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In the USA, science teachers are challenged by the National Science Education Standards (NSES) to "select teaching and assessment strategies that support the development of student understanding and nurture a community of science learners" (NRC, 1996, p. 30). While standards do not explicitly refer to constructivist learning theory, they are entirely consistent with the view that knowledge is a human construction, learning is based on prior knowledge, and students respond to their environment to build new understandings. Paralleling the NSES reforms, with their constructivist underpinnings, there is also a strong and often contradictory pressure on teachers to prepare students for national and state standardised tests. The need for teachers to balance these competing demands while trying to teach for understanding sets the context for this research.The purpose of this research has been to focus on "how" teachers determine students' understanding and "why" they employ the instructional and assessment strategies that they do. Interpretive case studies of five teacher participants from one school district are used to describe how these teachers teach for understanding in the face of the competing pressures of conforming to the NSES and preparing students for success on standardised multiple-choice achievement tests. These case studies are analysed to identify common themes and propositions about teaching for understanding.The teachers in this study used a variety of instructional and assessment strategies. Their choices of strategies made a difference in the degree of understanding that their students achieved. Frequently, the teachers' decisions were affected by their grasp of science concepts and ideas about how students learned. When teaching for understanding, these teachers preferred informal knowledge of student understanding to that obtained from standardised ++ / tests Although subjected to conflicting pressures regarding how teachers were able to disregard assessments that did not provide evidence of student understanding. This research has implications for the five teacher participants, myself as a researcher, the district as a whole and educators with an interest in implementing assessment strategies that foster student achievement for understanding.

The primary purpose of this study was to develop a two-tier multiple choice diagnostic instrument to assess Singapore Grade 10 students' (15 to 17 years old) understanding and alternative conceptions of qualitative analysis. Additional and related purposes were to determine whether more advanced chemistry students, for example, junior college (Grade 11 and 12) students, undergraduates and graduate trainee-teachers have a better understanding of basic qualitative analysis than secondary students, and to develop appropriate teaching strategies and materials on qualitative analysis based on the findings of this study and a review of the literature on practical work.The results from the administration of the diagnostic instrument showed that Singapore Grade 10 students had many alternative conceptions related to qualitative analysis, and these were grouped under the headings of 'Displacement', 'Redox', 'Dissolution', 'Addition of acid' and 'Heating'. The cross-age study showed that the more advanced chemistry students generally had a better understanding of basic qualitative analysis but had similar alternative conceptions as the Grade 10 students. However, the alternative conceptions identified were consistently held by only a small number of students across all contexts examined in the diagnostic instrument, suggesting that a number of students either had more than one conception for a particular concept or no conceptions at all. The results from the trial of the qualitative analysis teaching package indicated that the teaching package was feasible. Teachers involved in the trial found it structured and comprehensive, and the students who experienced the teaching package performed better on the diagnostic instrument than a comparison group.The study recommends that better ways of conducting qualitative analysis practical work are required, and using the teaching ++ / package may be a step in this direction. The study also raises questions about the value of teaching qualitative analysis in secondary schools when important reactions involved in qualitative analysis are omitted from the syllabus, and when there is little incentive and time in the school curriculum for learners to understand what they are doing in qualitative analysis.

This study focus is on pupils historical understanding of the Holocaust. The main purpose and question in this study is to answer what types of work methods and materials pupils used in Holocaust education in historical class. The method used is an survey on 136 high school’s pupils in Sweden for receiving a better understanding of what historical use of Holocaust pupils meet in historical class. The analyze of the material from the survey focused on four out of seven historical uses based on the historian Klas-Göran Karlsson’s typology on the uses of history, those are ideological, moral, political-educational and scientific use. The theory is used for analysing how pupils encounter the holocaust in the historical classroom. Results from the survey show that pupils meet a variation of historical information and facts is used throw how and what pupils work with the Holocaust. All four of the historical use of history could be seen in the results, but above all the scientific use and the ideological use. The scientific use of the Holocaust focuses on factors and relationship between causal factor and outcome. The ideological use of the Holocaust focuses on the understanding of democratic and human values. The study reveals that no historical use is dominant in the different classes, that means the individual meeting whit information about the Holocaust and pupil has an important value in what type of understanding and historical use the pupil have of the Holocaust.

The purpose of this study was threefold: Examine middle school teachers' familiarity with, interest in, conceptual knowledge of and performance on light; Examine their ability to identify misconceptions on light and their suggested pedagogical ideas to address the identified misconceptions; and Establish the relationship between the middle school teachers' interest, familiarity, conceptual understanding, performance, misconception identification, and pedagogical ideas for light. Sixty six (66) middle school science teachers enrolled in three math and science teacher professional development projects at Southern Illinois University Carbondale participated in this study. This study used mixed-methods approach to collect and analyze data. The participants responded in writing to four different instruments: Familiarity and Interest Questionnaire, Conceptual Knowledge Test, Two-tier Performance Test, and Misconceptions Identification Questionnaire. Data was analyzed quantitatively by conducting non-parametric (Wilcoxon, Mann-Whitney U, and Kruskal-Wallis) and parametric (paired samples, independent samples, and One-Way ANOVA) tests. Qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis and open coding to identify emerging themes and categories. The results showed that the teachers reported high levels of familiarity with and interest in learning more about light concepts. However, they had low conceptual knowledge and performance on light concepts. As such, middle school teachers' perceived knowledge of light concepts was not consistent with their actual knowledge of light. To some extent, the teachers identified students' misconceptions expressed in some scenarios on light and also suggested pedagogical ideas for addressing such misconceptions in middle school science classrooms. However, most teachers did not provide details on their pedagogical ideas for light. Correlations among the four constructs (familiarity, interest, conceptual understanding, and performance) were only significant between performance and conceptual understanding, r (64) = .50, p = .000. There was no significant relationship between conceptual understanding and familiarity, and between performance and familiarity. In view of these findings, it is evident that some teachers did not have sound conceptual understanding and pedagogical ideas to effectively help their students develop the understanding of light concepts accentuated in the US national science education standards. These findings have implications on teacher education and science teaching and learning.

abstract: The purpose of this study is to explore the knowledge and attitudes about autism spectrum disorders among Hispanics in the Southwest. The study will also examine perceived barriers in obtaining resources and preferences in accessing health care. Participants (N = 169) were surveyed using the Autism Awareness Survey, which was developed specifically for this research. Significant differences were found between individuals with high acculturation and low acculturation in exposure to autism, knowledge about autism, perceived barriers to obtaining resources and health care, and attitudes towards people with autism. Additionally, the findings also suggest that although the surveyed population was knowledgeable about the symptoms associated with autism, less well known is the etiology and course of the disorder. The research underscores the serious need for both Spanish educational resources and Spanish-speaking health care providers to address the needs of Hispanics with regards to autism, especially with individuals with low levels of acculturation. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S.W. Social Work 2012