Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 1973. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 344-350).

Will student attitudes towards science change when they are given a chance to explore an area of science in which they have indicated an interest? This action research thesis investigated this question over a period of nine weeks. The subjects of this study included twelve students enrolled in the same seventh grade physical science class. The school was located in a suburban setting in the Southeast United States. Data for this study was collected with anecdotal notes, participation grid, science attitude survey, student interviews, and student journals. This study found that when students are given the opportunity to pursue an area of science in which they demonstrate an interest, they are more likely to participate in their regular curriculum and increase positive attitudes' towards science. As a result of this increased engagement and improved attitudes' towards science, students academic performance in science also improved.

The main purpose of this meta-analysis was to investigate the effectiveness of PBL not only on student achievement and motivation in science, but also on attitudes towards science and skills in primary, secondary and higher educational levels. In addition, the effects of some moderator variables including publication type, research design, teacher effect, researcher effect, country, subject matter, school level, PBL mode, length of treatment, group size, type of questions and assessment instrument on the effectiveness of PBL were also examined in the scope of this meta-analysis. 147 effect sizes were revealed from 88 primary studies selected to be included in the meta-analysis based on the inclusion criteria. Random-effects model rather than fixed-effect model was chosen to be conducted to compute effect sizes indicating the effect of PBL on different outcomes while mixed-effect and fully random-effects model were used while performing analog ANOVA for moderator analysis. The results clearly show that PBL is more effective on different outcomes when compared to traditional teaching methods. The results indicate an overall medium mean effect size of 0.633 for PBL effectiveness. More specifically, PBL has a large impact with a large effect size of 0.820 on students&rsquo / achievement in science subjects in different levels and reveals medium effect sizes of 0.566, 0.616, and 0.565 for students&rsquo / attitude towards science, motivation in science and different kinds of skills, respectively. Moderator analyses indicate that publication type, country, subject area, school level and length of treatment have a noteworthy impact on the effectiveness of PBL.

Curricula in concentrated educational systems are prepared from an upper-stream reference and hand over teachers’ disposal. Curricula in Iran are compiled in the so-called math curriculum development office and then put at the disposal of teachers. The researches in this regard show that such plans provide some resistance against executing it which are named teacher - proof programs, even it changed to some extent for accept ion, its execution is suspeciable. This research first explains how math books of middle grade were changed as a result of investigations on TIMSS result in year 1995. These investigation show Iranian Books are weakness in problem solving methods as Polya had said. And so curricula developers in Iran tried to integrate Polya\\\''s method in math books and changed curricula based these frame work. Then, it shows how teachers treated these changes. The finding of analyzing the data has been collected in this research through observations and interviews. It is intended that teachers resist against these changes. Finally according to this research, we suggest a model which we refer if it is used through concentrated educational system, we could expect teachers tolerance against the changes would be decreased and so compiled curricula further matched to executed curricula.

School physical science is a prerequisite for science courses at institutions of higher education. Science graduates are an important link in a nation's scientific and technological development which often shapes a country's economic development. The purpose of this study was to investigate psychological and social factors influencing physical science achievement and attitude of black secondary school students in South Africa. The first part of the literature study which was concerned with physical science education in South Africa revealed that few black students chose to study science after standard seven, that failure rates were high and that science education was generally in a state of crisis. The second part of the literature study identified psychological and social factors related to science achievement and attitude. These were home environment variables, teacher and school related variables, personal variables (self-concept, motivation, gender, ethnicity) and students' abilities. The third part was the construction of a Structural Equation Model (SEM) specifying the relationships among the psychological and social factors and their effects on physical science achievement and attitude. The theoretical SEM fit the data reasonably well. The best fitting model, however, was a revised model in which several paths were constrained. The latter accounted for a substantial variance in attitude towards physical science (70.3%) and a meagre 17.7% in physical science achievement. The variables ability, home environment and self-concept had the greatest total effects on physical science achievement. Self-concept, home environment and motivation made the greatest total contributions to physical science attitude. Teacher characteristics and school environment had non-significant effects on physical science achievement and attitude. Multiple-group structural equation modelling analyses found no significant difference in the structural parameters of boys and girls. Theoretical and educational implications of the findings were discussed and specific recommendations for improving educational practice in general and physical science achievement and attitude in particular, were made. / Psychology of Education / D. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

School physical science is a prerequisite for science courses at institutions of higher education. Science graduates are an important link in a nation's scientific and technological development which often shapes a country's economic development. The purpose of this study was to investigate psychological and social factors influencing physical science achievement and attitude of black secondary school students in South Africa. The first part of the literature study which was concerned with physical science education in South Africa revealed that few black students chose to study science after standard seven, that failure rates were high and that science education was generally in a state of crisis. The second part of the literature study identified psychological and social factors related to science achievement and attitude. These were home environment variables, teacher and school related variables, personal variables (self-concept, motivation, gender, ethnicity) and students' abilities. The third part was the construction of a Structural Equation Model (SEM) specifying the relationships among the psychological and social factors and their effects on physical science achievement and attitude. The theoretical SEM fit the data reasonably well. The best fitting model, however, was a revised model in which several paths were constrained. The latter accounted for a substantial variance in attitude towards physical science (70.3%) and a meagre 17.7% in physical science achievement. The variables ability, home environment and self-concept had the greatest total effects on physical science achievement. Self-concept, home environment and motivation made the greatest total contributions to physical science attitude. Teacher characteristics and school environment had non-significant effects on physical science achievement and attitude. Multiple-group structural equation modelling analyses found no significant difference in the structural parameters of boys and girls. Theoretical and educational implications of the findings were discussed and specific recommendations for improving educational practice in general and physical science achievement and attitude in particular, were made. / Psychology of Education / D. Ed. (Psychology of Education)