Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Few writing teachers will disagree that teaching writing conventions in isolation is a fruitless, even harmful, pedagogy which does little, if anything, to improve student writing. Teaching conventions, style, and usage (often collectively referred to as grammar) in context, however, proves difficult when struggling secondary students develop good ideas and evidence but fail to clearly articulate them because of their lack of understanding of various writing conventions. The purpose of this study is to test the efficacy of a carefully designed discovery learning activity which intends to push students into metacognition about what they read, how it is structured, and how that structure affects the reader. Three sources of data were used to determine whether students who had learned by discovery were better able to avoid and revise run-on sentences than students who did not learn through discovery pedagogy. The data sources include two sets of essays, surveys taken by the students, and teacher analyses of essays for readability. The results of the data analysis indicate that use of run-on sentences, especially early in an essay, detrimentally affects the readability of student written work; discovery learning activities improve student understanding, application, and transfer of skill; and while students believe they understand more than their written work indicates, the results provide teachers direction for further instruction. The findings of this study indicate that use of discovery learning for writing instruction with struggling learners holds great promise: a group of students generally regarded as academically weak showed greater understanding and application of run-on sentence avoidance than slightly stronger students who learned without discovery methods. This indicates that discovery learning is a method that improves learning among reluctant secondary students, a population many teachers struggle to reach effectively. Discovery learning is not limited to conventions, though: the promise of its application potential extends into a variety of writing skills and concepts. In addition to the run-on sentence discovery activity studied here, discovery activities for various other skills—from semicolon use through creating characterization with dialogue—are included.

No description available.

The actual work shows a model of discovery learning in order to realize a discovery environment (PARAGUAÇU, 1997) to demonstrate to the apprentice students in science, the understanding of how the concepts that are used in the creation of scientific theories are related. The subject is reached with the idea that is possible to create scientific theories in scientific models (FRIGG; HARTMANN, 2006; RUDNER, 1969), and that these models can be used to help in such learning. However, with the availability of such models, instead of introducing scientific terms related to some scientific topics, it intends to use the metaphor of Fairy Tales, what means, the vocabulary use of terms where the apprentice can understand by intuition on how a scientific theory is elaborated. On the other hand, in order to create and formalize this scientific model it was created the idea that was proposed by MIDES Architecture MIDES (PARAGUAÇU et al., 2003), which means the creation of a scientific model with the representation in XML (W3SCHOOLS, 2005b) in four views of knowledge: Hierarchy, Relational, Causal, and by Asking. So, the idea of this work is to show how the creation in XML is made, and to do so, it s necessary to make a review of the following subjects: learning environments; teaching based on cases; and some general aspects of a creation of a scientific theory, and about the creation of a theory like an axiomatic system, as well as to present the ideas for the elaboration of discovery learning models. When this review is done, we have the necessary knowledge to propose an architecture able to integrate two applications by the use of XML, that is, the first application is to a teacher s community that elaborate theories in scientific models using the metaphor of the Fairy Tales, and the second one, for students that desire to learn how the creation of a theory is made, by the use of models that were introduced by the teacher s community. / O presente trabalho apresenta um modelo de aprendizagem por descoberta no âmbito de realização de um ambiente de descoberta (PARAGUAÇU, 1997) para proporcionar a alunos aprendizes em ciência, o entendimento de como os conceitos que são utilizados na formação de teorias científicas estão relacionados. O assunto é abordado com a suposição de que é possível formular teorias científicas em modelos científicos (FRIGG; HARTMANN, 2006; RUDNER, 1969), e que estes modelos podem ser disponibilizados para proporcionar tal aprendizagem. Porém, com a disponibilidade de tais modelos, em vez de introduzir termos científicos relacionados a alguma disciplina científica, pretende-se para tal realização utilizar a metáfora de contos infantis, ou seja, utilizar um vocabulário de termos onde o aprendiz possa entender intuitivamente como é elaborada uma teoria científica. Por outro lado, para proporcionar a formalização deste modelo científico, foi adotada a idéia proposta pela arquitetura MIDES (PARAGUAÇU et al., 2003), ou seja, a realização de um modelo científico com uma representação em XML (W3SCHOOLS, 2005b), em quatro visões de conhecimento: hierárquica, relacional, causal e de questionamento. Sendo assim, pretende-se no decorrer deste trabalho mostrar como é realizada esta formalização em XML e, para isso, é necessário revisar os seguintes assuntos: ambientes de aprendizagem; ontologias; ensino baseado em casos; e alguns aspectos gerais sobre a elaboração de uma teoria científica e sobre a formulação de uma teoria como um sistema axiomático, como também apresentar as idéias para a elaboração de modelos de aprendizagem por descoberta. Feita esta revisão, tem-se o embasamento necessário para propor uma arquitetura que possa integrar duas aplicações por intermédio deste modelo XML, ou seja, a primeira aplicação serve para uma comunidade de professores que elaboram teorias em modelos científicos, utilizando a metáfora de contos, e a segunda, para alunos que desejam aprender como é realizada a formação de uma teoria, por intermédio dos modelos que foram disponibilizados pela comunidade de professores.

Mémoire en recherche-création / Cette recherche a permis de développer un micromonde portant sur la conscience phonémique destiné aux apprenants de moins de six ans, afin de vérifier si ce type de logiciel d’apprentissage par découverte pouvait être utilisé dans un nouveau domaine, la linguistique, et afin de voir les réactions que son utilisation suscitait. Après avoir établi les spécifications du logiciel, quatre expertes ont confirmé que celui-ci venait combler un besoin. La conception du logiciel a donc été poursuivie en alternant programmation et observation des réactions des apprenants lors de l’utilisation du prototype. Il a été constaté que les apprenants étaient curieux et excités d’explorer le micromonde et qu’ils faisaient preuve d’autonomie en effectuant plusieurs tâches de conscience phonémique via son interface. De plus, il a été observé que les apprenants n’avaient pas de difficultés à être attentifs pendant trente minutes, qu’ils étaient plus concentrés le matin, et qu’ils maitrisaient davantage l’utilisation du tactile que de la souris. Des interventions d’étayage offrant un soutien moral se sont avérées essentielles pour maintenir la motivation des apprenants. En effet, lorsque l’interface n’était pas assez intuitive, les apprenants se décourageaient lorsque leurs tentatives ne portaient pas fruit après plusieurs essais. Les résultats de cette recherche ne sont pas généralisables, car elle a été effectuée sur un petit échantillon de convenance. Aussi, il n’a pas été possible de vérifier si une progression d’apprentissage avait lieu. Plusieurs aspects demeurent donc à explorer avant de pouvoir affirmer que les micromondes sont des outils adaptés à la linguistique. / A phonemic awareness microworld for six years old or less learners was developed in this research to verify if this type of discovery learning software can be use in a new field: linguistic. Four experts have confirmed that the specifications of the software seem to create something needed in the field. Therefore the creation of the software was continued by alternating programming and observing learner’s reactions when they used the prototype. It was found that learners were curious and excited to explore the microworld and were autonomous when performing several phonemic awareness tasks via its interface. In addition, it was observed that learners had no difficulty being attentive for thirty minutes, that they were more concentrated in the morning, and that they mastered the use of the touch function more than the use of the mouse. Supportive interventions that provided moral support have been essential to keep learners motivated. Indeed, when the interface was not intuitive enough, learners became discouraged after several unsuccessful attempts. It is impossible to generalise the results of this research as it was carried out on a small sample of convenience. Also, the presence of a learning progression was not verified. As such several aspects remain to be explored before we can affirm that microworlds are tools adapted to linguistics.

Synthesis of d10 complexes of monovalent coinage metals, copper(I) and gold(I), with dithiophosphinate/diphosphine ligands -- along with their targeted characterization and screening for inorganic or organic light emitting diodes (LEDs or OLEDs, respectively) -- represents the main scope of this dissertation's scientific contribution in inorganic and materials chemistry. Photophysical studies were undertaken to quantify the phosphorescence properties of the materials in the functional forms required for LEDs or OLEDs. Computational studies were done to gain insights into the assignment of the phosphorescent emission peaks observed. The gold(I) dinuclear complexes studied would be candidates of OLED/LED devices due to room temperature phosphorescence, visible absorption/excitation bands, and low single-digit lifetimes -- which would promote higher quantum yield at higher voltages in devices with concomitant lower roll-off efficiency. The copper(I) complexes were not suited to the OLED/LED applications but can be used for thermosensing materials. Crystallographic studies were carried to elucidate coefficients of thermal expansion of the crystal unit cell for additional usage in materials applications besides optoelectronic devices. This has uncovered yet another unplanned potential application for both copper(I) and gold(I) complexes herein, as both types have been found to surpass the literature's threshold for "colossal" thermal expansion coefficients. Two other investigations represent contribution to the field of chemistry education have also been accounted for in this dissertation. First, a 12-week advanced research discovery experiment for inorganic chemistry has been designed to help students develop application-based content expertise, as well as to introduce students to research experiences that are similar to those found in academia, industry, and government research laboratories. Students are expected to develop a novel research project through conducting a literature search to find suitable reaction protocols, incorporating synthetic techniques, collecting data, characterizing products and applications of those products, and presenting their results. This multi-week research discovery experiment is centered on applications of inorganic synthetic techniques to design, analyze, and screen d10 coinage metal complexes for possible LED/OLED-based applications that were presented in chapter 3 of the dissertation. The second chemistry education contribution pertains to designing a pilot research study to investigate undergraduate chemistry majors' perceptions of environmental sources/influences, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, career interests, and career choice goals in the lab designed in chapter 4 of the dissertation. Specifically, this research aims to gauge students' perceptions of their ability to perform synthetic and analytical methods for the creation of materials that were used in a novel research experiment in the context of an inorganic chemistry laboratory. This research study used a survey to collect data on students' motivation, self-efficacy, career interests, and career goals upon graduation, along with their perceived barriers within the course. This research study is guided by the following research question: How does an inorganic chemistry laboratory course, following a research discovery model, impact undergraduate students' (a) confidence with techniques and skills, (b) perception of ability to conduct research, and (c) interest in pursuing careers involving chemistry?