Education Commons^™

An Investigation Of Turkish Middle School Science Teachers’ Pedagogical Orientations Towards Direct And Inquiry Instructional Approaches, Selcuk Sahingoz

Dissertations

One of the most important goals of science education is preparing effective science teachers which includes the development of a science pedagogical orientation. Helping in-service science teachers improve their orientations toward science teaching begins with identifying their current orientations. While there are many aspects of an effective science teaching orientation, this study specifically focuses on effective pedagogy. The interest of this study is to clarify pedagogical orientations of middle school science teachers in Turkey toward the teaching of science conceptual knowledge. It focuses on what instructional preferences Turkish middle school science teachers have in theory and practice.

The purpose of …

Preservice Science Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge For Nature Of Science And Nature Of Scientific Inquiry: A Successful Case Study, Gunkut Mesci

Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation project is to explore preservice science teachers’ development of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for targeted aspects of nature of science (NOS) and nature of scientific inquiry (NOSI). Through multiple data sources, it is examined how preservice science teachers’ understanding of NOS and NOSI have changed over the program, and manifests itself in their classroom practice. This is an exploratory multiple case study of participants’ experiences and developments during a teacher development program. Data is collected in the form of open-ended surveys, interviews, observations, lesson plans, video materials, and teaching documents. After all data is collected, …

Guided Educational Tourism As Informal Science Education: An Empirical Study, Joseph Martin Lane

Dissertations

The scientific research and education communities have long had the goal of advancing the publics’ understanding of science. Informal science education is a powerful mechanism for shaping human conduct, enhancing quality of life, and advancing the publics’ understandings and values regarding science. Guided educational tours (that present science content) provide visitors with unique opportunities to observe and discuss scientific phenomena in the field. Available empirical research related to learning science from guided educational tours is, at best, limited. Research leading to the development of effective guided educational tours that present and interpret scientific information is of interest to both non-profit …