<p> With the new goal of K-12 education being to prepare students to be college and career ready at the end of high school, education needs to start changing at the elementary school level. The literature suggests that teachers need reflective professional development (PD) to effectively teach to the new standards and to demonstrate change to their current instructional practices. This mixed-method multiple-case study investigated the impacts of a reflective professional development (PD) in changing elementary school teachers' instructional practices. </p><p> Teachers Instructional Portfolios (TIPs) were scored with a TIP rubric based on best practices in teaching mathematics problem-solving and science inquiry. The TIPs were also analyzed with a qualitative coding scheme. Case descriptions were written and all the collected data were used to explain the impacts of the reflective PD on changes in teachers' instructional practices. </p><p> While we found no predictive patterns in relation to teachers changing their classroom practices based on the reflective PD, we claim that teachers' desire to change might contribute to improvements in instruction. We also observed that teachers' self-assessment scores tend to be higher than the actual TIP scores corroborating with the literature on the usage of self-assessment to evaluate teachers' instructional practices.</p>

<p> Focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) literacy is a national priority for the United States. As competition increases internationally for scientific and technological innovations, the United States is concentrating on building its STEM capacity (Stephens, 2011). Despite the numerous STEM reform efforts there continues to be a decline in STEM graduates and STEM competencies (McNally, 2012; Langdon, Mckittrick, Beede, Doms, &amp; Khan, 2011; Herschback, 2011). With attention focused on increasing STEM college majors and occupations among the student population, the current research investigation centered on the role of parent aspirations, student self-beliefs, and activities outside the classroom to determine the outcome of middle and high school students choosing a STEM college major. Research suggested that students formulate their degree attainment during their middle and high school years, and even earlier (Roach, 2006; Maltese &amp; Tai, 2011); therefore, it was logical to investigate STEM persistence during middle and high school years. </p><p> The study analyzed NELS:88, a longitudinal national public data set created by the National Center for Educational Statistics that used 12,144 participants. The students' self-reported data spanned over a 12-year period. Students completed five surveys in the NELS:88 data collection (NCES, 2011). Binary and multivariate logistical regressions determined if activities outside the classroom, parent aspirations, and student self-beliefs influenced STEM college majors. Conclusions of the study found significant relationships between the variables and STEM persistence. Individuals who participated in STEM activities after school were more likely to major in STEM (p&lt;.001,Exp(B)=1.106). There was a significant positive relationship between parent aspirations and increased odds of choosing a STEM major (p&lt;.0001, Exp(B)=1.041). There was a significant relationship between student self-beliefs and choosing a STEM major as students with higher self-beliefs had a decreased odds of choosing a non-STEM major (p&lt;.05, Exp(B)=.988). When all three variables were considered together, self-beliefs were no longer significant (p&lt;.166) but parent aspirations, (p&lt;.0001, Exp(B)=1.034) and activities outside of the classroom (p&lt;.0001, Exp(B)=1.097), both significantly predicted STEM participation. </p><p> The results of the research inform policy makers in regard to funding decisions and the development of programs, especially ones that occur outside of the school day. The analysis may guide decisions for school administrators on how to influence student retention within the STEM pipeline. The findings add to existing research and provide a better understanding of predictors affecting student persistence in STEM.</p>

<p> The purpose of this quantitative experimental study was to test the impact of three learning interventions on student learning and satisfaction when the interventions were embedded in the instructional design of case-based, Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) modules for learning liver pathology in an in-class, self-study, laboratory exercise during a Year-2 medical school Pathology course. The hypothesis was that inclusion of the learning interventions would enhance student satisfaction in using the CAI and improve subsequent CAI-directed exam performance. Three learning interventions were studied, including the use of microscopic virtual slides instead of only static images, the use of interactive image annotations instead of only still annotations, and the use of guiding questions before presenting new information. Students were randomly assigned to with one of eight CAI learning modules configured to control for each of the three learning interventions. Effectiveness of the CAI for student learning was assessed by student performance on questions included in subsequent CAI-directed exams in a pretest and on posttests immediately after the lab exercise, at two weeks and two months. Student satisfaction and perceived learning was assessed by a student survey. </p><p> Results showed that the learning interventions did not improve subsequent student exam performance, although satisfaction and perceived learning with use of the CAI learning modules was enhanced. Student class rank was evaluated to determine if the learning interventions might have a differential effect based on class rank, but there were no significant differences. Class rank at the time of the lab exercise was itself the strongest predictor of exam performance. </p><p> The findings suggest that the addition of virtual slides, interactive annotations and guiding questions as learning interventions in self-study, case-based CAI for learning liver pathology in a medical class room setting are not likely to increase performance on subsequent MCQ-based exams, but student satisfaction with use of the CAI can be enhanced, which could provide to be an incentive for students to use similar CAI learning modules for future self-directed learning.</p>

Mémoire (M.A.)--Université de Québec à Chicoutimi, 1990. / Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

En France, les étudiants tendent à s’éloigner de l’Université au profit des écoles supérieures explicitement professionnelles, alors même que l’Université intensifie la professionnalisation de ses cursus. Dans une perspective d’analyse psychosociale de ce phénomène, nous avons étudié la représentation sociale de l’Université chez les étudiants en Sciences de l’éducation et ses liens avec celle de la Professionnalisation. Les données recueillies par questionnaire ont permis plusieurs modes de traitement dont les résultats montrent tout d’abord, que la représentation sociale de l’Université s’élabore à partir des éléments les plus consensuels de la représentation collective de cet objet (études, travail et autonomie). D’autre part, les étudiants associent peu l’Université à la Professionnalisation : seuls les éléments travail, très polysémique, et avenir assurent une conjonction entre ces deux représentations. Enfin, la fréquentation de l’institution et la pratique de dispositifs de professionnalisation qu’elle propose, semblent participer à l’éloignement cognitif de ces deux objets. En outre, les résultats obtenus permettent d’envisager une modélisation de la genèse représentationnelle dans laquelle se succèdent dans un continuum, trois états de la représentation : la représentation collective, la représentation non-structurée et la représentation sociale, la représentation se spécifiant progressivement à un groupe social particulier. La mise en perspective culturelle et historique des deux objets étudiés interroge finalement la possibilité, dans un avenir proche, de leur rapprochement représentationnel chez les étudiants malgré les transformations a priori favorables du contexte et des pratiques. / In France, students are tending to move away from university and to favour competitive-entry higher education establishments, which offer a more explicitly vocational education, even though university is intensifying the professionalization of its degree courses. In order to analyze this phenomenon in a psychosocial point of view, we studied the social representation of university among students in Education Sciences and its links to their social representation of professionalization. The data were collected by questionnaire and analyzed with different methods. Results show that on the one hand, the social representation of university is based on the more consensual elements of the collective representation (studies, work and autonomy). On the other hand, students rarely associate university to professionalization, the only link between university and professionalization being based on two items, i.e. work, which is polysemous, and future. Finally, the cognitive distance between these two objects seems to be increased on the one hand by the attendance to the institution and on the other hand by the use of the professionalization schemes it offers. Moreover, results show that the way this representation is created can be modeled: collective representation appears, it is then replaced by non-structured representation, and finally social representation emerges, the latter being specific to one particular social group. From cultural and historical standpoints, results show that it is unlikely that the representation of university and professionalization among students will come closer in the near future, even if the evolution of the context and practices seems favourable.

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.

Abstract not available.

The Science Teaching and Research (STAR) Leadership Program at Austin College was designed to intentionally include leadership development into the science curriculum and provides an opportunity to determine the effects of student leadership development on the retention of students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This dissertation used a quasi-experimental design to determine: 1) if STEM retention can be explained though the inclusion of leadership development into the curriculum; 2) if there is a difference between Austin College students who choose a STEM major compared to students who do not; and 3) if there is a difference between Austin College students who complete a STEM degree compared to students who do not. Census data were collected on 2,137 students who enrolled in STEM courses beginning in the fall of 2008 through the spring of 2017, and factors affecting retention were compared across three 3-year time periods that spanned before the program was initiated through wider implementation. A logistic regression showed that there was no significant positive association between leadership development and STEM retention when taking into account other pre-college and demographic factors that have been linked to retention in the literature. However, a one-way ANOVA showed that the academic factors significantly decreased as the STAR program progressed. Further studies are required to understand student benefits associated with the current program.

No description available.

No description available.