Jazlin Ebenezer

Analogical Reasoning for Understanding Solution Rates: Students' Conceptual Change and Chemical Explanations.

The study aims to demonstrate evidence of (a) students’ conceptual change on solution rates; (b) students’ sub‐microscopic explanations of dissolution; and (c) retention of the concepts of solution rates. The sample consists of 44 Grade 9 students (18 boys and 26 girls) drawn purposively from two different classes (22 each) in the city of Trabzon, Turkey. The current study incorporates multiple methods of data collection: items from a solution concept test, clinical interviews and examination of students’ self‐assessment tasks. The results reveal that there is a statistically significant difference between scores in pre‐test and post‐test and between pre‐test and delayed test (p < 0.05). This research indicates that the intervention has improved students’ understanding of the conceptual relationship between solution rates and the sub‐microscopic explanation of dissolution. It has also helped in overcoming students’ alternative conceptions to some extent. However, alternative conceptions have not been eliminated completely. In the light of the results, this current study suggests that a simple model such as the four‐step constructivist teaching (4E) is efficient.

Preservice teachers' meaning-making in science instruction: a case study in Manitoba

In this Manitoba study, a teacher educator and her preservice teachers collaboratively analysed a qualitatively different way of teaching and learning science ‐ an approach rooted in the constructivist framework. In attempts to practise a constructivist approach in the practicum setting, the preservice teachers identified seven significant issues: (a) the connection between childrens conceptions and curriculum objectives; (b) the influence of childrens conceptions on teacher‐proof lesson planning; (c) teacher content knowledge: discomfort or comfort; (d) teacher power; (e) the consequences of conceptual conflict; (f) the notion of infinite expressions and finite conceptualizations; and (g) tension between personal knowledge and academic knowledge. The two imperatives for helping preservice teachers to see a qualitatively different way of teaching and learning science were: (a) the teacher educator and the preservice teacher working in a collaborative action research mode; and (b) the preservice teacher ...

Can Curriculum Ideals be Patched onto Old Garment or Poured into Old Wineskin

Beane, J. (1997). Curriculum integration: Designing the core of democratic education. New York: Teachers College Press. Bonnett, M. (2007). Environmental education and the issue of nature. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 39, 707–721. Schwartz, M. (2006). For whom do we write the curriculum? Journal of Curriculum Studies, 38, 449–457. Slattery, P., Kasny, K., & O’Malley, M. (2007). Hermeneutics, aesthetics, and the quest for answerability: A dialogic possibility for reconceptualizing the interpretive process in curriculum studies. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 39, 537–558.