Education Commons^™

Examining The Relationships Between Gender Role Congruity, Identity, And The Choice To Persist For Women In Undergraduate Physics Majors, Bronwen Bares Pelaez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Persistent gender disparity limits the available contributors to advancing some science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. While higher education can be an influential time-point for ensuring adequate participation, many physics programs across the U.S. have few women in classroom or lab settings. Prior research indicates that these women face considerable barriers. For university students, faculty, and administration to appropriately address these issues, it is important to understand the experiences of women as they navigate male-dominated STEM fields.

This explanatory sequential mixed methods study explored undergraduate female physics majors’ experiences with their male-dominated academic and research spaces in the U.S. …

Why Teach Science? Helping Teacher Candidates Frame Instructional Decision Making From Moral And Ethical Perspectives, Grinell Smith, Colette Rabin

Faculty Publications

This qualitative research project’s overarching goal was to explore ways to help primary grade teacher candidates (re)kindle a conception of teaching as a moral enterprise involving ethical choices and enactment of one’s values. In the context of a science methods course, we explored the research question: What happens to the commitments toward science instruction of pre-service elementary teachers when we help them view science instruction as an act of caring? Our findings suggest that for many, this approach helped students take a moral stance, articulate an ethical position regarding educational issues, and use these perspectives to inform decision-making at the …

Convergence Of Indigenous Science And Western Science Impacts Student's Interest In Stem And Identity As A Scientist, Sarah Omar Alkholy, Fidji Gendron, Betty Mckenna, Tanya Dahms, Maria Pontes Ferreira

Nutrition and Food Science Faculty Research Publications

Within the context of North American Indigenous culture, certain Elders are respected gatekeepers to Indigenous science, also known as traditional knowledge. Yet, while North American born minorities such as Black Americans, Amerindians, and Latin Americans may hail from cultures with a similar appreciation of their own Indigenous science Elders, these minority groups are especially underrepresented in Western science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)—both in academia and in the workforce. North American underrepresented minorities experience high attrition rates in academia generally, and in STEM specifically. Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission makes a call to action to Indigenize education to benefit all …

Project Sourcing For Capstone Course Experience From An Undergraduate Program, Benjamin Gan, Venky Shankararaman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Capstone project courses give students experience solving a substantial problem using concepts that span several topic areas in the program of study. Having 280 students graduate every year, requires a substantial effort towards sourcing appropriate projects from the industry and academia that provide hands-on opportunity to apply IT solutions to problems. This paper presents two sourcing models for supporting the sourcing of capstone projects. For each model, the various project origination sources, the distinct attributes, the challenges and lessons learnt are discussed.

Making Connections Between Science And Equity: A Motivation To Teach Science In Elementary Grades, Grinell Smith, Colette Rabin

Faculty Publications

Teacher quality is among the strongest correlates of student outcomes. However, only about a quarter of the nation’s elementary teachers consider themselves qualified to teach science. In this descriptive and exploratory study, we investigated whether helping pre-service teacher candidates explore connections between science and issues of equity, particularly around sustainability issues, could help them see the importance of teaching science to their students more often. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 59 students enrolled in revised science methods courses at a large public university. Our findings suggest that positioning science instruction thusly was perceived as a strong motivator to …

Technology Professional Development: Long-Term Effects On Teacher Self-Efficacy, George R. Watson

Educational Foundations and Technology

The West Virginia K-12 RuralNet Project was an NSF funded program to train inservice teachers on integrating the Internet into science and mathematics curriculum. The program involved training inservice teachers through an intensive summer workshop and supplemental online courses. This study examines the effects of the project on the long-term self-efficacy of inservice teachers and their use of the Internet in the classroom. The specific research questions addressed are: Do professional development programs affect the long-term self-efficacy of inservice teachers? Did the addition of online courses and follow-up to the program affect self-efficacy levels? Finally, do certain external factors, specifically …