@article {1280, title = {EFFECTS OF METACOGNITIVE SKILLS ON PHYSICS PROBLEM -SOLVING SKILLS AMONG FORM FOUR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS}, journal = {Journal of Baltic Science Education}, volume = {22}, year = {2023}, month = {April/2023}, pages = {Continuous}, type = {Original article}, chapter = {357-369}, abstract = {A number of studies have demonstrated a connection between metacognition and the ability to solve problems. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the effect of metacognitive skills on Physics problem-solving skills among Form Four secondary school students in Sabah, Malaysia. This study included 248 students from 13 secondary schools in the Kota Kinabalu district. Physics Problem Solving Skills Test and the Metacognitive Skills Questionnaire were used as research instruments. The research found that Form Four students have high monitoring, regulation, and evaluation as measured aspects of metacognitive skills. Meanwhile, students{\textquoteright} Physics problem-solving skills for "understanding the problem" and "devising a plan" are moderate, while "carrying out the plan" is good and "looking back at the solution" is low. The independent sample t-test reported that, in general, male students have better Physics problem-solving skills than females but found no gender differences in metacognitive skills. Furthermore, the linear multiple regression results revealed that monitoring and regulation skills are significant predictors of Physics problem-solving skills. This research helps school teachers better design teaching strategies in Physics, considering the student{\textquoteright}s gender and metacognitive skills. Furthermore, this study provides secondary school students with learning insights for developing better techniques to improve their performance in Physics. }, keywords = {gender differences, Malaysia, metacognitive skills, physics problem-solving skills, secondary school students}, issn = {1648-3898}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.33225/jbse/23.22.257}, url = {https://oaji.net/articles/2023/987-1681287769.pdf}, author = {Clarice Wider and Walton Wider} } @article {1105, title = {COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF THE FORT INSTRUMENT: USING DISTRACTOR ANALYSIS TO EXPLORE STUDENTS{\textquoteright} SCIENTIFIC REASONING BASED ON ACADEMIC LEVEL AND GENDER DIFFERENCE}, journal = {Journal of Baltic Science Education}, volume = {20}, year = {2021}, month = {December/2021}, pages = {Continuous}, type = {Original article}, chapter = {906-923}, abstract = {Scientific reasoning ability is essential to get developed in the current digital age, particularly in the process of judgement and decision-making in complex problems. Few studies have conducted an in-depth exploration of scientific reasoning ability, especially in relation to the confidence level and gender. The scientific reasoning ability of Indonesian upper-secondary school and university students were examined and compared with previous recorded data of US students. In this study, the data were collected from 372 university and 528 upper-secondary education students in Indonesia. Students{\textquoteright} scientific reasoning ability was measured using a scientific formal reasoning test (FORT). In addition, confidence level and metacognitive data was collected through self-reported measures. Two-way ANOVA was performed to compare mean differences between groups based on academic level and gender and to observe interaction between the variables. Students{\textquoteright} confidence level in selecting the correct answer and distractor answer was analyzed using an independent t-test. The results reveal that many Indonesian students selected specific distractors with relatively high confidence. Moreover, upper-secondary school students and female students selected more distractors than the groups{\textquoteright} counterparts. Finally, the factors related to Indonesian students{\textquoteright} responses to the scientific formal reasoning were discussed.}, keywords = {confidence level, distractor analysis, gender differences, Indonesian student, scientific (formal) reasoning test, scientific reasoning ability}, issn = {1648-3898}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.33225/jbse/21.20.906 }, url = {http://oaji.net/articles/2021/987-1639222151.pdf}, author = {Minsu Ha and Yustika Sya{\textquoteright}bandari and Ai Nurlaelasari Rusmana and Rahmi Qurota Aini and Sarah Meilani Fadillah} } @article {1050, title = {PRIMARY STUDENTS{\textquoteright} PERFORMANCE OF STEM DOMAIN-SPECIFIC SELF-EFFICACY BELIEF AND EXPECTANCY-VALUE BELIEF}, journal = {Journal of Baltic Science Education}, volume = {20}, year = {2021}, month = {August/2021}, pages = {Continuous}, type = {Original article}, chapter = {677-690}, abstract = {Most studies have concentrated in assessing students{\textquoteright} overall attitudes towards science, mathematics, and engineering/technology or the attitude towards individual STEM domain. The present research aims to explore primary students{\textquoteright} gender and grade differences of their STEM domain-specific attitudes including self-efficacy and expectancy-value beliefs, as well as their correlations. The results showed no detected significant effects among these different STEM domains in the overall attitudes, the overall self-efficacy beliefs, and the overall expectancy-value beliefs for primary students. The correlations between self-efficacy and expectancy-value were much stronger for the science domain and engineering/technology domain than the mathematics domain. No gender difference of the self-efficacy beliefs was detected except in the mathematics domain, and the result that lower primary students performed significantly better than upper primary students in the self-efficacy was also mainly contributed by the grade difference in the mathematics domain. Whereas no different expectancy-value beliefs existed across genders and grade levels in various STEM domains. The present results reported some unique performances by the primary school students compared to the elder group.}, keywords = {expectancy-value, gender differences, grade levels, self-efficacy, STEM attitudes}, issn = {1648-3898}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.33225/jbse/21.20.677}, url = {http://oaji.net/articles/2021/987-1629707968.pdf}, author = {Shao-Na Zhou and Lu-Chang Chen and Shao-Rui Xu and Chu-Ting Lu and Qiu-ye Li and De-An Li} } @article {771, title = {EXPLORING CHANGES IN PRIMARY STUDENTS{\textquoteright} ATTITUDES TOWARDS SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATHEMATICS (STEM) ACROSS GENDERS AND GRADE LEVELS}, journal = {Journal of Baltic Science Education}, volume = {18}, year = {2019}, month = {June/2019}, pages = {Continuous}, type = {Original article}, chapter = {466-480}, abstract = {Primary education is an essential stage and has an important impact on students{\textquoteright} learning attitudes throughout the coming school years. The research explored the attitudes towards science, technology, engineering and mathematics among students through all grade levels in primary school. The Project-based Integrated STEM Program was proposed to study the changes of primary students{\textquoteright} attitudes towards STEM. An assessment of S-STEM which consists of the STEM subscale and the 21st century skills subscale was utilized for both pre-test and post-test. The results showed that primary students exhibited little different attitudes on the S-STEM in the pre-test, regardless of gender and grade level. As evident from the comparison between the pre-test and post-test, the Project-based Integrated STEM Program had a positive effect on student attitudes towards STEM. It is encouraging if there are more STEM-related programs implemented at all educational stages covering the primary level.}, keywords = {gender differences, grade levels, project-based integrated STEM program, school students, STEM education}, issn = {1648-3898}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.33225/jbse/19.18.466}, url = {http://oaji.net/articles/2019/987-1559372673.pdf}, author = {Shao-Na Zhou and Hui Zeng and Shao-Rui Xu and Lu-Chang Chen and Hua Xiao} } @article {737, title = {IDENTIFICATION OF THE INTEREST OF TURKISH MIDDLE-SCHOOL STUDENTS IN STEM CAREERS: GENDER AND GRADE LEVEL DIFFERENCES}, journal = {Journal of Baltic Science Education}, volume = {18}, year = {2019}, month = {February/2019}, pages = {Continuous}, type = {Original article}, chapter = {90-104}, abstract = {In Turkey, it is predicted that the need for STEM employment in the 2016-2023 period will be close to one million and that about 31\% of this need will not be met. Therefore, the identification of students{\textquoteright} interest in STEM careers in middle-school is regarded as important. The aim of this research was to identify the interest of middle-school students in STEM careers. The sample of the research was made up of 892 students who received education in four middle-schools in the Aegean region of Turkey. In this research which was of the descriptive survey model, the STEM Career Interest Questionnaire was used to collect data. As a result of research, it was determined that the interest of male students in STEM careers is more positive compared to the female students. It was found that the interest in careers in terms of grade level did not display any differences in the area of technology, whereas it displayed differences in the areas of science, engineering and mathematics. In addition, it was identified that the interest in STEM careers displayed differences in terms of grade level and that as the grade level increases, the interest in STEM careers decreases. }, keywords = {gender differences, grade level differences, STEM career interest, STEM education}, issn = {1648-3898}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.33225/jbse/19.18.90}, url = {http://oaji.net/articles/2019/987-1550083001.pdf}, author = {Ay{\c s}eg{\"u}l Erg{\"u}n} } @article {717, title = {DEVELOPMENT OF AN OPTICS INTEREST AND EXPERIENCE SCALE (OIES) AND EXPLORING GENDER DIFFERENCES IN PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS{\textquoteright} INTEREST AND EXPERIENCE}, journal = {Journal of Baltic Science Education}, volume = {17}, year = {2018}, month = {December/2018}, pages = {Continuous}, type = {Original article}, chapter = {935-944}, abstract = {In this research, the development of the Optics Interest and Experience Scale (OIES) was discussed in the first stage, and the gender differences of prospective teachers in their interest and experience were explored with OIES in the second stage. The data were collected from 228 prospective teachers from eleven universities in Turkey. For content and face validity, a theoretical framework for the OIES was established by a detailed literature review and expert opinions were consulted. For the construct validity, the principal component factor analysis was used. The final form of the scale was composed of 33 items and had two main factors namely: {\textquoteleft}experience{\textquoteright}and {\textquoteleft}interest{\textquoteright}. A reliability analysis of the instrument revealed Cronbach-Alpha coefficients of .906 for the whole scale, .886 for the experience factor, .851 for the interest factor. MANOVA analysis was conducted to explore gender differences in interest and experience scores of prospective teachers in geometrical optics. There was a statistically significant difference between males and females on the combined dependent variables. When the results for the dependent variables were considered separately, the only difference to reach statistical significance was experience such that females reported slightly higher experience in geometrical optics than males. }, keywords = {experience, gender differences, geometrical optics, interest, scale development}, issn = {1648-3898}, doi = {10.33225/jbse/18.17.935}, url = {http://oaji.net/articles/2017/987-1544775899.pdf}, author = {Derya Kaltakci-Gurel} }