This thesis addresses the computation and organization of conceptual knowledge. Specifically, it focuses on the recruitment of concrete knowledge during single word reading using behavioural and electrophysiological methodologies. Chapters 1 and 2 assess how number of visual semantic features listed by participants as being part of a given concept influence the speed of word meaning computation, and its neural underpinnings, providing evidence for modality-specific neural organization. Chapter 3 assesses the flexibility of knowledge activation as a function of specific task constraints, suggesting a multi-faceted approach to semantic richness is needed. Chapter 4 describes a novel application of recent statistical advances to the analysis of real-time electrophysiological data, and highlights some limitations of standard analytical approaches. Chapter 5 assesses the real-time influence of several types of knowledge on the neuroelectric activity underlying concrete word meaning computation. A timecourse of sensory-based knowledge type activation is outlined. Finally, Chapter 6 describes a novel approach whereby real-time electrophysiological brain activity is used to predict the speed of semantic decision making, providing further evidence of a highly flexible, but finely structured, human semantic memory system.

This thesis addresses the computation and organization of conceptual knowledge. Specifically, it focuses on the recruitment of concrete knowledge during single word reading using behavioural and electrophysiological methodologies. Chapters 1 and 2 assess how number of visual semantic features listed by participants as being part of a given concept influence the speed of word meaning computation, and its neural underpinnings, providing evidence for modality-specific neural organization. Chapter 3 assesses the flexibility of knowledge activation as a function of specific task constraints, suggesting a multi-faceted approach to semantic richness is needed. Chapter 4 describes a novel application of recent statistical advances to the analysis of real-time electrophysiological data, and highlights some limitations of standard analytical approaches. Chapter 5 assesses the real-time influence of several types of knowledge on the neuroelectric activity underlying concrete word meaning computation. A timecourse of sensory-based knowledge type activation is outlined. Finally, Chapter 6 describes a novel approach whereby real-time electrophysiological brain activity is used to predict the speed of semantic decision making, providing further evidence of a highly flexible, but finely structured, human semantic memory system.

Tidigare forskning visar att bråk är ett område där många elever har problem. Syftet med den här studien är att studera gymnasieelevers matematiska kunskaper i multiplikation och division av bråk. Elevernas kunskaper studerades utifrån en konstruktivistisk syn på kunskap och med procedurell och konceptuell kunskap som analysverktyg. 61 elever från kursen Matematik A har löst totalt 10 uppgifter med multiplikation och division av bråk. 7 av eleverna intervjuades dessutom för att få en bättre uppfattning om deras kunskaper. Elevernas kunskaper kategoriserades sedan utifrån procedurella- och konceptuella kvaliteter. Resultatet visar att eleverna främst använder algoritmer för att lösa uppgifterna men även andra strategier som till exempel att skriva bråken som decimaler förekommer. Elevernas kunskap i multiplikation och division av bråk är av procedurell karaktär med fokus på att komma ihåg algoritmer för att lösa uppgifterna. Elevernas konceptuella kunskaper i bråkräkning är överlag inte lika utvecklade. Det framkommer genom att eleverna visar på svårigheter att lösa uppgifter i vissa sammanhang, bristande förståelse för betydelsen av beräkningarna och för varför de olika algoritmerna fungerar. / Earlier researches show that fraction is an area where many students have problems. The aim with this essay is to study upper secondary school students’ mathematical knowledge in multiplication and division of fraction. The students’ knowledge will be studied from a constructivistic perspective of knowledge and with procedural and conceptual knowledge as an instrument for the analysis. 61 students from the course Matematik A have solved totally 10 mathematical problems with multiplication and division of fraction. 7 of the students were furthermore interviewed to get a better understanding of their knowledge. The students’ knowledge were then categorized from procedurally and conceptually qualities. The result shows that the students primarily use algorithms to solve the problems but also other strategies as example to write the fraction as decimals occur. The students’ knowledge in multiplication and division of fraction is of procedural character with focus on remembering the algorithms for the different types of problems. The students conceptually knowledge in fraction arithmetic is overall not fully developed. It comes out by the students difficulties to solve problems in certain context, deficient understanding of the meaning of the calculations and why the different algorithms work.

Most of the work investigating the representation of concrete nouns in the brain has focused on the locations that code the information. We present a model to study the contributions of perceptual and semantic features to the neural code representing concepts over time and space. The model is evaluated using magnetoencephalography data from different paradigms and not only corroborates previous findings regarding a distributed code, but provides further details about how the encoding of different subcomponents varies in the space-time spectrum. The model also successfully generalizes to novel concepts that it has never seen during training, which argues for the combination of specific properties in forming the meaning of concrete nouns in the brain. The results across paradigms are in agreement when the main differences among the experiments (namely, the number of repetitions of the stimulus, the task the subjects performed, and the type of stimulus provided) were taken into consideration. More specifically, these results suggest that features specific to the physical properties of the stimuli, such as word length and right-diagonalness, are encoded in posterior regions of the brain in the first hundreds of milliseconds after stimulus onset. Then, properties inherent to the nouns, such as is it alive? and can you pick it up?, are represented in the signal starting at about 250 ms, focusing on more anterior parts of the cortex. The code for these different features was found to be distributed over time and space, and it was common for several regions to simultaneously code for a particular property. Moreover, most anterior regions were found to code for multiple features, and a complex temporal profile could be observed for the majority of properties. For example, some features inherent to the nouns were encoded earlier than others, and the extent of time in which these properties could be decoded varied greatly among them. These findings complement much of the work previously described in the literature, and offer new insights about the temporal aspects of the neural encoding of concrete nouns. This model provides a spatiotemporal signature of the representation of objects in the brain. Paired with data from carefully-designed paradigms, the model is an important tool with which to analyze the commonalities of the neural code across stimulus modalities and tasks performed by the subjects.

The purposes of this research study were to determine (a) in-service elementary teachers' familiarity, interest, conceptual knowledge of , and performance on science process skills and (b) how in-service elementary teachers' familiarity with, interest in conceptual knowledge of and performance on science process skills relate to each other. The science process skills include the basic skills [observation, classification, measuring, predicting, inferring, and communication,] and the integrated skills [hypothesizing, experimenting, identifying and controlling variables, formulating models, interpreting data, and graphing]. Twenty-four in-service elementary teachers enrolled in a master of math and science education degree program participated in this study. Participants completed questionnaires on their familiarity and interest in the science process skills, a science processes conceptual knowledge test, and a performance test on science process skills. Results indicate that these teachers were highly familiar with the science process skills, but moderately interested in these skills. Results also indicate that teachers were more interested in learning more about integrated process skills than basic process skills. Teachers possessed very low conceptual knowledge of the science process skills. However, teachers performed well on science process skills performance test. Significant correlations among the four constructs (familiarity, interest, conceptual knowledge and performance) were only significant between familiarity and interest. The implications, discussion and recommendations for future research and instruction on science process skills in teacher education programs have been presented.

abstract: Conceptual knowledge and self-efficacy are two research topics that are well-established at universities, however very little has been investigated about these at the community college. A sample of thirty-seven students enrolled in three introductory circuit analysis classes at a large southwestern community college was used to answer questions about conceptual knowledge and self-efficacy of community college engineering students. Measures included a demographic survey and a pre/post three-tiered concept inventory to evaluate student conceptual knowledge of basic DC circuit analysis and self-efficacy for circuit analysis. A group effect was present in the data, so descriptive statistics were used to investigate the relationships among students' personal and academic characteristics and conceptual knowledge of circuit analysis. The a priori attribute approach was used to qualitatively investigate misconceptions students have for circuit analysis. The results suggest that students who take more credit hours score higher on a test of conceptual knowledge of circuit analysis, however additional research is required to confirm this, due to the group effect. No new misconceptions were identified. In addition to these, one group of students received more time to practice using the concepts. Consequently, that group scored higher on the concept inventory, possibly indicating that students who have extra practice time may score higher on a test of conceptual knowledge of circuit analysis. Correlation analysis was used to identify relationships among students' personal and academic characteristics and self-efficacy for circuit analysis, as well as to investigate the relationship between self-efficacy for circuit analysis and conceptual knowledge of circuit analysis. Subject's father's education level was found to be inversely correlated with self-efficacy for circuit analysis, and subject's age was found to be directly correlated with self-efficacy for circuit analysis. Finally, self-efficacy for circuit analysis was found to be positively correlated with conceptual knowledge of circuit analysis. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2014

Enligt Läroplanen för förskolan (Skolverket, 2016) har förskollärare en skyldighet att undervisa i naturvetenskap samt ett ansvar att inspirera barnen och väcka deras nyfikenhet för ämnet. Syftet med studien är att upptäcka eventuella samband mellan förskollärares attityder och deras val av undervisningsmetoder gällande naturvetenskap. Vi vill uppfylla syftet med hjälp av följande frågeställningar: (1) vilka attityder till naturvetenskap finns hos förskollärare? och (2) vilka metoder används vid undervisning av naturvetenskap i förskolan? I studien används ett sociokulturellt perspektiv på lärande och utveckling, då detta synsätt menar att tanke, språk, erfarenheter, attityder och handlingar hör ihop (Säljö, 2014a). Studien är kvalitativ och datainsamlingen har skett via semistrukturerade intervjuer av sex legitimerade förskollärare. Studiens resultat visar följande: (1) att det inte kan påvisas något samband mellan förskollärares attityder och deras val av arbetssätt (2) att både kunskapsinriktat och processinriktat arbetssätt integreras i den naturvetenskapliga undervisningen, samt (3) att det finns ett samband mellan förskollärares intresse och val av naturvetenskapligt innehåll i verksamheten. Utifrån diskussionen har följande slutsatser dragits: att förskollärares attityder i någon form påverkar förskolans verksamhet, och att intresset spelar större roll än faktorerna omgivningens önskningar och krav samt tilliten till den egna förmågan, vilka ingår i Ajzens (1991) modell The theory of planned behaviour.

<div>Learning practices in education are constantly evolving to provide high-quality education. One of the trends used to provide high-quality education is incorporating technological tools to teach and learn STEM concepts. Implementing physical manipulative tools and virtual manipulative tools in STEM classrooms positively influenced conceptual learning. Furthermore, visuohaptic simulations are learning tools that combine physical and virtual manipulative affordances in a single learning experience. For investigating the value of visual and haptic feedback in virtual environments, we designed an embodied learning experience where learners used a hands-on tool for learning friction concepts. The theoretical framework of embodied learning guided the design of the learning tools and the research design. The learning tools were visuohaptic simulations and physical manipulative tool. Results suggested no influence in conceptual knowledge of the physical manipulative tool. On the opposite, results suggested a positive influence of the visuohaptic simulation on conceptual knowledge. Moreover, our studies suggested that learners exposed to enhanced visual feedback and haptic feedback used two different mechanisms for improving friction conceptual knowledge. When enhanced visual feedback was activated, learners read the cubes' forces from the computer screen for correcting their answer or reinforce their correct knowledge. When haptic feedback was activated, learners inferred about the cubes' forces from the haptic feedback for correcting their answer or reinforce their correct knowledge. In a sequenced approach of feedback of haptic to haptic + enhanced visual, learners obtained the benefits of the haptic and visual feedback for learning friction. </div><div> </div>

Ratio is one of the key mathematics concepts included in the South African Mathematics curriculum. It is applied in other topics of the Grade 7 curriculum, including geometry, functions and relationships, algebra, similarity and congruency. The aim of this qualitative research study was to explore the difficulties that learners experience in learning ratio. The primary research question for the study was: What is Grade 7 learners’ knowledge of ratio? This research question was answered through the following secondary research questions: How do learners solve problems involving ratio? What is learners’ conceptual knowledge of ratio? And what learning difficulties do learners experience when learning about ratio? The study was informed by Kilpatrick, Swafford and Findell’s (2001) five strands of mathematical proficiency; however, the focus was on conceptual and procedural knowledge of ratio. The interpretivist paradigm and the single exploratory case study design were used to gain insight into the learning of ratio. Data was collected from Grade 7 learners (23 of the 35 learners originally sampled) through a self-developed test that followed the prescripts of the Grade 7 Mathematics curriculum in South Africa and through semi-structured interviews. The test scripts were analysed using the Atlas.tiTM windows coding system and the results were used to construct questions for the semi-structured interviews. The interviews were used to corroborate data emerging from the test. The results of the study indicated that Grade 7 learners can do simple and routine manipulations of ratio as well as non-proportional ratio problems but struggle to solve problems that require multiplicative thinking and proportional reasoning skills. Although there could be other factors contributing to learners’ struggle to tackle proportional ratio problems requiring multiplication and proportional reasoning, a lack of conceptual knowledge seemed to contribute significantly. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / MEd / Unrestricted

Magister Educationis - MEd / A DESCRIPTION OF ENTRY LEVEL TERTIARY STUDENTS' MATHEMATICAL ACHIEVEMENT (Towards an analysis of student texts) M.S. Jacobs PhD Thesis, School of Mathematics and Science Education, University of the Western Cape. This research provides insights into the mathematical achievement of a cohort of tertiary mathematics students. The context for the study is an entry level mathematics course, set in an engineering programme at a tertiary institution, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). The participant members are first year, first semester students. The materials for the inquiry are student produced test scores and examination scripts taken from their entry level course. The characteristics of the mathematical achievement of the cohort concern the understanding of procedural and conceptual knowledge and problem solving abilities in mathematics. The facility with mathematics is another central concern of this study as it forms the dominant aspect of mathematical achievement which is accessible to research in the materials employed for the study. This research also develops a mathematical achievement profile for individual members of the cohort. The methodology makes use of content - and textual analytic methods for profiling the students. When viewed across the different kinds of profiling techniques adopted, this study suggests that these techniques complement one another: the profiles developed provide a cohesive and complementary overview of the achievement of the cohort. 111 This study challenges perceptions that responses to constructed response questions offer little information about the mathematical knowledge of students. This study investigates the possibilities of providing a bridge between the assessment of students by means of tests scores and a taxonomy of mathematical objectives, on the one hand, and the critical analysis of student produced texts, on the other. Findings suggest that diagnostic uses of paper and pencil tests can be revealing about the achievement of students. The wide range of responses to test items revealed a distribution of incompleteness in terms of employing algorithmic techniques. This research revealed that even in cases of wrong solutions, participant members' responses were reasonable, meaningful, clear and logical. The participants responded in many ways as predicted by the research literature. Evidence could be found for the use of child methods; poor use of reflective abstraction for coordination; accessing the wrong cognitive frames; not seeing the underlying structure of the mathematics and treating letters as objects. Findings suggest that the use of a textual analytic method, which led to the creation of critical indicators as a way of sign-posting events, enhanced the achievement profile of the students. / The Grassmate Project (SothAfrica/Norway)