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Mitigating and adapting to climate change requires foundational changes in societies, politics, and economies. Greater effectiveness has been attributed to actions in the public sphere than to the actions of individuals. However, little is known about how climate literacy programs address the political aspects of mitigation and adaptation. The aim of this systematic literature review is to fill this gap and analyze how public-sphere actions on mitigation and adaptation are discussed in climate literacy programs in schools. Based on database searches following PRISMA guidelines we identified 75 empirical studies that met our inclusion criteria. We found that central aspects of climate policy such as the 1.5-degree limit, the IPCC reports, or climate justice are rarely addressed. Whilst responsibility for emissions is attributed to the public sphere, the debate about mitigation usually focuses on the private sphere. Climate change education does not, therefore, correspond to the climate research discourse. We show that effective mitigation and adaptation are based on public-sphere actions and thus conclude that effective climate education should discuss those public actions if it is to be effective. Hence, we propose that climate education should incorporate political literacy to educate climate-literate citizens., +repphzhbib2022A

Designing and interpreting controlled experiments are important inquiry skills addressed in many current science curricula. The relevant skills associated with the design and interpretation of controlled experiments are summarised under the term control-of-variables strategy (CVS). Research on elementary school students��� CVS skills shows that they have basic conceptions of CVS, as they can correctly identify controlled experiments to test given hypotheses and can interpret the results of controlled experiments. However, they perform poorly when they have to plan experiments and interpret confounded experiments. Furthermore, previous research has identified eight misleading preconceptions regarding CVS that cause invalid experimental designs, called design errors. The current study investigates the occurrence and change of design errors during elementary school and their consistency over different tasks. Via a latent class analysis (LCA), we identified three distinct patterns of design errors: (1) correct CVS understanding, (2) change of too many variables and (3) non-contrastive experiments. Our results show that many students as low as grade two have a basic understanding of CVS and that occurring design errors are associated with limited metaconceptual knowledge about when and why to apply CVS. We discuss possible implications of our findings for teaching CVS and further research.

With regard to the correlation of science knowledge and the ability to apply the control-of-variables strategy, the present paper investigates whether conceptualizing the role of knowledge for competences differently can motivate different psychometric models and whether using these models may lead to different information in quantitative studies. Using a sample from a cross sectional study (n = 990) on the correlation of knowledge and the control-of-variables-strategy as part of experimental competence in physics, we compared the results of applying between- und within-item-IRT-models that refer to different conceptualizations. Based on quartiles of the competence distributions, we found that only 67.4% of the students will be categorized into the same quartiles. Moreover, the models lead to different information about the competence development across years as well as about gender differences. We discuss these findings with regard to basic research, to system monitoring and to the development of teaching practices focusing on competences, Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht, inwiefern sich verschiedene Deutungen des Kompetenzbegriffs in psychometrische Modelle überführen lassen und welche Konsequenzen daraus für das Assessment in quantitativen Studien erwachsen könnten. Auf Grundlage von Verhältnisbestimmungen von deklarativem Fachwissen und prozessorientierten Kompetenzen werden dazu Between- und Within-Item-IRT-Modelle definiert und zur Re-Analyse eines Datensatzes einer Querschnittsstudie zur Variablenkontrollstrategie (n = 990) angewendet. Bei Betrachtung der Personenschätzer für die Kompetenzausprägungen, die aus den Modellen generiert werden, zeigt sich, dass ca. ein Drittel der Schülerinnen und Schüler, je nach Modell, unterschiedlichen Quartilen der Verteilung zugewiesen werden. Gleichzeitig wird deutlich, dass die Modelle zu unterschiedlichen Informationen hinsichtlich der Zunahme an Wissen oder prozessorientierten Kompetenzen über Jahrgänge hinweg wie auch hinsichtlich von Geschlechterunterschieden in der Kompetenzausprägung führen können. Die Ausprägungen prozessorientierter Kompetenzen von Mädchen fallen aufgrund oder vielmehr trotz des (im Mittel) geringeren Fachwissens höher aus, wenn der Psychometrie ein unabhängiges, aber fachwissensrelatives Kompetenzverständnis zugrunde gelegt wird. Der Beitrag diskutiert diese Befunde mit Blick auf Konsequenzen für Grundlagenforschung, Systemmonitoring und Unterrichtsentwicklung.

Developmental Review 39 (2016) 1, S. 37-63, A core component of scientific inquiry is the ability to evaluate evidence generated from controlled experiments and then to relate that evidence to a hypothesis or theory. The control-of-variables strategy (CVS) is foundational for school science and scientific literacy, but it does not routinely develop without practice or instruction. This meta-analysis summarizes the findings from 72 intervention studies at least partly designed to increase students' CVS skills. By using the method of robust meta-regression for dealing with multiple effect sizes from single studies, and by excluding outliers, we estimated a mean effect size of g = 0.61 (95% CI = 0.53–0.69). Our moderator analyses focused on design features, student characteristics, instruction characteristics, and assessment features. Only two instruction characteristics – the use of cognitive conflict and the use of demonstrations – were significantly related to student achievement. Furthermore, the format of the assessment instrument was identified as a major source of variability between study outcomes. Implications for teaching and learning science process skills and future research are discussed.