Constructivism is defined in a variety of ways (e.g., constructivist research paradigm, sociological constructivism, and philosophical constructivism) and applied in vastly different contexts. Among the various usages and interpretations of constructivism, one is educational constructivism that embodies an epistemological view of knowledge and learning that is an alternative to naive empiricism or classical behaviorism. To represent the full range of stances taken by educational constructivists, three versions of educational constructivism were considered in this study: individual constructivism originating in the work of Piaget, the radical version of constructivism associated with von Glasersfeld, and the social constructivism of Vygotsky. I investigated preservice teachers' meaning construction about constructivist epistemology as they went through their preservice teacher education program using in-depth interviews. This preservice teacher education program employs constructivist aspects of teacher education and generates applications of constructivism to the practice of teaching. Features of preservice teachers' internalized meanings of educational constructivism include: (1)traditional pedagogy as the default, (2) Literal interpretation of constructivism, (3) Individual constructivism as conceptual change learning, (4) Radical constructivism as a strong individualistic philosophy, (5) Social constructivism as being too ideal to be practical. A compilation of the teachers' own statements about how to implement conceptual change learning and their projected role as constructivist teacher is also provided.
One of the prime objectives of school science is to help the children learn science concepts and conceptual schemes that will help them understand and interpret their environment. One of the basic scientific concepts is 'Change -everything existing in universe is changing always'. The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of elementary and secondary students' conception of change. The subjects for this study were 489 students in Korea; 111 fourth graders, 95 sixth graders, 140 seventh graders and 143 ninth graders. Four items - mountain, river, ground, sea -were used for investigating students conception of change because representing the nature world in elementary and secondary level. The subjects were asked to check whether each item was changing and to explain each their check. Students' explanations were classified by whether they were sound understanding geologically, or not. The rate of responses that each item was changing was compared by grades and the rate of geological explanations was also compared by grades. Because students' conceptions of change might were effected by time scale, the additional questions that asked students whether the present status of four items were equivalent to the that of several points of time. As a result, the rate of scientific answers and patterns of explanations were similar by grade and the rate of geological understandings was relatively low. The frequencies of concept of change were more dropped as the point of time was closer to present.
We have studied 73 pre-service science teachers' conceptions about the nature of science (NOS) using 120 true-false test items based on AAAS Benchmarks statements. We have found that participants have inadequate understanding of the NOS, especially in understanding of five categories of conceptions; change and continuity in science, bias in scientific investigations, hypothesis in scientific investigations, things common in science, and science ethics. The result also indicates that there is a difference between primary pre-service teachers and secondary pre-service teachers. From the analysis of consistency, we also found that this inadequate understanding comes from confusion rather than misconception. All the results support that there is a need of intense pre-service teacher education concerning thenature of science.
Reasonable and reliable assessment method is one of the most important issues in science education, Partial credits method is an effective tool for assessing students' science inquiry problem solving. The purposes of this study were to classify the Problem solving types based on the analysis of the thinking Process, and how much the related science concept and the science process skills were used in solving science inquiry problems, and to describe the possibility and rationality of the assessment method that gives partial credit 128 high school seniors were selected and their answers were analyzed to identify science concepts they used to solve each problem, and the result was used as the criterion in the scientific concept test development. Also, to study the science inquiry problem solving type, 152 high school seniors were selected, and protocols were made from audio-taped data of their problem solving process through a think-aloud method and retrospective interviews. In order to get a raw data needed in statistical comparison of reliability, discrimination and the difficulty of the test and the production of the regression equation that determines the ratio of partial credit, 640 students were selected and they were given a science inquiry problem test, a science process skills test, and a scientific concept test. Research result suggested it is more reasonable and reliable to switch to the assessment method that applies partial credit to different problem solving types based on the analysis of the thinking process in problem solving process, instead of the dichotomous credit method.
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of metastrategic exercise on a scientific reasoning strategy to control variables, and investigate the developmental patterns in the strategy usage within a given period. Two groups composed of 90 fifth grade students engaged in a scientific reasoning task over six daily sessions. Additionally, one group engaged in metastrategic exercise on fictional students' strategies of controlling variables on the task, while the other spent equivalent time on an unrelated task. Based upon results of the study, the following conclusions can be drawn. First, the metacognitive exercise on the strategy to control variables has positive and long-standing effects on the strategy performance at the reasoning task. The exercise also takes effect of near-transfer. Taking into consideration only about sixty minutes of metastrategic practice, the results provide the validity of the activity in order to develop children's reasoning strategies. Second, in a scientific reasoning task, each child seems to go through one out of two developmental patterns in their usage of reasoning strategies: gradual change or fundamental change. Considering the ratio of pattern of fundamental change between the two groups, it is clear that the metacognitive exercise influences the developmental pattern of strategy usage.
This study investigated preservice teachers' perceived constraints in implementing their ideal pedagogies and the influence of the teacher education program on their pedagogical beliefs changes. Unique features that the university-based coursework and field experiences had on preservice teachers' learning to teach were also explored. This preservice teacher education program employs constructivist aspects of teacher education and generates applications of constructivism to the practice of teaching. Major findings include: preservice teachers' having traditional pedagogy as the default, recovery of prior beliefs, constraints on implementing constructivist pedagogy, and being overly confident in themselves as teachers. With the influence of constructivist epistemology, these preservice teachers' pedagogical beliefs evolved and were refined over time as they incorporated various constructivist ideas. The benefits and influences of the M.Ed. program's theoretical coursework and the field experiences on these teachers' learning-to-teach experiences are addressed with rich data. The implications for teacher educators as well as for the instructional practices of preservice teacher education programs are discussed. Recommendations for future research are also presented.
The aim of this study was to investigate the factors affecting earth science problem-solving performances of elementary school pre-service teachers. The participants of the study were 81 students attending an elementary school teacher education university. The instruments of the study were paper-and-pencil tests, questionnaires, and interviews. The tests mainly measured the participants' problem solving abilities in the motions of the moon and the planets. Correlation and multiple regression techniques were used for data analysis. The results demonstrated that the pre-service teachers' problem solving abilities were low. Problem-solving performances were affected by the procedural knowledge, the participants' perception of the past earth science performance, self-efficacy, and the prerequisite declarative knowledge. Contrary to our expectation, the spatial visualization ability was not found to be related to the problem-solving performances. Implications of the study are drawn, and suggestions are made for further research.
Various research methods have been used in science depending on the various contexts. This implies that certain methods or inferences may be more frequently used in earth science. The purpose of the study are to explore the contexts of earth science, and the inferences frequently used in earth science. The context earth science research is quite different from that of other areas of natural science in terms of its time scale, space scale, accessibility, complexity, and controllability. The purpose of earth science research is twofold: historical and causal. The inferences frequently used in earth science are abduction and prediction. Abductive inferences go from the resulting state to controlling state. Predictive inferences go from hypothesis to expected data.
This article describes the major themes to change in historical and philosophical perspectives of science education that lead the US and Korean science curriculum reform movements since 1957. Inquiry teaching and criticism of teaching science as inquiry in the late 1950s and the 1960s, Science-Technology-Society (STS) Curricula, and Science Literacy and the 1980s science literacy crisis are discussed. In the US, three major curricular projects as responses to the scientific literacy crisis are exemplary such as the Project 2061 sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Project on Scope, Sequence, and Coordination (SS&C) initiated by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), and the National Science Education Standards (NSES) published by the National Research Council. To identify how each set of national content standards differ, we compared specific content standards related to the theory of plate tectonics in Earth and Space science in grades 9-12 over the three national standards: Benchmarks of AAAS, NSES of the NRC, and SS&C of the NSTA. Against this historical background of the US science education reform movements, the curriculum reform movements in Korea is briefly discussed. In general, Korean science curriculum reform movements have reflected and resembled the recommendations of the US reform movements. In addition, it is important to note that throughout the history of curriculum revision in Korea, there have been continuing pendulum swings between a theoretical, discipline-centered curriculum and a liberal, humanistic, and student-centered curriculum, which pays more attention to students in terms of their interest and psychological preparedness. In conclusion, the sixth and seventh national science curriculum revisions reflect rather a student-centered movement by reducing technical and sophisticated topics, taking constructivism learning theory into consideration, and adding more STS related topics.