Albert Zeyer

Is There a Relationship between Brain Type, Sex and Motivation to Learn Science?

Whilst sex is considered to be one of the most significant factors influencing attitudes towards science, previous research seems to suggest that, at least in non‐science classes, there is no correlation between sex and motivation to learn science. The present study investigates a mixed group of science and non‐science students of upper secondary level. The data show that there is in fact no correlation between sex and motivation to learn science in this group, but that there is a highly significant positive correlation between the students’ so‐called brain type and their motivation to learn science. At the same time, male students show a more systemizing brain type whilst female students have a more empathizing one. Therefore, the brain type seems in fact to be a basic variable of motivation to learn science, as previous research suggests. Our intention was to explore if involving the science motivation questionnaire (SMQ) could be a strategy to confirm and extend this hypothesis, which seems to be the case. We consider this study as a pilot in preparation for a larger and more systematically sampled project.

Post-ecological discourse in the making

This article analyses the discourse of 15- to16-year-old Swiss junior high school students in order to understand public discourse on the environment and environmental protection. Discourse analysis reveals four interpretive repertoires as the building blocks for the so-called post-ecological discourse, which can be used to describe important aspects of current ways of talking about ecological issues in Europe. We show that 10 theoretically identifiable dimensions of this discourse can be understood in terms of a mutual interplay between the four interpretive repertoires. Post-ecological discourse in today’s (Swiss) society appears to be at its core a loss-of-control-discourse, which leads (in our students) to a latent eco-depression. Thus, the public understanding of science can be affected by unintended consequences of the talk itself (in this case an unintended environmental depression), that is, by the inherent characteristics of the involved repertoires, here especially the so-called folk science repertoire. Fostering public understanding of science is thus not merely a question of providing the public with scientific ‘facts’. It is also an issue of paying attention to the available discursive repertoires. If necessary, viable alternative repertoires may have to be offered. In school, for example, conversations about the nature of science, and about complexity and applied ethics might help students learn new interpretive repertoires and how to mobilize these in talking about the environment and environmental protection.

Science|Environment|Health—Towards a reconceptualization of three critical and inter-linked areas of education

Environment and health are increasingly important contexts for science education. Not only are they integral dimensions of scientific literacy and sustainable development discourses, but they are also close to students’ interests and needs and can help to open up science education to personally relevant questions (Zeyer & Kyburz-Graber, 2012). Nevertheless, these areas have often been neglected in science education research. The label science|environment|health (Dillon, 2012) is not meant to suggest that health and environmental education should be swallowed up by science education. Rather, there is a role for both beyond a reimagined science education. The label highlights a situation of mutual benefit between science education, environmental education and health education, three educational dimensions that have yet to be established in a transdisciplinary dialogue. This special issue aims at providing a platform for a transdisciplinary dialogue. It forms a broad consensus that health and environmental issues should be included more intentionally and prominently in science education than they are at present, and it articulates broad arguments and aspects supporting this claim. Informed citizenship, based on scientific literacy, and in particular, health and environmental literacy, may enable people to successfully participate in political International Journal of Science Education, 2014 Vol. 36, No. 9, 1409–1411, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2014.904993

Brain Type or Sex Differences? A structural equation model of the relation between brain type, sex, and motivation to learn science

Sex is considered to be one of the most significant factors influencing attitudes towards science. However, the so-called brain type approach from cognitive science suggests that the difference in motivation to learn science does not primarily differentiate the girls from the boys, but rather the so-called systemisers from the empathizers. The present study investigates this hypothesis by using structural equation modelling on a sex-stratified sample of 500 male and female students of secondary II level. The results show, that the motivation to learn science is directly influenced by the systemizing quotient SQ, but not by sex. The impact of sex on the motivation to learn science, measured by five key concepts, only works indirectly, namely through the influence of sex on the SQ. The empathizing quotient (EQ) has no impact on the motivation to learn science. The SQ explains between 13 and 23 percent of the variation of the five key constructs. In female students, the impact of the SQ is very similar for all key concepts. In male students, it is highest for self-efficacy and lowest for assessment anxiety. The motivation to learn science is significantly larger for male students in all involved SMQ key concepts, but the difference is small. The interpretation of these findings and conclusions for science teaching and further research are discussed.

A Win-Win Situation for Health and Science Education: Seeing Through the Lens of a New Framework Model of Health Literacy

Health is a “megatrend.” Nevertheless, the role of health and health education in science education has been less important than the role of environmental education. This is a reflection of a cultural-historical constellation in health and health promotion, as will be discussed in this chapter. The emergence of the concept of health literacy offers a promising approach for newly addressing this relationship. To this aim, a framework model for health literacy is presented. It shows explicitly that health literacy is inherently knowledge-based and thus points out a strong link between scientific literacy and health literacy. Indeed, a win-win situation exists between these two fields that is yet to be fully exploited. Several concrete examples demonstrate how the systematic analysis of health issues through the model may reveal the potential benefits of including health issues in science education. It will also be underlined that health literacy refers not only to the field of good health in its narrowest sense but also to the field of diseases and to medicine, which opens up a whole range of topics that are fascinating and relevant to students. A concrete example of a teaching unit will be presented along with a discussion of the need for institutional efforts to develop and spread such examples of best practice. To this end, two vignettes created by other authors have been included in this chapter.

Colorful Nature and Grey Misery: Science and Technology in an Environmental Context as Analyzed in Pictures Made by 11- to 13-Year-Old Swiss Students

We asked 408 eleven- to 13-year-old Swiss children to draw a picture of their choice about “the environment.” We were especially interested in how these children presented the role of science and technology in an environmental context. The qualitative content analysis of the pictures was complemented by the results of a survey that consisted of 15 environmental questions used in the Relevance of Science Education (ROSE) study. Our students showed a clear preference for an ecological, ecocentric stance. A colorful, untouched, idealized nature represented a normative threshold for a desirable situation. Technology was pictured as an instrument of human alienation from nature, creating a grey, hostile civilization dominated by science and technology. We conclude that science education has the delicate task of introducing students to more scientific, fact-oriented, pragmatic thinking without destroying their ecocentric, value-oriented views on environmental protection, thus fostering a constructive approach toward science and technology as instruments for a sustainable coexistence of humans and nature.RésuméNous avons demandé à 408 élèves suisses âgés de 11 à 13 ans de représenter «l’environnement» dans un dessin de leur choix. Nous nous sommes intéressés tout particulièrement à la façon dont ces enfants représentaient le rôle des sciences et des technologies dans un contexte environnemental. L’analyse qualitative des contenus des dessins a été complémentée par les résultats d’une enquête proposant 15 questions sur l’environnement tirées de l’étude ROSE (Relevance Of Science Education). Nos élèves ont manifesté une nette préférence pour les positions écologiques ou écocentriques: une nature colorée, pure et idéalisée représente le seuil normatif d’une situation désirable, et les technologies sont vues comme un instrument d’aliénation qui éloigne l’être humain de la nature et crée une civilisation grise, hostile, dominée par les sciences et les technologies. Nous concluons que l’enseignement des sciences a pour mission d’éveiller les élèves à une pensée plus scientifique, factuelle et pragmatique, sans pour autant démolir les aspects écocentriques de leurs valeurs en matière de protection de l’environnement, favorisant ainsi une approche constructive à l’égard des sciences et des technologies comme outils pour une coexistence durable entre les êtres humains et la nature.

A Beginners’ Module of Integrated Natural Science for Secondary Teacher Students: The result of an Educational Reconstruction Process over Three Iterations

In Central Switzerland, pre-service teacher education is intended to reflect the integrated concept of science education in school. The project presented in this chapter assists the development of a research-based unit on integrated science for first-year students. The theoretical background underpinning the research process is provided by the model of educational reconstruction adapted to the settings of universities. The result of this process reflects three important aspects of educational reconstruction: content, concepts and methods. On the level of content, it provides ten suitable topics, which successfully integrate human biology and physics. On the level of concept, it reveals a characteristic self-concept of the involved students and also stimulated conceptual change in questions of integrated science education. On the level of methods, the concept of ’Unterrichtsminiaturen’ evolves into the new concept of educational miniatures, a method that proves to be especially effective in the pre-service education training of science teachers