Use of technical terms in German biology lessons and its effects on students’ conceptual learning

Dorfner, Tobias; Förtsch, Christian; Neuhaus, Birgit J.

doi:10.1080/02635143.2019.1609436

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Two teacher educators suggested selecting relevant technical terms as another criterion. This is also an issue in science education research, showing that in‐service biology teachers' extensive use of technical terms affects students' achievements and situational interests (Dorfner et al, 2020). We concluded that this aspect is relevant for prospective teachers and thus added it to the RALP.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the quality of science teachers' lesson plans: Evaluation and application of a novel instrument

Großmann,

Krüger

2023

Science Education

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Lesson planning is a core part of teachers' professional competence. Written lesson plans play a significant role in science teacher education as a preparation for demonstration lessons during the final teacher certification exam. However, the few existing scoring rubrics on lesson plans are not particularly theoretically sound and are barely tested for the validity of score interpretations. In response to the demand for transparent and applicable criteria, we developed the rubric to assess science lesson plans (RALP) to assess science teachers' lesson plan quality. We employed a mixed‐methods approach: First, we present multiple sources of validity evidence (based on test content, internal structure, relations to other variables, and consequences of testing) as mainly quantitative indicators for the quality of the RALP. Based upon that, we applied the RALP to lesson plans written by preservice and trainee science teachers (N = 100) and provided a qualitative analysis of six cases to illustrate common patterns in these lesson plans. Results indicate that teacher educators consider the RALP criteria (N = 24) relevant and objectively applicable. Correlation analyses of the scores and two teacher educators' holistic quality assessment of all lesson plans provide convincing evidence that the RALP can discriminate lesson plan quality levels. Moreover, comparisons between preservice science teachers and trainee science teachers reveal that trainee teachers score significantly higher than preservice teachers, indicating that the RALP is sensitive to differences in teaching and planning experience. The application and in‐depth analysis of three criteria of the RALP illustrate these differences in levels of planning quality. We discuss possible applications of the RALP in science teacher education and research in science teaching.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the quality of science teachers' lesson plans: Evaluation and application of a novel instrument

Großmann,

Krüger

2023

Science Education

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“…Biology, in general, has a greater focus on and variety of scientific terminology than other scientific disciplines [76]. However, research shows that novice learners can only master a small subset of scientific terms [75][76][77]. Even though children are considered to acquire new words faster than adults (e.g., [78]), children have difficulties learning scientific terms from children's books due to their length, unfamiliarity, and specific and abstract nature [79].…”

Section: Reasoning About Evolutionary Changementioning

confidence: 99%

“…While most words that children learn in their mother tongue refer to concrete things that are already familiar, scientific terms refer to new ideas and concepts [ 80 ]. The use of a high number of different scientific terms in biology lessons seems to have adverse effects on students’ performance [ 77 ]. Thus, the higher the number of unknown words, the more difficulties children might have in comprehending a text and this might give rise to scientifically incorrect ideas [ 75 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Darwin’s tales–A content analysis of how evolution is presented in children’s books

2022

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In science, certain theories led to a paradigm shift in human being’s approach to explain nature, such as the theory of relativity, the quantum theory, and the theory of evolution. The latter explains the emergence of biodiversity on Earth and all living beings’ relatedness, including humans. Accordingly, evolutionary theory is a central part of scientific literacy. However, scholars have demonstrated that misconceptions emerging in childhood hinder learners from grasping evolutionary processes. Implementing evolution in early science education could enhance scientific ideas as a basis for subsequent learning at school. Currently, children’s literature that deals with evolution is increasing and may enable more children to encounter evolutionary theory before entering school. This explorative study aimed to analyze how children’s books about evolution approach explaining this complex topic to young children in terms of covered contents, underlying concepts and use of language. We conducted (1) a text-based qualitative content analysis of 31 children’s books in the categories of organismal context, evolutionary principles, and misconceptions, and (2) a computer-supported content analysis of 33 word labels concerning (a) scientific terms and (b) verbs expressing evolutionary change. Although evolution is a universal concept, children’s books seem to promote specific contexts such as animal and human evolution. Even though the principle of selection requires an understanding of complex interactions between individuals and environmental factors, this principle was more frequent than the principles variation and inheritance. Phylogenetic history was covered more often than basic evolutionary processes, and evolutionary change was mainly mentioned at the species level over long periods. Besides, most books conveyed misconceptions such as transformationist, teleological or anthropomorphic reasoning. Consequently, books covering evolution may bias children’s first ideas concerning this topic or introduce unscientific ideas. Based on our results, we propose implications for early evolution educators and education researchers.

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“…Teachers might also have to reconsider their use of professional terms in biology lessons. Dorfner et al (2019) emphasized that using a high number of professional terms negatively affects students' learning and interest.…”

Section: Instructional Quality In Biology Lessonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this project, the German online learning platform DiKoBi serves as a video-based simulation, in which six classroom situations are embedded. The classroom situations represent challenging dimensions in biology classrooms: (1) students' level of cognitive activities (Förtsch et al, 2016), (2) dealing with students' ideas and errors (Rach et al, 2013), (3) use of technical language (Dorfner et al, 2019;Wüsten, 2010), (4) use of experiments (Mayer, 2007), (5) use of models (Förtsch et al, 2018b;Werner et al, 2017), and (6) conceptual understanding (Förtsch et al, 2017). Pre-service teachers had to diagnose effective teaching using DiKoBi.…”

Section: Video-based Simulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diagnosing the Instructional Quality of Biology Lessons Based on Staged Videos: Developing DiKoBi, A Video-Based Simulation

Kramer¹,

Stürmer²,

Förtsch³

et al. 2022

Learning to Diagnose With Simulations

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Identifying and interpreting challenging instructional situations is important for teacher performance in the classroom, thus also for instructional quality. This project examines classroom situations in which pre-service teachers diagnose effective teaching in terms of instructional quality in the context of biology lessons. The interdisciplinary collaboration combines expertise in research on teachers’ professional competence, video-based teaching, and computer-supported case-based learning in several contexts. The video-based simulation DiKoBi (German acronym for “diagnostic competences of biology teachers in biology classrooms”) was developed to investigate, measure, and foster pre-service teachers’ diagnostic skills concerning the instructional quality of biology lessons. Staged videos embedded in the video-based simulation DiKoBi show six different classroom situations, each focusing on one biology-specific instructional quality feature. Validity of the content and tasks in DiKoBi were examined in interviews using think-aloud protocols and expert-novice comparisons. In future research, intervention studies will be used to analyze the effects of knowledge acquisition and scaffolding during teachers’ diagnosing on their diagnostic skills concerning instructional quality.

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Use of technical terms in German biology lessons and its effects on students’ conceptual learning

Cited by 11 publications

References 58 publications

Assessing the quality of science teachers' lesson plans: Evaluation and application of a novel instrument

Assessing the quality of science teachers' lesson plans: Evaluation and application of a novel instrument

Darwin’s tales–A content analysis of how evolution is presented in children’s books

Diagnosing the Instructional Quality of Biology Lessons Based on Staged Videos: Developing DiKoBi, A Video-Based Simulation

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