Education Commons^™

A Case Study Of A School-Supported Extracurricular Activity's Influence On Stem Identity And Interest For Females, Letta Meyer

Doctoral Dissertations

Even though there has been a narrowing of the gender gap in STEM, there is still a pronounced gap in the physical sciences, engineering, and computer science. Females who persist in these fields have a strong STEM identity, including developing specific STEM interests. Females can develop STEM identity through long-term, active involvement in extracurricular STEM programs. Extracurricular STEM programs significantly impact the persistence of females in the STEM pipeline. This case study examined the effect of Science Olympiad, an extracurricular STEM program, on current high school students and alumnae’s perceptions of their STEM identity and personal specific STEM interest. Potential …

Alleviating Mathematics Anxiety For Middle School Students Using A Combined Intervention Approach Versus Only Using The Cognitive Intervention Approach For Increasing Mathematical Achievement: A Comparative Study, Patricia Anna Garcia

Doctoral Dissertations

Current research has found evidence of effective interventions for mathematics anxiety, both motivational and cognitive interventions can affect learning through instructional design and increased student engagement. Thus, this study investigated whether a combined (cognitive and motivation) intervention approach was more effective than only using a cognitive intervention approach for alleviating mathematics anxiety in middle-school students in order to develop a positive mathematical self-concept. The design used in this study was a comparison pretest-posttest study using the modified Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (mAMAS) to measure the participants’ level of mathematics anxiety and the STAR Mathematics diagnostic assessment to measure gradual mathematics …

Interests Served And Interests Converged: A Mixed-Methods Critical Policy Analysis Of The California Math Placement Act, Chalesea Schuler

Doctoral Dissertations

The California Mathematics Placement Act was created to eliminate bias within math placement and increase advanced math enrollment, particularly for subgroups who have been historically excluded. Using a Critical Race Theory lens, this study compared the stated goals of policy proponents with whose interests are actually served, and whose are not served, by the policy. This study used a mixed-methods research design to conduct a critical policy analysis of the California Math Placement Act. The qualitative portion of this study used archival document analysis to determine the origins of the act and the interests that converged to pass it. The …

Perceptions Of Physics Teachers In Singapore About Curriculum Sequencing, Lay Lean Fong

Doctoral Dissertations

Curricular sequencing is central to instruction design and enactment. If carefully planned for, the order of topics to be taught would determine how the fundamentals of the discipline can be presented and introduced to learners, in a sequence that eases them into more complex ways of reasoning and thinking about the domain. These sequences or learning progressions often reflect the experts’ conceptual schemas of the discipline and are conceived as strategic models for instruction (Duschl et al., 2011).

The varied findings from current research on learning progressions underscore the complexity of teaching and learning, and imply that even ‘well-crafted’, standards-based, …

Promoting Tolerance Through Learning About Human Evolution And Creation Myths, Afsoon Alishahi

Doctoral Dissertations

The role that religion plays in the lives of humans is complex, contradictory, and deeply impactful. According to Allport (1979), religion has a paradoxical function in that it can either combat or contribute to prejudice. A meta-analysis by Hall, Matz, and Wood (2010) found a significant correlation between being deeply religious and having racial prejudice. Similarly, many social scientific studies since 1940 have concluded that religious individuals are more prejudiced than less religious individuals (Hunsberger & Jackson, 2005).

Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine whether gaining knowledge about human evolution, creation myths, and their relationship to religious …

Use Of Multimedia Games For Biology Vocabulary Instruction, Ian Murray

Doctoral Dissertations

Vocabulary knowledge is considered fundamental to learning. However, students typically find learning scientific vocabulary quite difficult, and that is especially true for biology vocabulary. Games are well established as effective tools for vocabulary instruction. Multimedia instruction is likewise recognized as aiding vocabulary learning. To date, however, there seems have been little examination of the use of multimedia games in biology vocabulary instruction. This study, therefore, compared the effectiveness of digital multimedia games and traditional instruction in teaching biology vocabulary.

A two-group, quasi-experimental study was carried out over the course of 61 days. Participants were a convenience sample of 10 high …

Writing-To-Learn In High-School Chemistry: The Effects Of Using The Science Writing Heuristic To Increase Scientific Literacy, Denae Nurnberg

Doctoral Dissertations

Writing-to-Learn in High-School Chemistry: The Effects of Using the Science Writing Heuristic to Increase Scientific Literacy

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of using the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) as an instructional tool to improve academic achievement and writing in the context of scientific literacy. This quasi-experimental study compared the effects of using the SWH in five laboratory settings over a 16-week span. The SWH was administered to a treatment group (n=63), whereas the comparison group (n=67) received laboratory sessions using a traditional laboratory report format.

There were four classes (n=130) of general chemistry enrolled in …

A Moving Imagination In Spaces Of Distress: Teacher And Student Agency In A Science Classroom, Annie Sunshine Adamian

Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the ways in which our classroom community (students and teacher) engaged with humanizing pedagogy in a seventh grade science classroom, toward the full development (e.g. personal, social, emotional, academic) of our classroom community, and the dismantling of inequitable practices and unjust policies that we recognized in our science classroom, school and/or community while utilizing the process of teacher and student participatory action research (tsPAR) (Adamian, 2015) and Critical Race Praxis for Educational Research (CRP-Ed) (Jayakumar & Adamian, 2015).

This study examined the complexities of mutually engaging across differing positionalities while intentionally working in spaces of distress …

Training In Summarizing Notes: Effects Of Teaching Students A Self-Regulation Study Strategy In Science Learning, Michelle Mendoza Nebres

Doctoral Dissertations

The last two decades of national data assessments reveal that there has been a sharp decline in nationwide standardized test scores. International assessment data show that in 2012 a very low amount of American students were performing at proficiency or above in science literacy. Research in science literacy education suggests that students benefit most when they are self-regulated (SR) learners. Unfortunately, SR poses a challenge for many students because students lack these skills. The effects of having learned few SR strategies at an early age may lead to long term learning difficulties—preventing students from achieving academic success in college and …

The Effects Of A Varied Method Of Instruction On Student Achievement, Transfer, Situational Interest, And Course Retention Rates In Community College Developmental Mathematics, Kevin L. Mccandless

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to compare the effects of a varied method of instruction on student achievement, knowledge transfer, situational interest, and course retention rates, relative to a non-varied method of instruction, in community college developmental mathematics. The varied method of instruction consisted of active learning teaching practices with foundations in social constructivism, whereas the non-varied method of instruction was founded in Cognitive Load Theory and consisted primarily of explicit instruction and individual practice.

An initial sample of 139 students who enrolled in six sections of Beginning Algebra at an urban community college in Northern California participated …

Rehearsal And Enactment For Teaching In Urban School Settings: A Qualitative Study Investigating The Connections Between A Math Methods Course And Fieldwork, Rajeev Virmani

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I studied teacher education reform efforts aimed at improving the preparation of preservice teachers through the use of rehearsals in a math methods class. As many experts in the field of teacher education call for curricula in which preservice teachers learn from and in practice, I investigated a type of pedagogy called rehearsals within a practice-based teacher education setting that may afford preservice teachers with the initial preparation needed to become effective teachers.

In this qualitative study, I examined how three preservice teachers and math methods instructors rehearse the high leverage practice of leading a whole-class discussion. …

The Separate And Collective Effects Of Personalization, Personification, And Gender On Learning With Multimedia Chemistry Instructional Materials, Shannon James Halkyard

Doctoral Dissertations

Chemistry is a difficult subject to learn and teach for students in general. Additionally, female students are under-represented in chemistry and the physical sciences. Within chemistry, atomic and electronic structure is a key concept and several recommendations in the literature describe how this topic can be taught better.

These recommendations can be employed in multimedia instructional materials designed following principles understood through the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning. Additionally, these materials can expand the known use of principles like personalization (addressing the learner as "you") and test prospective design principles like personification (referring to abstract objects like atoms as "she" …

Investigation Of The Misconceptions Related To The Concepts Of Equivalence And Literal Symbols Held By Underprepared Community College Students, Terrence Joseph Maguire

Doctoral Dissertations

Many students struggle to learn mathematics in K-8 grades. Research has shown that lower grade students often misconceive equivalence as an operation rather than a relation, and that students also form various misconceptions of literal symbols. Many students arrive at college seriously underprepared in mathematics, but there is scant research on the difficulties and misconceptions of these college students. The purpose of this research was to learn if underprepared community college students harbor misconceptions of equivalence and of literal symbols similar to K-8 students.

For this study, 191 underprepared college students were surveyed for misconceptions by a questionnaire of 43 …