An attempt was made to investigate two aspects of the learning and teaching context. One deals with how the sets of beliefs or expectations pupils hold about some phenomena affect the sense they make of experiences given to them in science classes. The other deals with the potential effect of the inevitable use of "scientific" and "everyday" language by both teachers and pupils in instruction. A sample of thirty Portuguese students from grade five to grade nine (10-15 years old) were given laboratory experiences and "parallel" everyday phenomena to discuss individually with the interviewer and then were invited to describe orally what and why things happened. The fundamental conceptions that students hold, the changes of these conceptions with students' age, as well as their consistency in different contexts and in similar tasks were identified in this experiment. The results suggested that these students, although having been exposed to formal teaching, still retain and use intuitive notions to think: about experiences in science lessons. The focus of the second experiment was to investigate how teachers' own perceptions may influence the development of pupils' ideas. It was carried out by observing seven teachers during ordinary classroom activities, to discover the relative contributions of 'scientific' and 'everyday' meaning in the language they used. Common features in teachers' and students' conceptualizations of "heat", "temperature" and "energy" were identified. Two main questions were discussed: i) what are the implications of the semantic variability in the disparate linguistic references for science education? ii) how to bridge the gap between teachers' and students' understandings, i.e., what connections can be made between what teachers and students talk about and perceive from discourse in the classroom? The results of this study seemed to reinforce the idea that it is impossible to keep external, everyday, informal culture out of the science classroom.

There is a paucity of data on the resources, organization and management of secondary school libraries in Anglophone Cameroon. The few data available are based principally on casual observations and personal impressions, and in general, describe the collections as shocking and disgracefully meagre. The main objective of this study was to examine the current status of school library resources in selected secondary schools in Anglophone Cameroon. To this effect, attention was focused on book stock, periodical holdings, audiovisual materials, physical facilities and equipment, finance, management and use. In doing so, the principal method used was survey research method. This was supplemented with interview and observation, document analysis and participant observation techniques. The survey research instrument contained 59 item questions centered on the current status of secondary school libraries in Anglophone Cameroon. During visits to schools, the researcher interviewed relevant school authorities and also observed first-hand the state of the libraries. Information so obtained was cross-checked against responses to the mail questionnaire and also data gained from documentary sources. In all the schools studied there was acute shortage of such library resources as books, reference materials, periodicals, and audiovisual collections. Most schools also lacked adequate work space, seating accommodations for the pupils and basic working equipment for the libraries. In the issue of personnel, evidence showed that all the schools lacked qualified manpower. A few schools have full-time librarians who are neither qualified academically nor professionally. Some schools try, once in a while, to set aside some money for the needs of the library. But on the whole, the amount usually budgeted is grossly inadequate for even the basic needs of the library. Specific and policy oriented recommendations in the form of guidelines for the improvement of secondary school library services in Anglophone Cameroon were proposed.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 59-67).

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-67). Also available in print.

Analogies have long been tools of discovery in mathematics and science, and are often used in the classroom as explanatory devices to help students understand difficult science concepts. However, research has shown that for many students, analogies engender misconceptions rather than scientists' science. It is believed that misconceptions arise when students reconstruct their knowledge within the context of their prior conceptions, and that misconceptions arise whenever the student has a different conception of the analog to the teacher or the student applies the analogy beyond its limits.The literature is richly endowed with descriptions of how it is thought that analogies generate meaning and contain a range of suggestions for improving classroom pedagogy when analogies are used. Five teaching models have been identified which claim to improve analogical instruction, and one of these, the teaching-with-analogies (TWA) model (Glynn, 1989) has been modified at the Science and Mathematics Education Centre of Curtin University for use in secondary science classrooms. To date, no empirical studies have been performed to determine the efficacy of this modified TWA model.This study set out to evaluate the modified TWA model in a qualitative interpretive manner by observing teachers, who had been in-serviced about the model, using analogies in their lessons. Data were generated from the verbatim transcripts of each teacher's in-class performance, each teacher's post-lesson interview and interviews with a number of the students who received the analogical instruction. The emergent data were interpreted from a constructivist perspective with attention being given to credibility, dependability and confirmability.The data derived from one teacher teaching four analogies to Year 8 and 10 science students were reported in this thesis. Three of these analogies were taught using ++ / the modified TWA model and these analogies were, light waves are like water waves, conduction of heat in a solid is like the domino effect and the refraction of light as it passes from air into perspex is like a pair of wheels rolling from a smooth surface onto a rough surface. The fourth analogy in which the size of a mole was illustrated using three brief analogies was reported only briefly because the teacher failed to use the modified TWA model during this lesson.The study's findings demonstrated that student understanding of difficult science concepts did appear to be enhanced by the use of the modified TWA model when analogies were included in the lesson. For analogies to be effective, it is believed that two teacher activities are essential: firstly, ensuring that the students understand the analog in the same way as the teacher and secondly, that the unshared attributes of the analogy are highlighted during the lesson. It is also asserted that an exemplary teacher, teaching-in-field, can integrate the modified TWA model into her teaching if she is provided with peer support over at least three to four uses of the model during normal lessons. It appears that maintenance of the TWA model within a teacher's pedagogy requires a supportive colleague to provide critical feedback and encouragement.This study raised some important questions that should be addressed in future research on the use of the modified TWA model. Can the modified TWA model produce conceptual change where alternative student conceptions are firmly entrenched? Can the modified TWA model be incorporated into the pedagogy of most teachers? Is there a more appropriate model for teaching-with-analogies?

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Alejandro J. Gallard, Florida State University, College of Education, Dept. of Middle and Secondary Education. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Jan. 25, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains xiv, 239 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Submitted by (lucia.rodrigues@ufrpe.br) on 2016-11-03T14:08:47Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Enery Gislayne de Souza Melo.pdf: 640128 bytes, checksum: 0778e1f09d066b63eb0918b456e84bbc (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-11-03T14:08:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Enery Gislayne de Souza Melo.pdf: 640128 bytes, checksum: 0778e1f09d066b63eb0918b456e84bbc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-07-16 / In this work we analyze relations between the social representations of science and Science teaching of professors in initial formation in Physics. For this, we based in the Theory of the Social Representations of Serge Moscovici, beyond categorizing the Science as idealistic, empirist, construtivist and externalist and the Science teaching in new trends, redescover and traditional. The methodological approach consisted of applying in a sample of 26 in of professors in initial formation in Physics a partnercultural questionnaire, a hierarquical evocation Test and two alternative multiple questionnaires, one of them relating to the science and other to the Science teaching. We detach in our results as correlations strongest, that is, of bigger coefficient, corresponding to the pairs Idealism - New Trends, Externalism - New Trends, Construtivist - New Treds and Externalism - Traditional. Then, the initial formation in Physics seem to have in the ideas most innovative of Science teaching a powerful ally for the creation of strategy of if argue science. Inversely, the ideas most traditional seem to become a possible obstacle in the establishment of connections with science. The study of these relations it leads to the knowledge of the institutions, on its pupils, its formation, making possible the reflection concerning the paper of science and its education and its technologies in the transformation for a model of development, and socially more just democratic. / Neste trabalho analisamos relações entre as representações sociais de ciência e de ensino de ciência de licenciandos em Física. Para isso, baseamo-nos na Teoria das Representações Sociais de Serge Moscovici, além de categorizarmos a ciência como idealista, empirista, construtivista e externalista e o ensino de ciências em novas tendências, redescoberta e tradicional. A abordagem metodológica consistiu em aplicar em uma amostra de 26 licenciandos em Física um questionário sócio-cultural, o teste de evocação hierarquizada e dois questionários de múltiplas alternativas, um deles referente às visões de ciência e o outro ao ensino de ciências. Destacamos nos nossos resultados as correlações mais fortes, ou seja, de maior coeficiente de correlação. São eles: Idealismo - Novas Tendências, Externalismo - Novas Tendências, Construtivista - Novas Tendências e Externalismo – Tradicional. Portanto, os licenciandos em Física parecem ter nas idéias mais inovadoras de ensino de Ciência um forte aliado para a criação de oportunidades de se discutir a ciência. Inversamente, as idéias mais tradicionais parecem se tornar um possível obstáculo no estabelecimento de conexões com a ciência. O estudo dessas relações conduz ao conhecimento das instituições, sobre seus alunos, sua formação, possibilitando a reflexão acerca do papel da ciência e de seu ensino e de suas tecnologias na transformação para um modelo de desenvolvimento, socialmente mais justo e democrático.

A vehicle is suggested for bringing information technology into education. Knowledge-based systems are proposed as a way to explore, reason about, and synthesize large knowledge bases. These systems utilize resources such as artificial intelligence, multimedia, and electronic communication to reason about what, with whom, and how they should teach in order to tailor knowledge and communication to individual students. Teaching material does not consist of a repertoire of prespecified responses; rather, reasoning about the student and the complexity of the subject matter informs the system's response so that inferences made by the machine become key features of the system's response. Currently, such systems can reason about a student's presumed knowledge, can solve the problems given to the student, and can begin to recognize plausible student misconceptions. This document provides a practical hands-on guide for people who are considering building knowledge-based systems. It identifies the requisite resources, personnel, hardware and software and describes artificial intelligence methodologies and tools that might become available. The document is directed both at increased production of knowledge-based systems and also at improving the dialogue among computer scientists, educators, researchers, and classroom practitioners around the issue of information technology in the schools.

O trabalho propõe a aproximação da educação e da ciência com relação às artes, valorizando assim, nessas áreas, a sensibilidade e a sensorialidade, a criatividade, a dimensão de ruptura com o senso comum, a referência à beleza, à ludicidade e ao prazer. Uma investigação mais teórica dialoga constantemente com e é permeada pelo relato de uma experiência pedagógica desenvolvida no curso de licenciatura em Física do Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de São Paulo - IFSP. Nesta experiência, desenvolvemos um aprofundamento da escuta e do diálogo, verbal e não-verbal, por meio da dinâmica de jogos teatrais, procurando, através desses jogos, tornar mais presente uma dimensão corporal e expressiva em associação com a reflexão sobre o conhecimento físico e sobre a atuação docente. Procuro tecer analogias entre as concepções de espaço e tempo físicos - com ênfase na noção de relatividade - e concepções que podem ser associadas a expressões artísticas e a trabalhos filosóficos e especulativos. A exploração do desenvolvimento histórico dessas concepções, buscando destacar a relação com distintas visões de mundo, pretende alimentar proposições de jogos e atividades pedagógicas que permitam abordar esses temas privilegiando a contextualização cultural e as repercussões no imaginário. / This work proposes a connection between education and science in relation to arts, valuing sensibility and sensory feeling, creativity, the context of bursting the common sense, and the reference to beauty, playfulness and pleasure. A more theoretical investigation constantly interacts with and is permeated by reports of a pedagogical experience developed in the degree course of Physics of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of São Paulo (Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de São Paulo) - IFSP. In such experience, we have strengthened the hearing and the verbal and non-verbal dialog by means of theater games, aiming at achieving through such games a corporeal and expressive approach in association with the thinking of the physical awareness and the teachers\' action. I intend to draw analogies between the concepts of space and time in physics - emphasizing on the notion of relativity - and concepts that might be associated to artistic expressions and philosophical and speculative works. Seeking to call the attention to the relation with different world-views, the exploration of the historic progress of those concepts envisions to stimulate proposals of games and pedagogic activities that enable the approach to such topics by focusing on cultural context and repercussions on the imaginary.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 186-215).