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Exploratory Learning Activities In The Physics Classroom: Contrasting Cases Versus A Rich Dataset., Campbell Rightmyer Bego Dec 2019

Exploratory Learning Activities In The Physics Classroom: Contrasting Cases Versus A Rich Dataset., Campbell Rightmyer Bego

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In exploratory learning, students engage in an exploration activity on a new topic prior to instruction. This inversion of the traditional tell-then-practice order has been shown to benefit learning outcomes, especially conceptual knowledge and preparation for future learning, but not always. In three studies, the current work examines whether the type of exploration activity impacts learning mechanisms and outcomes, on the topic of gravitational field in undergraduate physics classrooms. Activities using either contrasting cases (CC) or a rich dataset (RD) are compared in two instructional orders, explore-first (EF) and instruct-first (IF). Learning outcomes measured procedural knowledge, conceptual knowledge, and performance …


Student Perceptions And Persistence : Taking A Person-Centered Approach To Understand Undergraduate Engineering Retention., Brittany Flanery Crawford May 2019

Student Perceptions And Persistence : Taking A Person-Centered Approach To Understand Undergraduate Engineering Retention., Brittany Flanery Crawford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many students are leaving their engineering programs as early as the first semester of their undergraduate studies. Although some of the factors related to engineering retention are largely academic, others are tied closely to students’ beliefs or perceptions. Student perceptions data are useful, but often overlooked by researchers who wish to take a person-centered approach to uncover profiles of student beliefs, both adaptive and maladaptive, when it comes to understanding engineering retention. The sample consisted of full-time undergraduate engineering students (N = 834) in the first semester of their undergraduate engineering programs. I used latent transition analysis (LTA) to …