Thesis (Ed.D.)--Indiana University, School of Education, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Dec. 1, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-10, Section: A, page: 3761. Adviser: Valarie Akerson.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2517. Adviser: Klaus Witz. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 236-244) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Over the past three decades curriculum scholars have failed to address environmental education through joint local, national, and/or global research initiatives, leaving UNESCO as an underpinning force in legitimizing and institutionalizing environmental education globally. This critical discourse analysis examines the connection between UNESCO's historical discourse on environmental education and the Ontario elementary science and technology curriculum. As a study grounded in curriculum theory, it leads to a nuanced understanding of the extent to which the local discourse reinscribes and/or subverts the global discourse on environmental education. The study also engages a postcolonial deconstruction of the discourse, exploring how the global and local discursive trends work to colonize or decolonize our relationship with the environment. This study reveals that what is important is not whether or not UNESCO's dominant discourse on environmental education is reinscribed and/or subverted in the local curriculum. But, rather how both contribute to the complicated discussion on environmental education.

In this study, by exploring patterns in the degree of physical salience of the data the students collected, I investigated the relationship between the level of students’ tendency to frame explanations in terms of complex patterns and evidence of how they attend to and select data in support of their developing understandings of causal relationships. I accomplished this by analyzing longitudinal data collected as part of a larger study of 143 7th grade students (clustered within 36 teams, 5 teachers, and 2 schools in the same Northeastern school district) as they navigated and collected data in an ecosystems-based multi-user virtual environment curriculum known as the EcoMUVE Pond module (Metcalf, Kamarainen, Tutwiler, Grotzer, Dede, 2011) . Using individual growth modeling (Singer & Willett, 2003) I found no direct link between student pre-intervention tendency to offer explanations containing complex causal components and patterns of physical salience-driven data collection (average physical salience level, number of low physical salience data points collected, and proportion of low physical salience data points collected), though prior science content knowledge did affect the initial status and rate of change of outcomes in the average physical salience level and proportion of low physical salience data collected over time. The findings of this study suggest two issues for consideration about the use of MUVEs to study student data collection behaviors in complex spaces. Firstly, the structure of the curriculum in which the MUVE is embedded might have a direct effect on what types of data students choose to collect. This undercuts our ability to make inferences about student-driven decisions to collect specific types of data, and suggests that a more open-ended curricular model might be better suited to this type of inquiry. Secondly, differences between teachers’ choices in how to facilitate the units likely contribute to the variance in student data collection behaviors between students with different teachers. This foreshadows external validity issues in studies that use behaviors of students within a single class to develop “detectors” of student latent traits (e.g., Baker, Corbett, Roll, Koedinger, 2008).

Many options are available to designers when creating museum exhibitions. One particular option that can be chosen is the inclusion of exhibits that can be touched and manipulated, a style of exhibit often referred to as hands-on or interactive (Adams and Moussouri, 2002). Within this subset of exhibits, designers also have a multitude of choices to make that can affect the experiences visitors will have. The goal of this study is to help the transfer of research findings about learning and hands-on interactive exhibits to designers so that more-informed choices may be made. With this goal in mind, the exhibits within three exhibitions at the Montreal Science Centre are examined from a pedagogical perspective. Falk and Dierking's Contextual Model of Learning (2000) is employed as a conceptual framework, and one of its contexts is specifically addressed. Since exhibition designers act upon the objects that form exhibits, and only have direct influence on their physical nature, the physical context of Falk and Dierking's model is chosen as a lens through which to investigate the exhibits. Emergent concepts from the physical context of those exhibits are collected and then categorized. To relate the emergent concepts to a pedagogical perspective, the categories are then associated to the pedagogical triangle (Houssaye, 1988; Moore, 1989), which allows them to be organised following the roles and interactions present in that model. This study, therefore, presents a structure and common language through which the physical context of hands-on interactive museum exhibits can be understood from a pedagogical perspective.

La réussite scolaire des filles les amène de plus en plus à poursuivre une formation postsecondaire et à exercer des professions qui demandent un haut niveau de connaissances et d'expertise scientifique. Toutefois, les filles demeurent toujours très peu nombreuses à envisager une carrière en sciences (chimie et physique), en ingénierie ou en TIC (technologie d'information et de la communication), soit une carrière reliée à la nouvelle économie. Pour plusieurs filles, les sciences et les TIC ne sont pas des matières scolaires qu'elles trouvent intéressantes même si elles y réussissent très bien. Ces filles admettent que leurs expériences d'apprentissage en sciences et en TIC ne leur ont pas permis de développer un intérêt ni de se sentir confiante en leurs habiletés à réussir dans ces matières. Par conséquent, peu de filles choisissent de poursuivre leurs études postsecondaires dans ces disciplines. La théorie sociocognitive du choix carrière a été choisie comme modèle théorique pour mieux comprendre quelles variables entrent en jeu lorsque les filles choisissent leur carrière. Notre étude a pour objet la conception et l'évaluation de l'efficacité d'un matériel pédagogique conçu spécifiquement pour améliorer les expériences d'apprentissage en sciences et en TIC des filles de 9e année au Nouveau-Brunswick. L'approche pédagogique privilégiée dans notre matériel a mis en oeuvre des stratégies pédagogiques issues des meilleures pratiques que nous avons identifiées et qui visaient particulièrement l'augmentation du sentiment d'auto-efficacité et de l'intérêt des filles pour ces disciplines. Ce matériel disponible par Internet à l'adresse http://www.umoncton.ca/lirettn/scientic est directement en lien avec le programme d'études en sciences de la nature de 9e année du Nouveau-Brunswick. L'évaluation de l'efficacité de notre matériel pédagogique a été faite selon deux grandes étapes méthodologiques: 1) l'évaluation de l'utilisabilité et de la convivialité du matériel et 2) l'évaluation de l'effet du matériel en fonction de diverses variables reliées à l'intérêt et au sentiment d'auto-efficacité des filles en sciences et en TIC. Cette recherche s'est inscrite dans un paradigme pragmatique de recherche. Le pragmatisme a guidé nos choix en ce qui a trait au modèle de recherche et des techniques utilisées. Cette recherche a associé à la fois des techniques qualitatives et quantitatives, particulièrement en ce qui concerne la collecte et l'analyse de données. Les données recueillies dans la première étape de l'évaluation de l'utilisabilité et de la convivialité du matériel par les enseignantes et les enseignants de sciences et les filles ont révélé que le matériel conçu est très utilisable et convivial. Toutefois quelques petites améliorations seront apportées à une version subséquente afin de faciliter davantage la navigation. Quant à l'évaluation des effets du matériel conçu sur les variables reliées au sentiment d'auto-efficacité et aux intérêts lors de l'étape quasi expérimentale, nos données qualitatives ont indiqué que ce matériel a eu des effets positifs sur le sentiment d'auto-efficacité et sur les intérêts des filles qui l'ont utilisé. Toutefois, nos données quantitatives n'ont pas permis d'inférer un lien causal direct entre l'utilisation du matériel et l'augmentation du sentiment d'auto-efficacité et des intérêts des filles en sciences et en TIC. À la lumière des résultats obtenus, nous avons conclu que le matériel a eu les effets escomptés. Donc, nous recommandons la création et l'utilisation de matériel de ce genre dans toutes les classes de sciences de la 6e année à la 12e année au Nouveau-Brunswick.

Studies indicate that teachers, and in particular science teachers in the senior high school grades, do not integrate laptop computers into their instruction to the extent anticipated by researchers. This technology has not spread easily to other teachers even with improved access to hardware and software, increased support, and a paradigm shift from teacher-centred to student-centred education. Although a number of studies have focused on the issues and problems related to the integration of laptops in classroom instruction, these studies, largely quantitative in nature, have tended to bypass the role teachers play in integrating laptop computers into their instruction. This thesis documents and describes the role of Ontario high school science teachers in the integration of laptop computers in the classroom. Ten teachers who have successfully integrated laptop computers into their biology courses participated in this descriptive study. Their perceptions of implementing laptops into their biology courses, key factors about the implementation process, and how the implementation was accomplished are examined. The study also identifies the conditions which they feel would allow this innovation to be implemented by other teachers. Key findings of the study indicate that teachers must initiate, implement and sustain an emergent and still evolving innovation; teacher perceptions change and continue to change with increased experience using laptops in the science classroom; changes in teaching approaches are significant as a result of the introduction of laptop technology; and, the teachers considered the acquisition and use of new teaching materials to be an important aspect of integrating laptop computers into instruction. Ongoing challenges for appropriate professional development, sharing of knowledge, skills and teaching materials are identified. The study provides a body of practical knowledge for biology teachers who are considering the integration of laptops into their instruction. The results are of interest to science teachers, those whose decisions affect the meaningful integration of technology in science education, those researching the teaching of science in secondary schools and those who prepare science graduates to teach at this level. Key Words: innovation, laptop, computer, biology, science, secondary, implementation, perceptions, instruction, professional development, qualitative, descriptive.

This study utilized an action research methodology to examine students' understandings of science knowledge, and meaningful learning using the SLD (Science Lecture Demonstration) and laboratory instructional method in a high school chemistry classroom. This method was a modification of the Science Lecture Demonstration Method as developed by Majerich and Schmuckler (2004, in press), the modification due to the addition of a laboratory component. The participants in this study represented a convenience sample which included one class of twenty-two, middle to high socio-economic status students (Mean family income over $75,000/year in 2005 U.S. dollars) in an honors chemistry course at a public high school in the state of New Jersey. These participants included nine girls and thirteen boys. The results of this study indicated what the students' understandings of science knowledge were, how the understandings differed among students, and to what extent those understandings were indicative of meaningful learning. These results were obtained by careful analysis of student generated concept maps, narratives from demonstration quizzes, laboratory reports, and test questions, as well as a teacher/researcher reflection upon the classroom experience. A simple taxonomy for analyzing students' understandings of science knowledge was developed, based upon the work of Majerich (2004). Findings indicated that the students' understanding of science knowledge, as well as the extent of meaningful learning that occurs in the chemistry classroom may be influenced by the roles of : explicit directions, pre-existing knowledge from elementary and middle school science classes, using examples vs. non-examples, macroscopic vs. microscopic views of nature, time for reflection, and everyday vs. scientific language. Results obtained from high school student responses confirmed Novak's observation of elementary students' lack of differentiation between the terms vapor and gas (Novak, 1998). / CITE/Language Arts

<p> Cambodian Americans graduate from college at a lower rate than most Asian American groups. This qualitative study involved interviewing five current Cambodian American college students. This study examined how participants' high school experiences contributed to their decisions to go to college and to study STEM fields, how parental influences guided participants to college, and how college experiences influenced their decisions to stay and succeed in STEM fields. Findings from this study suggest: having supportive teachers in high school may have been important in motivating participants to go to college and to study STEM Fields, Cambodian parents tell stories of their lives in Cambodia to motivate their children to go to college, and Cambodian club on campus was a socially and academically supportive place. </p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to examine how much K-12 science teachers working in a virtual school experience a community of practice and how that experience affects personal science-teaching efficacy and science-teaching outcome expectancy. The study was rooted in theoretical frameworks from Lave and Wenger's (1991) community of practice and Bandura's (1977) self-efficacy beliefs. The researcher used three surveys to examine schoolteachers' experiences of a community of practice and science-teaching efficacy beliefs. The instrument combined Mangieri's (2008) virtual teacher demographic survey, Riggs and Enochs (1990) Science-teaching efficacy Beliefs Instrument-A (STEBI-A), and Cadiz, Sawyer, and Griffith's (2009) Experienced Community of Practice (eCoP) instrument. </p><p> The results showed a significant linear statistical relationship between the science teachers' experiences of community of practice and personal science-teaching efficacy. In addition, the study found that there was also a significant linear statistical relationship between teachers' community of practice experiences and science-teaching outcome expectancy. The results from this study were in line with numerous studies that have found teachers who are involved in a community of practice report higher science-teaching efficacy beliefs (Akerson, Cullen, &amp; Hanson, 2009; Fazio, 2009; Lakshmanan, Heath, Perlmutter, &amp; Elder, 2011; Liu, Lee, &amp; Lin, 2010; Sinclair, Naizer, &amp; Ledbetter, 2010). The researcher concluded that school leaders, policymakers, and researchers should increase professional learning opportunities that are grounded in social constructivist theoretical frameworks in order to increase teachers' science efficacy.</p>