scholarly journals Contextual, relevant and practical chemistry teaching at upper secondary school level textbooks in Finland

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 304-315
Author(s):  
Veli-Matti Ikävalko ◽  
Maija Aksela
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Design Research ◽  
School Level ◽  
Needs Analysis ◽  
Upper Secondary School ◽  
Context Model ◽  
Chemistry Teaching ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
The Individual

Contextual teaching approaches can motivate students, make chemistry learning more relevant and affect the students’ career choices later in life. This article presents the needs analysis section of a design research project. This needs analysis focused on the instructions for experimental tasks (N=160) found in Finnish upper secondary school textbooks and the STS (Science-Technology-Society) and everyday chemistry content in these instructions. It was found that the studied content can be divided into three levels: (II) context-based experiment instructions, (I) indirect contextual references and (0) no context. Over one third of the experiment instructions (37.5%) did not contain any context whatsoever. The content that did have a context mostly dealt with household chemistry related to everyday phenomena such as food and foodstuffs. The second most common themes in the instructions were: environment and nature and industry, technology and production. Most of the instructions were “recipe-like” and on the first level of Gilbert’s context model. In terms of relevance, most of the studied instructions focused on the individual level. In the future, experiment instructions should be developed to be more relevant at school level.

Does School Matter?

2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katariina Salmela-Aro ◽  
Noona Kiuru ◽  
Minna Pietikäinen ◽  
Jukka Jokela
Keyword(s):  
School Climate ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Secondary School Students ◽  
School Level ◽  
School Students ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
School Burnout ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Positive Motivation

School burnout can be defined as consisting of exhaustion due to school demands, cynical, and detached attitude toward one’s school, and feelings of inadequacy as a student ( Kiuru, Aunola, Nurmi, Leskinen, & Salmela-Aro, 2008 ; Salmela-Aro & Näätänen, 2005 ; Schaufeli, Martínez, Pinto, Salanova, & Bakker, 2002 ). The first aim of the present study was to examine the extent to which schools differ in school-related burnout. Moreover, the aim was to examine the extent to which school-related and background factors are associated with school burnout at the school level and at the individual level. The participants were 58,657 students from 431 comprehensive schools and 29,515 students from 228 upper secondary schools who filled in a questionnaire measuring their school burnout, school-related variables (i.e., negative school climate, positive motivation received from teachers, support from the school), and background variables (i.e., gender, grade-point average, socio-economic status, and family structure). The results revealed only small differences between schools in school burnout. Among the comprehensive school students the results at the school-level showed that negative school climate typical of the school was positively related, while support from school shared among school members was negatively related to school-related burnout. Among upper secondary school students, in turn, positive motivation received from teachers typical of the school was negatively related to school-related burnout. At the individual level, negative school climate was positively related, and support from school and positive motivation received from teachers were negatively related to burnout among both the comprehensive and upper secondary school students. In addition, girls and those with lower GPA experienced higher levels of school burnout compared to boys and those with higher GPA.

The learning environment in upper secondary school physical education: The student perspective

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aron Gauti Laxdal
Keyword(s):  
Physical Education ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Learning Environment ◽  
Physical Education Teachers ◽  
Learning Support ◽  
Upper Secondary School ◽  
New Instrument ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Individual

The overreaching aim of this thesis was to gain a better understanding of the students’ perceptions of the learning environment in upper secondary school physical education, with special focus on marginalized subgroups. More specifically, the intention was to explore whether students perceived their learning environment differently depending on their teachers’ gender, the learning support they received or the perceived competence they had. Despite the learning environment being a well-researched phenomenon in the more academic school subjects, there was a substantial knowledge gap concerning its influence in physical education. The individual works that form this ensemble aimed to occlude some of those gaps. In an effort to achieve the aforementioned aims, a new instrument measuring teacher learning support in the physical education context was also constructed and validated. The chosen methodology for the thesis was cross-sectional, comprising of a multicomponent self-report questionnaire. The data was analyzed using various analytical tools, including structural modeling analysis and MANCOVA between group comparisons. The participants were 1133 upper secondary school students (Mage = 17.2, SD = 0.86) from Norway (n = 554) and Iceland (n = 579), and 17 Norwegian PE teachers (11 males, 6 females). The sampling of participants was performed using a stratified procedure representing both urban, suburban and rural settlements. Multiple steps were taken to ensure adequate sample representability. The collective results of the individual papers indicate that the current organizational trends in PE are more in line with the needs of the highly competent students, and less so with the needs of the less competent students. This tendency intensifies the differences between these groups and may be one of the primary drivers behind the negative relationship between age and appreciation for the subject. Further, the students do not appear to be self- regulating their learning to the same extent as they are in other subjects, despite the teachers efforts to facilitate the behavior. The cause of this discrepancy likely being PE’s reputation as a recreational subject, underlined by the absence of homework and the playful nature of the lessons. Additionally, the role of the teacher’s gender in influencing the PE experience seems to be exaggerated. Gender matching and positive discrimination of female PE teachers are therefore unlikely to improve the learning environment of female students. The concluding recommendations are multitudinous and include suggestions to all the stakeholders of the subject. They include an appeal to the policymakers to rely more heavily on the body of research when implementing or adjusting policy, a plea to the teaching institutions educating the physical education teachers to emphasize formative teaching practices to a greater extent in their program, in order to promote learning behavior, and a call to the physical education teachers to address the various challenges related to the less interested and less competent students by reducing the benefits of sporting experience and ameliorating the current curriculum implementations by introducing more non-traditional sports and activities.

scholarly journals Teaching of chemical bonding: a study of Swedish and South African students' conceptions of bonding

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 985-1005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Nimmermark ◽  
Lars Öhrström ◽  
Jerker Mårtensson ◽  
Bette Davidowitz
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
South African ◽  
Chemical Bonding ◽  
School Level ◽  
Upper Secondary School ◽  
African Students ◽  
Counter Measures ◽  
Ionic Bonding ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Endothermic Reactions

Almost 700 Swedish and South African students from the upper secondary school and first-term chemistry university level responded to our survey on concepts of chemical bonding. The national secondary school curricula and most common textbooks for both countries were also surveyed and compared for their content on chemical bonding. Notable differences between the countries were found in textbooks and in the curriculum regarding the topics of ionic bonding, bond energetics and use of the VSEPR model, the latter being absent in the Swedish curriculum and ionic bonding not explicitly mentioned in the South African curriculum. To some extent these differences are reflected in the students’ responses to the survey. It is also clear that university teachers in both countries must prepare effective counter-measures against deep rooted misunderstandings. For the upper secondary school level it is suggested that the bond energetics and exothermic and endothermic reactions be clearly and carefully presented and separated as the study indicates that mixing of these two concepts is a major cause of confusion.

scholarly journals Young peoples’ own stories about dropping out in Norway: An indirect qualitative approach

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
Mette Bunting ◽  
Geir Moshuus
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Socioeconomic Background ◽  
Dropping Out ◽  
Upper Secondary School ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Out Of School

Mye forskning om skoleavbrudd i videregående opplæring ser på risikofaktorer, som sosio-økonomisk bakgrunn, grunnskolepoeng og kjønn, og kan derfor sies å fokusere på individuelle og strukturelle faktorer. Artikkelen argumenterer for heller å se på skoleavbrudd som et samspill eller møte mellom individet og systemet, det individuelle og strukturelle. Forskningen baseres på data fra en longitudinell kvalitativ studie i sitt fjerde år. Informantene er ungdom i NAV-systemet som har sluttet på videregående skole, men som fortsatt har skolerett. Gjennom den indirekte metoden, en intervjumetode basert på etnografiske intervjuer, søkes det å legge til rette for at ungdommene kan fortelle sine historier med egne ord og på sin måte. Disse fortellingene belyser avbruddsprosessene, og beskriver opplevelser forut for avbruddet. Funnene viser at selv om ungdommene sier dette skjer på grunn av enkelthendelser, belyser fortellingene deres at dette er komplekse prosesser som ligger til grunn, gjerne år tilbake. Artikkelen konkluderer med at sosialt medierte prosesser også utenfor skole, må vektlegges for å kunne forstå skoleavbrudd.Nøkkelord: frafall, kvalitativ longitudinell studie, livshistorier, etnografisk intervju, ungdom, videregående skoleAbstractResearch on dropout from upper secondary school usually focuses on risk factors such as socioeconomic background, previous academic results and gender—that is, on individual and structural factors. The present article argues for a shift of focus, looking at dropping out as an interaction between the person and the system—between the individual and the structural. This research draws on interview data from a longitudinal qualitative study (now in its fourth year) of young people both in and out of school. The informants were young dropouts currently in the welfare system. Using the indirect method (developed from ethnographic interviews), the interviewer sought to establish an environment in which these young people could use their own words when sharing their stories. Those stories provide an insight into the processes and experiences prior to the event of dropping out. The findings show that although young people describe dropping out as a singular event, their stories indicate complex preceding processes, often from some years before. The article concludes that socially mediated interactions between the individual and the structural, both inside school and out of school, must be considered when seeking to understand why young people drop out.Keywords: dropout, qualitative longitudinal study, life stories, ethnographic interview, youth, upper secondary school

scholarly journals Inquiring chemistry teacher: The teaching and learning of chemistry concepts and phenomena (part V): Historical approach to chemistry teaching 2

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 387-424
Author(s):  
Simo Tolvanen ◽  
Maija Aksela ◽  
Maija Ahola ◽  
Outi Haatainen ◽  
Jarkko Huusko ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Chemistry Education ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Upper Secondary School ◽  
Chemistry Teaching ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
History Of

In spring 2013, students attending the course The Central Areas of Chemistry Education II studied the history of key chemistry concepts as well as the research on the use of historical approach to chemistry teaching. Based on the research literature, they produced materials for chemistry teaching in secondary and upper secondary school. In addition to teaching the concepts and phenomena of chemistry, the historical approach was used to deal with nature of chemistry as a science. In the articles, the students present the theoretical background for historical approach and history related to the produced material. The teaching materials (in Finnish) can be found online from the site of KEMMA Centre for Chemistry Education: http://www.luma.fi/kemma.

scholarly journals TIMSS Advanced 2008: Fall i fysikk-kompetanse i Norge og Sverige

1970 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Angell ◽  
Svein Lie ◽  
Anubha Rohatgi
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
School Level ◽  
Upper Secondary School ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Secondary School Level ◽  
International Comparative ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
And Algebra ◽  
Timss Advanced ◽  
Mathematics And Science

TIMSS Advanced 2008 is an international comparative study, and deals with examining student achievement in mathematics and physics in the final year at upper secondary school. The theme of this article is to look at how Norwegian and Swedish students performed in physics in 2008 compared to the study conducted in 1995. The results from the TIMSS Advanced study provide an unambiguous picture. There is a significant decline in the performance in physics since the previous study in 1995 for both Norwegian and Swedish students. One important reason is related to the generally low level of results in science and mathematics at all levels in schools as shown by the downward trend for students in lower grades. The decline in physics performance can thus be explained by the fact that students with significantly weaker skills than before in mathematics and science come into upper secondary school. Lack of knowledge of basic arithmetic and algebra seems to be a contributing factor for this downwards trend in physics at upper secondary school level.

Social inequalities in the allocation of learning support in a Swedish upper secondary school

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Johansson
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Social Characteristics ◽  
Upper Secondary School ◽  
Health And Social Care ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Additional Support ◽  
Almost All

The upper secondary school is in Sweden practically mandatory even though attendance is voluntary and today almost all students in Sweden continue their studies at upper secondary school. But not all of them leave this school with a complete certificate of schooling as a result of experiencing a range of difficulties which may be due to cognitive, physical, sensory or social factors. This article uses ethnographic data from a case study to explore how one municipal upper secondary school allocates additional support to students with different social characteristics. The study focussed on students in the following three upper secondary schools programme all in the same school: (1) Individual, (2) Health and Social Care, and (3) Technology. The results show that existing social inequalities are reinforced through everyday activities and interactions. The prevalence and type of additional support that the students are offered is one of the factors reinforcing existing social differentiation, and is closely linked to the type of programme they are studying. Successful support services appear to be focused on Swedish male pupils from higher socio-economic backgrounds on the Technology Programme. Students from lower social backgrounds enrolled in either the Individual or Health and Social Care Programmes receive much less appropriate support. The social justice implications of these priorities for resource allocation are discussed.

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