@article {1353, title = {KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES TOWARD BIOTECHNOLOGY IN STEM EDUCATION AS AN INDICATOR OF SCIENTIFIC LITERACY }, journal = {Journal of Baltic Science Education}, volume = {23}, year = {2024}, month = {February/2024}, pages = {Continuous}, type = {Original article}, chapter = {76-89}, abstract = {Biotechnology has great importance as a socioscientific issue in STEM education. This study aimed to explore the knowledge and attitudes of college students toward biotechnology. A total of 236 university students participated in the study. Questionnaires on knowledge and attitudes towards biotechnology were used for data collection. The results revealed that participants had inadequate knowledge about several basic concepts related to genetics and biotechnology, particularly those concerning genetically modified organisms. The results regarding the attitudes revealed more neutral results. The participants had a neutral attitude towards biotechnology, with mean scores ranging from 2.71 to 3.55. They were generally against buying genetically modified products but supported biotechnology for medical purposes and strongly desired to increase their knowledge about genetically modified products. The participants did not have a negative opinion of biotechnology in general but were critical of its purpose and use. The correlation analysis between knowledge and attitudes produced weak correlations. Offering supplementary resources on biotechnology can enhance students{\textquoteright} and individual{\textquoteright}s understanding and attitudes of this topic.}, keywords = {attitudes toward biotechnology, biotechnology education, knowledge of biotechnology, socioscientific issue, STEM education}, issn = {1648-3898}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.33225/jbse/24.23.76}, url = {https://oaji.net/articles/2023/987-1709892394.pdf}, author = {Ruo-Yang Li and Yu-Yang Ma} } @article {513, title = {KOREAN SCIENCE TEACHERS{\textquoteright} PERCEPTIONS AND ACTUAL USAGE OF EDUCATIONAL THEORIES/TEACHING STRATEGIES IN THEIR TEACHING}, journal = {Journal of Baltic Science Education}, volume = {15}, year = {2016}, month = {August/2016}, pages = {Continuous}, type = {Original article}, chapter = {411{\textendash}423}, abstract = {Many researchers have reported that there is a significant gap between theory and practice in education. This research sought to contribute to this work by examining the theory/practice gap in secondary school science teaching in South Korea. To do this, a questionnaire was developed to investigate the gap between Korean science teachers{\textquoteright} knowledge about Educational Theories and Teaching Strategies (ETTS) and the usage of it in their science classroom. The questionnaire was administered to 87 science teachers and results showed that even though participants were knowledgeable about many ETTS, only 26\% of the teachers reported using it in their teaching. Major reasons reported for this gap in theory and practice were restrictive educational environments that did not support the use of ETTS, irrelevancy and difficulties of ETTS, and students{\textquoteright} low interest in learning science. However, teachers{\textquoteright} perception of the importance of ETTS positively affected their usage of ETTS. Implications of the results are discussed, and alternative in-service training program is suggested to activate science teachers{\textquoteright} ETTS what they already know and to guide them to use ETTS in their actual science teaching.}, keywords = {science teacher education, secondary science teacher, teaching strategy, theory-practice gap}, issn = {1648-3898}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.33225/jbse/16.15.411}, url = {http://oaji.net/articles/2016/987-1482423597.pdf}, author = {Jongwon Park and Youngmin Kim and Jongseok Park and Jin-Su Jeong and Young-Shin Park} } @article {235, title = {KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION IN PHYSICS TEXTBOOKS: A CASE STUDY OF MAGNETOSTATICS}, journal = {Journal of Baltic Science Education}, volume = {10}, year = {2011}, month = {December/2011}, type = {Original article}, chapter = {285-299 }, abstract = {Textbooks often provide teachers and students a conception of how scientific knowledge is organized. Therefore, it is of interest to recognize what is the picture of knowledge conveyed by the textbooks. In this study, the knowledge organization in three university physics textbooks is analyzed from the viewpoint of how the basic elements in the topics of Biot-Savart and Amp{\`e}re{\textquoteright}s law are structurally linked. The method of analysis is based on the interpretative analysis, which (a) recognizes basic elements of knowledge and (b) identifies the categories of links that connect basic elements. Concept maps are used to represent knowledge organization of textbooks. The results indicate that content knowledge of textbooks consist of somehow identical basic elements but different categories of links and thus different knowledge organizations. The possibility to recognize these differences in the curriculum materials is a first step towards developing more effective teaching and learning solutions and curriculum plans.}, keywords = {concept maps, knowledge organization, science textbooks}, issn = {1648-3898}, url = {http://oaji.net/articles/2014/987-1410547886.pdf}, author = {Sharareh Majidi and Terhi M{\"a}ntyl{\"a}} } @article {194, title = {KNOWLEDGE ABOUT COMMON VERTEBRATE SPECIES IN GERMAN KINDERGARTEN PUPILS}, journal = {Journal of Baltic Science Education}, volume = {9}, year = {2010}, month = {June/2010}, type = {Original article}, chapter = {135-141 }, abstract = {Biodiversity has become a challenging educational topic and knowledge about animal species and their identification is one aspect of learning about biodiversity. There are few studies addressed at assessing vertebrate species knowledge and species identification skills in children prior to schooling ({\textquoteleft}kindergarten{\textquoteright}). Here, we tried to quantify the knowledge about fifteen animal species in a period before the onset of schooling as an assessment of prior knowledge. Children in the kindergarten were found to be able to identify common vertebrate species. Boys and girls scored equal in knowledge, but pupils with German as foreign language scored lower. There were significant differences between the eight kindergartens in our study. High scores have been found in a kindergarten within a large city.}, keywords = {biodiversity, kindergarten, pre-schooling, vertebrate animal species knowledge}, issn = {1648-3898}, url = {http://oaji.net/articles/2014/987-1405171515.pdf}, author = {Christoph Randler and Lisa Wieland} }