Refereed JournalsThis paper presents a study that examines the effect of a graduate course titled “Selected topics in interpersonal communication skills” on the students’ interpersonal communication skills as part of their 21st century skills. Subject to the COVID-19 constraints, the course was taught online in the winter semester of 2021 to 46 students, who practiced in four groups. The students, who were studying at the Technion a science and technology research university for a research-oriented graduate degree in a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) subject, attended synchronous bi-weekly 1-h lectures and 1-h practice sessions. The two research questions were as follows: (1) Did the interpersonal communication skills of the participants change following their participation in the course, and if so, how? (2) What was the effect of online learning on the students’ interpersonal communication skills of (a) written and oral communication, (b) peer evaluation and feedback, and (c) self-reflection? Research tools included students’ self-presentations, questionnaires, peer assessments, and reflections during the course. Analyzing the data quantitatively and qualitatively, we found that the graduate students improved their interpersonal communication skills and benefited from exposure to a variety of knowledge and research fields, contributing to a sense of pride in their university affiliation. The students suggested adding a practical component on providing constructive feedback and rendering the course mandatory to all the graduate students in the university. The contribution of this research is the creation and favorable assessment of an online course that develops interpersonal communication skills among graduate students from a variety of STEM faculties.
The study contributes to the social cognitive career theory (SCCT) by explaining high-school students’ career choices and finding possible relations between self-efficacy, interpersonal skills, what inspires them to choose a career, and their actual choices. The practical contribution of this research lies in understanding the impact of the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) program on its participants and graduates.
Background: The FIRST program incorporates project-based learning that fosters the design and production of innovative robotics by teams of students who compete annually.
Research Questions:
1) Do the FIRST program activities increase STEM exposure and encourage STEM career choices, and if so, how?
2) What are the factors that affect these choices? Are there correlations between those factors? If so, what are they?
3) Is the effect of the FIRST program on FIRST high- school students’ exposure and career choices different from that effect on FIRST graduates? If so, what are the differences and does gender play a role in these differences?
Methodology: The research participants included 119 FIRST high-school students and 297 FIRST graduates. The research applied a convergent parallel mixed-methods approach, with data collected both qualitatively via interviews and quantitatively via questionnaires.
Findings: Analysis of the data showed that the FIRST pro- gram increased participants’ STEM exposure and career choice in STEM domains. A significant, positive, strong correlation was found between interpersonal skills, STEM exposure, career choice, family and school support, and external motivation.
In response to the realization that qualified applicants’ choice of a career in chemistry is declining, we investigated the factors involved in chemistry and chemical education career choice. Building on the social cognitive theory (SCT) and the social cognitive career theory (SCCT), this research examines the personal, environmental, and behavioral factors influencing the chemistry-related profession choice of 55 chemists, 18 chemical engineers, and 72 chemistry teachers. Research participants also suggest ways to encourage students to major in chemistry during high school and pursue a chemistry-related career. Results showed that high school serves as a significant turning point of future career choices. Self-efficacy in the task-oriented and chemistry learning aspects are the driving forces of choosing a chemistry career. We also shed light on the importance of enhancing students’ choice in chemistry-related career via quality educational programs. The study contribution lies in examining all three aspects of career choice in the SCCT. We have applied this framework specifically in chemistry, but the identified factors can be applied to other STEM domains. Practically, we provide recommendations for different stakeholders on how to overcome the shortage of skilled chemistry professionals.
In many countries, the choice of a STEM career, especially in chemistry, is decreasing. A shortage of appropriately skilled workers can become a threat to any country’s future achievements. Our research strives to understand behavioral trends and career choice factors related to personal and environmental themes. Building on the foundations of the Social Cognitive Career Theory, the research sheds light on prospective trends and retrospective perceptions of chemistry-related professionals in choosing chemistry in high school, as a career, and as a STEM occupation. To analyze the prospective trends in choosing chemistry, we used data curated by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics on 545778 high school graduates. For the retrospective perceptions of choosing a chemistry career, we investigated three research groups (N = 190): chemists and chemical engineers, chemistry teachers, and third year undergraduate chemistry students. We found that choosing chemistry as a major and profession decreases from high school to higher education. Women tend to choose chemistry more than men at high school and university levels, and minorities tend to choose it more in high school but less in higher education compared to non-minorities. Task-oriented self-efficacy was the factor which contributed the most to chemistry career choice in all three research groups. The theoretical contribution is the unique SCCT application through the integration of both the prospective views on the behavioral theme and the retrospective views on the personal and environmental themes. Furthermore, we present new chemistry- related factors within the personal theme of this theoretical framework that can extend the SCCT framework.
This study explores Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) teachers’ perceptions of teaching and assessment methods. We investigated 125 STEM subject coordinators and teachers using interviews and questionnaires. We examined the most commonly implemented teaching and assessment methods, and the reasons teachers chose them. Then, we compared teachers from different school levels, subjects, teaching experience and cultural backgrounds. The teaching methods implemented the most were lectures and presentations, followed by class discussions and collaborative classwork. The most implemented assessment method was tests with open- and closed-ended questions, followed by project portfolios and experiment reports. Subject coordinators preferred methods that integrate formative assessment more than teachers. The study contributes to a better understanding of the teaching and assessment methods implemented in schools and the gap between recommendations and actual implementation. Conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, this research sets a baseline for similar future post-COVID research.
Context-based learning (CBL) has influenced teaching and learning science in many countries over the past decades. Twelve years ago, a special issue on CBL was published in this Journal, focusing on CBL curriculum development. Seven papers in this current special issue on CBL now address the question of how a context influences the learning process. The papers focus on the stimulation of learning STEM subjects within contexts, how the learning process occurs and is enhanced, and the application of contexts in different settings. The approaches, results, and implications of the papers are located in a larger view that considers the question of what must be the case if a student not only engages in the tasks of learning but also succeeds at them. Concerning willingness and effort by learners, the papers draw conclusions about which STEM-related interests of students endure and are ephemeral across a decade, design criteria for maximising students’ situational interest, and students’ engagement with content and context simultaneously. Focusing on the opportunity to teach and learn, the papers reveal how a professional development approach functions to support STEM teachers to develop CBL materials, and how specific scaffolding acts in teaching bring students to more complex reasoning. Regarding good teaching, insights are offered on how metacognitive prompts improve teaching. Centring on the social surround that supports teaching and learning, a comparison of two contexts for teaching the same content reveals which aspects of the contexts move student learning forward. From this mapping, paths toward future research are projected.
Facilitating students’ chemical literacy is a focal point of current science education. This study examines views of chemists and chemistry teachers on chemical literacy and, more broadly, on scientific literacy of four kinds of stakeholders: scientists, teachers, STEM students, and the educated public. We explored the views of 347 participants, representing the four stakeholder groups with diversified scientific literacy, and an Ask-a-Scientist public website as a communication channel for facilitating chemical literacy through posing questions. Research tools included interviews, open-ended questionnaires, and questions retrieved from the website. We found that the questions posed on the website expressed a range of levels of chemical literacy that the students had constructed. The stakeholder groups expressed diverse perspectives of their experiences using various types of communication channels, arguing for the need to encourage students to pose questions and receive scientists’ responses. Our study is placed in the larger context of scientific literacy and communication channels, as it takes the example of chemical literacy, with a focus on communications among scientists and chemistry teachers in the context of an Ask-a-Scientist website. It has established a link between responses of various stakeholders and the literature definitions regarding scientific literacy with focus on chemical literacy. From a practical viewpoint, the study presents a productive communication channel for posing questions in the context of chemistry and other sciences. Methodologically, this study includes the design of tools for analyzing both the views of different stakeholders and for evaluating the complexity level of chemistry questions, which might serve chemistry educators.
Metacognition, or ′thinking about thinking′, can improve scientific literacy and practices. It involves knowledge of cognition, i. e., being cognisant of one‘s knowledge, and regulation of cognition, i. e., consciously controlling the process of knowledge acquisition. A self-regulated learner can assimilate new knowledge, conduct inquiry, solve problems and plan ahead his or her learning. While studies have been conducted on metacognition in chemistry education, none have included detailed assignments covering a range of metacognitive strategies. Our review of studies on metacognition in chemistry secondary and higher education also includes also several exemplary assignments on the energy topic for facilitating and assessing metacognition in high school classrooms. We use metacognitive prompts and the construct of chemistry understanding levels, macroscopic, microscopic, symbol, and process, as an approach for metacognitive intervention. Finally, we provide recommendations for educators and a rubric for researchers.
Our study investigates the effect of hybrid courses and reading scientific articles on scientific literacy of biomedical engineering students. Participants included about 100 undergraduate and graduate students who participated in one or two hybrid courses. Our research goal was to study the effect of reading scientific articles and participating in online forum discourses on students’ scientific literacy by investigating the students’ question posing skill. Research tools included pre- and post-questionnaires, analysis of students’ questions posted on the forum discourse, and research questions raised by the students on their scientific posters. The research findings indicated that students’ participation in the hybrid courses and online discussions improved their scientific literacy skills. This improvement is reflected in the complexity level of the questions posted on the forum discourse after reading scientific articles, as well as in the research questions they wrote in their scientific posters, increased as the course progressed. The outcomes of this study underscore the potential of the hybrid course format that combines face-to-face sessions with online discussions of scientific articles for biomedical engineering students. The paper’s theoretical contribution is that forum discussions may foster science and engineering students’ question posing skill, leading to improved comprehension of scientific articles they read.
Metacognition, or ′thinking about thinking′, can improve scientific literacy and practices. It involves knowledge of cognition, i. e., being cognisant of one‘s knowledge, and regulation of cognition, i. e., consciously controlling the process of knowledge acquisition. A self-regulated learner can assimilate new knowledge, conduct inquiry, solve problems and plan ahead his or her learning. While studies have been conducted on metacognition in chemistry education, none have included detailed assignments covering a range of metacognitive strategies. Our review of studies on metacognition in chemistry secondary and higher education also includes also several exemplary assignments on the energy topic for facilitating and assessing metacognition in high school classrooms. We use metacognitive prompts and the construct of chemistry understanding levels, macroscopic, microscopic, symbol, and process, as an approach for metacognitive intervention. Finally, we provide recommendations for educators and a rubric for researchers.
As science and technology create an ecosystem that is becoming increasingly more knowledge-intensive, complex, and interconnected, the next generation science standards include systems thinking and systems modeling among 21st skills that should be fostered. We examined the effect of an online cross-disciplinary learning process on the development of systems thinking and modeling skills among engineering students and engineering and science teachers. The study, which used quantitative and qualitative tools, included 55 participants who performed four food-related learning assignments and created conceptual models in Object-Process Methodology. Their responses to online assignments were analyzed along with their perceptions, captured via a reflection questionnaire. The online learning process in this study effectively enhanced systems thinking and modeling skills of all learners, including those with no relevant background. One main conclusion that extends beyond the online learning was that imparting the basics of systems thinking and conceptual modeling skills can be achieved even within a short period of time—less than one semester. The contribution of the study is the formation of theoretical and practical frameworks for the integration of an cross-disciplinary model-based systems engineering online assignments into engineering and science curricula.
Our study investigates the effect of hybrid courses and reading scientific articles on scientific literacy of biomedical engineering students. Participants included about 100 undergraduate and graduate students who participated in one or two hybrid courses. Our research goal was to study the effect of reading scientific articles and participating in online forum discourses on students’ scientific literacy by investigating the students’ question posing skill. Research tools included pre- and post-questionnaires, analysis of students’ questions posted on the forum discourse, and research questions raised by the students on their scientific posters. The research findings indicated that students’ participation in the hybrid courses and online discussions improved their scientific literacy skills. This improvement is reflected in the complexity level of the questions posted on the forum discourse after reading scientific articles, as well as in the research questions they wrote in their scientific posters, increased as the course progressed. The outcomes of this study underscore the potential of the hybrid course format that combines face-to-face sessions with online discussions of scientific articles for biomedical engineering students. The paper’s theoretical contribution is that forum discussions may foster science and engineering students’ question posing skill, leading to improved comprehension of scientific articles they read.
The authors present a methodology for assessing both novelty and systems thinking, as expressed in the same conceptual models constructed by graduate engineering students.
Background: Companies worldwide seek employees with creativity and systems thinking, since solving design problems requires both skills. Novelty and usefulness are the most commonly accepted components of creativity, while systems thinking is the holistic understanding of systems.
Research Question: How can novelty and systems thinking be assessed based on conceptual models (of technological systems) constructed by graduate engineering students?
Methodology: Six student teams of two to four members each (N = 21) constructed solution models based on Object-Process Methodology, a formal methodology and language for model- based systems engineering. The authors assessed these models for novelty and for systems thinking using two existing rubrics based on the construction of system aspects—function, structure, and behavior.
Findings: The authors provide indications that both novelty and systems thinking can be assessed based on conceptual models of technological systems.
Index Terms—Assessment tools, creativity, graduate education, model-based system design, novelty, object-process methodology, student assessment, systems thinking, teams.
21st century skills are essential for career readiness. We investigated the development of students’ 21st century skills at a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) research university: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. We designed a self-reporting questionnaire covering 14 skills and deployed it to approximately 1500 students and alumni. Respondents were asked to rate each skill based on the degree to which it was developed during their studies. Domain-general skills scored higher than STEM-specific skills or soft (interpersonal) skills, whereas STEM-specific skills scored higher than soft skills. Content analysis revealed nine methods of teaching and learning through which skills developed. The four active methods had a small effect on domain-general skills, while the five passive methods had a medium-to-large effect on these skills. Active methods had a medium-size effect on both STEM-specific and soft skills, whereas passive methods had no effect on either group. Our contribution lies in identifying and matching methods to skills.
Modeling and systems thinking skills, as well as scientific understanding, are necessary for comprehending complex, food-related processes. The aim of this research was to evaluate the effect of food-related learning units on graduate students’ systems thinking and modeling skills, as well as on their understanding of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) issues. In this research, six STEM experts constructed a conceptual model of the codfish tracking process using Object-Process Methodology. Next, 15 STEM graduate students, who are prospective teachers, participated in a graduate course, which includes four online units on food production processes based on their respective models. Research tools included an expert focus group, student assignments, and questionnaires. Modeling and scientific understanding rubrics were adapted and validated for analysis of the assignments. We found a significant difference in the scores of systems thinking and modeling skills between students with modeling background and those without. Based of students’ feedback along the course, learning in context of food and sustainability also contributed to developing these skills. The contribution is the combination of food production and conceptual models for developing STEM teachers’ systems thinking and modeling skills, and their scientific understanding of food processes and sustainability issues.
One challenge associated with introducing systems thinking in chemistry classrooms is the increase in content complexity that students face when they engage in this type of approach. Placing core chemical ideas within larger systems has promise, as long as students are not overwhelmed by the added complexity. Although there are many potential strategies for dealing with complexity, one common tool is to employ visual or graphical tools to help conceptualize the problem or system at hand. In part because systems thinking touches on many potential levels of implementation, there are different visual tools that are helpful in conceptualizing different aspects. Some tools, such as systemsoriented concept map extension (SOCME) diagrams and systemigrams, use methodologies often associated with concept mapping but add features that enhance their applicability in systems thinking. Object−Process Methodology (OPM), which has seen fairly wide use in systems engineering contexts, uses formally defined components and links between them to help conceptualize systems and problems. Many systems of interest are dynamic in nature so tools such as behavior over time graphs (BOTG) are helpful in calibrating the temporal aspects of systems. Such dynamics are also captured via causal loop diagrams and stock and flow diagrams. Here, we introduce and describe the affordances of multiple types of graphical tools that can be used to support systems thinking approaches in chemistry education. Knowing the uses and advantages of these different tools will allow instructors to make informed choices about the tools that will best meet a particular educational goal when using systems thinking approaches in the classroom.
Science communication and science education aim to expose citizens to scientific knowledge, which is increasingly becoming a prerequisite for effective participation in modern society. We aim to present a review of science communication and science education literature, for highlighting the need for and importance of narrowing the gap between the two communities. Our objective was to find what themes, if any, are common to the two disciplines, based on keyword searches of the literature, that represent overlap constructs between the two communities. We searched for academic articles published from 2000 to 2017 in three science communication journals and three science education journals, which contained the keywords science communication, science engagement and science understanding. A three-stage literature review yielded 70 papers that provided the basis for common theme identification: (i) attitudes towards the importance of science communication, (ii) communication channel types and (iii) scientific knowledge construction. Findings reveal similarities and disparities between the two communities and the stakeholders they investigated. Both communities agree on the meaning of process and product science communication constructs. Yet, while the science education community mainly relates to the product construct, the science communication community mainly relays to the communication construct. We then discuss the value of fostering dialogue between the two communities. Our research contributes to raising the awareness of the value of maintaining ongoing dialogue between science communication and science education communities, accounting for the three common themes we have identified, implying that a common language is emerging, and the variety of stakeholders involved.
Facilitating students’ chemical literacy is a focal point of current science education. This study examines views of chemists and chemistry teachers on chemical literacy and, more broadly, on scientific literacy of four kinds of stakeholders: scientists, teachers, STEM students, and the educated public. We explored the views of 347 participants, representing the four stakeholder groups with diversified scientific literacy, and an Ask-a-Scientist public website as a communication channel for facilitating chemical literacy through posing questions. Research tools included interviews, open-ended questionnaires, and questions retrieved from the website. We found that the questions posed on the website expressed a range of levels of chemical literacy that the students had constructed. The stakeholder groups expressed diverse perspectives of their experiences using various types of communication channels, arguing for the need to encourage students to pose questions and receive scientists’ responses. Our study is placed in the larger context of scientific literacy and communication channels, as it takes the example of chemical literacy, with a focus on communications among scientists and chemistry teachers in the context of an Ask-a-Scientist website. It has established a link between responses of various stakeholders and the literature definitions regarding scientific literacy with focus on chemical literacy. From a practical viewpoint, the study presents a productive communication channel for posing questions in the context of chemistry and other sciences. Methodologically, this study includes the design of tools for analyzing both the views of different stakeholders and for evaluating the complexity level of chemistry questions, which might serve chemistry educators.
Systems thinking is a holistic approach for examining complex problems and systems that focuses on the interactions among system components and the patterns that emerge from those interactions. Systems thinking can help students develop higher-order thinking skills in order to understand and address complex, interdisciplinary, real-world problems. Because of these potential benefits, there have been recent efforts to support the implementation of systems thinking approaches in chemistry education, including the development of the IUPAC Systems Thinking in Chemistry Education (STICE) Project and this Special Issue of the Journal of Chemical Education: “Reimagining Chemistry Education: Systems Thinking, and Green and Sustainable Chemistry”. As part of these efforts, our purposes in this paper are to describe some of the potential benefits associated with systems thinking approaches, to identify the STEM education fields that have employed systems thinking approaches, to summarize some of the major findings about the applications of systems thinking in STEM education, and to present methods that have been used to assess systems thinking skills in STEM education. We found that, in general, systems thinking approaches have been applied in life sciences, earth sciences, and engineering but not in the physical or mathematical sciences. We also found that the primary emphasis of peer-reviewed publications was on the development of students’, rather than teachers’, systems thinking abilities. Existing tools for the assessment of systems thinking in STEM education can be divided into (a) assessment rubrics, (b) closed-ended tools, and (c) coding schemes, with each type of assessment tool having its own unique advantages and disadvantages. We highlight one particular case in which researchers applied an interdisciplinary framework for comprehensive assessment of systems thinking. Although systems thinking has not been widely researched or applied in chemistry education, many of the conceptual frameworks applied to systems thinking in other STEM education disciplines could potentially be applied in chemistry education. We argue that the benefits observed when applying systems thinking approaches in other STEM education disciplines could facilitate similar results for chemistry education. Finally, we provide considerations for future research and applications of systems thinking in chemistry education.
Systems thinking is an important skill in science and engineering education. Our study objectives were (1) to create the basis for a systems thinking language common to both science education and engineering education, and (2) to apply this language to assess science and engineering teachers’ systems thinking. We administered two assignments to teacher teams: first, modelling the same adapted scientific text, and second, modelling a synthesis of peer-reviewed articles in science and engineering education, with teams selecting a topic from a list and summarising them. We assessed those models using a rubric for systems thinking we had developed based on our literature review of this topic. We found high interrater reliability and validated the rubric’s theoretical construct for the system aspects of function, structure and behaviour. We found differences in scores between the assignments in favour of the second assignment, for two attributes of systems thinking: ‘expected outcome/intended purpose’ and ‘main object and its sub-objects’. We explain the first attribute difference as stemming from the modellers’ domain expertise as science or engineering teachers, rather than as scientists or engineers, and the second attribute difference – from the larger amount of information available for modelling the articles synthesis assignment. The theoretical contribution of this study lies in the definition of the systems thinking construct as a first step in establishing a common language for the science education and engineering education communities. The study’s methodological contribution lies in the rubric we developed and validated, which can be used for assessing the systems thinking of teachers and potentially also of undergraduate students.
Context-based learning (CBL) has influenced teaching and learning science in many countries over the past decades. Twelve years ago, a special issue on CBL was published in this Journal, focusing on CBL curriculum development. Seven papers in this current special issue on CBL now address the question of how a context influences the learning process. The papers focus on the stimulation of learning STEM subjects within contexts, how the learning process occurs and is enhanced, and the application of contexts in different settings. The approaches, results, and implications of the papers are located in a larger view that considers the question of what must be the case if a student not only engages in the tasks of learning but also succeeds at them. Concerning willingness and effort by learners, the papers draw conclusions about which STEM-related interests of students endure and are ephemeral across a decade, design criteria for maximising students’ situational interest, and students’ engagement with content and context simultaneously. Focusing on the opportunity to teach and learn, the papers reveal how a professional development approach functions to support STEM teachers to develop CBL materials, and how specific scaffolding acts in teaching bring students to more complex reasoning. Regarding good teaching, insights are offered on how metacognitive prompts improve teaching. Centring on the social surround that supports teaching and learning, a comparison of two contexts for teaching the same content reveals which aspects of the contexts move student learning forward. From this mapping, paths toward future research are projected.
This paper describes an Israeli national-level research examining the extent to which admissions of elementary school students to the gifted programmes based on standardised tests are gender-fair. In the research, the gifted students consisted of 275 boys, 128 girls, and additional 80 girls who were admitted to the gifted programme through affirmative action (AA).
To assess these young students’ scientific thinking skills, also referred to as science practices, open-ended questions of case-based questionnaires were developed. The investigated scientific thinking skills were question posing, explanation, graphing, inquiry, and metacognition. Analysis of the students’ responses revealed that gifted girls who entered the programmes through AA performed at the same level as the other gifted students. We found significant differences between the three research groups in question posing and graphing skills.
We suggest increasing gender-fairness by revising the standard national testing system to include case-based narratives followed by open-ended questions that assess gifted students’ scientific thinking skills. This may diminish the gender inequity expressed by the different number of girls and boys accepted to the gifted programmes. We show that open-ended tools for analysing students’ scientific thinking might better serve both research and practice by identifying gifted girls and boys equally well.
ICT belongs to modern life and is playing a growing role in education. For effective implementation of ICT in the classroom, teachers need to develop both positive attitudes and self-efficacy towards using these tools in educational settings. However, information measuring how positive such attitudes towards and how developed teachers’ self-efficacy on the use of ICT in education are remains scarce. This study examines the development of prospective chemistry teachers’ ICT-related attitudes and their corresponding self-efficacy.
It focuses on secondary level chemistry pre-service teachers’ attitudes and self-efficacy concerning the use of ICT in education in general, and in chemistry teaching in particular.
Data was collected from pre-service teachers (n = 239) at different stages of their teacher education programs. The study describes the progression of domain-specific self-efficacy. It also investigates gender differences and highlights the influence of seminars on the use of ICT in science education.
This study investigated the impact of a secondary school science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) research apprenticeship program (STEM-RAP) as part of active learning pedagogy on students’ performance. We examined students’ (a) scientific dispositions—self-efficacy, intrinsic goal orientation, and sense of control over learning, (b) STEM career choice, and (c) mentor-student interaction. Research tools included open- and closed-ended questionnaires, as well as interviews with a sample of students and mentors. The questionnaire was administered to 319 11th and 12th grade students majoring in science and technology in Israeli high schools. Of these, 262 participated in STEM-RAP and 57 took part only in studying a high-school STEM subject as a major. The results show highly positive scientific dispositions. A significant difference was found in intrinsic goal orientation in favor of the STEM-RAP students, who also had different contextual images of their mentors as ‘research partners’. The mentor interviews revealed several interaction themes, including content, procedural, and epistemic knowledge development, partnership, and emotional support. The findings emphasize the importance of research activities as part of active learning pedagogy for developing students’ motivation to study science.
We investigated the competence of in- and pre-service chemistry teachers and teacher mentors in designing sustainability- and systems-oriented online tasks for their students. Using a dedicated rubric, we evaluated their assessment knowledge (AK) as reflected in the tasks they had developed. The rubric is based on four attributes: integration of sustainability and chemistry, diversity of thinking skills, the variety of system aspects, and diversity of visual representations. Implementing a qualitative case study approach, we tracked the professional development of three purposefully sampled teachers in addition to using the rubric to score their tasks. Combining the rubric scorings and the qualitative investigation via feedback questionnaire revealed new insights. Besides the teachers’ content and pedagogical knowledge, the case studies’ context and relevance to the teachers were found central to their ability to assess learning. This research contributes to the theoretical understanding of AK of teachers with different backgrounds and professional experiences. The methodological contribution stems from the analysis of self-developed tasks based on a designated rubric, which should be further validated.
Alternative certification programs (ACPs) differ from traditional teacher certification programs in their target populations, duration, tools they employ, their pedagogy, and subject matter curricula. Given the acute shortage of excellent teachers, especially in STEM, significant efforts and resources are invested in ACPs so they prepare highly qualified teachers. Yet, novice teachers face difficulties during their initial integration into the school system. To better understand the state of affairs, we investigated and compared the integration into the school system of graduates of five major Israeli ACPs that are tailored for diverse student-teacher target audiences. The study goals were to (1) investigate and compare the integration of graduates of the five ACPs into the teaching profession with respect to five teacher-related aspects: (a) self-efficacy, (b) commitment to the teaching profession, (c) challenges encountered, (d) leadership roles, and (e) teamwork; (2) identify ACP characteristics that support the graduates’ integration into the teaching profession. The teacher-classroom-community model we propose, holistically connects three aspects: affective – the teacher, the teaching profession – the classroom, and peer interaction and leadership – the school community. The model provides a common language for comparing how the different ACPs prepared their graduates toward the teaching profession. The model is instrumental for identifying ACP characteristics that support graduates’ integration into teaching and facilitating ACP evaluation by connecting several aspects of teachers’ professional lives. The study employed a mixed-methodology in which 506 graduates responded to a closed- and open-ended questionnaire and 71 interviews were conducted with graduates (novice teachers), ACP directors, school principals and mentor teachers. The findings depict a complex picture that reflects the different ACPs’ characteristics targeted at diverse audiences. For example, graduates of STEM-oriented programs perceive the different kinds of knowledge, including content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge, as most important to their roles in schools. They undertake fewer roles, and the ones they do assume are discipline-related. Graduates of the more social-leadership-oriented programs identify developing leadership skills as most beneficial and they undertake more leadership-related roles. The research highlights key aspects that teacher education leaders should consider and use for self-evaluation of their ACPs. The strength of this study stems from proposing and applying the teacher-classroom-community model for evaluating teacher certification programs in several contexts and for diverse groups along with their integration into schools.
The first years of teaching are crucial for novice teachers’ integration into and retainment in the education system. The support they receive from experienced teachers impacts their professional development. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers require specialized support from domain-specific mentors. In this study, we examined how a three-level mentoring support system contributes to STEM novice teachers’ professional growth (PG) and to their mentors. The support system levels are individual mentoring, group mentoring, and mentoring networks. Based on the framework of teachers’ professional development, there are three PG dimensions: personal, professional, and social. Our research goal was to analyze teachers’ professional growth by the various mentoring level and dimension combinations. The study, conducted using a mixed methods approach, included 123 novice and 78 experienced STEM teachers. We examined the novice teachers’ perceptions of their teaching efficacy, the mentoring factors, correlations between the professional growth dimensions, and the contribution of each support level to the growth dimensions. We found that experienced teachers perceive novice teachers’ efficacy as lower than that perceived by the novice teachers. We identified gaps between the mentoring factors described by novice and experienced teachers and a strong correlation between the growth dimensions. All three mentoring support levels facilitate substantive personal, professional, and social growth. Individual mentoring contributes the most to all three growth dimensions, followed by mentoring networks. The contribution of this research is its elucidation of the intertwined support levels, which provide scaffolds for the novice teachers and facilitate the growth of the experienced teachers.
Content knowledge (CK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and, assessment knowledge (AK) are fundamental types of teachers’ knowledge. Second-career, pre-service chemistry teachers leave the industry and return to the Technion to study in the Views program to obtain a high school teaching certificate. Their background can potentially contribute to higher quality of science teaching and learning in general and of chemistry teaching in particular. We investigated how pre-service chemistry teachers’ knowledge develops as they are exposed to chemistry context-based learning, and what differences are there between pre- and in-service teachers’ knowledge types and their self-efficacy. The participants were 25 second-career pre-service teachers and 29 in-service chemistry teachers who served as a comparison group. The teachers’ professional growth was examined by assessing their CK, PCK, AK, and self-efficacy by using three questionnaires that included adapted scientific articles on energy, acid-base, and oxidation-reduction in the context of sustainability. Five expert chemistry teachers validated the questionnaires. We found that all three knowledge types of the pre-service teachers improved during the course and they became more aware of sustainable chemistry issues than the in-service teachers. The study contributes to chemistry education by narrowing the gap that exists in the literature between chemistry teachers’ PCK and AK on the one hand and self-efficacy on the other hand. We offer an assessment tool for identifying and quantifying teachers’ knowledge. We offer recommendations for science educators about the needs, strengths, and weaknesses of pre- and in-service teachers related to teaching sustainable chemistry.
This study explores Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) teachers’ perceptions of teaching and assessment methods. We investigated 125 STEM subject coordinators and teachers using interviews and questionnaires. We examined the most commonly implemented teaching and assessment methods, and the reasons teachers chose them. Then, we compared teachers from different school levels, subjects, teaching experience and cultural backgrounds. The teaching methods implemented the most were lectures and presentations, followed by class discussions and collaborative classwork. The most implemented assessment method was tests with open- and closed-ended questions, followed by project portfolios and experiment reports. Subject coordinators preferred methods that integrate formative assessment more than teachers. The study contributes to a better understanding of the teaching and assessment methods implemented in schools and the gap between recommendations and actual implementation. Conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, this research sets a baseline for similar future post-COVID research.
Systems thinking is an important skill in science and engineering education. Our study objectives were (1) to create the basis for a systems thinking language common to both science education and engineering education, and (2) to apply this language to assess science and engineering teachers’ systems thinking. We administered two assignments to teacher teams: first, modelling the same adapted scientific text, and second, modelling a synthesis of peer-reviewed articles in science and engineering education, with teams selecting a topic from a list and summarising them. We assessed those models using a rubric for systems thinking we had developed based on our literature review of this topic. We found high interrater reliability and validated the rubric’s theoretical construct for the system aspects of function, structure and behaviour. We found differences in scores between the assignments in favour of the second assignment, for two attributes of systems thinking: ‘expected outcome/intended purpose’ and ‘main object and its sub-objects’. We explain the first attribute difference as stemming from the modellers’ domain expertise as science or engineering teachers, rather than as scientists or engineers, and the second attribute difference – from the larger amount of information available for modelling the articles synthesis assignment. The theoretical contribution of this study lies in the definition of the systems thinking construct as a first step in establishing a common language for the science education and engineering education communities. The study’s methodological contribution lies in the rubric we developed and validated, which can be used for assessing the systems thinking of teachers and potentially also of undergraduate students.
