Education Commons^™

Examining The Understanding Of Inquiry-Based Learning And Teaching Among Undergraduate Teachers And Students, Maren Hudson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One of the main aims of inquiry is to engage students as active, not passive, participants in science. The purpose of this study is to describe science educators’ and students’ views about inquiry-based instruction in order to better understand and improve implementation of evidence-based teaching strategies. Inquiry-based techniques have been shown to improve student understanding of scientific concepts, yet, there continue to be challenges in implementing these techniques. This research project utilizes Q Methodology, a research method that captures both common and disparate measures of subjectivity, to identify commonalities and defining viewpoints about inquiry-based teaching and learning. Three significantly different …

Modeling Student Enrollment At Etsu Using A Discrete-Time Markov Chain Model, Lohuwa Mamudu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Discrete-time Markov chain models can be used to make future predictions in many important fields including education. Government and educational institutions today are concerned about college enrollment and what impacts the number of students enrolling. One challenge is how to make an accurate prediction about student enrollment so institutions can plan appropriately. In this thesis, we model student enrollment at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) with a discrete-time Markov chain model developed using ETSU student data from Fall 2008 to Spring 2017. In this thesis, we focus on the progression from one level to another within the university system including …

Online Learning In Biology: An Investigation Into Designing Online Learning Resources, William Ford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As technology continues to advance, many instructors are incorporating online activities into their courses. While online learning has several benefits, there is still debate on how instructors can best develop and utilize these resources in their classroom. This study is split into two smaller projects that both aim to provide further insights on how to develop online activities that target undergraduate biology students. The first project revealed that elaborative feedback in a phylogenetic activity was more useful for students who had some exposure to phylogenetics prior to completing the activity. The results of the second project revealed that the appearance …

Native And Community College Transfer Students In Biological Sciences At A Four-Year Institution: A Comparative Study, Nathanial Weber

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate differences between native and community college transfer students and identify factors that predicted upper-level biology course grade-point average and final overall grade-point average at a four-year institution in biological sciences. The results of this study indicated four-year institution persistence was not significantly related to gender, high school grade-point average, or ACT composite score. Persistence was significantly related to transfer status; whether the student was a native or community college transfer student with native students persisting at a higher rate at the four-year institution than community college transfer students. Furthermore, ACT composite score, …

Contrast Dependent Knowledge Development In Contrast Supported Scientific Observation, Maura B. Foley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Knowledge of contrasts between phenomena can influence how people think and reason about them, so learning contrasts is important in school science. Building knowledge through a process of construction is a common framework through which school science is taught. However, telling phenomena apart through differentiation also plays an important role in learning and may be underused as a teaching framework. An effective way to learn contrasts is to use them to perceptually differentiate similar-looking phenomena presented side-by-side. However, little is known about the persistence/usefulness of knowledge generated during perceptual differentiation over short periods of time and its usage in student …

Investigating Student Mental Models At The Intersection Of Mathematics And Physical Reasoning In Physics, Savannah E. Lodge-Scharff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A significant challenge in learning science and mathematics is coordinating different types of mental models, such as mathematical and physical mental models, that represent different aspects of a given phenomenon. This challenge is illustrated in the present study, in which we observed a small number of college students reasoning about forces as both physical and mathematical quantities as they reasoned about a physical system. Using video analysis of the students’ gesture and as they reasoned qualitatively and mathematically about the system, we documented the construction and coordination of participants’ mental models. We found that participants constructed mathematical mental models as …

Using Contrasting Cases To Build Metacognitive Knowledge About The Impact Of Salient Distracting Features In Physics Problems, Thanh K. Le

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Student reasoning on physics problems is often context dependent. A possible explanation is that salient distracting features (SDFs) in physics problems may cue students’ “spontaneous” reasoning. This cued reasoning is often accepted without question, even though it may be unproductive and may even preclude the use of relevant knowledge. One possible approach to address such reasoning difficulties is to strengthen students’ metacognitive skills, particularly their metacognitive knowledge. While metacognitive knowledge plays an important role in facilitating effective regulation, little is known about how to build student metacognitive knowledge. This dissertation explores the use of contrasting cases (e.g., a …

A Quantitative Survey Analysis Of Elementary Preservice Teacher Perceptions Of Assessment Tasks In Science Coursework, Allison D. Killingsworth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This replication survey research study sought to further understand preservice elementary teachers’ perceptions of assessment tasks they encountered in secondary science coursework. Students are assessed through informal and formal assessments, including close-ended and open-ended questions, through classroom and high-stakes assessments. With great significance placed on high-stakes state assessments, classroom instruction and assessments oftentimes mirror the format of state assessments. The researcher administered a validated Likert scale inventory, the Perceptions of Assessment Tasks Inventory (PATI), to preservice elementary teachers to examine their perceptions of how assessment tasks reflected their knowledge and understanding of science assessment tasks. The researcher found the research …

Assessing Students' Understanding Of Variability And Graph Interpretation Through An Authentic Science Investigation, William M. Schlager

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis research combined efforts of two existing projects at the University of Maine in collaboration with the Schoodic Institute, the Acadia Learning Snowpack Project and the Maine Data Literacy Project. The Snowpack Project provided a context to explore student learning of variability and graphing skills by gathering data on snowfall and accumulation throughout the winter and using the data to ask and answer a scientific question. The Maine Data Literacy Project provided a framework and instruments for assessing students’ understanding of variability and graph interpretation skills.

The first goal of this research was to measure student learning about variability …

Investigating Student Learning Of Analog Electronics, Kevin L. Van De Bogart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Instruction in analog electronics is an integral component of many physics and engineering programs, and is typically covered in courses beyond the first year. While extensive research has been conducted on student understanding of introductory electric circuits, to date there has been relatively little research on student learning of analog electronics in either physics or engineering courses. Given the significant overlap in content of courses offered in both disciplines, this study seeks to strengthen the research base on the learning and teaching of electric circuits and analog electronics via a single, coherent investigation spanning both physics and engineering courses.

This …

Roman Domination In Complementary Prisms, Alawi I. Alhashim

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The complementary prism GG of a graph G is formed from the disjoint union of G and its complement G by adding the edges of a perfect match- ing between the corresponding vertices of G and G. A Roman dominating function on a graph G = (V,E) is a labeling f : V(G) → {0,1,2} such that every vertex with label 0 is adjacent to a vertex with label 2. The Roman domination number γR(G) of G is the minimum f(V ) = Σv∈V f(v) over all such functions of G. We study the Roman domination number of complementary prisms. …

The Role Of The Planetarium In Students' Attitudes, Learning, And Thinking About Astronomical Concepts., William Raymond Thornburgh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of the planetarium on students while learning astronomy. The main goals of this study were to evaluate changes in students’ attitudes towards astronomy, whether students learned and retained more knowledge due to planetarium-enriched instruction, and how the planetarium helped students think about astronomical concepts. The framework that guided this study was the Contextual Model of Learning (CML) (Falk & Dierking, 1992; 2000), which includes three overlapping contexts that contribute to the overall learning experience in informal science venues - the personal, physical, and sociocultural contexts. The planetarium program was successful …

Instructional Teacher Job Resources And Student Achievement In Mathematics., Amy Stokes-Levine

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research shows that teachers who are supported with job resources are more engaged regardless of the level of demands (Klusmann et al., 2008). Additionally, teachers who are engaged with their work are less likely to report their intention to leave the teaching profession (Klassen et al., 2012), which is particularly important for mathematics teachers who are in high demand (Sutcher, Darling-Hammond, & Carver-Thomas, 2016). Supporting employees with job resources is a commonly accepted practice in many professional fields (e.g., Christian, Garza, & Slaughter, 2011), yet is not a common practice in education (e.g., Bidwell, 2013; Gewertz, 2014; Layton, 2015; Rentner …

Development Of An Active-Learning Lesson That Targets Student Understanding Of Population Growth In Ecology, Elizabeth Trenckmann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Integrating quantitative literacy skills into the undergraduate biology curriculum has been advocated as a way to better reflect the tools and practices used by scientists. One area where students often need and can develop quantitative skills is population ecology, and previous studies have shown that students often have conceptual difficulties in this area. The focus of this thesis project was to explore student thinking about population ecology and develop an in-class active-learning lesson that incorporates quantitative skills for use in large-enrollment undergraduate biology courses. The development of this lesson was guided by in depth reviews of literature, textbooks, and online …

Inclusive Teaching Strategies: An Evaluation Of Course Structure And Summative Assessment In Introductory Biology, Oluwaseun O. Agboola

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Several active learning strategies have been used when increasing the structure of a course as increasing course structure has been known to improve student learning in introductory STEM courses. Much has been studied on the value of frequent formative assessment; however, few studies have evaluated the effective modes of delivering summative assessment. This study examines the use of summative assessment as an inclusive teaching practice to improve first generation college student success in introductory biology and also uses faculty surveys to find out how instructors structure their introductory biology course and why they are structured that way. Final exams were …

The Effectiveness Of Project-Based Learning Using Digital Storytelling Technology On Improving Second-Grade Students' Performance Of Science Standards, Mariella Dorr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to find the effectiveness of digital storytelling technology integration through a project-based learning approach using digital stories combined with hands-on guided inquiry science lessons. As a teacher researcher, the focus was on the effectiveness in the performance of second-grade students using higher-order thinking science standards. For a period of ten weeks, the researcher through comparative action research investigated how emergent technology integration improved the performance of two second-grade classrooms implementing three higher-order thinking life science standards. A total of 27 students from two second-grade classrooms volunteered for this research. For the study, a pretest …

Analysis Of The Effects Of Formative Assessment In Promoting Transfer Of Learning In An Undergraduate General Microbiology Laboratory Course, Andrea Rediske

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The undergraduate microbiology lab serves an important role in establishing a foundation of best practices in aseptic technique and infection control for pre-medical, pre-nursing, pre-pharmacy, or pre-allied health students. The high incidence of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) in the US and evidence in the literature of less effective implementation of proper aseptic technique among apprentice doctors and nursing students suggests that more effective transfer of learning could improve implementation of these procedures in the clinical setting. The research described in this study aimed to assess learning transfer as it applied to aseptic techniques and infection control skills learned in the undergraduate …

Mathematics Teachers' Beliefs And Mathematical Knowledge For Teaching: How Teachers' Mkt Shifts In Planning And Impacts Their Beliefs And Instructional Practice, Paul Conley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In an effort to understand how a teacher developed Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching and how that knowledge can shift teacher's beliefs and instructional practice, I worked with a teacher to deeply plan and implement six mathematical lessons.

The research suggests that planning can be a vehicle to develop a teacher's Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching. In addition, as a teacher's Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching started to develop through lesson planning, the teacher's beliefs about her own knowledge of mathematics started to increase which started to shift the teacher's instructional practice.

This combination of a stronger Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching, self confidence …

“I’M Not Good At Math”: Mathematical Illiteracy And Innummeracy In The United States, G. Wesley Rogers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Why do we view mathematics the way we do in the United States and how have these views created an environment where we consider mathematical illiteracy and innumeracy socially and culturally acceptable when a lack of this knowledge and ability can function to enslave, exploit, restrict, and oppress. Throughout this investigation, I have explored some of the possible reasons for why we view education, mathematics, and the learning of mathematics the way we do and the impact of these views on our motivation and desire to learn mathematics. Using my over 20 years of teaching experience and the review of …