scholarly journals High-School Students’ Topic-Specific Epistemic Beliefs about Climate Change: An Assessment-Related Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 440
Author(s):  
Eija Yli-Panula ◽  
Eero Laakkonen ◽  
Marja Vauras

This study belongs to assessment-related research and aimed to investigate Finnish high-school students’ (n = 211) topic-specific epistemic beliefs about climate change and whether the Norwegian topic-specific epistemic beliefs questionnaire (TSEBQ) was also valid among Finnish respondents. Thus, research data were not only derived from the TSEBQ but also from topic knowledge tests and students’ views on their favorite school subjects and interest in science subjects. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that the statistical model, originally based on 49 questions, was congruent with the Norwegian four-factor model (Certification, Source, Justification and Simplicity). However, according to the reliability analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the performance of the Simplicity factor was unclear. In CFA, the three-factor structure (without Simplicity) was supported. The effects of topic knowledge, topic interest and gender on the TSEBQ factors were examined by using hierarchical regression analysis (HRA). The TSEBQ was shown to be a reliable tool for measuring the topic-specific epistemic beliefs of Finnish students. More specifically, the results support the claim that topic-specific epistemic beliefs can be educationally and culturally bound. HRA showed that students’ topic knowledge in chemistry and biology was related to certainty of knowledge and justification for knowing. Moreover, female students performed significantly better in topic knowledge and more often planned to pursue a science career in the future.

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayla Cetin-Dindar ◽  
Ömer Geban

This study is an adaptation of Science Motivation Scale, developed by Glynn and Koballa, into Turkish and reports validity and reliability of the adapted scale. The sample consisted of 1354 high school students from Ankara and Edirne. The data collected from different types of high schools was analyzed and moderately similar factor structures were found as in the original scale. Based on the principal component analysis, four dimensions which were self-efficacy in learning science, anxiety about science assessment, extrinsically motivated science learning, and intrinsically motivated science learning were determined. These four dimensioned model was analyzed via confirmatory factor analysis and moderate fit was determined. In addition, validity analysis supports the validity of scores on the four-factor model. The Cronbach alpha reliability was found to be 0.913. This scale aims to determine high school students' motivation to learn chemistry. The distinction of this scale is that determining student motivation on learning chemistry rather than asking for general questions in science. The findings of the study are meant to contribute to the chemistry education field by providing an adapted scale.


2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie M. Mcmahan ◽  
Shannon M. Suldo ◽  
Ashley Chappel ◽  
Lisa Bateman

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 434-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon M. Suldo ◽  
Amanda Thalji-Raitano ◽  
Sarah M. Kiefer ◽  
John M. Ferron

2020 ◽  
pp. 209653112093024
Author(s):  
Hengjun Tang ◽  
Wee Tiong Seah ◽  
Qiaoping Zhang ◽  
Weizhong Zhang

Purpose: Research has confirmed that students’ mathematics values significantly affect their mathematics learning. Accordingly, understanding how students’ values form and change, especially during different learning stages, is an important topic. Design/Approach/Methods: This study administered a questionnaire to investigate the values of primary, junior high, and senior high school students in Eastern China. A principal component analysis was conducted to investigate the factor structure of the students’ learning values. Then, paired sample t-tests were used to examine the differences in the two continuous categories ranking of each group, and a one-way analysis of variance with a Brown–Forsythe test was used to test the differences in the ranking of each dimension by the different grade-level groups. Findings: We found that students’ mathematics learning values consist of seven elements: culture, memorization, technology, objectism, practice, understanding, and control. Students placed different degrees of importance on these seven elements at different learning stages. Additionally, we found that junior high school is a critical period of change in students’ values. Originality/Value: These findings will be invaluable to teachers and educators as they reflect on their teaching approaches. Moreover, the findings that students’ values undergo changes in the course of their schooling are important information for educators seeking to foster students’ learning.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 14-33
Author(s):  
Shauna A. Morimoto

This article draws on qualitative data of U.S. high school students considering their place in the adult world; the purpose is to investigate Jeffrey Arnett’s (2000) concept of “emerging adulthood” as a new stage of life course. Drawing on interviews and observational data collected around the time when Arnett’s notion of emerging adulthood started to take hold, I use intersectional interpretive lens in order to highlight how race and gender construct emerging adulthood as high school students move out of adolescence. I consider Arnett’s thesis twofold. First, when emerging adulthood is examined intersectionally, young people reveal that – rather than being distinct periods that can simply be prolonged, delayed, or even reached – life stages are fluid and constantly in flux. Second, since efforts to mitigate against uncertain futures characterizes the Millennial generation, I argue that the process of guarding against uncertainty reorders, questions or reconfigures the characteristics and stages that conventionally serve as markers of life course. I conclude that the identity exploration, indecision, and insecurity associated with emerging adulthood can also be understood as related to how the youth reveal and reshape the life course intersectionally.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
Su-Yeon Choi ◽  
A-Rang Won ◽  
Hye-Eun Chu ◽  
Hyun-Jung Cha ◽  
Hyeonjeong Shin ◽  
...  

Abstract This study aims to investigate climate literacy among junior high school students participating in an SSI-STEAM climate change education program and to examine the impacts of the program on the cultivation of climate literacy. Thirty-one eighth-grade students in Seoul, Korea, participated in this study. Data were collected using pre- and post-program surveys with a climate literacy questionnaire (CLQ), students’ background survey questions, interviews with participants, and from the artifacts produced by students during the program. Participants’ climate literacy was shown to improve substantially after attending the program, especially in the domains of perception and action. The four characteristics of climate literacy change were identified in the participants’ responses: more concrete ideas, extension of the scope of thinking, positive responsibility, and relevance recognition. The climate literacy program developed showed potential for fostering young people’s climate literacy along with their understanding of responsible national and global citizenship. The study discusses the implications of these findings and includes suggestions for future climate literacy program development and for both curricular and extra-curricular climate change education that can together nurture students’ more profound understanding of climate change.


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