the database of 62 ICT questions asked in OECD PISA
2012 and answers of these questions were examined; the science points of Finland, China,
Singapore, Korea, OECD and Turkey were calculated. The ICT questionaries’ have questions related
to if used computer and communication technology at home and school, the ages first used the
computer and internet, the time of using internet on weekdays at school and home and on
weekends out of school, the time of using ICT tools out of school and the frequency of using ICT
tools at school. The answers of the students of fore mentioned countries gave ICT questions
according to choices tables of percentage and science points were created. The results showed the
science points weren’t increased when used ICT in some of fore mentioned countries however the
science points were increased according to frequency of using in some countries even the science
points were decreased in some countries besides the students who started using the computer and
internet at early ages were took higher points.
Perception and connectedness with marine environments: the
perspective of teachers from a Brazilian seaside town
Geisly França Faton, Flávio Augusto de Souza Berchez, Suzana Ursi / Brazil
Environmental Perception (EP) is the relations between the individual and the environment which
occurs through perceptual and cognitive mechanisms. We consider that a fundamental step for
development and improvement of environmental education programs is the investigation about EP,
since one of the greatest difficulties to nature conservation is the diversity on perceptions and
connectedness with environment. Marine environments need a special attention, because, despite
its importance, they are sometimes overlooked based on an apparent distance between them and
people daily lives. Therefore, the aim of this work was to investigate teacher’s perception and
connectedness with marine environments, as well as the possible influence of environmental
education field activities on them. Eleven basic education teachers of a public school form a seaside
town located on Brazil's southeast coast were investigated through surveys applied before and after
environmental educational field activities: observation of nature pool and underwater
interpretative trails. The teachers also wrote short texts about their relation with the beaches
where the activities were performed. For this work, we analyzed these texts and two questions
from a survey applied before and after activities: 1) Chose the 3 first words or expression that you
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remember when think about marine environment: entertainment, pollution, food source, religion,
fear, sport, health, knowledge, work, curiosity, preservation, living beings, trash, nature, disease,
beauty, other.; 2) Is there any relation between your quotidian and the marine environment? ( )Yes.
( )No. Why? The most cited words before and after activities were nature, preservation and
entertainment. Knowledge and living beings were more cited after activities than before. Although,
beauty was less cited, showing that maybe the field activities helped some teacher to change an
initial romantic view of environment. The analysis of the second question and the texts showed that
the expressions most present were related with physical relations (i.e. living at seaside town and
sports practice), despite the survey application moment. It suggested that most of teachers showed
an anthropocentric view of marine environment. Some teachers also showed a perception of
marine environment as a problem to be solved. However, this environment was also related with
curiosity, affective relationship and use for educational purposes. This last category was mainly
cited after field activities, which can indicate a positive influence on teacher’s marine perception
and its relation with their teaching practices. We belief that teachers are important actors on
marine conservation because they can show their communities in which ways they are connected
with this environment and them improve their marine environmental perception. Therefore, field
activities could be good strategies to in-service education teachers, aiming to get their attention to
such environmental questions.
Preservice Science Teachers’ Views on the Traineeship
Applications in School Experience Course
Murat Berat Uçar, Fatma Melike Hıdıroğlu, Cemal Aküzüm / Turkey
The quality of education is one of the most debated issues in Turkey, as it is all over the world. One
of the most important components determining the quality of education is teachers. Enhancing the
quality of teachers can be possible through giving due importance to studies of preservice teacher
training (Ören, Sevinç, & Erdoğmuş, 2009). Since preservice teachers’ experiences in the schools
shape their perceptions of teaching, learning and school contexts (Richardson, 1996), it is significant
for preservice teachers to complete their field-based components with positive gains and
experiences. School Experience Course is the first practice course that improves teacher candidates’
quality in terms of obtaining the requirement of the teaching profession, and contributes them to
be experienced and well-equipped. With respect to related literature review, the accessible
resources did not indicate any elaborated qualitative research using face to face interview
technique on presenting preservice science teachers' opinions about traineeship applications in
School Experience Course. Therefore, this study intends to fill this gap in this area by using face to
face interviews as well as portraying the current picture of the case. Accordingly, the purpose of this
inquiry is to reveal the preservice science teachers’ views toward the traineeship in school
experience course. The participants of this qualitative research were four volunteers from a total
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course size of forty teacher candidates studying at the Department of Primary Science Education in
Dicle University, Diyarbakır, Turkey. The data used in this study was gathered through face to face
interviews by the researcher in order to get deeper information. The collected data was analyzed
through, content analysis. When evaluated the opinions of preservice science teachers about
traineeship applications in School Experience Course, the most of the trainees reported that they
encountered problems with their guiding teachers and school administrations. However, it was seen
that they were able to take important lessons from these negative situations. Along with their
experiences, they remarked that they disturbed the negative attitudes and behaviors of their
guiding teachers towards trainees. According to them, the guiding teachers did not acknowledge
the trainees as colleagues; even they threatened the teacher candidates with giving low grades.
Nevertheless, although the all negative situation they faced, the preservice science teachers
suggested traineeship experience to start earlier education levels as well as increasing the duration
of traineeship experience more two semesters. Overall, in order to make effective traineeship
application for teacher candidates’ sake, collaboration of school-faculty should improve; an
evaluation mechanism should prepare to assess guiding teachers and school administrators both
school experience course and determining the current situation of the schools; inservice teachers
should take inservice training to cope with trainees especially for communication and becoming
model for them.
Teachers’ Ownership towards a new Innovation
Keinonen Tuula, Hartikainen-Ahia Anu, Kärkkäinen Sirpa / Finland
This study focuses on science teachers’ (N=39) ownership towards a new approach in science
education in the context of European PROFILES project. Physics, chemistry and class teachers
participated in the PROFILES Teachers’ Continuous Professional Development Programmes in 20112013, or in the separate project’s intervention at school. Data is collected during the programme
from teachers’ feedback and reflection writings and after the programme in interviews. Also the
productivity in planning new learning modules has been evaluated. The ownership was assessed
through teachers’ experiences related to intervention, its planning, cooperation, teaching approach
and teachers’ continuous professional development. Teachers possessed very different levels of
ownership. Ownership was related to teacher’s planning activity, to participation in professional
development programme and to the activity in doing the assignments. It was found that only few of
the teachers possessed high degree of ownership towards the new innovation. These teachers
cooperated: they planned new learning environments in cooperation, reflected the use of the
learning environments together, made innovative plans for the future and were willing to spread
the idea, although they were facing many challenges. Later, despite the progress, the teachers’
previous innovative plans were still under consideration. However, the teachers still possessed a
high degree of ownership, but they experienced that some school practices for example timetable
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did not support their work. Some of the teachers did not possess any ownership toward PROFILES
approach. These teachers were not active in the Teachers’ Continuous Professional Development
Programme, they created or modified only one or two learning environments. Those teachers who
were guided shortly for the use of PROFILES learning environments and who did not participate in
the one year training did not possess any ownership toward the new innovation. Active
participation in training and cooperation at school in using the new innovation are clearly
prerequisites for the ownership towards a new innovation.
An Explanatory Study of Students' Ideas Related to the Context
Based Instruction on Cleaning Materials Topic in Chemistry
Ridvan Elmas, Omer Geban / Turkey
The purpose of the present study was to explore students' ideas related to the context based
instruction on cleaning materials topic in detail. Context based instruction is a contemporary
approach gathered many positive evidences to its effectiveness. Experimental studies regarding
context based instruction should be supported with the qualitative perspective to enlighten what is
aimed in the design and what is happening in the classroom. The exploration, elaboration and
investigation of the dimensions of effective context based instruction with the follow up qualitative
studies can be a requirement for better designs and to see what works and what is not. The
reported research here with focus groups was the second part of a research project related to the
effectiveness of context based instruction in Turkish educational settings. First part of this research
is based on Multivariate Analyses of Covariance (MANCOVA) statistical analyses and a significant
contribution to student achievement was provided with this instruction. Second part was consisted
of four focus groups average size of seven students totally 28 students. Sample was consisted of
students who were instructed with context based instruction through five weeks. Four focus groups
were conducted separately regarding the quality of instruction by grouping students concerning
their future career choices such as following science or non science majors. Although focus group
results revealed that students were appreciated and more motivated with context based
instructional design in both group of career followers, there were students which favors traditional
approaches such as teacher centered teaching, memorization, textbook and teacher questioning,
and practicing multiple test questions as way of instructional approach for different reasons.
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Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE)- Key to S&T Innovation
and Economic Development in ECO Region
Manzoor H. Soomro / Pakistan
Economic wellbeing has been and remains the target and priority of each entity, community and
country around the globe. However, the ways and mechanisms and the way of thinking have
changed. In the present day global ecosystem, name of the game really is; "Cooperation and
Collaboration", may it be bilateral between two entities, two countries or multilateral. Cooperation
and collaboration is pursued even to compete in the market; thus so many mergers of companies
take place around the world! All this is based on each other's strengths and are targeted at mutual
learning & benefit for all partners. The concept of alliances and togetherness enables communities
and countries to perform better when it comes to competition in the dynamic world that we have
today! We as global responsible citizens; should be promoting science, technology and education
based economic development or the knowledge economy for overall good of the people at large
and for a better tomorrow. For economic development, S&T plays a major role and to sustain
scientific and technological development leading to economic development, education plays the
crucial role to maintain the feeding-in of thinkers and innovators. And to nurture scientific and
technological innovation, critical thinking and critical observation, the concept of "inquiry"
especially among the young children is vital. It has been this feeling that thinkers and scientists
around the globe have been promoting "inquiry based science education (IBSE)" which in turn
inculcates innovation among children. Thus there are programs and institutions around the world
which bring in, even the Nobel Laureates, in promoting IBSE for their future generations. IBSE in one
way or the other, is being promoted by National Academies of Sciences and Engineering as well as
NGOs and Government Organizations around the globe. Examples are; USA (e.g. Smithsonian
Institute, Intel, Society for Science and the Public etc.), France (La main a la pate Foundation),
Australia (Primary Connections), China (China Association of Science and Technology- CAST), Latin
America and many more with different local names and brands. Thus the global forum of InterAcademy Panel (IAP) comprising 107 Academies of Sciences have initiated a Science Education
Programme (SEP) for promoting science education and science literacy. UNESCO is also pursuing
promotion of science education for children and science literacy for public understanding and
appreciation of scientific concepts in everyday life and promotion of scientific thinking. It is in this
context that; where ECO Science Foundation (ECOSF) is supporting S&T research projects of applied
nature in collaboration among its 10 member countries viz., Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. ECOSF is also promoting
and linking IBSE with advance research and industrial development to ensure a sustainable supply
of talent to feed the process of development in line with post 2015 UN Sustainable Development
Agenda. ECOSF envisions that, this linking IBSE with advance research and higher education,
collectively and ultimately, can lead to economic development in the region. ECOSF is also
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encouraging international cooperation on the basis of two common goals; advance S&T research
and IBSE. It has partnered with International institutions such as UNESCO, ISTIC Malaysia, La main a
la pate Foundation- France, EvK2CNR Foundation- Italy, and would appreciate the cooperation of
other governmental as well as non-governmental organizations especially universities. In this
respect, the professional institutions can play a major and lead role for promoting synergies and
patronizing schools and NGOs as well as by bringing industry to contribute for the good of people at
large. ECO Science Foundation with its sister institutions; ECO Educational Institute Ankara- Turkey
and ECO Cultural Institute Tehran- Iran, can facilitate linkages among the ECO member states for a
socio-economic and cultural understanding among these nations. The paper revolves around the
above concepts and will discuss the strategic steps for IBSE and S&T based innovation and economic
development as well as cooperation in the ECO region and beyond.
Learning about sleeping through PROFILES Three Stage Model:
Teacher students’ experiences
Sirpa Kärkkäinen, Merja Metsola, Sini Kontkanen / Finland
Previous studies indicated that medicine education could be developed using teaching methods
that particularly concentrate on the critical search for information. This paper focuses on describing
the learning process of primary school teacher students (n=143) that was based on using
information and communication technology and PROFILES Three Stage Model: scenario, inquiry,
decision making. Medicine education intervention (6 hours) was conducted during teacher students’
health and biology education course in spring 2014. Data was collected in several ways: teacher
students’ personal diary on sleeping, reflective writings, group discussions and cartoons using iPads.
During the scenario stage, groups discussed the general symptoms of sleeping problem, its
prevention, and sources from which to find reliable information about it. In the inquiry phase, each
teacher student filled in a diary about sleeping. In addition, there were also five different sleeping
diaries (in Office 365) of fictive persons and short description of their sleeping habits as well as
problems. Each student group familiared with sleeping by aid of fictive person’s diary using online
materials and resources. Teacher students were asked to recall and elaborate on the symptoms of
sleeping problem. In the decision making phase, teacher students were asked to conclude their
investigation by making a cartoon presentation with suggestions for treatment for their fictive
person, and justify it with respect to reliable sources. The preliminary results show that teacher
students did not write about societal aspects of sleeping problems before the intervention. Already
before the intervention teacher students had lot of knowledge about sleeping problems and about
its negative impact on health. Further, teacher students had negative attitudes towards
medicalization e.g. sleeping pills. After the intervention, teacher students highlighted also the
societal consequences of sleeping problems. They presented many suggestions for the self-care of
sleeping problems as well as the role of medicalization in solving the problem. The use fictive
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persons in scenario stage enlarged the viewpoint to the sleeping problem. In inquiry stage, versified
and critical use of information sources was challenging, and has still to be highlighted in education.
In decision making stage, particularly the creation of cartoon with tablet computers (iPads) motived
teacher students to collaboratively present solutions for sleeping problems and promoted
discussion among the working group.
Laboratory Safety Questionnaire: Development, Validity And
Reliability
Simge Akpullukcu, Bulent Cavas / Turkey
This article describes part of our research into the development of a valid and reliable laboratory
safety questionnaire.The purpose of the questionnaire is to identify science teachers’ behaviors
related to laboratory activities. The questionnaire was created on the basis of a literature review
and prior instruments developed on laboratory safety issues.With regard to the content validity,
questionnaire was examined by experts from the field of science education.The questionnaire
consists 36 Likert-type items. The study was carried out with 127 teachers who have experience in
laboratories and work in middle schools in Aydin.The instrument was found to be internally
consistent with high reliability scores. Significance value shows that the data come from a
multivariate normal distribution and is suitable for factor analysis. The factor analysis of validity
indicates that the items in the questionnaire accumulate around single dimension named as “safety
issues”. The results provide evidence that the instrument is valid for further implementation on a
wider scale and in larger samples.The data was showed that the questionnaire has an appropriate
quality to determine middle school science teachers’ behaviors toward laboratory safety issues.
Determining the Effectiveness of the PROFILES Professional
Development Programme, based on Identified Teacher`s Needs
Ana Valdmann, Jack Holbrook, Miia Rannikmäe / Estonia
The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of a continuous professional
development (CPD) programme promoting teacher’s self-efficacy with respect to implementing
motivational, context-based science teaching, based on a theoretical three-stage model. The CPD,
developed within the FP7 PROFILES project, is based on the identified professional needs of each
teacher as identified by a validated Teacher Needs Questionnaire (TNQ) and follow-up teacher
interviews. The effectiveness of the PROFILES CPD programme was determined by re-using the TNQ
and analysing outcomes by means of clustering, teacher feedback and focus group interviews.
The research questions are put forward as:
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1.How effective is the CPD programme designed to promote teacher’s self-efficacy in
operationalizing motivational, context-based science teaching (MCST) using teaching-learning
modules designed for this purpose?
2. Which components of the CPD programme do teachers value the most in raising their confidence
to implement MCST?
The study was carried out with 27 science teachers (plus their students) who agreed to participate
in an 8 month CPD programme which was designed based on outcomes from an initial TNQ and was
designed to enhance the teacher as learner, teacher as teacher and teacher as reflective
practitioner. The CPD programme was shown to be able to significantly raise teachers’ reported
self-confidence in 8 of the 10 TNQ sub-scales and reduced significantly training needs in all 10 areas.
This was seen as being supported by teacher change from low to high self-confidence cluster groups
after the CPD and the change to the low cluster group for further training needs. Components found
to be of value to teachers within the ‘teacher as learner’ category were the interdisciplinary lecture
presentations while within the ‘teacher as teacher’ component, the effectiveness of the CPD was
felt in all sub-scale areas, but especially for inquiry-based learning, theories of education and
assessment. For ‘teacher as a reflective practitioner,’ the teachers pointed to the raising of selfefficacy through working through modules and the reflective sessions as areas of strong support
within the CPD. Components of the CPD course identified as raising teachers’ confidence the most
in implementing MCST were: working through PROFILES in service modules during the course,
involvement in reflective group discussions after trying out a module and the inclusion of
interdisciplinary lectures. These were seen as consistent with Bandura (self-efficacy determinants
(mastery experience, vicarious experience and verbal persuasion). For example, enacting the
module from start to finish gave teacher vicarious experience, which in turn increased the
probability that the initial contact with the modules for use in practice was positive. Positive
mastery experience was seen as the main source to increase self-efficacy. Findings suggest that the
CPD was effective. The enactment of intervention teaching using teaching modules, based on the 3stage model, plus the reflective feedback on classroom implementation, were highly valued
components. These promoted teacher confidence in using the approach.
European Researchers’ Night
Colette Renier, Bulent Cavas, Duygu Seyman / Turkey
The main aim of this paper is to provide information about European Researchers’ Night event.
European Researchers’ Night is an event to dedicate popular science and fun learning. They are an
opportunity to meet researchers, talk to them, and to find out what they really do for society, in
interactive and engaging ways. This can be through hands-on experiments, science shows, learning
activities for children, guided visits of research labs, science quizzes and more. The European
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Researchers' Night takes place every year all over Europe and beyond the last Friday of September.
In 2015, these popular science events are happening on Friday 25 September in around 300 cities
located in 24 European and neighbouring countries. The events are supported by the European
Commission as part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, which is an EU programme to boost
European research careers.
A Case Study from SAILS (Strategies for Assessment of Inquiry
Learning in Science) project: The Trace of Acids, Bases, and Salts
Uğur Boyraz, Metin Şardağ / Turkey
In this activity, students examine acids, bases, and salts as materials used in daily life. The activity
refers to these materials so as to motivate the students to understand main chemical properties
and to get the students how to determine acids, bases, and salts through an experiment in which an
indicator and ph meters are used. The students are provided the opportunity in order to enhance
several inquiry skills such as observation, classification, constructing hypotheses, making
comparisons and building relationships with daily life. Furthermore, the students have the
opportunity to develop their scientific literacy and reasoning capabilities. In other words, inquiry
approach is used in the activity. In the implementation process the activity was performed by 2
groups in which the students were 12 years old. One group consisted of 6 students and the other
group consisted of 5 students. The students decided their groups themselves. The teacher focused
on the inquiry skills and their assessment during activity. The teacher tried to assess these skills by
asking questions (e.g. Which materials are similar in terms of taste?, What might common traits of
similar ones be?) Moreover, the teacher had some criteria for assessment. For instance, “Can the
students query researchable questions?”, “Can the students come up with an explanation base on
the data? In the process, the teacher assessed to the students and gave feedback. Consequently,
each group completed the activity and the groups compared their results.
A Case Study from SAILS (Strategies for Assessment of Inquiry
Learning in Science) project: Identification of Gas
Berna Obali, Metin Şardağ / Turkey
In this activity, students examine the concepts including production of gas which tablet of vitamin C
emits in water by means of the everyday life context of bubbling vitamin C tablets. The students are
given the opportunity so as to develop several inquiry skills such as constructing hypotheses,
planning investigations, critiquing experimental designs, working collaboratively, data interpretation
and analysis during activity. Moreover, the students have the opportunity to develop their scientific
literacy and reasoning capabilities. In the activity progress, 19 students who are 14-15 years old
performed this activity. These students formed into four groups, and the teacher decided the
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groups’ members. Only one group consisted of 4 students, the other groups consisted of 5 students.
The activity was started with a demonstration in which the teacher threw tablet of vitamin C in
water. After that, all groups studied collaboratively to identify the gas. The teacher focused on
formative assessment and the inquiry skills. These skills were assessed through some questions in
the activity process (e.g. “How can you distinguish carbon dioxide gas from other gases?”. “Why did
you heat mixtures which you did?”) In addition, the teacher gave some feedback to guide the
students and to achieve the activity’s goal. Finally, when the groups finished their investigations,
each group prepared their posters.
Determining The Opinions of Estonian Stakeholders About 21st
Century Skills – As Part of The Profiles’ Delphi Study
Anne Laius, Tormi Kotkas, Miia Rannikmäe / Estonia
This study solicits views about the goals of science education from a wide range of stakeholders of
Estonia about the achievements of secondary school graduates. Its purpose is to raise the
confidence levels of teachers in meeting the goals of the new competence-based curriculum
introduced through PROFILES in-service programmes and also to compare the stakeholder’s
expectations and the realisation of the 21st century skills within the current situation in science
education. This study used modified Delphi method with three consecutive rounds for
consolidation the stakeholders’ views. The following five groups of stakeholders participated in the
current study: the employers, the scientists, the science teachers, the pre- service students and the
secondary school students. The sample of the 1st round was composed of 103 participants, the 2nd
round consisted of 172 representatives of stakeholders and the 3rd round consolidated the views of
166 participants of the study. The results revealed significant gaps between the expectations of all
investigated groups and the actual realisation of levels of obtained competences by students at
secondary school. All investigated groups differed significantly, but the science teachers and
scientists followed a similar pattern with minor differences, valuing academic knowledge the most.
The scientists were most sceptical about the present state of science education at school and
employers expected more good personal qualities, communication and problem solving skills in
future employees. The students valued the integration of every day problems into learning process.
Students' self-efficacy and values based on a 21st century vision of
scientific literacy
Kerti Ait, Miia Rannikmäe, Jack Holbrook / Estonia
The 21st century world in which we live is much different than that which has been experienced in
the past 75 years. The biggest shift has been replacing “manpower” with the modern digital
technology which surrounds us in our every-day life. And with this there has been a shift in the
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skills, attributes and even values needed. The people, who are needed in 21st century labor market
need to be able to connect through new technology, having inquiry skills and integrated knowledge.
Also they need to be able to collaborate with others, think critically, able to control and manage
their working and thinking and have skills for living in the world like awareness about their personal
and social responsibility and ability to feel compassion and respect to other human beings and life
all over the world. The main goal of education should be to cater for this shift in student needs and
also to provide students with such skills that will be needed for success in a global market. As such,
this study is geared towards measuring students’ self-efficacy in different skills and values
associated with scientific literacy and even more, exploring the degree to which students value the
importance of these skills and values so as to be successful in their future careers. To that end, a
questionnaire was developed which consisted of five parts (metacognition, skills, values, content
knowledge and scientific knowledge) each part corresponding to the five dimensions of the current
scientific literacy model and was tested with students in 48 schools (1700 12th grade students).
Results showed that students’ self- efficacy about 21st century skills were higher than the mean
value in all components. Their self-efficacy was most high in valuing science for life globally which
mean they do respect, understand and feel compassion for other human beings and life throughout
the world and was lowest in understanding characteristics of scientific knowledge and content
knowledge. We also found out that student´s did value almost all skills of 21st century skills more
than they admitted to having actual capabilities. An exception to this was understanding the
characteristics of scientific knowledge and content knowledge. They think they don´t need for their
future life so much knowledge about characteristic of scientific knowledge and content knowledge
than they have gained it from school. Students also thought that school lessons had developed most
characteristics of scientific knowledge but less so metacognitive skills while, in students´ opinions,
school lessons needed to develop almost all the 21st century skills more than teachers had
undertaken so far, except for the understanding of characteristics of scientific knowledge.
Students’ Evaluation of the use of PROFILES Modules to Promote
the Learning of Competences
Klaara Kask, Jack Holbrook, Miia Rannikmäe / Estonia
The European Commission sees the need to broadened the definition of educational goals to focus
on competences. As a consequence, Estonia has adopted a competency-based curriculum since
2010 and has developed new curricula grouping competences as academic, personal and social. To
promote such competences in the teaching of science, the study utilised PROFILES learning modules
. The goal of this case study was to evaluate how well learning through PROFILES modules
promoted the intended competences. For the study, data were collected from 178 students (grades
10/11, from 9 schools) whose learning had partially been supported by 9 PROFILES created
modules. Data were collected use a 6-point Likert type questionnaire, seeking students’ views
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based on competences in the Estonian National Curriculum, Twenty-first century skills and the
HEXACO Model of personalities. Results showed that students gave the highest evaluation to
personal competences and the lowest to academic competence. No correlation was found between
students’ evaluating modules in terms of what they like versus what they learn.
Learning How To Control The Scientific Process Skills Through 3Stage Model: 7th Grade - Absorption of Light Unit
Simge Akpullukcu, Çağla Bulut, Duygu Seyman, Bulent Cavas / Turkey
It has been an inevitable fact that inquiry based science education (IBSE), which is widely used, is
one of the significant teaching and learning activities in science education. The fundamental
philosophy of PROFILES Project is constituted by IBSE activities and enhanced students’ scientific
literacy. The learning environment helps scientific research to be carried out for enabling students
to brainstorm in an interactive atmosphere. During this process, the most notable purpose of
inquiry is that students learn to do research both in group work and individually. PROFILES modules
support inquiry based learning by 3-stage model. Therefore, applicability and suitability of science
course implementation by 3-stage model was examined with a socio-scientific issue. As the active
participants of PROFILES CPD programme, our aim was to create learning environment with 3 stage
model. The process designed with a series of activities at a basis of strategy which progress from
guided to open in an inquiry based learning environment. The activities were carried out with 80,
7th grade students in an elementary school in Turkey. The subject was given with a scenario which
should be meaningful and familiar for students. Throughout the scenario, students have questions
for beginning to a new inquiry process. Questions provide students to seek the literature and then
conduct experimental designs. The steps supported not only working collaboratively with
argumentation but it was also effective on being familiar with a scientific process. After having
findings they can manage the whole process on scientific situations. Except having a solution for a
socio-scientific issue they can also learn how to control scientific process skills. It is clear that using
3-stage model support individual learning. If CPD teachers keep on adaptation for 3-stage model
continuously it will be helpful for students to control and apply scientific process skills as their
individual learning habits.
Cross-cultural research on students' understanding of nature of
science and technology in the context of natural hazards and
disasters and its implication to society
David Cerulli, Jack Holbrook, Ülo Mander / Estonia
Research indicates that most students do not adequately understand nature of science (NOS) and
nature of technology (NOT). As previous attempts to increase student understanding have failed,
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there is a need to integrate NOS and NOT with the teaching of scientific concepts through an explicit
approach. Additionally, there is a need for 21st century skills. Critical thinking; non-routine problemsolving skills; complex communication / social skills; collaboration and self-management / selfdevelopment; systems thinking; adaptability and an ability to transfer these skills into new and
perhaps unique situations are often referred to as 21st century skills. These skills are becoming
increasingly valuable in the workplace as computers are handling tasks which involve solving routine
problems or communicating basic information. For students to be competitive in the workplace
now and in the future, they must possess these 21st century skills. Many attempts of teaching
Science and Technology (S&T) courses in the past typically have been viewed as irrelevant and
disconnected from society. Learning isolated facts in S&T courses is unacceptable and should
instead connect students’ with aspects in society which are both relevant to the personal life
experiences of students and to the skills that employers will likely require. This approach is known
as education through science. A shift from a traditional science through education approach
towards a modern education through science approach is needed to make education more relevant.
An increase in average global temperatures has a positive correlation with the frequency of natural
hazards. It’s therefore becoming increasingly important for students to be able to effectively react
in the event of a natural hazard. One convergent aspect of NOS is that science is culturally
embedded. Therefore, students may react differently depending on their geographical location, due
to their differing cultures. Combining NOS/NOT and 21st century skills with natural hazard
responses is the focus of this study. Students and teachers from several countries in at least three
continents (Asia; North America; Europe) will be assessed for understanding of NOS and NOT and
21st century skills embedded within the curriculum of Earth Science / Geography through the
context of natural hazards responses (tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes, mass
wasting, lightning, and floods). A questionnaire containing items related to NOS/NOT; 21st century
skills and natural hazards will be administered to students from each country. Additionally, students
will be provided with a map of a fictitious island nation and will be asked to respond to written
natural hazard scenarios (connectedness scenarios) provided with supporting images, inset/outset
maps, etc. The data collected from these instruments will be analyzed using SPSS statistical
software in terms of student understanding of: (1) NOS/NOT; (2) 21st century skills; (3)
Understandings of Geography/ Natural Hazards content and (4) Natural hazard responses. It is
expected that students within and between cultures will respond differently. Following data
analysis, generalizations will be extrapolated and this new-found knowledge will be passed along to
teachers to further facilitate student-learning and teacher instruction across each respective
continent. This research is necessary to help develop responsible citizenship and increase
employability.
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Promoting relevance in science education for the future - selected
evidence from the PROFILES project
Claus Bolte, Mira Dulle, Avi Hofstein, Jack Holbrook, Rachel Mamlok-Naaman, Miia Rannikmae,
Franz Rauch, Sabine Streller / Germany, Estonia, Israel, Austria
This symposium reflects on an approach to develop teacher ownership of motivational, 21st century
science education, promoted through teachers’ continuous professional development and
classroom operations, based on a theoretically driven 3 stage teaching and learning model. It builds
on current concerns for relevance in science education and the expectation that learning goes
beyond science cognition and promotes responsible citizenship and career awareness. The project
is made operational via specially Designer modules, initiated by a socio-scientific context and
promoting both inquiry-based learning and socio-scientific decision making. The symposium
comprises of presentations all stemming from the project, covering – the theoretical basis
presented as a 3-stage theoretical model related to the development of PROFILES teaching learning
modules as the heart of the project;, success of the project continuous professional development
for teachers (CPD) model based on teacher needs; implemented teaching modules based on the 3
stage model; the interrelationship of PROFILES with stakeholders views on the purpose and
direction of science education; evidence-based teacher self efficacy associated with the project
philosophy, approach and student gains, and teacher identified roles for networking establishing
‘grassroots’ support and furthering ‘bottom-up developments leading to project dissemination to an
International audience
LoTeGum: What is happening at the Gymnasium—an Estonian
example
Miia Rannikmäe, Regina Soobard, Priit Reiska, Jack Holbrook / Estonia
This research is the first systematic study to investigate the change of scientific literacy (SL) levels
among Estonian gymnasium level students, in which 44 school and over 4000 students participated.
Grade 10 students were tested again at the grade 12 level. An original instrument was created, for
measuring the levels of SL. Originality of the research in studying SL development is linked to a
multi-dimensional approach through the use of Delphi methodology, Cmaps and evaluative
description of the levels of SL. The ability of gymnasium students to reproduce subject- related
knowledge is shown to be subject specific, being the highest in biology and lowest in chemistry.
Higher order cognitive skills are at the same level among grade 10 and grade 12 students, with
approximately 25% students having acquired the skill to solve science related problems. Decision
making skills are acquired by approximately 10% students. There is no difference between students
from schools having different average levels of examination success.
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New type of Cmap analysis was developed for analysing student skills to create concept maps. For
diagnosing students levels of interdisciplinary knowledge a formula was created. Based on the range
of empirical data, four categories that describe the levels of scientific literacy were created: science
related skills; philosophical category ,analytical category and self-evaluation of attitude towards
science learning. Outcome of the study point to no statistical change in the levels of SL during
grade10 to 12 studies, suggesting little learning is taking place beyond content knowledge. The
outcomes suggest there is a need to initiate discussion at the political level to seek ways to update
the teaching of science at school.
The Implementation of 3 IBSE-PROFILES Modules in Primary
Schools in Turkey
Funda Tunaboylu, Sebnem Filiz Yapıcı, Filiz Bademli / Turkey
The poster presents 3 different implementation of IBSE based PROFILES Modules in primary schools
in Izmir-Turkey. The poster also indicates the getting teachers involved in the project through
collaboration with ICASE. Arising out of the CPD programme by Dokuz Eylul University and ICASE,
ten teachers were asked to be “leaders” in the development and implementation of DEU/ICASE
modules. Three of these teachers wanted to continue to implement their own modules in their
teaching and learning environments. This poster shows how these teachers develop, implement and
evaluate their own teaching and learning modules based on PROFILES Project.
Management education model, a new strategyfor learners to
develop self-efficacy in mathematics classroom
Behrangi Mohammadreza, Zebarjadi Arash / Iran
One of the job that has been characterizes with high complexity with dubious effects on its client is
the job of teaching. These effects become more unpredictable when considering students in
different level of growth and development. Their variations in economic and cultural back-ground
and knowledge make the job vaguer to understand its authenticity. Therefore, according to
Behrangi’s view it is necessary for a teacher to try to recognize them and make a wise decision and
select a method of teaching that best fits. According to Behrangi, there are clearly a popular
consensus on the essential concepts and elements of education, but the diversification of ideas
occurs when they are to be implemented in teaching. The Behrangi’s teaching model in managing
education (or learning) in mathematic for the 4th graders’ boy's high school in the academic year
2013-2014in the city of Asadabad in Iran, in fact, has especial potency to be used and show its
importance for teaching science. Behrangi’s management education model consists of orderly ten
stages: students’ preparation, participation in communication, self-testing, imaginary map
designing, masterminding, making curriculum fitness, lesson planning, implementing teaching
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scenario, evaluation and feedback. Hence, the major goal is to study the use of a quasi-experimental
two-group pretest-posttest research design to evaluate the effectiveness of the Behrangi’s
management education model in science learning on raising learners' self-efficacy in the
mathematics class. Research was done in three steps: 1) per-tests to measure the dependent
variable in both groups; 2) implementing independent variables (traditional versus experimental
teaching), and 3) assessing both dependent groups through the post tests. A sample of all students
enrolled in the 4th grade boy's high school Asadabad city in the academic year 2013-2014 was
selected. In sampling two classes of 72 students were selected and divided into two groups, one for
the experiment and one as control group. The tool for gathering data and measuring general selfefficacy was a valid and reliable questionnaire. The results of the analysis of the data, was a high
significant impact on the development of learners' self-efficacy. In fact, on the base of this research
evidence base, the model showed its effect on the student’s behavior, their endeavoring to
continue learning, coping with problems and deleting the limitations found in the traditional
mathematics classroom.
The importance of managing education model combined with the
attributes of cultural intelligence and transformational leadership
concepts in teaching “processing addition”
Behrangi, Mohammadreza, Atiyeh Bourbour / Iran
Too many research based evidences indicate the failures of the contemporary education in
matching changes in environment and adopting them in the curriculum. The changes should be in
the direction of improving cognitive skill of human beings. Unfortunately the current trends of
education management do not make a satisfactory response to these needs and need to consider
new models of teaching that would be necessary to cope with these new demands. This study aims
at making research evidence of the effects and importance of Behrngi’s Management Education
Model (MEM) combined with the attributes in cultural intelligence and transformational leadership
concepts. The model was activated through teaching mathematic title of “processing addition” to
the second grade elementary students’. The research methodology was semi-experimental. The
effect of the model on students’ improvement in cultural intelligence and transformational
leadership behaviors was measured through two researcher made valid and reliable questionnaires.
The data gathered from 22 items for cultural intelligence and 22 items for transformational
leadership were analyzed statistically using Lizrel software for structural equation modeling. In
consequence, the results indicate that if the student learn topics on “processing addition” through
the 10 steps management education model in the scenario on the teaching of the topic, it will make
meaningful development on their cultural intelligence including (strategy, knowledge, motivation
and behavior dimensions) and on their transformational leadership proficiency including
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(ideological properties, mental encouragement, inspirational stimulus and personal considerations)
significantly.
Comparing the Role of Managing Education Model and Traditional
Education in improving Children Philosophical Mindedness
Behrangi, Mohammadreza, Laya Rahimzadeh / Iran
The term of philosophic mindedness is the title of Hulfish and Smith’s book who are pioneered in
indicating three categories or dimensions of thoughts i.e. comprehensiveness, flexibility, and
penetration. However, there are four attributes in each dimension that could be considered as
useful for measuring each dimension and philosophic mindedness as a whole. In brief they are:
Questioning existing situation, identifying basic aspects of issues, sensibility to implicit meaning,
using hypothetical deductive way of thinking, seeing the big picture of affaires, connecting
objectives to the broad goal, extracting general rules, tolerance for opposite believes, flexibility in
thinking, involving with the mere core of concepts, understanding different aspects of facts,
considering probability in expressing final ideas. Behrangi’s management education model (MEM) is
a new approach to teaching having four dimensions i.e. preparation for learning, process of active
involvement in leaning, implementing lesson plan, and evaluating students learning improvement.
Each dimension has several attributes such as: student oriented learning activities, participation,
map minding, mastery learning, curriculum planning, lessen planning, knowledge production,
formative evaluation of students’ performance, adapting teaching harmoniously with different
styles of students’ learning, teaching styles, environmental styles, curriculum styles and summative
evaluation and feedback for the betterment of the philosophy for children. Many ideas based on
research evidences indicate that the most sensitive and effective time to form one’s personality,
mind and the way of thought is the childhood. In this research, the main purpose was to
demonstrate the importance of using Behrangi’s model of management in teaching the course of
philosophy for children and finding its effect on children citizenship skills, wholeness, and
commencement of philosophizing. In addition to a brief glimpse at MEM’s impact on children’s
thinking, this impact was evaluated in a survey (test group: the children who passed philosophizing
education course and – control group: the children of the same grade who did not pass the course)
through implementing the philosophy and children education (the third and fifth grade at the
elementary school) in three schools (random selection method) in Tehran Province. The evaluation
forms as a validated and reliable questionnaires were filled out by the project’s educators (visiting
the parents and children), and the direct impacts of these two variables (MEM and philosophical
mindedness) were observed. The results indicated that philosophical mindedness accompanied by
three categories of penetration, flexibility and comprehension and also their 12 attributes, through
using Managing Education Model was one of the most valuable consideration and driving forces in
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the process of teaching philosophy for children (P4c), for the sake of developing their wholeness
and acquiring citizenship skills.
A review on the relationship between education and labor market:
A critical survey
Atiyeh Bour Bour, Zahra Danial, Hamid Reza Rasouli / Iran
The relationship between education and the labor market is the matter of a vast body of literature.
Higher education plays a major role in preparing individuals to enter the labor market as well as
equipping them with the skills to engage in lifelong learning experiences. Education is the tool for
impacting skills and attitudes relevant to the contribution of the individual concerned to national
development. Personal qualities could play an even greater role since more able individuals are
likely to achieve higher educational levels and, thus, better jobs and higher earnings. The fact that
individuals with a higher level of education tend to get better and more highly paid jobs than those
with lower levels of education raises the question of whether these better labor market outcomes
truly reflect the level and type of education, or whether they reflect another variable that can be
linked to both the education choice and the labor market. So, original research papers investigating
the relationship between education and labor market that were published to Jan 2014 were
aggregated, coded, and used in this study. We identified the years of schooling, educational level
attained, educational system, and many other relevant elements as being central in the scientific
debate on this relationship. We tried to review the major articles on application of education and
labor market in order to help researchers to have a better understanding of education, labor
market, the relationship, and to be able in choosing better strategy plan for this issue. A highly
standardized evidence-based review can be one of the best references for concern ones to decide
about their strategy plan.
Setting the steps of management education model in the
secondary school considering the students level of development
and studying its effect on their learning
Behrangi, Mohammadreza; Atiyeh Bourbour; Gholami, Zohreh / Iran
Teaching is a difficult and complex affair . Teachers need to be involved with different variables in
the process. Therefore, it is necessary for a teacher to try to recognize them and select a method of
teaching that fits. Among the important factors in choosing teaching methods, are the specific
characteristics of students in each level of development، and levels of content. As Behrangi puts it,
there are clearly a popular consensus on the essential elements of education. However, the main
question rises as “which method of teaching and learning would most fit students learning, their
level of development, curriculum and their attitudes. The management education (or learning)
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model, in fact, has especial potency for attracting all basic features compatible with girls’ secondary
school level of development. More than that, it can evolve and use experiences of successful
professional teachers to its development. The model now, serves as a bed for the Department of
Educational Administration to accumulate the main attribution of any new ideas related to
improving learning ، making a strong foundation for its strength and self-confidence. Behrangi’s
management education model consists of ten stages which starts from readiness of students to
learn ،continues in a process in which students’ stage of development and the adoption of content
with their understanding and their map of mind are always considered. Finally the supplementary
summative evaluation completed the formative evaluations in each steps. Hence, the major goal of
this descriptive study was to make research based evidence for the importance of Behrangi’s
teaching model in managing education through studying its effect on students learning when their
level of development are to be considered in each step of the model. The ground theory for
discovering attribution of theories on students’ development was used and the related concepts
and the components in the domain were discovered. Accordingly, the curriculum was designed and
implemented with adaptable models of teaching. Finally summative evaluation provided the data to
interpret the usability of setting the steps of management education model in the secondary school
according to the students’ level of development in improving their learning. Female high school
students were the population and the sample was randomly selected regarding proportional
distribution in geographical areas in Tehran. The researcher made valid and reliable questionnaires
for academic achievement and viewing students’ attitude on the model were used. To analyze test
data appropriate descriptive and inferential statistics, as covariance and structural equation, were
used. Findings are indicative and supportive of the importance of the model in improving students
learning through the adaption with students’ level of development.
Strategies For Assessment In Inquiry Learning In Science (SAILS)
Gultekin Cakmakci, Buket Akkoyunlu, Metin Sardag / Turkey
The aim of this project is to support teachers in adopting an inquiry approach in teaching science at
second level (students aged 12-18 years) across Europe. This will be achieved by utilising existing
resources and models for teacher education in IBSE, both pre-service and in-service. In addition to
SAILS partners adopting IBSE curricula and implementing teacher education in their countries, the
SAILS project will develop appropriate strategies and frameworks for the assessment of IBSE skills
and competences and prepare teachers not only to be able to teach through IBSE, but also to be
confident and competent in the assessment of their students‟ learning. Through this unified
approach of implementing all the necessary components for transforming classroom practice, i.e.
teacher education, curriculum and assessment around an IBSE pedagogy, a sustainable model for
IBSE will be achieved. SAILS will provide teacher education workshops in IBSE across the twelve
participating countries and promote a self- sustaining model encouraging teachers to share
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experiences and practice of inquiry approaches to teaching, learning and assessment by building a
community of practice. In Turkey, in collaboration of National Ministry of Education more than 250
science teachers have attended our four days workshops over 6 months. After completing 26 hours
of training and classroom practices, the teachers earned a certificate on the use of IBSE.
MASCIL (mathematics and science for life)
Martin Bilek, Ahmet Ilhan Sen, Gultekin Cakmakci / Turkey
MASCIL (mathematics and science for life) aims to promote a widespread use of inquiry-based
science teaching (IBST) in primary and secondary schools. In addition, we plan to connect
mathematics and science education to the world of work. In a classroom where inquiry-based
learning occurs, students take an active role. They pose questions, explore situations, solve
problems, find their path to solutions and communicate their results. Inquiry-based learning (IBL)
can have many faces, dependent on context, target group and learning aims. However, IBL learning
approaches all have the shared characteristics of aiming to promote students' curiosity,
engagement and learning in-depth. Both inquiry- based science teaching and the connection to the
world of work will make mathematics and science more meaningful to students. When doing
inquiry-based tasks, students work like scientists and by doing so, they acquire competencies they
need for their future professional and personal lives as active citizens. In order to implement
inquiry-based teaching and to connect mathematics and science education to the world of work,
mascil follows a holistic approach by carrying out a variety of activities, including the development
of materials and running professional development courses. Furthermore, we will work with
different target groups, such as teachers, parents, students, school authorities and policy makers.
National and European advisory panels will bring together stakeholders to advise partners
throughout the project; dialogue with policy makers will be facilitated by workshops and policy
papers. The project mascil is funded by the European Commission and brings together 18 partners
from 13 countries. These partners include experts in science and mathematics education, general
education and e-learning as well as a journalist. In Turkey teacher workshops has just started in
winter 2015 and will continue in future.
Innovation Networks in Science, Technology, Engineering &
Mathematics (INSTEM)
Martin Lindner, Peter van Marion, Emilio Balzano, Francesco Cuomo, Gultekin Cakmakci / Turkey
INSTEM is a Comenius network (2012 – 2015), which brings together the experience and learning of
a wide range of projects in European Science and Mathematics education. INSTEM links research,
practice and policy in a unique way. Its main goal is to promote inquiry based teaching, to gather
innovative teaching methods and to raise students' interest in science as well as offering them
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careers information in STEM subjects, in order to respond to global challenges in teaching and
gender imbalances in STEM education. The INSTEM project was developed from the idea that
projects in STEM education should talk to each other and share their ideas. It grew out of the
informal group ProCoNet (Project Coordinators‘ Network), which was formed in 2011. INSTEM and
ProCoNet work closely together and provide a single channel to communicate with European Union
directorates and other policymaking organisations. INSTEM also acts as an integrated provider of
STEM education materials and techniques, based on the work of previous projects. It works with
national teams on the implementation of good science and mathematics teaching, using inquiry as a
starting point whilst being open to all innovative and effective approaches. INSTEM has developed
accessible synthesis reports and briefings, and also provide regular updates on progress in STEM
education, based on state of the art information from researchers, practitioners and policymakers
in the field.
STEM Teacher Training Innovation for Gender balance (STING)
Gultekin Cakmakci, Seref Yardimoglu / Turkey
The STING project aims to foster quality improvements, innovation excellence and
internationalisation in Teacher Training of gender for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths
(STEM) teachers, in particular through enhanced transnational cooperation between schools,
science centres, Teacher Training organizations and policy makers.The main objective of this project
is to raise and share good science education practices for gender balance through innovative
Teacher Training modules, and involving not only teachers but schools at institutional level,
teacher’s trainers, teacher schools, companies, policy makers and other educational stakeholders.
More South Korean teachers are instructed, less they are
hereditarianist
Hae-Ae SEO, Jérémy CASTÉRA & Pierre CLÉMENT / South Korea, France
South Korea is at the top of PISA ranking of countries for the quality of its science teaching. It is a
well economically developed country (the GDP/capita was 23 837 $ in 2013). It was interesting to
analyse the South Korean teachers’ conceptions related to different topics of biology, health and
environment where their knowledge (K) can be in interaction with their values (V) and social
practices (P) (the KVP model: Clément 2006). The Biohead-Citizen project (2004-2008: Biology,
Health and Environmental Education for better Citizenship, FP6, Priority 7, Project N° CITC-CT-2004506015) analysed teachers’ conceptions related to these topics in 18 countries (Carvalho et al,
2008). It was then extended to new countries but until now no one was in East Asia. In 2014, the
Biohead-Citizen questionnaire, already validated, was used in South Korea to analyse teachers’
conceptions of these topics, with the same sampling of teachers as in other countries. The first
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analysis of these data (Seo & Clément, 2014) concerned the topic Evolution, showing that
Protestant teachers are more creationist than their colleagues, but also showing that Buddhist
teachers (our first results concerning Buddhism) are as evolutionist as their Agnostic or Atheist
colleagues. We present here a second analysis of these data, related to the topic of biological /
genetic determinism of human features or performances. Since the end of the 20th Century (e.g.
Atlan, 1998), the ‘nature versus nurture’ debate is an old, traditional but outdated discussion. All
biologists consider today that any phenotype emerges from the interaction between the genome
(nature) and its environment (nurture), interaction called ‘epigenetics’ (Wu & Morris 2001).
Moreover, a lot of human features and performances are consequences of learning, i.e. of the
cerebral epigenesis (Changeux, 1993). In consequence, the reduction of any human feature or
performance to a genetic determinism is a conception that can be called hereditarianism (or
innatism), that is unfortunately still present, more in some countries than in the others. Precedent
publications showed important differences among countries (Clément, 2008 for the 18 countries of
the Biohead-Citizen project; Castéra & Clément, 2014, for 23 countries; Clément, Quessada &
Castéra, 2013, for 26 countries). What about South Korea? Between-class analyses, completed with
a Monte-Carlo test, show that there is no difference between groups of teachers depending their
religion. The more creationist conceptions of Protestant teachers (Seo & Clément, 2014) are not
correlated with more hereditarianist conceptions, while this correlation is observed in several other
countries (Clément et al, 2013). There is no significant gender effect, as it is observed in other
countries (Castéra & Clément, 2014). Three significant effects are found:
- Among the six samples of teachers: biology teachers have more scientific knowledge than their
colleagues; and in-service Primary Schools teachers are more hereditarianist than the other
teachers, believing more, for instance, that “There are genetic factors in parents that predispose
their children to be good in school” (question B10), or “to become homosexual”(question B11).
- An effect of the teachers’ level of training: after more than 3 years of training at University
(whatever is the matter of training), teachers have more knowledge than their colleagues (only 3
years of training) (questions B35 and B36: Figure 1); they are less hereditarianist for the questions
B10 (genetic determinism to be good at school), B11 (to become homosexual), B8 (to become
alcoholic), and they more disagree with a masculine superiority (question A21: Biologically, women
can be as intelligent as men: Figure 2; question A2: In a modern society, men and women should
have equal rights). For 8 questions, Pearson’s Chi2 show a significant difference between the two
levels of instruction.- An effect of age, which is more complex. For instance, the youngest as well as
the oldest teachers know less than their colleagues what is the cerebral plasticity (question B35) or
the cerebral epigenesis (question B36).
The interpretation of these results will be discussed
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Is there an evolution, from 2005 to 2015, of the Lebanese preservice teachers’ conceptions related to questions of biology,
health and environment?
Paula Abou Tayeh, Pierre Clément, Jérémy Castéra, Iman Khalil / Lebanon, France
The European Biohead-Citizen project (Biology, Health and Environmental Education for better
Citizenship, FP6, Priority 7, Project N° CITC-CT-2004-506015: Carvalho et al, 2008) concerned 18
countries for the analysis of teachers’ conceptions related to several “questions vives” of biology,
health and environment. Lebanon was one of the 18 countries, and the research in Lebanon was
also funded by the project PCSI (projet de coopération interuniversitaire, Liban, Tunisie, France) of
AUF (Agence Universitaire pour la Francophonie), under the coordination of Iman Khalil (Lebanon).
The Biohead-Citizen questionnaire was created and validated in 2004 and 2005, and most of the
Lebanese data were collected in 2005 and 2006. The first analyses came from the teachers’ answers
to a pilot test in six countries (Clément et al, 2006), and were then developed from the Lebanese
teachers’ answers to the final questionnaire: Khalil et al, 2007a, 2007b, 2007c, 2007d, 2008. After
the research done during the Biohead-Citizen project (2004-2008), the same validated
questionnaire was used to extend the international comparisons to other countries. The last
published comparisons concerned 30 countries (e.g. Clément, 2014; Castéra & Clément, 2014;
Clément & Caravita, 2014) and similar data are today collected in some other new countries.
Nevertheless, these comparisons concern data collected in 2005-6 (as in Lebanon) or during the
following years, including 2014 and 2015, 10 years after. They show great differences among
countries, but are there also some differences, inside the same country, ten years after? That is the
question of research of this communication. To answer to this question, we are collecting new data
in Lebanon, limited to the pre-service teachers (who represent half of the sampling in 2005) and
mainly pre-service teachers of Primary Schools (who were 92 in the sampling 2005, 32 of them
declaring to be Christian, and 60 Muslim). This collection of new data in Lebanon started in January
2015 and will be complete in March 2015. We will present a comparison with the data collected in
2005, for all the topics of the questionnaire and, if there are some differences, for each of the topics
to identify where are the differences and to try to interpret them.
Teachers’ conceptions of evolution in Russia
Frédéric CHARLES Pierre CLÉMENT / France
Today, nothing in modern biology can be thought without an evolutionary perspective Dobzhansky,
1973) : the theory of evolution is a very important paradigm. Nethertheless, in some countries, its
teaching is objected by political or religious leaders (IAP, 1996). Indeed, the growing offensive of
fundamentalist religious groups is trying to disturb science teaching, with proposing to introduce
creationist ideas in the curricula or, at least, to avoid to teach evolutionism in school. In 18
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countries, the Biohead-Citizen project (2004-2008) analysed teachers’ conceptions related to
evolution and their degree of agreement with a separation between science and religion (Clément,
2008 ; 2014). This research was then extended to 12 other contries (Clément, 2014). We present
here a new extension, analysing teachers’ conceptions of evolution in Russia. The Russian
Federation is now the world’s largest country and have got 143 million inhabitants. Orthodoxy is the
most widely professed religion with the proportion of 76%. Islam follows with 7% (between 10 and
12 million muslims). Secularism (laicity) is a rule in Russia. The sampling is made of 200 teachers
teaching in Primary and Secondary schools or finishing their teacher’s training in Oryol. This town,
located 400 km south of Moscow, is a city of 500 000 inhabitants. Teachers completed a
questionnaire built and validated by the Biohead-Citizen project, where 15 questions are dedicated
to evolution. In this oral presentation, we’ll present the preliminary results of the research. We’ll
focus on the possible influence of religion, affective or social dimensions on teachers’ conception of
evolution. We’ll compare these results with some obtained in other countries.
Teachers’ conceptions of gender equality in France and Turkey
Pierre Clément, Jérémy Castéra, Hulya Hamurcu, Bulent Cavas, Yasemin Gunay / France, Turkey
Equality between men and women is a fundamental human right, promoted by UNESCO but not yet
a fact in most of countries. The French government decided in November 2012 a plan of actions to
improve the gender equality, including an experimental scholar program called the “ABCD of
equality”. In front of social movements against the “marriage for all” (with the help of Catholic
church), this program was withdrawn the 30 June 2014 (Martine Storti, in “Le Monde” 3 July 2014,
page 17) but it was then replaced by another plan by the new Minister of Education (Mattea
Battaglia & Gaëlle Dupont, in “Le Monde” 26 November 2014, page 11). In France there is a clear
separation between State and Church since 1905, and a “Chart of Laicity” is since two years
included in the goals of schools. In Turkey, which is also a country respecting laicity, there is
nevertheless some debates related to the gender equality. In France as well as in Turkey, men are
more employed and more paid than women, even if the difference is greater in Turkey where 69%
of men are in paid employment, against 28% of women (OECD, cited by Marine Messina, Le Monde
27-11-14). In consequence, it was interesting to analyze the French and Turkish teachers’
conceptions of gender equality. The Biohead-Citizen project (2004-2008) analysed teachers’
conceptions related to several topics, including gender equality, in 18 countries including France (N
= 732 teachers in France; Clément, 2008 ; Castéra & Clément, 2014). In 2014, a part of the validated
Biohead-Citizen questionnaire, including 7 questions related to gender equality, was used in Turkey
(N = 418 teachers, with the same categories of teachers as in France). We present here the results
of the French and Turkish teachers’ answers to these 7 questions.
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A between-class analysis, completed by a Monte-Carlo test, shows a very significant difference
among the two countries (p<0/0001). Pearsons’ Chi-squared tests, question by question, show that
this difference is clearly significant for each of the 7 questions. There is also a significant gender
effect, for the 7 questions in Turkey but only for some of them in France: female teachers being
more for equality than their male colleagues. Other between-class analyses show an absence of
difference among the groups of teachers (pre- or in-service; teaching in Primary Schools, or Biology
or Language in Secondary Schools), as among other controlled parameters: the level of instruction
in France and Turkey, or the teaching experience, the mother education, the father education in
Turkey. All these results will be discussed, showing some interaction between the teachers’
knowledge, their values and their social practices.
Is there a Correlation between Health Promotion and Preservation
of Environment? An analysis of Teachers’ Conceptions in 30
countries.
Jérémy Castéra, Pierre Clément / France
Are the teachers’ conceptions related to Health (the Biomedical Model vs the Health Promotion
Model) correlated with their conceptions of Nature and Environment? To answer to this question,
we used the data obtained in 30 countries (N = 10 651 teachers) from the Biohead-Citizen
questionnaire (obtained before 2008 for 18 countries: Carvalho et al, 2008, or after 2008: Clément
& Caravita, 2014; Clément 2015). We divided the teachers into four categories, defined by their
answer to a question related to Health Promotion vs. Biomedical Model, and we did a betweenclass analysis (Munoz et al, 2009) to differentiate the four groups depending their answers to 36
questions related to Nature or Environment. The results show a significant difference among the
four groups, but limited to some ecocentric attitudes for the Preservation of Environment.
Nevertheless, these differences, even being significant, can be a bias, i.e. only a consequence of the
strong differences already observed among countries (Clément & Caravita, 2014). To test this
possibility, we did a new between class analysis after suppression of the country effect (using a
PCAIVO: Munoz et al., 2009): the Monte Carlo test showed then a clear absence of difference
among the four teachers’ groups. In conclusion, answering to our question of research, we can say
that there is no correlation between the teachers’ conceptions related to health (health promotion
or biomedical model) and their conceptions related to Nature and Environment.
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Studying the Effect of Teaching the Book Thinking & Research
through Using Management Education Model on Students’ SelfEfficacy
Behrangi, Mohammadreza, Khosravi, Hamid / Iran
The major element that educators seek is the improvement of students’ thinking skill through
enhancing their research ability. Teaching to reach this aim requires teachers to be professional to cope
with difficult and complex conditions of learning and make a wise decision in selecting a model of
teaching that best fits. However, the main question rises as “which method of teaching and learning
would most fit students learning, their level of development, curriculum, their attitudes and selfefficacy. The management education (or learning) model, in fact, has especial potency for attracting all
basic and important suitable features compatible with boys 6th grade elementary school learning
improvement. Behrangi’s management education model consists of ten stages which starts from
readiness of students to learn and continues in a process in which students’ stage of development and
the adoption of content with their understanding and their map of mind are always considered. Finally
the supplementary summative evaluation completed the formative evaluations in each steps for
research analysis. Hence, the major goal of this semi-experimental study was to make research based
evidence for the importance of Behrangi’s teaching model in managing education through studying its
effect on students self –efficacy while the book Thinking and Research is being taught. Research
methodology of quasi empirical and 2 experimental and control groups with pre-test and post-test
pattern was the method of research. The cases were 2 classrooms of Kharazmi school of Shiraz that
were elected as sample and 30 students were randomly selected for each group, one as experimental
and one as control. The experimental group was taught through Behrangi’s teaching model in managing
education while the control group was taught with the traditional kind. The term of this period was
nearly 70 days. The tools for collecting data were SES self-efficacy questionnaire and questionnaire of
Behrangi consisting of 34 items that its validity and reliability was affirmed through statistical process. In
order to analyze statistical data, it was benefit from independent t test and results of research showed
that teaching the book of Thinking and Research through using the teaching model in managing
education had significant positive influence on student’s self- efficacy.
Preparation of thin layers from a natural material for separating
various organic compounds: Implications for science teaching
LAHMEK M'hammed, Mellal Fethi / Algeria
In the context of finding new stationary phase for the chromatography of thin layers, we used
bentonite, clay, inexpensive and widely available in Algeria and especially in the area of the city of
Maghnia, characterized by its large capacity adsorption and ion exchange, which permitted him to
be for use as a chromatographic support. Our study was based on the preparation of thin layers
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from natural bentonite, Maghnia, to separate mixtures of Amino Acids, detect some free Amino
Acids in some fruit juice. We used as references commercialized thin layer and other prepared from
silica gel, having determined the optimum conditions, our results were satisfactory, characterized
by good accuracy and good repeatability.
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