The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which Constructivist Learning Environment (CLE) aspects exist in primary level 4th and 5th grade Science and Technology Courses in Turkey as perceived by students and their teachers. Secondly, the study aimed at finding out whether perceptions of students on CLE differ according to certain demographic variables. Finally, the study attempted to explore the extent to which the perceptions of teachers on administrative support have a relationship with their perceptions on CLE. Subjects of the study involved 1143 primary level 4th and 5th grade students in Turkey during 2006-2007 school year from 6 socio-economic development groups as determined by State Planning Department and their 264 teachers. Data were collected in 2006-2007 Spring semester through administration of two questionnaires to the students and the teachers. Data analysis was carried out through both quantitative (repeated measures ANOVA, frequencies, means, standard deviations, MANOVA) and qualitative analysis techniques. The results of the study indicated that students and teachers perceived the current learning environment to be often constructivist. In addition, the results revealed that perception of CLE differed according to socio economic status and technology use of students. Lastly, the results revealed that there is a significant but low correlation between teachers&rsquo / perceptions on CLE and their perceptions on administrative support they received. The results revealed that students should be provided with more facilities and teachers be provided with more in-service training opportunities.

Thesis (MPhill)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Background: Community-based placement of students provides an ideal opportunity to develop constructivist learning environments for learning. Students are placed in a low risk obstetric care facility where they required to interview, examine and manage uncomplicated pregnancies under supervision of a lecturer. Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate the appropriateness of using a validated Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) to gauge the perceptions of students in a community-based health sciences placement. A further aim of the study was to evaluate whether the learning environment was compliant with constructivism. Methods: An adapted CLES was administered to 99 students and 44 students were interviewed using the instrument scales as a schema. Results: The surveys were analysed and mean scores at or above 20 were obtained, where the 5 different scales would have a maximum score of 30 each. No gender or racial differences were elicited from the survey responses. Interview data supported the data of the survey that demonstrated the constructivist nature of the learning environment. Conclusion: The CLES appears to be an appropriate and useful instrument in evaluating a community-based constructivist learning environment in low-risk obstetric care. Practice Points: Learning environment research instruments developed for other settings may be appropriate to use in more specific training in health sciences education. The adapted CLES proved useful in evaluating a constructivist clinical learning environment.

The main purpose of this classroom action research was to improve student learning in a Health Science class in Thailand by using the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) and a constructivist learning approach. This study combined quantitative and qualitative data and was conducted over one semester in four stages: 1) assessing the students' perceptions of their constructivist learning environment and determining students' pre-instruction conceptions about AIDS; 2) constructing an intervention based on constructivism theory in order to improving learning environments and students' learning outcomes; 3) implementing the intervention; and 4) evaluating the success of the intervention by re-assessing with the CLES. The Attitude Towards AIDS Questionnaire (ATAQ) was used to assess students' attitudes about AIDS. The students' cognitive achievement was assessed with the Students' Knowledge of AIDS Test (SKAT). Qualitative data were obtained from informal observation, focus group discussions, and student journals. The results indicated that the adapted Thai version of the CLES is appropriate for use in Health Science classes in Thailand's socio-cultural context because it was shown to be valid and reliable in both Actual and Preferred Forms. The results also revealed that the CLES and a constructivist learning approach can be used as effective tools in order to improve the learning environment of a Health Science class. This approach can improve students' knowledge and students' attitudes toward AIDS. The qualitative results supported the results from the questionnaires. This study suggests that teachers and health educators in Thailand can use the CLES to improve their learning environment and use a constructivist learning model to bring about improvement in students' achievement in their classes.

This longitudinal study explored the extent to which mathematics education lecturers' constructivist beliefs and aligned practices were communicated to students in a New Zealand primary pre-service teacher education degree programme. An integral part of this exploration was the identification of particular aspects of lecturers' practice that had a significant impact in enhancing the adoption of constructivist ideas on learning and constructivist-aligned teaching practices by student teachers. This goal had a practical focus on more effective course teaching within the chosen philosophical framework of constructivism. At a more theoretical level, there was a focus on the development of a constructivist approach to teacher education for teacher educators through the medium of mathematics education. A potential outcome of the development and widespread adoption of such a constructivist-aligned pedagogy within teacher education could be the significant furthering of a "reform" (or transformative) agenda in school education with its potential for enhanced learning by children. The methodology comprised both quantitative (survey) and qualitative (interview) techniques to collect information which allowed the capture of different but complementary data, so building a "rich" data set. The surveys were conducted using two leaming environment instruments underpinned by particular constructivist perspectives: one focusing on the overall nature of the learning environment at an individual level from a critical constructivist perspective, and the other focusing on the nature of interactions between teacher and student teachers at a classroom level from a socio-cultural constructivist perspective. / Surveys were conducted with the lecturers at the beginning and toward the end of the study, while the student teachers in these lecturers' classes were surveyed over a three year period. The interviews were semi-structured following an interpretative (evolving) research approach, with the "results" of ongoing data analysis being fed into later interviews. The interview data were analysed for personal perceptions and understandings rather than for generalisation and prediction with the intention of focusing on the identification of emergent themes. Interviews were conducted with lecturers at the beginning of the study and again toward its conclusion while student teachers were interviewed at the end of the study. The lecturers claimed constructivism as their underlying philosophical belief system and the initial surveys established baseline data on the actual nature of the lecturers' beliefs and how these were perceived by the student teachers. Similarly, the initial interviews explored the espoused beliefs and congruent practices of lecturers and student teachers. These two sets of data were compared to establish their congruence or otherwise. Further interviews with the lecturers focused on the survey data and my reconstruction of what the lecturers had said previously when interviewed. Later survey and interview data were also examined against the baseline data for evidence of change over the four years of the study. The data demonstrated that the student teachers perceived the existence of moderate to strong socio-cultural constructivist-aligned classroom environments when considered at a class (group) level, and a moderate alignment with critical perspectives at the individual (personal) level. / There was a high degree of consistency between staff and student teacher views, and the student teachers' views were consistent across the year groups (first, second and third years) and throughout the four years of the study. Lecturer practice(s) congruent with constructivism were the basis for student teacher change toward understanding and their adoption of constructivist ideas and aligned practices. Specific lecturer practices were identified as particularly effective in achieving such change. These effective lecturer practices may assist in establishing the foundations of a constructivist-aligned pedagogy for teacher education. The lecturers' modeling of the practices they were promoting for student teachers' practice was identified as a key element in promoting change. Indeed, the tension between traditional and transfornative approaches was exacerbated in situations where lecturers' promotion of a preferred practice was different from that which they enacted. The continuing existence of such situations and associated tensions has the potential to limit the extent of any change.

The classroom has become an important focus of educational research because most learning takes place there. The purpose of this study was to examine 8th grade students perception of science classroom environment from constructivist perspective and investigate the association between students perceptions, motivational beliefs and attitudes toward science. In addition in this study the affects of gender difference on students&amp / #8217 / constructivist learning environment, motivation and attitude toward science were investigated. The data in the present study were collected through Turkish version of Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES), Test of Science Related Attitudes (TOSRA) and Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) from 8th grade students who were in randomly selected from 15 elementary schools in &Ccedil / ankaya, Ankara. A total of 956 students (462 girls, 493 boys and one did not indicate gender) were participated in the study. The data obtained from participants were analyzed by using Canonical Correlation Analyses and Multivariate Analyses of Variance (MANOVA). Results of canonical correlation analyses indicated that all constructivist learning environment variables and all the motivational beliefs variables were positively related with each other. In addition the result of this analysis also showed that all constructivist learning environment variables and attitude variables were positively related with each other. The findings of MANOVA showed that gender had a significant effect on students&amp / #8217 / constructivist learning environment (personal relevance and critical voice), their adaptive motivational beliefs (intrinsic goal orientation, task value, and control of learning beliefs), and their attitude toward science (adaptation to science attitudes, enjoyment of science lesson, leisure interest in science, and career interest in science). Results indicated that girls&amp / #8217 / perceptions of their learning environment, their adaptive motivational beliefs and their attitude toward science were higher than boys.

The purpose of this study was to investigate scientific epistemological beliefs, perceptions of constructivist learning environment, attitude towards science, prior knowledge and gender as determinants of students&rsquo / approaches to learning. This study was carried out in 2005-2006 Spring Semester. One thousand, one hundred and fifty two eighth grade students from seven public schools in &Ccedil / ankaya, a district of Ankara participated in this study. Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire, Constructivist Learning Environment Scale, Learning Approaches Questionnaire and Attitude towards Science Scale were administered to students in order to determine their scientific epistemological beliefs, their perceptions of constructivist learning environments, approaches to learning and attitudes towards science respectively. Descriptive statistics were used in order to explore the general characteristics of the sample. Paired samples t-test was used in order to evaluate the mean difference iv between the scales of the actual and preferred learning environments. Pearson Correlation Analyses and Multiple Regression Analyses were conducted to see the relationships among the variables and the variables that contribute to students&rsquo / meaningful and rote learning approaches. Results of the paired samples t-test showed that the actual learning environments of the students did not adapt their preferences. In fact, students preferred more constructivist learning environments where they have more opportunity to relate science with the real world, communicate in the classroom, take role in the decision making process of what will go on in the lesson to be more beneficial for them, question what is going on in the lesson freely and experience the formulation of scientific knowledge. Pearson correlation analyses, however, showed that students who had meaningful learning orientations had tentative views of scientific epistemological beliefs, positive attitudes towards science, high prior knowledge and perceived their learning environments as constructivist. On the other hand, students who had rote learning approaches had fixed views of scientific epistemological beliefs, positive attitudes towards science and low prior knowledge. In addition, the rote learners perceived their environments as constructivist in all scales except shared control scale. Multiple Regression Analyses by using actual learning environment showed that attitude towards science is the best predictor of both meaningful and rote learning approaches.

Despite the substantial amount of education research on “teaching for understanding” and “learning for understanding” processes that has occurred in the fields of achievement goals, constructivist-based pedagogy, motivational beliefs and self-regulated learning there is little research that considers in unison the pillar constructs of these fields. Three studies comprised the present research which was designed to address the proposal that important social- and personal-based constructs associated with achievement goals, constructivist-based pedagogy, motivational beliefs, and self-regulated learning act in an interdisciplinary fashion to influence learning in the high school science classroom. All the large-scale quantitative studies presented a single-level structural equation model that was applicable to the general high school science student, controlling for the variance associated with age, gender, and student type (regular or selective high school student). Results from the two large-scale trait-level correlational studies of Study 1 (n = 655) and Study 2 (n = 617) using the Achievement Goals Questionnaire (Elliot & Church, 1997), Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (Taylor, Fraser, & Fisher, 1997) and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, & McKeachie, 1991) as the main quantitative instruments found support for the hypothesis that a perceived emphasis on the constructivist-based pedagogical dimensions of personal relevance and student negotiation in science classrooms promotes the adoption of mastery-approach and intrinsic value. These analyses also showed the importance of self-efficacy in promoting mastery-approach, performance-approach and the use of regulatory strategies, and that test anxiety had positive associations with mastery-avoidance and performance-avoidance goals. / Study 3 comprised of two mini-studies that investigated the associations of competence perceptions, achievement goals and self-regulated learning in two science classroom learning contexts: teacher-led discussion (n = 451) and group work (n = 476). Using specifically developed context-level questionnaires, the results of these studies affirmed current theories concerning the interactions of self-efficacy, achievement goals, self-regulated learning (regulatory strategy use) and maladaptive strategy use. Students interviewed in Study 3 mostly reported the adoption of their achievement goals depended upon personal reasons that were commensurate with current achievement goal theory (Elliot, 1999) rather than specific classroom practices. The present research was also significant in that it tested the empirical stature of two frameworks by which social/cognitive research affiliated with learning environments, achievement goals and self-regulated learning may be conducted. Firstly, the results of the construct validity measures generated across Studies 1, 2 and 3 found support for the existence of the hypothesised 2 X 2 achievement goals framework (Elliot, 1999; Elliot & McGregor, 2001; Pintrich, 2000a). Secondly, the research introduced the tenets of a “context” hypothesis and found support for this perspective throughout the context-level studies. Adjunct multilevel multiple regressions were used in all the quantitative studies to examine the impact of subpopulation variables (age, gender, regular or selective high school student) and multiple goal interactions upon response variables, and to assess the variance attributed to the response variables at the class-level. Implications for the research disciplines studied are presented in terms of teaching practice, theory, future research and research methods.

The purpose of this study is to use a constructivism as a referent to investigate how students learn physics in a Taiwanese career college classroom. Forty-nine first year, engineering major first students participated in this study of teaching and learning in my college level classroom. The theoretical framework for the study was based on the five dimensions of the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) (Taylor & Fraser, 1991: Taylor, Fraser & White, 1994; Taylor, Fraser & Fisher, 1997), namely Personal Relevance, Student Negotiation, Shared Control, Critical Voice, and Uncertainty. These dimensions were employed as analytic themes to examine the qualitative data. / A total of six lessons were observed: two lecture classes, two laboratory practice sessions, and two group discussion sessions. My qualitative observations, supplemented by video- and audio-recordings, of these six lessons were used to produce six classroom narratives. These six narratives were analyzed individually and then comparatively using a cross case analysis whereby the five dimensions of the CLES were employed as analytic themes. The CLES questionnaire was administered at the commencement of the semester and again at the end of the semester in order to determine any quantitative changes in students’ perceptions of their classroom environment. The various analyses were used to make several propositions about the constructivist nature of my classroom. I conclude the study with a discussion of the implications of the study and my reflections on the thesis experience. / The study found that, in my Taiwanese career college physics classroom, (a) the teacher plays a central role in establishing the overall classroom learning environment, (b) student group dynamics are important in the classroom learning environment, (c) the central role of content often works against the establishment of a constructivist classroom, (d) cultural factors play a large role in determining the constructivist nature of the classroom, (e) language plays an important role in the construction of the learning environment, and (f) the students’ learning attitude affected the classroom environment.

Submitted by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2017-06-06T12:26:44Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Greiton Toledo de Azevedo - 2017.pdf: 9210718 bytes, checksum: 06fc74404cdd4449bbb59c52527fd71a (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2017-06-06T12:27:00Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Greiton Toledo de Azevedo - 2017.pdf: 9210718 bytes, checksum: 06fc74404cdd4449bbb59c52527fd71a (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-06T12:27:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Greiton Toledo de Azevedo - 2017.pdf: 9210718 bytes, checksum: 06fc74404cdd4449bbb59c52527fd71a (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-04-10 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Goiás - FAPEG / This work has as main objective to understand the process of the construction of mathematical knowledge from the preparation and development of digital games (games) by students of Elementary School, in their intrinsic relation with the didactic pedagogical practices of Basic Education. The possibility of this construction of knowledge is defended without leaving aside the challenges that are limited in the temporality of the events of the school scene. For this purpose, a mathematics project was developed within a public school, located in a city in the metropolitan region of Goiânia, which is a fertile field of research, entitled Mattics, in the school counterpart, with the proposal to produce digital games, while mobilizing the construction of mathematical knowledge of the 16 participants of the research. The actions developed, based on the qualitative assumption, were based on the use of the Scratch programming language, which was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, articulated with exploratory-investigative activities of mathematics. From the interrelationship of the empirical materials produced in the project, a path was coursed that sought theoretical support both in aspects of the production of digital games and in the construction of mathematical knowledge by the students in a constructionist environment. According to the data collected and analyzed, we found out that the results achieved, in this research, give us indications to understand the process of building knowledge from the production of games as a dynamic movement, which conjugates ideas / mathematical meanings and which is not necessarily part of formal concepts throughout the process of a non-linear production. The construction is based on the active participation of the student in the environment. A production that is not absent from external factors and influences how the students think/ argue when producing their game when interacting with their local environment. / Este trabalho tem como principal objetivo compreender o processo da construção de conhecimento matemático a partir da elaboração e desenvolvimento de jogos digitais (games) por estudantes do Ensino Fundamental, em sua intrínseca relação com as práticas didático- pedagógicas da Educação Básica. Defende-se com isso a possibilidade dessa construção de conhecimento sem deixar de lado os desafios que se circunscrevem na temporalidade dos acontecimentos do cenário escolar. Para isso, foi desenvolvido no âmbito de uma escola pública, localizada em uma cidade da região metropolitana de Goiânia, um projeto de matemática, que se constitui como campo fértil de investigação, intitulado Mattics, no contraturno escolar, com a proposta de se produzir jogos digitais, ao mesmo tempo que mobilizasse a construção de conhecimento matemático dos 16 participantes da pesquisa. As ações desenvolvidas, tendo como pano de fundo o pressuposto qualitativo, estiveram alicerçadas no uso da linguagem de programação Scratch, que foi desenvolvida no Massachusetts Institute of Technology, articulada com atividades exploratório-investigativas de matemática. A partir do intercruzamento dos materiais empíricos produzidos no projeto, percorreu-se um caminho que procurou sustentação teórica tanto em aspectos da produção de jogos digitais, quanto da construção de conhecimento matemático pelos estudantes em um ambiente construcionista de aprendizagem. De acordo com os dados coletados e analisados, percebemos que os resultados alcançados, nesta pesquisa, nos dão indícios para entender o processo de construção de conhecimento a partir da produção de jogos como um movimento dinâmico, que conjuga ideias/significados de matemática e que não parte necessariamente de conceitos formais ao longo do processo de uma produção não linear. A construção se fundamenta pela produção quando há participação ativa do estudante no ambiente. Uma produção que não se ausenta de fatores externos e influencia a forma como aluno passa a pensar/discutir/argumentar ao produzir o seu jogo quando interage com o seu meio local.