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published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

<p>This theses examined adult learners' experiences of group work in management education. Group work is an integral part of learning and teaching methods at most business schools because it develops team skills demanded by today's workplace. Furthermore, group work in education is grounded in the belief that much learning happens through social interaction and that diversity within groups promotes learning. This study analysed learners' group experiences in a business school. The study also aimed to identify conditions that hinder and promote group interaction with a view to enhance learning.</p>

In this study, the contributions of learning motivation, reasoning ability, learning orientation and gender to International Baccalaureate and National Program students&rsquo / mitosis and meiosis achievement was investigated. Participants of the study were 472 ninth grade students from a private high school in Ankara. Two hundred nineteen students (46%) were in International Baccalaureate Program and two hundred fifty three (54%) were in National Program. The study was conducted during the 2006-2007 Spring semester. Prior to the introduction of mitosis and meiosis topics, students&rsquo / motivations toward biology learning (self efficacy, active learning strategies, science learning value, performance goals, achievement goals, learning environment stimulation), formal reasoning abilities and learning approaches were measured by Students&rsquo / Motivation Towards Biology Learning Questionnaire, Test of Logical Thinking Ability scale and Learning Approach Questionnaire respectively. After the topics have been covered, a 20 item Mitosis and Meiosis Achievement Test was used to measure achievement in mitosis and meiosis topics. Multiple regression analysis revealed that achievement was explained in positive direction by formal reasoning ability and in negative direction by active learning strategies and rote learning in National Program classes. Self-efficacy and formal reasoning ability had significant contributions to achievement for International Baccalaureate students. The main predictor of achievement was formal reasoning ability for both International Baccalaureate and National Program students, explaining 4.7% and 10.9% variance respectively. Moreover, while 2.9% of the variance in achievement was explained by self efficacy in International Baccalaureate classes, rote learning explained 2.2% of the variance in achievement in negative direction in National Program classes.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the predictive influences of epistemological beliefs, achievement motivation, learning approaches on sixth grade students&rsquo / achievement in classification concepts. The study was carried out in the fall 2006-2007 semester. One thousand forty one 6th grade students from twenty five randomly selected elementary schools in &Ccedil / ankaya district of Ankara participated in this study. In this study Turkish version of the Learning Approach Questionnaire, Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire, Achievement Motivation Questionnaire and Classification Concept Test were used as measuring instruments to collect relevant data. Multiple Regression Correlation Analyses was computed in order to find out the contribution of students&rsquo / learning approaches, epistemological beliefs and achievement motivation to their achievement in classification concepts. The results revealed that these variables explaining 14% of the variation in students&rsquo / achievement in classification concepts. Stepwise multiple regression analyses was conducted in order to find out which variable best predicted students&rsquo / achievement in classification concepts. Students&rsquo / learning approaches were found to be the best predictor of achievement explaining 12% of the variance. The remaining 2% of variance was explained by epistemological beliefs of the students. Achievement motivation, however did not contribute to students&rsquo / achievement in classification concepts. Results also revealed significant positive correlations between students&rsquo / achievement in classification concepts, their learning goal orientations, epistemological beliefs and learning approaches. Students&rsquo / performance goal orientations, and self efficacy beliefs, however, were not found to be related to their achievement in classification concepts.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Philosophy

Research in cooperative learning in education generally and second language education in particular has documented the apparently successful and simultaneous achievement of a number of educational goals. For second language learners, these goals include developing the second language (L2), maintaining the first language (L1), and acquiring content knowledge. However, little research has examined the opinions of the learners themselves with regard to cooperative learning together with the process of cooperative interaction. This study explores the opinions and interactions of Chinese immigrant students engaging in cooperative learning in English as a second language (ESL) classes. Drawing on qualitative research and discourse analysis traditions, the study used multiple methods of data collection in a Canadian secondary school ESL program: (1) individual interviews were carried out with 49 Chinese students; (2) 120 hours of observations in natural classroom settings were conducted; and (3) 30 hours of audio taped recordings of Chinese students' interactions during cooperative learning activities were also analyzed. The findings of the study present a complex picture of cooperative learning in the ESL classroom. The Chinese students seemed to be sitting on the horns of cooperative learning dilemmas between cooperation and individualism, between achieving results and sharing understandings of the task, and between using L1 to help with L2 / content learning and developing L2 for academic purposes. Particularly with cooperative learning goals of developing L2, maintaining L1, and acquiring content knowledge, Chinese students had difficult choices to make between developing L2 and maintaining L1, between using L1 for academic language and developing academic language in L2, and between learning content in L1 and learning content in L2. At a detailed level, tensions and dilemmas that Chinese students confronted appear to be intrinsic to the simultaneous pursuit of the three cooperative learning goals claimed for L2 learners. Cummins' (1991b, 1992) bilingual proficiency theory, which offers a possible theoretical model of how these goals are related, needs to address the various conflicts and dilemmas involved in these three cooperative learning goals. While recognizing other contributing factors, this work suggests that cooperative learning dilemmas may arise from conflicts of socially shared values and beliefs, and that discrepancies between Chinese students' home educational culture and their present Canadian secondary school culture add a layer of complexity to the dilemmatic situation of cooperative learning in an ESL context.