The purpose of this study was to develop a better understanding of the patterns of science achievement for 154 ninth-grade girls and boys on multiple-choice and short-answer constructed-response items. The study was guided by a model, developed from an extensive review of the literature, incorporating the dimensions of generalised self-efficacy, item- specific self-efficacy and worry. These variables were operationalised through selected or specifically developed quantitative and/or qualitative research methods, and a series of equivalent multiple-choice and short-answer constructed-response achievement items was constructed for two different unit tests. The participants in the study rated their item-specific self-efficacies on 5-point Likert-type scales immediately before answering each of the achievement items, and they completed a series of worry items from Spielberger's Test Anxiety Inventory halfway through each test. Qualitative data were collected by surveying all the students and by interviewing selected students. The quasi-experimental analyses revealed the absence of any practically important gender-related differences in achievement for the multiple-choice and the constructed-response achievement items. However, the boys reported more item-specific self-efficacy and less worry than the girls for each of these item-response formats, and each of these gender-related differences was judged to be practically significant. The qualitative data provided additional evidence that the girls' self-perceptions of their efficacy for answering multiple-choice and short-answer constructed-response items was lower than that of the boys. It also provided support for the model underpinning the study. Overall, there was no evidence of any practically important interactions between gender and item-response formats, for either item-specific self-efficacy, worry or achievement, ++ / indicating that neither of the item-response formats used in the study, with this group of students, advantaged one sex over the other. Additionally, the findings from this study suggested that sufficient time should be allowed during testing so that all students can complete tests to the levels of their capabilities and that, during tests, the influence of students' self-efficacies is mediated through the quality of their engagement with test items.

Understanding student achievement in science is important as there is an increasing reliance of the U.S. economy on math, science, and technology-related fields despite the declining number of youth seeking college degrees and careers in math and science. A series of structural equation models were tested using the scores from a statewide science exam for 276 students from a suburban north Texas public school district at the end of their 5th grade year and the latent variables of spatial ability, motivation to learn science and science-related attitude. Spatial ability was tested as a mediating variable on motivation and attitude; however, while spatial ability had statistically significant regression coefficients with motivation and attitude, spatial ability was found to be the sole statistically significant predictor of science achievement for these students explaining 23.1% of the variance in science scores.

This study examined science achievement growth across elementary and middle school and parent school involvement using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Kindergarten Class of 1998 – 1999 (ECLS-K). The ECLS-K is a nationally representative kindergarten cohort of students from public and private schools who attended full-day or half-day kindergarten class in 1998 – 1999. The present study’s sample (N = 8,070) was based on students that had a sampling weight available from the public-use data file. Students were assessed in science achievement at third, fifth, and eighth grades and parents of the students were surveyed at the same time points. Analyses using latent growth curve modeling with time invariant and varying covariates in an SEM framework revealed a positive relationship between science achievement and parent involvement at eighth grade. Furthermore, there were gender and racial/ethnic differences in parents’ school involvement as a predictor of science achievement. Findings indicated that students with lower initial science achievement scores had a faster rate of growth across time. The achievement gap between low and high achievers in earth, space and life sciences lessened from elementary to middle school. Parents’ involvement with school usually tapers off after elementary school, but due to parent school involvement being a significant predictor of eighth grade science achievement, later school involvement may need to be supported and better implemented in secondary schooling.

Thesis advisor: Ina V.S. Mullis / More than ever before, countries are relying on their experts in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields to find solutions to serious global problems, such as climate change, hunger, and disease. Unfortunately, the growing demand for these experts is outpacing supply. At each stage in the educational pipeline from the primary grades through university, there is substantial attrition in the number of students studying STEM subjects.From the early grades, students’ home environment has a powerful influence on their science achievement. However, there has been little research into the factors that have the most influence on inspiring young students to continue studying science. This dissertation extended investigations by Swedish researchers who used TIMSS and PIRLS 2011 data and structural equation modeling to show that that fourth grade students with higher achievement in science had well-educated parents who had many books at home, and spent time engaging their child in early learning activities, such that the child began school with basic skills already developed. After replicating the Swedish TIMSS and PIRLS 2011 Common Model with TIMSS 2015 data and finding good agreement, additional variables were systematically examined with a focus on the role of attitudes. Extending the explanation of the influence of parents’ education to include their educational expectations for their child and updating the model to include home digital resources elaborated on this Base Model. However, the hypothesis that parents’ attitudes toward mathematics and science would have a role in explaining science achievement was not supported. Analyzed either as a second independent variable with parents’ education or as a mediating variable, the effect was negligible. Finally, parents’ education levels had little or no relationship with the degree to which students like learning science, but a notable relationship with students’ confidence in their ability to do science. Clearly, more research into how parents’ attitudes and other home factors can influence students’ to study science throughout their academic careers is warranted. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation.

This study examined the relationships between opportunity to learn (OTL), science engagement, and science achievement in students' middle school level. This study used the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data from the 2003 wave. The data were analyzed using structuring equation modeling and hierarchical linear modeling. It was hypothesized that students' engagement in science is a mediator between opportunity to learn and science achievement. Moreover, class and school level variability was also examined since the organization of the data was nested. The study examined the effects of OTL on students' emotional, cognitive, and behavioral engagement in science and subsequently on science achievement controlling for family socioeconomics status. The results of structural equation modeling supported some theoretical formulations of the conceptual model, and showed significant effect of OTL factors on students' science engagement, especially the behavioral engagement. Furthermore, science emotional and cognitive engagement showed positive effects on science achievement, but the effect of behavioral engagement on science achievement was complex. Detailed exploration and discussions were included in this study. The findings from hierarchical linear models suggested that students' science achievement was not only related to students' engagement, but also varied by class and school level OTL factors. The study had both theoretical and practical significances, providing valuable insights for the pedagogy of science. / Ph. D.

Science achievement of U.S. students has lagged significantly behind other nations; educational reformers have suggested science engagement may enhance this critical measure. The 2006 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) was science-focused and measured science achievement along with nine aspects of science engagement: science self-efficacy, science self-concept, enjoyment of science, general interest in learning science, instrumental motivation for science, future-oriented science motivation, general value of science, personal value of science, and science-related activities. I used multilevel modeling techniques to address both aspects of science engagement and science achievement as outcome variables in the context of student background and school characteristics. Treating aspects of science engagement as outcome variables provided tests for approaches for their enhancement; meanwhile, treating science achievement as the outcome variable provided tests for the influence of the aspects of science engagement on science achievement under appropriate controls. When aspects of science engagement were treated as outcome variables, gender and father’s SES had frequent (significant) influences, as did science teaching strategies which focused on applications or models and hands-on activities over-and-above influences of student background and other school characteristics. When science achievement was treated as the outcome variable, each aspect of science engagement was significant, and eight had medium or large effect sizes (future-oriented science motivation was the exception). The science teaching strategy which involved hands-on activities frequently enhanced science achievement over-and-above influences of student background and other school characteristics. Policy recommendations for U.S. science educators included enhancing eight aspects of science engagement and implementing two specific science teaching strategies (focus on applications or models and hands-on activities). Focused implementation of these research findings could enhance both science engagement and science achievement of U.S. students. I identified five key limitations of my research project: the age of the dataset, the lack of racial/ethnic identifiers, the low proportion of student-level variance accounted for by multilevel models with aspects of science engagement as outcome variables, the lack of class-level measures, and the lack of inclusion of students’ epistemological and fixed/flexible beliefs. These limitations provide opportunities for further investigations into these critical issues in science education.

Thesis advisor: Henry Braun / There is a broad interest in narrowing achievement gaps among all groups of students and improving education by scientifically sound methods. On October 25, 2006, the United States Department of Education published new regulations allowing single-sex education in public schools whenever schools think it will improve student achievement. Thus far, studies comparing single-sex with coeducational schools have been carried out at the national level mostly in England, Australia and Jamaica, while US' studies were limited to Catholic schools. Few studies reported descriptive statistics or effect sizes and most studies differ in the criteria and statistical controls they use to compare single-sex and coeducation. This dissertation presents models for science achievement and attitudes towards science for 8th -grade students attending either single-sex or coeducation schools in Hong Kong and New Zealand, using the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) datasets from 1995, 1999, and 2003. To properly account for the nested structure of data, an HLM model was estimated for each sex, for each of the two jurisdictions at three time points, corresponding to the three TIMSS administrations. The within - country results were compared to see if differences between single-sex and coed schools were consistent over time. In addition, this dissertation proposed an approach to examine the sensitivity of the estimated effects of school-type on student outcomes to the presence of unmeasured variables which may introduce hidden selection bias, using a modification of the method proposed by Rosenbaum and Rubin (1983). Based on its conditional distribution with an instrumental variable, chosen based on the review of single-sex literature, the Monte Carlo simulated values of the unobserved variable were used as level-1 predictors in a one-way ANCOVA with random effects. The sensitivity analysis was limited to science achievement of Hong-Kong's girls in TIMSS 2003. Findings show that single-sex education contributed to girls' science performance and attitudes in NZL 1999 and HKG 1999 and 2003, and low sensitivity for school-type contrast. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation.

Previous literature leaves us unanswered questions about whether teaching behaviors mediate the relationship between teacher education level and experience with student science achievement. This study examined this question with 655 students from sixth to eighth grade and their 12 science teachers. Student science achievements were measured at the beginning and end of 2006-2007 school year. Given the cluster sampling of students nested in classrooms, which are nested in teachers, a two-level multilevel model was employed to disentangle the effects from teacher-level and student-level factors. Several findings were discovered in this study. Science teachers possessing of advanced degrees in science or education significantly and positively influenced student science achievement. However, years of teaching experience in science did not directly influence student science achievement. A significant interaction was detected between teachers possessing an advanced degree in science or education and years of teaching science, which was inversely associated to student science achievement. Better teaching behaviors were also positively related to student achievement in science directly, as well as mediated the relationship between student science achievement and both teacher education and experience. Additionally, when examined separately, each teaching behavior variable (teacher engagement, classroom management, and teaching strategies) served as a significant intermediary between both teacher education and experience and student science achievement. The findings of this study are intended to provide insights into the importance of hiring and developing qualified teachers who are better able to help students achieve in science, as well as to direct the emphases of ongoing teacher inservice training.

The study combined qualitative methods (observation, interview and case study techniques) and quantitative methods (use of questionnaire and survey instruments) methods to (a) identify and describe current teaching practices in Papua New Guinea (PNG) secondary science laboratory classrooms; (b) investigate the effect of specific teaching practices on academic success on an external science achievement examinaton; and (c) investigate whether an educational productivity model for investigating factors associated with learning is applicable to a developing country context, namely, PNG. Analysis of data from 3,182 Papua New Guinea secondary students, generated revealed similar science laboratory learning environments across most high schools with Open-Endedness having the lowest score. Overall students' attitudes towards science were favourable, with boys having a more favourable attitudes than girls. Multivariate analyses showed that science academic achievement, science practical achievement and attitudes were related to quality and quantity of instruction, the science laboratory learning environment and gender. As in similar studies in other countries, male students performed significantly better than female students in external science achievement examinations. But female students achieved significantly better on a practical science process test. Finally, the study identified some specific aspects of current teaching practices in a developing country context, involving science learning environments and students' attitudes towards science.

ABSTRACT THE CONTRIBUTION OF COGNITIVE AND METACOGNITIVE STRATEGY USE TO SEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS&rsquo / SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENT AKYOL, G&uuml / ls&uuml / m M.S., Department of Elementary Science and Mathematics Education Supervisor : Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ceren TEKKAYA Co-Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Semra SUNGUR January 2009, 97 pages The purposes of the study were to examine the differences in the level of students&rsquo / cognitive and metacognitive strategy use and to investigate the contribution of cognitive and metacognitive strategy use (rehearsal, elaboration, organization, critical thinking, and metacognitive self-regulation) to 7th grade students&rsquo / science achievement. This study also interested in exploring the relationships between students&rsquo / background characteristics (gender, prior knowledge, socioeconomic status) and the variables including students&rsquo / cognitive and metacognitive strategy use and science achievement. The study was carried out during 2007-2008 spring semester at 15 public elementary schools in Ke&ccedil / i&ouml / ren, district of Ankara. A total of 1517 seventh grade students who were volunteers and had permission from their parents involved in the study. Data were collected through Background Characteristics Survey, Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire and Science Achievement Test and analyzed by using a One-Way Repeated ANOVA, Multiple Linear Regression Analyses and a Canonical Correlation Analysis. The analyses revealed that there were significant differences in the level of students&rsquo / cognitive and metacognitive strategy use scores. Besides, elaboration and metacognitive self-regulation strategy use made a statistically significant contribution to the prediction of students&rsquo / achievement in science (p&lt / .05). Metacognitive self-regulation strategy use was found to be the main predictor of science achievement (beta=.11). The first canonical variate indicated that prior knowledge, mother&rsquo / s educational level, father&rsquo / s educational level, number of reading materials at home, frequency of buying a daily newspaper, presence of a separate study room, presence of a computer with internet connection at home are associated with cognitive and metacognitive strategy use and science achievement.