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.

The goal of this research was to investigate the knowledge high school students acquire from science instruction in Zimbabwe, and their ability to reason from and apply their knowledge based on previous learning. Science educators in Zimbabwe are concerned with improving the quality of student's achievement and that students develop a conceptual understanding of basic science rather than a rote memorisation of facts and that students become better prepared to acquire science content on their own. The research reported here utilises the discourse comprehension analysis model and methods developed by Frederiksen (1975, 1986) to investigate students' learning. Based on these methods, it is possible to examine: (a) how students acquire knowledge and understanding, and (b) how they apply what they learn to reason using their conceptual knowledge. / The design of the study involved the use of three texts each of which represented different information types within a science domain, 'gas pressure'. The content of the texts was presented by the same teacher during natural classroom instruction to classes at two levels (higher and lower) of a high school grade. The first text concerned Basic Knowledge (concepts and principles) in the domain, and the second and third texts described Familiar and Unfamiliar experiments respectively within the same science domain. In addition, for both of these experiments, several types of information were presented: Procedures, Observations and Explanations. Students' responses to comprehension questions were subjected to a conceptual (propositional) analysis and coded against an 'expert' model of the content of the texts used by the teacher during instruction to the students. The study focused on identifying the extent to which the students' responses directly matched the 'expert' model or consisted of modifications (inferences) that indicated alternative (true or false) conceptual knowledge frameworks that the students may have possessed. / The major findings of this research were as follows: Students' answers to questions about their knowledge of basic concepts comprised a large number of responses that directly matched (i.e., literally recalled) the information presented by the teacher during instruction and also included a high number of incorrect inferences. Students' comprehension of the Familiar and Unfamiliar experiments was also characterised by a high degree of 'literal learning' as shown in the generally high amounts of recall of propositional information compared to inferences. Students' responses to these questions consisted mostly of Observation information, and least of Explanations. This suggests that they were more likely to recall observed events that they were to interpret. Students' reasoning was generally poor relative to their comprehension of both experiments, and their responses consisted of more recall responses than inferences. In addition, students' reasoning about the Unfamiliar experiment was characterised by a high number negative higher-order inferences. Finally, students in the higher level displayed higher levels of competence than those in the lower level, particularly in their knowledge of Procedures and Observations in contrast to Explanation information, for both experiments.

Students have a tendency to skip steps in reasoning and miss facts when drawing conclusions during problem solving. Seeing that this poses a problem, it was thought that vocalizing thinking, using the method of pair problem-solving, would help ensure that students do not make these mistakes, but rather improve their ability of solving problems systematically. The basic problem which the researcher addressed was: To what extent will the pair problem-solving method improve the students' ability in solving physical science problems? The people involved in the research were : i) Matric pupils from the secondary schools in Osizweni ii) Teachers of the schools involved. The interviews were done during one period per week for six weeks. At first pupils were given a pre-test and at the end of the interviews were given a post test. The two tests designed to be equivalent and the questions given to the experimental groups were the same as those given to the control group. Interviews carried out were tape recorded and also written down. The interviews and the tests scores were analyzed in order to determine to what extent the problem-solving skills of students improved as a result of the experiment. The results found showed that there is great improvement in the ability to solve problems with experimental groups and insignificant improvement with the control group. The statistical analysis showed that the improvement was great at at least 0,01 level of significance. There is also evidence of students solving problems systematically after they have done these interviews, and that there are other significant differences between the behavior of good and bad problem solvers. The implications of these results for classroom teachers is that the think-aloud pair problem-solving method does improve the ability of students in solving physical science problems. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1992.

Abstract available in pdf file.

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

No description available.

<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