The study has a twofold purpose. The first is to compare the priority order of the seven fundamental areas of skill among the three sample groups, The second is to compare the differences between actual and ideal teacher performance in the seven fundamental skill areas. The conclusions are generalizable only to the population of Texas teacher educators, members of the Texas Science Supervisors Association and members of the Science Teachers Association of Texas, All of the groups had basic agreement as to the priority order of the science teacher competencies being demonstrated by teachers, The profession's success in educating teachers in the content areas is reflected by the priority of the rankings. The position of the science supervisors' ratings of teacher performance between teachers and teacher educators indicated that supervisors have the most accurate view of teacher performance, The least discrepancy among groups occurred in the ideal rating of teacher performance, indicating general agreement as to the level at which teachers should be demonstrating skills, The greatest discrepancy occurred in the identification of actual level of teacher performance.

Socioscientific issues, SSI, can briefly be described as societal issues in which science plays a role. Dealing with SSI in science education is a means to prepare and empower students for active and responsible participation in a complex, democratic society. The implementation of SSI-based teaching calls for classroom practices in which scientific evidence alongside for example social and ethical perspectives are considered. Discourse-based teaching activities are emphasized as a means to provide opportunities for students to practice negotiations of SSI and explore diverse viewpoints on the issues. Dealing with SSI in science teaching is recognized as a challenging task for science teachers. This thesis aims to provide knowledge to support the implementation of SSI-based science teaching. Three studies involving two upper secondary school science teachers are performed to achieve this aim. The first study makes use of video-stimulated discussions to investigate the two teachers’reflections on their classroom practices while they implement SSI throughout an academic year. The second study utilizes the concept positioning as a tool to identify and describe the ways in which one teacher’s interactions with students during group work make available different parts for the students to play as participants, when dealing with SSI in the classroom. The third study makes use of the concept communicative approach to investigate how the two teachers’ management of classroom discussions sets conditions for the consideration of multiple perspectives relevant to SSI, including the students’ viewpoints. The results provide knowledge useful when making considerations about the design and enactment of teaching activities in relation to specific educational goals. The results suggest that a specific challenge with designing and enacting SSI-based teaching activities is to balance between controlling and directing the teaching activities to promote specific learning goals and providing space for students’ participation and perspectives. The results of employing the analytical tools elucidate how this challenge can play out in classroom practice and contribute with knowledge of the ways in which teachers’ discursive practices play a role in addressing this challenge. Strategies to support teachers’ implementation of SSI-based teaching that take account of teachers’ existing practices are discussed.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to assess the measures of the Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI), an existing classroom environment measurement instrument, to provide up-to-date norms and validation evidence for a U.S. secondary school population. This instrument’s measures were established as a means of examining students’ perceptions of their learning environment in science classrooms, and subsequently providing indicators of performance. Pedagogical changes have taken place in the science classroom fostered by the National Science Standards. This study included an examination of the SLEI measures using Mesick’s validity framework including an in-depth analysis of the instrument’s content, substance, structure, generalizability and external validity. Rasch measurement theory was employed to investigate specific components of the instrument including item fit, rating scale function, dimensionality and individual performance information. Three hundred and fifty five high school science students completed the SLEI. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the dimensional structure of the measures of the instrument. Analyses revealed that a multi-dimensional model encompassing five distinct factors and excluding negatively worded items best characterized the SLEI measures. Multidimensional measures created by scaling the data to the Multidimensional Random Coefficients Multinomial Logit (Rasch) Model exhibited suitable rating scale structure, item quality, and reliability of separation. Analyses by academic grouping revealed that students in high achieving courses had a more favorable perception of all aspects of their learning environments when compared to students in the regular courses. In addition, student perceptions of the lab were influenced by the extent of students’ experience learning science. To determine whether differences observed by grade level could be attributable to biology learning experience versus experience in school, additional analyses were completed. The analysis revealed that differences in perception were consistent across academic achievement groups as well as experience level by first year and beyond (course level) rather than by grade level. This validation study has provided additional and up-to-date evidence concerning the validity of SLEI measures. Coupled with the existing research revealing positive correlations between student perceptions of their learning environments and their academic achievement, the outcomes reported here provide a foundation for future assessment of the relationship between classroom environment and student achievement. / Ph. D.

Efforts to improve science education have resulted in proposed innovative teaching methods and changing course sequences such as the inquiry-based Physics First curriculum. This study examined student and alumni perceptions of a Physics First course in a modified curriculum that inverted the traditional course sequence of Biology-Chemistry-Physics (BCP) to an inquiry-based Physics First (PF) curriculum in which students take an inquiry-based physics course as freshman and chemistry as sophomores. This study explored the experiences of students in their ninth grade physics course and how the Physics First curriculum influenced students’ and alumni future STEM course choices and experiences. The qualitative study included a sampling of 16 male students and alumni selected from students currently enrolled and alumni who graduated within five years of the study. All the students interviewed recalled positive, memorable experiences in their Physics-9 course as they explained in their interviews that they enjoyed their Physics-9 course and remembered details about the engaging, hands-on projects as their favorite activities. Since the adoption of the PF curriculum more students were taking honors and AP science courses and over 90% of the students at the site enrolled in four years of science even though only three years were required. Almost all of the students liked science for the first time because of the Physics-9 course.

The objective of this study is to examine the impact of students accessing Algebra 1 in the 8th grade on their science course-taking patterns in high school in a large district in the Mid Atlantic of the United States. This is an important question because many studies have shown that Algebra 1 is a "gatekeeper" course (Adelman, 1999, 2006) but there has not been much research around the impact of who has taken Algebra 1 by 8th grade and what science courses they took as a result of having access to that particular course (Xin Ma, 2009). The data will be supplied by the school district of the last two cohorts of graduating seniors who were in the district from the seventh grade on, so the analysis can be conducted on those who were subject to the same opportunities and policies. The demographic information that will be requested are: Free/Reduced Meal students (FRMS) as a proxy for socio-economic status (SES), gender, race, English as a Second Language (ESOL) level, Special Education (SPED), what grade the students took Algebra, and the science classes they took while they were in high school. The research questions will be analyzed using JMP, a statistics program supplied by Virginia Tech to see if there are any significant differences in which groups of students took Algebra 1 by 8th grade and what kinds of science courses they took. The major findings were that more White and Asian students, and higher SES students accessed Algebra 1 by 8th grade and were enrolled in more rigorous science classes in their high school career than their Black, Hispanic, low SES, Special Education or English Language peers. The results of this study could inform large school districts about the impact of Algebra 1 by 8th grade on students' science course-taking patterns and promote conversations about their policies they create about access to critical courses. / Doctor of Education / The objective of this study is to examine the impact of students accessing Algebra 1 in the 8th grade on their science course-taking patterns in high school in a large district in the Mid Atlantic of the United States. This is an important question because many studies have shown that Algebra 1 is a "gatekeeper" course (Adelman, 1999, 2006) but there has not been much research around the impact of who has taken Algebra 1 by 8th grade and what science courses they took as a result of having access to that particular course (Xin Ma, 2009). The major findings were that more White and Asian students, and higher SES students accessed Algebra 1 by 8th grade and were also enrolled in more rigorous science classes in their high school career than their Black, Hispanic, low SES, Special Education or English Language peers. The results of this study could inform large school districts about the impact of Algebra 1 by 8th grade on students' science course-taking patterns and promote conversations about their policies they create about access to critical courses. The research could be used by school leaders as context for when they examine the participation of students in their upper level science classes. It could also be used by school counselors to better communicate with families about the importance of mathematics preparation and readiness and the impact of those on other college track courses.

No description available.

Orientador: José Carlos Miguel / Resumo: A presente pesquisa teve por objetivo identificar a percepção que os professores responsáveis pela disciplina de Metodologia Para o Ensino de Ciências têm ao ministrar suas aulas no Curso de Pedagogia e a concepção dos alunos de 3.º e 4.º anos desse curso, quanto ao oferecimento de tal disciplina para a formação do professor de Ciências nas séries iniciais do Ensino Fundamental. A metodologia escolhida foi o estudo de caso, tendo como abordagem a pesquisa quanti-qualitativa. Os dados foram coletados em três etapas: na primeira, aplicaram-se os questionários aos grupos de graduandos de cinco universidades, três públicas e duas particulares; na segunda etapa, um aluno de cada instituição foi entrevistado, tendo em vista que esses alunos já ministram ou ministraram aulas de Ciências no Ensino Fundamental; na terceira etapa, os entrevistados foram os professores universitários, um de cada instituição pesquisada, e responsáveis por disciplinas correspondentes à de Metodologia Para o Ensino de Ciências. Em seguida, os dados foram analisados e sintetizados em quadros de classe e subclasse de conteúdos para, assim, fornecer um eixo facilitador de análise, de resultados e discussões chegando à conclusão de que a pesquisa pedagógica oferece um norte para se pensar mais efetivamente na formação inicial do professor, principalmente no que tange às práticas diferenciadas em sua formação, bem como ao interesse pelo ensino e grau de importância a ele dado. / Abstract: The present research has aimed to identify the subject "Methodology for Science Teaching", responsible teachers' perception have on teaching their classes in the Course of Pedagogy and the 3rd and 4th graders conception in these courses, as for the offer of such subject for the Science teacher graduation in the very beginning of the Elementary course (grades) levels. The Methodology chosen here was a subject study having the qualitative research as an approach, without excluding the quantitative research, though. The data were collected in three steps: at first it was made some questionaries to the graduating groups of five universities, in which three of then are public and two are private focusing: the satisfaction with the preparation to teach Science, the Pedagogic Practice and the Science teaching; in the second step, one student from each Institution was interviewed, being aware that those students had taught or were teaching Elementary Science classes, the semi-structured interview focus is aiming the existence or lack of articulation between theory and practice, as for the importance and preparation for the subject teaching; in the third step, the interviewed ones were university professors, also one from each researched Institution and who were the responsible ones for the subject of methodology for Science teaching or similar ones as a subject with the same objective. Then, the data were analyzed and summarized into classes and sub-classes of contents made easier through analysis so to furnish a connection of results and discussions coming to a conclusion that the Pedagogic research offers an orientation to think more effectively in the very first teacher's education, mainly about the different practices in their education as for the teaching interest and how much importance was given to it. / Mestre

This self-study examined the learning that emerged from a change in teaching assignment coupled with self-initiated, teacher-led professional development in order to understand a high school science teacher's development as a teacher. The two participants in the study were the teacher/researcher, an experienced high school biology teacher who was taking up a new assignment teaching biotechnology, an advanced science course; and a first-year teacher assigned to teach biotechnology, who served as collaborator in the professional development and critical friend in the study. In order to uncover the teacher/researcher's learning and thinking, self-study of teaching practice methodology most clearly met the demands of the study. Data emerged from three research conversations and included transcripts of the conversations, artifacts from the participants' practices, notes from meetings, and memos. Data were analyzed using constant comparative methods and the understandings generated are grounded in the data. The study reveals shifts in teacher identity as the expert teacher takes up novice roles, the challenges encountered when teacher knowledge is insufficient for the teaching task, and the experienced teacher's need to return to a place of expertise when faced with a new teaching context. The study finds that (a) teacher identity shifts and develops in new teaching contexts, and teaching expertise facilitates expert identity development in such contexts; (b) expert teacher knowledge mediates novice-ness when experiencing new teaching contexts such as new teaching assignments; and (c) teacher-led professional development is a viable model for professional development experiences and can lead to increased teacher knowledge. The author suggests that (a) teachers are capable of determining what they need to learn and how they might best learn it in a professional development setting; (b) teachers' specific contexts should be honored when designing professional development, which should be practice-centered, and special attention should be given to developing specific subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and science knowledge for teaching; and (c) capable others should be included in collaborative professional development teams.

This qualitative study explores factors affecting the implementation of an elementary science curriculum in three schools in northern Saskatchewan. Data gathered from thirteen elementary level teachers indicate that most teachers interviewed possess a general vision of ideal science teaching and learning close to that presented in the provincial curriculum, but that most teachers believe that they are a considerable distance away from translating that vision into reality. Data indicate that few teachers use the curriculum on a regular basis or possess detailed familiarity with its components.<p>A variety of generic factors not unique to the north are creating challenges for teachers striving to implement the science curriculum. Tight timelines for implementation, as well as challenges such as class size, limited inservice availability, and infrequent networking opprtunities were identified as challenges. Many challenges were linked to the need to refine or acquire skills made more necessary by new curricula, as well as by other provincial and regional initiatives. The need to address such skill deficits is felt by most teachers, but is felt most acutely by those who are not recent graduates of teacher-training programs or those who rely primarily on locally available professional development within the context of the regular school year and setting.<p>Teachers in this study indicated that a greater degree of instructional leadership at the school division and school level would assist them in their efforts to implement mandated changes. Concern was also expressed that little monitoring of the implementation process by either their school division or by the provincial government had taken place.<p>A variety of factors unique to the North were identified as affecting implementation efforts. Teachers found the curriculum to be easily adapted for northern needs, as well as appropriate for students for whom English is a second language. General funding levels and special school division initiatives were also seen as helpful. Respondents, however, identified socioeconomic factors, questionable levels of instructional leadership, as well as distance between community and school as serious challenges to implementation.<p>This study confirms current research indicating that managing changes such as the implementation of an elementary science curriculum is a complex venture necessitating organizational and operational changes at school, school division, and provincial levels to encourage and support efforts to make schools learning organizations for both students and teachers. The study concludes with several recommended areas of further research, as well as with several specific action recommendations to assist with the implementation of new curricula.