Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This thesis relates the teaching of ecology in schools to the requirements of the National Curriculum Statements, Grades R-9 and Grades 10-12, for Natural and Life Sciences. It examines the conceptual understanding of the learners to determine their level of bioliteracy. The effectiveness of various teaching strategies in enhancing bioliteracy is considered. The study was a case study involving classroom observations of Grades 4 to 7 at a primary school and Grades 8 to 11 at a high school in the Western Cape of South Africa, and the administration of a misconceptions questionnaire to learners in Grades 8 to 11. The Department of Education did not allow researchers into the Grade 12 classes. To counter this, the misconceptions questionnaire was also administered to first-year Life Science students and to students in one second-year course in the Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology. It was administered to a small sample of the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) students (prospective teachers) at the University of the Western Cape, in order to determine whether misconceptions would be carried into their teaching. In-depth interviews which focussed on the particular student's misconceptions were used to verify the misconceptions which the first-year students held. The questionnaire revealed that learners lacked an understanding of photosynthesis and respiration, which forms the basis for an understanding of food chains and energy flow within an ecosystem. Learners were confused about ecology and did not understand basic concepts. The misconceptions held in high school carried over to university, as shown by the fact that the first-year Life Science students, tested before they had had any lectures, still held many of the misconceptions that were found among the high school learners. A few second-year students still held misconceptions, but their understanding of photosynthesis and respiration was better than that of first-year students. The questionnaire also revealed that learners lack language skills. Good language skills are necessary for the development of scientific literacy.

Lärares sätt att förhålla sig till felsvar i matematiken är ett relativt outforskat område. I denna kvalitativa fallstudie var syftet att synliggöra hur en lärare kan använda sig av elevers felsvar för att skapa rika matematiksamtal i undervisningen. Med hjälp av en observation av en matematiklektion samt uppföljande stimulated recall-intervju, har det undersökts hur lära- ren kan framkalla och utnyttja felsvar för att skapa rika matematiksamtal. Resultaten visar att lärare kan framkalla felsvar genom att etablera normer där det är accepterat att säga fel. Tre strategier verkar särskilt användbara för att utnyttja felsvar: Räkna ut lösningen i helklass för att undersöka var svaret brister, jämföra elevernas olika resonemang samt ifrågasätta elever- nas resonemang. Framkallandet och utnyttjandet av felsvar kan då skapa rika matematiksam- tal där elever utmanas att försvara olika resonemang och gemensamt komma överens med sina klasskamrater om vilken lösning som fungerar bäst, alltså konsensus. / Teachers ways of using misconceptions and wrong answers in the mathematics classroom is not a very researched concept. The aim of this case study was to shed light on the different ways in which teachers can use students’ wrong answers in the mathematics classroom to create rich mathematical conversations. By observing a mathematics lesson and organising a stimulated recall interview, this study has investigated how a teacher induces wrong answers from students and uses these answers to create rich mathematic discussions. The results of this study show that teachers can induce wrong answers by establishing norms where there is an overall acceptance for wrong answers. Three strategies seem to be beneficial to use the wrong answers to create rich conversations: calculate the wrong answer and in whole class-education investigate where it fails, comparing the children’s opinions and reasoning and questioning the pupil´s reasoning. The inducing and using of the misconceptions can create rich mathe- matical discussions where the children can be challenged to explain different reasoning and in children’s work in reaching an agreement in the mathematics classroom.

The challenges of learning programming have been revealed in studies for decades. Many of the difficulties and misconceptions derive from, or go unassisted by, the syntax and semantics of the programming language used in introductory (CS1) courses. Despite the plethora of empirical data available, the designs of common general-purpose languages have arguably not been based on such data, possibly being one explanation to why novices continue to struggle. Through a literature review, this article first reviews what languages are commonly used in CS1 courses, studies on difficulties and misconceptions held by novices, and other factors that can be exploited in the design of more suitable introductory languages. Thereafter, a new text-based general-purpose programming language called Frendli is introduced, as well as the justifications for design decisions based on the findings presented. The language is intended for use in the beginning stages of introductory courses. The literature review revealed that novices often struggle with understanding fundamental concepts such as function parameters, return values, the need for variable declarations, and the order of execution. It also demonstrated that several syntactic and semantic design features of both C-style languages like Java and syntactically simpler ones like Python are problematic for novices. The author would argue that a language used for teaching programming should intuitively convey universal programming concepts through its syntax, minimize interference and ambiguity of syntax, and have syntactic and semantic consistency. Designing languages based on studies on novices can hopefully assist students in their learning and instructors in their teaching.

The aim of this study was to quantitatively measure refutation text's power for conceptual change while qualitatively discovering students' preference of refutation or expository text structures. This study also sought to examine if religious interest levels predict conceptual change. Participants for this study were 9th, 10th-, 11th-, and 12th-grade seminary students from the private religious educational system of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). The study was conducted in two sessions. Session 1 involved pretesting, interventions, and posttesting. Session 2 involved delayed posttesting and participant interviews. Results were predominately measured quantitatively with some qualitative interview analysis added to enrich the study. This research study provides insight into the refutation text effects in LDS religious education. Results of the study showed significant differences in conceptual change between participants reading refutation texts and those reading expository texts. In every case, the refutation text group performed higher on posttests than did the expository group. Results also showed participant preference toward refutation text structures. Furthermore, the study found significant correlations that verify topic interest as a possible predictor of conceptual change. Insights are valuable in aiding curriculum developers in implementing effective ways to teach doctrinal principles by utilizing refutation text interventions. The advantages of this research study add to educational research and identify areas for improvement and exploration in further research. This study of refutation text effects in religious education also broadens researchers' understanding of refutation text's power for conceptual change in subjects outside of K-12 science. Results of this study are of interest to researchers, teachers, curriculum writers, and LDS seminary teachers and administrators.

<p>Undergraduate engineering students usually face difficulties understanding electric circuit concepts. Some of those difficulties regard with misconceptions students bring into the classroom and develop during the learning process. Additionally, the increasing complexity of the topics along the fundamental electric circuits course constitutes another factor to those difficulties students experience. Another component we can add to this equation consists of the need of modernize and actualize the curriculum to meet the society’s demands of the next taskforce. Therefore, it is important to investigate the conceptual difficulties students experience when they analyze complex electric circuits. In this dissertation, I identify what those conceptual difficulties are when undergraduate sophomore engineering students attempt to analyze solid-state device circuits. The context of this research comprises a modernized version of the traditional fundamental electric circuits course. This modernized version includes DC analysis, 1^st order transient analysis, AC, and solid-state device analysis. </p> <p>This dissertation took the form of three individual but complementary studies. Each study contributes to partially answer the overall research question. However, each study answered its own research problem. The first study attempted for identifying what concepts beginning students find challenging regarding semiconductors physics, diodes, and transistors. The second study identified student’s misconceptions when they analyze two solid-state device circuits, one with a diode, and the other with a transistor. The final study looked for determining what misconceptions students use at both earlier and more advances stages along the course. This study also searched for understanding how students move through conceptual changes along the semester. </p> <p>The general findings comprise three main points. First, students bring misconceptions into the classroom probably built from their previous experiences. Second, they also can develop those misconceptions through the learning process. This is particularly key regarding the relatively new and complex topics from student’s perspectives. Finally, language plays an important role on the kind of misconceptions students develop. How students perceive the professional community use language contributes to either consolidate or modify old misconceptions or develop new ones.</p>

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Students of all ages host a wide variety of scientifically inaccurate ideas and conceptions about everyday astronomical phenomena, such as the seasons, the moon phases, and gravity. The field of Astronomy Education Research has over the last decade experienced an accelerating growth, although the majority of studies have been conducted in the USA. In this work, the 9th grade students of a typical Swedish school were surveyed by means of a questionnaire in order to probe their conceptual understanding of several key concepts in astronomy. In the end, the number of respondents amassed to a total of 90. The results were analyzed with a constructivist approach in light of conceptual change theory and phenomenological primitives. In conjunction to this a postmodern view of the problem in question is presented. The compiled numbers were compared to the results of American high school students found in the large database of A Private Universe Project. The two samples were found to display only minor differences. Most notably, only around one in ten Swedish students could correctly account for the origin of the seasons, and only a very small percentage could point out the true distance-relation between the Earth and the Moon. In addition, approximately half of the students did not know the reason for why the Moon changes phase, and one in every four or five students believes there are stars between the planets in the Solar system. An analysis of the student sample was also made after separating out students who will obtain further education in astronomy in upper secondary school. With only one exception, no differences between the groups were found, suggesting that the misconceptions treated in this survey are present among all groups of students up to a certain educational level. However, in the group not intending to study more astronomy an astonishing 72 % had incorrect beliefs regarding the day/night cycle, indicating a possible fundamental lack of conceptual understanding about one of the most everyday astronomy-related concepts.

The theory of evolution is the central combing theory that brings together all the tenets of biology that bring about a solid understanding of life. It is also one of the most controversial scientific theories of all time and is widely rejected by about 40% of the general public in the United States. One of the biggest reasons for low evolution acceptance is the perceived conflict between evolution and religious beliefs. Educators and researchers have been working hard to improve how we teach evolution in the classroom; some methods, such as focusing on evolution knowledge, have shown to be mixed. Sometimes it works; other times, it does not, especially with highly religious students. Other methods have shown promising, such as using culturally competent approaches when teaching highly religious students. This is where we have focused our research on reconciling religious beliefs and evolutionary theory. First, in Chapter 1, we strengthened our understanding of the theory of evolution by studying a genus of damselfly in the South Pacific. Through our molecular analyses, we described a new genus, Nikoulabasis. In Chapter 2, we studied a unique of teaching evolution to religious students. We highlighted three of the most compelling reasons students changed their minds about evolution and gave suggestions for improving evolution education in the classroom. In Chapter 3, we created and validated the predictive Factors of Evolution Acceptance and Reconciliation (pFEAR) survey tool as a way for educators to better understand what worldview factors influence students' evolution acceptance. This chapter also gives suggestions to educators on how to use the pFEAR in their classrooms. In Chapter 4, we reviewed the literature to determine the influence of popular media on students learning evolution. Evolution misconceptions come from various sources such as social interactions, religious settings, textbooks, and even teachers. But few studies looked at the influence of popular media on evolution misconceptions. In Chapter 5, we viewed and watched student mentioned evolution references and determined the accuracy with which they depicted evolution. Of the 99 references we viewed, 94% of them depicted evolution accurately.

All students come to the classroom with their own ideas about a number of science phenomena. In the classroom setting, English language learners may have ideas about heat and temperature that present additional challenges for teachers. In fact, their ideas can stem from many different influences and English language learners (ELL), in particular, may have misconceptions about topics and language barriers, or misconceptions, that are culturally or language-based (Lee, 2001). This action research thesis was performed to explore the research questions: How did my use of formative assessment affect ELL students' misconceptions about heat?, How did my use of formative assessment uncover students' misconceptions about heat? Formative assessments were used in the classroom to uncover students' misconceptions about heat and temperature. The students performed labs based on the formative assessment activity sheets. The students answer before and after questions related to the labs. Data were collected and analyzed to examine changes in ELL students' conceptions of heat and temperature. Data showed that some ELL students changed their ideas about heat and temperature but other misconceptions remained. Time allotted to instruction and alignment of laboratory activities with formative assessments need to be further explored to address changing students' ideas about heat and temperature.

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