{"title":"BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS' EXPERIENCES OF COVID-19 AS AN ENABLER FOR THEIR SERVICE-LEARNING PROJECTS","authors":"Angela James","doi":"10.33225/balticste/2021.86","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33225/balticste/2021.86","url":null,"abstract":"The newspaper headlines in July 2020, reflected the context of COVID-19 and the challenges in the education sector in South Africa. Pre-service teachers completing a Biological Sciences for Educations Research and Service-Learning module conducted their Service-Learning in their home contexts, which under normal times, they would do so in the neighbouring university contexts. The research question: Why did the Biological Sciences pre-service teachers' experience COVID-19 as an enabler for their Service-Learning projects. An interpretive, qualitative case study was adopted to explore the pre-service teacher’s experiences of their projects undertaken. The data gathering methods included document analysis (pre-service teacher’s reflective diaries); observation of module reflective sessions and seminar presentations and visual methodology (pre-service teachers made videos). The data analysis using descriptive content analysis. The research rigour of credibility and dependability were worked with, and the research ethics were considered. The results indicated that during the learning about the project, the pre-service teachers had emotional experiences of fear, excitement and even confusion. During the planning for the project, they had concerns about Covid-19 restrictions and access to placement sites, what to do, who to work with and the nature of the projects planned. The action of the Service-Learning indicated the collaboration and teamwork, imagination and creativity, including the contextually relevant problem-solving actions that were undertaken. Pre-service teachers were in their own communities where they excelled and built relationships and valued their community members. Service-Learning should be completed in the pre-service teacher’s home contexts for greater relevance, value and connectedness with their community. Keywords: biological sciences, case study, COVID-19 pandemic, pre-service-teacher education, service-learning","PeriodicalId":153915,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 4th International Baltic Symposium on Science and Technology Education (BalticSTE2021), Šiauliai, 21–22 June, 2021","volume":"73 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116983165","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"CHALLENGES FOR PRE-SERVICE PHYSICS TEACHER EDUCATION IN A NORTHEASTERN BRAZILIAN STATE IN PANDEMIC TIMES","authors":"Micaías A. Rodrigues","doi":"10.33225/balticste/2021.152","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33225/balticste/2021.152","url":null,"abstract":"Pandemic has changed the way education has taken place in Brazil, which has occurred remotely. The classes have been taught in the public network especially through lives or WhatsApp. In this paper, the way in which the training activities of the supervised internship and the Pedagogical Residency in the teaching of Physics in schools took place will be addressed. As a result, the abundant use of new information and communication technologies was verified. Resources and methodologies such as digital platforms, simulators, gamification, among others, were used by pre-service teachers during supervised internship and / or Pedagogical Residency activities. With this, pre-service teachers were able to immerse themselves in the current school reality, better understanding how teaching has occurred in this period and to propose activities that could help to improve the quality of teaching offered in basic education schools and in the recycling of in-service teachers, as well as in the motivation of students, too. Keywords: pandemic period, pedagogical residency, physics teaching, supervised internship, teacher education","PeriodicalId":153915,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 4th International Baltic Symposium on Science and Technology Education (BalticSTE2021), Šiauliai, 21–22 June, 2021","volume":"129 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114521410","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"PRE-SERVICE PRIMARY TEACHERS’ SCIENCE CONTENT KNOWLEDGE: A CASE OF LITHUANIA","authors":"Vincentas Lamanauskas","doi":"10.33225/balticste/2021.95","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33225/balticste/2021.95","url":null,"abstract":"Primary school teachers’ science competence remains a highly relevant theoretical and practical problem. Although the general curricula and educational standards of Lithuanian general education school set quite high requirements for the process of primary school science education, the science competence of teachers raises reasonable concerns. It has to be stated that in university primary education study programmes, insufficient attention is paid to the natural science component. This leads to a possible lack of preparation for pre-service primary school teachers in science education. A pilot study conducted at the beginning of 2020, in which 107 students from two Lithuanian universities participated, showed that their scientific knowledge was poor and insufficient. Particularly weak was subject knowledge from the field “Nature research”, and also knowledge related to animate and inanimate nature. An assumption can be made that science literacy of pre-service primary education teachers is not sufficiently developed at university, which is one of the factors limiting the quality of children’s science education. There are probably two main reasons for this situation: insufficient science education in general education schools, and insufficient training of students in the field of science education for pre-service primary school teachers. Keywords: quantitative research, pilot research, pre-service teachers, science content knowledge, university students","PeriodicalId":153915,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 4th International Baltic Symposium on Science and Technology Education (BalticSTE2021), Šiauliai, 21–22 June, 2021","volume":"136 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123279080","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"CHEMICAL VS. NATURAL: COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS","authors":"Małgorzata Nodzyńska","doi":"10.33225/balticste/2021.126","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33225/balticste/2021.126","url":null,"abstract":"In the era of universal and compulsory education, in which attention is paid to the ability to think scientifically, there should be no room for unscientific views. However, unscientific theories often appear in the media, and they find numerous supporters. Therefore, it was decided to investigate which of the common beliefs about the \"chemical vs. natural\" pair are believed by Poles. And whether belief in unscientific myths depends on gender, age, level of education or its type. Checking these relationships will allow, inter alia, to evaluate the effectiveness of science education in Poland. Within 4 years, the beliefs of 2,473 people were examined. The obtained results show that the universality of education does not prevent misconceptions. There was also no correlation between the correctness of the answers to the questions on age, gender, education level or its type. It seems that the way science is taught should be completely modified in such a way that students can distinguish truth from myth. Keywords: science misconceptions, common beliefs, fake news","PeriodicalId":153915,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 4th International Baltic Symposium on Science and Technology Education (BalticSTE2021), Šiauliai, 21–22 June, 2021","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123533802","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"IN-SERVICE SCIENCE TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TARGETED TO PROMOTE STUDENT UNDERSTANDING OF CORE SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS","authors":"Kārlis Greitāns, D. Namsone","doi":"10.33225/balticste/2021.49","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33225/balticste/2021.49","url":null,"abstract":"This review study includes 19 articles from 2016 to 2021 focusing on in-service science teachers’ professional development targeted to promote student conceptual understanding. The present study is guided by the following research question: “What characterizes high-quality in-service science teachers’ professional development targeted to promote student conceptual understanding?” The review indicates that such classroom practices as modelling, questioning, and arguing from evidence are perspective ways to develop student conceptual understanding in science classrooms. A mixture of input, application, and reflection; long-term involvement of participants; focus on the question how to foster transfer from teacher professional development into participants’ everyday work characterize high quality teacher professional development interventions that develop and support inquiry practices. Results suggest that teacher professional development that is sensitive to teacher learning needs is a way to develop student conceptual understanding. Keywords: in-service teacher professional development, science teacher education, student conceptual understanding, teacher learning","PeriodicalId":153915,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 4th International Baltic Symposium on Science and Technology Education (BalticSTE2021), Šiauliai, 21–22 June, 2021","volume":"45 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122255502","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"LAWSON CLASSROOM TEST OF SCIENTIFIC REASONING AT ENTRANCE UNIVERSITY LEVEL","authors":"Tereza Hrouzková, L. Richterek","doi":"10.33225/balticste/2021.74","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33225/balticste/2021.74","url":null,"abstract":"The Lawson classroom test of scientific reasoning is a quite popular and widely used tool that measures the level and development of the student's scientific reasoning skills. In this contribution, the results of this test for the N=446 students of the Faculty of Science Palacký University Olomouc from the years 2018–2020 at the beginning of their study were analysed. Calculation of the standard characteristics of the test items (difficulty index, discrimination index and point biserial coefficient) confirms that the test meets the required criteria for the included questions and its overall consistency. Performing the Mann-Whitney rank test with a standard significance level α = .05, the statistically significant difference between males and females was found, on the other hand, no statistically significant difference between the students preparing for their prospective teacher careers and those with technical specializations in chemistry or physics was identified. This contradicts a common belief that students choosing teacher preparation programmes are generally worse in scientific performance and technical subjects. The results also show that about a quoter of the students come to university with a low level of their scientific reasoning skills which should be therefore supported and further developed in lecturing and teaching. Keywords: scientific reasoning, test evaluation, Lawson Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning","PeriodicalId":153915,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 4th International Baltic Symposium on Science and Technology Education (BalticSTE2021), Šiauliai, 21–22 June, 2021","volume":"93 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122547026","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Polona Legvart, Metka Kordigel Aberšek, Maja Kerneža
{"title":"PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ NATURAL SCIENCE DIGITAL LITERACY COMPETENCE IN DIGITAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS","authors":"Polona Legvart, Metka Kordigel Aberšek, Maja Kerneža","doi":"10.33225/balticste/2021.105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33225/balticste/2021.105","url":null,"abstract":"This study describes a research focused on primary teachers’ evaluation of their students’ digital literacy as a basic competence in the structure of natural science literacy of research and comprehension competence. With the term, primary teachers we mean teachers of first three grades of compulsory school. The comparison of basic computer skills between Generation Z and Generation Alpha revealed, contrary to expectations, a very small progress. The consequence of this circumstance are the problems associated with the implementation of natural science curricular goals in digital environments of remote teaching in school closure period. A questionnaire given to 176 primary teachers, revealed which digital learning environments could be chosen for science lessons and which curricular goals could/could not be achieved with this level of Generation Alpha students’ digital literacy competence. The results showed that the digital environment is more problematic and unfavorable for Generation Alpha in the field of natural science, as teachers showed a higher frequency of avoiding natural science goals than social science content. Keywords: distance learning environment, generation Alpha, natural science digital literacy competence, natural science education","PeriodicalId":153915,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 4th International Baltic Symposium on Science and Technology Education (BalticSTE2021), Šiauliai, 21–22 June, 2021","volume":"44 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129215831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"EXPLORING THE EFFECTIVENESS AND IMPACTS OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF MEDIA IN SCIENCE LEARNING","authors":"Yi Wen Lo, Chih-Hsiung Ku","doi":"10.33225/balticste/2021.115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33225/balticste/2021.115","url":null,"abstract":"The spread of COVID-19 has caused a high demand for online learning or self-learning at home. We focus on evaluating which media is most suitable for self-learning for the third graders. For effective assessment of children's learning, the study adopted AEIOU: Awareness; Enjoyment; Interest; Opinion formation; and Understanding as the evaluation framework. In this research, three types of media were implemented: animation, educational video, and science comics. Total 145 third graders were divided into three groups: animation group, educational video group, and science comics group, to learn the concept of heat transfer through one kind of media respectively. The results revealed that students had positive feedback on the three dimensions of Awareness, Enjoyment, and Interest. And all three media improved students' understanding of heat transfer without a difference. While in the dimension of Opinion formation, the students had less life experience and pre-knowledge, their performances were relatively low. In summary, the three types of media showed the effectiveness of self-learning for the third graders. Especially the animations proved to be the most suitable for the third-grade children to conduct self-learning. Keywords: science communication, AEIOU, heat transfer, Media","PeriodicalId":153915,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 4th International Baltic Symposium on Science and Technology Education (BalticSTE2021), Šiauliai, 21–22 June, 2021","volume":"53 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115153062","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Saša A. Horvat, Dušica D. Rodić, Tamara N. Rončević, Snežana S. Babić-Kekez, Bojana Trifunović Horvat
{"title":"PROCEDURE FOR ASSESSMENT OF THE COGNITIVE COMPLEXITY OF THE PROBLEMS WITH A LIMITING REACTANT","authors":"Saša A. Horvat, Dušica D. Rodić, Tamara N. Rončević, Snežana S. Babić-Kekez, Bojana Trifunović Horvat","doi":"10.33225/balticste/2021.59","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33225/balticste/2021.59","url":null,"abstract":"Mathematical calculations are an important part of chemistry. Those problems are difficult for students, especially if the task is set with a limiting reactant. The aim of this study was development of a Procedure for evaluation of cognitive complexity of the Stoichiometric Tasks with a Limiting Reactant. The procedure created included an assessment of the difficulty of concepts and an assessment of their interactivity. As a research instrument for assessing performance, the test of knowledge was specifically constructed for this research. Each task in the test was followed by a seven-point Likert scale for the evaluation of the invested mental effort. The research included 58 upper-secondary students. The validity of the procedure was confirmed by a series of regression analyses where statistically significant correlation coefficients are obtained among the examined variables: students’ achievement and invested mental effort from cognitive complexity (independent variable). Keywords: chemistry education, stoichiometry, problem tasks, achievement, mental effort","PeriodicalId":153915,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 4th International Baltic Symposium on Science and Technology Education (BalticSTE2021), Šiauliai, 21–22 June, 2021","volume":"44 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128273859","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"DEVELOPING STUDENTS’ 21ST CENTURY SKILLS IN STEM MENTOR-MENTEE OUTREACH PROGRAMS","authors":"N. M. Siew","doi":"10.33225/balticste/2021.166","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33225/balticste/2021.166","url":null,"abstract":"STEM education has increasingly drawn attention internationally in recent years. In Malaysia, efforts to encourage students to take up STEM subjects have risen, but student enrolments in almost every STEM subject area have continued to fall over the last decade. The situation is even more challenging in Sabah, an East Malaysian state where 72 percent of its schools are located in rural areas with basic utilities and limited infrastructures. Therefore, a STEM Mentor-Mentee outreach program through university-school partnership was developed to address the gap in STEM education attainment. The program targeted tenth graders (aged 16 years) from rural secondary schools to help them learn STEM by relating it explicitly to their local environment. STEM activities were guided by the engineering design process while harnessing their 21st century skills. Mentors consisting of in-service and pre-service teachers who provided guidance, support and assistance to mentees. Data were captured through mentees’ responses to open-ended questions, mentors’ field notes, focus group observation and interviews. A total of 732 students, 342 in-service and 99 pre-service teachers were involved in the programs from 2015 to 2019. Findings suggest that the program was able to develop creativity, problem solving, critical thinking and teamwork skills among rural secondary school students. Keywords: 21st century skills, mentor-mentee, outreach program, rural schools, STEM Education, university-school partnership","PeriodicalId":153915,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 4th International Baltic Symposium on Science and Technology Education (BalticSTE2021), Šiauliai, 21–22 June, 2021","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121867629","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}