Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques

Part I. Experimental Studies: 2. Experiment in psychology 3. Experiments on perceiving III Experiments on imaging 4-8. Experiments on remembering: (a) The method of description (b) The method of repeated reproduction (c) The method of picture writing (d) The method of serial reproduction (e) The method of serial reproduction picture material 9. Perceiving, recognizing, remembering 10. A theory of remembering 11. Images and their functions 12. Meaning Part II. Remembering as a Study in Social Psychology: 13. Social psychology 14. Social psychology and the matter of recall 15. Social psychology and the manner of recall 16. Conventionalism 17. The notion of a collective unconscious 18. The basis of social recall 19. A summary and some conclusions.

Remembering. A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology, Cambridge (University Press) 1964.

Cronbach’s alpha is a statistic commonly quoted by authors to demonstrate that tests and scales that have been constructed or adopted for research projects are fit for purpose. Cronbach’s alpha is regularly adopted in studies in science education: it was referred to in 69 different papers published in 4 leading science education journals in a single year (2015)—usually as a measure of reliability. This article explores how this statistic is used in reporting science education research and what it represents. Authors often cite alpha values with little commentary to explain why they feel this statistic is relevant and seldom interpret the result for readers beyond citing an arbitrary threshold for an acceptable value. Those authors who do offer readers qualitative descriptors interpreting alpha values adopt a diverse and seemingly arbitrary terminology. More seriously, illustrative examples from the science education literature demonstrate that alpha may be acceptable even when there are recognised problems with the scales concerned. Alpha is also sometimes inappropriately used to claim an instrument is unidimensional. It is argued that a high value of alpha offers limited evidence of the reliability of a research instrument, and that indeed a very high value may actually be undesirable when developing a test of scientific knowledge or understanding. Guidance is offered to authors reporting, and readers evaluating, studies that present Cronbach’s alpha statistic as evidence of instrument quality.

/pdf/the-use-of-cronbach-s-alpha-when-developing-and-reporting-1z3qw5sdjl.pdf

The Use of Cronbach’s Alpha When Developing and Reporting Research Instruments in Science Education

Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Edited by I. Lakatos and A. Musgrave. Pp. viii, 282. £3·50, paperback £1. 1970. (Cambridge University Press.)

National Science Education Standards

Much scholarship in chemical education draws upon the model of there being three ‘levels’ at which the teaching and learning of chemistry operates, a notion which is often represented graphically in terms of a triangle with the apices labelled as macroscopic, submicroscopic and symbolic. This model was proposed by Johnstone who argued that chemistry education needs to take into account ideas deriving from psychological research on cognition about how information is processed in learning. Johnstone's model, or the ‘chemistry triplet’, has been widely taken-up in chemistry education, but has also been developed and reconceptualised in diverse ways such that there is no canonical form generally adopted in the community. Three decades on from the introduction of Johnstone's model of the three levels, the present perspective article revisits both the analysis of chemical knowledge itself, and key ideas from the learning sciences that can offer insights into how to best teach the macroscopic, submicroscopic and symbolic aspects of chemical knowledge.

Revisiting the chemistry triplet: drawing upon the nature of chemical knowledge and the psychology of learning to inform chemistry education

This paper sets out to consider how educational research into the learning of structural aspects of chemistry might inform teaching practice. The paper is based around a review of research findings into learners’ difficulties in developing the scientific models of chemical structures (atoms, molecules, lattices etc.) This forms the second of the four sections into which the paper is organised. The paper begins by considering how ideas about the learning process can inform our understanding of alternative conceptions and frameworks in chemistry, and - therefore - how we should view the research reviewed in the second section. This is a consideration of the findings of studies into difficulties learning about the molecular model; atomic structure; molecular structure; and lattices. This review is followed by a section identifying some key ‘pedagogic impediments’ - alternative aspects of learners’ thinking that seem to derive from the way the subject is taught. In the final section some practical suggestions are made regarding how the teaching of chemistry may be revised to help learners construct the scientific models rather than develop the alternative conceptions. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract. Eur.: 2001, 2, 123-158]

Building the structural concepts of chemistry: some considerations from educational research

The science education literature includes many claims that learners commonly hold alternative conceptual frameworks about aspects of the science curriculum, especially in physics. There has also be...

An alternative conceptual framework from chemistry education

Some literature reports how learners' alternative ideas in science may be coherent, stable and theory-like. However, other commentators suggest that the available data supports the view that children's thinking is inconsistent, with elicited notions being piecemeal, ad hoc and deeply situated in specific contexts. This is considered to reflect the fragmentary and unscientific nature of the learner's knowledge. Accumulating evidence from in-depth work with individual learners is beginning to show that models of cognitive structure that can usefully inform teaching may need to be more complex than either of these views admit. Evidence from a case study is presented to show how a learner may simultaneously hold several alternative explanatory schemes, each of which is persistent over time and applied coherently across a wide range of overlapping contexts. It is argued that the manifold nature of learners' conceptions may be a key to modelling conceptual development.

Keith S. Taber

Papers

The Use of Cronbach’s Alpha When Developing and Reporting Research Instruments in Science Education

Revisiting the chemistry triplet: drawing upon the nature of chemical knowledge and the psychology of learning to inform chemistry education

Building the structural concepts of chemistry: some considerations from educational research

An alternative conceptual framework from chemistry education

Multiple frameworks?: Evidence of manifold conceptions in individual cognitive structure