Ornit Spektor-Levy

Science and Scientific Curiosity in Pre-school—The teacher's point of view

Nowadays, early science education is well-accepted by researchers, education professionals and policy makers. Overall, teachers’ attitudes and conceptions toward the science subject domain and science education influence their ways of teaching and engagement. However, there is a lack of research regarding factors that affect this engagement in pre-school years. The main assumption of this study is that teachers’ attitudes regarding science in pre-school can shape childrens engagement in science and develop their scientific curiosity. Therefore, the main objectives of this study are to investigate the attitudes of pre-school teachers toward engaging in science and to explore their views about the nature of curiosity: who is a curious child and how can a childs natural curiosity be fostered? An extensive survey was conducted among 146 pre-school teachers by employing both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Results indicate that most of the participants believe that scientific education should begin in early childhood; very young children can investigate and take part in a process of inquiry; and scientific activities in pre-school can influence childrens long-term attitudes toward science. Despite these views, most participants felt they did not possess sufficient scientific knowledge. Furthermore, participants expressed diverse opinions when asked to identify what constitutes curiosity, how the curious child can be identified and how a childs curiosity can be fostered. The research findings carry significant implications regarding how to implement scientific activities in pre-school, and how to encourage pre-school teachers to engage children in scientific activities in a way that will nurture their natural curiosity.

Children's sense of place in desert towns: a phenomenographic enquiry

Set against the background of the call for sustainable development, a fostering of sense of place emerged as one of education for sustainabilitys chief goals. Heideggers concept of dwelling thinking guided us, in this research, to look beyond the emotional and cognitive attachment to a place toward a state of mind which is not limited to a specific place but can also be taken with the dweller wherever he or she goes. A qualitative tool based on analysis of childrens drawings was developed for characterizing dwelling thinking in desert towns’ children aged 9–10. The results clarified different forms of sense of place and pointed to practical methodologies for the enhancement of dwelling thinking in our quest for sustainability.

“Scientific Communication”: An Instructional Program for High-Order Learning Skills and Its Impact on Students’ Performance

In this paper we describe an instructional model for the acquisition of high order learning skills (HOLS) and the program “Scientific Communication”, which supports its application in a junior high school (JHS) science and technology curriculum. The model emphasizes explicit and spiral instruction of learning skills, and a continuous demand for their implementation in various contexts and tasks. We describe a study that assessed the impact of our instructional model on students’ performances. Students (N=447) from five different JHSs participated in the study: One group (N=334) studied the program “Scientific Communication”, and the other (N=113) did not study learning skills through any formal program. The results show superior performance of the first group over the second in the following ways: the ability to describe and explicate the practice of learning skills; three aspects of the actual performances of a complex task: knowledge, learning skills, and the quality of products; and reports by students on the skills that they had acquired. The results also indicate that high and average achieving students gained the most from the program. We concluded that the contribution of the program “Scientific Communication” to students’ performances of learning skills indicates the potential of its underlying instructional model in achieving its goals.

Tracking Invasive Birds: A Programme for Implementing Dynamic Open Inquiry Learning and Conservation Education.

Among potential topics in the new science of biodiversity, understanding the characteristics and impact of invasive birds is an attractive subject to include as part of junior high school biology studies. Birds are aesthetic and raise curiosity. Curiosity about birds, combined with field observations, can stimulate students to ask authentic questions. As birds are among the few wild vertebrates that one can easily observe, students can easily develop systematic methods to answer their questions and initiate a dynamic open inquiry process. The educational project ‘Tracking Invasive Birds’, presented here as a case study, is the result of a unique collaboration among conservation biologists, science educators and biology teachers. High school students participated in an open inquiry process facilitated by teachers, ecologists, and science educators. At the end of the inquiry process, these high school students conducted a bird watching tour for junior high school students. This paper shows how investigating a conservation environmental issue – invasive birds – contributes to the development of both dynamic open inquiry skills and environmental literacy among 11th‐ and 12th‐grade students.

Up and Down: Trends in Students’ Perceptions about Learning in a 1:1 Laptop Model – A Longitudinal Study

This is a five-year study conducted with junior high school students studying in a 1:1-laptop program in order to test the effects of the program on various measures related to the students: their attitudes, motivation, perceived school norms, self-efficacy, and behavioral intention towards learning with laptops, according to the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). These variables were tested at two dimensions: ‘duration of learning’ – the effect of learning in the program on the same students; ‘duration of program in school’ – the effect of the program on different students in different school years. Participants (N=770) answered a questionnaire structured according to motivational and TPB variables. Findings show that attitudes changed over time, but differently for each dimension. For the ‘duration of learning’, attitudes declined between 7 to 9 grade. Structural equation modeling analysis showed that students’ attitudes and self-efficacy explain part of their intention to learn with laptops, therefore ways of maintaining positive attitudes, self-efficacy, and strengthening school norms should be considered. However, for the ‘duration of program in school’, students’ attitudes increased over the years: The attitudes of students who started the program at a later stage were more positive than those who began earlier. This may indicate that students who experience the program at an advanced stage are better prepared, with more realistic expectations. Findings can assist teacher trainers and policymakers with the implementation of similar programs.

Developing Science Education Research Literacy among Secondary in-Service Teachers

Teachers’ understanding of science and science teaching influences their actions in the classroom, which eventually influences students’ conceptual understanding of science (Anderson, 2015; Schroeder, Scott, Tolson, Huang, & Lee, 2007; Sadler, Sonnert, Coyle, Cook-Smith, & Miller, 2013) and students’ attitudes toward science (Christidou, 2011; Osborne, Simon, & Collins, 2003).