Over the past decade, open-ended computer-based learning environments have been increasingly used to facilitate students’ learning of complex scientific topics. The non-linearity and open-endedness of these environments create learning opportunities for students, but can also impose challenges in terms of extraneous cognitive load and greater requirements for self-regulated learning (SRL). SRL is crucial for academic success in various educational settings. This dissertation explores how self-regulatory skills develop and the role of gender in the development of SRL skills in Virtual Performance Assessments (VPA), an immersive, open-ended virtual environment designed to assess middle school students’ science inquiry skills. Findings from three analyses combining educational data mining techniques with multilevel modeling indicated that students developed self-regulatory behaviors and strategies as they used VPA. For example, experience with VPA prepared students to adopt more efficient note-taking and note-reviewing strategies. Students who used VPA for the second time engaged in note-taking more frequently, noted a significantly higher quantity of unique information, used the control of variables strategy more frequently in note-taking, and reproduced more domain-specific declarative information in notes than students who used VPA for the first time, all of which have been found to be positively associated with science inquiry performance. Students also learned to exploit more available sources of information by applying learning strategies, in order to either solve inquiry problems, or to monitor and evaluate their solutions. Compared to the second-time users who focused primarily on answering the core inquiry question and selectively collected data, the first-time users’ behaviors showed the repetition and combination of exploratory actions such as talking with non-player characters and collecting data. In addition, consistent gender differences in SRL were observed in this study. Female students were more likely to take notes than male students; they took notes and reviewed notes more frequently and recorded a higher quantity of information in notes, especially information from the research kiosk. Females were also more likely to review notes or read research pages to assist them with the problem-solving and decision-making process than their male counterparts. Possibly due to the higher quantity of information recorded by female note-takers and their tendency to review notes over males, female students’ performance on science inquiry tasks improved across the course of using the two scenarios of VPA, whereas the male students’ science inquiry skills did not show improvement. Results from this dissertation study provide insights into the instructional design of personalized open-ended learning environments to facilitate self-regulated learning for both male and female students.

This dissertation is a longitudinal critical ethnographic research study that explores the experiences of four Black and Brown high school girls’ who participated in a hip-hop based science program (Science Genius program). The study employed three distinct yet aligned theoretical frameworks: - sociocultural theory, Pygmalion effect, and Black feminist theory. Given that an ethnographic study looks at the cultural patterns of a group over a period of time, this investigation spanned 2.5 years and involved explorations of the participants’ experiences with science. In addition, there are elements of autoethnography woven throughout the dissertation as my personal experiences as a Black woman in science informs both my research lens and my relationship to the research subjects (Camangian, 2010). By utilizing a qualitative methodological approach, the study gave voice to students who were racially and traditionally marginalized in science education and professions (Ceci & Williams, 2007; Emdin, 2016; Hanson, 2008; Hill, Corbett, & St. Rose, 2010; Mensah, 2012) and provided an opportunity for them to give personal accounts of their experiences in science education. The primary focus of the research involved a critical analysis of the responses of Black and Brown girls to a culturally relevant science curriculum that was based on the foundations of hip-hop pedagogy (Adjapong & Emdin, 2015; Emdin, 2010a, 2010b, 2016; Gay, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 1995). The findings of this study showed how the girls used the hip-hop based science program as a platform to demonstrate girl empowerment against commonplace Black and Brown girl race/gender biases in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and how they built up their confidence to exhibit their scientific knowledge while defining their scientific identities.

Limited research has been done on the implementation of experiential learning to align with science and engineering practices. This research project developed an instrumental case study to examine the efficacy of an experiential education framework for teaching and learning water science and engineering practices in the elementary science classroom. This study investigates the process of a practicing scientist mentoring a 6th grade elementary science teacher and their participation in professional development activities, strategies used for preparation and practice, classroom implementation, and the consequences of student learning with two sections of science students. Data collection and analysis of teacher background surveys, unit plans provided by the teacher, classroom and field observations, and a semi-structured interview were data sources for the study. Student evidence was collected from pre/post drawing assessments, pre/posttests, reflections, and student artifacts. The findings indicated that personal, intensive long term professional development sessions had an impact on the teacher’s practice, where she was able to use the experiential framework as a guiding principle to create an outdoor and classroom-based unit on water in Earth systems. In her practice, she was able to use the framework to create analogies to make connections between natural water filtration and classroom models, and she used an integrated approach to discuss engineering and filter design. The scientist-teacher mentorship resulted in an increase in the teacher’s confidence and ability to teach elementary science topics on water science. Students’ conceptual understanding of water cycle components and processes progressed over the course of the unit from atmospheric level to subsurface level interactions. Students achieved an understanding of physical properties of matter and hydrogeological concepts of permeability and porosity. Students were able to understand systems thinking and developed dynamic thinking. Implications of this study indicate that the experiential learning framework is an effective pedagogical tool for teachers to introduce science and engineering practices as specified in the K-12 Framework. Using this framework, the classroom teacher was able to complete practices for planning and carrying out investigations, developing and using models, analyzing and interpreting data, and constructing and designing solutions.

Scientific expertise requires concerted effort and the ability to overcome obstacles, but little research has addressed how these behaviors are modeled for learners in the context of simulation-based science learning. Thus, this study aimed to design instruction using cognitive modeling to promote active engagement by novice learners to ensure they feel competent to tackle novel learning problems in science. Largely drawing on work on social cognitive theory, the current study suggests the importance of a coping model, having incorrect knowledge and inadequate skills and gradually improving to a level of expertise, as an instructional aid to promote student motivation and learning in a simulation-based science learning environment. Two experimental studies were conducted with high school students in Korea who did not possess prior knowledge. Study 1 compared a Coping Model (CM) condition, where students observed a peer model who makes errors and demonstrates initial difficulties but overcomes them, to a Mastery Model (MM) condition, where students observed a peer model who presents an error-free process of interpreting information while manipulating the simulation. The CM students tended to have higher post-self-efficacy than the MM students. However, it did not change over time, nor did it differ by condition. The CM was as effective as MM for learning gains, and the CM had a more favorable impact on transfer than the MM. The CM’s negative emotions, which was intended to indicate task difficulties, may have given students an impression that the task was difficult, resulting in no increase in self-efficacy over time. Thus, Study 2 added one more condition – a coping model with affective states (CMA) – that expressed the model’s changes in emotions and motivations in addition to what the CM demonstrated, and compared its effects to the CM and MM. The CM’s emotional expressions as in Study 1 were all removed in Study 2. Findings demonstrated that self-efficacy of students increased in the CMA and CM conditions over time while self-efficacy of the MM students did not. Students in all conditions demonstrated equal learning gains, but the CMA was more effective for transfer outcomes than the MM, and the CM tended to be more effective for transfer than the MM. It is promising that a model who demonstrates difficulty in understanding but gradual progress to reach full understanding, which is the initial learning process of any novice, has potential to improve self-efficacy and promote transfer. The study discusses limitations and future study directions and concludes with implications for instructional design.

Efforts to increase time and opportunity to learn science in urban, underserved elementary schools have focused on improving teachers’ science instruction through school-based professional development. This dissertation examined how the social justice science teacher identities of two co-teachers of color developed and shaped while participating in a yearlong, school-based professional development in science. It also examined how two teachers of color and one White teacher activated the human and nonhuman resources provided by the science professional development to transform or maintain their science teaching practices and understandings. The theoretical frameworks included situated perspective of learning, social justice science teacher identity, social structures as schemas and resources, and the relationship between structure, agency, and science teacher identity. Data collection methods included interviews, teacher questionnaires, researcher field notes, and teacher-created documents, such as science slides and student handouts. Data analysis methods are drawn from grounded theory and multiple case study. The findings suggest that teachers’ experiences, orientations, views, existing identities as teachers and in relation to science, as well as their philosophies of students and learning all influenced how they participated in the science professional development, the meanings they constructed through participation, and the ways their teaching practices changed. Teachers at different phases in their careers also wanted and needed different kinds of PD supports. The findings suggest that science teacher educators who are developing science professional development models and workshops should be cognizant of all of these influencing factors on teacher learning and provide differentiated PD activities to support the various learning needs, identities, and personal and professional goals of elementary teachers.

Science teachers in the United States are not prepared to teach the students in their classrooms. Teachers are most often White females, while the children in their classrooms are from diverse backgrounds. Multicultural pedagogies exist, but teachers must be educated during their teacher preparation courses to understand their own relationship with race before they can enact such pedagogies in their classrooms. This qualitative study sought to examine the lived experiences of eight science education doctoral students in a course called Critical Voices in Teacher Education, through the qualitative method approach of transcendental phenomenology. The participants’ experiences were examined through three theoretical frameworks: transformative learning theory, White racial identity, and racial literacy. Interviews, field notes, and student reflections were used to collect data for this phenomenological study. The findings showed that through the process of critical reflection and group discussion, participants had a transformative experience in which their racial identities developed, and perceptions of students and curriculum shifted to include multicultural pedagogical approaches. The findings from this study supported the idea that teacher education programs must use racial identity development and multicultural curriculum as a foundation for all education programs.

The major problem of this study was to compare the views of the role of the student in a science class as reported by college science educators and secondary science teachers of grades 6-8 and of grades 9-12. Analysis of individual items. The Q-sorts indicate that all groups in this study recommend greater emphasis on student activities, student discovery, student questions, teacher accepting students' new ideas and viewpoints, student freedom to ask any science question, student enjoyment of science, more time spent in doing things other than listening, student ease in getting equipment, student revealing likes and dislikes in science, student maintenance of science equipment and student use of laboratory equipment.

This case study seeks to explore three research questions: (1) What science teaching and learning processes, perspectives, and cultures exist within the science classroom of an urban portfolio community high school? (2) In what ways does the portfolio-based approach prepare high school students of color for college level science coursework, laboratory work, and assessment? (3) Are portfolio community high school students of color college ready? Is there a relationship between students’ science and mathematics performance and college readiness? The overarching objectives of the study are to learn, understand, and describe an urban portfolio community high school as it relates to science assessment and college readiness; to understand how the administration, teachers, and alumni perceive the use of portfolios in science learning and assessment; and to understand how alumni view their preparation and readiness for college and college science coursework, laboratory work, and assessments. The theoretical framework of this study encompasses four theories: critical theory, contextual assessment, self-regulated learning, and ethic of care. Because the urban high school studied partnered with a community-based organization (CBO), it identifies as a community school. Therefore, I provide context regarding the concept, culture, and services of community schools. Case study is the research design I used to explore in-depth this urban portfolio community high school, which involved mixed methods for data collection and analysis. In total, six alumni/current college students, five school members (administrators and teachers), and three CBO members (administrators, including myself) participated in the study. In addition to school artefacts and student portfolios collected, classroom and portfolio panel presentation observations and 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted to understand the portfolio-based approach as it pertains to science learning and assessment and college science readiness. Data from the transcripts of two graduating classes were analyzed and the interview transcripts were coded and analyzed as well. Analysis of qualitative data revealed key findings: (1) the school’s Habits of Mind, authentic scientific inquiry, self-regulated learning triggers and strategies, and teacher feedback practices driven by an ethic of care supported students’ science learning and portfolio assessment; and (2) the cyclical and extensive portfolio processes of writing, revision, and submission well prepared alumni for college science laboratory work and coursework, to a certain extent, but not for the traditional assessments administered in college science courses. Analysis of quantitative data revealed that, if based solely on the City University of New York’s Regents score criteria for college readiness, the majority of students from these two graduating classes studied would not have been considered college ready even though all participants, including interviewed alumni, believed the school prepared them for college. The majority of these students, however, were transitioning to college readiness based on their Regents-level science and mathematics coursework. Findings of this study have implications for science assessment, professional development in science, education policy reform, and high school partnerships with CBOs and postsecondary institutions as they pertain to college and college science readiness for students of color in urban portfolio community high schools.

Orientador: Washington Luiz Pacheco de Carvalho / Banca: Eugenio Maria de França Ramos / Banca: Luiz Gonzaga Roversi Genovese / Resumo: Neste trabalho, procuramos verificar quais as contribuições formativas dos laboratórios didáticos que compõem o curso de Licenciatura em Física da Universidade Estadual Paulista "Júlio de Mesquita Filho", UNESP, campus de Bauru. Para isso, realizamos entrevistas que buscaram compreender como quatro alunos do último ano desta licenciatura concebem questões relacionadas ao desenvolvimento das práticas experimentais desenvolvidas nestes laboratórios. A partir destas entrevistas, elencamos algumas categoriais que foram obtidas a partir de uma análise fenomenográfica. Tais categorias compuseram os nossos espaços de resultados e nos permitiram levantar algumas conclusões a cerca das concepções dos alunos no que diz respeito à postura dos professores responsáveis pelo desenvolvimento das práticas experimentais, a postura tomada por eles mesmos e seus colegas frente a estas práticas, assim como a cerca das características atribuídas por eles aos laboratórios didáticos. A partir destes espaços de resultados, caracterizamos as racionalidades relacionadas às concepções dos alunos, a fim de inferirmos sobre as contribuições formativas dos laboratórios didáticos a partir destas racionalidades. A partir das conclusões alcançadas, procuramos expor algumas reflexões a cerca de novas perspectivas para os laboratórios didáticos de Física, procurando apontar possibilidades para que este ambiente contribua de forma significativa para a formação inicial de professores. Para que os objetivos da pesquisa pudessem ser alcançados, nos embasamos em alguns referenciais da área de ensino de ciências que trabalharam com assuntos relacionados ao laboratório didático de Física. Também procuramos comparilhar da filosofia de Jürgen Habermas, assim como da fenomenografia de Ference Marton. Tendo em vista estes referenciais, apresentamos este trabalho... / Abstract: In this paper we try to verify the formative contributions of the educational laboratories that are part of the course of Licence in Physics of the Universidade Estadual Paulista "Julio de Mesquita Filho", UNESP, Bauru campus. We realized interviews trying to comprehend how four students of the last year of the license course deal with questions related to the process of experimental practices developed in these laboratories. From these interviews we list some categories gotten from the phenomenongraphic analysis. These catergories composed our "results spaces" and allowed us to reach some conlusions about the students conceptions over the behavior of the teachers responsible for the development of experimental practices, the behavior of the students themselves and of their colleagues facing these practical, as well as about the characteristics they themselves assign to the educational laboratories. From these "results spaces" we characterized the rationalities related to the students conceptions aiming to infer about the educational laboratories formative contributions coming from the rationalities. From these conclusions we look for showing some reflections about some new perspectives for the Physics educational laboratories trying to point possibilities that make these ambient help the initial formation of teachers. To achieve the research results were based it in some references of the science studies that searched about some subjects related to educational laboratories of Physical. Also we tried to use the Jürgen Habermas philosophy as well as the ference Marton's phenomenographic method. In view of these references we present this paper with four chapter that aim to show the used references as well as our vision about the contributions they gave to the science studies and as they fit to the context of this research / Mestre

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