This thesis describes an analysis of science textbooks, eight years after the implementation of the Years 1-10 Queensland Science Syllabus, which suggested a move towards constructivist teaching in Queensland schools (QSSC 1999). The textbooks have been analysed for evidence of constructivism, and this has led to recommendations for writing better textbooks. This thesis has been written in five chapters. In Chapter 1, a review of literature develops a conceptual framework, which is the basis of this research. Chapter 2 describes the process used to develop its methodology, and Chapter 3 presents the results of this analysis. Chapters 4 and 5 discuss the findings of this research and its implications for textbook content and design. In the literature review the themes of constructivism and the nature of science and the use of textbooks by teachers are explored. It suggests that textbooks continue to be central to developing curriculum, that they are used as a reference and as an independent learning tool, rather than as a guide to enacting curriculum. It also shows constructivist teaching closely aligns with authentic science, that it moves school science closer to that practised by scientists, and that it can engender improvements in teaching practice and in student interest. The data from this research has been collected using an analytical grid developed from three successive trials, after the literature review showed no previously developed analytical grid was suitable. In this final version of the grid, Likert scales are used to observe four dimensions of constructivism in textbook activities: coherence (use knowledge and concepts in a range of contexts), student-centredness of inquiries, language used and analysis questions to practice making new knowledge claims. The unit of analysis was ecology chapters of four middle school science textbooks. The research questions asked in this study are as follows: • Is a constructivist approach discernable in the textbooks reviewed in terms of the four dimensions of constructivism identified in the literature review? • What elements of constructivism are readily identifiable, and therefore are easily included in textbooks? • What elements of constructivism are not discernable? The results of this research have been synthesised and show no textbook could be considered constructivist, although one textbook had inquiries that could be considered exemplary. Two of the textbooks had no claim to be constructivist because they lacked inquiries, and this is where students experience the methods of scientists and practise making knowledge claims.   Other conclusions of this research include the following: •All textbooks reviewed were deficient in at least one dimension of constructivism, and those with one inquiry cannot be constructivist; •Activities and contexts made textbooks more coherent; •Technical terms were reduced compared to what has been traditionally covered by textbooks, however technical terms are also essential to scientific literacy and need to be used appropriately; •Most methods of inquiries are prescribed, so they do not allow students to solve problems in their own relevant contexts; even in those textbooks with more inquiries; •There was little evidence of hypothetico-deductive reasoning in inquiries rather data collection and simple analysis were usually suggested. Guidelines for writing better textbooks have become apparent from this research. Coherent textbooks are inherently constructivist because they apply concepts across contexts, and have more inquiries. Inquiries with a rigorous, authentic hypothetico-deductive approach arise naturally when the methods, concepts and language of science are applied in contexts that students are likely to find relevant and interesting, and where real-life problems need to be solved. Adopting these recommendations could lead to textbooks being more centrally positioned in enacting curriculum than now, because they are more likely to be constructivist (and represent the best thinking in the field).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Syracuse University, 2008. / "Publication number: AAT 3333576."

Habilitationsschrift--Cologne. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 246-251).

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [103-106]).

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leave [103-106]). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph.D. (English)) - Rhodes University, 2007.

In this study I investigated the effect of a science literacy strategy on the development of grade six and seven second-language learners’ general literacy skills in both their home language (isiXhosa) and language of instruction (English). The scientific literacy strategy used focuses on reading to learn science, writing to learn science, classroom discussion and argumentation. A mixed method design was used. Quantitative data were collected from baseline and post-testing of language skills of learners. Qualitative measures were generated through interviews of learners and teachers and classroom observations. The sample comprised of seven grades six and seven (multigrade classrooms) classes in seven primary schools situated in the rural areas near Hogsback in the Eastern Cape (five experimental schools and two control schools). Mean differences between the experimental and control groups for the reading, listening, writing and speaking aspects of the literacy tests were computed and the data generated were treated statistically using Analysis of Variance. The qualitative data were used to gain deeper insights into the quantitative results. The data suggest that the science literacy strategy statistically significantly improved the learners reading skills in English, their listening skills in both English and isiXhosa, and their writing skills in isiXhosa over a six-month period. Possible explanations for these results are that the reading material was in English only, extensive use of code-switching from English to Xhosa was made by the teachers while teaching, and that learner classroom discussion and writing in isiXhosa was encouraged.

No description available.

Philosophy and Magic share a common root that goes back twenty thousand years to the role of the shaman in the village and his attempt to enact control over the surrounding forces of nature through ritual performance. During Greek and Roman times, philosophy leaves magic and religion as it turns towards language in order to bring understanding. In modern times, philosophy is mired in language games and has lost the practical power it once held to transform lives. In the first section of this thesis we will look at the history of magic and philosophy and how the two have changed over time. In the second section, we will examine the feeling of wonder and how being left speechless after witnessing a magic effect calls back to a simpler time in our lives before the existence of language. Throughout the thesis, we will examine the psychological, anthropological, archetypal, neurological and linguistic links that arise between the two professions. Finally, if magic and philosophy are still to be relevant today, we will look at the role that magic plays in the psyche of an educated society and we will consider how-by learning to think like magicians-philosophers and the practice of philosophy can be stronger and more useful in today's modern world.

This thesis reports on a comparison of four genres of scientific writing: the research article, university textbook, popular science article and science books for children. The comparison is based on a functional linguistic analysis of what are taken to be exemplary texts from these genres and focuses on the levels of register (or context of situation), genre (or context of culture) and ideology (loosely used to mean power relations reflected in and achieved through discourse). The textbooks and research article examined are found to be similar in register but distinct at the level of genre. Allowing for the difference in age of the readers. the study also finds broad similarity between textbooks and science hooks for children at both the levels of register and genre. Differences between popular science texts and the other three genres are particularly marked at the interpersonal level, and can be explained in terms of the popular science texts in the study being primarily news genres. Specifically, two of the popular texts in the study are issues reports (characterised by White 1997 as 'the discoveries of some authorised source'), while one is an opinion piece. The basis of the examination of ideological differences between the four genres is from the perspective of how each genre establishes objectivity, what each regards as constituting a fact, and power relations between reader and writer. Research science achieves objectivity by universalising propositions by removing association with people, time and place (Latour and Woolgar 1979). The research article functions to persuade readers (who represent the powerful research community) to accept knowledge claims (Myers ) 989). This persuasion must be accomplished through an appearance of objectivity through removal of human participants and without the more usual interpersonal devices such as attltudinal texis. Propositions become fact when they are accepted, and cited as uncontroversial by the research community. Like the research article, textbooks appear objective by removal of association with people. However, by contrast with research articles, writers of textbooks are more powerful than their readers are. Textbook writers, in summarising all information accepted as fact by the research community, are representative and mouthpiece of that powerful community. In privileging facts (scientists' ideas) over scientists themselves, textbooks extend the power differential noted by Myers (1989) between research community and individual researcher. Textbooks reify the fact and further bury the individual, containing only generic references to scientists. Science books for children, like textbooks, contain only generic references to scientists. They do, however, try to engage readers through illustrations and by identifying readers with scientists. Popular science texts are distinct from the other three genres in establishing writer objectivity through the journalistic means of attributing ideas and utterances to authoritative human participants in the text. Popular texts, because they report on findings that the research community has not yet endorsed as fact, are distinct from research articles and textbooks in representing findings as provisional and even controversial, and thus provide an insight into science as a social activity that is absent from the other genres. This research finds little evidence that popular science represents a simpler or more accessible form than textbooks. Indeed the similarity in register and genre between textbooks and science books for children calls into question the commonly-held conception of factual texts as inherently more difficult than forms such as narrative. This research indicates that research articles and textbooks are target forms for tertiary students and students in the later years of secondary school. Motivated by this, the researcher suggests that importing features of popular science writing into textbooks would be counter-productive. Instead she suggests a greater role for popular science texts themselves at secondary and at tertiary level. In providing an insight into scientists as people and the social nature of how facts are established, popular science texts can go some way to dispelling the mystique of science as authoritative and difficult. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.