<p>  </p> <p>The dissertation study presented here explores what higher education instructors believe about problem-solving. Beliefs about problem-solving pedagogy and the influences that change pedagogical approaches in the post-secondary realm of physics education require more robust exploration. The level of change that occurs through the day-to-day teaching cycle and the support that garners improvement are essential aspects of teaching in higher education that need robust understanding.</p> <p>Insight into higher education could illuminate the transitional experience of students between high school and college-level physics. This study explores the beliefs of Indiana college and high school educators, all of whom teach college-level physics content, and probed how those beliefs shaped higher education instructional strategies and teaching philosophies. The study was conducted using a Constructivist Grounded Theory approach.</p> <p>The findings show that physics educators in college and high school learning environments lacked support explicitly geared toward them and physics. All the educators included in the study taught college-level physics. Four of the six participants were the only ones teaching physics in their schools. Despite the isolation, all participants noted the importance of peer-to-peer learning for themselves and their students, noting interactions with exterior training opportunities (e.g., educational conferences or online educator communities). However, the most crucial source of change in their teaching beliefs and approaches that the participants noted was the feedback they received from students.</p>

<p>Global citizenship is conceptualized within a neoliberal agenda and oppressive geopolitics of knowledge that furthers social inequities and unsustainability. Despite critiques and attempts to reframe global citizenship to achieve social justice and human rights aims, it is still masked in neoliberal and mono-epistemological terms as <em>global competence</em>. It is vital to explore possibilities of global citizenship <em>becoming</em> that can challenge neoliberal hegemony and the growing ethnocentric and ultra-nationalist thinking. This inquiry was conceptualized, within the three-dimensional narrative inquiry space, to explore the <em>being</em> and <em>becoming</em> of six South Asian female international students engaged in activism and the bearing it has on global citizenship. My co-researchers negotiated their dynamic identities and were influenced by multiple discourses as they shuttled between various places and spaces. In this inquiry, I examine autobiographical roots that illuminate my research puzzles and phenomena of interest and engage with South Asian female international students as they negotiate their personal, educational, and activist experiences. I analyze their lived experiences based on Ikeda’s perspective on global citizenship, informed by ideas of <em>sōka</em> or “value-creating” education and Buddhist-humanism. The research texts based on the livings and tellings of my participants are represented dialogically in culturally relevant ways, such as <em>chai pe charcha</em> or “conversations over tea.” From a narrative global citizenship perspective, these stories are examples of ‘creative coexistence’ and ‘value creation’ and offer a means to reimagine global citizenship from the standpoint of interconnectedness and interdependence.</p>

<p>  </p> <p>In order to comprehend complex and abstract phenomena, students must partake in the process of learning by integrating complex and invisible components without ever physically encountering or manipulating such components. Prior knowledge and experiences will influence the way students assimilate and model new experiences and knowledge. If prior knowledge possesses a degree of non-normative conceptions, students' understanding of abstract phenomena may diverge dramatically from accepted scientific explanations. Embodied cognition proposes that learning about natural phenomena can develop from information gained via interactions between the body and the physical environment. Multimodal experiences can shape students' conceptual understanding of abstract phenomena.</p> <p>Incorporating technology tools to explore science concepts is a trend utilized to give high-quality education. The use of physical and virtual manipulation tools in science instruction has favored the improvement of modeling science phenomena in general. Visuohaptic simulations are also learning manipulatives that blend physical and virtual manipulation affordances as a unison experience. </p> <p>The current dissertation proposed the implementation of a learning experience where students engage in experimentation with a visuo-haptic simulation to explore and model reaction forces on truss structures. The study examined undergraduate students’ conceptual understanding, graphical representations, and the modeling refinement process of reaction forces on truss structures before, during, and after engaging with visuo-haptic simulation on truss structures using different modalities. A design-based research methodology was implemented to design, explore, and refine a learning experience with a visuo-haptic simulation of truss structures through two research phases. The learning experience occurred as a laboratory activity in a statics course at a Midwest university.</p> <p>The first phase of this dissertation investigated students' conceptual understanding and graphical representations of reactive forces on a complex truss structure by interacting with a visuo-haptic simulation of truss structures. Students participated in two treatment groups: visuo-haptic exposure and visual-only exposure. The results of the first phase suggested that students that engaged with the visuo-haptic simulation using different modalities improved their conceptual understanding of truss structures significantly. Moreover, students exposed to haptic feedback significantly improved their graphical representations on tasks where the haptic feedback was involved. </p> <p>The second phase of the current dissertation examined students’ developing models of reactive forces on a truss structure before, during, and after engaging with a visuo-haptic simulation of truss structures. Students participated in two sequential treatment groups: visual to visuo-haptic and haptic to visuo-haptic. The quantitative results suggest that both treatment groups performed significantly better in their model representations after being exposed to the learning experience but show no difference across treatment groups. The qualitative results suggest that the visual to visuo-haptic group interpreted their experiences much more coherently, leading to a more sophisticated version of their model of reaction forces on truss structures. </p>

<p>  </p> <p>Prior research on Indiana secondary science teachers’, students’, and parents’ behavioral intentions towards teaching and learning about climate change is inadequate. Therefore, this study investigated the following four research questions: RQ1. What are secondary science teachers’, students’, and parents’ perspectives on teaching and learning about climate change based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) components of climate literacy that may influence their behavioral intentions? RQ2. Is there a difference in the mean climate literacy between Indiana science teachers, students, and parents? RQ3. How do the TPB components of climate literacy influence Indiana secondary science teachers’ and students’ “behavioral intentions” to teach about climate change and its impact on Indiana? RQ4. Does the TPB model demonstrate the impact of climate literacy components on Indiana secondary science teachers’ behavioral intentions to teach about climate change and its impact on Indiana? To investigate participants’ climate literacy, a Qualtrics survey was developed that measured the five determinants of climate literacy based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB): attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control (PBC), knowledge, and behavioral intentions of teaching and learning about climate change. The survey contained both quantitative and qualitative components (QUAN + qual), with closed-ended (QUAN) items serving as primary data sources and open-ended (qual) items serving as secondary data sources. A total of 115 secondary science teachers, 39 secondary science students (6th to 12th grades), and 12 parents were sampled. Survey results indicated that teachers, students, and parents had gaps in their scientific knowledge and held disbelief about climate change and its impact on Indiana, indicating a lack of climate literacy. Regression and path analysis of teachers’ responses found that both attitudes and PBC have a significant (<em>p</em> <.001) influence on teachers’ behavioral intentions towards teaching about climate change. Students’ regression analysis results showed that attitude is the only significant (<em>p</em> <.001) predictor of their behavioral intention to learn about climate change. The ANOVA results revealed a statistically significant (<em>p</em> < .001) difference in the mean climate literacy between groups (teachers, students, and parents). Differences among Indiana secondary science teachers, students, and parents regarding their behavioral intentions towards climate change teaching and learning suggest that they lack climate literacy. Based on the survey results, it is proposed that the science curriculum be revised to reflect scientific knowledge about climate change and its impacts on Indiana. Furthermore, recommendations are provided for improving teachers’, students’, and parents’ scientific knowledge, as well as the instructional approaches for teaching and learning about climate change and its impact on Indiana.</p>

<p>Many multilingual learners who use a language other than English at home face academic challenges from English monolingualism prevalent in the U.S. school system. English as a New Language (ENL) programs teach English to these learners while playing a role in reinforcing English monolingualism. For educational inclusivity and equity for multilingual learners, it is imperative to center their holistic language repertoires in ENL classrooms; however, this can be challenging due to individual and contextual factors. Using translanguaging as a conceptual framework, this qualitative case study explores how high school multilingual learners’ languages are flexibly used in ENL classes and how the students think about such classroom translanguaging practices. I used ethnographic methods to observe ENL classroom activities and instructional practices, interview the participants, and collect photos and documents in a high school in Indiana for a semester. The participants were an English-Spanish proficient ENL teacher and four students from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Honduras, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, whose language repertoires included Spanish, Lingala, French, Arabic, and English. The findings describe the difficulties and possibilities of incorporating all students’ multilingual-multisemiotic repertoires in ENL classes. The classroom language practices primarily constituted of Spanish and drawing; some instructional activities and practices, such as the multigenre identity project and the teacher’s use of Google Translate, well integrated the students’ multilingual-multisemiotic repertoires. When the students engaged in English writing, they frequently used machine translation, such as Google Translate, through dynamic processes involving evaluation. While the students perceived such classroom translanguaging practices generally positively, they considered using machine translation as a problem, a resource, or an opportunity. With these findings, I argue that multilingual learners’ competence to use their own languages and machine translation technology freely and flexibly is a valuable resource for learning and should be encouraged and developed in ENL classrooms. To do so, ENL teachers should use instructional activities and practices considering students’ dynamic multilingualism. TESOL teacher education should develop such competence in teachers, and more multilingual resources should be provided to teachers. In the case of a multilingual classroom with singleton students, building mutual understanding, empathy, and equity-mindedness among class members should be prioritized. Finally, I recommend that the evolving multilingual technologies, such as machine translation, be actively used as teaching and learning resources for multilingual learners.</p>

<p> Universities have increased the number of fully or partially online courses they offer to meet students' family, work-life, and academic needs. As a result of this shift, the HyFlex learning paradigm, which provides hybrid and flexible learning options, has gained traction in academia in recent years. The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the standards for academic levels of success in higher education for the foreseeable future. In order to offer a sense of belonging and sustain an equal or greater degree of engagement, instructors have been compelled to try and replicate the rich interaction of face-to-face situations in a virtual context. During the pandemic, the results of studies and surveys revealed a story of student dissatisfaction due to a lack of involvement, participation, sense of community, lack of faculty readiness, and technology concerns. Evidence from the past has supported the fact that synchronous online modality not only facilitates the tasks of a traditional face-to-face learning environment, but also has some distinct advantages over conventional approaches. Students' commitment to stay connected in the learning experience is linked to their sense of belonging to a learning cohort. It is vital to create a learning environment in which students feel a part of a learning community and actively participate in the learning process in order to foster knowledge generation. An Interactive Synchronous HyFlex model, intended to help students feel committed and engaged in their learning community through these uncertain times and beyond, is being explored as part of this research. The approach is studied using a Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, as communities are a crucial part of effective student-centered learning settings. A convergent parallel mixed methods case study design was used to gain a deeper knowledge of the usefulness of the new HyFlex model under study. Students enrolled in the Interactive Synchronous HyFlex design thinking course during the Fall 2020 semester were the study's participants. The quantitative phase of the study looked into a) the students’ perception of overall teaching, social and cognitive presences in the HyFlex design thinking classroom; and b) if there was any change in students’ perception of community of inquiry based on their mode of participation (face-to-face/remote). The qualitative part of the study looked in-depth at the lived experiences of students in the HyFlex design thinking classrooms throughout the semester. The integration and interpretation of the two phases provides a positive student perspective of the Interactive Synchronous HyFlex model, and it helps to observe how the community of inquiry has played out in HyFlex design thinking classrooms. </p>

<p>  </p> <p>The rapid growth of the English Language Learner (ELL) population in Indiana has raised challenges for English language arts (ELA) instruction. This research adopts collective case studies and mixed-methods studies to explore the quality and quantity of ELA instruction (time allocation to literacy components and group configuration) for ELLs in Indiana elementary classrooms. Study one aims to further the understanding of the quality and quantity of ELL literacy instruction in Indiana first-grade classrooms through a collective case study. Then, a sequential mixed methods study is designed to examine the effect of professional development on ELL literacy instruction in second-grade classrooms (Study 2). To gain a deeper understanding of how Indiana schools have been coping with the COVID pandemic, another sequential mixed-methods study is designed to explore how the pandemic has impacted the quality and quantity of literacy instruction compared with the pre-pandemic era in K-5 classrooms (Study 3). These serial inquiries hold important implications for literacy educators with ELL students on how best to structure and plan for their English language arts (ELA) instruction. Also, they will inform schools on how to select professional development that yields significant transformations in teachers’ literacy practices, as well as how to better address ELL needs during the pandemic.</p>

<p>  </p> <p>This study examined preservice teachers’ culturally responsive literacy teaching self-efficacy changes during the field experiences in relation to the sources of self-efficacy. I delved into the meanings under the theoretical frameworks of culturally responsive teaching and social cognitive theory. I explored 84 preservice teachers’ experiences over three semesters, who have been working with K-5 students from diverse backgrounds. Mixed-methods explanatory sequential design was adopted. In the quantitative phase, I administered a culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy survey before and after the field experiences. Additionally, sources of self-efficacy were studied using a source of self-efficacy inventory scale. Results of the quantitative study indicated that four different types of clusters exist: self-efficacy increased, self-efficacy high-stable, self-efficacy decreased, self-efficacy low-stable. In the qualitative phase, I investigated one preservice teacher from each cluster. This phase shed light on the reasons for the different self-efficacy change patterns among the preservice teachers. Findings from both phases (quantitative, qualitative) have implications: 1. It is crucial for both teacher educators and preservice teachers to understand their culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy and its changes. 2. Culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy and the sources of self-efficacy display reciprocal interaction. An awareness is critical of how preservice literacy teachers’ experiences in the field affects their culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy and other sources of self-efficacy. In light of the findings of the current study, teacher educators may wish to consider helping preservice teachers form informed and realistic culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy. </p>

<p dir="ltr">The dissertation explored children’s shape composition and decomposition with Legos and how it can provide insights into their later computational thinking (CT). It emphasized the alignment between spatial reasoning and CT, particularly through the activities of identifying and fixing discrepancies in Lego structures. The research demonstrated first-grade students' ability to engage in spatial activities, offering a window into their potential CT processes. Current mathematics standards emphasize the need for activities that enhance spatial reasoning skills. Early spatial reasoning development, often through playful activities like Lego construction, plays a significant role in later academic success. The dissertation integrated several theoretical frameworks of spatial reasoning, including learning trajectories of shape composing, classification of spatial reasoning and the central conceptual structures of spatial reasoning. These frameworks provided a foundation for understanding how children develop spatial reasoning skills through construction play, aligning with CT practices. The study involved twelve first-grade students from a Midwestern elementary school. It employed a qualitative research design, consisting of an assessment session and two Lego sessions. The Lego sessions were designed to explore students' spatial reasoning and their ability to identify and fix discrepancies in Lego structures or in step-by-step building manuals, reflecting debugging in programming. Key findings included various strategies students used to identify and fix discrepancies in Lego structures, such as rotating, flipping, and rebuilding Lego bricks. Students struggled to coordinate multiple spatial features, especially when they need to use multiple reference points to fix the location of Lego bricks. The study revealed that students used symmetry and repeating patterns as strategies to identify discrepancies, suggesting an early form of loops, a key component of CT. Additionally, the strategies used were similar to those found in programming, indicating that spatial reasoning activities can support the development of debugging skills. The findings highlighted the importance of incorporating spatial reasoning activities in early education to support the development of CT skills. The alignment between mathematical practices and CT suggests that early exposure to spatial activities can lay the groundwork for more advanced CT skills including loops. This dissertation provided valuable insights into how children's interactions with Legos can serve as a window into their future computational thinking abilities. By focusing on the processes of identifying and fixing discrepancies, the research bridged the gap between spatial reasoning and CT, offering practical implications for educators aiming to integrate CT into early childhood education.</p>

<p>Professional engineers think and act in distinctive ways when addressing engineering problems. Students need to develop this reasoning or engineering thinking during their education. Unfolding the undergraduate students’ thinking is a necessary step in designing experiences and teaching materials that foster not only their understanding of engineering concepts but also their learning to think as professional engineers. While there are previous studies about the students' thinking in other disciplines, more research is needed in engineering. This three-study dissertation aims to further our comprehension of undergraduate students’ engineering thinking using an adapted version of the Engineering Habits of Mind (EHoM) model. Specifically, the dissertation’s studies work together to continue the research that addresses the question:<em> What are the characteristics of undergraduate students</em>’ <em>engineering thinking?</em></p> <p><br></p> <p>The first study used naturalistic inquiry to holistically explore the cognition associated with the EHoM of senior chemical engineering students when improving a chemical plant. The analysis of students’ interactions showed that their redesign process followed an iterative co-evolution of the problem and solution spaces. Furthermore, they treated the task as a socio-technical problem considering engineering and non-engineering factors. In addition, while exploring problem and solution entities, they used multiple representations to communicate ideas but had difficulties translating symbolic representations into more physical, concrete representations. Regardless the technical issues and time constraints, the students completed the conceptual redesign and communicated their proposal to the client.</p> <p><br></p> <p>The second study used qualitative content analysis to examine first-year engineering students’ ideation as a cognitive skill associated with the EHoM of problem finding and creative problem solving. Particularly, it focused on students’ ideation of questions and recommendations when doing data analytics to help improve a client’s enterprise. The analysis of students’ reports showed that they expanded the problem space of the task by bringing additional information that was not provided. They asked questions focused on performing statistical analysis of the dataset and requesting information about the company’s business model. At the end of their data analytics, students made high- and low-quality recommendations considering their alignment with a specific problem, robust evidence, and the client’s needs. </p> <p><br></p> <p>The third study used qualitative descriptive research to investigate undergraduate participants' cognitive competencies within engineering systems thinking at the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition. These competencies are associated with the EHoM of problem finding, creative problem solving, systems thinking, and visualization. Mainly, the study focused on analyzing the evidence of cognitive competencies documented in the publicly available participants’ wikis where they registered their design process. Results showed that iGEM teams developed solutions with biological systems interacting with other systems and used concepts and tools from multiple disciplines. They also cooperated with stakeholders, which helped them analyze their system from multiple lenses. Moreover, depending on their upfront task, they fluidly represented their systems from structural, behavioral, and functional perspectives. </p> <p><br></p> <p>The final chapter of this dissertation presents an overarching discussion across the studies. The findings and implications will support curriculum designers, instructors, and other interested readers to prepare learning environments that promote undergraduate students’ engineering thinking. Furthermore, they may guide future efforts to continue exploring the students' thinking process when addressing engineering problems. </p>