Students Explaining Science—Assessment of Science Communication Competence

Kulgemeyer, Christoph; Schecker, Horst

doi:10.1007/s11165-013-9354-1

Cited by 47 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…In our program of research, we have explored the use of BioStories as a diversified writing-to-learn science strategy that centralises the role of communication through particular consideration of content, context, code and representation (Kulgemeyer & Schecker, 2013): students write hybridised scientific narratives (representation) that communicate their conceptual understandings (content) related to the socioscientific issue of biosecurity (context) using clear, everyday language and appropriate vocabulary (code). In a series of multi-method studies conducted with Year 6, Year 9 and Year 12 students, it was reported that writing a sequence of BioStories enhanced students' familiarity with biosecurity issues and helped them to develop a deeper understanding of related biological concepts (Ritchie, Tomas, & Tones, 2010); significantly improved their attitudes toward science and science learning (Tomas, Ritchie, & Tones, 2011), and elicited positive emotional responses in science classes (Tomas & Ritchie, 2012).…”

Section: Writing For Scientific Literacymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Challenge of Evaluating Students’ Scientific Literacy in a Writing-to-Learn Context

Tomas

Ritchie

2014

Res Sci Educ

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This paper reports on the challenge of evaluating students' scientific literacy in a writing-to-learn context, as illustrated by our experience with an online sciencewriting project. In this mixed-methods study, Year 9 students in a case study class (13-14 year olds, n = 26) authored a series of two 'hybridised' short stories that merged scientific and narratives genres about the socioscientific issue of biosecurity. In seeking to measure the efficacy of the intervention, we sought evidence of students' conceptual understanding communicated through their stories. Finding a suitable instrument presented our first challenge. This led to the development of scoring matrices to evaluate students' derived sense of scientific literacy. Student interviews were also conducted to explore their understanding of concepts related to the biosecurity context. While the results of these analyses showed significant improvements in students' understanding arising from their participation in the writing tasks, the interviews highlighted a second challenge in evaluating students' scientific literacy; a disparity between their written and vocalised understandings. The majority of students expressed a deeper level of conceptual understanding at interview than they did in their stories. The interviews also revealed alternative conceptions and instances of superficial understanding that weren't expressed in their writing. Aside from the methodological challenge of analysing stories quantitatively, these findings suggest that in a writing-to-learn context, evaluating students' scientific literacy can be difficult. An examination of these artefacts in combination with interviews about students' written work provided a more comprehensive evaluation of their developing scientific literacy. The implications of this study for our understanding of the derived sense of scientific literacy, as well as implications for classroom practice, are also discussed.

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Section: Writing For Scientific Literacymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Challenge of Evaluating Students’ Scientific Literacy in a Writing-to-Learn Context

Tomas

Ritchie

2014

Res Sci Educ

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“…We assessed explaining performance of student teachers in a process‐oriented approach close to real teaching situations in this study. The framework is called “dialogic explaining assessment” (DEA), which was an adaptation of a method used by Kulgemeyer and Schecker () to assess high‐school students' competencies of communicating physics. In a DEA, experts have to explain physics phenomena to a single novice, for example, why one feels weightless in a rollercoaster.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A general law, for example, Ohm's law, might be explained by giving different examples in which the law shows that it can be applied to different phenomena (Kulgemeyer & Tomczyszyn, ). Kulgemeyer and Schecker () stressed that even a well‐reasoned claim—that means a good argumentative structure—might lead to acceptance or conviction, but not necessarily to understanding . Understanding (e.g., by achieving a conceptual change) is the main goal of explaining in the classroom (Gage, ).…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Concerning the three characteristics of teaching quality (emotional support, classroom organization, instructional support), this model provides a concretion of these three characteristics for explaining situations. The model was used in several studies and refined based on empirical data (Kulgemeyer & Schecker, ; Kulgemeyer & Tomczyszyn, ).…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

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From professional knowledge to professional performance: The impact of CK and PCK on teaching quality in explaining situations

2018

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In recent years, many studies have researched the impact of teachers' professional knowledge on teaching quality. Those findings are still ambiguous providing unclear evidence for supporting teacher education programs that aim at developing professional knowledge. In this study, we followed a new approach and used a "performance test" to take a closer look at the impact of professional knowledge on teaching quality. We simulated one particular teaching situation in a controlled, standardized setting in which student teachers (N 5 109) enrolled in physics teacher training courses at five German universities had to explain given phenomena to high-school students. These high-school students were trained to behave in a standardized way and to ask standardized questions. Videos of these situations were analyzed using an established model of explaining physics. The validity, reliability, and objectivity of these performance tests for explaining physics were examined in previous studies. In this article, we report on the analysis and interpretation of the results of our study concerning the impact of physics content knowledge (CK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and two groups of beliefs (specific aspects of (i) self-efficacy and (ii) teaching and learning) that mediate the effect of CK and PCK on student teachers' explaining performance. Using path analysis, we can show that student teachers' PCK mediates the influence of their CK on explaining performance in that CK only has a positive influence if PCK has also increased as well. Our findings stress the key role of PCK. For one particular teaching situation, we can show the positive influence of student teachers' CK and their PCK they acquired in academic teacher education on their teaching quality.

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“…It is based on theoretical considerations about the process of communication in a constructivist view. The model has been validated empirically Kulgemeyer & Schecker, 2013). Its central idea is the communication process shown in Figure 5.…”

Section: Science Communication Competencementioning

confidence: 99%

Research on Educational Standards in German Science Education – Towards a model of student competences

Kulgemeyer

Schecker

2014

EURASIA J MATH SCI T

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This paper gives an overview of research on modelling science competence in German science education. Since the first national German educational standards for physics, chemistry and biology education were released in 2004 research projects dealing with competences have become prominent strands. Most of this research is about the structure of science competence as laid out in the standards. We first discuss the notion of competence in general and of science competence in particular. We then present a selection of results with respect to competence modelling. Finally, we critically review the impact of this research on teaching and show perspectives for future studies and classroom practise.

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Students Explaining Science—Assessment of Science Communication Competence

Cited by 47 publications

References 22 publications

The Challenge of Evaluating Students’ Scientific Literacy in a Writing-to-Learn Context

The Challenge of Evaluating Students’ Scientific Literacy in a Writing-to-Learn Context

From professional knowledge to professional performance: The impact of CK and PCK on teaching quality in explaining situations

Research on Educational Standards in German Science Education – Towards a model of student competences

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