This study investigated the relationship between gifted students' academic self-concept (ASC) and academic achievement (AC) in earth science with internationally representative high-school students from the third International Earth Science Olympiad (IESO) held in Taiwan in 2009. The results of regression analysis indicated that IESO students' ASC…

The aim of this study is to design and implement a digital interactive globe system (DIGS), by integrating low-cost equipment to make DIGS cost-effective. DIGS includes a data processing unit, a wireless control unit, an image-capturing unit, a laser emission unit, and a three-dimensional hemispheric body-imaging screen. A quasi-experimental study…

In the area of science education research, studies have attempted to investigate conceptions of learning, approaches to learning, and self-efficacy, mainly focusing on science in general or on specific subjects such as biology, physics, and chemistry. However, few empirical studies have probed students' earth science learning. This study aimed to…

The purpose of the study was to investigate university learners' visual attention during a PowerPoint (PPT) presentation on the topic of "Dinosaurs" in a real classroom. The presentation, which lasted for about 12-15 min, consisted of 12 slides with various text and graphic formats. An instructor gave the presentation to 21 students…

A fundamental goal of geoscience education is ensuring that all inhabitants of the planet have knowledge of the natural processes that shape the physical environment, and understand how the actions of humans have an impact on the Earth on local, regional, and global scales. Geoscientists accept that deep understanding of natural processes requires…

This study investigated students' learning environment preferences and compared the relative effectiveness of instructional approaches on students' learning outcomes in achievement and attitude among 10th grade earth science classes in Taiwan. Data collection instruments include the Earth Science Classroom Learning Environment Inventory and Earth…

This paper seeks to contribute new insight to the process of learning during idea generation (i.e., brainstorming) by proposing and evaluating two alternative operationalizations for learning, which we refer to as connection-based learning and multi-perspective learning, during a carefully designed idea-generation task in the earth-sciences…

This study developed two testing devices, namely the animation-based test (ABT) and the graphic-based test (GBT) in the area of earth sciences covering four domains that ranged from astronomy, meteorology, oceanography to geology. Both the students' achievements of and their attitudes toward ABT compared to GBT were investigated. The purposes of…

This study examined the interrelationship between tenth-grade students' problem solving ability (PSA) and their domain-specific knowledge (DSK) as well as reasoning skills (RS) in a secondary school of Taiwan. The PSA test was designed to emphasize students' divergent-thinking ability (DTA) and convergent-thinking ability (CTA) subscales in the…

This study explored the phenomenon of testing effect during science concept assessments, including the mechanism behind it and its impact upon a learner's conceptual understanding. The participants consisted of 208 high school students, in either the 11th or 12th grade. Three types of tests (traditional multiple-choice test, correct concept test,…

This study investigated the relationship between the use of a three-dimensional Virtual Reality Learning Environment for Field Trip (3DVLE[subscript (ft)]) system and the achievement levels of senior high school earth science students. The 3DVLE[subscript (ft)] system was presented in two separate formats: Teacher Demonstrated Based and Student…

The work aims to improve the assessment of creative problem-solving in science education by employing language technologies and computational-statistical machine learning methods to grade students' natural language responses automatically. To evaluate constructs like creative problem-solving with validity, open-ended questions that elicit…

The educational reform movement since the 1990s has led the secondary earth science curriculum in Taiwan into a stage of reshaping. The present study investigated secondary earth science teachers' perceptions on the Goals of Earth Science Education (GESE). The GESE should express the statements of philosophy and purpose toward which educators…

Educational researchers have suggested that the tension between the learner-centred and teacher-centred pedagogies represents a real classroom issue that influences teaching and learning. This issue may be particularly significant in East-Asian countries such as Taiwan due to some cultural influences. For example, teacher authority is highly…

This study examines the possibilities of differential impacts on students' earth science learning outcomes between different preferred-actual learning environment spaces by using a newly developed ESCLEI (Earth Science Classroom Learning Environment Instrument). The instrument emphasizes three simultaneously important classroom components:…