The aim of this study was to investigate science teachers&rsquo / perceptions about the online teacher professional development (oTPD) program. The research study included two consecutive steps. The first step was related to the design of the oTPD program. With the help of related literature, examples of oTPD programs and expert opinions, an oTPD program was designed. In the second step, ten of the alumni of Bilkent University Graduate School of Education Biology Teacher Education Program participated in a ten week oTPD program. The program consisted of instructional activities such as reading case studies, self reflection, forum discussions, watching videos of a sample lesson, hands-on activity and WebQuest. The study was mainly a qualitative study. The case was a professional development program for in-service science teachers that was offered online via learning management systems (LMS). The data were collected through pre- and post- interviews, online questionnaire, observations and documentation that include weekly assignments, forum discussions, e-mail correspondence, weekly e-journals, detailed notes of phone calls and the researcher&rsquo / s journal. The data were analyzed according to qualitative data analysis techniques with the assistance of Weft QDA software. Data gathered from the participants demonstrated that they were not satisfied with professional development programs that they got before this oTPD program because of the problems about content, process and organization connected with them. They preferred oTPD program, because of its flexibility and versatility, sharing information among colleagues from different parts of the country, and self-paced learning. Some obstacles were also identified, such as technical problems, not having face-to-face sessions and the timing of the program.

To gain greater insight into the operation of online social networks, we applied Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to text-based communication to identify and describe underlying social structures in online communities. This paper presents our approach and preliminary evaluation for content-based, automated discovery of social networks. Our research question is: What syntactic and semantic features of postings in a threaded discussions help uncover explicit and implicit ties between network members, and which provide a reliable estimate of the strengths of interpersonal ties among the network members? To evaluate our automated procedures, we compare the results from the NLP processes with social networks built from basic who-to-whom data, and a sample of hand-coded data derived from a close reading of the text. For our test case, and as part of ongoing research on networked learning, we used the archive of threaded discussions collected over eight iterations of an online graduate class. We first associate personal names and nicknames mentioned in the postings with class participants. Next we analyze the context in which each name occurs in the postings to determine whether or not there is an interpersonal tie between a sender of the posting and a person mentioned in it. Because information exchange is a key factor in the operation and success of a learning community, we estimate and assign weights to the ties by measuring the amount of information exchanged between each pair of the nodes; information in this case is operationalized as counts of important concept terms in the postings as derived through the NLP analyses. Finally, we compare the resulting network(s) against those derived from other means, including basic who-to-whom data derived from posting sequences (e.g., whose postings follow whose). In this comparison we evaluate what is gained in understanding network processes by our more elaborate analyses.

Teaching older adults to use computers requires taking into account the effects of the aging process. Techniques which work for a younger generation will not necessarily be successful with older novices, but modifications which improve the outcome for older students also work well with younger learners. This article explains how computer trainers at the Palm Beach County Library System's North County Regional Library created a mousing class and modified existing classes to create a series of four classes designed specifically for older adults who have never used a computer before. The article also summarizes the difficulties older adults face in learning to use computers, and ways to improve the learning outcome.

Older adults present a special challenge to libraries offering computer training. Many of those seeking training have little, if any, prior experience with the concepts and skills necessary to use computers, yet their ability to learn those concepts and skills is hampered by the aging process. This article summarizes the factors in aging which most affect learning computer skills, and how those factors can be mitigated.

This study was designed to identify students’ perceptions of learning activities, assessment formats, and content on their understanding of the nature of science (NOS) by comparing and examining constructs created by Canadian and Korean students. Participants were 217 Canadian and 319 Korean Grade 8 students that filled out questionnaires; additionally, 9 students volunteered for semi-structured interviews. Descriptive statistics, multivariate analysis of variance and partial least squares were used to examine the quantitative data. A conceptually clustered matrix was used for the qualitative analyses. Results indicated that students from both countries perceived 1) their learning activities were teacher-directed, 2) class presentations and discussions occurred least frequently, 3) paper-and-pencil tests determined science scores, 4) science tests relied heavily on knowledge of science while knowledge about science was least likely to be assessed, and 5) generally students held relativistic views on science. The effect for country on NOS concepts was statistically significant across all of their perceptions except for the concepts of culturally embedded science and the perceptions of short-answer test formats. Specifically, Canadian students perceived that they had relatively more student-directed activities while Korean students perceived that they had more teacher-directed science lab activities. Further, Canadian students were inclined to hold more relativistic views across the NOS concepts. It was also noted that Korean students provided more political examples while Canadian students provided stem cell research or environmental issues. An examination of associations revealed that students’ learning activities, assessment formats, and content are good predictors of NOS understanding since these constructs explain variances from 19.7% for Empirical NOS to 63% for Scientific Methods. Results from students’ open-ended responses to the NOS concepts and the semi-structured interviews were consistent with the quantitative analyses. Most interviewees agreed that what, and how, they learned science-- and how their learning was assessed--affected their views of science since school science education was the important factor in developing their scientific knowledge. These results imply that diverse learning activities and assessments could prove to be a better approach to enhancing students’ understanding of NOS than teacher-directed learning activities and test formats requiring a single correct answer.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Mississippi State University. Department of Instructional Systems, Leadership and Workforce Development. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis documents an action research project that was carried out within the Department of Computing Sciences at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), South Africa, from January 2010 to December 2011. The overall aim of the research was to foster an environment in which academics could explore ways to teach using an integrative approach to education. Previous research within the department had raised the concern that students were graduating without the type of high-level cognitive skills that were required in the workplace. While the students’ technical skills were perceived as being excellent, employers indicated that students would benefit from opportunities to develop or improve skills such as communication, teamwork, innovative thinking and time management. These skills include high-level cognitive skills, and are often referred to as “soft skills”. The academics participating in the research project came to believe that it was essential to develop teaching methods that would provide opportunities for students to develop these soft skills, in conjunction with the content and technical knowledge currently addressed in their courses. The research project followed the living theory approach to action research. A living theory action research project allows the researcher to investigate her own teaching, and develop a theory of practice. The theory of practice can be applied to the issues under investigation, to improve the situation or solve problems. At the same time, the theory of practice can contribute to the body of knowledge within the academic domain of the research. Action research is an iterative, cyclical process. There were four research cycles, each one semester in length, during the two years of the project. The project will continue, with a fifth research cycle, starting in January 2012. By the end of the fourth research cycle—Semester Two, 2011—there were eleven academics actively participating in the research group. The project had extended its influence to include academics from the Department of Mathematics at NMMU. The academics ranged from senior, long-serving professors to junior lecturing staff. The results of the research, or the researcher-practitioner’s living theory, explain the process by which an effective and enthusiastic community of practice, dedicated to improving the academics’ teaching and learning practice, was developed. The living theory is applicable to academics within a scientific discipline, desiring to explore and improve their education practice. My living theory explains the characteristics of the TLC (The Learning Community) space, and the action strategies for creating such a space. The explanation of the process of this project includes an analysis of the development process of the research group, typical characteristics of the environment or “space” of the group, and action strategies that other academics could use to create a similar community of practice.

<div>Previous studies indicated that calculus courses are considered `weed-out' courses as a lot of students in STEM majors struggle to pass. Instructors and researchers explored various instructional methods to facilitate calculus learning, however, more tailored instructional strategies are still needed. Inventing Contrasting Case is a strategy that has been proven effective in transfer, yet, its effect when combined with the motivational factor and across various content areas should be investigated further. Therefore, this study investigated the relationship between participants' motivation, instruction condition, and the performance on the direct application and transfer problems using Calculus 1 content. The data was collected from undergraduate students in STEM majors at a Midwestern university who were required to complete a Calculus 1 course to attain their degree. Eighty-one students participated for the study. Participants were assigned to either the iCalCulus (iCC) group or the Tell and Practice (TP) group. The study consisted of two separate sessions. In Session 1, participants were provided with a motivation survey, calculus course experience survey, pre-requisite knowledge check test, ICC task or TP task, and post-test. Seven days later, participants took a delayed post-test (Sesson 2). Google Forms was used to create study materials. The results from Bayesian independent sample t-test analyses indicated that the iCC group did not outperform the TP group in direct application problems. In addition, the iCC group did not outperform the TP group in PFL problems in either test. However, the ICC group outperformed the TP group in the further PFL problems from the delayed post-test (BF01 = .096, p = .003). The results from Bayesian one-way ANCOVA analyses indicated that there was the moderate idence that supports the effect of group condition on direct application, Preparation for Future Learning (PFL) performance from the post-test, while controlling for the average pre-requisite knowledge check test score and motivational level. The results also indicated that there was from moderate to strong evidence to support that group condition had an eect on PFL performance from the delayed post-test (Session 2), and the further PFL performance from both post-test and delayed post-test while controlling for the average pre-requisite knowledge check test score. In addition, motivational level was shown to not be an effective moderator between instructional condition and performance in PFL problems. The results from GLM repeated measure analyses showed the ICC strategy had a more significant effect on the participants regarding PFL performance and further PFL performance over time as there was a significant cross-over interaction effect between the time and the instruction condition (p = .012, <b>η_p²= .</b>08 for PFL performance and p = .003, <b>η_p²</b> = .11 for further PFL performance). The direction for potential future studies is addressed in the conclusion section including the importance of developing curriculum to train students' transfer ability; and a new type of assessment to measure transfer is offered for consideration.</div>

The focus of this quasi-experimental study was to examine the impact of explicit instruction of science comparison and contrast macro text structures plus micro text structures on the content learning, sentence comprehension, and reading comprehension of eighth-grade English Learners (ELs) and non-English Learners (non-ELs) in three inclusive science classrooms. Although the results of this study did not show significant differences between groups in sentence comprehension, reading comprehension, or science content learning, the treatment group increased and maintained their science content learning scores over time, while the scores of the comparison group declined from post-test to delayed post-test. In addition, the researcher sought to determine whether sentence combination scores were a predictor of reading comprehension scores. The results showed that sentence combination scores were good predictors for reading comprehension.

Orientador: Jair Lopes Junior / Banca: Kester Carrara / Banca: Sérgio Dias Cirino / Resumo: O modelo de mudança conceitual,de reconhecida difusão na área do Ensino de Ciências,foi alvo de diversas críticas e revisões ao longo dos mais de vinte anos desde sua proposição inicial. oder-se-ia afirmar,no entanto,que tanto os proponentes do modelo quanto seus críticos apresentam um enfoque restritivo no tratamento das medidas comportamentais correspondentes à ocorrência ou não de mudança conceitual. Admite-se,como hipótese deste trabalho,que o Behaviorismo Radical propicia ferramentas capazes de uma avaliação da pertinência das críticas dirigidas ao modelo e da própria proposta de avaliação dos resultados obtidos através de sua utilização,tal como apresentada por seus proponentes . Para tanto, o presente trabalho concentrou ênfase na tentativa de,considerando estudos que ilustram a difusão posterior do modelo em trabalhos empíricos,descrever as medidas comportamentais que parecem fundamentar inferências sobre a ocorrência ou não da mudança conceitual,analisando se e como o tratamento de tais medidas foi considerado em alguns dos artigos que expressam uma revisão crítica do modelo Argumenta-se que tais artigos falham em descrever semelhanças e diferenças dos instrumentos e das interações que definem a obtenção das medidas comportamentais de conhecimentos prévios e posteriores à intervenção,bem como as intervenções intencionalmente planejadas e as condições de avaliação que sucedem a tais intervenções. / Abstract: The conceptual change model, well-known spread in Science Teaching, has been reviewed and criticized, since its initial proposal, for over twenty years. It could be argued, however, that either authors or critics present a restrictive view concerning the behavioral measures related to the absence or occurrence of conceptual change. The hypothesis within this paper is that Radical Behaviorism provides tools that can assess the pertinence of criticisms toward the model as well as the result evaluation proposal obtained from their application, as referred to by their proponents. Thus, the emphasis of this paper, taking into account studies that illustrate the posterior spreading of the model in empirical applications, is the attempt to describe the behavioral measures that seem to support inferences about the occurrence or absence of conceptual change, analyzing whereas and how the treatment of such measures were considered in some articles expressing a critical revision of the model. We understand that such articles have failed to describe similarities and differences concerning the instruments and interactions that define the achievement of behavioral measures from the knowledge (and not about responses) before and after the intervention, as well as intentionally planned interventions and the assessment conditions subsequent to the interventions. / Mestre