Evaluation of CarboSchools: Students', teachers' and scientists' opinions on authentic science projects in a European context.

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The objectives of the evaluation study were realizing an in-depth evaluation measuring the improvement of student attitudes towards different aspects of science and climate change during participation in CarboSchools, and evaluating the regional projects on aspects like organization, difficulty, enjoyment, and impact. Further, we wanted to know how projects like CarboSchools are integrated in the school curriculum and in what way teachers collaborate with scientists in the projects.

Languages: English
Authors: Elma Dijkstra and Martin Goedhart
Published: December 2010

 

Table of contents:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

FOREWORD

1          INTRODUCTION

1.1       LOW INTERESTS IN SCIENCE AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE: A EUROPEAN CONCERN
1.2       AUTHENTIC SCIENCE EDUCATION: THE SOLUTION?
1.3       GIRLS ARE MORE ATTRACTED TO AUTHENTIC SCIENCE EDUCATION
1.4       CARBOSCHOOLS
1.5       RESEARCH QUESTIONS

2          REGIONAL CARBOSCHOOLS PROJECTS: EVALUATION STUDY

2.1       INTRODUCTION
2.2       METHODOLOGY
2.3       RESULTS

2.3.1     Students’ science backgrounds and opinions on regional projects
2.3.2     Student-dependent differences in opinions on regional projects
2.3.3     Project-dependent differences in student opinions on regional projects
2.3.4     Differences between regions in students’ opinions on regional projects

2.4       CONCLUSIONS

3          IMPACT OF CARBOSCHOOLS ON STUDENTS: ATTITUDES STUDY

3.1       INTRODUCTION

3.1.1     Attitudes Research
3.1.2     Effect of background variables on science related attitudes
3.1.3     Effect of background variables on environmental related attitudes

3.2       METHODOLOGY

3.2.1     Construction of the Attitudes Questionnaire
3.2.2     Reliability Analysis of the Attitudes Questionnaire
3.2.3     Data collection

3.3       RESULTS

3.3.1     Attitudes changes and knowledge changes
3.3.2     Differences between students in attitudes

3.4       CONCLUSIONS

4          PERCEPTIONS OF PARTICIPANTS IN CARBOSCHOOLS: INTERVIEW STUDY

4.1       INTRODUCTION

4.2       METHODOLOGY

4.3       RESULTS

4.3.1     Regional projects: form, content, and impact
4.3.2     Relation project and curriculum
4.3.3     Collaboration between schools and research institutes

4.4       CONCLUSIONS

5          RECOMMENDATIONS

REFERENCES

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix 1:      SET questionnaire
Appendix 2:      AQ questionnaire
Appendix 3:      Manual for Implementation of Questionnaires 2009-2010
Appendix 3A:   Questionnaire Implementation Manual for Teachers
Appendix 4:      Spring School Evaluation Report
Appendix 5:      Overview projects 2008-2010
Appendix 6:      Correlation matrix part D of the SET
Appendix 7:      Table 2.7 about students’ opinions per institute
Appendix 8:      Tables 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6 including Z-values/rs-values and significances
Appendix 9:      List of interviewees
Appendix 9A:   Summary interviews with teachers
Appendix 9B:   Summary interviews with RC’s
Appendix 9C:   Summary interview with students

 

 

 

CarboSchools is funded by the 7th EU Framework Programme for research & technological development, Science in Society - contract 217551