The Inside Story: Early Childhood Practitioners' Perceptions of Teaching Science

<p>This thesis investigates early childhood teachers' perspectives of how they support children's scientific learning, and how they felt about the way they supported that learning, within one childcare centre setting. Using a qualitative case study approach the views of the six participants teaching at the research site were gathered during initial individual interviews. Participants were then asked to document situations where they noticed and recognised children engaged in scientific learning. In a second interview participants talked about the documentation they had gathered and what responses they had to what they had seen, if any. The interview data and participant documentation was then coded and collated into a matrix form in order to use the initial findings as the basis for a focus group discussion involving all participants. The transcript of the focus group discussion was then added to the initial findings and subsequently considered in light of Rogoff's (2003) three analytical foci (the personal, interpersonal and cultural-institutional). This enabled a broad spectrum of ideas to emerge and served to highlight several teaching strategies.Three key findings emerged from the data. The first, a unique contribution of this study, highlights specific teaching strategies relating to the interdependent nature of team teaching relationships. The dialogue that developed between participants during the research emerged as a significant teaching support. The way the participants drew on each other's expertise, knowledge, experiences, and physical support was noticeable and often contributed to an individual participant's learning and increased confidence. On an individual level, the second finding concerned how capable and competent the individual participants felt about their support of children's scientific learning was related to their view of what 'science' is, and the role they thought the teacher should play in science education. This emphasises the importance of teachers having subject knowledge and a solid understanding of the nature of science (NOS). Furthermore, in this study the complexity of increasing the effectiveness of the support that early childhood teachers provide for children's scientific learning was revealed as the third finding. The influence of participants' confidence in and attitudes toward supporting children's scientific learning is further complicated when considering them in relation to the role of the teacher's understanding of NOS. Both of these factors have implications for the difference in teachers' available knowledge, skills and resources, and their inclination to use them. This thesis argues that there is no one solution to encouraging teachers to engage in more effective scientific learning support. However, reflective practice can enable teachers to develop their understanding of what science is and a pedagogy that will support the children's scientific learning, as well as increasing their confidence in and willingness to expand their scientific subject knowledge base. In addition, it also contends that collective teaching strategies are a significant factor in early childhood teachers' abilities to notice, recognise and respond to children engaged in scientific learning and as such need further consideration in teacher education, policy making decisions, and future research.</p>

The Inside Story: Early Childhood Practitioners' Perceptions of Teaching Science

<p>This thesis investigates early childhood teachers' perspectives of how they support children's scientific learning, and how they felt about the way they supported that learning, within one childcare centre setting. Using a qualitative case study approach the views of the six participants teaching at the research site were gathered during initial individual interviews. Participants were then asked to document situations where they noticed and recognised children engaged in scientific learning. In a second interview participants talked about the documentation they had gathered and what responses they had to what they had seen, if any. The interview data and participant documentation was then coded and collated into a matrix form in order to use the initial findings as the basis for a focus group discussion involving all participants. The transcript of the focus group discussion was then added to the initial findings and subsequently considered in light of Rogoff's (2003) three analytical foci (the personal, interpersonal and cultural-institutional). This enabled a broad spectrum of ideas to emerge and served to highlight several teaching strategies.Three key findings emerged from the data. The first, a unique contribution of this study, highlights specific teaching strategies relating to the interdependent nature of team teaching relationships. The dialogue that developed between participants during the research emerged as a significant teaching support. The way the participants drew on each other's expertise, knowledge, experiences, and physical support was noticeable and often contributed to an individual participant's learning and increased confidence. On an individual level, the second finding concerned how capable and competent the individual participants felt about their support of children's scientific learning was related to their view of what 'science' is, and the role they thought the teacher should play in science education. This emphasises the importance of teachers having subject knowledge and a solid understanding of the nature of science (NOS). Furthermore, in this study the complexity of increasing the effectiveness of the support that early childhood teachers provide for children's scientific learning was revealed as the third finding. The influence of participants' confidence in and attitudes toward supporting children's scientific learning is further complicated when considering them in relation to the role of the teacher's understanding of NOS. Both of these factors have implications for the difference in teachers' available knowledge, skills and resources, and their inclination to use them. This thesis argues that there is no one solution to encouraging teachers to engage in more effective scientific learning support. However, reflective practice can enable teachers to develop their understanding of what science is and a pedagogy that will support the children's scientific learning, as well as increasing their confidence in and willingness to expand their scientific subject knowledge base. In addition, it also contends that collective teaching strategies are a significant factor in early childhood teachers' abilities to notice, recognise and respond to children engaged in scientific learning and as such need further consideration in teacher education, policy making decisions, and future research.</p>

The Effects of COVID 19 in Medical Education in Nepal

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused an unparalleled disruption in all forms of the scientific learning processes including medical education. The disease has caused deaths and serious comorbidities and presents challenges for all scientists, educators and students. This viewpoint discusses the current status of medical education in Nepal, describes how COVID-19 have affected medical education, theory and practical classes and internship learning environments, and explores potential implications of COVID-19 for the future of medical education.

Model pembelajaran auditory intellectually repetition terhadap peningkatan kemampuan berpikir kritis matematis siswa

The purpose of this study was to determine the mathematical critical thinking ability of students who were taught using the Auditory Intellectually Repetition learning model was better than the mathematical critical thinking skills of students who were taught through a scientific learning approach. This study uses a quantitative approach and the type of research used is quasi-experimental research. The population in this study were 11th grade students of SMA Negeri 5 Simeulue Barat, the samples in this study were two classes selected using a nonprobability sampling technique of purposive sampling type, namely class 11 IPA-1 as an experimental class using the Auditory Intellectually Repetition model and class 11 IPA-2 as a control class using a scientific approach. The data processing technique uses SPSS version 25 with the results of the study showing that: the value of Sig (p-value) > 0.05), it is accepted that it is 0.629 in the experimental class and 0.273 in the control class so that the data has a normal distribution. The t-test analysis of students' mathematical critical thinking skills was obtained 0.001 < 0.05, then Ho was rejected and Ha was accepted. This means that the mathematical critical thinking ability of students who are taught with the Auditory Intellectually Repetition learning model is better than the mathematical critical thinking skills of students who are taught with a scientific learning approach.

How to Improve the Actual Effect of Computer-Assisted Teaching

Clark & Starr (1986) found in a study that the amount of memory of students varies depending on the situation: 10% of people can remember the information or knowledge “read”; 20% can remember the “heard” Information; 30% of people can remember what they “see”; 50% of people can remember what they “hear and see”; 70% of people can remember information “said”; 90% can Remember the “said and done” things. Therefore, if the learner only uses reading or listening or seeing methods when studying, the amount of memory of information is limited, but if the learner can do it by hand, it can deepen the impression and increase the memory capacity of information. Although traditional textbooks can assist learners to record external information in words, they still have certain limitations on abstract mathematical knowledge or scientific learning, and the rapid development of computers can make up for this deficiency. Computers can present dynamic images and provide learners with a powerful learning and perceptual experience, enabling learners to be more perceptive to abstract concepts (Fan, 2014).

The Development of Reflective-Scientific Learning Model to Improve 21st Century Learning Skills In Historical Learning

<em>This research aims to develop the Reflective-scientific Learning Model to accommodate 21st-century learning skills in learning history. The ADDIE instructional design was used as the research method to develop the learning model. The research participants were 120 senior high school students. The Reflective-scientific Learning Model consists of five learning stages: historical engagement, critical-exploration, communicative-explanation, creative-elaboration, and reflective evaluation. The research results prove the feasibility and effectiveness of the developed learning model in improving students' 21^st-century learning skills in the learning history process. It means that the developed learning model can accommodate the needs of the 21^st-century learning skills and the learning history objectives. Based on this research, the authors highlight that the elaboration of the learning model can provide a space for synchronizing learning history objectives with other educational concepts from various disciplines. Thus, further research and development in the history education landscape should provide more opportunities for elaborating the learning models to amend the role and impact of learning history in the 21^st century</em><em>.</em>