RESEARCH IN DIDAKTIK OF BIOLOGY - DiVA portal

300 Pages·2003·1.33 MB·English

by  Björn Andersson

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RESEARCH IN
DIDAKTIK OF BIOLOGY
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND CONFERENCE OF
EUROPEAN RESEARCHERS IN DIDAKTIK OF BIOLOGY
UNIVERSITY OF GÖTEBORG, NOVEMBER 18 - 22, 1998
Edited by
Björn Andersson
Ute Harms
Gustav Helldén
Maj-Lis Sjöbeck
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CONTENTS
Editorial 5
RESEARCH ON
ATTITUDES AND INTERESTS
1 Israeli students' attitudes towards and interest in different biological 9
topics: a review of the research studies over the last 25 years
Pinchas Tamir
STUDENTS' CONCEPTIONS
2 A longitudinal study of pupils' conceptualization of the role 47
of the flower in plant reproduction
Gustav Helldén
3 Do students have an implicit theory of animal kinship? 61
Ulrich Kattmann
4 Students' understandings about animal skeletons 85
Sue Dale Tunnicliffe and Michael J. Reis
5 What happens to the food we eat? Children's conceptions 97
of the structure and function of the digestive system
Francimar Martins Teixeira
6 Pupils' conceptions of food in contaminated areas 111
Lieke Kievits, Lena Huisman, Fred Brinkman and Vladimir Tarasov
7 Genes, chromosomes, cell division and inheritance – 123
do students see any relationship?
Jenny Lewis and Colin Wood-Robinson
8 Students' views after the birth of Dolly the sheep 135
Laurence Simonneaux
TEACHING AND LEARNING
9 The teaching and learning of evolution at the primary level 155
Annemarie Møller Andersen and Svend Hesselholdt
10 Meaningful learning of the theory of evolution in high 169
school in Israel using a 'collection' of reading materials
Liora Peled, Hanna Barenholz and Pinchas Tamir
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11 Fostering students' argumentation skills through 181
bio-ethical dilemmas in genetics
Anat Zohar and Flora Nemet
12 Teaching Biology -facilities, curriculum time and approaches 193
to teaching and learning for 16-18 year olds.
Roger Lock
13 Problems, processes and outcomes of individual research projects 205
in biology conducted by students in academic high schools in Israel
Shoshana Statter and Pinchas Tamir
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
14 Promoting reasoning and argument about environmental issues 217
María Pilar Jiménez Aleixandre, Cristina Pereiro Muñoz
and Virginia Aznar Cuadrado
15 The role of biology teachers in interdisciplinary 233
environmental teaching and learning contexts
Regula Kyburz-Graber
WORK IN PROGRESS
16 Mapping access to food in deprived areas: an educational perspective 247
Sheila Turner, Beth McLellan-Arnold, Ralph Levinson,
Elizabeth Dowler, Angela Donkin and Simon Stevenson
17 Learning from worked-out examples in Biology: 261
Empirical analysis of self-explanations
Angela Kross and Gunter Lind
18 Biology teachers' perceptions of learning problems in 271
Mendelian genetics
Marie-Christine Knippels, Arend Jan Waarlo and Kerst Boersma
INTRODUCTORY LECTURE
19 Energy flow on Earth – an orientation pattern for today's world 279
Björn Andersson
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS 291
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EDITORIAL
The Second conference of European Researchers In Didaktik Of Biology
(ERIODOB) was held at the University of Goeteborg, Sweden November 18-22,
1998
The aim of the conference has been to give researchers in biology didaktik the
opportunity to present and discuss their research work and results on an European
level.
The academic committee for the conference was:
Prof.Dr Horst Bayrhuber
Dr Fred Brinkman
Dr Pierre Clement
Dr Ute Harms
Dr Maria Pilar Jimenez-Aleixandre
Dr Gustav Hellden
The local committee was:
Dr Maj-Lis Sjöbeck (chair)
Mrs Gun Mathiasson (secretary)
Dr Mats Hagman
M Sc Jan Landström
M Sc Anita Wallin
M Sc Ann Zetterqvist
The papers and posters of the conference have been reviewed by a team of four:
Dr Fred Brinkman
Dr Maria Pilar Jimenez-Aleixandre
Prof Dr Ulrich Kattmann
Dr Jenny Lewis
The following criteria have been applied by the reviewers:
RESEARCH. Is the proposal about research work?
SUBJECT/PROBLEM. Is the proposal based on a theory?
DESIGN. Is the design appropriate?
DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS. Does the data analysis appear to be
appropriate?
GENERAL INTEREST. Does the presentation promise to be of general interest?
The reviewers have recommended 18 of the contributions to the conference for
inclusion in the proceedings. They are hereby published.
Mölndal, February 1, 2000
Björn Andersson Ute Harms Gustav Helldén
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RESEARCH ON
ATTITUDES AND INTERESTS
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______________________________________________________________________________
ISRAELI STUDENTS' ATTITUDES TOWARDS AND
INTEREST IN DIFFERENT BIOLOGICAL TOPICS:
A REVIEW OF THE RESEARCH STUDIES OVER
THE LAST 25 YEARS
_______________________________________________________________________________
Pinchas Tamir
Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Introduction
This conference in Gothenburg is special and distinct from most others. Most
professional conferences on education are organized around content areas such as
mathematics, language , science, or music. Conferences often feature a specific
theme such as homeostasis in zoology or photosynthesis in botany. In this
conference the organization level is neither as general as science nor as specific as
photosynthesis or homeostasis. Rather, the organization level chosen is that of
school subjects, namely biology, chemistry, physics and earth sciences.
How will a conference on biological education differ from a conference on
science education? The major difference lies in the nature of experts in these
different subjects and its implications. Within biology, the units of studies are at
the level of life processes such as respiration or digestion as well as subgroups
such as varieties of a particular organism.
When I deliberated with myself about the issues that I would discuss in this
conference, I decided to select an area or topic that will be unique to biology. By
unique, I mean some issue that relates and integrates with the most authentic
attribute of biology, namely life and living.
Purpose
The purpose, therefore, of this study is to review the literature on a) attitudes of
students toward science in general and biology in particular; b) the attitudes of
students toward the study of biology in school; and c) the relationship between
attitudes of various types and achievement in knowledge, understanding and
problem solving in the life sciences.
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Measures
The following issues and variables were identified and included:
• Interest in science and science learning with special reference to biology
• Curiosity in science and science learning with special reference to biology
• Attitudes of students to the use of living organisms for the study of biology in
school
• Attitudes of students to the study of biology a) in class; b) in the laboratory;
c) in the outdoors; and d) as a hobby
• Attitudes of students toward the study of plants - animals - microbiology
A review of factors which affect the attitudes was carried out. Effect was found in
the following attributes:
1. Gender differences in attitudes related to science education in Israel with
special reference to biology (Friedler & Tamir, 1990)
2. The structure of interest in high school biology (Tamir & Gardner, 1989;
Gardner & Tamir, 1989, I; Gardner & Tamir, 1989, II).
3. Variables that affect student enrolment in science courses (Milner, Ben-Zvi &
Hofstein, 1987; Gardner & Tamir, 1989, II).
4. Attitudes of secondary school students in Israel towards the use of live
organisms in the study of biology (Tamir, 1980; Tamir & Sever, 1980; Tamir
& Hamo, 1980; Silberstein & Tamir, 1981; Tamir & Shcurr, 1997).
Gender Differences in Science Education in Israel with Special
Reference to Biology
General Trends
Research on the differences between the sexes in relation to schooling and
learning has received much attention in the last two decades. Girls tend to succeed
more in the elementary school and less in high school. The “breaking point” is the
beginning of adolescence, and this has caused researchers to explain the
phenomenon by the entry into sex roles (Nash, 1979). At this stage, girls show
lower cognitive achievement in “masculine” fields (Garratt, 1986) as well as
lower aspirations toward future achievements.
There is greater motivation on the part of boys to achieve academically (ensuring
superior occupational status) and lower motivation among the girls, together
resulting in the formation of an achievement gap at this stage (Kfir, 1988).
The rich information provided by the research has generally confirmed findings of
many previous studies which indicate that, in general, boys show higher
achievement, are more interested in, and tend to have more positive attitudes
towards science. Usually the differences are lowest at age 10 and greatest at age
17. For example, in the First International Science Study, the difference was about
a quarter of a standard deviation at age 10, half a standard deviation at age 14, and