Classroom tests are a common and default form of assessments in concept-heavy, fundamental engineering courses. Tests have benefits to learning, such as the testing effect that helps with the retrieval of knowledge, but there are also disadvantages, like discouraging deep learning approaches and decreasing motivation to learn, that warrant examining and questioning why tests are common, which engineering education literature lacks. Furthermore, the advancement of assessment research has led to alternative assessments that can diversify types of assessments and promote intentionality in test usage in these courses, supporting the need for scholarship on understanding test usage. My research began to address this by studying fundamental engineering course instructors' test beliefs and behaviors because engineering instructors have shown to have autonomy in making course decisions and barriers to adopting scholarship-based assessment practices among these engineering instructors persist. This dissertation study, grounded in the Situated Expectancy Value Theory (SEVT), explored, uncovered, and articulated seven fundamental engineering course instructors' test beliefs and behaviors from mechanical engineering and engineering science departments in a public, land-grant, Research 1 institution. Leveraging the case study research methodology from a pragmatic perspective, my multi-case study, with each participant being defined as a case, answered an overarching research question and five sub-research questions that yielded findings on five test aspects: test usage, design, administration, cheating, and fairness. Eight collected data sources in the form of qualitative interviews, course, department, and institution documents became the database to answer the questions. Analyses of these data involved coding and content analysis, and subsequent thematic analysis. The outcome of these analyses shaped the individual case profiles for cross-case analysis to understand belief and behavior patterns at a higher level. My research has found three groups of test usage beliefs. These are enthusiastic test users, default test users, and skeptical test users. All participants featured tests heavily in their courses and justified with learning outcomes and some non-course-content factors like large class sizes for grading conveniences. However, those in default and skeptical test user groups also acknowledged some non-course-content factors, like inertia and peer pressure, that influenced their test usage beliefs and behaviors. All participants acknowledged some disadvantages with tests, but those who are skeptical with test usage presented stronger beliefs about test disadvantages, arguing for the need to move away from tests when necessary. Some participants also presented conflicting beliefs and behaviors regarding their test usage. My study has also found all participants using problem-solving questions, emphasizing the need to curb cheating especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, preferring in-person test administration, and defining test fairness with reasonable completion time and adequate content coverage. These findings contribute to addressing identified research gaps in the literature and have implications for future research on tests with assessment philosophies, classroom practices on diversifying assessments and intentional test usage, and future research on possible assessment roles in addressing systemic inequity in engineering. / Doctor of Philosophy / Tests or exams like quizzes, midterms, and finals are common for measuring student learning in foundational engineering courses that focus on teaching the core engineering concepts for problem-solving. There are benefits to tests, like helping students remember the concepts for future use. However, tests also have problems like getting to students focus more on memorizing and matching patterns, provoking student test anxiety, and demotivating students from learning. Engineering education research, surprisingly, does not explore much on why tests are common, considering said problems. My dissertation tackled this issue by studying the test usage beliefs and behaviors of seven foundational course instructors from mechanical engineering and engineering science departments. The focus was on the instructors because engineering instructors tend to have autonomy in making course decisions and many instructors are resistant to changing their teaching practices. Understanding their beliefs and behaviors can help with research and efforts to promote better practices, like diversifying the types of assessment used and being more intentional when using tests. My results show three groups separating the participants on their beliefs about using tests. One participant was very enthusiastic about using tests and believed that tests were the only good way to assess learning. Four participants were default test users as they acknowledged some problems with using tests but still justified strongly for using tests because of the test benefits to learning. Two participants were skeptical test users as they had stronger beliefs than others on the problems and would prefer not to use too many tests. However, all participants used tests heavily in their courses. All participants also emphasized curbing cheating as very important and had very similar beliefs about what a fair test was. Overall, my findings highlight the need to continue working on test research and practice to promote better assessment approaches in engineering.

The purpose of this study was, given the elimination of a Type I barrier, to investigate how teachers utilized the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) and what barriers teachers perceive to be present that may inhibit technology are barriers technology integration in the classroom. This qualitative study was designed based on the naturalistic inquiry approach (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Through purposeful sampling, this study took place in a suburban school division within the U.S. that has eliminated a Type I barrier, technology access to secondary teachers and students. The site was chosen due to the abundance of technology available to teachers and secondary students within the school division. Ten secondary teachers that participated were in various stages of their profession and years of service within the school division and represented various secondary schools within the division. The findings suggest that teachers fail to fully implement all of the ISTE NETS when it comes to integration in the classroom. Insufficient time to plan and prepare for activities that would integrate technology into the classroom was among the external factors most of the participants listed as to why their instruction did not always utilize technology. Although the division has eliminated a major barrier through its one-to-one laptop initiative, the findings indicated further external, Type I barriers existed. Results of this study suggest the key elements to the barriers that inhibit integration continue to be Type II barriers, teacher beliefs towards technology and teacher-centered pedagogy. / Ed. D.

In this study, I will examine the beliefs and conceptual understanding of instructors and students from two abstract algebra classes. This research takes the form of a case study in which I answer four research questions, each addressing a relationship between instruction and beliefs or conceptual understanding. Specifically, these research questions are: 1. What beliefs do the instructors have about math, teaching, and learning and what relationship exists between these beliefs and instructional practice? 2. What is the relationship between instructional practice and students' beliefs about math, teaching, and learning? 3. What conceptual metaphors do the professors use to describe isomorphisms and homomorphisms and what relationship exists between these metaphors and the mathematical content in instruction? 4. What is the relationship between the mathematical content in instruction and conceptual metaphors the students use to describe isomorphisms and homomorphisms? In terms of beliefs, the instructors articulated considered positions on the nature of math, math learning, and math teaching. These beliefs were clearly reflected in their overall approaches to teaching. However, their instruction shifted in practice over the course of the semester. Students' beliefs seemed to shift slightly as a result of the ways their instructors taught. However, their core beliefs about math seemed unchanged and some lessons students took away were similar in the two classes. In terms of conceptual understanding, the instructors provided many conceptual metaphors that related to how they understood isomorphism. They struggled more to provide an image for homomorphism, which requires thinking about a more complicated mathematical object. Their understandings of isomorphism and homomorphism were largely reflected in their instruction with some notable differences. Students took away similar understandings of isomorphism to the instructors, but did not all take away the same level of structural understanding of homomorphism. In short, relationships between instructors' beliefs and instruction and between instructors' conceptual understanding and instruction were evident. However, certain elements were not made as clear as they perhaps intended. Relationships between instruction and students' beliefs and between instruction and students' conceptual understanding were also evident. However, relationships between instruction and beliefs were subtler than between instruction and conceptual understanding. / Doctor of Philosophy / In this study, I will examine the beliefs and conceptual understanding of instructors and students from two abstract algebra classes. I address four relationships: between instructors’ beliefs and instruction, between instruction and students’ beliefs, between instructors’ conceptual understanding and instruction, and between instruction and students’ conceptual understanding. Relationships between instructors’ beliefs and instruction and between instructors’ conceptual understanding and instruction were evident. However, certain elements were not made as clear as they perhaps intended. Relationships between instruction and students’ beliefs and between instruction and students’ conceptual understanding were also evident. However, relationships between instruction and beliefs were subtler than between instruction and conceptual understanding.

This paper argues that Gertler’s (2012) account of acquaintance is inadequate because it cannot perform the explanatory role that it’s supposed to perform. My argument builds from two central claims. First, I argue that our judgments about phenomenal absences have the special features that acquaintance is supposed to explain. Second, I argue that Gertler’s take on acquaintance does not allow us to be acquainted with phenomenal absences. This suggests a general methodological lesson: when developing an account of the epistemology of acquaintance, we should make sure that we are capturing all of the relevant sorts of cases. / Master of Arts

The thesis examined McMaster University undergraduates’ beliefs about health and contagion, and their implication for antibacterial soap use. A qualitative methodology was used and 30 participants were interviewed, and the transcripts coded and analysed for emergent themes. Students understand health in terms of having energy, being disease free, and as something to be achieved through healthy lifestyle choices and cleanliness. These beliefs form an explanatory model of health that has several key components used to make health decisions, including using or not using antibacterial soap. The participants see their health as continually threatened by sources of illness. Contagion is one of the principal threats identified and understood as transmitted through the air, or on the surfaces of contaminated people and objects. Two modes of defence were articulated in the interviews. Internal components of defence involve maintaining immune rigour; external components drives activities such as personal hygiene and cleaning to protect against pathogens. Men tend to have a more internally focussed explanatory model of health, while women have a more external focus. This seems to explain why the women in this study were eight times more likely to use antibacterial soap than the men, a finding that was statistically significant (p=.027). Social values are expressed through the explanatory model, including social boundaries and morality. The model also aligns very well with the biomedical paradigm in that it reduces health to its physical components, provides a mechanistic explanation of the body, and separates mind and body as discrete entities and as an object of control. Biomedicine seems to be broadening into new social domains, such as gender, social boundaries and morality, which are also reflected in students' beliefs about health. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

The study investigated the beliefs and practices of Sotho antenatal women. The aim was to describe the beliefs and practices of Sotho antenatal women in order to contribute to the identification of guidelines for a teaching programme for both midwives and traditional birth attendants. A non-experimental, qualitative research approach, which was exploratory-descriptive and contextual in nature, guided the researcher to explore and describe the beliefs and practices of Sotho antenatal women. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the Sotho antenatal women as well as traditional birth attendants. Six themes emerged from the study through the interviews:  the nature of pregnancy  prescriptive practices  restrictive practices  sexual activity  the practice of clinic attendants  the practice of attending traditional birth attendants / Health Studies / M.A (Department of Health Studies)

Students' interest in physics seems to be decreasing at all levels of education in most countries including Thailand. This problem is likely to be influenced by physics teaching and learning processes. Instructors' beliefs influence teaching strategies whereas students' beliefs, goals and motivation influence learning strategies. The investigation of factors influencing teaching and learning will provide useful information for improving the teaching and learning of physics. This research aims to explore physics instructors' beliefs about teaching and learning physics, students' beliefs, goals and motivation for studying physics in Thai Rajabhat universities. A questionnaire was administered to instructors who teach introductory physics courses in Rajabhats throughout Thailand at the beginning of second semester in 2002. Questionnaires were administered to first year students who enrolled in introductory physics courses at two Rajabhat universities in the south of Thailand at the beginning and the end of that semester. Four case studies were conducted with instructors and students at the two Rajabhats during the semester.

Beliefs are social in nature. and are widely shared within social groups, such as cultures. Shared beliefs reflect how people construct their social world and how they seek meaning and understanding of social realities. and they are context specific. General beliefs are context free and related to a wide spectrum of social behaviours across diverse contexts, actors, targets and periods. These general beliefs function like axioms in mathematics, thus they are basic premises that people endorse and on which they rely to guide their actions. A better understanding of beliefs can therefore be a useful instrument in managing a diverse workforce, such as the workforce found in South Africa. The objectives of this study were to investigate the replicability of the Social Axioms Survey (SAS) in the South African Police Service (SAPS), to examine the construct equivalence and item bias. and to assess the reliability. A cross-sectional survey design was used. The study population consisted of applicants (N=1535) who applied for jobs in the SAPS. The SAS instrument was administered. Descriptive statistics, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, scale and item level analysis and estimation of reliability were used to analyse the results. An exploratory factor analysis utilising target rotation applied on all 60 items of the SAS revealed four interpretable factors (Factor 1 = Social Cynicism; Factor 2 = Reward for Application; Factor 4 = Fate Control; and Factor 5 = Spirituality Religiosity) congruent with the model of Leung et al. (2002). The third factor, namely Social Complexity did not replicate. Values of Tucker's phi higher than 0.90 were found for seven culture groups (Zulu, Sotho, Tswana, Swati, Tsonga, Venda and Pedi). This provided a strong indication of the structural equivalence. Analyses of variance showed that item bias was not a major disturbance. Cronbach's alpha reported lower levels of reliability. Recommendations for future research were made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

The goal of psychotherapy and Biblical counselling is to change undesirable cognition, affect, and behaviour in the counselee. For the Biblical counsellor change entails more than mere behaviour change. He endeavours to facilitate inner Biblical change where the counselee can grow spiritually through sanctification by the power of the Holy Spirit. Change should occur from the inside and result in Godly living. The central theoretical argument is that pastoral counselling portrays certain unique features that can be used to bring about change in the core of the counselee's being, renewing the mind sufficiently to walk in holiness. The aim is to establish whether pastoral counselling can be used effectively to help the counselee change in his conscious direction to walk in holiness. The first objective was to establish what Scriptural perspectives exist on change. When the believer is set free from the law sin and death, the effect of sin remains. Sinful patterns have been habituated into his thinking and behaviour. Every Christian has to deal with unbiblical beliefs and behaviour which are not easily overcome. Although problems do not disappear at regeneration, God through His Spirit equips the believer to handle them, providing the necessary resources, directions, and power for the change He commands. The Christian life is not static; it is a life that is characterized by change. In the basis-theoretical perspective it has been established that change that is pleasing to God involves the repudiation of the former "old man" and the assumption of the "new man". The believer is also challenged to be transformed by the renewing of his mind. This Scriptural understanding of change is addressed in the epistles of Paul (Ep. 4:22-24; Col. 3:8-10; Ro. 12:l-2). The uniqueness of Biblical counselling and the different perspectives were explored in this study. The exposition of inner change in the life of the counselee rendered important information. If the counsellor ignores what is happening on the inside of the individual, he will be unable to help him change his overt behaviour in any meaningful way. The second objective was to explore what other relevant disciplines had to contribute to the issue of change. The meta-theoretical perspective on change established that psychology is concerned with changing undesirable behaviour, cognitions, and affect. Knowledge of mental processes are important because the mind represents that which needs to be changed. The psychoanalytic, behavioural-cognitive, and person-centred approaches concerning change were expounded. According to answers given in the research of this study, Biblical perspectives included the use of Christian values and spiritual disciplines (use of Scripture, prayer). In most instances counselling included the use of secular perspectives using the Word of God as a foundation from which they derived their own models. It has been indicated that theology and psychology can complement each other, each contributing to a better understanding of the complexities of human nature. The third objective was accomplished by utilizing the basis- and meta-theoretical perspectives in a hermeneutical interaction to formulate a model of change that can be proposed for pastoral counselling. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Practical Theology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Children’s beliefs about mathematics involve epistemological beliefs about the subject, its nature and how it works, as well as beliefs about who can and cannot do mathematics. While children’s beliefs about mathematics have been linked to their achievement in mathematics, there is little research that explores beliefs about mathematics in the New Zealand context. A general concern is that students do less well than they could at mathematics; hence many people give up on and disengage from mathematics. This study explores children’s and their teachers’ beliefs about mathematics and is set against a backdrop of prevailing achievement discourses, both in New Zealand and abroad, that define people’s perceived abilities as usually based on ethnicity and gender. It also considers the multiple worlds of the child, the worlds of mathematics beliefs and of doing school mathematics, the child’s relationships with these worlds and with others who inhabit them. The study combines complementary theories and methods to examine espoused and enacted mathematics beliefs by adopting a predominantly sociocultural perspective and including a combination of constructivist and pragmatic theories as well as multiple methods of accessing and analysing beliefs. In order to develop a picture of mathematics beliefs, I collected data from a number of sources: mathematics beliefs questionnaires from 823 children at 17 schools, drawings from 180 children at two focus schools, video recordings of multiple mathematics lessons in two focus classrooms and observations. The following year, I revisited, observed and interviewed nine focus children and their teachers. I applied multiple analysis ‘frames’ to the data: factor analysis, adapted visual frameworks, metaphors and themes. By combining a variety of methods and applying a number of different analysis perspectives, this study exposed a rich and complex landscape of beliefs about mathematics. In particular, the children’s drawings communicated mathematics beliefs by using metaphors such as ‘maths as problem solving’, ‘maths as useful’, ‘maths as life’, and ‘maths as brain burn inducing’. The children and teachers exhibited a range of beliefs about the world of mathematics and who belongs to this world by positioning certain people as good at mathematics, not good at mathematics, or in certain cases, both positions depending on the context. In terms of assigned mathematics identities, both children and teachers refer to the ‘Asian as good at maths’ discourse but do not position Māori and Pasifika as weak; gender was not viewed as important. On the other hand, the children’s responses were influenced by their ethnicities, gender, socioeconomic status and mathematics achievement levels. The implications for primary school mathematics relate to the powerful influence of how mathematics is done, taught and learnt within the dominant context of the Numeracy Projects which governs ability groupings, the dance of the mathematics class, the ascendency of strategy over algorithm, and the notion that there are multiple ways to solve problems. In particular, the implications of inequality inherent in mathematics ability grouping warrants addressing.