Research in Science Education最新文献

There is a well recognised desire to encourage enterprise and entrepreneurial thinking in university students, however core or mandatory provision has the potential to dilute the enthusiasm or engagement in enterprise. This paper reflects on the choice to offer optional (elective) enterprise modules to STEM students at Undergraduate (level 6) and Masters level (level 7). In STEM programmes, enterprise or entrepreneurship subjects are often elective options alongside their core academic studies, with much variability in delivery methods and source materials used throughout undergraduate and postgraduate education. This means appealing to a self-selecting cohort with either interest in an alternative direction to ‘pure-science’, or individuals with an aim of creating an impact. With high levels of interaction between educators, industry case studies and learners, a dynamic learning environment is created, with positive outcomes for satisfaction and employability. A qualitative longitudinal study and ethnographic consideration of the individuals who have chosen to engage in enterprise-based elements indicates that initial exposure to curriculum-based enterprise can deepen their understanding of ideation, commercial bioscience, and innovation, leading to discipline-based recognition of value. Although a limited proportion of students go on to be entrepreneurs in the form of company founders, they often cite their enterprise education experience as impactful and frequently allude to skills or experience as intrinsic to their intrapreneurial activities and roles with the organisations they end up working with.

This study investigates the progression of students’ meaning-making of epigenetic phenomena while discussing multiple visual representations depicted at different levels of biological organization. Semi-structured focus group sessions involving ninth-grade students (aged 15-16) from a Swedish lower secondary school were video recorded. Students’ meaning-making with regard to form, function and transfer of scientific ideas was explored by analyzing students’ physical pointing and verbal utterances while interacting with and discussing the epigenetic visual representations. The study uncovered four phases of progression in students’ meaning-making. In phase 1, students’ focus is on unpacking scientific ideas within a single representation. In phase 2, students apply and transfer scientific ideas between different visual representations at the same organizational level. In phase 3, their meaning-making develops into linking between various levels of organization. Here, downward linking, from higher to lower levels, relies on form descriptions that limit the transfer of scientific ideas. In contrast, upward linking, from lower to higher organizational levels, relies on both descriptions of form and functional explanations, which facilitates the transfer of scientific ideas. Finally, in Phase 4, and manifested as “yo-yo reasoning”, students engage in a dynamic and repeated process of downward and upward linking that expresses a coherent understanding of epigenetics. The study findings underscore the significance of recognizing progression phases in facilitating students’ meaning-making of multiple representations of epigenetic phenomena. Future research could expand on these insights by investigating students’ meaning-making across other science education domains.

This study provides insights into the use of metaphors in protein synthesis descriptions in upper secondary chemistry and biology textbooks. Data were collected from seven Swedish textbooks and analyzed with the Metaphor Identification Protocol and categorized within the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory. The results reveal two main parallel metaphor systems of construction-based metaphors and information-based metaphors. Five sub-systems with different emphasis on the usage of construction and information related metaphors emerged in the analysis: the location, translocation, transportation, cryptography and publishing sub-metaphor systems. These metaphors can function as double-edged swords for students’ learning. On the positive side, the construction-based metaphors (location, translocation and transportation) meet the educational need to describe where the processes of the protein synthesis occur and how these take place, while the information-based metaphors (cryptography and publishing) describe how the different sub-processes of the protein synthesis are linked via the interflow of information between them. On the negative side, the identified metaphors are presented implicitly without explanations, thus making it difficult for the students to identify them. Also, textbook sentences often contain metaphors drawn from several of the five sub-systems, requiring students not only to differentiate between them, but also to connect the source and target domain of the different metaphors correctly. The results highlight the important role of the teacher in supporting students’ learning by explaining what metaphors are and how they are used in textbooks. To further this end, authors of biology and chemistry textbooks are recommended to introduce metaphors early and explicitly.

Intellectual demands of learning outcomes in the intended curriculum have always been a concern across the field of science education. In particular, the representation of those learning outcomes stipulated by the intended curriculum in science textbooks has become a big issue for both science curriculum studies and science teaching practice. To address this issue, the concepts of semantic gravity (SG) and semantic density (SD), as part of the dimension of Semantics from Legitimation Code Theory (LCT), were employed in this study with the purpose of examining the degrees of abstraction and complexity of chemical knowledge under the topic “common substances” in four series of chemistry textbooks, which were compiled in compliance with the national chemistry curriculum of the compulsory education (Grades 1–9) in China. Based on the principles of LCT (Semantics), a new scheme for differentiating the strengths of SG and SD was developed in the current study to analyze the representation of 34 knowledge points in the four series of chemistry textbooks. Results show that these knowledge points are embodied with less complexity and avoid more abstraction in the four series of chemistry textbooks. Specifically, it was found that the overwhelming majority of the knowledge points are represented with strong semantic gravity and weak semantic density. Uniqueness was also identified with individual series of chemistry textbooks. The implications of the results of this study are discussed for the effective representation of science (chemistry) knowledge in textbooks.

The authentic research experience, which provides students with meaningful collaborative research opportunities designed to promote discovery and innovation under the guidance of mentors, is increasing as a way to attract and engage students in STEM fields. However, despite the increase in authentic research experiences offered to students, there has been little research, particularly at the high school level, investigating students’ attitudes about themselves as researchers. To address this need, we developed a theory (or construct) for how high school age students self-identify as researchers and a companion survey to measure their identity. After three iterative development cycles, 823 high school students from diverse backgrounds were administered the 12-item survey, the Researcher Identity Survey—Form G (RISG). The partial credit Rasch model (1960/1980) was used to analyze the survey data. The results indicate that the survey identifies and locates high school age students as researchers validly and reliably along an easy to use and interpret scale. The survey holds promise as an important element for use in programs designed to broaden the entryway for students into the STEM disciplines.

The integration of entrepreneurship education and STEM education has emerged as a crucial field of research, necessitating an immediate providing a comprehensive review of the field from diverse viewpoints, thereby supporting upcoming research projects. This systematic review aimed to address the following three research questions: What are the characteristics and trends of the current studies on integrating entrepreneurial education into STEM education? (RQ1); Based on the extent of integration, what are the types of integration of entrepreneurial education into STEM education? (RQ2); Following an in-depth analysis and overview of each type, what are the corresponding patterns for each type of integration of entrepreneurial education into STEM education? (RQ3). Utilizing the PRISMA procedure’s criteria, we pinpointed 31 eligible articles. Reacting to RQ1, a descriptive analysis has been conducted to provide a comprehensive description of the publication year, the first author’s nation, research methods, participants, and impact. Reacting to RQ2, we conducted an in-depth content analysis and categorized entrepreneurial STEM education into three distinct types: the entrepreneurial element-embedded design, the whole-process integration, and the project-driven entrepreneurial design. Reacting to RQ3, the flowcharts provided for each type offer a practical template for understanding the patterns of integration. The Type I pattern shows entrepreneurship as an additional component to the STEM curriculum, the Type II pattern illustrates a more integrated approach throughout the educational process, and the Type III pattern displays a project-driven, in-depth integration of entrepreneurship.

This study centers on designing a targeted professional development (TPD) model to enrich the Entrepreneurial-STEM (E-STEM) literacy of teachers within an integrative conceptual framework. The study is threefold in its purpose: firstly, to investigate the impact of a targeted E-STEM PD on teachers’ pedagogical growth (PG), emphasizing familiarity, interest, and confidence in E-STEM literacy principles; secondly, to assess teachers’ satisfaction with the TPD content and its delivery format; and thirdly, to explore their perceptions regarding the efficacy of this TPD in empowering them to implement E-STEM learning. A mixed-methods approach was employed through a quasi-experiment involving a single group of 220 teachers from different Communities of Practice (CoPs) across various educational stages. Results revealed a significant positive impact on enhancing the pedagogical principles of E-STEM literacy among teachers, indicating substantial improvements in their three PG components. Participants expressed high satisfaction with the E-SETM TPD content and various delivery formats, underscoring its effectiveness in meeting their needs. This research highlights the strategic importance of teacher professional learning in E-STEM, emphasizing its role in fostering innovation, research, and a skilled workforce.

The importance of enhancing entrepreneurial STEM education has become accentuated to foster sustainable, collegial, and innovative STEM practices. The study aimed to enhance high-school students’ entrepreneurial skills, namely resourcefulness and problem-solving skills, and investigate their experiences and feelings of entrepreneurial STEM education. Three entrepreneurial STEM activities were implemented with 30 students in a private high school in Turkey. The qualitative data were collected through pre- and post-interviews and group reflective journals and analysed with content analysis. The quantitative data were collected through the Self-Control Schedule (SCS) and the Problem-Solving Scale (PS) and analysed through SPSS. The quantitative data indicated that the participants’ average SCS results increased from 117.63 to 122.40 (no significant difference) and their average PS results increased from 130.00 to 135.55 (no significant difference) following an intervention. This may be because of participants’ prior experiences or the number of participants attending the study. However, there were significant changes in the subscales of SCS and PS, showing that participants’ approach-avoidance style (PS subscale) as well as planning of behaviour and control of emotions (SCS subscales) can be enhanced by implementing entrepreneurial STEM activities. The qualitative data showed that participants started to face their problems more and try to find them different solutions rather than avoiding them. The qualitative data also pointed to the changes in participants’ capability of making connections between the subject disciplines and everyday life. Moreover, students found entrepreneurial STEM activities entertaining and helpful for improving understanding of chemistry topics. The study contributes to the field by bringing authenticity to STEM education by incorporating social and green entrepreneurship, supporting students’ entrepreneurial skill development, and helping teachers and students make connections between STEM, real-world, and public.

Mechanistic explanations, aiming to disclose details of entities and their activities, employ the act of unpacking which, inherently and paradoxically, produces explanatory gaps—pieces of undisclosed, undetailed mechanistic information. These gaps, termed explanatory black boxes, are often perceived as counterproductive to the teaching of mechanisms, yet are integral to it, and their cognizant use is a nuanced skill. Amidst the discourse on mechanistic reasoning in science education, this paper focuses on biology teachers’ perception of explanatory black boxes and the explicit discussion of them in their classroom. Using interviews with 11 experienced high-school biology teachers, we unraveled perceived affordances and constraints in teachers’ use of black boxes in the context of challenges in teaching mechanisms. Utilizing the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) framework, we expose a nuanced interplay of considerations related to strategies, students, curriculum alignment, assessment, and orientation toward science teaching. A constant tension existed—with considerations supporting and opposing the use of both unpacking and black boxing as teaching strategies—both within and between PCK components. In contrast, contemplating the explication of black boxes led teachers to illustrate this strategy as an intermediate one, attenuating constraints of both unpacking and black-boxing strategies while also promoting teachers’ ability to align curricular items and endorse student agency. Implications for teacher training are discussed, emphasizing the need to make teachers aware of the involvement of black boxes in mechanistic reasoning, and familiarize them with black-box explication as an intermediate strategy that can enrich their pedagogy.