Elke Sumfleth

Framework for Empirical Research on Science Teaching and Learning

In view of the research on education—and subject-related education in particular—that has been conducted in recent years, it would seem useful to describe the current state and future trends of research on science teaching and learning. In the present article, research findings are described, the deficits of science education are analyzed, and medium- and long-term research goals are specified from the perspective of an interdisciplinary cooperative effort between specialists in the fields of empirical educational research; the psychology of learning and instruction; and biology, chemistry, and physics education.

Scientific Literacy: From Theory to Practice

Gerhard Schaefer (1998), in his keynote address at the second International IPN-Symposium on Scientific Literacy, thought about educational aims for citizens in a changing world: “Taking into account the growing complexity of our world, caused by the opening of national borders and by almost infinite electronic communication and the increasing speed of global ecological, economic and political changes, number one of the educational challenges of the next century seems to be: high flexibility, both in storing and using knowledge and in international communication.” Thus, he argues for “life-competence” as a goal of school education. This ESERA symposium focussed on the part the sciences have to play to contribute to this goal. Three examples from educational research and classroom teaching illustrate the theoretical references of the second International Symposium on Scientific Literacy.

Students' knowledge about chemical reactions – development and analysis of standard-based test items

In 2004 national educational standards for chemistry were implemented in Germany. While the standards describe different competencies to be reached after grade 10, no compulsory contents are defined. The contents are defined by the different German states individually. This means that there are no defined common topics taught in all states that can be used for test items for the evaluation of the standards. As a result, two different types of test items are developed based on a model of competence. One type of items contains chemical content information that can be used to solve the task. The other type of items does not contain this information. The two types of items have different advantages and disadvantages; the first type are more dependent on the reading ability of the students, but their use leads to a fairer test across the different states, whereas the second type are more related to chemical content knowledge but are less fair. The two types of items are compared according to the item difficulty, correlations to reading skills, intelligence and chemical content knowledge. The results of this study can be generalized to other assessments using a similar design.

Context characteristics and their effects on students’ situational interest in chemistry

ABSTRACT Many studies in science education acknowledge the positive effects of context-based learning on students’ interest and attitudes. However, little is known about the design criteria of contextual situations generating these effects and how facets of students’ situational interest are affected while learning in a contextualised setting. This paper ties in with this initial situation and reports results of two projects analysing the influence of context characteristics on students’ situational interest, referring to contexts as task parameters in the first project and as learning activities in the second. In the first project, everyday related and unique contexts are compared, and the effects of different contextual topics on student learning are investigated. Particularly, regarding the feeling- and value-related valence of situational interest, the results of different studies will be compared and interpreted. The second project investigated structures of interest related to activities along an adapted version of the ‘RIASEC’-model for different content areas and age groups. The chosen contents were embedded in personal as well as societal and professional context settings. Finally, we summarise the relevance of the different models, results and instruments to better understand different notions of interest and outline implications for further studies about teaching that improves student learning.

Development of a Pedagogical Content Knowledge test of chemistry language and models

In 1986 Shulman developed a typology of teachers’ professional knowledge. Since this, research on teachers’ professional knowledge, especially on the measurement of professional knowledge, has increased. Measuring teachers’ professional knowledge requires tests which focus on specific knowledge types and subjects. However, there are only few professional knowledge tests analysing teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge of using models and chemistry language in chemistry classes. The following article describes the development of a pedagogical content knowledge test for chemistry teachers, which focuses on teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge regarding the handling of models and chemistry language. As a result the test measures the intended construct reliably.

Improving the Use of Instructional Illustrations in Learning Chemistry

The investigation focuses on improving the intensity of illustration processing. Cognitive models of learning with text and illustrations (Mayer, 1993) as well as the model of understanding illustrations developed by Weidenmann (1988) provide the theoretical framework for this research. A constructivist learning environment where learners become designers of the instructional material, where they have to design a steps-and-parts illustration, combined with a text from a rich offer of external representations, fosters the intensive processing of learning material. This is supposed to lead to an improvement in retention and problem solving performance.

It’s the Situation That Matters: Affective Involvement in Context-Oriented Learning Tasks

This chapter focuses on the evaluation of affective variables in context-based learning (cbl) environments. Although the majority of studies in the field have shown positive effects on attitude, the need to investigate specific elements of cbl tasks has become evident. On the basis of prior research designs and instruments, it is argued that attitude has to be perceived as a multifaceted construct. Different research designs and attitude instruments are discussed and related to the theoretical background of motivation and interest. In the second part of the chapter, three studies are presented that address the need to differentiate between different contexts, content elements, and attitude measurements. Therefore, the general statement that cbl courses have a positive effect on student attitude is maintained, however, enriched by a more differentiated and substantiated perspective that may shed light on how to select an adequate context within a specific content-related area.

Professionswissen in den Naturwissenschaften (ProwiN)

Im Rahmen des vom BMBF-geforderten Verbundprojekts ProwiN wird das Professionswissen von Lehrkraften der Naturwissenschaften in den Dimensionen Fachwissen (CK), fachdidaktisches Wissen (PCK) und padagogisches Wissen (PK) untersucht. Im folgenden Kapitel wird zunachst auf den theoretischen Hintergrund zum Professionswissen in den Naturwissenschaften und die Entwicklung eines gemeinsamen Modells zur Testentwicklung eingegangen (vgl. Tepner, Borowski, Dollny, Fischer, Juttner, Kirschner, Leutner, Neuhaus, Sandmann, Sumfleth, Thillmann und Wirth 2012). Anschliesend wird die Testentwicklung in den Disziplinen Biologie, Chemie, Physik und Psychologie, die Sicherstellung der Testgute und die Studiendurchfuhrung in der ersten Projektphase dargestellt. Daraufhin werden wesentliche Ergebnisse zum Zusammenhang der Dimensionen des Professionswissens sowie zum Einfluss der Berufserfahrung und der Schulform auf CK, PCK und PK berichtet. Das Kapitel wird mit einem Ausblick auf die zweite Projektphase abgeschlossen, in der die Testinstrumente im Rahmen einer videobasierten Unterrichtsanalyse genutzt werden, um Zusammenhange zwischen den verschiedenen Dimensionen des Professionswissens, dem Lehrerhandeln im Unterricht und dem Lernzuwachs bei Schulerinnen und Schulern zu testen.

Video-based studies on investigating deficiencies of school science teaching

Video based research has become a powerful tool to investigate teaching and learning processes in science education. These studies have been employed to reveal the microstructure of teaching and learning processes and to investigate the interplay of instructional scripts and various variables of the particular learning environments. In the following synopsis of a poster symposium at the ESERA Conference in Thessaloniki we present four studies that employ video-analysis of science instruction in various ways. All studies were initiated by the rather disappointing results German students achieved in TIMSS. It is the aim of these studies to investigate means of improving science teaching and learning.

Evaluating a learning progression on ‘Transformation of Matter’ on the lower secondary level

One of the most central tenets of chemistry education is developing an understanding of the processes that involve the Transformation of Matter. Current German curricula postulate content-related abilities (Kompetenzen) that are expected to be achieved by secondary students when graduating from the lower secondary level at grade 10. These abilities can further be differentiated as relating to either structural aspects of matter or to aspects of chemical reaction. Little is known of how Kompetenzen in these two fields develop over time on the lower secondary level. This study aims at elucidating this development by suggesting a hypothetical learning progression for the lower secondary level. This learning progression is visualised as a Strand Map and is investigated using methods from three statistical approaches: Rasch-analyses, Classical Test Theory, and Bayesian Networks. Concurrent data from all three strands of analyses inform the evaluation of the learning progression and support the notion that an understanding of the Transformation of Matter relies on interrelated Kompetenzen to conceptualize Structure of Matter and Chemical Reaction. Moreover, Bayesian networks underline that there is more than one progression when learning about chemistry on the lower secondary level.