Physics learning has been the focus of much research over the last few decades. One line of such research has had knowledge about physics conceptual understanding as its object. Conceptual physics learning is found to be enhanced by the use of a variety of interactive engagement teaching and learning strategies. Another line of research in physics education has been through the development of computer-based learning environments as alternatives to traditional lecturing approaches. One such development has been that of a 'physics Studio' in which computer software delivers content and facilitates activities and communication, and instructors adopt a tutoring or learning facilitator role rather than lecturing role. Curtin University of Technology has drawn on both lines of research, resulting in the creation of a Physics Studio. In addition, a constructivist philosophy has provided guiding principles underpinning the conduct of first year physics classes. The aim of this study has been to evaluate students' physics learning in first year Studio classes. In particular, the aim has been to examine the role of students' epistemological beliefs (beliefs about knowledge and knowing) and their perceptions of the learning environment, in that learning. The study is situated across the fields of psychology and physics education research. It uses an ex-post facto comparative research design together with a qualitative methodology to compare students in Studio classes with those in physics classes in a traditional lecture stream. The use of multidimensional scaling as a technique for reducing complex data to a visual form for the purpose of describing and investigating the Studio learning environment is also explored. / Findings from this study suggest that a Studio approach that incorporates student-centred, social constructivist teaching and learning behaviours can result in improved learning for students in a discipline such as physics, which is normally associated with authoritative and didactic teaching. The results indicate that most students responded positively to the characteristics of the Studio approach. Their learning outcomes and improvement in conceptual understanding exceeded those of students in the traditional lecture classes. Students' beliefs about the structure of knowledge affected their cognitive outcomes through their preference for particular learning strategies. Students with 'naive', positivist epistemological beliefs were more likely to choose a narrow range of learning strategies and to have poorer cognitive outcomes. Students with more 'sophisticated', constructivist epistemological beliefs were more likely to choose a wider range of learning strategies and to have better cognitive outcomes. There is evidence from this work that the constructivist learning environment influences students' epistemological beliefs, and that their beliefs influence the way they respond to the learning environment. Using multidimensional scaling, spatial configurations of learning environment parameters for Studio and traditional groups, although structurally similar, were visibly different. In particular, the preferred learning environment of Studio students formed a complex web of interrelationships, whereas the preferred learning environment of students in the traditional course formed a simpler pattern with minimal interrelationships among parameters. / Other factors affecting the responses of students to the constructivist learning environment were their perceptions of the nature of the subject matter as represented by assessment tasks, and their expectations about the role of instructors. Some students were unable to change their epistemological beliefs and learning patterns to fit teachers' expectations. These findings have implications for teachers of physics who adopt or wish to adopt constructivist rather than didactic teaching methods, and for those implementing Studio approaches. An instructor's best efforts to implement alternative teaching approaches and methods can be circumvented by the beliefs and attitudes of students if they are inconsistent with the epistemology implicit in the teaching methods. For example, students with naive beliefs in the structure and certainty of knowledge need guidance and experiences that provide validity for different ways of learning physics. Students also need help to understand the concept of, and to value, self-reflective learning practices. Finally, learning in a Studio class is enhanced for students whose beliefs are consistent with, or change to suit, the philosophy underpinning instruction.

Navajo school students, it is believed, underachieve at school in terms of school attendance, dropout rates, and standardized performance tests. Among the many reasons proposed to explain the persistent school underachievement is that school culture is largely based on individualism, interpersonal competition, and other Western norms and values. These, it is argued, are an anathema to Native Americans. Hence, school culture may predispose many Navajo High School students to failure. To test this belief I constructed a model of school achievement motivation drawn from Western conceptualizations of achievement motivation described Navajo High School students achievement motivation. Using confirmatory factor analyses tests of equivalency were conducted that contrasted non-traditional Navajo students and females with near traditional Navajo students and males. Using structural equation modeling, I examined the relations of the language, location, and gender variables on the achievement goal factors, mediated by school measures of achievement, ability beliefs, social goals and achievement goals. I concluded that non-traditional and near traditional Navajo students are more similar than dissimilar. Clearly this raises concerns regarding the making of policy based on assumptions regarding presumed differences between non-traditional and near traditional Navajo High School students. I also concluded that, school achievement measures, the ability beliefs, and the social approval and social concern goals are important factors that influence the school achievement goals Navajo students emphasize. This has implications for the manner in which schools and teachers emphasize these factors in classrooms. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) / At an upper level of education, especially Forms 5, 6 and 7 of secondary school and in tertiary institutions, Indo-Fijian students often perform better than their ethnic Fijian counterparts. This pattern of ethnic difference in academic performance is a long standing one, lasting over 70 years. However, both ethnic groups have been participants in the same educational system in Fiji. Educational policies have been implemented to reduce this difference. This present case study argues that there are cultural differences of values, beliefs and practices with respect to educational achievement among Indo-Fijians and ethnic Fijians. The achievement ethic of the two ethnic groups differs. Indo-Fijian culture respects and values education highly. Generally speaking, educating children has been always the top priority of Indo-Fijian culture. They believe that education changes people for the better, and the only way to “success” is through education. Thus, Indo- Fijian parents believe that helping children to strive for academic excellence is one of the most important tasks for them. The priority attached by such parents to educational success is one of the strongest forces behind academic success. By contrast, ethnic Fijian culture encourages children to have a strong sense of loyalty to their community and of becoming good members of their koro (i.e., village). Indeed, one’s total commitment to communal activities and cultural requirements is of vital importance. Although ethnic Fijian parents generally understand the importance of their children’s education and wish to support their education, ethnic Fijian communal demands are enormous in terms of time and labour. The pressure to maintain their moral and social obligations within the community tends to make ethnic Fijians spend a large amount of time, energy and money on functions such as ceremonial events and church activities, at the possible expense of providing for the formal education of their children. These demands mean that parents are often absent from home, and unable to supervise children’s homework. Ethnic Fijian children, upper secondary schoolers, feel strong pressure from their peers within their koro to conform to social activities, such as attending church, playing sports such as rugby and volleyball, and hanging around in the koro and town. Besides, the layout of the typical ethnic Fijian home is a more difficult environment than Indo-Fijian households for children’s study, largely due to the limited space to study independently. The socio-cultural background of ethnic Fijians, especially their home environment including family values and priorities, is one of the major barriers to their children’s educational progress. In addition, school leadership, teachers’ expectations, colonial policies and legacies, e.g., land tenure issues, play important roles in affecting differences in the academic performance of these two ethnic groups. Consequently, the educational achievement differences between ethnic Fijians and Indo-Fijians are revealed substantially during the secondary and tertiary educational institutions.

This study explores the meanings that people attributed to their involvement in a participatory on-farm practice change project. Three techniques of discourse analysis were used. The first two identify the diversity among narratives of the participants and explores the origin of these differences. The third technique examined differences and tensions within and across the narratives to identify the discourses that were operating. Participation was found to be mediated through discourse as agents created and reproduced some discourses through their many social acts. For example, some participants recalled incidences of feeling excluded when they presented an alternative understanding of the project. As a result, these people tended to reduced their involvement rather than explore the differences. The project's discourses therefore routinised the participatory experience and tended to lock the narrative in time despite over two decades of rapid social change. Thi s meant the project discourse mediated a favoured type of participation, one that met a symbolic character rather than the particular farming practices it promoted. The discourses reveal different patterns of sense making among participants involved in the same event. Uneven participation is comprehended from the multiple patterns as a consequence of the participants' discursive practices. Articulating differences in discursive design will assist to create conditions useful for an authentic communication among participants engaged in change programs.

The Comprehensive Framework for Teacher Knowledge provides a model that describes an approach to the secondary mathematics methods course, as described by Robert Ronau and P. Mark Taylor. The model includes the orientation of preservice teachers toward mathematics and the teaching of mathematics, which includes the beliefs of the preservice teachers. The first questions deal with identifying the methods used in the methods course to address beliefs. The second set of questions deal with the effects of the methods course on the beliefs that preservice teachers hold on the learning and teaching of mathematics. The study included 16 different universities in the United States. The students completed the Mathematics Beliefs Inventory (MBI) before and after the course. The data used for analyses included the MBI, course syllabi and interviews with instructors and course textbooks. Qualitative analysis was conducted on the syllabi and interviews to assist in creating a rubric to score the syllabi, interviews and textbooks. Correlation and linear regression analysis was used along with the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test for the statistical analysis. A significant positive relationship was found between the number of methods used in the methods course to challenge student beliefs and the improvement between pre and post tests. Preservice teachers’ beliefs about the learning and teaching of mathematics were found to become more reform-oriented during the course of the methods course.

Research by Abelson (1986) suggests that people’s strong beliefs and convictions are like dear possessions, subsequently not easily abandoned and something the holder tends to fight for. This qualitative study aims at gaining increased understanding concerning conceptualization and psychological mechanisms related to strong beliefs and how the strong belief is manifested and expressed in the holder’s self-image and identity. Five holders of strong beliefs were interviewed, ensuing analyze following the principle of thematic framework. Six super ordinate themes were found to stand out as significantly important in the origin, conceptualization and preservation of a person’s strong belief: Belief; a legacy, Self-image and Identity, The Value-expressive function, In-group- and out-group-bias, Cognitive and emotional dissonance when acting against belief, Perceiving it as impossible to abandon a belief. The “Deliberative discussion” was presented as an important tool possibly empowering people with a less biased approach towards opposing information.

This study reviews the burgeoning literature on followership and tests propositions from a recently developed theoretical framework to explore the relationship between follower behaviours, leaders’ perceptions of follower trustworthiness (trusting beliefs), and leaders’ subsequent willingness to be vulnerable to the actions of their followers (trusting intentions). Leaders’ implicit followership theories (IFTs) were examined as a potential moderator of both relationships. Results revealed that passive followership influenced leaders’ trusting beliefs negatively, whereas collaborative followership had a positive influence on leaders’ trusting beliefs as well as leaders’ trusting intentions. The most extreme form of proactive followership, challenging followership, had nonsignificant relationships with leaders’ trusting beliefs and intentions. In addition, leaders’ IFTs did not interact with followership behaviour to produce any change in leaders’ trusting beliefs. However, IFTs were found to moderate the relationship between leaders’ trusting beliefs and trusting intentions. Implications for research and practice are discussed in light of the results.

Research on mental disability in the Sub-Sahara African context has recently stagnated, and is in need of a revival. The objectives of this study was to examine (i) the current situation of children and youth with mental disabilities in the Morogoro Region, Tanzania, and (ii) how to create more community awareness on rights of people with mental disabilities in the society, to put the discussion of mental disabilities back on the agenda. To fully grasp the cultural context, we have used interviews with local professionals working with children and youth with mental disabilities, in order to gain knowledge of efficient ways to create more community awareness. Over time there has been a change of attitudes due to improved knowledge, mainly through the increased visibility of people with mental disabilities in the society. However there is still a need to create awareness of the rights of people with mental disabilities, especially in rural areas. In order to influence the current situation for this group, we have concluded, within the frames of social constructionism, that networking through a bottom-up approach could be appropriate to share the burden.

Much is known about childbirth fear in Sweden including its relationship to caesarean birth. Less is understood about this in Australia. Sweden has half the rate of caesarean birth compared to Australia. Little has been reported about women’s beliefs and attitudes to birth in either country. The contribution of psychosocial factors such as fear, attitudes and beliefs about childbirth to the global escalation of caesarean birth in high-income countries is an important topic of debate. The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate the prevalence and impact of fear on birthing outcomes in two cohorts of pregnant women from Australia and Sweden and to explore the birth attitudes and beliefs of these women.   A prospective longitudinal cohort study from two towns in Australia and Sweden (N=509) was undertaken in the years 2007-2009. Pregnant women completed self-report questionnaires at mid-pregnancy, late pregnancy and two months after birth. Fear of birth was measured in mid-pregnancy with a tool developed in this study: the Fear of Birth Scale (FOBS). The FOBS showed promise as a clinically practical way to identify women with significant fear. A similar prevalence of fear of birth (30 percent) was found in the Australian and Swedish cohorts (Paper I).  The Swedish women had attitudes indicating a greater concern for the personal impacts of birth and a belief system that situated birth as a natural event when compared to the Australian women (Paper II). Finally, when women’s attitudes and levels of fear were combined, three profiles were identified: Self determiners, Take it as it comes and Fearful (Paper III). Belonging to the Fearful profile had the most negative outcomes for women including higher rates of elective caesarean, more negative feelings in pregnancy and post birth and poorer perceptions of the quality of their antenatal and intra-partum care (Paper IV).

This study explored how cultural heritage might affect peoples beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors toward Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS), which in turn affected actual ETS exposure. It used data from the 2001 National Survey on Environmental Tobacco Smoke in the Home. It compared two cultural groups: Francophones and the rest of the Canadian population (RCP), and found that Francophone nonsmokers had a significantly higher ETS exposure than the RCP (19.3% vs. 8.5%). The difference was much greater than the difference in smoking prevalence for the two groups (26.2% vs. 22.4%). </p>The study found Francophones scored lower than the RCP in almost every aspect of ETS-related beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. They were less likely to believe ETS to be harmful and less supportive of ETS-control policies. They were less likely to have done something that reduced ETS exposure at home. In both cultural groups, smokers scored lower than nonsmokers in ETS-related beliefs and attitudes. However, the difference between the two groups remained significant even if the comparisons were done within smokers and nonsmokers. </p>The most significant finding of the study was that Francophones were more likely to trust those so-called ETS-reduction strategies that appeared to be effective but were not in reality (e.g., opening the window when someone smokes). Moreover, there was a statistically significant interaction between smoking status and cultural heritage: fewer nonsmokers than smokers within each cultural group believed that these strategies were really effective, but the difference between the nonsmokers and smokers was significantly smaller for Francophones than that for the RCP. Therefore, the tendency to trust ineffective ETS-reduction strategies, especially among the nonsmokers, explained why Francophones were significantly less likely to adopt strategies that would actually reduce ETS exposure. </p>These results suggest that in order to move ETS policies forward and to effectively reduce ETS exposure among Canadian nonsmokers, the key strategy is to mobilize the nonsmokers to be less tolerant of ETS and more persistent in only allowing smoking to occur outdoors. This will not only help protect nonsmokers from the harm of ETS, but will eventually help smokers to quit smoking.