Master of Science / Curriculum and Instruction / Lawrence C. Scharmann / In the current high-stakes assessment environment of NCLB and AYP, the type of assessment students are subject to is crucial. Good assessments make teaching to the test an effective, rather than deplorable, strategy that aligns learning objectives, classroom teaching, and student achievement. While science, this author’s content area, isn’t currently AYP mandated, it will be soon, and in the meantime, students are still required to take state and local assessments. This project seeks to effect change on a local level – specifically, with how the local CRT is written so that it can both reflect sound research-based assessment practice as well as an understanding of science as concept- and process-based rather than content- and fact-based.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Curriculum and Instruction / Margaret G. Shroyer / John R. Staver / This study explored the inclusion of creative drama into science teaching as an instructional strategy for enhancing elementary school students' understanding of scientific concepts. A treatment group of sixth grade students was taught a Full Option Science System (FOSS) science unit on Mixtures and Solutions with the addition of creative drama while a control group was taught using only the FOSS teaching protocol. Quantitative and qualitative data analyses demonstrated that students who studied science through creative drama exhibited a greater understanding of scientific content of the lessons and preferred learning science through creative drama. Treatment group students stated that they enjoyed participating in the activities with their friends and that the creative drama helped them to better understand abstract scientific concepts. Teachers involved with the creative drama activities were positively impressed and believed creative drama is a good tool for teaching science. Observations revealed that creative drama created a positive classroom environment, improved social interactions and self-esteem, that all students enjoyed creative drama, and that teachers' teaching style affected students' use of creative drama. The researcher concluded that the inclusion of creative drama with the FOSS unit enhanced students' scientific knowledge and understanding beyond that of the FOSS unit alone, that both teachers and students reacted positively to creative drama in science and that creative drama requires more time.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Lawrence C. Scharmann / John R. Staver / The goal of this study was to explore how Christian biology-related majors at a Christian university perceive the apparent conflicts between their understanding of evolution and their religious beliefs, and how their faith, as a structural-developmental system for ordering and making meaning of the world, plays a role in the mediating process. This naturalistic study utilized a case study design of 15 participants specified as undergraduate biology-related majors or recent biology-related graduates from a midwestern Christian university who had completed an upper-level course on evolution. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews that investigated participants' faith and their views on creationism and evolution. Fowler's theory of faith development and Parks' model of college students' faith was extensively used. Additional data were collected through an Evolution Attitudes Survey and a position paper on evolution as an assignment in the evolution course. Data analysis revealed patterns that were organized into themes and sub-themes that were the major outcomes of the study. Most participants were raised to believe in creationism, but came to accept evolution through an extended process of evaluating the scientific evidence in support of evolution, negotiating the literalness of Genesis, recognizing evolution as a non-salvation issue, and observing professors as role models of Christians who accept evolution. Participants remained committed to their personal religious beliefs despite apprehension that accompanied the reconciliation process in accepting evolution. Most participants operated from the perspective that science and religion are separate and interacting domains. Faith played an important role in how participants reconciled their understanding of evolution and their personal religious beliefs. Participants who operated in conventional faith dismissed contentious issues or collapsed dichotomies in an effort to avoid ambiguity and perceived tensions. Participants who operated in young adult and adult faith tended to confront their perceived tensions and worked towards reconciling their understanding of evolution and their personal religious beliefs. The rich description of this naturalistic study lends heuristic insight to researchers and educators seeking an understanding of the complex processes by which Christian biology-related majors approach learning about evolution and seek reconciliation between their understanding of evolution and their personal religious beliefs.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Physics / Nobel S. Rebello / Conventional wisdom has long advised that students’ learning is best supported by interaction with physical manipulative. Thus, in the physics laboratory, students typically spend their time conducting experiments with physical equipment. However, computer simulations offer a tempting alternative to traditional physical experiments. In a virtual experiment, using a computer simulation, students can gather data quickly, and measurement errors and frictional effects can be explicitly controlled. This research investigates the relative support for students’ learning offered by physical and virtual experimentation in the context of simple machines. Specifically, I have investigated students’ learning as supported by experimentation with physical and virtual manipulative from three different angles-- what do students learn, how do students learn, and what do students think about their learning. The results indicate that the virtual manipulative better supported students’ understanding of work and potential energy than the physical manipulative did. Specifically, in responding to data analysis questions, students who used the virtual manipulative before the physical manipulative were more likely to describe work as constant across different lengths of frictionless inclined planes (or pulley systems) and were more likely to adequately compare work and potential energy, whereas students who used the physical manipulative first were more likely to talk about work and potential energy separately. On the other hand, no strong support was found to indicate that the physical manipulative better supported students’ understanding of a specific concept. In addition, students’ responses to the survey questions indicate that students tend to value data from a computer simulation more than from a physical experiment. The interview analysis indicates that the virtual environment better supported the students to create new ideas than the physical environment did. These results suggest that the traditional wisdom that students learn best from physical experiments is not necessarily true. Thus, researchers should continue to investigate how to best interweave students’ experiences with physical and virtual manipulatives. In addition, it may be useful for curriculum designers and instructors to spend more of their efforts designing learning experiences that make use of virtual manipulatives.

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.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Physics / Nobel S. Rebello / Many introductory calculus-based physics students have difficulties when solving physics problems involving calculus. This study investigates students’ retention and transfer from calculus to physics. While retention is the ability to recall your knowledge at a later point in time, transfer of learning is defined as the ability to apply what one has learned in one situation to a different situation. In this dissertation we propose a theoretical framework to assess students’ transfer of learning in the context of problem solving. We define two kinds of transfer – horizontal transfer and vertical transfer. Horizontal transfer involves applying previously learned ideas in a problem. Vertical transfer involves constructing new ideas to solve the problem. Students need to employ both horizontal and vertical transfer when they solve any problem. This framework evolves through this research and provides a lens that enables us to examine horizontal and vertical transfer. Additionally, this proposed framework offers researchers a vocabulary to describe and assess transfer of learning in any problem solving context. We use a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to examine transfer in the context of problem solving. The participants in this study were students enrolled in a second-semester physics course taken by future engineers and physicists, calculus instructors and physics instructors. A total of 416 students’ exam sheets were collected and reviewed. Statistical methods were used to analyze the quantitative data. A total of 28 students and nine instructors were interviewed. The video and audio recordings were transcribed and analyzed in light of the aforementioned theoretical framework. A major finding from this study is that a majority of students possess the requisite calculus skills, yet have several difficulties in applying them in the context of physics. These difficulties included: deciding the appropriate variable and limits of integration; not being clear about the criteria to determine whether calculus is applicable in a given physics problem, and others. This study also provides a detailed understanding of students’ difficulties in terms of our theoretical framework. Instructional strategies are suggested at the end to facilitate the transfer from calculus to physics.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Tweed R. Ross / John R. Staver / The purpose of this study was to research, develop and validate a one-semester course for the general education of university undergraduates in forensic chemical education. The course outline was developed using the research and development (R&D) methodology recommended by Gall, Borg, and Gall, (2003) and Dick and Carey, (2001) through a three step developmental cycle. Information was gathered and analyzed through review of literature and proof of concept interviews, laying the foundation for the framework of the course outline. A preliminary course outline was developed after a needs assessment showed need for such a course. Professors expert in the area of forensic science participated in the first field test of the course. Their feedback was recorded, and the course was revised for a main field test. Potential users of the guide served as readers for the main field test and offered more feedback to improve the course.

Master of Arts / Department of Geography / John A. Harrington Jr / Analysis of polling documents indicates how little most Americans know about the world. Geography education is the key to offsetting geographic illiteracy. Fortunately programs designed to improve K-12 geography education are growing in number and strength. How can we teach more and better geography within the school system? Given the dominant role of history in the K-12 social studies curriculum, use of the psychological theory of dual-encoding to integrate geography and history lesson planning is one approach to bring more geography into the classroom. As part of Kansas Geographic Alliance programmatic activity, Kansas history and geography standards, with emphasis on the tested standards, were assessed to identify candidate themes for development of dual-encoded educational units and associated lesson plans. Three workshops were delivered to share these dual-encoded units and lesson plans. The workshops were for education faculty, teachers getting in-service professional development, and for a group of pre-service teachers in a social studies methods class. Attendees at the workshops provided assessment and feedback of the material. Based on informal comments and written responses from the workshop attendees, it is concluded that dual-encoding will enable considerable progress in geography education. Not only will the knowledge provided demonstrate the impact and significance of geography to history teachers and their students, but dual-encoded lessons will advance teacher content and pedagogical knowledge, and most importantly students will learn both geography and history better.