Science Education International (Nov 2019)
Modeling Students’ Perceived Self-efficacy and Importance toward Core Ideas and Work and Life Skills in Science Education
Abstract
Science Education International ¦ Volume 30 ¦ Issue 4 261 INTRODUCTION In today’s world, science and technology play an increasing role in both everyday life and in many careers (OECD, 2016). It becomes important both in middle and secondary school science studies and science careers that students develop conceptualization of the learning (core ideas), associated interdisciplinary skills, and be competent to prepare for their future life and possible careers. Unfortunately, science subjects and science careers are not seen as attractive for students (OECD, 2016; Bybee & McCrae, 2011; Osborne et al., 2003) and it is not surprising, a major aim within science education is to raise the student’s motivation for science studies and careers. One suggested approach is by integrating the science to be acquired with a real-life context (Hildebrand, 2018; Teppo et al., 2017). In this way, learning experiences can be linked with personal aspirations, interests, or cultural/personal experiences of students (Holbrook & Rannikmäe, 2009; Van Aalsvoort, 2004). Going further, relevance can be promoted further by linking science to potential future careers as shown through a European Union (EU) project “Promoting Youth Scientific Career Awareness and Its Attractiveness through Multi-Stakeholder Co-operation.” One of the prevalent concerns within science education is that it is presented through conceptual science topics, promoting the gaining of fragmented or isolated knowledge and thus leading to students lacking a clear picture about the relevance of acquired topics and how they are interrelated (Harlen et al., 2010, 2015). To counteract this, it is suggested that major conceptual topics can be considered as core ideas (Krajcik & Delen, 2017) and that, through conceptualization, the core ideas can promote relevance (Holbrook & Rannikmäe, 2010). Where the conceptualization is interrelated with skills associated with life and the world of work, it is further suggested that it can promote student motivation in learning the science. It is not surprising, therefore, that Harlen et al. (2015) suggested it is important for students to create links between topics (seen as core ideas) and the incorporation of learning attributes that have a direct relationship with the world of work and hence related careers. It is possible for core ideas to be divided into two areas: •Disciplinary core ideas – which are linked with specificsubject topics or sub-topics (e.g. from biology, geneticvariety, or from geography, weather, and climate). Thesedisciplinary core ideas are subject concepts; •Interdisciplinary core ideas, which are central to learningbut transferrable across different subjects. Theseinterdisciplinary core ideas are models and systems. Devising models and creating systems can be used as examples to illustrate interdisciplinary core ideas. These core ideas are transferrable across different disciplines. For example, creating Developing student self-efficacy and conceptualizing the importance of core ideas are seen as important learning areas in science education. Such core ideas can be elucidated with respect to the science discipline as well as interdisciplinary learning. Schools can be expected to promote high levels of students’ self-efficacy in acquiring major disciplinary ideas and guiding students toward recognizing the importance of gaining work and life skills. This research sought to develop models describing students’ gains in perceived self-efficacy and importance of work and life skills as well as indicating the relationship with both disciplinary and interdisciplinary core ideas in science education. Using a validated instrument, data were collected from Grade 8 (n = 218) (14–15 years old) and Grade 11 (n = 95) (17–18 years old) students. Models were created based on confirmatory factor analysis and parallel analysis. This research shows that there is need to make changes in secondary school studies so as to more clearly recognize a framework for both disciplinary and interdisciplinary core ideas, shown to be important for enabling students to prepare for their future life and careers.
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