Education Commons^™

Student Identity Considerations And Implications Associated With Socioscientific Issues Instruction, Mitchel James Ruzek

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this investigation was to explore how aspects of identity, perceived levels of controversy, and the strength of a student's attachment to their controversial identity relate to conceptual understanding and knowledge acquisition during socioscientific issues (SSI) based instruction in a biology classroom. The knowledge gained from this study will have the capacity to enhance our understanding of the role that attachment to identity plays during SSI negotiation. Additionally, insight was gained into the role played by aspects of identity in conceptual understanding of scientifically controversial topics during SSI based instruction.

This study contributed to the existing knowledge base …

The Effect Of Teachers' Epistemological Beliefs On Practice, Milton David Huling

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Unfortunately, for the most part, teachers do not teach the Nature of Science (NOS). Even when teachers have adequate NOS knowledge, their knowledge still does not make its way into practice. While there are various reasons for this happening, this study has isolated other, more typical, constraints to teaching in order to look more closely at the influence of personal epistemological beliefs, understandings of NOS, and their effects on practice. In an effort to minimize typical constraints of time for the teaching of NOS, a sixth grade physical science course was chosen as a way to minimize this constraint. Within …