Orit Ben-Zvi Assaraf

Attitudes towards Science Learning among 10th‐Grade Students: A qualitative look

The twenty‐first century is characterized by multiple, frequent and remarkable scientific advancements, which have a major effect on the decisions that govern everyday life. It is therefore vital to give proper comprehensive scientific education to the population and provide it with the right tools for decision‐making. This in turn requires that we foster a positive attitude among students towards science studies and encourage them to choose sciences as their major subjects. The following study examines 10th‐grade high school students in an attempt to understand and document the influential factors underlying their attitudes towards science studies. The study is conducted through a qualitative research methodology, gathering data based on interviews. This methodology exposes the students’ feelings, views and beliefs, and explores the characteristics of the factors influencing students’ attitudes. Of these factors, we found the most significant for high school students to be interpersonal interaction between teacher and student, the relevance and authenticity of the topics being studied, and the diversity of the teaching methods. We therefore suggest that these three elements should be given particular emphasis by teachers and teacher educators.

The ‘What is a system’ reflection interview as a knowledge integration activity for high school students’ understanding of complex systems in human biology

ABSTRACT This study examined the reflection interview as a tool for assessing and facilitating the use of ‘systems language’ amongst 11th grade students who have recently completed their first year of high school biology. Eighty-three students composed two concept maps in the 10th grade—one at the beginning of the school year and one at its end. The first part of the interview is dedicated to guiding the students through comparing their two concept maps and by means of both explicit and non-explicit teaching. Our study showed that the explicit guidance in comparing the two concept maps was more effective than the non-explicit, eliciting a variety of different, more specific, types of interactions and patterns (e.g. ‘hierarchy’, ‘dynamism’, ‘homeostasis’) in the students’ descriptions of the human body system. The reflection interview as a knowledge integration activity was found to be an effective tool for assessing the subjects’ conceptual models of ‘system complexity’, and for identifying those aspects of a system that are most commonly misunderstood.

The Moral Reasoning of Genetic Dilemmas Amongst Jewish Israeli Undergraduate Students with Different Religious Affiliations and Scientific Backgrounds

The main objective of this study was to shed light on the moral reasoning of undergraduate Israeli students towards genetic dilemmas, and on how these are affected by their religious affiliation, by the field they study and by their gender. An open ended questionnaire was distributed among 449 undergraduate students in institutions of higher education in Israel, and their answers were analyzed according to the framework described by Sadler and Zeidler (Science Education, 88(1), 4–27, 2004). They were divided into two major categories: those whose reasoning was based on the consideration of moral consequences (MC), and those who supported their opinion by citing non-consequentialist moral principles (MP). Students’ elaborations to questions dealing with values towards genetic testing showed a correlation between the students’ religious affiliation and their reasoning, with religious students’ elaborations tending to be more principle based than those of secular ones. Overall, the students’ elaborations indicate that their main concern is the possibility that their personal genetic information will be exposed, and that their body’s personal rights will be violated. We conclude the paper by offering several practical recommendations based on our findings for genetic counseling that is specifically tailored to fit different patients according to their background.

‘Human nature’: Chemical engineering students’ ideas about human relationships with the natural world

While importance of environmental ethics, as a component of sustainable development, in preparing engineers is widely acknowledged, little research has addressed chemical engineers’ environmental concerns. This study aimed to address this void by exploring chemical engineering students’ values regarding human–nature relationships. The study was conducted with 247 3rd–4th year chemical engineering students in Israeli Universities. It employed the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP)-questionnaire to which students added written explanations. Quantitative analysis of NEP-scale results shows that the students demonstrated moderately ecocentric orientation. Explanations to the NEP-items reveal diverse, ambivalent ideas regarding the notions embodied in the NEP, strong scientific orientation and reliance on technology for addressing environmental challenges. Endorsing sustainability implies that todays engineers be equipped with an ecological perspective. The capacity of Higher Education to enable engineers to develop dispositions about human–nature interrelationships requires adaptation of curricula towards multidisciplinary, integrative learning addressing social–political–economic–ethical perspectives, and implementing critical-thinking within the socio-scientific issues pedagogical approach.

Should I Perform Genetic Testing? A Qualitative Look into the Decision Making Considerations of Religious Israeli Undergraduate Students

The aim of this study is to draw a picture of the concerns that guide the decision making of Israeli religious undergraduate students and the complex considerations they take into account while facing the need to have genetic testing or to attend a genetic counseling session. We examined how the religious affiliation of the students influences their perceptions toward genetics and how these are expressed. Qualitative data were collected from 51 semi-structured interviews with students, in which recurring themes were identified using ‘thematic analysis.’ The codes from the thematic analysis were obtained according to ‘grounded theory’. Our results show that religious undergraduate students’ decision making in these issues is influenced by factors that fall under three main categories: knowledge and perceptions, values, and norms. In order to include all the components of influence, we created the Triple C model: “Culture influences Choices towards genetic Counseling” which aims to generalize the complex decision making considerations that we detected. Our model places religion, as part of culture, as its central point of influence that impacts all three of the main categories we detected. It also traces the bidirectional influences that each of these main categories have on one another. Using this model may help identify the sociocultural differences between different types of patients, helping genetic counselors to better assist them in addressing their genetic status by tailoring the counseling more specifically to the patient’s cultural uniqueness.

Learning from Failure: A Case Study of Where an Extracurricular Science Program Went Wrong

This article re-examines the learning environment in an after-school science program for socio-economically disadvantaged children, attempting to discover why the particular group we studied failed to make significant progress between pre and post program testing, while other groups undergoing the same program elsewhere succeeded. Data composed of in class observations, students’ class workbooks and perceptive/cognitive interviews was analyzed qualitatively to construct a picture of the learning environment as experienced by both the students and their student teacher, Liora. Our primary finding revealed a striking dissonance between the program’s student-centered theory (based on the tenets of social-constructivism) and the classroom reality enforced by Liora, who ran the lessons primarily as a monologue that left very little room for active student participation. This disparity was further complicated by an ambiguity in Liora’s position as an authority figure, wherein she wavered between her predilection for a rigid, authoritative teaching environment and a desire to be her students’ friend and confidante.