Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Margaret G. Shroyer / In this study, the professional development for a physics program called Visual Quantum Mechanics (VQM) was observed and analyzed. Four of the participants in a summer institute as Kansas State University (KSU) volunteered to be observed by the researcher as they implemented the program into their classrooms during the next academic year. Observations were used to determine the effectiveness of the instructional strategies that they used. The students’ perception of the laboratory sessions was evaluated and student understanding of the physics concepts also was determined. Qualitative and quantitative data analyses indicated that the professional development as presented and supported by the KSU team provided teachers with the information necessary to use the VQM program successfully with their students. However, only 30% of the teachers implemented the program during the following school year. Instructional strategies advocated by the VQM program included use of the hands-on equipment and computer simulations as well as discussion techniques. Observations revealed that students were more attentive during laboratory activities and less attentive during the discussions. Nevertheless, discussion proved to be a valuable component of this process. The researcher concluded that high quality professional development encouraged teaches to implement VQM in their classrooms. Although teachers did not always follow the instructional strategies advocated by the program, the inquiry-based hands-on activities and computer simulations kept students attentive. As a result, there was significant learning directly attributable to VQM for the students who participated in the study. Students who finished a complete learning cycle within the activities showed more significant learning than students who did not complete a learning cycle. Professional development can be designed to encourage teachers to implement new skills. For Visual Quantum Mechanics, emphasizing the importance of the whole class discussions, presenting the connections between the concepts and the science standards, and focusing on strategies for implementation will provide additional confidence to teachers as they implement the program in their classrooms.

Master of Science / Department of Geology / Iris M. Totten / There have been numerous studies done during the past hundred years on ability grouping. The majority of research has focused on the elementary and secondary levels, with very little done at the post-secondary level of education. Research shows at the K-12 levels high achieving students have a greater level of learning when placed in groups together. Mid- level students also show higher achievement in homogeneous groupings. Both high and mid-level students benefit from heterogeneous grouping, but with smaller gains. Lower ability students placed in homogenous groups have shown significant gains, but still perform better when grouped heterogeneously compared with classes that are not grouped by ability. All students show increases in learning when placed in small groups of any kind. Mid-level and low achieving students have higher levels of learning when they are taught by someone determined to close the gap, who takes the students' abilities into consideration, and focuses on increasing those abilities. Unfortunately, this often does not happen, and when students are grouped by ability, the higher achieving students do well, and the rest fall further behind. This graduate research looks at the impact of skill grouping at the university level. Rather than separating students into different classes by ability, students were placed in purposeful groups within the class. Overall both homogeneous and heterogeneous groupings performed better than the control self-selected sections. One homogeneous quartile showed significant improvement in performance compared to the heterogeneously grouped students, but another homogeneous quartile showed a significant decline in scores. Gains in one subset of student should not come as a detriment to another subset of students, so homogeneous grouping is not recommended. Of the three grouping methods, only heterogeneous grouping showed significant increases in scores without harm to other students, and for this reason, this study recommends using a heterogeneous method of grouping students in future GEOL 103 classes.

Master of Science / Department of Geology / Iris M. Totten / Problem-based learning in the sciences has been demonstrated to be a successful educational approach to engage students and increase content knowledge. However, the power of collaborative learning to engage students, increase content knowledge and develop problem-solving skills in the sciences has not yet been fully researched. Collaborative learning has an enormous potential not only to foster student learning, but also to increase interest in the sciences and promote cutting-edge education strategies worldwide. Collaborative learning tactics in this study take place within the virtual learning environment entitled “GeoWorlds.” GeoWorlds is an online educational gaming program within the Second Life 3-D Teen Grid. The curriculum was developed as a collaborative, investigative and engaging program to promote learning of Earth science content. The program allows students to be submersed-in and explore different geologic time periods; enabling them to observe species and geological structures while interacting with one another to complete tasks. This study investigates the educational impact, emotional response and overall feedback of the GeoWorlds virtual learning environment on Midwest ninth graders.

Par cette recherche, nous voulons évaluer de manière exhaustive les bénéfices qu’apporte l’ExAO (Expérimentation Assistée par Ordinateur) dans les laboratoires scolaires de sciences et technologie au Liban. Nous aimerions aussi qu’elle contribue d’une manière tangible aux recherches du laboratoire de Robotique Pédagogique de l’Université de Montréal, notamment dans le développement du µlaboratoire ExAO. Nous avons voulu tester les capacités de l’ExAO, son utilisation en situation de classe comme : 1. Substitut d’un laboratoire traditionnel dans l’utilisation de la méthode expérimentale; 2. Outil d’investigation scientifique; 3. Outil d’intégration des sciences expérimentales et des mathématiques; 4. Outil d’intégration des sciences expérimentales, des mathématiques et de la technologie dans un apprentissage technoscientifique; Pour ce faire, nous avons mobilisé 13 groupe-classes de niveaux complémentaire et secondaire, provenant de 10 écoles libanaises. Nous avons désigné leurs enseignants pour expérimenter eux-mêmes avec leurs étudiants afin d’évaluer, de manière plus réaliste les avantages d’implanter ce micro laboratoire informatisé à l’école. Les différentes mise à l’essai, évaluées à l’aide des résultats des activités d’apprentissage réalisées par les étudiants, de leurs réponses à un questionnaire et des commentaires des enseignants, nous montrent que : 1. La substitution d’un laboratoire traditionnel par un µlaboratoire ExAO ne semble pas poser de problème; dix minutes ont suffi aux étudiants pour se familiariser avec cet environnement, mentionnant que la rapidité avec laquelle les données étaient représentées sous forme graphique était plus productive. 2. Pour l’investigation d’un phénomène physique, la convivialité du didacticiel associée à la capacité d’amplifier le phénomène avant de le représenter graphiquement a permis aux étudiants de concevoir et de mettre en œuvre rapidement et de manière autonome, une expérimentation permettant de vérifier leur prédiction. 3. L’intégration des mathématiques dans une démarche expérimentale permet d’appréhender plus rapidement le phénomène. De plus, elle donne un sens aux représentations graphiques et algébriques, à l’avis des enseignants, permettant d’utiliser celle-ci comme outil cognitif pour interpréter le phénomène. 4. La démarche réalisée par les étudiants pour concevoir et construire un objet technologique, nous a montré que cette activité a été réalisée facilement par l’utilisation des capteurs universels et des amplificateurs à décalage de l’outil de modélisation graphique ainsi que la capacité du didacticiel à transformer toute variable mesurée par une autre variable (par exemple la variation de résistance en variation de température, …). Cette activité didactique nous montre que les étudiants n’ont eu aucune difficulté à intégrer dans une même activité d’apprentissage les mathématiques, les sciences expérimentales et la technologie, afin de concevoir et réaliser un objet technologique fonctionnel. µlaboratoire ExAO, en offrant de nouvelles possibilités didactiques, comme la capacité de concevoir, réaliser et valider un objet technologique, de disposer pour ce faire, des capacités nouvelles pour amplifier les mesures, modéliser les phénomènes physiques, créer de nouveaux capteurs, est un ajout important aux expériences actuellement réalisées en ExAO. / Through this research we will fully assess the benefits brought by the ExAO (Computer Assisted Experimentation) in school laboratories of science and technology in Lebanon. We would also like to mention its contribution in a tangible way in laboratory research of Pedagogic Robotic from Montreal University, particularly in the development of ExAO µlaboratory. We wanted to test the capabilities of the ExAO, its use in the classroom such as: 1. A replacement of a traditional laboratory in the use of the experimental method. 2. A scientific investigation tool. 3. An integration tool of experimental sciences and mathematics. 4. An integration tool of experimental sciences, mathematics and technology in the technoscientific learning. To do so, we have mobilized 13 group classes, designated teachers to experiment themselves along with their students in order to assess, in a more realistic way, the benefits of implementing this micro computer laboratory at school. Different testing, evaluated using the results of learning activities undertaken by students, their responses to a questionnaire and feedback from teachers, show that: 1. The replacement of a traditional laboratory with an ExAO µlaboratory does not seem to pose problem, expected that students have adapted to it in only ten minutes, indicating that the speed with which data were graphed was more productive. 2. In order to investigate a physical phenomenon, the usability of the tutorial associated with the ability to amplify the phenomenon before its graph representation, has allowed students to design and implement quickly and independently an experiment to verify their prediction. 3. The integration of mathematics into an experimental approach can quickly grasp the phenomenon. In addition, it gives more autonomy and a meaning to the graphs and algebraic representations allowing to use them as a cognitive tool to interpret this phenomenon. 4. The approach made by the students to design and construct a technological object, showed that this activity was easily carried out by the use of universal sensors, amplifiers to offset the graphical modeling tool, and the tutorial ability to transform any measured variable by another variable (for instance, the resistance variation in temperature change, …). This educational activity shows that students had no difficulty integrating in a single learning activity the mathematics, experimental sciences and technology, in order to design and implement a functional piece of technology. The ExAO µlaboratory, by offering new educational opportunities, such as the ability to design, produce and validate a technological object, in order to do so, new capacities to boost measures, modeling physical phenomena, developing new sensors, is an important addition to the experiments being conducted in ExAO.

This study examined the impact of the National Science Foundation's Research Experience for Teachers (RET) in engineering at University of North Texas on students after their teachers' participation in the program. Students were evaluated in terms of self-efficacy, knowledge of engineering, perceptions of engineering, and interest in engineering. A 22-item Likert pre/post survey was used for analysis, and participants included 589 students from six high schools, one middle school, and one magnet school. Paired surveys were analyzed to determine if there was a statistically significant difference in attitudes and knowledge after teachers implemented lessons from their time at the RET. Surveys were also analyzed to determine if there was a statistically significant difference in student response based on gender or student school type. Results showed no statistically significant difference in the self-efficacy of students, however there was a statistically significant difference in knowledge, perceptions, and interest in engineering. In addition, there was a statistically significant difference between genders on an isolated question, and seven out of the 22 Likert questions showed a statistically significant difference between student school types.

Since its establishment the Institute of Education Sciences has been creating opportunities and driving standards to generate research in education that is high quality rigorous, and relevant. This dissertation is an analysis of current practices in Goal III and Goal IV studies, in order to (1) better understand of the types of schools that agree to take part in these studies, and (2) an assess how representative these schools are in comparison to important policy relevant populations. This dissertation focuses on a subset of studies that were funded from 2005-2014 by the Department of Education, IES, under the NCER grants-funding arm. Studies included were those whose interventions were aimed at elementary students across core curriculum and ELL program areas. Study schools were compared to two main populations, the U.S population of elementary schools and Title I elementary schools, as well as these populations on a state level. The B-index, proposed by Tipton (2014) was the main value of comparison used to assess the compositional similarity, or generalizability, of study schools to these identified inference populations. The findings show that across all studies included in this analysis, participating schools were representative of the U.S. population of schools, B-index = 0.9. Comparisons were also made between this collection of schools and the respective populations at the state level. Results showed that these schools were not representative of any individual states (no B-index values were greater than 0.90). Across all included studies, schools that agreed to participate were more often located in urban areas, had higher rates of FRL students, had more minority students enrolled, and had more total students, in both district and school, than those schools in the population of U.S. schools. It is clear that the movement of education research is to be relevant to a larger audience. Through this study it is clear that, across studies, we are achieving some representation in IES funded studies. However, the finer comparisons, study samples to individual state and individual studies to these populations, show limited similarity between study schools and populations of interest to policy makers using these study findings to make decisions about their schools.

<p> This research seeks to understand the experiences of African American female undergraduates in STEM. It investigates how familial factors and science identity formation characteristics influence persistence in STEM while considering the duality of African American women's status in society. This phenomenological study was designed using critical race feminism as the theoretical framework to answer the following questions: 1) What role does family play in the experiences of African American women undergraduate STEM majors who attended two universities in the UNC system? 2) What factors impact the formation of science identity for African American women undergraduate STEM majors who attended two universities in the UNC system?</p><p> Purposive sampling was used to select the participants for this study. The researcher conducted in-depth interviews with 10 African American female undergraduate STEM major from a predominantly White and a historically Black institution with the state of North Carolina public university system. Findings suggest that African American families and science identity formation influence the STEM experiences of the African American females interviewed in this study. The following five themes emerged from the findings: (1) independence, (2) support, (3) pressure to succeed, (4) adaptations, and (5) race and gender. </p><p> This study contributes to the literature on African American female students in STEM higher education. The findings of this study produced knowledge regarding policies and practices that can lead to greater academic success and persistence of African American females in higher education in general, and STEM majors in particular. Colleges and universities may benefit from the findings of this study in a way that allows them to develop and sustain programs and policies that attend to the particular concerns and needs of African American women on their campuses. Finally, this research informs both current and future African American female STEM students so that they might benefit from the knowledge of the experiences of others in STEM-related fields. As a result, other African American female students might be enlightened by these stories and have the confidence to pursue a STEM degree of their own.</p>

Par cette recherche, nous voulons évaluer de manière exhaustive les bénéfices qu’apporte l’ExAO (Expérimentation Assistée par Ordinateur) dans les laboratoires scolaires de sciences et technologie au Liban. Nous aimerions aussi qu’elle contribue d’une manière tangible aux recherches du laboratoire de Robotique Pédagogique de l’Université de Montréal, notamment dans le développement du µlaboratoire ExAO. Nous avons voulu tester les capacités de l’ExAO, son utilisation en situation de classe comme : 1. Substitut d’un laboratoire traditionnel dans l’utilisation de la méthode expérimentale; 2. Outil d’investigation scientifique; 3. Outil d’intégration des sciences expérimentales et des mathématiques; 4. Outil d’intégration des sciences expérimentales, des mathématiques et de la technologie dans un apprentissage technoscientifique; Pour ce faire, nous avons mobilisé 13 groupe-classes de niveaux complémentaire et secondaire, provenant de 10 écoles libanaises. Nous avons désigné leurs enseignants pour expérimenter eux-mêmes avec leurs étudiants afin d’évaluer, de manière plus réaliste les avantages d’implanter ce micro laboratoire informatisé à l’école. Les différentes mise à l’essai, évaluées à l’aide des résultats des activités d’apprentissage réalisées par les étudiants, de leurs réponses à un questionnaire et des commentaires des enseignants, nous montrent que : 1. La substitution d’un laboratoire traditionnel par un µlaboratoire ExAO ne semble pas poser de problème; dix minutes ont suffi aux étudiants pour se familiariser avec cet environnement, mentionnant que la rapidité avec laquelle les données étaient représentées sous forme graphique était plus productive. 2. Pour l’investigation d’un phénomène physique, la convivialité du didacticiel associée à la capacité d’amplifier le phénomène avant de le représenter graphiquement a permis aux étudiants de concevoir et de mettre en œuvre rapidement et de manière autonome, une expérimentation permettant de vérifier leur prédiction. 3. L’intégration des mathématiques dans une démarche expérimentale permet d’appréhender plus rapidement le phénomène. De plus, elle donne un sens aux représentations graphiques et algébriques, à l’avis des enseignants, permettant d’utiliser celle-ci comme outil cognitif pour interpréter le phénomène. 4. La démarche réalisée par les étudiants pour concevoir et construire un objet technologique, nous a montré que cette activité a été réalisée facilement par l’utilisation des capteurs universels et des amplificateurs à décalage de l’outil de modélisation graphique ainsi que la capacité du didacticiel à transformer toute variable mesurée par une autre variable (par exemple la variation de résistance en variation de température, …). Cette activité didactique nous montre que les étudiants n’ont eu aucune difficulté à intégrer dans une même activité d’apprentissage les mathématiques, les sciences expérimentales et la technologie, afin de concevoir et réaliser un objet technologique fonctionnel. µlaboratoire ExAO, en offrant de nouvelles possibilités didactiques, comme la capacité de concevoir, réaliser et valider un objet technologique, de disposer pour ce faire, des capacités nouvelles pour amplifier les mesures, modéliser les phénomènes physiques, créer de nouveaux capteurs, est un ajout important aux expériences actuellement réalisées en ExAO. / Through this research we will fully assess the benefits brought by the ExAO (Computer Assisted Experimentation) in school laboratories of science and technology in Lebanon. We would also like to mention its contribution in a tangible way in laboratory research of Pedagogic Robotic from Montreal University, particularly in the development of ExAO µlaboratory. We wanted to test the capabilities of the ExAO, its use in the classroom such as: 1. A replacement of a traditional laboratory in the use of the experimental method. 2. A scientific investigation tool. 3. An integration tool of experimental sciences and mathematics. 4. An integration tool of experimental sciences, mathematics and technology in the technoscientific learning. To do so, we have mobilized 13 group classes, designated teachers to experiment themselves along with their students in order to assess, in a more realistic way, the benefits of implementing this micro computer laboratory at school. Different testing, evaluated using the results of learning activities undertaken by students, their responses to a questionnaire and feedback from teachers, show that: 1. The replacement of a traditional laboratory with an ExAO µlaboratory does not seem to pose problem, expected that students have adapted to it in only ten minutes, indicating that the speed with which data were graphed was more productive. 2. In order to investigate a physical phenomenon, the usability of the tutorial associated with the ability to amplify the phenomenon before its graph representation, has allowed students to design and implement quickly and independently an experiment to verify their prediction. 3. The integration of mathematics into an experimental approach can quickly grasp the phenomenon. In addition, it gives more autonomy and a meaning to the graphs and algebraic representations allowing to use them as a cognitive tool to interpret this phenomenon. 4. The approach made by the students to design and construct a technological object, showed that this activity was easily carried out by the use of universal sensors, amplifiers to offset the graphical modeling tool, and the tutorial ability to transform any measured variable by another variable (for instance, the resistance variation in temperature change, …). This educational activity shows that students had no difficulty integrating in a single learning activity the mathematics, experimental sciences and technology, in order to design and implement a functional piece of technology. The ExAO µlaboratory, by offering new educational opportunities, such as the ability to design, produce and validate a technological object, in order to do so, new capacities to boost measures, modeling physical phenomena, developing new sensors, is an important addition to the experiments being conducted in ExAO.

<p> Women have historically been underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM fields). The underrepresentation of women in STEM may be attributable to a variety of factors. These may include different choices men and women typically make in response to incentives in STEM education. For example, STEM career paths may be less accommodating to people who are less resilient. Another factor may be that there are relatively few female STEM role models. Perhaps strong gender stereotypes discourage women from pursuing STEM education and STEM jobs. The factors that contribute to success and the barriers that impeded success must be identified before any steps can be taken to improve the educational outcomes for women in STEM disciplines. Consequently, relatively little is known about the role of resilience in academically successful adult women in rural community colleges enrolled in STEM disciplines and the mechanisms that underlie the performance deficits that occur as a result of stereotype threat effect. This mixed method study addressed those knowledge gaps by determining: (1) if high resilience is positively correlated to high grade point average for women enrolled in STEM disciplines in rural community colleges in North Carolina, and (2) if stereotype threat effect is a risk factor for these women. Quantitative data were collected by using "The Resilience Scale" (Wagnild &amp; Young, 1987) and through examination of grade point average of students from Datatel data management software. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured focus group interviews. Findings from this study indicate high resilience is positively correlated to high grade point average for women enrolled in STEM disciplines in rural community colleges in North Carolina, and stereotype threat effect was a risk factor for low-scoring women (i.e. those women who reported resilience scores less than 121 and grade point averages lower than 2.70) and was not a risk factor for high-scoring women (i.e. those women who reported resilience scores of 147 or higher and grade point averages of 2.70 or higher). Overall, qualitative data analysis revealed both high-scoring and low-scoring women in STEM disciplines were affected by stereotype threat effect. However, low-scoring women were negatively impacted by stereotype threat and high-scoring women were able to use pressures associated with stereotype threat as motivation for success. Based on results from this study four principal factors were found that influence the success of women in STEM disciplines. These factors include elimination of stereotype threat, enhancement of resilience of female students, expansion of female gender representation on community college campuses, and development of positive instructor-student and advisor-student relationships. While this study does not, and cannot, explain why gender differences in STEM exist, it does provide data and insight that will enable more informed policymaking for community college administrators in order to increase success of women in STEM disciplines. The findings provide definitive evidence of a need to encourage and support women in STEM education with a goal of gender parity. </p>

<p> With a growing population of English Language Learners in our schools, their specialized classroom needs must be addressed. California state testing shows that English Language Learners (ELL) consistently perform below proficiency as compared to other students who are not English Language Learners. Many times, in response to pressure placed by the state testing requirements, administrators and educators focus on English Language development strategies at the cost of other content areas such as science. The Science and English Learning Development Blended Program is a professional development project that combines English Language Development (ELD) strategies within science lesson plans to address the language needs of English Language Learners through science content. The Blended Program was in place for four years in an urban school district in southern California. During its initial year of implementation, a research study focused on the types of changes teachers made to their science lesson plans as a result of their professional development: all of the changes made had to do with English Language Development and not Science. Implications of this study suggest that at the start of the program changes to support science content were not made because the teachers did not have the science knowledge to be comfortable enough to make changes to address the science portion of the lesson. The data analyzed for this study was collected during the Blended Program's third and fourth year of implementation. The findings show changes which reflect the following themes: science concept acquisition, oral language development, and scaffolding instruction. These themes reflect changes . that address both English Language Development and science. The individuals involved with the Blended Program have now had training for ELD and Science content for three or four years. Results suggest that the training not only equipped the teachers with English Language Development strategies but has also improved teachers science content knowledge and as a result teachers are better equipped to address the science in the lesson.</p>