<p>  </p> <p>Over the years it has become more common for practitioners to use the NGSS scientific practices to inform curricula at the undergraduate level. One of these practices is argumentation, the process of engaging in argument from evidence. Argumentation is an important part of the scientific process because scientists must make claims about their research and then provide justification using evidence to support those claims. While being able to argue your claim based on evidence is a common occurrence for scientists, it is rarely something students engage with in general level courses. In order to incorporate argumentation in the classroom the Claim, Evidence, Reasoning (CER) framework was adopted to develop the argumentation materials. </p> <p>In this study, aspects of the CER framework have been adapted and incorporated into the existing curriculum of a second-semester general chemistry non-majors course. The changes include lecture discussions, worksheets, and exam questions to help scaffold and facilitate students’ argumentation development. In the spring 2020 and 2021 semesters, 80 students in each course were tracked through their CER assessments to gain insight into how students construct arguments. The arguments were analyzed based on completeness, correctness, and complexity. The results show support for the effectiveness of the curriculum intervention and were used to make recommendations for instructors using the CER framework and identify future areas of research.</p>

[pt] Na pesquisa tratamos das dinâmicas do campo científico através da acumulação de capitais e da construção das posições de prestígio institucional a partir dos Bolsistas de Produtividade em Pesquisa do CNPq. Produzindo um recorte da pesquisa do SOCED (Grupo de Pesquisas em Sociologia da Educação), coordenado pela pesquisadora Zaia Brandão, sobre a os bolsistas de produtividade do CNPq, nosso objetivo foi compreender a centralidade de algumas instituições na pesquisa em Educação analisando se existem instituições com o poder de “comandar o jogo” no campo cientifico da área. Quais são as instituições que estão hierarquicamente representadas com poder no campo científico na área da Educação a partir da concessão das bolsas de produtividade? Partindo dos agentes (pesquisadores) traçamos uma configuração das instituições prevalentes nessas trajetórias para conhecer o peso relativo das instituições universitárias na luta por hegemonia no campo da Educação. O objeto da investigação são as instituições na composição das hierarquias científico-acadêmicas a partir das trajetórias institucionais e práticas acadêmicas registradas no Currículo Lattes dos pesquisadores bolsista de produtividade das categorias 1 (A, B, C, D) e Sênior. Trabalhamos em nossa pesquisa com dados de todos os PQ-1 (A, B, C e D) com 170 bolsistas que somado aos PQ-Sr (11) compuseram a amostra de 181 pesquisadores. A análise das variáveis do nosso banco de dados dos PQ-1 e PQ-Sr nos permitiu caracterizar, pela instituição de pertença de cada agente, a hierarquia a partir da: instituição e região da instituição de trabalho dos pesquisadores; instituição de doutoramento; relação entre a instituição de formação (doutoramento) e a instituição de pertença; relação entre os tipos de publicações e as posições ocupadas; a relação entre o poder institucional e os periódicos mais atrativos para os pesquisadores bolsistas e; conhecer as instituições responsáveis pelas revistas mais bem avaliadas, com Qualis A1 e A2. As análises evidenciaram a existência de uma política que reproduz a hierarquia de bolsistas e acabam privilegiando instituições que já possuem razoáveis condições de condução de trabalhos científicos. As instituições do topo da hierarquia revelam o poder de “comando do jogo” no campo científico por meio da definição e manutenção das regras e posse de seus próprios periódicos bem qualificados que contribuem para definir o padrão de cientificidade da área. Tais instituições possuem poder que gera uma dinâmica de maior concessão de bolsas para seus pesquisadores e maior financiamento para as pesquisas realizadas pelas suas instituições. / [en] In this research we deal with the dynamics of the scientific field through the accumulation of capital and the construction of positions of institutional prestige from the Research Productivity Grantees of the CNPq. Within the SOCED (Research Group on Educational Sociology) research, coordinated by the researcher Zaia Brandão, on the CNPq productivity fellows, I chose to understand the centrality of some institutions in the research in Education, analyzing if there are institutions with the power of Command the game in the scientific field of Education. What are the institutions that are hierarchically represented with power in the scientific field in Education from the granting of productivity grants? From the agents (researchers) we draw a configuration of the institutions prevalent in these trajectories to know the relative weight of the university institutions in the fight for hegemony in the field of Education. The object of the research is the institutions in the composition of the academic-academic hierarchies from the institutional trajectories and academic practices the of researchers registered in the Lattes Curriculum of the productivity grants program of categories 1 (A, B, C, D) and Senior. We worked on the research with data of all the PQ-1 (A, B, C and D) with 170 that added to the PQ-Sr (11) composed the sample of 181 researchers. The analysis of the variables of our database of PQ-1 and PQ-Sr allowed us to characterize, by the institution of each agent, the hierarchy from the: institution and region of the researchers work institution; PhD degree institution; relationship between the training institution (PhD degree) and the work institution; relationship between types of publications and positions in the field; the relationship between institutional power and the most attractive journals for researchers and; know the institutions responsible for the best evaluated journals, with Qualis A1 and A2. The analyzes showed the existence of a policy that reproduces the hierarchy of productivity grants and end up favoring institutions that already have conditions to do scientific work. Institutions at the top of the hierarchy reveal the power of command of the game in the scientific field through the definition and maintenance of the rules and they have own well-established journals that contribute to defining the scientific standard of the area. Such institutions have power for a greater grant dynamics for their researchers and greater funding for the research maked by their institutions.

Thesis (M.Ed. (Community and Continuing Education)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / This study reports on the exploration of masters students’ experiences of research supervision at the University of Limpopo. The key research question was what are master students’ experiences of research supervision at the University of Limpopo? The study is aligned with an interpretive paradigm to interact with the participants directly in their natural setting. A qualitative research approach was deemed appropriate, using case study design. Participants were purposively sampled from the Faculties of Humanities, and Management and Law. The study sample was composed of twelve master students and twelve supervisors from the three schools in each faculty. The preferred techniques of collecting data were document analysis, semi-structured interviews and observations. The study has revealed that both master students and supervisors are experiencing challenges with regard to research supervision. Most of the schools apply the traditional research supervision model; there is insufficient printers for supervisors in different schools; supervisors are overloaded with teaching and supervision work and as such students get feedback on their research work after a long time; some supervisors do not sign a memorandum of understanding with students; students’ research proposals undergo many levels before they are approved. However, the university supports students financially; workshops and seminars for master students are conducted for knowledge enrichment and skills development and infrastructure for research supervision that includes a library, computer laboratory, a Centre for Academic Excellence and a postgraduate Centre is available. It is recommended that the university introduce a co-supervision model in schools where the traditional model of supervision is still predominant. This will be invaluable in allowing supervisors to share research supervision experiences. Supervisors should be provided with enough printers in their offices. Turfloop Research Ethics Committee should hold regular meetings to approve students’ proposals on time. Approval of research proposals should be at school, faculty and Turfloop Research Ethics Committee levels. Master students should sign a Memorandum of Understanding in the early stages of their studies to enhance students’ commitment. Supervisors should also be allocated less teaching work to allow them enough time to focus on research supervision.

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Professional competencies are explicitly identified in the primary learning outcomes for science and engineering degrees at many tertiary institutions.  Fulfillment of the requirements to equip our students with these skills, while formally acknowledged as important by all stakeholders, can be hard to demonstrate in practice.  Most degree awarding institutions would have difficulties if asked to document where in degree programs such competencies are developed. The work in this thesis addresses the issue of professional competencies from several angles.  The Open-Ended Group Project (OEGP) concept is introduced and proposed as an approach to constructing learning environments in which students’ development of professional competencies can be stimulated and assessed.  Scholarly, research-based development of the IT in Society course unit (ITiS) is described and analyzed in order to present ideas for tailoring OEGP-based course units towards meeting learning objectives related to professional competence.  Work in this thesis includes an examination of both the meanings attributed to the term professional competencies, and methods which can be used to assess the competencies once they are agreed on. The empirical work on developing ITiS is based on a framework for educational research, which has been both refined and extended as an integral part of my research.  The action research methodology is presented and concrete examples of implementations of different pedagogical interventions, based on the methodology, are given.  The framework provides support for relating a theoretical foundation to studies, or development, of learning environments.  The particular theoretical foundation for the examples in this thesis includes, apart from the action research methodology, constructivism, conceptual change, threshold concepts, communities of practice, ill-structured problem solving, the reflective practicum, and problem based learning. The key finding in this thesis is that development and assessment of professional competencies is not a pipe dream.  Assessment can be accomplished, and the OEGP concept provides a flexible base for creating an appropriate learning environment for this purpose. / <p>Felaktigt tryckt som Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology 738</p>

Much prior research has shown that if students have a poor command of the language in which they are taught and assessed, they experience a complex and deep learning disadvantage (Barton & Neville-Barton, 2003). Abedi (2006) mentions, in particular, that unnecessary linguistic complexity can threaten the validity of examination items and thus compromises the fairness of the assessment for English language learners. In Clarkson’s (1991, p. 31) research it was found that for the English language learners in the study “comprehension errors [made] up a high proportion of the errors made when…students attempt[ed] to solve mathematical word problems”. In an attempt to explore whether this was the case for a group of National Certificate (Vocational) [NC(V)] students at an FET college, the research conducted in this study focused on describing the cognitive and linguistic complexity of Level 4 Mathematical Literacy examination items as well as the types of responses from a sample of students. A mixed-methods case study design was selected. Student errors were classified as either due to mathematical literacy-related sources, or language-related sources and the question was asked as to how the cognitive and linguistic complexity of items might be related to the types of errors made. Statistically significant correlations were found between the linguistic complexity of items and language-related errors, and between the cognitive complexity of items and all types of errors. It was also possible to identify which language features, in particular, were statistically significantly correlated with linguistic complexity, namely: prepositional phrases; words of 7 letters or more and complex/compound sentences. As was expected, the majority of errors were categorised as mathematical literacy-related. However, as many as 19.22% of all errors made were identified as language-related. While the scope of the study prevents any generalisations from being made, the results indicate a need for a larger-scale study of this nature to determine if the complex and deep learning disadvantage mentioned by Barton and Neville-Barton (2003) does exist with regard to the assessment of Mathematical Literacy for NC(V) students who are English language learners (Barton & Neville-Barton, 2003).

This thesis reports on a collaborative action research case study into the teaching of visual literacy to Grade 10 learners in a rural high school in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Visual literacy is one of the critical aspects that have been incorporated in the teaching of English First Additional Language as required by the National Curriculum Statement (Grade 10-12), which has been implemented in Grade 10 as from 2006. With the aim of improving learners’ performance in visual literacy I designed a visual literacy unit that consisted of lesson plans running over 7 periods in 10 school days. In implementing the unit the learners were first grouped and then exposed to visual grammar and visual texts and then they critically viewed such texts and designed their own. Data was collected daily in the form of individual learner journals, researcher’s journal/diary, and copies were kept of activities done by learners (individually or in groups). Also, two teachers were invited as non-participant observers to each visit a lesson. Learner focus groups were conducted and critical friends were interviewed, tape recorded and transcribed. A camera was used to take still photographs to show learner activities in groups and during group presentations. The data revealed that visual literacy could be taught meaningfully in a rural high school as the learners could identify, cut, paste and discuss elements of visual language and they finally designed their own advertisements in groups. In the analysis of data the following factors emerged as hindrances for successful teaching of visual literacy in a rural high school: lack of resources; learners’ lack of a foundation in visual literacy from Grades 7-9; and problems revolving around time management and pacing. As action research comes in spirals, this research represented the first one and the researcher found the study an eye opener and a foundation to build on in the second spiral (that is not part of this research).

Computing education has struggled with student engagement and diversity in the student population for a long time. Research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education suggests that taking a social, long-term perspective on learning is a fruitful approach to resolving some of these persistent challenges. A longitudinal study has been conducted, following students from two computing study programmes (CS/IT) over a three-year period. The students reflected on their experiences with CS/IT in a series of interviews. Drawing on social identity theory, the analysis has focused on describing participation in CS/IT, doing, thinking, feeling in relation to CS/IT, as negotiated among different people. Phenomenographic analysis yields an outcome space that describes increasingly broad ways in which the students experience participation in CS/IT over the years. Two further outcome spaces provide nuanced insights into experiences that are of increasing relevance as the students advance in their studies; participation as problem solving and problem solving for others. Problem solving defined as solving difficult (technical) problems seems predominate in the learning environment. Problem solving for others brings the user into perspective, but first in the human computer interaction (HCI) course in year three. Students react with scepticism to HCI, excluding HCI from computing, some are students who commenced their studies with broader interests in computing. Demonstrating (technical) problem solving competence is the most vital indicator competence in the two study programmes and the students adapt their reflections on who they are as computing students and professionals accordingly. People showing broader interests in computing risk being marginalised. I identify a gap between conceptions of computing as interdisciplinary and important for society and constructions of computing as technical. Closing the gap could improve retention and diversity, and result in graduates that are better prepared to contribute to societal development.

"What were the backgrounds of the people who enrolled in clothing construction classes in the adult home economics program in Pinellas County, Florida, in 1974-75? In more detail, what was their marital status? What were their age ranges? How many children under 18 did they have living at home? What was their employment status? What were their educational and economic levels? Were they United States citizens? How long had they lived in the State of Florida and in Pinellas County? Were they year-round residents? How did they learn about the clothing construction class?"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "August, 1975." / "Submitted to the Department of Home Economics Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: Mary Lee Hurt, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 31-32).