Thesis (M.F.A.)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2006. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Ronald Tobias. Includes DVD. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 27).

Scientific literacy has been recognized internationally for its importance as a goal of science education. Lying at the core of scientific literacy is understandings of nature of science (NOS). A desired outcome from a scientifically literate populace is – critical evaluation of reports and discussions about science in the media. It is generally assumed that an informed conception of NOS will lead to this desired outcome of scientific literacy. Yet this assumption remains untested. The purpose of this research study was to examine the relationship, if any, between NOS understandings and the quality of evaluating science in the media. Sixty-four non-science majors from a local community college participated in the study. Participants were asked to evaluate on three health-related news articles reporting scientific claims by completing the Health News Evaluation Questionnaire. Their NOS understandings were assessed by the Views about Science Questionnaire. Participants were invited for a follow-up interview to further probe their NOS conceptions and quality of evaluating science news articles. The quality of evaluation, and the application and prioritization of criteria by each participant were analyzed. These were compared with the level of NOS understandings. Reasons for applying or not applying and for prioritizing or not prioritizing the NOS-related criteria were also examined in the follow-up interview. No correlation was identified between the non-science majors’ understanding on the targeted aspects of NOS and their frequency of application of these concepts in evaluating the science news except the followings where significant correlations, though weak, were identified. These include understanding of the peer view process and its frequency of application in evaluating (i) Article 2 on the effect of calorie on body weight and memory (r=0.325, p<0.05), (ii) Article 3 on cell phone controversies (r=0.326, p<0.05) and (iii) all the 3 news articles as a whole (r=0.381, p<0.05). Correlations are also identified between understanding of the peer review process and the level of sophistication with its application in the evaluation of Article 2 (r=0.345, p<0.05) and all the three articles as a whole (r=0.39, p<0.05). Another intriguing finding was that understanding of the tentative NOS was found to be correlated with the stance adopted in the evaluation of Article 3 (r=0.434, p<0.05). The poor performance of the participants in evaluating science in the media was attributed to the lack of awareness for the important role of NOS understandings, unfamiliarity with the application of NOS understandings, and compartmentalization among various NOS aspects. These were possible culprits for successful transformation of NOS understandings to critical evaluation of science in the media. Based on the findings, it is argued that NOS understandings are a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for critical evaluation of science in the media. Three additional conditions are suggested: (1) awareness towards the importance and the need in making reference to NOS understandings, (2) ability to apply NOS understandings, and (3) understanding the interconnectedness among various NOS aspects would aid successful transformation of NOS understandings to critical evaluation of science in the media. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Glamorgan, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 33-35). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2007. / Principal faculty advisor: Marian L. Palley, Dept. of Political Science & International Relations. Includes bibliographical references.

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Feb. 23, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Dr. Glen T. Cameron, Dissertation Supervisor. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1963. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [47]-[48]).

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2018-08-08T11:27:31Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Manuella Vieira Reale.pdf: 52740448 bytes, checksum: 6fd6179e2cf5c8a252b6435fa1b358a0 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-08T11:27:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Manuella Vieira Reale.pdf: 52740448 bytes, checksum: 6fd6179e2cf5c8a252b6435fa1b358a0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-06-21 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo - PUCSP / This research seeks to understand which are the different enunciative strategies and the regimes of meaning and interaction of scientific communication brazilian channels on online videos - especially on YouTube s platform - as a way to cultivate the taste for science. Therefore, we aim: investigate the constructed senses and ways of presence of scientific communication destinators in the selected digital environment; observe and question the scientific communication terminology; identify enunciation marks that indicate doings shaped by metadestinator YouTube; discuss what leads a certain statement to be credible; debate the scientific communication as an approximation between scientific field and common sense. lt is recognized the relevance of scientific field in contemporary society and the role of scientific communication in dissemination of complex science. Hypotheses to be tested are: YouTube enables multiplicate audiovisual productions about scientific knowledge; scientific communication channels make the taste for science an object of value in the approximation between scientific knowledge and common sense; interactions promoted in this platform provide feedback on the part of the destinee, revealing their simulacra. The object of study consists in channels with scientific content, whose posting is regular, recent and original. A mapping is accomplished of the productions by search and data survey, resulting in an overview of current brazilian productions whose division was made in four categories relating degree of audiovisual production and formal specialization in science. They are: Beginner, Professional Producer, Certificated Specialist and lnitiated. The corpus channels, chosen respectively from each category, are: Alimente o Cerebro, Manual do Mundo, Canal do Pirula and Nerdologia. The theoretical current of French semiotics of Algirdas J. Greimas and his followers, based on the generative course of meaning, will ground the analysis of enunciation in each syncretic text, as well as the meaning and interaction regimes according to Eric Landowski. Regarding the science notion, the main authors are Thomas Kuhn and Edgar Morin and, to discuss scientific communication definition, Wilson Bueno, Carlos Vogt and Bruce Lewestein. ln meaning and interaction regimes, it is possible to see how destinators use strategic narratives to impel the construction of meaning along the destinee in order to accentuate the taste for science as an object of value / A seguinte pesquisa busca compreender quais as diferentes estrategias enunciativas e os regimes de sentido e de interagao dos canais brasileiros de divulgagao cientffica em vfdeos online - especificamente na plataforma YouTube - como modo de cultivo do gosto pela ciencia. Para tanto, objetiva-se: investigar os sentidos construfdos e os modos de presenga dos destinadores de divulgagao cientffica no ambiente digital selecionado; observar e questionar a terminologia da divulgagao cientffica; identificar as marcas de enunciagao que indicam fazeres moldados pelo metadestinador YouTube; discutir o que leva certo enunciado a ser crfvel; debater a divulgagao da ciencia na aproximagao do campo cientffico com o senso comum. Reconhece-se a relevancia do campo do conhecimento cientffico na sociedade contemporanea e o papel da divulgagao cientffica na comunicagao da ciencia complexa. As hip6teses a serem testadas sao: o YouTube possibilita a multiplicagao de produg6es audiovisuais sobre o conhecimento cientffico; os canais de divulgagao cientffica fazem do gosto pela ciencia um objeto de valor na aproximagao entre conhecimento cientffico e senso comum; as interag6es promovidas nessa plataforma proporcionam uma retroalimentagao por parte do destinatario, desvelando seus simulacros. 0 objeto de estudo e composto por canais com conteudo de teor cientffico, cuja postagem dos vfdeos e regular, recente e original. Realiza-se um mapeamento das produg6es da plataforma por procura e levantamento de dados, resultando em um panorama das atuais produg6es brasileiras cuja divisao foi feita em quatro categorias relacionando o grau de produgao audiovisual e a especializagao formal em ciencia. Sao elas: lniciante, Produtor profissional, Especialista titulado e lniciado. 0s canais do corpus, elegidos respectivamente de cada categoria, sao: Alimente o Cerebro, Manual do Mundo, Canal do Pirula e Nerdologia. A corrente te6rica da semi6tica francesa de Algirdas J. Greimas e seus seguidores, a partir do percurso gerativo de sentido, fundamentara o exame da enunciagao de cada texto sincretico, assim como os regimes de sentido e de interagao segundo Eric Landowski. Para a nogao de ciencia, os principais autores sao Thomas Kuhn e Edgar Morin e, para debater a definigao de divulgagao cientffica, Wilson Bueno, Carlos Vogt e Bruce Lewestein. Em diferentes regimes de sentido e de interagao, verifica-se como os destinadores langam mao de narrativas estrategicas para impelir a construgao de sentido conjuntamente com o destinatario a fim de acentuar o gosto pela ciencia enquanto objeto de valor

This thesis provides the first rigorous history of the concept of midlife crisis. It highlights the close connections between understandings of the life course and social change. It reverses accounts of popularization by showing how an idea moved from the public sphere into academia. Above all, it uncovers the feminist origins of the concept and places this in a historically little-studied tradition of writing about middle age that rejected the gendered "double standard of aging." Constructions of middle age and life-planning were not always oppressive, but often used for feminist purposes. The idea of midlife crisis became popular in the United States with journalist Gail Sheehy's Passages (1976), a critique of Erik Erikson's male-centered model of ego development and psychoanalytic constructions of gender and identity more generally. Drawing on mid-century notions of middle life as the time of a woman's entry into the public sphere, Sheehy's midlife crisis defined the onset of middle age, for men and women, as the end of traditional gender roles. As dual-earner families replaced the male breadwinner model, Passages circulated widely, read by women and men of different generations, including social scientists. Three psychoanalytic experts-Daniel Levinson, George Vaillant, and Roger Gould-rebutted Sheehy by putting forward a male-only concept of midlife as the end of a man's family obligations; they banned women from reimagining their lives. Though this became the dominant meaning of midlife crisis, it was not universally accepted. Feminist scholars, most famously the psychologist and ethicist Carol Gilligan, drew on women's experiences to challenge the midlife crisis, turning it into a sign of emotional instability, immaturity, and egotism. Resonating with widespread understandings of mental health and social responsibility, and confirmed by large-scale surveys in the late 1990s, this relegated the midlife crisis to a chauvinist cliché. It has remained a contested concept for negotiating the balances between work and life, production and reproduction into the present day.