A National Experiment in Curriculum Evaluation

Welch, Wayne W.; Walberg, Herbert J.

doi:10.3102/00028312009003373

Cited by 101 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…The historical approach recommends incorporating history of science in science teaching as a means to promote among learners more informed views of the scientific endeavour (e.g., Klopfer & Watson, 1957;Rutherford, Holton, & Watson, 1970). Evidence concerning the effectiveness of the historical approach (Klopfer & Cooley, 1963 ;Solomon, Duveen, Scot, & McCarthy, 1992;Welch & Walberg, 1972;Yager & Wick, 1966) is, at best, inconclusive. Thus, simply engaging students in inquiry-based activities or providing historical examples of scientific developments has been shown not to be consistently successful in promoting learners' conceptions of NOS.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Pre‐service teachers’ understanding and teaching of nature of science: An intervention study

Lederman

Schwartz

Abd‐El‐Khalick

et al. 2001

Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Educati

100

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This study is the third in a line of investigations that examines pre-service teachers' conceptions of nature of science (NOS) and the translation of those conceptions into classroom practice. The purpose of the present study was to delineate the effectiveness of an intervention designed to facilitate pre-service teachers' inclusion of NOS in their classroom teaching. Four factors were identified as most influential in participants' teaching efforts: (1) knowledge of NOS, (2) knowledge of subject matter, (3) pedagogical knowledge, and (4) intentions towards teaching NOS. Intentions were the most critical factor. Participants, regardless of NOS views or science background, did not teach in accordance with their NOS views if they had not internalized the importance of teaching NOS. Those with strong intentions to address NOS explicitly were more successful. Those participants with strong intentions, well-developed NOS views, and extensive knowledge of science content were most successful in their instruction. Implications for the development of pedagogical content knowledge for NOS are discussed. Sommaire exécutif :La présente étude a visé à cerner l'efficacité d'une intervention destinée à faciliter chez de futurs enseignants et enseignantes l'intégration de savoir relatif à la nature de la science (NS) dans leurs pratiques d'enseignement. Il s'agit de la troisième étude d'une série de travaux portant sur la compréhension et l'enseignement de la NS chez de futurs maîtres. La recherche montre que la transposition des savoirs dans la pratique est indirecte et influencée par divers facteurs contextuels et personnels. L'intervention qui sous-tend la présente étude s'est déroulée lors de la cinquième année d'un programme de maîtrise en enseignement Pour favoriser l'intégration de savoir relatif à la NS, quatre modifications ont été apportées au programme de cette année en vue de tenir compte des contraintes qui limitent l'enseignement de la NS et qui ont été décrites ailleurs, soit le manque de savoirs relatifs à la NS, le manque de directives pour son enseignement, le manque d'activités pédagogiques ainsi que le manque de soutien d'un enseignant mentor. La NS a servi de fil conducteur tout au long de cette cinquième année du programme, de sorte que plusieurs travaux des étudiants et étudiantes devaient faire place aux objectifs liés à la NS, a son enseignement et à son évaluation. De plus, deux cours ont été ajoutés au cursus en vue d'enrichir les conceptions des futurs enseignants et enseignantes à l'égard de la NS. Enfin, un fascicule d'activités et de suggestions ou directives pédagogiques portant sur la NS a été fourni aux étudiants et étudiantes avant le début de leur stage d'enseignement Une cinquième modification, qui n'a touché que le cursus des participants et participantes à la présente étude, a consisté en la constitution, par les chercheurs, d'un groupe visant à soutenir les participants et participantes dans leurs efforts pour intégrer des références explicites à la NS dans leurs pratiques d'enseignement ...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Pre‐service teachers’ understanding and teaching of nature of science: An intervention study

Lederman

Schwartz

Abd‐El‐Khalick

et al. 2001

Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Educati

100

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Based on the success of incorporating classroom environment measures into evaluations of Harvard Project Physics (Welch and Walberg 1972) and computerassisted learning (Teh and Fraser 1994), it is suggested that evaluations in Nigeria include classroom environment dimensions as criteria of effectiveness. Finally, as mentioned previously, it would be desirable to combine qualitative and quantitative methods in future classroom environment research (Fraser and Tobin 1991).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, when classroom environment instruments have been used as a source of process criteria in curriculum evaluation, studies involving the Australian Science Education Project (Fraser 1979a) and Harvard Project Physics (Welch and Walberg 1972) revealed that classroom environment variables differentiated revealingly between alternative curricula when measures of student achievement of cognitive and attitudinal goals have shown little sensitivity.…”

Section: Classroom Environment Researchmentioning

confidence: 98%

Psychosocial environment of agricultural science classrooms in Nigeria

Fraser

1997

International Journal of Science Education

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This article reports the first classroom environment study worldwide specifically in agricultural science classes and one of the few learning environment studies in Nigeria. The sample consisted of 1 175 students in 50 classes in 20 schools in eight states and the federal capital. First, Nigerian agricultural science classrooms were perceived by students to have particularly low levels of student centredness and negotiation. Second, a new classroom environment instrument displayed satisfactory internal consistency reliability and discriminant validity with both the individual student and the class mean as the unit of analysis; it also differentiated between the perceptions of students in different classrooms. Third, past research was replicated in that associations between student outcomes (attitudes and enquiry skills) and classroom environment were established.Although the study of learning environments over the past quarter of a century has spanned many different countries (Fraser 1994), this line of research has been almost nonexistent in Nigeria. The only examples of prior studies are a crossnational study of science laboratory classroom environment settings (Fraser et al. 1992), a study of the socio-cultural environment (Jegede et al. in press), and an investigation of associations of student attitudes with classroom and school psychosocial environment (Akindehin 1993). Recent literature reviews Walberg 1991, Fraser 1994) suggest that no previous learning environment study has been conducted specifically in agricultural science classrooms in any country. Consequently, the present study aimed to develop a valid classroom environment instrument for Nigerian agricultural science classes, and to use this new instrument to investigate some associations between classroom environment and student outcomes.

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“…In particular, classroom environment dimensions can provide important process criteria in evaluating educational programs and curricula (Walberg, 1975;Fraser, 1981a). In fact, several studies of alternative educational curricula or programs have shown that classroom environment variables have differentiated revealingly among programs, often wheh various cognitive outcome measures have shown little sensitivity (Anderson, Walberg and Welch, 1969;Welch and Walberg, 1972;Eash and Talmage, 1975;Cort, 1979;Levin, 1980). The LEI has been used in a variety of other studies which have sought to identify factors influencing classroom environment.…”

Section: Overseas Work On Development and Use Of Instrumentsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Australian Research on Classroom Environment: State of the Art

Fraser¹

1981

Australian Journal of Education

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International work involving the measurement and investigation of perceptions of psychosocial characteristics of school classrooms has firmly established classroom learning environment as a thriving field of study. Furthermore Australian educational researchers have made sizable and distinctive contributions to this research effort. This paper provides an overview of overseas work on the development and use of classroom environment instruments, reports normative and validation data from the use of new or modified scales among large Australian samples, and reviews the Australian research in the area. In particular, Australian research has involved predictive validity studies of outcome-environment relationships, use of environment perceptions as criterion variables, investigation of differences between student and teacher perceptions of actual and preferred environment, person-environment fit studies of relationships between student learning and actual-preferred congruence, and practical attempts to facilitate environmental change. Taken together, Australian studies provide much evidence which supports the validity of various classroom environment instruments, which attests to their usefulness as sources of both predictor and criterion variables for a variety of educational research purposes, and which suggests promising new directions for future research.

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A National Experiment in Curriculum Evaluation

Cited by 101 publications

References 9 publications

Pre‐service teachers’ understanding and teaching of nature of science: An intervention study

Pre‐service teachers’ understanding and teaching of nature of science: An intervention study

Psychosocial environment of agricultural science classrooms in Nigeria

Australian Research on Classroom Environment: State of the Art

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