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Student beliefs and learning environments: Developing a survey of factors related to conceptual change

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Abstract

This paper presents a model for the type of classroom environment believed to facilitate scientific conceptual change. A survey based on this model contains items about students' motivational beliefs, their study approach and their perceptions of their teacher's actions and learning goal orientation. Results obtained from factor analyses, correlations and analyses of variance, based on responses from 113 students, suggest that an empowering interpersonal teacher-student relationship is related to a deep approach to learning, a positive attitude to science, and positive self-efficacy beliefs, and may be increased by a constructivist approach to teaching.

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Specializations: secondary school science learning environments, writing in science, alternative frameworks, the language of science.

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Hanrahan, M. Student beliefs and learning environments: Developing a survey of factors related to conceptual change. Research in Science Education 24, 156–165 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02356340

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