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Full-Text Articles in Education
Development Of Sense Of Place Through An Urban Citizen Science Program, Cornelia Harris
Development Of Sense Of Place Through An Urban Citizen Science Program, Cornelia Harris
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Citizen science programs are a way for participants to develop a sense of place, which has been theorized to lead to pro-environmental behaviors. In this mixed-methods study, I document how a citizen science program encourages urban youth to connect with their place, and notice how both joy and wonder are developed as they experience a stunning migratory event with a unique organism, the American eel. Students were excited to be in a creek and to ‘discover’ a new creature in a place that they had walked past for years, one that was merely a backdrop to their lives prior to …
Responsive Scaffolding Of Knowledge Building Discourse With Ongoing Analytics Support, Hyejin Park
Responsive Scaffolding Of Knowledge Building Discourse With Ongoing Analytics Support, Hyejin Park
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
A need for current science education has emerged in enhancing students’ deep involvement in scientific practices in core disciplines. Students are encouraged to improve crosscutting concepts and disciplinary core ideas through authentic science practice through constructing theories about the real world, generating questions, conducting investigations, revising theories, and communicating and collaborating. A new education model addresses these needs by transforming classrooms into collaborative knowledge building communities. However, there are challenges confronting the education system: (a) helping students build high responsibility to contribute to their collaborative inquiry progress and (b) supporting teachers to act as co-learners. To address these challenges, this …
Stem Education : A Programmatic And Economic Analysis, Rebecca Kate Laforest
Stem Education : A Programmatic And Economic Analysis, Rebecca Kate Laforest
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Innovations of the 21st century have created a need for a highly skilled and adaptable workforce. In this search, industry representatives are having a difficult time finding highly qualified US candidates. From private firms to public officials and economic analysts to educators, many acknowledge the need to update training and education to better prepare our future workforce. This work will examine the performance of students in the United States, the current employment landscape, the evolution of education in the US, and trends in education to support college and career preparation. This work will then analyze specific facets of new educational …
Reflective Structuration Of Knowledge Building Practices In Grade 5 Science Classrooms, Dan Tao
Reflective Structuration Of Knowledge Building Practices In Grade 5 Science Classrooms, Dan Tao
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Recent reforms in science education call for efforts to engage students in authentic and sustained science practices. In order to engage students in authentic science practices, students need to enact epistemic agency over the processes of inquiry in line with how knowledge is constructed and practiced in the real world. A critical research challenge is to understand how student agency-driven science practices can be socially organized and pedagogically supported over time without pre-defined tasks and procedures from the teacher in classrooms. Situated in the context of Knowledge Building pedagogy, this dissertation contributes to a reflective structuration approach of science practices …
Language Socialization Of Mainland Chinese Adolescents In U.S. Science Classrooms, Fang Yu
Language Socialization Of Mainland Chinese Adolescents In U.S. Science Classrooms, Fang Yu
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Secondary schools in the United States are enrolling an increasing number of Mainland Chinese students, and this cohort of students is often seen as a “model minority” that can achieve academic success without much if any, extra support. However, many Chinese students encounter difficulties not only in learning English but in learning other content areas raising questions as to what they experience as the affordances and constraints to their learning.
Revealing Undergraduates' Conceptual Use Of The Nature Of Science When Evaluating Scientific Information In The Media, Michele A. Snyder
Revealing Undergraduates' Conceptual Use Of The Nature Of Science When Evaluating Scientific Information In The Media, Michele A. Snyder
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
This study explored undergraduate students’ conceptual use of the nature of science (NOS) when evaluating scientific information presented in the media. Cognitive flexibility theory was used to explain how NOS understanding can be transferred to new learning situations such as those presented in the media. A mixed methods approach was used to assess participants’ NOS conception. Pre and post NOS conceptions were measured using the Student Understanding of Science and Scientific Inquiry (SUSSI) questionnaire. The questionnaire was used to explore the level of NOS conception (naïve, transitional, informed) college-level non-science majors have about NOS and what impact, if any, does …
Formative Assessment For Collaborative Knowledge Building In Chinese Elementary Science Classrooms, Jingping Chen
Formative Assessment For Collaborative Knowledge Building In Chinese Elementary Science Classrooms, Jingping Chen
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
The purpose of this study is to design and evaluate a technology supported collaborative formative assessment for knowledge building to help students reflect on the progress of their knowledge advancement and to sustain deeper inquiry. Guided by the knowledge building theory ( Scardamalia & Berieter, 2003; Scardamalia & Berieter, 2006) and the formative assessment framework (Wiliam & Thompson, 2007), a two-phase design based research was conducted to test and refine the assessment design in the six-grade science classrooms at a Chinese elementary school. The assessment was designed as a technology supported, student-directed formative assessment which focused on three major attributes …
Women's Decision To Major In Stem Fields, Stephanie Conklin
Women's Decision To Major In Stem Fields, Stephanie Conklin
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
This paper explores the lived experiences of high school female students who choose to enter into STEM fields, and describes the influencing factors which steered these women towards majors in computer science, engineering and biology. Utilizing phenomenological methodology, this study seeks to understand the essence of women’s decisions to enter into STEM fields and further describe how the decision-making process varies for women in high female enrollment fields, like biology, as compared with low enrollment fields like, computer science and engineering. Using Bloom's 3-Stage Theory, this study analyzes how relationships, experiences and barriers influenced women towards, and possibly away, from …
A Study Of The Emergence Of Student Tacit Knowledge In Response To Environmental Images And Science Instruction, Rory J. Glass
A Study Of The Emergence Of Student Tacit Knowledge In Response To Environmental Images And Science Instruction, Rory J. Glass
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
The purpose of this study was to identify the presence of students’ tacit understandings as they apply to environmental science content, and to discover how these understandings emerge and are viewed and interpreted by teachers. Towards that end over ten hours of classroom video was recorded and analyzed, from both large urban and smaller urban classrooms. Additionally, interviews were conducted with 15 students and two teachers to gain insight into their thinking on an array of topics related to the environment and environmental reasoning. It was hypothesized that students’ understandings and teachers’ interpretations of them may be influenced by their …
Explaining Participation : An Explanatory History Of Select Gender Patterns In Undergraduate Stem, Michael Pasquale Mastroianni
Explaining Participation : An Explanatory History Of Select Gender Patterns In Undergraduate Stem, Michael Pasquale Mastroianni
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
This explanatory study examines three focal periods in undergraduate STEM as related to the gender gap. Social, economic, and more general historical data are used to develop a clear and powerful explanation of baccalaureate trends in biology and engineering. Specifically, historical accounts are offered for 1) a ten-year period in undergraduate biology in which the number of baccalaureates awarded to men decreased 44 percent, while the number of baccalaureates awarded to women decreased one percent; 2) the start of a twenty-year period in which the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded in the biological sciences increased 150 percent—from 36,068 degrees in …
Instructional Scientific Humor In The Secondary Classroom, Francine Wizner
Instructional Scientific Humor In The Secondary Classroom, Francine Wizner
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
This study is an examination of the manner in which educators employ scientific content humor and how that humor is perceived by their students. Content humor is a useful strategy in drawing the attention of students and improving their receptivity toward scientific information. It is also a useful tool in combating the growing distractions of the electronic classroom. Previous studies have found that humor has a positive effect on knowledge, memory, and understanding. However, few studies have been conducted below the undergraduate level and mainly quantitative measures of student recall have been used to measure learning. This study employed multiple …
When Every Teacher Is A Language Teacher : A Case Study Of High School Math And Science Instructors' Use Of Multimodal Accommodations With Els, Karen Marie Gregory
When Every Teacher Is A Language Teacher : A Case Study Of High School Math And Science Instructors' Use Of Multimodal Accommodations With Els, Karen Marie Gregory
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
This case study investigated the multimodal accommodations that content teachers make in order to dually support linguistic and conceptual development for English language learning students. Data from digitally recorded classroom observations, teacher interviews, student work, and questionnaires were collected from the participating math and science teachers. The data were analyzed from the theoretical framework of an ecological -semiotic perspective of language teaching and learning (van Lier, 2004), and is theoretically tied to communication accommodation theory and multimodal communication theory as well.
How The Nature Of Science Is Presented To Elementary Students In Science Read-Alouds, Seema Rivera
How The Nature Of Science Is Presented To Elementary Students In Science Read-Alouds, Seema Rivera
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
HOW THE NATURE OF SCIENCE IS PRESENTED TO ELEMENTARY STUDENTS IN SCIENCE READ-ALOUDS
An Analysis Of Science Content And Representations In Introductory College Physics Textbooks And Multimodal Learning Resources, Suzanne Mary Donnelly
An Analysis Of Science Content And Representations In Introductory College Physics Textbooks And Multimodal Learning Resources, Suzanne Mary Donnelly
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
This study features a comparative descriptive analysis of the physics content and representations surrounding the first law of thermodynamics as presented in four widely used introductory college physics textbooks representing each of four physics textbook categories (calculus-based, algebra/trigonometry-based, conceptual, and technical/applied). Introducing and employing a newly developed theoretical framework, multimodal generative learning theory (MGLT), an analysis of the multimodal characteristics of textbook and multimedia representations of physics principles was conducted. The modal affordances of textbook representations were identified, characterized, and compared across the four physics textbook categories in the context of their support of problem-solving.