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This thesis argues that an AS model in computer science needs to be independent of a BS model because their student populations are distinct. The first two years of a BS model cannot be successfully copied in the AS environment. The AS model curriculum must begin at a different level while also providing competencies comparable to those in the first two years of a BS curriculum.Three questions had to be addressed before an AS model could be formulated. 1) What is an AS in computer science? Specific attention was given to the AA, AAS, BA and BS degrees, along with computer engineering, information systems, systems analysis and data processing majors. 2) How does the student population of the AS differ from other degrees? Compared to their BS counterpart, the AS population is weighted toward female, older, ethnicly diverse, mobile, part-time, remedial students who have additional responsibilities. 3) Lastly, is there a need for standardization? An unequivocable yes was the answer. After exploring these questions a model was presented.The proposed model attempted to address the primary goals of the educational, industrial and accreditation organizations (AACJC, ACM and CSAB). A very explicit description of the model was followed by two implementations. / Department of Computer Science

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<p>This study explored the problem of poor performance in science among students who are provided secondary school places on merit in Malawi. Existing studies of the problem are inconsistent suggesting that these studies may have shed light on some parts of a complex problem. Questionnaires, interviews and analysis of documents were used to obtain information concerning students&rsquo / conceptions of science, science learning and events that eventuated into the problem in the past. The population for this study was 89 government and governmentassisted secondary schools. From that population eighteen schools were randomly selected from each of the six education divisions in the country. One thousand five hundred secondary class 3 students drawn from randomly selected schools participated. The participating students completed a 31item learning beliefs and practices&nbsp / questionnaire with items drawn from the science education literature and adapted to the local situation and a selfefficacy and attribution of failure questionnaire. Forty students were interviewed about their concepts of science and science learning. Relevant documents found in the Malawi National Archives were analyzed to determine the origin of the problem.</p>

The importance of developing learners’ scientific literacy in both the fundamental and derived senses has been highlighted by Norris & Phillips (2003). Development of the derived sense of science, which is dependent on the development of a sound fundamental sense of science, aims at promoting scientifically literate societies who are able to make informed decisions concerning the natural environment and the promotion of sustainable livelihoods. In turn, response to increasing recognition of environmental degradation, the United Nations’ Decade of Education for Sustainable Development advocated that the principles, values and practices of sustainable development should be integrated into all aspects of education and learning. However, despite these aspirations, the difficulties of insufficient teacher knowledge and a lack of in-service training, both abroad and within South Africa, remain a challenge. In response to this challenge this study investigated the potential of an Integrated Scientific Literacy Strategy (which aimed at increasing in-service teacher knowledge and skills) to contribute to ESD by developing more scientifically literate teachers and learners in primary education. The study was conducted in 2010 in the Port Elizabeth Metropolitan area in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The study sample comprised seven schools, with a total of nine teachers and 243 learners participating. As the research is situated within the pragmatic paradigm, a mixed methods approach was followed using Creswell and Plano Clark’s (2007) embedded design’s correlational model whereby quantitative data are rooted within a qualitative design to help verify and explain the outcomes. Qualitative measures were generated through teacher interviews and an analysis of their written portfolios. These data were triangulated against quantitative test data gained from an ANCOVA statistical analysis of the learners’ pre- and post-tests, and both the qualitative and quantitative data gleaned from classroom observations and an analysis of the learners’ science notebooks. The data suggest that, when properly implemented, the Integrated Scientific Literacy Strategy can be used to help teachers develop their learners’ scientific literacy by exposing them to open-ended inquiry investigations. Statistically significant differences (p ≤ 0.01; d=0.88) were noted when comparing improvements in learners’ abilities and understandings of scientific investigations (graphs, variables, inquiry and investigable questions) between those learners whose teachers successfully implemented the strategy in their classrooms, and those learners whose teachers were considered to be ‘non-implementers’ of the strategy. Data from this study also suggest that the successful use of the ISLS enables teachers to integrate issues relating to sustainable development into their natural science lessons. In addition, the learner-orientated approach of the strategy also enabled the learners to engage in autonomous learning environments, aspects of which have been identified as being important for meaningfully learning about and internalising important issues related to ESD.

The purpose of this study was to discover the amount of growth in understanding of certain social science concepts that appears throughout the junior-senior high school; to compare the degrees of understanding achieved by low and high I.Q. groups; and to determine the causes of the various errors made by the students. Two interpretive tests, based on concepts typical of those appearing in social studies text books, were constructed and administered to 371 pupils in Social Studies I, III, and V classes of representative city schools. Results of both tests showed a gradual growth in the ability on the part of the groups tested to understand certain social concepts. On both tests there was a significant difference between the mean scores of Social Studies I, III, and V groups. In any one group there was no significant difference between boys and girls mean scores. Pupils of high I.Q,’s in the Social Studies I and V groups made higher scores than did those of less ability. Coefficients of correlation between I.Q.'s and test scores of both tests also indicated that the ability to understand certain social concepts was somewhat related to intelligence. An analysis of responses made to Test I items revealed that errors may be caused by verbalism, over-potency of certain sentence elements, difficulties arising out of figurative language, confusion with other concepts of similar spelling or sounds, "reading errors", and a complete failure to grasp the meaning of the concept. In Test II, verbalism, "reading errors", failure to follow directions, failure to weigh evidence, failure to interpret quantitative terms, and failure to compare trends contributed to the inadequacy of responses. Little difference in causes of errors was found to exist between high and low I.Q, groups at the Social Studies I and V levels. In general, throughout the groups studied, pupils did better on questions of a straightforward, fact-finding nature than they did on those requiring interpretation of data. Test results for the groups studied indicated that pupils need more opportunity to express themselves in writing, that is to tell in their own words what a concept means to them. Moreover, students need practice in interpretation of data exercises in order that they may learn to think critically, weigh evidence, and avoid drawing conclusions from insufficient data. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

This study has emerged from concerns expressed by science students, educators, and researchers, and from my own teaching experience, that writing in school science often remains disconnected from students' experience, and rarely stimulates further learning. The purpose of this study is to explore the potential of open, expressive writing tasks to illustrate students' understanding of the phenomena of floating and sinking. A specially selected series of seven explorations in physical properties of matter provide a rich context for Grade Eight students and I, their teacher, to experience and explore this topic. The interconnections between lab explorations and writing in school science, and the interactions in a classroom fostering science inquiry, are central to this study. A classroom-based story is unraveled from an enactivist perspective. My analysis of students' writing tasks and reflections on learning illuminates possibilities for encouraging personal connections and embodied writing in science class. Students' insights into learning about science and about themselves through expressive ways of writing shape this story. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

During the years since 1929 it has been the privilege of the writer to serve as a teacher in the science department of the high school at Stockton, California. During those years he has been associated with students of all four years of the high school, with a slight majority of the time spent with students of the first two years of high school. Inevitably, certain observations occurred. With those observations, certain convictions, beliefs, and desires to assist, developed concerning the students who pass through our schools. It is only natural, therefore, that one in such a position should be imbued with the desire to do something about it". It is with the outgrowth of that desire that the following pages deal. Therefore, it is deemed of value to enumerate a few of the observations which led to the formulation of the outline with which the pages that follow are to be concerned. 1. Many students have need for a broad, more comprehensive, and generally non-mathematical background in science, as considered in a purely personal and cultural aspect. 2. Many of the students when in the ninth grade have the intelligence, but not the maturity, to grasp some of the ideas and facts presented in the ninth grade general science. 3. Many highly intelligent students, capable of genuine culture, do not reach college. However, they are in serious need of a general scientific background for later thought, reading, interest, and general use in everyday life. 4. Many students who do go to college will not major in the scientific field and, therefore, do not need merely one special science in high school, but one in whose study there is the possibility of broader application. 5. Many students in the upper classes in high school need a chance to do exploratory work in the field of science in an attempt to orient themselves in choosing a vocation. 6. Many students who will go to college are forced to take a particular science when both their needs and interest suggest a more general contact with science. It seems quite evident that the students mentioned above are to be found in all classes in the high school. However, the majority are in what may be called the middle fifty percent, that is, the two quartiles between the extremely bright on the one hand and those in the quartile of lowest ability. It is toward the better student of this middle group that attention is directed chiefly. Further, it is this group which has been neglected grossly in the past. In the early days when our public school system was in process of development, the schools were chiefly concerned with training men for the law, medicine, or for the ministry. This gave attention to a very select group and placed emphasis on the classics and specialized scientific field. To return to the type of student served by the schools, not until the early nineteen twenties did the poorer student come in for this share in attention and concern. The educational trend of that decade might be compared to a pendulum, which, having been started at the peak of its swing, rushes past the central point to become almost suspended for a time on the opposite side, and then to oscillate between these two extremes--attention to the very able student on the one hand and concern for the "slow" student and the "problem" child on the other hand. Therefore, is not action long overdue in caring for the needs, desires, and abilities of the great middle group, which, in the last analysis, go to make up the backbone our national life, thought, and culture? It is with the intention of serving this group and giving it some of the attention which it has been denied for so long, that this outline was developed.

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published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education