Abstracts - Earli

Measuring citizenship competence of students from age 11 to 16Femke Geijsel, Universiteit van Amsterdam, NetherlandsGeert ten Dam, Universiteit van Amsterdam, NetherlandsGuuske Ledoux, Universiteit van Amsterdam, NetherlandsRene Reumerman, Universiteit van Amsterdam, NetherlandsMaartje van der Niet, Universiteit van Amsterdam, NetherlandsCitizenship education is compulsory in most Western countries. Measuring the efforts made byschools is important, for evaluative as well as comparative purposes. A reliable and validinstrument that focuses on the various components that are necessary for students to fulfill socialtasks in a democratic society, is still lacking. It is the goal of a current nation wide research projectin The Netherlands to build and test such an instrument that enables measuring (changes in)citizenship competences of large groups of students at the age of 11 to 16 years old and thatenables to make judgements about the amount and development of citizenship competences inschool classes or schools (not individual students). This paper proposal concentrates on thedevelopment of the instrument. The conceptual framework and the analyses of student survey dataof two pilot studies will be presented. Results of confirmatory factor analyses will make clearwhether the structure of the conceptual framework is represented in the data and whether items arebiased by background characteristics of the students. Results of diverse groups of students(grouping based on age, gender, cultural background, school type, cognitive functioning) will thenbe presented and discussed.Assessment of domain-specific epistemological beliefs and other aspects of the nature of scienceDetlef Urhahne, University of Munich, GermanyKerstin Kremer, University of Giessen, GermanyJürgen Mayer, University of Giessen, GermanyThe development of an adequate understanding of the nature of science is an important educationalobjective. Students should learn to understand the purpose of science, the epistemologicalassumptions about scientific knowledge and how scientific knowledge is accomplished. Thepurpose of our study was to develop a questionnaire measuring basic aspects of the nature ofscience in an economic way. Therefore, the research literature was analyzed on core dimensionsand accompanying items and scales. In an investigation with 272 students seven core dimensionscould be empirically confirmed including the source, certainty, development, justification andsimplicity of scientific knowledge as well as the purpose of science and the creativity of scientists.Form the research results the partly insufficient understanding of the nature of science of theexamined adolescents becomes apparent. The understanding is higher developed when students arein higher classes, have a higher domain-specific self-concept and show better learningachievement in the scientific subjects. In school science, teaching of the nature of science shouldbe more in the focus.Secondary qualitative analysis of the international PISA surveyHoussemand Claude, Universite du Luxembourg, LuxembourgMartin Romain, Universite du Luxembourg, LuxembourgMeyers Raymond, Universite du Luxembourg, LuxembourgA secondary qualitative analysis of the international PISA 2000 survey will be presented. Someelements of PISA 2003 have also been used. The entire research has been carried out by theuniversities of Luxembourg and Moncton (Canada). Several analyses have been done to explain– 727 –