Distressingly, at the end of the 2008-2009 school year, 53% of fifth-grade students scored the equivalence of a D or lower on Florida's standardized science assessment (NCLB School District and State Public Accountability Report, 2009). One possible way to adapt methods of science education that is becoming more popular is through the use of computer games, as numerous studies have shown positive correlations between the use of computer games and increased learning gains in science. This thesis not only discusses previous researc concerning computer games as tools for science education but it also provides a description and the results of an original study. The purpose of the study found within this thesis was to examine how effectively 40 fourth-grade students could acquire knowledge from a text-free, physics-inspired computer game and then subsequently transfer any acquired knowledge to a text-containing, paper-and-pencil assessment without any scaffolding. Through the analysis of both qualitative and quantitative research data, this study revealed that students' assessment scores increased from pretest to posttest by an average of 12% for all students and by an average of 22.43% for the students who scored in the lowest one-third. Concerning only the assessment questions that were completely text-based, students' scores increased by an average of 14.6% for all students and by an average of 32.73% for the students who scored in the lowest one-third. Thus, in the researcher's opinion, there was enough transference to justify the use of the wordless, physics-based computer game as an effective and engaging educational tool among the 40 fourth-grade students who participated in this study: especially among those students who struggled with science.

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The aim of this study was to validate an instrument that can be used by instructors or social scientist who are interested in evaluating statistics anxiety. The psychometric properties of the English version of the Statistical Anxiety Scale (SAS) was examined through a confirmatory factor analysis of scores from a sample of 323 undergraduate social science majors enrolled in colleges and universities in the United States. In previous studies, the psychometric properties of the Spanish and Italian versions of the SAS were validated; however, the English version of the SAS had never been assessed. Inconsistent with previous studies, scores on the English version of the SAS did not produce psychometrically acceptable values of validity. However, the results of this study suggested the potential value of a revised two-factor model SAS to measure statistics anxiety. Additionally, the Attitudes Towards Statistics (ATS) scale was used to examine the convergent and discriminant validities of the two-factor SAS. As expected, the correlation between the two factors of the SAS and the two factors of the ATS uncovered a moderately negative correlation between examination anxiety and attitudes towards the course. Additionally, the results of a structural regression model of attitudes towards statistics as a predictor of statistics anxiety suggested that attitudes towards the course and attitudes towards the field of statistics moderately predicts examination anxiety with attitudes towards the course having the greatest influence. It is recommended that future studies examine the relationship between attitudes towards statistics, statistics anxiety, and other variables such as academic achievement and instructional style.

Presented here is a case study of the problem-solving behaviors of upper-division undergraduate physics majors. This study explores the role of visual representations in students' problem solving and provides a foundation for investigating how students' use of visualization changes in the upper-division physics major. Three independent studies were conducted on similar samples of students. At the time of these studies, all of the subjects were junior physics majors participating in the Paradigms in Physics curriculum at Oregon State University. In the first study, we found that while all students had high scores on the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test, the correlation between test scores and their grades in physics was not statistically significant. In the second study (N=5) and the third study (N=15), we conducted think-aloud interviews in which students solved electrostatics problems. Based on the interviews in the third study, we develop a model that describes the process by which students construct knowledge while solving the interview problems. We then use this model as a framework to propose hypotheses about students' problem-solving behavior. In addition, we identify several difficulties students have with the concepts of electric field and flux. In particular, we describe student difficulties that arise from confusing the vector and field line representations of electric field. Finally, we suggest some teaching strategies that may help to assuage the student difficulties we observed. / Graduation date: 2002

The poor academic performance of Engineering Science N3 students at the Port Elizabeth College for Further Education and Training prompted me to conduct this study. The aim thereof was to investigate the influence that a co-operative learning strategy would have on the test results of students who enrolled for this programme. The hypothesis being tested in this study was whether co-operative learning strategies would improve the test results of science students in the N3 Engineering Science class. A literature review on co-operative learning, its principles as well as the role of the lecturer as facilitator was conducted. In addition, the different types of co-operative learning techniques were investigated so that an approach conducive to the needs of students studying at Further Education and Training Colleges could be selected. The Student Team Achievement Divisions (STAD) technique was deemed to be the most suitable approach. Both qualitative and quantitative data gathering techniques are employed in this study. Interviews were carried out with fellow lecturers at the Port Elizabeth College to determine what teaching strategies are generally implemented in the N3 class. Experimental research involving two groups of 30 students was then conducted to determine the results of students. The one group (experimental) was subjected to an intervention, namely the STAD co-operative learning technique while the other group (control) was taught using the traditional method of talk and chalk. This intervention took place over a period of ix two weeks. However, prior to the co-operative learning intervention and before students were divided into groups, they were taught as a single group for a period of two weeks. The total time spent on this experiment was therefore four weeks. Student test scores gathered from the experiment was statistically analysed and reported on in chapter five. These results indicated that the experimental group out-performed the control group by a significant margin. The higher academic achievement of students in the experimental group could only be attributed to the alternative teaching strategy (STAD) which was absent in the teaching of the control group. This proved the hypothesis.

Magister Pharmaceuticae - MPharm / The effects of disability on the individual not only include physical, psychological and emotional adjustments but also negative attitudes of able bodied people towards persons with disabilities. The attitudes of healthcare professionals towards persons with disabilities could affect rehabilitation outcomes as well as the reintegration of these people into society. The aim of the study was to investigate the attitudes of health science students towards persons with disabilities at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC), in Tanzania. An explorative quantitative research design using a cross-sectional survey was used. The study sample (182) included all Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Nursing, Medical and Optometry students. Data was collected using the Attitudes Towards Disabled Persons Scale,consisting of 20 items rated on a six-point Likert Type Scale. A demographic questionnaire which included questions relating to the contact of the students with persons with disabilities was also administered. Descriptive and Inferential statistical analysis was conducted using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 15.0. Permission to conduct the study was obtained from the Higher Degrees Committee and the Senate Research Grant and Study Leave Committee of the University of the Western Cape. Further permission was requested from Ministry of Education, Research and Ethics Department in Tanzania and the authorities of the respective Health Sciences programmes to include students in the study. Information obtained was handled with confidentiality and anonymity, and the students had the right to withdraw from the study at anytime.The results revealed that the sample consisted of more females (58%) than males (41.2%).The majority of the participants were between the ages of 20-29 years. The highest response rate was from the medical students (29.1%) followed by the physiotherapy students (27.5%).The Optometry and physiotherapy students had more positive attitudes than the rest of the health science students who participated. The mean score on the ATDP scale was 59.01 (12.3) with scores ranging from 18 to 90. The results therefore revealed that overall the students had a neutral to negative attitude towards persons with disabilities. With regards to the contact of the students with persons with disabilities 26.9% of the participants responded that they had had a long talk with a person with a disability while only 17.6% of the students responded that persons with disabilities visited their homes. The mean contact score was 22.72 indicating that the students had a slightly above average contact with persons with disabilities. No association was found between the attitude and contact mean scores.Information obtained in this study could be used to influence the curriculum of Health Science Students at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre.

The concepts of well-being and life satisfaction are explored in this study of the experiences and psychological traits of highly-gifted students who have been radically accelerated into an early-college-entrance program. The study was conducted after participation in the early-college-entrance program. The primary focus of the study is on personal well-being and life satisfaction including the variables of subjective well-being, efficacy, and the dispositional traits of cheerfulness, seriousness, and bad mood. These variables are gathered as the initial phase of a longitudinal study of the early-college entrants' personal and professional experiences, their life satisfaction, and dispositions. The subjects for this study were participants in the Texas Academy of Math and Science (TAMS). TAMS is a state run early-college-entrance program at the University of North Texas in Denton.

This case study investigated the potential of a place-based watershed curriculum, using STEM principles, to increase watershed literacy and knowledge of human impacts on stormwater in the environment. A secondary goal was to examine whether the place-based connection and increased exposure to issues within their local watershed impacted the students' environmental attitudes and sense of place. Over 500 sixth graders participated in this localized curriculum, where they learned the science behind watershed issues on their own school campuses. They focused on ways humans can monitor and mitigate their impacts on stormwater, through engineering investigations. The mixed-method research study investigated the effectiveness of the OLWEDU curriculum, to address these key questions: 1) To what degree did the OLWEDU increase the students' combined watershed literacy? 2) To what extent did the OLWEDU affect their environmental attitudes? 3) How did using a STEM oriented and place-based curriculum make the learning more relevant? In order to provide a solid triangulation of data, this study used a quasi-experimental design format with multiple measures: a) A Pre-Posttest (PPT), was given to all of the students to gather quantitative changes in knowledge of watershed concepts, stormwater issues related to human impacts on the environment, and engineering techniques; b) A constructed-knowledge questionnaire (CKQ) was used with forty four of the participants, to gather additional quantitative data on the students' local watershed knowledge; c) an environmental attitudes survey (EAS) was included in this sub-sample group; d) interviews were conducted with ten of the students to examine their opinions on the STEM aspects of the curriculum in addition to the place-based connections between the unit and their community. The statistically significant results showed increases in overall watershed literacy, knowledge of human impacts on stormwater, engineering principles, and environmental attitudes. These findings will be used to improve the current curriculum, and have broader implications concerning the benefits of using a formalized middle-school 21st century standards-based curriculum to teach watershed literacy and promote pro-environmental attitudes by using a combination of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math in a local, place-based context.

How to motivate students effectively is a question teachers have asked for thousands ofyears. In my teaching program at Malmö University, a variety of teaching methods andapproaches, that also increase motivation, have come into focus. These include:teaching at the right level, using a variety of teaching methods, seeing every student,being enthusiastic about the material, using formative evaluation, connecting lessons tostudents’ everyday life, and adapting classes to students’ interests. The aim of this studyis to find out how secondary students in a social science program perceive teachingmethods and approaches aimed at increasing motivation, and determine which methodsthey perceive as most/least effective. The study used both qualitative and quantitativemethods. 23 upper-secondary students from a class at a school in southern Swedenwere interviewed in four focus groups, where participants were purposefully sampled.10 of these students were also asked to complete a questionnaire ranking the teachingmethods and approaches on a scale of 1-7 (where 1 was most effective at increasingmotivation and 7 least effective), and the mean values of these scores were used in theanalysis. A phenomenological approach and content analysis were used to code andanalyze the data. Students perceived all of the motivational methods to be effective, themost effective being teaching lessons at the right level, followed by using a variety ofteaching methods, with mean values of 1.9 and 3.2, respectively. Adapting lessons tostudents’ interests and connecting them to everyday life were the least effective, withmean values of 5.6 and 5.7, respectively. The categories of teachers having a positiveattitude towards the material and the students, and seeing every student, had the samemean value, 3.8, while formative evaluation had a mean value of 3.9. When trying tomotivate students, it would thus appear more effective to make sure that lessons aretaught at the right level and that teachers vary the lessons, than to adapt lessons tostudents’ interests or connect the material to everyday life. While this was a small studyand the findings cannot be generalized to school populations, they are of high interestfor the researcher.

The following dissertation focuses on a case study that uses critical theory, social learning theory, identity theory, liberal feminine theory, and motivation theory to conduct a narrative describing the lived experience of females and their performance in two highly selective private university, where students can cross-register between school, while majoring in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Through the use of narratives, the research attempts to shed additional light on the informal and formal science learning experiences that motivates young females to major in STEM in order to help increase the number of women entering STEM careers and retaining women in STEM majors. In the addition to the narratives, surveys were performed to encompass a larger audience while looking for themes and phenomena which explore what captivates and motivates young females’ interests in science and continues to nurture and facilitate their growth throughout high school and college, and propel them into a major in STEM in college. The purpose of this study was to uncover the lived experiences of junior and senior undergraduate female science majors during their formal and informal education, their science motivation to learn science, their science identities, and any experiences in gender inequity they may have encountered. The findings have implications for young women deciding on future careers and majors through early exposure and guidance, understanding and recognizing what gender discrimination, and the positive effects of mentorships.