Background
Students’ knowledge of scientific principles of evolution is often inadequate, despite its recognized importance for understanding biology. Moreover, difficulties associated with ...underlying abstract concepts such as randomness and probability can hinder successful learning of evolutionary concepts. Studies show that visualizations, particularly simulations together with appropriate instructional support, facilitate the learning of abstract concepts. Therefore, we have developed interactive, web-based simulation software called EvoSketch in efforts to help learners grasp the nature and importance of random and probabilistic processes in evolutionary contexts. We applied EvoSketch in an intervention study comparing four self-directed study conditions: learning with EvoSketch (1) alone, (2) combined with interpretative support, (3) combined with reflective support, and (4) using texts about randomness and probability instead of EvoSketch. All conditions received no support from any instructors. Knowledge about evolution as well as randomness and probability in the context of evolution, time-on-task, and perceived cognitive load were measured. A sample of 269 German secondary school students (
M
age
= 15.6 years,
SD
= 0.6 years) participated in the study.
Results
Learners using EvoSketch without additional support obtained higher follow-up test scores regarding their knowledge of randomness and probability than those using the text-based approach. However, use of the simulations together with given instructional support (interpretative or reflective) did not increase students’ performance, relative to the text-based approach. In addition, no significant between-intervention differences were found concerning the knowledge of evolution, while significant differences between the groups were detected concerning students’ perceived cognitive load and time-on-task.
Conclusions
From our findings, we conclude that EvoSketch seems to have a very small positive effect on students’ understanding of randomness and probability. Contrary to our expectations, additional self-directed instructional support did not improve students’ understanding, probably because it was not necessary to understand EvoSketch simulations. When using EvoSketch in the classroom, we recommend increasing the intervention timeframe to several sessions and a variety of evolutionary examples for which EvoSketch serves as an underlying framework.
Curriculum materials explicitly designed to foster teacher learning represent a prominent route to professional development (PD) for teachers. However, it is unclear whether PD can be delivered ...successfully in the form of teacher self-study of curriculum materials, or whether it has to be scaffolded additionally by an expert. This study investigated effects of expert scaffolding in science-related PD for elementary school teachers with regard to proximal teacher outcomes (i.e., teacher beliefs and motivations), instructional quality, and student achievement. Moreover, mediation of PD effects through proximal teacher outcomes and teachers' instruction was examined. Seventy-three teachers and 1,039 students participated in the study. Expert scaffolding was implemented in a 3-tiered way: A first group (18 teachers) received PD with extensive scaffolding, a second group (18 teachers) was provided with reduced expert scaffolding, and a third group (18 teachers) received no expert scaffolding and was provided with the curriculum materials only (self-study group). A baseline group (19 teachers) did not participate in science-related PD and completed questionnaires on teacher outcomes only. Scaffolded PD was significantly superior to PD through self-study in terms of teacher beliefs and motivation, instructional quality, and student achievement. Contrary to our hypothesis, PD effects on student learning were mediated only to a small extent by teacher beliefs. However, teachers' instruction emerged as a substantial mediator of PD effects on student achievement. The results highlight the advantages of additional expert scaffolding in PD based on curriculum materials for the preparation of elementary school teachers for teaching science.
Pedagogical content knowledge forms the core of teachers' professional knowledge; it refers to knowledge about making subject matter accessible to students. Thus, the formation of pedagogical content ...knowledge constitutes a crucial issue for educational research and practice. We investigated the contributions of content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge to the formation of pedagogical content knowledge about fractions and fractional arithmetic in 6th grade mathematics in a between-participants study with 100 German preservice teachers. The three experimental and two control groups received 7 hr of intervention spread out over two days. We assessed participants' pedagogical content knowledge before intervention, between the two days, after intervention, as well as at 6-week follow-up. The control groups exclusively received instruction on either pedagogical knowledge or pedagogical content knowledge; each of the experimental groups embodied a specific hypothesis about the formation of pedagogical content knowledge. Providing support for a mechanism of amalgamation, a combination of instruction on content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge produced small but statistically significant growth in pedagogical content knowledge. Similarly, instruction on content knowledge exclusively was sufficient to cause small but statistically significant growth in pedagogical content knowledge. Prior instruction on content knowledge did not facilitate learning from instruction on pedagogical content knowledge. Nevertheless, direct instruction on pedagogical content knowledge caused medium and statistically significant growth in pedagogical content knowledge.
Educational Impact and Implications Statement
We conducted a brief experimental study-interventions lasted 7 hr-with German preservice elementary school teachers to investigate the relevance of content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge for the formation of pedagogical content knowledge about teaching fractions. A combination of instruction on content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge, as well as exclusive instruction on content knowledge, produced small gains in pedagogical content knowledge. In contrast, despite preservice teachers' limited content knowledge, direct instruction on pedagogical content knowledge produced medium gains in pedagogical content knowledge. For elementary mathematics, the results suggest that teacher education programs that deliver early and explicit instruction on pedagogical content knowledge are more efficient in fostering pedagogical content knowledge than programs that provide instruction of content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge consecutively or that exclusively provide instruction on content knowledge.
This study examines the impact of course quality on pre-service physics teachers’ content knowledge (CK) development. Teachers’ CK is one prerequisite to effective teaching. To support teachers in ...developing CK, the quality of higher education content courses plays a major role. Yet, models of course quality for higher education vary in their dimensions and it is hence not clear how course quality is best conceptualized. To address this issue, we analyzed data from N = 107 pre-service physics teachers’ CK over one year. We used confirmatory factor analysis to determine the number and nature of dimensions for course quality. Next, we used path models to investigate the impact on CK development. Our results show that a four-dimensional model described CK course quality best and that the cognitive support dimension in particular supports CK development. This highlights the importance of focusing on cognitive support for improving pre-service physics teachers’ CK development.
•A four-dimensional model described CK course quality best.•Cognitive support was a separate dimension of course quality in teacher education.•Cognitive support predicted pre-service physics teachers’ CK development.•The quantity of courses and the cognitive support had comparable effect sizes on the CK development.
Students of all ages face severe conceptual difficulties regarding key aspects of evolution-- the central, unifying, and overarching theme in biology. Aspects strongly related to abstract "threshold" ...concepts like randomness and probability appear to pose particular difficulties. A further problem is the lack of an appropriate instrument for assessing students' conceptual knowledge of randomness and probability in the context of evolution. To address this problem, we have developed two instruments, Randomness and Probability Test in the Context of Evolution (RaProEvo) and Randomness and Probability Test in the Context of Mathematics (RaProMath), that include both multiple-choice and free-response items. The instruments were administered to 140 university students in Germany, then the Rasch partial-credit model was applied to assess them. The results indicate that the instruments generate reliable and valid inferences about students' conceptual knowledge of randomness and probability in the two contexts (which are separable competencies). Furthermore, RaProEvo detected significant differences in knowledge of randomness and probability, as well as evolutionary theory, between biology majors and preservice biology teachers.
ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Die Beschäftigung mit Biologie erfordert ein Denken in Zusammenhängen. Concept Maps veranschaulichen Zusammenhänge durch Begriffe, die durch beschriftete Pfeile semantisch sinnvoll ...verbunden sind. Traditionell wird davon ausgegangen, dass die Anfertigung von Concept Maps (sog. Concept Mapping) deshalb lernwirksam ist, weil mit ihr anspruchsvolle kognitive Prozesse der Organisation und Elaboration einhergehen. In jüngster Zeit wurde diese etablierte Vorstellung erschüttert, indem vor allem der Abruf von Informationen aus dem Langzeitgedächtnis für die Lernwirksamkeit des Concept Mapping verantwortlich gemacht wurde. Moniert werden kann, dass in den zugrundeliegenden Studien ausschließlich Lernmaterialien geringen Umfangs verwendet und Concept Mapping nicht trainiert wurde. Das geplante Projekt zielt darauf ab, die berichteten Befunde vor dem Hintergrund dieser beiden Monita kritisch zu prüfen. Aus einer biologiedidaktischen Perspektive dient es der evidenzbasierten Entwicklung eines wirksamen Concept Mapping-Trainings. Aus Perspektive der psychologischen Grundlagenforschung gewährt es Einblick in die kognitiven Prozesse, die die Lernwirksamkeit des Concept Mapping bedingen. ABSTRACT Learning biology is characterized by thinking about interrelationships. Concept maps represent interrelationships through concepts connected to each other with labelledarrows. Traditionally, researchers assume that the construction of concept maps (so-called concept mapping) fosters learning by initiating organization and elaboration as complex cognitive processes. Recently, the cognitive basis of the learning efficacy of concept mapping has been questioned as some researchers reasoned that retrieval of information from long-term memory underlies the efficacy of concept mapping. We criticize that the texts to be learned in these studies were comparatively short. Moreover, participants had not been specifically trained in using concept mapping. Our project aims at examining the robustness of the findings reported above. With regard to biology education, we will devise an effective and evidence-based training in concept mapping. From a psychological perspective, the findings will give insight into the cognitive processes that underlie the efficacy of concept mapping as a learning strategy.
Students' interest in science declines substantially in the transition from elementary to secondary education. Using students' ratings of their instruction on the topic of evaporation and ...condensation, we examined if changes in instructional practices accounted for differences in situational interest in science instruction and enduring individual interest in science between elementary and secondary school classrooms. Multilevel regression analyses were conducted for a sample of 60 fourth- and 54 sixth-grade classrooms. The use of student experiments, the elicitation of student explanations, and lack of clarity accounted to varying degrees for disparities in science interest between grade levels. The impact of instructional practices on individual interest was mediated by situational interest. This corroborated predictions of the person-object theory of interest.
Untersuchungen aus dem Bereich Mathematik belegen, dass dem fachdidaktischen Wissen als zentralem Bestandteil des professionellen Lehrerwissens große Bedeutung für Unterrichtsqualität und Lernerfolg ...von Schülerinnen und Schülern zukommt. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht die Bedeutung des fachdidaktischen Wissens von Lehrkräften für den Lernerfolg wie auch für die Erreichung motivationaler und selbstbezogener Zielkriterien im Bereich des naturwissenschaftlichen Sachunterrichts der Grundschule. Im Rahmen der Studie unterrichteten 60 Lehrkräfte 1326 Lernende der 4. Klasse zum Thema Aggregatzustände. Die leistungs- und nichtleistungsbezogenen Zielkriterien aufseiten der Lernenden sowie das fachdidaktische Wissen der Lehrkräfte wurden mit Fragebögen erfasst und die Zusammenhänge anhand von Mehrebenenanalysen überprüft. Unter Kontrolle individueller Lernvoraussetzungen und bedeutsamer Kontextmerkmale zeigte sich ein positiver Zusammenhang zwischen dem fachdidaktischen Wissen der Lehrkräfte und dem Lernerfolg sowie dem Fachinteresse und dem Kompetenzerleben der Lernenden. (DIPF/Orig.).
Recent investigations in the field of mathematics have demonstrated that teachers' pedagogical content knowledge, as a central component of teachers' professional knowledge, plays a significant role in high-quality instruction and students' learning gains. The study presented here explores the significance of teachers' pedagogical content knowledge for gains in pupils' understanding of scientific concepts and for motivational and self-related outcome criteria in primary science education in Germany. It reports on findings from a study with a pre-post-design comprising 60 primary school teachers and their 1326 pupils. Teachers' pedagogical content knowledge and pupils' learning gains as well as motivational and self-related outcome criteria were directly assessed with paper-and-pencil tests. Two-step models controlling for several relevant variables at the individual and the class level were specified. Results revealed a substantial positive effect of the measured pedagogical content knowledge on pupils' achievement gains as well as on pupils' situational interest and perceived competence. (DIPF/Orig.).
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