scholarly journals The Teacher as One of the Factors Influencing Students’ Perception of Biology as a School Subject

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-140
Author(s):  
Milan Kubiatko ◽  
Gregor Torkar ◽  
Lenka Rovnanova

The main aim of our research was to determine whether the teacher is one of the factors influencing students’ perception of biology as a school subject. The study also aimed to identify the influence of certain other factors in this regard, specifically: students’ gender and place of residence, the number of biology teachers who have taught the students, and theteachers’ gender. The sample consisted of 261 lower secondary school students (ISCED 2) in Slovakia, aged 14 and 15 years. A questionnaire with Likert-type items was used as a research instrument. The findings confirm the impact of the biology teacher on students’ perception of the subject. After removing the influence of the teacher, the students’ gender and placeof residence did not have any significant influence on their perception of the subject. Two additional significant variables were the number of biology teachers who had taught the students and the teachers’ gender. The research confirmed that the teacher’s personality is one of the significant factors that can influence students’ perception of school subjects.

Author(s):  
Kizito Ndihokubwayo ◽  
Jean Uwamahoro ◽  
Irénée Ndayambaje

Science education in Rwandan schools still faces a number of challenges including the lack or shortage of equipment available for science experiments. This paper describes research conducted to assess the impact of using improvised versus conventional laboratory equipment in experiments. Eighty-five lower secondary school students were assessed using a semi-experimental post-test design on thermal expansion of bodies. Data analysis using a t-test produced a t-Stat of 2.74 over a t-Critical of 1.98 indicating a statistical significance between the two experimental groups in favour of the group using improvised equipment. As a result, it is recommended that improvised equipment be used in those instances in which there is a lack or shortage of conventional equipment since students’ achievement was similar regardless of the type of equipment used.


2021 ◽  
pp. 130-157
Author(s):  
Lolita Gelinder

In the school subject Home- and Consumer Studies, the curriculum includes knowledge about sustainable food consumption, i.e. the students should learn to make sustainable food choices. Previous research has shown that taste is an important factor when people choose what to eat. The purpose of this study is to investigate teaching about sustainable food consumption, by focusing on how teachers and students talk about taste during foodwork, more specifically what meaning that is construed in relation to taste and how this content may be understood in relation to different perspectives on taste. Video data from two classes of Swedish lower secondary school students is analyzed using pragmatic discourse analysis methods. The results show that taste is mainly used in terms of taste assessments and thus provide an understanding of taste as something fixed and unchangeable. A transactional perspective on taste is suggested as an alternative, working with taste as something changeable and reflexive. In this way teaching can be a part in students developing new taste experiences, which is crucial for wanting to change eating habits, or for learning to eat new dishes, and foods, which will be required in order for people to make sustainable food choices.


Author(s):  
Rebecca Schneider ◽  
Jörn R. Sparfeldt ◽  
Christoph Niepel ◽  
Susanne R. Buch ◽  
Detlef H. Rost

Abstract. School-subject-specific test anxieties have been widely examined, but there is a lack of analyses of measurement invariance of test anxiety across subjects. In order to preclude a mixture of test anxiety construct differences across school subjects with actual test anxiety differences and to ensure meaningful comparisons of test anxiety across school subjects, we examined such measurement invariance. Two test anxiety factors (worry and emotionality) were inspected across four school subjects (mathematics, physics, German, and English) in a sample of secondary school students ( N = 1,280). Strict measurement invariance was ascertained (i.e., comparable factor loadings, intercepts, and residual variances of the items of worry and emotionality factors across school subjects). The correlations of subject-specific test anxiety factors with subject-specific academic self-concepts and grades showed a convergent/divergent correlation pattern, thereby supporting criterion-related validity. The results of this study provide insights into the comparability of test anxiety assessments across school subjects.


2017 ◽  
pp. 90-107
Author(s):  
Anna Dąbrowska

The age of secondary orality, in which the oral and literate ways of thinking collide with each other, influences the communicative styles of today’s youth. One of the visible phenomena related to the language of teenagers is their progressing inability to acquire skills required to use written texts, together with the resulting cognitive and social consequences. In this article, the author discusses the impact of cultural factors on the development of youth literacy. The analyses, based on observations of the linguistic behaviour of lower secondary school students, show that young people are firmly anchored in the current communicative communities immersed in the digital world.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camilla Bardel ◽  
Gudrun Erickson ◽  
Rakel Österberg

This paper presents an overview of second foreign language (SFL) education in Sweden, especially at lower secondary level. It offers a survey of the historical development of the study of other languages than English as well as a reflection over the current state of the subject. Currently, there is a shortage of research on the circumstances and conditions of the learning, teaching and assessment of the Swedish school subject Modern languages, as well as on young people’s proficiency in other languages than English in Sweden. In order to contribute to a knowledge base for further research, the current paper reviews work considering the Swedish context concerning: a) frame factors, policy issues and organization of SFL studies b) attitudes towards plurilingualism and SFL motivation, c) teacher education and recruitment policies, and d) levels of attainment at the end of compulsory school. Throughout the paper, the European context is also taken into account. The paper ends with a discussion of the general status of the subject Modern languages in Swedish school and society, the fact that this subject is not mandatory, and the consistently high dropout rate that characterizes the current situation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (4 (254) ◽  
pp. 216-236
Author(s):  
Marek Smulczyk ◽  
Roman Dolata ◽  
Artur Pokropek

The article presents the results of analyses of the impact of the socioeconomic status (SES) of the student’s family on the selection processes at the threshold of upper secondary school. It was checked whether SES affects these processes only through the results of the lower secondary school examination or there is a direct impact of this factor. The data used came from the nationwide survey of upper secondary school students, which was a Polish extension of OECD’s PISA study. The results of path modeling prove that there is a direct impact of status factors on the selection processes and its strength is similar to the SES effect mediated by the results of the lower secondary school (gimnazjum) examination.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-53
Author(s):  
Petr Hlaďo

The aim of this overview study is to synthesize Czech, Slovak and foreign empirical findings on the choice of further course of education and career. Attention is focused specifically on social influences as a psychological phenomenon affecting this decision-making process in lower secondary school students at the end of compulsory schooling. The main attention is paid to the roles of parents and family, particularly the influence of family background and family processes. Another issue is the influence of peers, teachers and career counsellors on the choice of further course of education and career. The synthesis of research findings is based primarily on an analysis of research papers published in journals.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Elisabetta Lombardi ◽  
Daniela Traficante ◽  
Roberta Bettoni ◽  
Ilaria Offredi ◽  
Mirta Vernice ◽  
...  

Reading and writing skills influence the social status of students, exerting effects not only on learning, but also on wellbeing. This study aimed to assess the impact of diagnosis of specific learning disorder on well-being in secondary-school students, comparing students with a diagnosis of specific learning disorder (SLD-group), students showing learning difficulties without diagnosis (LD-group) and students without learning difficulties (control-group). Students were tested with neuropsychological screening tests in order to identify learning difficulties and were further assessed by means of psychological and school well-being questionnaires. The results show that LD group perceive themselves as having a low sense of mastery and autonomy, less interest and engagement in daily activities and low peer social support than their schoolmates. This result highlights, for the LD group, a low well-being experience, which is not observed in the SLD and control groups. On the contrary, SLD group students do not differ from control group students in any dimensions except for the perceived parents’ support and involvement in school life, in which the SLD group show the highest scores. This work underlines the importance of having a diagnosis as it seems to work as a protective factor for both the psychological and school well-being of the student.


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