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Descriptors:
Sciences; Museums; Foreign Countries; Science Instruction; Toys; Science Education; Science Curriculum; Hands on Science; Buddhism; Scientific and Technical Information

Abstract:
This article focuses on some of the intersections of two worldviews: Western modern science and a Buddhism-based way of life in Thailand. It enters the debate on the place and practice of Indigenous forms of knowledge and the clashes with formal science education curricula. Our goal is "balanced bi-gnosis": the possession of, and proficiency in, two distinct knowledge systems, rejecting syncretic forms or integration of these knowledge systems. The examples discussed are drawn from Thailand's National Science Museum and, in particular, from the museum's work in the traditional Thai technology gallery using visitors' hands-on activities with toys. (Contains 8 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Females; Information Literacy; Library Instruction; Case Studies; Health Programs; Information Services; Information Sources; Advocacy; Information Management; Critical Literacy; Educational Opportunities; Formative Evaluation; Library Research; Institutional Characteristics; Operations Research; Scientific and Technical Information

Abstract:
Library instruction methods most frequently focus on teaching students searching skills to navigate the maze of library databases to locate appropriate research materials. The current theory of critical information literacy instruction calls on librarians to spend more of their time in the classroom focused on understanding the social, political, and cultural construction of knowledge. In this article, the author provides a case study of the information environment in the National Women's Health Network, a women's health interest group, to help librarians facilitate nuanced discussions with students on the applicability of interest group literature inside and outside of the university classroom. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Foreign Countries; Environmental Education; Research Needs; Interdisciplinary Approach; Research Tools; Research Utilization; Public Policy; Sustainable Development; Synthesis; Technology Transfer; Technology Uses in Education; Science and Society; Scientific and Technical Information; Environmental Research; Research Universities; Case Studies

Abstract:
Systemic understanding of potential research activities and available technology seeds at university level is an essential condition to promote interdisciplinary and vision-driven collaboration in an attempt to cope with complex sustainability and environmental problems. Nonetheless, any such practices have been hardly conducted at universities due mainly to a lack of appropriate institutional schemes and methodologies to systemically collect, map out, and synthesize individual research activities within a university. In this paper, we present the recent initiative of such systemic and comprehensive understanding of research activities at university level. We carry out a case study, attempting to summarize all the relevant research activities and technology seeds associated with environmental issues and sustainability currently being studied individually at the laboratory level at Osaka University. We collected 138 potential seeds from the university's relevant schools and institutes and sorted them according to Japan's three sustainability visions. The case study demonstrates the university's potential to provide collective knowledge enabling the societal transition to sustainability if these seeds are systematically overviewed and effectively mobilized to mesh with specific social demands and purposes. We highlight the need for a framework and practice that allows synthesizing research activities and promising technologies even at university level to further facilitate providing collective knowledge and discuss challenges and research needs for promoting synthesis practices and interdisciplinary research that are essential to deal with sustainability problems. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Outcome Measures; Science Instruction; Predictor Variables; Grade 8; Middle Schools; Grade 7; Science Education; Comparative Analysis; Scientific Literacy; Scientific and Technical Information; Scientific Concepts; Prior Learning; Reliability; Item Response Theory; Scores; Regression (Statistics); Middle School Students

Abstract:
In an experimental study (N = 209), the authors compared the effects of exposure to typical middle-school written science content when presented in the context of the scientific discovery narrative and when presented in a more traditional nonnarrative format on 7th and 8th grade students in the United States. The development of texts was controlled so as to isolate the presence of the discovery narrative structure as the independent variable; outcome measures were developed according to the BEAR Assessment framework to be sensitive to a range of levels of understanding of presented information and to focus only on the conceptual material presented in the texts. Students exposed to the scientific discovery narrative performed significantly better on both immediate and delayed outcome measures. These findings are discussed in the context of a larger argument for the inclusion of the scientific discovery narrative in science instruction. (Contains 6 tables, 1 figure and 5 footnotes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Testing; Biology; Undergraduate Study; Educational Change; Scientific Literacy; Skill Analysis; Psychometrics; Program Development; Program Validation; Program Descriptions; Item Analysis; Student Evaluation; Evaluation Methods; Content Validity; Construct Validity; Interviews; Achievement Gains; Scientific and Technical Information; Science Process Skills

Abstract:
Life sciences faculty agree that developing scientific literacy is an integral part of undergraduate education and report that they teach these skills. However, few measures of scientific literacy are available to assess students' proficiency in using scientific literacy skills to solve scenarios in and beyond the undergraduate biology classroom. In this paper, we describe the development, validation, and testing of the Test of Scientific Literacy Skills (TOSLS) in five general education biology classes at three undergraduate institutions. The test measures skills related to major aspects of scientific literacy: recognizing and analyzing the use of methods of inquiry that lead to scientific knowledge and the ability to organize, analyze, and interpret quantitative data and scientific information. Measures of validity included correspondence between items and scientific literacy goals of the National Research Council and Project 2061, findings from a survey of biology faculty, expert biology educator reviews, student interviews, and statistical analyses. Classroom testing contexts varied both in terms of student demographics and pedagogical approaches. We propose that biology instructors can use the TOSLS to evaluate their students' proficiencies in using scientific literacy skills and to document the impacts of curricular reform on students' scientific literacy. (Contains 4 figures and 6 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Thinking Skills; Evidence; Formative Evaluation; Critical Thinking; Case Studies; Science Education; Science Instruction; Scientific and Technical Information; Scientific Concepts; Scoring Rubrics; Scientific Literacy; Pretests Posttests; Higher Education

Abstract:
Meaningful science education requires an understanding of essential concepts, but it is just as important for scientifically literate persons to use critical thinking as they apply scientific understanding to their lives. Students should learn to use scientific information appropriately to make wise choices and to effectively solve problems that they encounter in life. They must be able to make well-informed judgments about the reliability and accuracy of scientific information that is presented to them. In this article, the author describes an instrument for evaluating critical-thinking skills using science articles in the popular press. The power of this technique lies in its ability to elucidate the kinds of claims and evidence that students rely on when they read science articles. With repeated use, this technique can provide specific information about how student thinking changes throughout a course, offering an effective tool for formative assessment. (Contains 2 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Electronic Libraries; Consortia; Probability; Library Services; Economics; Foreign Countries; Academic Libraries; Regression (Statistics); Predictor Variables; Questionnaires; Surveys; Pretests Posttests; Scientific and Technical Information

Abstract:
This paper investigates the factors that influence the value for the users of the Portuguese electronic scientific information consortium b-on (Biblioteca do Conhecimento Online). We used the contingent valuation method based on a willingness to pay scenario to estimate the value that each user is willing to pay. Data were collected through an e-survey sent to all Portuguese academic users. The main aims of this study are: (1) to investigate whether the willingness to pay is influenced by a set of factors (the frequency of use, whether the user previously knew b-on or not, the type of the user, the scientific area of the user, and the institution of the user); and (2) to estimate the demand function of b-on services as function of the price and the previously mentioned factors. In order to achieve these objectives we use several regression analysis techniques--OLS, Tobit model, linear probability model (LPM), Logit and Probit models. The results show that the factors studied are all important explanatory variables of the willingness to pay for b-on and important determinants of demand for b-on services. Moreover, the demand for b-on services is quite sensitive to the "price". (Contains 8 notes, 3 tables and 1 figure.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS); Media Literacy; Microbiology; Science Curriculum; Elementary Secondary Education; Science Course Improvement Projects; Scientific Literacy; Scientific and Technical Information; Information Skills; Information Literacy; Course Descriptions; Relevance (Education)

Abstract:
As advocated by the new K-12 framework for science and as demonstrated in research, teachers are making use of media, now more than ever, to capture students' attention and draw connections between school science and students' everyday lives (Klosterman, Sadler, and Brown 2012; NRC 2012). However, it is essential for students to understand the constructed nature of media and become better prepared to make critical decisions regarding how to find, interpret, and evaluate the messages delivered through media. In this article, the authors present a lesson designed to address the 21st-century skills of information and media literacy in the context of science issues. The lesson was embedded in a full unit focused on viruses and vaccines at the eighth-grade level. They chose to focus specifically on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the human papillomavirus (HPV) and the biology of each virus because (1) their students recognized these as significant issues and not just another abstract idea presented in science class, and (2) misunderstanding the science of HIV and HPV can lead to devastating consequences. (Contains 5 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Reading Instruction; Critical Reading; English (Second Language); Educational Practices; Critical Thinking; Oral Reading; Classroom Techniques; Teaching Methods; Classroom Communication; Student Experience; Learner Engagement; Journal Articles; Student Participation; Simulation; Student Attitudes; Instructional Effectiveness; Scientific and Technical Information

Abstract:
This paper reports on an experience carried out with second course students of the School of Aeronautical Engineers at the Polytechnic University of Madrid in the subject class Modern Technical Language. In the previous years the problem in that class had been the scarce participation of the students in the oral practices. They seemed to be lead and exclusively represented by a few students when it came to oral participation. The students proposed tackling recent research articles in which opinions could be discussed. The reading of these articles has risen new elements that work as language activators in the language classroom: critical reading and thinking have developed participation in the oral activities and produced a noticeable influence on their scientific and humanist thinking and behavior. From this, we may extract the consequence that the experience is not only related to scientific knowledge, since it has made them better speakers or speaking-counterparts and more class-participating and collaborative, which implies that the human, scientific and linguistic factors progress at the same time through the critical experience. This way, the exposition of their critical ideas has developed both their humanism and scientific mind. These two facets which seem to belong to far away fields become a bond in our experience: the process is scientific since it tries to be a systematic study of the knowledge fleshed in written texts and it is also humanist because it fulfills the students need to grow up as persons, that is absorbing knowledge and processing it in order to produce a new personal approach to the world. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Curriculum Development; Foreign Countries; Content Analysis; Ideology; Science Curriculum; Science Education; Scientists; Compulsory Education; Educational Change; National Curriculum; Scientific Literacy; Scientific and Technical Information; Science Instruction

Abstract:
In recent decades, a consensus has emerged among educators and scientists that all compulsory school students need good science education. The debate about its purpose and nature as a school subject in an emerging information society has not been as conclusive. To further understand this, it helps to examine how the science curriculum has transformed and what forces have shaped it as a core curricular area over time. This article sheds light on the transformation of the science curriculum for compulsory schools in Iceland in force from 1960 to 2010. Using criteria based on curriculum ideologies regarding the function of learners, instructors and subject matter in the learning process and the orientation of content and product versus process and development, it offers findings from content analysis of the intended science curriculum. The official curriculum was studied and conceptualised as it has evolved over time. The curriculum developers appear to have been striving for a compromise between conflicting views, resulting in what the authors of this article conceive as a "kaleidoscopic quilt" of ideas over the period studied. (Contains 7 tables and 5 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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