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GRAPHING UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: EXAMINING UNDERGRADUATES’ GRAPH KNOWLEDGE IN INTRODUCTORY BIOLOGY COURSESNouran E. Amin (19202728) 27 July 2024 (has links)
<p dir="ltr">In 2011, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) published a report titled “Vision & Change: A Call to Action” that called for reform in undergraduate biology education. The report proposed core competencies that educators should target so students are graduating ready to tackle 21st-century challenges. Of these core competencies is the ability to reason quantitatively, which includes graphing. However, undergraduate biology students struggle with applying essential graph knowledge. The following dissertation project addresses these challenges by exploring two graphing tasks: constructing versus evaluating graphs. We primarily focused on introductory biology students' reasoning practices in applying graph knowledge between these two tasks. As such, we used a digital performance-based assessment tool, <i>GraphSmarts</i>, to analyze students' graphing choices and their justifications in an ecology-based scenario. Chapter 2 discusses the findings of these analyses (n=301), which revealed a disconnect in graph knowledge application between students' graph construction and evaluation skills. While students tend to create basic bar graphs when constructing graphs, they prefer more sophisticated representations, such as bar graphs with averages and error bars, during evaluation tasks—suggesting that the framing of a task influences students' application of graph knowledge between their recognition of effective data representation and their ability to produce such graphs independently. While insightful, we needed to explore ‘why’ this variation exists. Chapter 3 explores the root of this variation through student interviews (n=12). Students would complete the two tasks, followed by questions that help clarify their thought processes. Through the lens of the Conceptual Dynamics framework and the Dynamic Mental Construct model, the study identified two critical cognitive patterns, ‘mode-switching’ and ‘mode-stability.’ Results reaffirm the context-dependent nature of students' graphing knowledge and the influence of task framing on their reasoning processes, as seen in Chapter 2. Results from this project can inform recommendations that biology educators can consider, including 1) having students conduct multiple types of graphing tasks beyond construction, 2) teaching statistical features more explicitly by integrating them into course content, and 3) encouraging students to reflect on their graphing practices. That would be expected to address these instructional needs and foster characteristics of quantitative reasoning and graphing that transfer out of biology. Future directions on this work include exploring other standard graphing tools (Excel, R studio) on graph knowledge, examining the transferability of graphing skills across biological sub-disciplines, and developing targeted interventions for gaps in students' graphing competencies across various graphing tasks. Overall, the work contributes toward developing evidence-based instructional strategies that will be supportive in cultivating competent, robust quantitative reasoning and graphing skills among undergraduate biology students.</p>
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Inclusion and differentiation: an examination of teachers' experience and perspectives in working with difference and learner potential in grade 1 mathematics classrooms in three schools in GrahamstownWhittington-Jones, Alexandra January 2013 (has links)
In South Africa, in July 2001, the National Department of Education released White Paper 6 which underpins the notion of inclusive education. It states that the needs of all children should be catered for within the South African educational framework. Subsequent guidelines from the Department (2005; 2012) also provide a strong focus on understanding individual children’s learning styles and explain the concept and application of children’s multiple intelligences. However, on closer examination, it seems that the inclusive education, as well as barriers to learning referred to in the abovementioned guidelines, are indicated to mean catering for children at the lower-ability end of the learning spectrum. This research begins to explore the notion that high potential children might require special attention, though not at the expense of those with learning impairments. An education system that provides inclusive education to children at both the lower and higher ends of the learning spectrum would be more equitable, and would give all children an equal chance of reaching their full potential. One possible strategy for accommodating the diverse needs of learners is through differentiation (Department of Education, 2005). Differentiation is a way of teaching that aims to provide stimulating and enriching learning environments to a diverse group of children within a classroom. This might be achieved by separating the class into smaller groups based on ability, or by providing children with different tasks at the same time, with the same learning objectives but at differing cognitive levels (Rogers, 2007). Vygotsky’s work on the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and mediation provides a theoretical framework for proposing differentiation as a strategy. The data was gathered through an in-depth examination (using a combination of classroom observations, document analysis and teacher interviews) of mathematics teaching in Grade 1 in three schools in Grahamstown. My analysis was based on Vygotsky’s theories (the main tenets of which were the ZPD and scaffolding, as well as the role of socio-culture in learning), using Tomlinson’s (1999) differentiated instruction framework to provide structure to the study. The following themes emerged from the data: a focus on the teachers’ understandings of differentiation; the use of grouping as a superficial form of differentiation; a lack of teacher preparation and understanding in relation to task differentiation; and an underlying sense of ‘sameness’ in teachers’ understanding of their learners. In addition to the above, I did not observe evidence of real differentiation for high potential children and hope that this research contributes to extending teachers’ training (both academic and in-service) in this area, convincing teachers of the existence and importance of critical thinking abilities in our youngest learners, and initiating a move towards the drafting of Individual Education Plans for all our learners. During the period of my research I have been convinced that the use of differentiated instruction in classrooms is the way forward in educational thinking, particularly as it relates to the notion of inclusive learning. Clearly there are challenges to be addressed in terms of school timetables, curricula, teachers’ time frames and past education system inequalities such as we have here in South Africa.
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Enabling reflexivity and the development of reflexive competence within course processes: a case study of an environmental education professional development courseRaven, Glenda C January 2005 (has links)
This research was undertaken in the context of socio-economic transformation in South Africa, and more specifically, in the context of change in education policy. To support socio-economic transformation in South Africa after the first democratic elections in 1994, a competence-based National Qualifications Framework (NQF) was introduced in 1995. In responding to the particular socio-historical context of South Africa, the South African NQF is underpinned by the notion of applied competence, integrating practical, foundational and reflexive competence, which is the key and distinguishing feature of this competence-based framework. In this context of transformation, the research was aimed at an in-depth exploration of the notion of reflexivity and reflexive competence, and course processes that enable its development, with a view to providing curriculum development insights for learning programme development in the competence-based NQF, more broadly, and environmental education professional development programmes, more specifically. To enable these aims, the research was undertaken in the context of the Rhodes University / Gold Fields Participatory Course in Environmental Education (RU/GF course), as a case example of a professional development course that aims to develop critically reflexive practitioners. Within an interpretivist orientation, a multiple-embedded case study approach was used to gain insight into the relationship between course processes, reflexivity and the development of reflexive competence to clarify and provide a critical perspective on how competence develops in the context of the course. Data was collected over a period of one year using observation, interviewing and document analysis as the primary data collection techniques. Data was analysed through various phases and layers to inform data generation and the synthesising of data for further interpretation. Through the literature review undertaken within the study, various significant insights emerged around the notion of reflexivity and reflexive competence. Firstly, there appears to be a need to distinguish between reflexivity as social processes of change (social actions and interactions within social systems, structures and processes) and reflexive competence (a range of integrative elements of competence) that provides the evidence of an engagement within social processes of change. The second key insight emerging is the significance of social structure in shaping participation in reflexive processes, thus emphasising the duality of structure as both the medium for, and outcome of reflexive social actions and interactions and so challenges the deterministic conception of social structure. Further, the significance of an epistemologically framed notion of reflexivity and reflexive competence emerged, in the context of responding to the complex and uncertain quality of socio-ecological risks and in supporting change in context. Reflexivity, distinguished from processes of critical reflection, foregrounds a critical exploration of both knowledge and unawareness. As such a reinterpretation of reflexive competence is offered as a process of potential challenge to dominant and reigning forms of reasoning (knowledge frameworks) and consequent principles of ordering. Through this reframing of reflexive competence, the potential exists to destabilise dominant forms of reasoning and principles of ordering to create a broader scope of possibilities for action and change in context. This reframing of reflexive competence in the context of transformation in South Africa has critical implications for engaging within processes of learning programme design in the NQF to support an engagement within reflexive processes of change and the development of a range of integrative elements of reflexive competence. In this light, the study attempts to make the following contribution to curriculum deliberations within the context of environmental education and the NQF in relation to reflexivity, reflexive competence and change: ♦ Reflexivity is conceptualised as social processes of change with reflexive competence providing evidence of engagement within these social processes of change; ♦ An epistemologically framed conception of reflexivity and reflexive competence recognises how rules of reason and the ordering of the ‘reasonable’ person come to shape social life; and so ♦ Change is conceptualised as ruptures and breaks in dominant knowledge frames and the power relations embedded in these; ♦ Unawareness emerges as a key dimension within reflexive environmental education processes in responding to the unpredictable and uncertain nature of risks; ♦ An epistemological framing of reflexivity and reflexive competence highlights the need to develop open processes of learning to support the critical exploration of knowledge and unawareness; and ♦ Within this framing of reflexivity and reflexive competence, the difficulty emerges in specifically predefining reflexive competence to inform standard setting processes within a context of intended change. In framing data within this emerging conception of reflexivity and reflexive competence, a review of course processes highlighted potential areas for reorienting the RU/GF course to support change in context, for which I make specific recommendations. Drawing on the review of course processes in the RU/GF course, and in light of the reframing of reflexivity and reflexive competence, I further offer summative discussions as ‘possible implications’ for learning programme design in the South African competence-based NQF, broadly and environmental education professional development programmes in this framework, more specifically.
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Losing, using, refusing, cruising : first-generation South African women academics narrate the complexity of marginalityIdahosa, Grace Ese-Osa January 2014 (has links)
While existing literature shows a considerable increase in the numbers of women in academia research on the experiences of women in universities has noted their continued occupation of lower status academic positions in relation to their male counterparts. As the ladder gets higher, the number of women seems to drop. These studies indicate the marginalization of women in academic settings, highlighting the various forms of subtle and overt discrimination and exclusion women face in academic work environments. In this study I ask how academic women in South Africa narrate their experience of being ‘outside in’ the teaching machine. It has been argued that intertwined sexist, patriarchal and phallocentric knowledges and practices in academic institutions produce various forms of discrimination, inequality, oppression and marginalization. Academic women report feeling invisible and retreating to the margins so as to avoid victimization and discrimination. Others have pointed to the tension between the ‘tenure clock’ and the ‘biological clock’ as a source of anxiety among academic women. Where a masculinised presentation of the self is adopted as a solution to this dilemma, the devaluation of the feminine in the academic space is confirmed. However, experiences of academic women are not identical. In the context of studies showing the importance of existing personal and social resources, prior experience and having mentors and role models in the negotiation of inequality and discrimination, I document the narratives of women academics who are the first in their families to graduate with a university degree. These first-generation academic women are therefore least likely to have access to social and cultural resources and prior experiences that can render the academic space more hospitable for the marginalised. Employing Spivak’s deconstruction of the concept of marginalisation as my primary interpretive lens, I explore the way in which, in their narratives, first-generation academic women negotiate marginality. These narratives depict a marginality that might be described, following Spivak, as ‘outside/in’, that is, as complex and involving moments of accommodation and resistance, losses and gains, pain and pride.
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Exploring processes and resources for problem solving at the crossroads between chemistry and mathematicsYe, Sofie January 2024 (has links)
Problem solving at the crossroads between chemistry and mathematics presents significant challenges for students at all levels of education. This licentiate thesis aims to enhance our understanding of such problem solving, with a focus on how university students approach problems in the context of chemical kinetics. The thesis is based on two papers. The video data analysed in these papers were collected from problem-solving sessions where second-year chemistry students worked in pairs to solve tasks centred around a key concept in chemical kinetics. The first paper aimed to develop a framework suitable for analysing problem solving at the interface of chemistry and mathematics. Deductive and inductive analysis of the collected video data resulted in the extended mathematical modelling cycle (MMC). This empirically derived framework offers a fine-grained picture of the processes and resources at play during problem solving in chemical kinetics, suggesting that students: (1) engage in a range of (sub)processes beyond those typically outlined in the classical MMC; and (2) employ extra-mathematical resources (EMRs) in all stages of the MMC. The EMRs can be divided into chemical and other resources. While chemical resources are essential in translating chemical information into mathematical relationships, they also play a crucial role during mathematical work, offering guidance to the mathematical operations. The purpose of the second paper was to further characterise the nature and roles of other resources. Findings suggest that other resources can be divided into: implicit models of results, explicit examples from experience, and superficial procedural resources. Analysing their roles in problem solving revealed that implicit models primarily influence students’ ideas of where they are going, while explicit examples and superficial procedural resources provide a basis of strategies for how to get there.
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Comparing the scaffolding provided by physical and virtual manipulative for students' understanding of simple machinesChini, Jacquelyn J. January 1900 (has links)
Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Physics / Nobel S. Rebello / Conventional wisdom has long advised that students’ learning is best supported by interaction with physical manipulative. Thus, in the physics laboratory, students typically spend their time conducting experiments with physical equipment. However, computer simulations offer a tempting alternative to traditional physical experiments. In a virtual experiment, using a computer simulation, students can gather data quickly, and measurement errors and frictional effects can be explicitly controlled. This research investigates the relative support for students’ learning offered by physical and virtual experimentation in the context of simple machines.
Specifically, I have investigated students’ learning as supported by experimentation with physical and virtual manipulative from three different angles-- what do students learn, how do students learn, and what do students think about their learning.
The results indicate that the virtual manipulative better supported students’ understanding of work and potential energy than the physical manipulative did. Specifically, in responding to data analysis questions, students who used the virtual manipulative before the physical manipulative were more likely to describe work as constant across different lengths of frictionless inclined planes (or pulley systems) and were more likely to adequately compare work and potential energy, whereas students who used the physical manipulative first were more likely to talk about work and potential energy separately. On the other hand, no strong support was found to indicate that the physical manipulative better supported students’ understanding of a specific concept.
In addition, students’ responses to the survey questions indicate that students tend to value data from a computer simulation more than from a physical experiment. The interview analysis indicates that the virtual environment better supported the students to create new ideas than the physical environment did.
These results suggest that the traditional wisdom that students learn best from physical experiments is not necessarily true. Thus, researchers should continue to investigate how to best interweave students’ experiences with physical and virtual manipulatives. In addition, it may be useful for curriculum designers and instructors to spend more of their efforts designing learning experiences that make use of virtual manipulatives.
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The Impact of Collaboration Between Science and Education Faculty Members on Teaching for Conceptual Change: A Phenomenographic Case Study of a Physics ProfessorStoll, William A., III 08 January 2016 (has links)
This dissertation presents a phenomenographic case study of a senior physics professor during and beyond an extended collaboration with a science education professor from a College of Education. The context for the collaboration is the co-teaching of a physics course for graduate students in a Masters of Teaching program at a research university in the southeastern US. The course was focused on physics content and the pedagogy of teaching for conceptual change. The purpose of this study is to investigate from a physics professor’s perspective the progression of his conceptions and practices regarding teaching for conceptual change over the duration of the collaboration and beyond. Prior research indicates that such change is a difficult and complex process requiring a transformative, personal experience. Collaboration between science departments and Colleges of Education has been identified as a key opportunity for transformative experiences, but research on the resulting changes is limited. Questions addressed by this study include (a) what is the evidence of change in a physics professor’s conceptions of teaching for conceptual change, (b) what is the evidence of change in a physics professor’s practices of teaching for conceptual change, (c) what are the learning environment characteristics identified by the physics professor that either facilitated or hindered changes in his conceptions and/or practices in teaching for conceptual change. The primary data were interviews with the physics professor integrated with direct classroom observations. Emergent categories of how the physics professor conceived and practiced teaching for conceptual change showed a progression over time toward a more expert view on teaching for conceptual change. Key factors identified in the physics professor’s progression are: 1) his motivation to become a more effective teacher, 2) the expertise of the science education professor, and 3) the way the collaboration developed. Limiting factors identified include: 1) time pressure for content coverage, 2) difficulty in translating change to other contexts, and 3) unsupportive external environments.
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A comparative study of the spatial semiotics of theatre and contemporary Church of England liturgyDaniel, Alastair Kevin January 2008 (has links)
No description available.
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Integrated technologies instructional method to enhance bilingual undergraduate engineering studentsMohammed, Abdul Majid January 2014 (has links)
Mathematics permeates almost every aspect of human life and it is a skill much needed by the increasingly complex technological world. It is necessary that this essential skill must be properly developed among students to prepare them for future academic and professional careers. An assessment of the research-based instructional strategies blending with old traditional methods with the modern technological development is a must. Due to the complexity of mathematics learning and the varied learning styles of learners, an integration of appropriate multiple instructional strategies into mathematics education will positively impact mathematical achievement of students. The purpose of this research was to examine the effects of the use of Integrated Technologies Instructional Method (ITIM) as a supplement to the traditional lecture method on mathematics achievement of the Integral Calculus students at the College of Engineering, University of Ha'il, Saudi Arabia. The ITIM includes the four instructional strategies such as the use of the Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, the collaborative learning, the bilingual support and the study support. Different types of academic supports have been used to examine their effects on students achievement in mathematics. Mathematics, the bedrock of science and engineering, is considered a very important indicator of a student's academic success in professional higher education. Undergraduate engineering students' low achievement in the first year mathematics is an issue demands much attention. The study was undertaken to address students' weak background in mathematics and particularly their high failure rates in this particular course. A total of 218 undergraduate engineering students, comprising of both the experimental and the control groups, were involved in this experimental design study. The control group was taught by the traditional lecture method whereas the experimental group was exposed to the ITIM as a supplement to the traditional lecture method. Apart from the effects of the use of ITIM, students' performance in the previous courses (covariates) such as mathematics, computer, and the English language were compared with their final grades of the Integral Calculus course. The final grades of students were taken as the dependent variable and the ITIM and students' scores in the previous courses as the independent variables. It has been noticed from the literature review that the application of only one instructional strategy does not address the needs of the diverse learning styles of students. A mixed mode method, quantitative and qualitative, was used to collect and analyse data. The quantitative data instruments included students' final exam grades and the student questionnaires. Interviews with students were used as qualitative tools of data collection. An independent t-test, ANOVA, univariate analysis and the stepwise multiple regression analysis were performed to determine the overall statistical significance. The study concluded that there was a statistically significant difference in the performance of the experimental group of students' in terms of their end-of-course grades compared to that of the control group. The regression model revealed significance of covariates on the dependent variable. However, no significant relationship was found between the mathematics achievement and attitudes towards the use of ITIM. The study was an attempt to demonstrate the suitability of the instructional strategies on the bilingual Arab undergraduate engineering students; however, they can probably be applicable to other bilingual students.
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Research policies of official educational research bodies: selected case studiesPoon, Hon-hung, Anthony., 潘漢雄. January 1989 (has links)
published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education
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