This dissertation explores the context of urban science education as it relates to the achievement and engagement of urban youth. This study provides a framework for Hip-Hop Pedagogy, an approach to teaching and learning anchored in the creative elements of Hip-Hop culture, in STEM as an innovative approach to teaching and learning demonstrates the effect that Hip-Hop Pedagogy, as a culturally relevant approach to teaching has on teaching and learning in an urban science classroom. This study establishes practical tools and approaches, which were formed from by theory and research that transcend the traditional monolithic approaches to teaching science. Participants in this study are middle school students who attend an urban school in one of the largest school systems in the country. This research showed that as result of utilizing Hip-Hop pedagogical practices, students reported that they developed a deeper understanding of science content, students were more likely to identify as scientists, and students were provided a space and opportunities to deconstruct traditional classroom spaces and structures.

Urban and multicultural science teacher education research seeks to educate new science teachers to more fully understand ‘Science-for-all’ and prepare them to effectively navigate urban classrooms. Therefore, to successfully enhance ‘Science-for-all,’ there is a need to address what the labeling (i.e., categorical labeling and/or mislabeling) of students with disabilities means for science teacher education, its research and practice. Consequently, we need more research in this nascent field to ground this claim in evidence rather than speculation, especially as the disproportionality of students of color being placed in special education becomes more prevalent for all disciplines. This dissertation used a phenomenographic design to study a cohort of graduate students’ conceptualizations of disability and difference as they progressed through the only required diversity course in a science education program at a large, urban university in the American northeast. Twenty-two students within this ‘Science-for-all’ course participated in the study, with a subset of ten that opted into a more in-depth data collection. Data collection included in-depth interviews, a modified Pedagogy of Science Teaching Test (POSTT-DIS), and a Classroom Learning Environment Questionnaire, as well as bi-weekly course reflections and bi-weekly lessons created by the participants. Mixed-methods data analyses addressed to what extent these graduate students embraced a Disability Studies in Education perspective relative to disability and also whether the students developed a critical lens toward difference (i.e., expressed, imagined, and/or imposed variations in human behavior and potential). Further analyses explored to what extent these theoretical elements transferred into pragmatic applications by the participants, for example in their lesson planning, that addressed disability and difference to provide evidence of their capabilities to bridge theory to practice. Findings suggest that the course maintained the relatively static conceptualizations about disability held by the participants – the likely contributing factors are explored in more depth, including recommendations for improvement. The data also suggest that while students in this course were able to theorize critically about multicultural issues in urban science education, their capacities to reflect on their pedagogical decisions and plan comprehensive ‘Science-for-all’ classroom learning environments remained disciplinary focused. Thus, rather than emphasizing critical pedagogies that are pertinent for effective and transformative change in science education for diverse populations, the participants remained focused on narrowly defined, content-specific ways of teaching and learning science. Implications for this research include focusing on both the goals and implementations of courses such as this one, attending to the unique case of disability as outside the realm of conceptualizing difference, and attending to graduate students’ needs to help them bridge the divide between theory to practice.

According to science teacher educators, science teachers often struggle to embrace and implement multicultural teaching practices due to limited awareness of the biases, assumptions, and oppressive structures that hinder the success of Students of Color in science classrooms. At its core, teachers lack this awareness due to incomplete understanding of the ways identity markers, such as race, gender, and socioeconomic status, work together to shape one’s coming into, understanding of, and success in the sciences. To this end, this case study features four science teachers of diverse backgrounds who engaged in a book club structured to support their understanding of their intersectionality and their identity development. These four science teachers met as a science department to engage with the text Black Feminist Thought (BFT) (Collins, 2009) and other critical texts over a six-month period at a New York City, charter high school. The findings revealed the ways racial stereotypes, propagated by many factors ― including images of scientists, relationships with teachers, and expectations of peers and family ― influenced their coming into and understanding of science. Additionally, the findings show the ways teachers discovered their intersectionality —particularly the interplay of their race and gender— influenced their approaches to teaching science. As teachers learned about the multidimensionality of their positional identities, they became aware of discriminatory structures of power that disadvantage their Black female science students and reported implementing more student-centered pedagogical practices. Altogether, this study offers a professional development model for building critical consciousness with inservice secondary science teachers.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, 2014. / Outcomes-based education was introduced into South Africa almost 20 years ago amidst much controversy. During the period of my study, a modified version of the outcomes-based curriculum was in use, i.e. the Revised National Curriculum Statement Grades R-9. In this curriculum, critical and learning outcomes were described and a learner-centred approach advocated which would enable learners to achieve the outcomes. Human reproduction was introduced as one of the content areas in the senior phase of the Natural Sciences. Human reproduction is a sensitive but very relevant topic in South Africa where HIV/AIDS, teenage pregnancy and child abuse are prevalent and so was selected as a Grade 7 topic in one educational district of Gauteng. In my study, I was interested in finding out what factors influenced Grade 7 teachers' implementation of outcomes-based approaches when teaching Human Reproduction. I explored the use of learner-centred approaches and the extent to which the critical and Natural Sciences learning outcomes could be achieved through these approaches. Firstly I wanted to know to what extent Grade 7 teachers used outcomes-based and learner-centred approaches when teaching human reproduction. Secondly I was interested in the factors that influenced the teaching of human reproduction. Thirdly I set out to find which factors affected the use of outcomes-based and learner-centred approaches during the teaching of human reproduction. Lastly the influence of teachers' behavioural, normative and control beliefs on their teaching of human reproduction in outcomes-based and learner-centred ways were of interest. My theoretical framework took into account the above-mentioned factors and beliefs about the influence of these factors and their possible impact on teaching human reproduction in outcomes-based and learner-centred ways. My research involved a workshop for Natural Sciences teachers on the teaching of human reproduction to Grade 7's, followed by a survey. Forty teachers completed the survey questionnaire in which they recorded their perceptions of the expected influence of the learners, the learning environment and support structures, as well as teachers' beliefs, on the teaching of human reproduction. Ten of these teachers participated as the case studies in my multiple case study, forming a convenience sample. I used a mixed methods approach in my investigation, starting with the survey questionnaire and then narrowing my focus to the ten case study teachers and becoming a participant observer in their classes. I recorded my data in field notes and as digital recordings of class discussions and when teachers had completed teaching human reproduction, I interviewed them. The data from the questionnaires, interview and lesson transcripts and field notes were analysed and conclusions drawn. I used profiles to assess the achievement of the critical and learning outcomes by each teacher and to assess the extent to which each teacher used learner-centred approaches when teaching human reproduction. A cross case analysis enabled me to compare the teachers with regard to each outcome and learner-centred feature. Some quantitative data from my surveys and mostly qualitative data from my observations and interviews were used to explore the influence of factors internal to the teacher, i.e. personal and professional factors, and those external to the teacher such as the learners, the iii learning environment and support structures. I also used the qualitative data to identify the influence of behavioural, normative and control beliefs about teaching human reproduction in outcomes-based ways on practice. My findings were that all teachers taught towards some outcomes and used some learner-centred approaches and these differed amongst teachers. The profiles enabled me to identify overall strengths of each teacher as an outcomes-based and learner-centred teacher, and the cross-case analysis indicated which outcomes were being met by learners through the teaching and learning approaches used. I found that the learning environment, and in particular the provision of or lack of learning support materials and other resources, impacted on the achievement of the outcomes. The school principals, colleagues, parents and friends proved to be mostly very supportive of the teaching of human reproduction and the need for strong communities of practice became evident. The choice of language was seen as a dilemma but my findings pointed to the use of home language or preferably code-switching to promote conceptual development and the development of English language skills. Cultural beliefs of learners contributed to their prior knowledge, and religious beliefs influenced some teachers who promoted more conservative values amongst their learners regarding sexuality. The need for clear boundaries on what could be discussed in class became evident, to protect both the teacher and learner from intrusion into their personal lives. Group work was seen as an important approach for this sensitive topic, and the need for workshops to strengthen teacher's subject content knowledge and thus their self efficacy when teaching human reproduction and to build strong communities of practice in which ideas and experiences could be shared amongst teachers, was a finding of this study. In conclusion, some teachers were more outcomes-based and learner-centred than others. Subject content knowledge, choice of an appropriate language or language mix for teaching and learning, suitable learning environments with adequate learning support materials, school, district and parental support for the teaching of human reproduction all promoted a teachers sense of self-efficacy and made a difference to their teaching of human reproduction using outcomes-based approaches.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Thesis (M.Ed.) --University of Limpopo, 2011 / Misconceptions learners bring to class are in sharp contrast to acceptable science. These misconceptions emanate from a variety of sources including the way educators teach, textbooks used by teachers and from life experiences. These misconceptions at high school (Grade 10) are a potential source of learning difficulty regarding understanding how salts dissolve in water. To assist learners to overcome such difficulties, learner-centred and activity-based intervention, Predict-Observe-explain (POE), was used in this study. The sample consisted of 93 Grade 10 Physical Sciences learners from two neighbouring schools situated in Moutse West circuit, Sekhukhune District, Limpopo Province. 53% of the students involved in this study were males and 47% were females. The purpose of this study was to investigate Grade 10 Science learners’ conceptual understanding of dissolved salts and to explore the use of POE strategy in order to reduce learners’ misconceptions about the dissolved salts. The study also, explored students’ prior knowledge of concepts related to the dissolved salts and determined the effectiveness of POE strategy on males and females. A quasi-experimental design was used where the experimental group (EG) used POE strategy during treatment and where the control group (CG) used the traditional teaching using lecturing and demonstrations. Before the start of the study, both groups wrote a pre-test using the Achievement Test (AT) to determine science baseline knowledge. Thereafter the intervention for EG and lecturing for CG followed and lasted for five weeks. After the intervention, both groups wrote the post-test to determine learners’ achievements. The post-test was followed by interviews to discover issues that were not identified during the AT. The quantitative data were analysed using both the t-test and the Analysis of Co-variance (ANCOVA). The qualitative data collected through interviews were coded to form themes and later themes were organised in categories. The results show that EG performed better in the post-test than the CG their counterpart. More importantly, this study identified two new misconceptions that have not been reported in the literature: salts dissolve in water when it is in ‘fine’ grains; and solid sodium chloride is not an ionic compound. Furthermore, findings from AT revealed that students’ conceptual understanding of how salts are formed, how salts dissolve in water and how salts ionise improved dramatically especially from the EG, but not for the CG. Data collected on the AT post-test for EG show that males (mean 21.13 ± 9.72 SD) achieved better than females (mean 12.73 ± SD 5.97) and t-test p = 0.004. On macro level concepts, females from CG achieved higher scores than the males from the same group. Conversely, on micro level, the CG achievements were lower than the EG in males and females, suggesting that POE favours the reduction of misconceptions not only at macroscopic levels, but also at microscopic levels. The findings in this study highlight the need for educators, curriculum developers and textbook writers to work together in order to include various elements of POE in the curriculum as a model for conceptual change at high school science classroom.

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Although a concern for gender equity provided the framework for this research, the results of this study highlighted the fact that the question of equity should be broadened to include concern for the tier of talented women and men who currently choose not to persist in an undergraduate computer science major. This investigation captured the experience of three male and two female first year undergraduate computer science majors (and two instructors) over the course of their first two college terms. Sources of data included interviews, classroom observations, electronic mail journal comments, and casual conversation. Subtle elements of potential gender discrimination were a part of the rich data collected but the students did not mention such factors. Rather, in faithfully portraying the students' perspectives, this research presented the students' candid discussion of the function of more obvious factors in their experiences. Difficulties with concepts of mathematical proof and computer programming were significant factors in the students' experiences. Students not experienced with mathematical proof or computer programming failed to develop an understanding of the basic principles in the respective course. Student difficulties were matched by the struggles of teaching faculty as they looked for input to support improvement in their teaching. Many of the factors identified by the students were found in the general undergraduate experience. All of the students knew little about careers in computer science and were anxious to learn more. The female students wanted their career to involve work they enjoyed. The male students wanted assurances that they could compete and find financial security in their career. The students valued support they found in a variety of forms and were disappointed in the lack of support found in advising sessions. Students struggled with inadequate study skills to meet demanding course expectations. This research identified factors in the culture of undergraduate computer science education that impacted students' decisions to persist, or not persist, in the field. The results indicate changes and provide a basis for the design of interventions aimed at creating an environment that will equitably support all persons in pursuit of an undergraduate computer science degree. / Graduation date: 1996

This work set out to investigate two questions: 1) what is the state of qualitative understanding of magnetism at various stages of expertise? 2) What approaches to problem-solving are used across the spectrum of expertise? I studied three groups: ten novices (university students who had completed one introductory course in electricity and magnetism), ten experts-in-training (upper division and graduate students) and 11 experts (physics professors and researchers). Data collection involved structured interviews during which participants solved a series of non-standard problems in magnetism while thinking out loud. The problems were designed to test for conceptual understanding. The interviews were audio taped, transcribed, and analyzed using a grounded theory approach. None of the novices and only a few of the experts in training showed a strong understanding of inductance, magnetic energy, and magnetic pressure; and for the most part they tended not to approach problems visually. Novices frequently described gist memories of demonstrations, text book problems, and rules (heuristics). However, these fragmentary mental models were not complete enough to allow them to reason productively. Experts-in-training were able to solve problems that the novices were not able to solve, many times simply because they had greater recall of the material, and therefore more confidence in their facts. Much of their thinking was concrete, based on mentally manipulating objects. Three, however, exhibited traits of experts, albeit not consistently. The experts solved most of the problems in ways that were both effective and efficient. Part of the efficiency derived from their ability to visualize and thus reason in terms of field lines. / text

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy