Publications

Energy is one of the fundamental concepts of science in all disciplines. For this reason, it can serve as a concept that crosses disciplinary lines and serves as a bridge for students trying to describe a scientific phenomenon using different lenses. Underlying this vision, which is highlighted by the Framework for K-12 Science Education is the implicit assumption that the different disciplinary perspectives of energy have something in common, which should be the focus of instruction and supports the way scientists in the different disciplines use energy. However, does a “unified conception” of energy actually underlie the ways diverse scientists use energy in their fields? To answer this question, we conducted a small-scale interview study in which we interviewed 30 top-level interdisciplinary researchers and asked them to explain several phenomena from different disciplines; all phenomena could be explained in various ways, one of which was an energetic explanation. Our results suggest that researchers from different disciplines do not think of energy in the same way and do not think of energy as an interdisciplinary concept. We argue whether teaching energy in an interdisciplinary way may support the development of future scientists and lay citizens or an expectation that may add more difficulty to an already difficult task.

With the transition to distance-learning at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, several countries required parents and their children to remain at home, under lockdown. Many parents found themselves taking on additional responsibilities regarding their children’s education. However, children do not always interpret their parents’ intentions as they intended. This study investigated this complex relationship, showing that parents’ emphases regarding science learning changed during the first COVID-19 lockdown and in parallel, the relations between these emphases and their adolescent children’s goal orientation and self-efficacy toward science learning also changed. In 2019, one year before the COVID-19 lockdown, the children’s mastery and performance orientations toward science, and their self-efficacy in science were significantly correlated with their parent’s attitudes toward science. In 2020, shortly after the end of the first COVID-19 lockdown, these relations remained significant, but in addition the parents’ emphasis on performance became a significant predictor of the children’s mastery and performance orientations, and of their self-efficacy in science. A small increase in the children’s performance orientation and self-efficacy in science was seen, and only a small decline in their mastery orientation toward science. These findings contrast with what the literature indicates is typical at this age, when there are no lockdown conditions.

Verbal communication to relay information between students and the teacher, i.e., talk, lies at the heart of all science classrooms. This study investigated and began to characterize the neurological basis for the talk between science teachers and students in terms of speaker-listener coupling in a naturalistic setting. Speaker-listener coupling is the time-locked moment in which speaker vocalizations result in activity in the listeners brain. This activity is highly predictive and tightly ties to listener understanding. The design for this study was an observational stimulus-response study using neuroimaging data obtained from talk sessions between a teacher and a student. Results were obtained using a functional near-infrared spectrometer and an artificial neural network model. Examination of the data suggested that speaker-listener coupling occurs between a student and a teacher during successfully understood verbal communications. This study promotes further research into the exploration of how individual interactions between persons (speakers and listeners) via talk are perceived and influence individual cognition. Study outcomes suggest coupled brains create new knowledge, integrate practices and content, and verbal and nonverbal communication systems which are constrained at two levels the environmental level and the speaker listener level. The simplicity of brain-to-brain coupling as a reference system may simplify the understanding of behaviors seen during the learning of science in the classroom.

In the sciences, energy is an important idea to get insight into phenomena, as energy can help to reveal hidden systems and processes. However, students commonly struggle to use energy ideas to interpret and explain phenomena. To support students in using energy ideas to interpret and explain phenomena, a range of different graphical representations are commonly used. However, there is little empirical research regarding whether and how these representations actually support students' ability to use energy ideas. Building on common ways of representing energy transfer, we address this issue by exploring whether, and if so how, a specific representation called the energy transfer model (ETM) supports middle school students' interpretation of phenomena using the idea of energy transfer. We conducted an interview study with N = 30 8th grade students in a quasi-experimental setting and used qualitative content analysis to investigate student answers. We found evidence that students who construct an ETM when making sense of phenomena consider the role of energy transfers between systems more comprehensively, i.e., they reason about hidden processes and systems to a larger extent than students who do not construct an ETM.

Energy is a central concept in science in every discipline and also an essential player in many of the issues facing people everywhere on the globe. However, studies have shown that by the end of K-12 schooling, most students do not reach the level of understanding required to be able to use energy to make sense of a wide range of phenomena. Many researchers have questioned whether the conceptual foundations of traditional approaches to energy instruction may be responsible for students' difficulties. In response to these concerns, we developed and tested a novel approach to middle school physical science energy instruction that was informed by the recommendations of the Framework for K-12 Science Education (National Research Council, 2012a) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) (NGSS Lead States, 2013). This new approach differs substantially from more traditional approaches to energy instruction in that it does not require energy forms and it emphasizes connections between energy, systems, and fields that mediate interaction-at-a-distance. We investigated student learning during this novel approach and contrasted it with student learning within a comparable unit based on a more traditional approach to energy instruction. Our findings indicate that students who learned in the new approach outperformed students who learned in the traditional approach in every quantitative and qualitative aspect considered in this study, irrespective of their prior knowledge of energy. They developed more parsimonious knowledge networks in relation to energy that focused primarily around the concept of energy transfer. This study warrants further investigation into the value of this new approach to energy instruction in both middle and high school.

Employing achievement goal theory (Ames Journal of Educational psychology, 84(3), 261-271, 1992), we explored science teachers' instruction and its relation to students' motivation for science learning and school culture. Based on the TARGETS framework (Patrick et al. The Elementary School Journal, 102(1), 35-58, 2001) and using data from 95 teachers, we developed a self-report survey assessing science teachers' usage of practices that emphasize mastery goals. We then used this survey and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses to study the relations between 35 science teachers' mastery goals in each of the TARGETS dimensions, the decline in their grade-level 5-8 students' (N = 1.356) classroom and continuing motivation for science learning, and their schools' mastery goal structure. The findings suggest that adolescents' declining motivation for science learning results in part from a decreasing emphasis on mastery goals by schools and science teachers. Practices that relate to the nature of tasks and to student autonomy emerged as most strongly associated with adolescents' motivation and its decline with age.

חינוך ולדורף )Waldorf )משתייך לזרם החינוך ההומניסטי. הוא נוסד בתחילת המאה על-ידי המחנך וההוגה רודולף שטיינר )1861-1925) (Steiner .)בית-הספר הראשון הוקם בשנת 1919 כבית-ספר לילדי פועלים במפעל לסיגריות “ולדורף-אסטוריה” בעיר שטוטגרט שבגרמניה. בית הספר הוקם בעקבות פנייה אל שטיינר מצד בעל המפעל אמיל מולט שביקש להקים בית-ספר ברוח רעיונותיו עבור ילדי הפועלים )1991, Barnes .)שטיינר כינה את בי”ס הראשון כ′בי”ס ולדורף החופשי′, במונח ”חופשי” התכוון לציין את בי”ס כמקום שבו הילד חופשי לפתח את אופיו העצמי ללא השפעות פוליטיות וכלכליות זרות )פרנסיס, 2003 .)אך בניגוד לבית הספר הפתוח, הוא לא התכוון שהילד חופשי לבחור את התכנים ואת דרכי הלימוד אלא שהתכנים ודרכי הלימוד מותאמים לילד )לפי התפיסה ההתפתחותית של חינוך זה( ולא לשום מניעים אחרים. עד היום נקראים בתי הספר הפועלים בגישת החינוך האנתרופוסופית, בתי ספר ”ולדורף”. מאז צמחה תנועה חינוכית זו בעולם, באירופה קיים המספר הגדול ביותר של מוסדות לחינוך ולדורף. בישראל מספר המוסדות לחינוך ולדורף ולהכשרת מורים נמצא בעלייה )טבלה מספר 1 ,)והיחס בין מספר המוסדות לנפש הוא מהגדולים בעולם. במאמר זה יוצגו המאפיינים העיקריים של הוראת המדעים בחינוך ולדורף בחטיבת הביניים. מאפיינים אלה הם תוצר של מחקר גישוש שערכה הכותבת במהלך לימודיה לתואר שלישי במחלקה להוראת המדעים במכון ויצמן. מטרת המחקר הייתה לאפיין את הוראת המדעים בחינוך ולדורף. גישה זו מתאפיינת בשפה משלה, ולכן מטרה נוספת הייתה למצוא את המקבילה המדעית של כל קטגוריה שנמצאה כמאפיינת של חינוך זה. במאמר זה יוצגו המאפיינים המתייחסים לחיבור שנעשה בין התפיסה ההתפתחותית של הילד ובין דרכי ההוראה בחטיבת הביניים. בימים אלה מתקיים תהליך של הכרה ורישוי של בתי ספר ולדורף בארץ. זרם חינוכי זה הוא מן המאתגרים להבנה, שכן התפיסה ההתפתחותית שעומדת בבסיסו מהווה יסוד מארגן לכלל הגישה. אי הבנה של התפיסה ההתפתחותית ושל השפעתה על דרכי ההוראה עלולה להוביל לתפיסות שגויות כמו: ”לא נעשה שימוש במחשבים“, ”כל התלמידים סורגים“, ”אין לימודי קריאה וכתיבה מסודרים“, ”לתלמידים מותר לעשות מה שהם רוצים“ או ”בחינוך זה לא לומדים מדעים“. כל אחד מן ההיגדים אינם מאפיינים את חינוך ולדורף אלא מאפיינים שלב כזה או אחר בתהליך ההתחנכות. אי הבנת הרצף מותירה את ההיגד מנותק מהקשרו. למשל, ”לא נעשה שימוש במחשבים בשנים הראשונות“, אבל החל מחטיבת הביניים יש למידה מתוקשבת ויש תלמידים שאפילו מרחיבים ל-5 יח“ל במדעי המחשב. ”כל התלמידים סורגים“ בכיתות א‘-ד‘. אח“כ יש לימודי מלאכות אחרים, וכדומה. בהתייחס ללימודי המדעים, כל התלמידים לומדים את כל תחומי המדעים )פיזיקה, כימיה, ביולוגיה ומדעי כדור הארץ( עד כיתה י“ב, וישנם גם כאלה שמרחיבים בתחום אחד או יותר מתחומי המדעים במבחני הבגרות. אולם לימודי המדעים מתאפיינים גם הם בגישה של הוראה המותאמת לשלב ההתפתחותי של הלומדים, ולכן לא נוכל להתייחס לקוריקולום המדעי ללא הבנה של התפיסה ההתפתחותית שבבסיס גישה זו.

Modeling is a core scientific practice. This study probed the meta-modeling knowledge (MMK) of high school students who study science but had not had any explicit prior exposure to modeling as part of their formal schooling. Our goals were to (A) evaluate the degree to which MMK is dependent on content knowledge and (B) assess whether the upper levels of the modeling learning progression defined by Schwarz et al. (2009) are attainable by Israeli K–12 students. Nine Israeli high school students studying physics, chemistry, biology, or general science were interviewed individually, once using a context related to the science subject that they were learning and once using an unfamiliar context. All the interviewees displayed MMK superior to that of elementary and middle school students, despite the lack of formal instruction on the practice. Their MMK was independent of content area, but their ability to engage in the practice of modeling was content dependent. This study indicates that, given proper support, the upper levels of the learning progression described by Schwarz et al. (2009) may be attainable by K–12 science students. The value of explicitly focusing on MMK as a learning goal in science education is considered.

Curricular coherence is an indication of the alignment of content ideas, the depth at which they are studied, and the sequencing of ideas within and across grade levels and has been identified as an important predictor of student performance. This study examined the contribution of inter-unit coherence on energy to the learning of this concept over time. The concept of energy was interwoven as a core disciplinary idea and as a cross-cutting theme in six different units in a reform-based middle school curriculum. The unit posttests of students from a national field test of the curriculum were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling to identify ways in which ideas learned in some units supported the learning in other units. Results indicate that inter-unit coherence enabled students to develop a deeper understanding of energy by providing repeated exposure over years rather than weeks, enabling knowledge constructed in one unit to become the prior knowledge to be built upon in subsequent units, and offering a broader range of contexts in which students could apply their ideas than could be accomplished in stand-alone units.

A bit more than 10 years after Alsop and Watts pointed out that “Despite the widespread belief that emotions are a central part of learning and teaching, contemporary work in science education exploring affect is scant” (2003, p. 1043), the level of attention given by science education researcher to affect has changed little. In the 11 years spanning 2001–2011, less than 10% of the articles published in the Journal of Research in Science Teaching (JRST), Science Education (SciEd), and the International Journal of Science Education (IJSE) have dealt with emotional perspectives on teaching and learning science, such as interest, motivation, attitudes, and self‐efficacy, sometimes called affect (Alsop & Watts, 2003). While this 10% actually reflects a significant number of articles (138), when one considers the centrality of affect to teaching and learning and the broad range of topics that are related to affect, it is concerning that it has received relatively so little attention. With the hope of promoting awareness of the importance of this topic and past research on it, the rest of this article provides (A) my hypothesis why affect has been under‐attended to by the science education research community and the ramifications of this under‐attendance and (B) an overview of the research on affect in science education that has been published in JRST, SciEd, and IJSE between 2001 and 2011. I have made no attempt to synthesize or do a meta‐analysis of this research; my purpose is to provide readers with a sense of some of the important work that has been done, to guide researchers and teachers to articles that may be relevant to their work, and to point out some weaknesses that should be avoided in the future. The overview ends by directing readers to a virtual issue of JRST on affect which presents some excellent examples of studies on affect that were published by JRST in the past decade.

Achievement goal theory distinguishes between mastery goals (the goals of developing competence) and performance goals (the goals of demonstrating competence) [Ames [1992] Journal of Educational Psychology 84: 261-271]. In this study, we employed this theory aiming to better understand why adolescents' motivation to learn science declines with age in many schools yet not in others. We collected survey data from 5(th) to 8(th) grade Israeli students (N=1,614). Utilizing Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) methods, we investigated the relations between students' perceptions of goals emphases in their environment (by parents, peers, teachers, and schools), their own goals orientations and their engagement in science learning in and out of school (classroom and extra-curricular engagement). In addition, we compared between these relations in traditional and democratic schools and in elementary and middle school grade levels. Findings show that: (A) perceptions of the goals that significant adults (parents and teachers) emphasize were better predictors of students' motivation, in and out of school, than perceptions of the goals that peers and schools emphasize; (B) perceptions of teachers' performance goals emphases negatively predicted classroom engagement; (C) the relative effect of perceived parents' mastery emphasis on extra-curricular engagement was higher in elementary grades than in middle school grades; (D) the relative effect of perceived school's mastery emphasis was higher in middle school grades than in elementary grades; and (E) students' mastery goals orientation in science class was a strong predictor of their extra-curricular engagement. Implications for both research and practice are discussed.

This is a mix methods follow-up study in which we reconfirm the findings from an earlier study [Vedder-Weiss & Fortus [2011] Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 48(2), 199216]. The findings indicate that adolescents' declining motivation to learn science, which was found in many previous studies [Galton [2009] Moving to secondary school: Initial encounters and their effects. Perspectives on Education, 2(Primary-secondary Transfer in Science), 5-21. Retrieved from www.wellcome.ac.uk/perspectives; Osborne, Simon, & Collins, [2003] International Journal of Science Education 25(9), 10491079], is not an inevitable phenomenon since it appears not to occur in Israeli democratic schools. In addition to reinforcing previous results in a different sample, new results show that the differences between the two school types are also apparent in terms of students' self-efficacy in science learning, students' perceptions of their teachers' goals emphases, and students' perception of their peers' goals orientation. Quantitative results are accompanied by rich verbal examples of ways in which students view and articulate their own and their teachers' goal emphases. Content analysis of students' interviews showed that students in traditional schools are directed more towards goals that are external and related to the outcome of learning in comparison to democratic school students who are motivated more by goals that are internal and related to the process of learning. Structure analysis of these interviews suggests that democratic school students experience a greater sense of autonomy in their science learning than traditional school students do. Implications for research on students' motivation are discussed, such as considering not only the teacher and the classroom but also the school culture. 

Energy is a fundamental unifying concept of science, yet common approaches to energy instruction in middle school have shown little success with helping students develop their naive ideas about energy into more sophisticated understandings that are useful for making sense of their experiences. While traditional energy instruction often focuses on simple calculations of energy in idealized systems, we developed a new middle school energy unit that focuses qualitatively on the energy transformations that occur in everyday, nonidealized, systems. In this article, we describe our approach to energy instruction and report the effects this approach had on students' energy conceptions, ability to perform on distal criterion-referenced assessments, and preparation for future energy-related learning. Results indicate that during instruction, students' energy conceptions progress from a set of disconnected ideas toward an integrated understanding that is organized around the principle of transformation, and that these more integrated conceptions both boost students' ability to make sense of everyday phenomena and lay the groundwork for more efficient and meaningful energy-related learning in the future.

Modeling is a core practice in science and a central part of scientific literacy. We present theoretical and empirical motivation for a learning progression for scientific modeling that aims to make the practice accessible and meaningful for learners. We define scientific modeling as including the elements of the practice (constructing, using, evaluating, and revising scientific models) and the metaknowledge that guides and motivates the practice (e.g., understanding the nature and purpose of models). Our learning progression for scientific modeling includes two dimensions that combine metaknowledge and elements of practice scientfic models as tools for predicting and explaining, and models change as understanding improves. We describe levels of progress along these two dimensions of our progression and illustrate them with classroom examples from 5 ^th and 6 ^th graders engaged in modeling. Our illustrations indicate that both groups of learners productively engaged in constructing and revising increasingly accurate models that included powerful explanatory mechanisms, and applied these models to make predictions for closely related phenomena. Furthermore, we show how students engaged in modeling practices move along levels of this progression. In particular, students moved from illustrative to explanatory models, and developed increasingly sophisticated views of the explanatory nature of models, shifting from models as correct or incorrect to models as encompassing explanations for multiple aspects of a target phenomenon. They also developed more nuanced reasons to revise models. Finally, we present challenges for learners in modeling practices such as understanding how constructing a model can aid their own sensemaking, and seeing model building as a way to generate new knowledge rather than represent what they have already learned.

Coherent curricula are needed to help students develop deep understanding of important ideas in science. Too often students experience curriculum that is piecemeal and lacks coordination and consistency across time, topics, and disciplines. Investigating and Questioning our World through Science and Technology (IQWST) is a middle school science curriculum project that attempts to address these problems. IQWST units are built on 5 key aspects of coherence: (1) learning goal coherence; (2) intraunit coherence between content learning goals, scientific practices, and curricular activities; (3) interunit coherence supporting multidisciplinary connections and dependencies; (4) coherence between professional development and curriculum materials to support classroom enactment; and (5) coherence between science literacy expectations and general literacy skills. Dealing with these aspects of coherence involves trade-offs and challenges. This article illustrates some of the challenges related to the first 3 aspects of coherence and the way we have chosen to deal with them. Preliminary results regarding the effectiveness of IQWST's approach to these challenges are presented.

Design-based science (DBS) is a science pedagogy in which new scientific knowledge and problem-solving skills are constructed in the context of designing artifacts. This paper examines whether the enactment of a DBS unit supported students' efforts to construct and transfer new science knowledge and 'designerly' problem-solving skills to the solution of a new real-world design problem in a real-world setting. One hundred and forty-nine students participated in the enactment of a DBS unit. Their understanding of the curricular content was assessed by identical pre-instructional and post-instructional written tests. They were then given a new design problem as a transfer task. There was a statistically significant increase on scores from pre-test to post-test with an effect size of 1.8. There was a stronger correlation between the scores of the transfer task and those of the post-test than with those of the pre-test; we use this finding to suggest that the knowledge that was constructed during the unit enactment supported the solution of the transfer task. This has implications for the development of science curricula that aim to lead to the construction of knowledge and skills that may be useful in extra-classroom settings. Whether participation in consecutive enactments of different DBS units increases transfer remains to be investigated in more depth.