This study hypothesized that students in a constructivist classroom would perform better academically than students in a traditionalist classroom. The methodology used was a multi~method approach utilizing both quantitative and qualitative techniques.Two separate classrooms of students in a 10th grade general science program were selected to serve as the experimental and control groups. One group was taught the material using traditional teaching methods in a traditional learning environment, functioning as the control group. The second group was taught the same basic material using constructivist methods in a constructivist learning environment.The most significant finding of the study was that students in the constructivist classroom scored higher on the achievement test than students in the more traditional classroom, even though constructivist approaches tend to focus on different assessment tools. Although the study lends support to the major hypothesis, it should be noted that further research must be conducted in this area. Samples of larger than 23 would ideally be chosen and more classes in multiple schools should be used. The use of a convenience sample; such as was done in this study, tends to limit the implication of the results, because the endings can only be strictly said to be true for classes in this particular school.

This thesis addresses the problematic relationship between teacher personal philosophies of science and teacher pedagogy. The research literature on philosophy of science and its impact on science education identifies the persistence and pervasiveness of traditional philosophies of science, such as inductive-empiricism and positivism, that misrepresent the practice of science. Although researchers have expressed concern about the influence of teacher beliefs in inductive-empiricism and positivism on teacher practice in the science classroom, the results of research in this field are inconclusive.This thesis reports an interpretive research study of three high school science teachers. An interpretive framework was developed in order to assist in the identification of teachers personal philosophies of science. The framework comprises philosophical theories of ontology, epistemology, and theory building, and the key assumptions of major philosophers of science.Interpretive analyses were conducted on classroom discourse in order to examine the influence of the three teachers personal philosophies of science on their teaching practice. Data were collected by means of participant-observation, audio-tape recordings, and teacher and student interviews. The validity of the research was optimised by using triangulation methods.The results of the thesis in the form of general assertions, indicate that experienced teachers personal philosophies of science comprise well-established and strongly integrated networks of ontological, epistemological, and theory building beliefs based on the traditional philosophies of science of inductive-empiricism and positivism. The results indicate also that a strong relationship exists between teachers traditional personal philosophies of science and teacher-centred classroom roles and teaching practices, and that this relationship is reinforced ++ / by institutional factors such as curriculum policy and teaching resources, and laboratory design and classroom organisation.These results have important implications for the implementation of constructivist-oriented curriculum reforms in school science.

The scientific literacy of four students in Year 8 was the main focus of one year of participant observer research. An interpretive research methodology was employed to generate tales about each student, in order to provide rich descriptions of the participation of these students in Science classes and in non-Science classes.A major theme was the complementarity of epistemological referents for scientific literacy. Objectivism, personal constructivism and social constructivism were identified as major referents for scientific literacy, and therefore as underpinning factors for the diversity of definitions of scientific literacy. Some authors have called for these referents to complement one another. In this study, I used the conceptual tool of metaphor to facilitate the holding together, in dialectical tension, of these often competing ideas.No a-priori notion of scientific literacy was adopted for the research, but an emergent theoretical framework for scientific literacy evolved. This metaphorical framework was shown to be a viable way of organising a diversity of literature-based definitions of scientific literacy. It was subsequently utilised to interpret the tales about the four students, and helped reveal significant themes.Foremost amongst the emerging research themes was equity of access into scientific literacy. Ten major assertions from the research provide different considerations of the ways that students access, or are denied access to, scientific literacy. Finally, implications of the three-metaphor framework for research, and speculations about its place in informing classroom practice are presented.

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a series of the ¡§Gender Stereotype Threat Inventory¡¨(GSTI) of junior high school students in science classroom. The GSTI was included three scales: domain indentification, gender stereotype and learning environment. The GSTI was conducted to a total of 640 8th graders in Kaohsiung city. Results of the study were employed for internal consistency analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, Rasch modeling analysis, as well as the multiple invariance approach to test its reliability and validity. The result manifested that each scale had reasonable coefficient Cronbach alpha ranging from .73 to .85 and the overall model fit indices indicated that model fitted the oberserved data and had cross-validation. Finally, the results of gender stereotype threat in science classroom and implications for using the GSTI inventory in future research are presented.

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.

Thesis (M.Ed.(Curriculum Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

This study investigated students' perceptions of the generalist learning environment of the primary school compared to the same students' perceptions of the learning environments of the secondary school, with a particular focus on science learning environments. The role of student sex and school size pathways were investigated as factors Influencing changes in students' learning environment perceptions. The same students' perceptions of the learning environment were collected in the final stages of primary school and again after their initial term in secondary school. Data collected were both qualitative and quantitative in nature, with the quantitative data derived from short forms of the My Class Inventory and the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction. Insights were gained into how students' perceptions of learning environment, including the teachers' interpersonal style, changed during their first exposure to secondary learning environments and teachers, and how these changes in perceptions during transition depended upon school size and student sex. The study found that students' perceptions of the learning environments did change across transition, but that these changes on some scales varied with student sex and school size pathway.

The purpose of this evaluation study was to compare students' perceptions of their science classroom environment when using science kits, textbooks or a combination of science kits, textbooks and teacher-created materials. This year-long study involved using a learning environment questionnaire, namely the My Class Inventory (MCI), interviews and observations to assess which of the three treatments leads to a more positive learning environment. Three questions investigated were whether (1) the learning environment can be reliably and validly assessed among Grade 3-5 students in Texas, (2) instruction using textbooks, science kits, or a combination of textbooks and science kits is more effective in terms of changes in student attitudes and learning environment perceptions, and (3) there are associations between student attitudes toward science classes and the classroom environment? Administrators and teachers in Texas are searching for ways to improve the scores received on standardized tests. For more than 40 years, research has shown that positive classroom environments can lead to improvement in achievement. Therefore 1 chose to investigate the above questions using a learning environments framework. This study was conducted in three urban elementary schools in North Texas. There were a total of 588 students in 28 classrooms with 16 different teachers involved in this research. The schools were similar in demographic features such as ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Analyses of data collected with the My Class Inventory (MCI) supported the instrument's factorial validity, internal consistency reliability, and ability to differentiate between the perceptions of students in different classrooms. / Also, simple correlation and multiple regression analyses indicated reasonably strong and positive associations between each classroom environment scale and the students' satisfaction. The Satisfaction scale was used as an outcome variable, following the lead of Majeed, Fraser and Aldridge (2002). Results h m the MCI, interviews and observations indicated that students preferred a more positive classroom environment in terns of Cohesiveness, Competition, and Friction. Importantly, the group of students using science kits experienced greater pretest-posttest changes in satisfaction and classroom cohesiveness than did either the textbook group of the combination group. This study supports previous research that combined qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. Qualitative methods suggested that students preferred a more hands-on presentation of science lessons rather than a textbook presentation. This was suggested in interviews with students and teachers and by observations of students in their science classes. This research evaluated three educational methods to determine which instructional method would produce a more positive learning environment and student satisfaction. These results suggest that the utilization of science kits achieves this goal as measured by student satisfaction and cohesiveness.

The classroom has become an important focus of educational research because most learning takes place there. The purpose of this study was to examine 8th grade students perception of science classroom environment from constructivist perspective and investigate the association between students perceptions, motivational beliefs and attitudes toward science. In addition in this study the affects of gender difference on students&amp / #8217 / constructivist learning environment, motivation and attitude toward science were investigated. The data in the present study were collected through Turkish version of Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES), Test of Science Related Attitudes (TOSRA) and Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) from 8th grade students who were in randomly selected from 15 elementary schools in &Ccedil / ankaya, Ankara. A total of 956 students (462 girls, 493 boys and one did not indicate gender) were participated in the study. The data obtained from participants were analyzed by using Canonical Correlation Analyses and Multivariate Analyses of Variance (MANOVA). Results of canonical correlation analyses indicated that all constructivist learning environment variables and all the motivational beliefs variables were positively related with each other. In addition the result of this analysis also showed that all constructivist learning environment variables and attitude variables were positively related with each other. The findings of MANOVA showed that gender had a significant effect on students&amp / #8217 / constructivist learning environment (personal relevance and critical voice), their adaptive motivational beliefs (intrinsic goal orientation, task value, and control of learning beliefs), and their attitude toward science (adaptation to science attitudes, enjoyment of science lesson, leisure interest in science, and career interest in science). Results indicated that girls&amp / #8217 / perceptions of their learning environment, their adaptive motivational beliefs and their attitude toward science were higher than boys.