Education Commons^™

An Investigation Into Instructional Support For Data Analysis In High School Science Inquiry, Anika Rae Baker-Lawrence

Dissertations and Theses

The implementation of scientific inquiry in the high school classroom has proven to be not only relevant and exploratory, but challenging and engaging as well. This style of curriculum design has been recognized as a primary means of achieving the goals and objectives set by the National Resource Council (NRC, 1996). While much research has shown that science inquiry helps students to gain understanding of content knowledge, little research has been conducted to assess gains in higher order thinking skills, specifically those related to data analysis (Anderson, 2002; Germann and Aram, 1996; Hofstein, Navon, Kipnis, and Mamlok-Naaman, 2005; Miner, Levy, …

Increasing Evidence Based Reasoning In An 8th Grade Classroom Through Explicit Instruction, Erol Chandler

Dissertations and Theses

This study investigates the effectiveness of an instructional strategy that uses students' prior understanding of informal evidence based reasoning (EBR) to build an understanding of scientific EBR. A pre and post instructional strategy survey revealed that students' understanding of EBR increased over the length of the study. Data collected from pre and post instructional discussions also showed increases in the amount of EBR students used.

Thinking Aloud In The Science Classroom: Can A Literacy Strategy Increase Student Learning In Science?, Lindsey Joan Mockel

Dissertations and Theses

This research study investigated the effect of using the think aloud protocol while reading informational text on students' ability to learn from text in a secondary science classroom. The participants in this study were high school students (n=47) in three classes of a mixed-grade Integrated Biology, Chemistry, and Physics course. The study tracked student achievement during a four-week curriculum unit on the theory of evolution and evidence for biological evolution. All students received instruction on using the think aloud protocol, and all students practiced the think aloud protocol when reading short articles related to scientific evidence for evolution. The researcher …

Lighting The Fire: How Peer-Mentoring Helps Adult Learners Increase Their Interest In Stem Careers: A Case Study At The Community College Level, Patricia Marie Deturk

Dissertations and Theses

In the U.S., about 7,000 high school students drop out each school day, representing a loss of talent and ability. Concurrently, there are a decreasing number of enrolled students taking science-related courses at the high school and college levels. Adults, who return to obtain their General Educational Development (GED) certification, are an untapped resource that could be steered toward STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers. In this case study, 15 GED students were shown a STEM video, and then peer mentored by 8 CLA (Clinical Laboratory Assistant) students, in a student-centered laboratory experience. Individual interviews of the GED students …

Impact Of Teacher Feedback On The Development Of State Issued Scoring Guides For Science Inquiry And Engineering Design Performance Assessments, Timothy Paul Fiser

Dissertations and Theses

In 2010, Oregon Department of Education (ODE) developed a set of rubrics designed to score a state required performance assessment targeting Science Inquiry (SI) and Engineering Design (ED) skills. During the development of the rubrics, ODE invited six panels of teachers to provide feedback on an early draft of the rubrics. This case study analyzed the teachers' feedback and the revisions of the rubrics to identify the types of feedback teachers offered and how ODE used that feedback to develop the rubrics. The results showed the teachers' feedback focused on defining the skills students were asked to demonstrate and distinguishing …

An Investigation Into Teacher Support Of Science Explanation In High School Science Inquiry Units, Rebecca Sue Hoffenberg

Dissertations and Theses

The Framework for K-12 Science Education, the foundation for the Next Generation Science Standards, identifies scientific explanation as one of the eight practices "essential for learning science." In order to design professional development to help teachers implement these new standards, we need to assess students' current skill level in explanation construction, characterize current teacher practice surrounding it, and identify best practices for supporting students in explanation construction. This multiple-case study investigated teacher practice in eight high school science inquiry units in the Portland metro area and the scientific explanations the students produced in their work samples.

Teacher Instructional Portfolios (TIPs) …

Deoxyribonucleic Acid And Other Words Students Avoid Speaking Aloud: Evaluating The Role Of Pronunciation On Participation In Secondary School Science Classroom Conversations, Stacie Elizabeth Beck

Dissertations and Theses

Student's verbal participation in science classrooms is an essential element in building the skills necessary for proficiency in scientific literacy and discourse. The myriad of new, multisyllabic vocabulary terms introduced in one year of secondary school biology instruction can overwhelm students and further impede the self-efficacy needed for concise constructions of scientific explanations and arguments. Factors inhibiting students' inclination to answer questions, share ideas and respond to peers in biology classrooms include confidence and self-perceived competence in appropriately speaking the language of science. Providing students with explicit, engaging instruction in methods to develop vocabulary for use in expressing conclusions is …

Why Ask Why: An Exploration Of The Role Of Proof In The Mathematics Classroom, Joanna Rachel Bartlo

Dissertations and Theses

Although proof has long been viewed as a cornerstone of mathematical activity, incorporating the mathematical practice of proving into classrooms is not a simple matter. In this dissertation I aim to advance research on proof by addressing this issue. In particular, I explore the role proof might play in promoting the learning of mathematics in the classroom. I do this in a series of three articles (organized as three chapters), which are preceded by an introductory chapter. The introductory chapter situates the remaining chapters in the context of mathematics education research. In the second chapter I explore what the literature …

Mathematics Orality And Literacy, Beverly Orth

Student Research Symposium

To become a mathematician, a student must learn how to "do" mathematics and also how to communicate with other mathematicians. Through a special language, both oral and written, mathematicians share a discourse community. This community extends not only across the boundaries of natural language, but also across centuries. My paper explores the following question: How does a person enter the discourse community of mathematicians? My research shows that learning mathematics parallels the learning of natural language reading and writing. Much like learning a foreign language, learning mathematics has been based mostly on oral tradition. The orality of mathematics learning is …

Patterns In Nature Forming Patterns In Minds : An Evaluation Of An Introductory Physics Unit, Christopher Ryan Sheaffer

Dissertations and Theses

Educators are increasingly focused on the process over the content. In science especially, teachers want students to understand the nature of science and investigation. The emergence of scientific inquiry and engineering design teaching methods have led to the development of new teaching and evaluation methods that concentrate on steps in a process rather than facts in a topic. Research supports the notion that an explicit focus on the scientific process can lead to student science knowledge gains. In response to new research and standards many teachers have been developing teaching methods that seem to work well in their classrooms, but …

Developing And Assessing Curriculum On The Physics Of Medical Instruments, Warren Christensen, James K. Johnson, Grace R. Van Ness, Elliot E. Mylott, Justin C. Dunlap, Elizabeth A. Anderson, Ralf Widenhorn

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Undergraduate educational settings often struggle to provide students with authentic biologically or medically relevant situations and problems that simultaneously improve their understanding of physics. Through exercises and laboratory activities developed in an elective Physics in Biomedicine course for upper-level biology or pre–health majors at Portland State University, we aim to teach fundamental physical concepts, such as light absorption and emission and atomic energy levels, through analysis of biological systems and medical devices. The activities address the properties of electromagnetic waves as they relate to the interaction with biological tissue and make links between physics and biomedical applications such as microscopy …