Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Teacher Perception And Their Understanding Of Progress Monitoring Throughout A Longitudinal Assessment System, Rena A. Duewel

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the phenomenon of teacher perception and their understanding of progress monitoring throughout a longitudinal assessment system. This monitoring of student progress is to enhance their academic skills in mathematics and provide necessary interventions for growth as measured on a longitudinal assessment system through fidelity of implementation of interventions processed through progress monitoring. Data was collected from participant responses through interviews, a demographic survey, and focus groups. Interview respondents participated in a closed-door, face-to-face interview. The survey was used to collect specific demographic data to provide a concise snapshot of each individual …

Female Students’ Academic Engagement And Achievement In Science And Engineering: Exploring The Influence Of Gender Grouping In Small Group Work In Design-Based Learning Contexts In High School Biology, Miancheng Guo

Doctoral Dissertations

In the past 30 years, although much effort has been made to narrow the gender gap in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), females are still largely underrepresented in some important STEM fields, such as physics and engineering (NSF, 2007). To deal with this situation, people from different sectors have long reached a common understanding: Educators must improve school girls’ interest, participation and engagement in STEM subjects (e.g., Office of Science and Technology Policy, 2013). In the K-12 classroom, small group work has been shown to promote an equitable environment for girls’ learning in science and have a positive impact …

A Comparison Of Instructional Strategies: Does How You Teach Mathematics Matter?, Brian Comeaux

Senior Honors Theses

For most of the twentieth and all the twenty-first century, there has been a great debate over educational reform for teaching mathematics. From these debates have come a critical look at how to properly instruct students so they can actively learn in the classroom, yet still retain the information for use in their later life. These questions are rooted in the larger debate between philosophical and psychological dimensions of human growth and development. Some educators, therefore, believe structuring their instruction around some philosophies such as idealism, realism, pragmatism, or existentialism was the key to success for their students. Others took …

Mathematical Literacy And The Secondary Student, Adam Poyner

Senior Honors Theses

Public education is a continually evolving field, with new research, policies, and practices explored by professionals who are driven to provide America’s youth with high-quality education. Research literature since 2000 has highlighted the importance of disciplinary literacy and its unfortunate neglect in a majority of secondary classrooms (Shanahan & Shanahan, 2008). Students who are literate in a particular discipline, such as math, view themselves as fluent in the language of mathematics, comfortable with reading, discussing, and practicing complex mathematical concepts while using appropriate vocabulary (Buehl, 2017). As seasoned professionals and novice educators consider the role of disciplinary literacy in their …

The Effects Of Metacognitive Training On Algebra Students’ Calibration Accuracy, Achievement, And Mathematical Literacy, Deana J. Ford

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation describes an empirical study that investigated how metacognitive training influenced lower achieving Algebra students’ calibration accuracy, achievement, and development of mathematics literacy. Multiple methods were used to collect and analyze the data. Close analysis of students’ work and classroom observations revealed that students that were exposed to the metacognitive training had significantly higher prediction accuracy and made gains in their understanding of the mathematics word problems than did students who did not receive the metacognitive training. Overall, however, both the intervention and comparison groups improved in their academic performance and became more mathematically literate and accurate in their …

Self-Efficacy Of Early Childhood Teachers In Science, Technology, Engineering, And Mathematics, Ariella Rachel Donnelley Smith

Dissertations

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to identify the self-efficacy of early childhood teachers toward STEM subjects as measured on the Teacher Efficacy and Attitudes toward STEM Survey (T-STEM) and to explore factors that influence this confidence.

Methodology. A quantitative approach with two open-ended items was selected for this study, seeking to elicit both quantitative and qualitative data from participants. This approach allowed for multiple viewpoints to be expressed, with the qualitative data collected simultaneously with the quantitative data, and the former designed to illuminate reasons influencing the latter in a complimentary approach. The population for the study included …

School Shouldn’T End When The Bell Rings: An Exploratory Homeschooling Study, Mackenzie Dukelow

MA Research Paper

Homeschooling has experienced significant growth over the last several decades, yet little to no research has explored the relationship between homeschoolers and the public education system. Being the first to explore this relationship, the current study collected and examined data from 3 semi-structured interviews and 15 online homeschooling blogs in order to understand the growth of homeschooling in Ontario and the relationship between homeschooling and the public education system. The results of this study reveal the relationship between homeschoolers and the public education system varies significantly over time and locale, the challenges within each system and the difficulty of transitioning …

A Granular Account Of Student's Understanding Reasoning Within An Everyday And Scientific Contexts, Grace M. Gonnella

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Teachers and educational researchers in the Maine Physical Sciences Partnership (Maine PSP) at the University of Maine identified making quality scientific arguments as a struggle for students. Not only is argumentation hard, but reasoning is the hardest component of an argument. Many frameworks have been developed to target teaching about argumentation but do not address how to teach one component of an argument in isolation. Educational practitioners encourage using everyday context to learn about arguments in the scientific context, but there is limited support in what is the best method. The first purpose of this research was to understand a …

School Climate: A Comparison Of Teachers, Students, And Parents, James A. Jacobs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to examine the benefits of positive school climate and to measure the perceptions of school climate for intermediate grades in a Northeast Tennessee School district. An online school climate survey was used to collect responses from participants in intermediate grades and focused on the 3 major components of school climate: school engagement, school environment, and school safety. Data were collected for 2 consecutive years in 2016-2017 and 2017-2018. Response totals included 1,955 student responses, 116 teacher responses, and 210 parent responses that were analyzed and used for this study. Of the student totals, some students that …

The Role Of Prior Knowledge, Situational Interest, And Case Study Pedagogy In The Undergraduate Biology Classroom., Ally Hunter

Doctoral Dissertations

In the undergraduate science classroom, case study pedagogy is method that uses stories with dilemmas and/or questions to convey scientific content. Case study pedagogy shows promise as an active learning pedagogy to meet the demands of 21st century biology education initiatives; however, there is a dearth of information on how students learn with case studies in the undergraduate biology classroom. The purpose of this study was to investigate variables that impact learning with case studies (prior content and contextual knowledge, situational interest, and pedagogical strategies) and the relationships between those variables to further understand how students learn with case studies …

Comparing The Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (Pogil) Method To An Independently Developed Guided Inquiry Method (Indgim) In A High School Academic Chemistry Course., Scott Zgraggen

Graduate Theses & Dissertations

A nonequivalent, control group, pretest-posttest design was used to investigate student achievement in secondary chemistry. This study investigated the effects of process oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL) pedagogy in high school chemistry classes compared to that of an independently designed guided inquiry method (InDGIM). Data were collected from chemistry students from four college-prep chemistry classes in the same high school, over the course of the academic year, using the Particulate Nature of Matter (ParNoMA2) test, the Group Assessment of Logical Thinking (GALT), unit tests, and the final exam. DataAll data waswere analyzed using a 2 x 2 Factorial Analysis of …

Teaching Place-Based Science In Kindergarten, Lucy Atkins

Capstones, Research Projects, and Curricula

This action research explores how kindergarten students learn about forces and motion through inquiry-based, place-based methods. The learning took place as part of an existing day spent learning outdoors, known as Forest Monday, that includes extended time for free play. The three sub-questions addressed 1) science content learning, 2) science practice application, and 3) the incorporation of science content and practices into free play time outdoors. It was a mixed-methods study, with science assessment data supporting observations and interviews. The participants were 12 kindergarten students in a rural elementary school. All students were assessed and interviewed but observations were focused …

Math Stations In A Third-Grade Class: Are They Worth It?, Rachel Perry

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

Math stations allow for students to complete tasks individually and in small groups using a variety of manipulatives, games and technology to practice the same mathematical content. The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of teacher and student perceptions of the use of math stations in a third-grade class, and how math stations shaped student feelings towards math. The author collected data through student surveys, teacher and student interviews, observations and a personal research journal. After analyzing the data by using the constant comparative method the author found four major themes. These themes included evidence of …

Competition: Motivating Or Declination Of Academic Success, Nicholas Mazza

Honors Projects

This study examines if competition in the classroom is more of a motivating or declining factor. I am examining the positive and negative effects of competitions on students. Games and individual worksheets will be employed to explore influence on academic achievement. Through my research, I did not find competition to be motivating for students. However, I did find the competition intervention to provide higher average quiz scores.

Success Rates Of Second Semester Anatomy Students In Online And On-Ground Classes At A Community College In East Tennessee, William Sproat

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Educators expect the number of institutions offering online courses and the number of students enrolling in these courses to increase as many students, particularly nontraditional students, discover the advantages of online content delivery. Online courses require new methods of communication between students and faculty as well as discovering new ways to build relationships, earn student trust, conduct appropriate assessment, and deliver useful course content. Many institutions—public, private, and for-profit—offer a wide variety of online coursework but faculty, employers, and the public have expressed concerns about the quality of online course content. In particular, online delivery of coursework in the natural …

Deciphering Climate-Driven Changes In Planktonic Diatom Communities In Lake Superior, Amy Kireta

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is affecting lake systems throughout the world, including Lake Superior, the world’s largest lake by surface area. Climate-driven physical changes in Lake Superior are well documented, but there is still substantial uncertainty of how recent biological changes are related to climate change. This research addresses these uncertainties using a variety of approaches to understand the effects of modern climate-driven changes on Lake Superior diatom communities. First, I developed models for environmental variables related to diatom abundance using 10 years of summer monitoring data. Second, I investigated changes in fossilized diatom relative abundances before, during, and after the Medieval …

A Study Of The Teaching Beliefs Of Globe Teachers, Laila Ali

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the teaching beliefs of GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) teachers, and to analyze their pedagogical practices. This study contributes to bridging the gap between our understanding of teachers’ beliefs of teaching science with inquiry and practicing science in class with inquiry. A descriptive research approach was used for both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Data was collected from seventy-two trained GLOBE teachers across the U.S. using Qualtrics.com.

Quantitatively, the pedagogical beliefs of GLOBE teachers were measured using the Beliefs about Reformed Science Teaching and Learning (BARSTL) questionnaire. Differences between …

Code4her Spring 2018, Rebeccah Knoop

Honors Projects

CODE4her is a mentorship program with a goal of sparking interest in computer science organized by the BGSU Women in Computing (BGWIC) student organization. Participation is open to middle school girls (grades 5-8), and participants are paired with BGWIC members who serve as mentors.

Integrating A Farm Study Into A Mixed Age Classroom, Rachel Kanegis

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This paper, Integrating A Farm Study Into A Mixed Age Classroom, explores the impact and benefits of integrating a farm study into a classroom. It reports on the course and the results of how students responded to the farm study over one full school year. In addition, it shows how the integrated farm study could be incorporated into the core academic topics such as reading, writing, math, social studies, and science. In fact, this paper proves how students become more motivated and engaged to learn in the core academic topics through their focus on the farm study. The class that …

Inquiry-Based Learning: Effects On Student Engagement, Kimberly Wheatley

Honors Projects

Inquiry-based learning is an approach to science instruction that has been around for over 40 years and has many positive aspects, including: critical thinking, student achievement, positive attitudes towards science, and student engagement. Inquiry-based learning has four different levels and is an instructional method that provides a problem or question which allows students to complete an investigation. This action research project will explore how inquiry-based learning affects student engagement and how student’s feel about inquiry. Students were taught with two days of traditional instruction, two days inquiry-based instruction, and then given a pre-survey and post-survey, and observed using an engagement …

Advancing Professional Development Strategies For Chemistry And Biochemistry Undergraduates, Christian A. Brown

Senior Theses

In the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of South Carolina (the Department), most curriculum-driven professional development is reserved for third- and fourth-year students. Classroom learning occurs at all levels, but the context comes late. Early exposure to career options and hands-on training is imperative for undergraduates to obtain maximum experiential learning. The purpose of this project is to advance the current professional development strategies of the Department, specifically targeting second- and third-year students. The study surveyed students' current involvement in professional development activities. The data on extracurricular experience and post-graduation interest was used to design a workshop …

Multiple Representations Of The Fundamental Theorem Of Calculus As Enacted In The Curriculum, Sense-Making And Gender, Ileana Vasu

Doctoral Dissertations

Multiple representations of the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus (FTC) are deemed essential to creating mathematical habits of mind, but not all classroom instruction includes them. This study articulates the relationship between college students’ experience with multiple representations of the FTC, gained through the enacted curriculum, and their use of multiple representations when problem solving or discussing the FTC. It suggests that students’ use of multiple representations directly relates to their curricular experience, which outweighs a student’s own inclination towards any particular representation. It further suggests that the relationship between classroom experience with a particular representation of the FTC, and its …

Changes In Teacher Thinking And Action In Response To The Next Generation Science Standards, Angela R. Bowden

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the role of K-12 science teachers’ understandings and perceptions of the Next Generation Science Standards, implementation of the new standards in the classroom, and potential barriers to implementation as reform stakeholders had envisioned. Grounded in the relevant literature and working from the Teacher-Centered System Reform framework, this study employed a quantitative approach to data collection. The TCSR Model framed this study by linking teachers’ demographic and professional profile, teaching experience, professional development, district-level, school-level, and classroom-level contexts and illuminates the dynamic effect the factors have on teachers’ thinking and their practice. The study recognizes teachers’ knowledge and …

Converting Agricultural Lesson Plans To Be Common Core Compliant For Grades 3-5, Hattie Kaymarie Jameson, Brittany Rose Withnell

Agricultural Education and Communication

There are few Common Core approved lesson plans for teachers to incorporate into traditional science programs in California. The Farm Bureau’s Ag in the Classroom (AITC) program provides K-12 educators lesson plans with an agricultural focus. Only 13 out of 45 of the lesson plans that the California AITC website offers are Common Core approved (Learn About Ag, 2017).

Agricultural literacy is valuable to consumers, can lead to careers in agriculture, and can create a greater understanding of the world and of science for students. The agricultural lessons give students a real life relationship with what they are learning and …

Teachers' Practices And Perceptions Concerning The Implementation Of Inquiry-Based Instruction In Middle School Science, Jill E. Wood

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of this research study was to investigate West Virginia middle school science teachers’ perceptions regarding inquiry-based instruction. Teacher efficacy level, extent of use, and supports and obstacles in regard to inquiry-based instruction were considered. In addition, demographic relationships were explored in comparison with efficacy level and extent of use in regard to inquiry-based instruction. Demographics included number of preps taught, years of science teaching experience, class size, class time, planning time, professional development opportunities attended, and exposure to inquiry-based instruction in education science course work. West Virginia middle school science teacher perceptions of this study were measured using …

Using Tpack To Explore The Integration Of Virtual Microscopes Into An Introductory Biology Course, Bobbie Seyedmonir

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to determine the effectiveness of virtual laboratories relative to traditional or blended laboratories in the attainment of conceptual knowledge and skill in microscopy, and (2) to explore how such technologies are integrated in real world classrooms. Four sections of a non-major’s introductory biology course were utilized for the study (N=100). After attrition, the maximum number of intact cases for each question was utilized. Results show no difference between groups in the attainment of conceptual understanding of microscopes parts and functions; however, the Traditional treatment condition scored significantly higher than both the Virtual …

Using Student And Teacher Thinking To Improve Teaching And Learning, Ken Jensen

Teaching and Learning Sciences: Doctoral Research Projects

This research project examined how a teacher and an instructional coach can use formative assessment data on student thinking to improve the teaching and learning in a mathematics classroom. Two research questions guided the project and from them three instructional strategies emerged. The first strategy was the use of formative assessment data collected on student thinking from a previous lesson to plan for the learning in future lessons. The second strategy was the use of formative assessment data collected on student thinking during a lesson to make decisions about how to proceed with the lesson. The third strategy was the …

Informal Science In The Classroom: How Informal And Formal Educational Institutions Support Science Instruction, Kellie Michelle Crawford

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

Science education has seen a major overhaul with the implementation of ideas from the NRC’s (2012) report, A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. At the same time, we have seen a rise in the number of formal educational facilities partnering with informal facilities to bring these practices to students. This study explored the effect these blended approaches had on both student attitudes and their achievement in science content areas. To do this, surveys were designed to assess these areas in upper elementary students participating in a one-year blended science program. First, the literature was …

Effects Of Applying Student-Centered Techniques In Mathematics Achievement: A Cameroon Case Study, Jomara Alexandra Laboy Rivera

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Effects of Applying Student-Centered Techniques in Mathematics Achievement: A Cameroon Case Study

By:

Jomara A. Laboy Rivera

This study investigated the effects of using student-centered techniques in math Form 2 (Eighth Grade) and the relationship among English literacy, Math Literacy, interest in math, study habits, home background and owning the Cameroonian math textbook with mathematical achievement. Data were collected from four different schools in the North West region of Cameroon. The experimental schools (GHS Shisong and GHS Kiyan) used student-centered techniques while the control schools (St. Peters and St. Francis) used teacher–centered techniques. Results showed that there was an improvement …

Improving Mathematical Skill: The Perceptions Of Rural Minnesota Mathematics Educators, Michael Haskins

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This qualitative phenomenological study is focused on the perceptions of mathematics educators on how to improve mathematical skill in high school students. The main purpose was to describe, recognize, and interpret the lived experience that have allowed educators to achieve the best results for their students. The population for the current study was mathematics educators that were located in a rural Southwest Minnesota city with medium population. These educators were either college educators or middle and high school teachers. The measures that were used to select the participants for the study were that they must hold at least a bachelor's …