One purpose of the present study was to validate a modified version of the What is Happening In This Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire and the Test of Science Related Attitude (TOSRA) in both Australia and Indonesia. It was the first classroom environment study that used the two above questionnaires simultaneously in these two countries. The second aim of this study was to find out whether the scores on the WIHIC questionnaire and TOSRA vary with country and with gender. The third and final aim of this study was to evaluate the strength of the associations between students' perceptions of their classroom environment and their attitude to science in both Australia and Indonesia. The sample consisted of 1,161 students (594 students from 18 classes in Indonesia and 567 students from 18 classes in Australia). All the students came from private coeducational schools. The original WIHIC questionnaire had eight scales made up of ten items per scale while the original version of TOSRA had seven scales made up of ten items per scale. Principal components factor analysis followed by varimax rotation resulted in the acceptance of a revised version of the WIHIC comprising 55 items and a revised version of TOSRA comprising 20 items. The a priori factor structure of the revised version of each questionnaire was replicated in both countries, with nearly all items having a factor loading of at least 0.30 on their a priori scale and no other scale. / The use of MANOVA revealed that there were a few differences between Australian and Indonesian students' perceptions of their classroom environments and in their attitudes to science. For example, Australian students had a more positive attitude towards scientific inquiry while Indonesian students had a more positive attitude towards career interest in Science. A comparison between male and female students in the two countries revealed that both genders had almost similar perceptions of their learning environments and attitudes to science. However, female students had a slightly higher score when it came to career interest in science, student cohesiveness and equity. A series of simple correlation and multiple regression analyses revealed reasonably strong and positive associations between each classroom environment scale and the attitude scale. Overall Teacher Support and Involvement were the strongest independent predictors of student attitudes to science in both Indonesia and Australia.

This thesis reports on the modification, validation and application of a classroom learning environment questionnaire. This thesis is distinctive in that parents' perceptions were utilised in conjunction with students' perceptions in investigating science classroom learning environments among Grade 4 and 5 students in South Florida. The What is Happening in this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire was modified for young students and their parents. Data from samples of students and parents were analysed to check the reliability and validity of the modified questionnaires and to examine similarities and differences between parents' and students' perceptions of the learning environment. Associations between parents' and students' perceptions of the science learning environment and student outcomes (attitude and achievement) were also investigated in this study. Parents and students were interviewed to check further the validity and reliability of questionnaires and to enhance the richness of the quantitative findings. Interviews with parents and students, along with classroom observations, offered some insights into the quantitative findings. Data analyses supported the WIHIC's factorial validity, internal consistency reliability and ability to differentiate between the perceptions of students in different classrooms. Both students and parents preferred a more positive classroom environment than the one perceived to be actually present, but effect sizes for actual-preferred differences were larger for parents than for students. / Associations were found between some learning environment dimensions (especially Task Orientation) and student outcomes (especially attitudes). Qualitative methods suggest that students and parents were generally satisfied with the classroom environment but that students would prefer more investigation while parents would prefer more teacher support. The study provides a pioneering look at how parents and students perceive the science learning environment and opens the way for further learning environment studies involving parents and students.

Teaching a subject requires a teacher to understand its language, epistemology and traditions, and how these characteristics govern what is appropriate for teaching and learning. This research examines how teachers' experiences of mathematics and science subject cultures, including traditions of practice, beliefs, and basic assumptions, influence their secondary school mathematics and science teaching. Six teachers from two secondary schools were interviewed and their classroom practice observed over a period of eighteen months. The research involved observing and video recording teachers' mathematics and science lessons, then interviewing them about their practice, their views of school mathematics and science, and how they see themselves in relation to these subjects. Four themes emerged which highlight similarities and differences between the subject cultures of mathematics and science: the nature of curriculum organisation across the two subjects; the role of learning experientially through hands-on experiences; the translation of 'relevance' as a school culture imperative into teachers' conceptions of, and practices in, the subject; and the role of aesthetic understanding in how teachers experience, situate themselves within, and negotiate boundaries between the two subject cultures. Significant cultural and individual differences were found in what teachers considered to be at the core of their subject teaching. Cultural differences make the subject identifiably mathematics or science. In mathematics, supporting students to move through sequentially organised curriculum content, and the importance placed on mathematics in the school curriculum, led to a Pedagogy of Support. In science, the more topic-based curriculum, and an imperative to foster student interest in science, led to a Pedagogy of Engagement. A school culture imperative to link the subject matter to students' lives was translated differently in mathematics and science. Individual differences between teachers resulted in a diversity of practices across and within the two schools, particularly with respect to how teachers related practical work to theory. The two schools' different approaches to open-ended problem solving resulted in varying degrees of latitude for teachers to move away from traditional teaching modes. In addition, whether or not teachers had stories to tell that related the subject matter to students' lives influenced their approach to making the subject relevant. Teachers' passions, coherence in their understanding of content and pedagogy, and their identity, were shown to be integral to the way they positioned themselves in relation to the subject, and in shaping their confidence and competence. Teachers experienced different traditions within the subject cultures. Some traditions perpetuated practices that might be considered 'outdated'. Emerging traditions challenged current practices through innovation and new ways of thinking about teaching and learning. Local traditions developed within the school as expectations for practice. Teachers experienced these different traditions in the process of moving forward from basic assumptions that they saw as characterising the subject, while translating school culture imperatives, and as they developed a sense of self in relation to the subject. The significance of this research lies in its contribution to improved understanding of the demands associated with subject teaching. Findings relating to the demands associated with negotiating subject boundaries have implications for the support of teachers who are teaching 'out-of-field'. In addition, teachers' experiences of the demands associated with translating school culture imperatives into their subject teaching raise questions about the usefulness of generic descriptions of pedagogy. These findings indicate that teacher and school change processes can be informed by describing subject and individual pedagogies.

This thesis investigates how Māori knowledge and language articulate with current discourses of Pūtaiao education, and possible alternative articulations. A Kaupapa Māori version of critical discourse analysis methodology is developed and applied to discourses relevant to Pūtaiao, or Māori-medium science education. This topic represents an intersection between language, science, education, and culture - fields which are all highly politically charged. Therefore, it is essential that a politically robust Kaupapa Māori position be taken in relation to the research topic. Not only the issues being investigated but the underlying research paradigm must be interrogated using Kaupapa Māori theory at each stage of the project. The goal is to study the range of possible meanings for the notions of 'Pūtaiao' and 'Māori science' by exploring the relevant dialectical issues, critiquing the assumptions and positions taken on language, knowledge, identity and ethos, in order to inform further Pūtaiao curriculum development. The research project is a narration of the larger story of Pūtaiao education: what is the current situation, how did it come about, what theoretical issues have been influential in this process, and what possibilities are there for further development of Pūtaiao curriculum and pedagogy? The thesis research consists of a series of discourse analyses of varying levels of focus and intersection with Pūtaiao: Wāhanga 1: Translated NCEA L1 science and mathematics examinations, and a traditional Taitokerau oral text; Wāhanga 2: Māori science curriculum policy; Wāhanga 3: Multicultural science education research; Wāhanga 4: Curriculum politics, preventive linguistics, language of science; Wāhanga 5: Mātauranga, rationality, philosophy of science. Each analysis takes the form of a narrative history, based on a selected corpus of previously published scholarship (in Wāhanga 1, including numerical data and oral tradition) on the issue under examination, from a Kaupapa Māori perspective. Mainly in the first two chapters, analysis at times also draws on 'personal narrative' accounts of previously unpublished details relating to Pūtaiao. Additionally, an investigation of various qualified notions of 'science' is undertaken, beginning in Wāhanga 2, concluding in Wāhanga 5, in order to explore the nature and boundaries of science as a system of knowledge, and its relationship to other types or systems of knowledge. Synopses are included of the following concepts and theoretical issues impacting on the discourses under analysis: Wāhanga 1: Ethnicity, 'race', critical theory, Kaupapa Māori theory. Wāhanga 2: Science, scientism, science ideology and anti-science. Wāhanga 4: Identity, linguistic purism, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Informed by this research, in Wāhanga 5 an original model for the relationship between mātauranga and science is proposed, and the notion of Kaupapa Māori science/epistemology is explored. An analogy between the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and multicultural science is used to draw together the cultural debates in language and knowledge, which are surmised to intersect at the level of discourse. The final chapter presents a re-articulation of Pūtaiao as the notion of Kaupapa Māori science education, and some recommendations for language and content knowledge in further development of Pūtaiao curriculum policy.

In the last few decades, there has been growing attention to situated or distributed perspectives on learning and cognition. The purpose of this study was to examine science learning in classroom settings through the lens of distributed cognition. A particular focus of this study was on the public space of interaction that includes participants' interactions with each other and with artefacts in the environment. / Focusing on the event of student experiment design, two science lessons were videotaped in this study, in which a class of Grade-seven participants was asked to investigate the scientific theme of gravity by designing parachutes and pendulums. The video-stimulated post-lesson interviews with both teacher and student provided complementary data in order to understand their practice in these lessons. / The analysis of two science lessons reveals the different functions of language, gestures, and material objects and their relative significance in the process of student meaning making and knowledge construction. It shows that (1) the language of science is best understood as an artefact employed by the participants to achieve mutual understanding; (2) gestures and other forms of non-verbal acts build the connections between the conceptual and the physical worlds, and provided perceptual resources that foregrounded the salient aspects of their environment; and (3) material objects helped the students to understand each other by disambiguating references to objects, but (4) material objects constrained student sense-making. The analysis also demonstrated that (5) the learning activity was enacted through the participants' deployment of a range of artefacts, and (6) the manipulation of conceptual artefacts was interdependent of the manipulation of material objects. / Building on the theoretical framework of distributed cognition, this study was able to document the students' learning processes by investigating classroom interactions in great detail. The findings and techniques resulting from this study will help teachers and researchers to achieve a better understanding of science learning in classrooms and the role of artefacts in this learning and assist them to improve the learning environments.

Reforms in education of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines have been particularly critical for the economic competitiveness of Turkey. STEM education includes the set of knowledge, skills, and beliefs which are collaboratively constructed by students and teachers at the intersection of more than one STEM subject area. The overall purpose for all three studies comprising this dissertation was to investigate whether prospective Turkish mathematics and science teachers were ready to implement STEM education in terms of their integrated teaching knowledge (ITK), teaching self-efficacy beliefs, and attitudes toward mathematics and science integration. The dissertation employed a quantitative research methodology to investigate ITK and attitudes whereas teaching self-efficacy beliefs were investigated with an explanatory mixed methods study. Results from the first study suggested that the pre-service mathematics and science teachers, who were educated in an integrated teaching education program, outperformed peers in the departmentalized teacher education program in terms of their ITK. There was evidence in the second study that practical teaching experiences helped pre-service mathematics and science teachers develop high self-efficacy beliefs for mathematics and science integration. The findings of the third study indicated that the integrated teacher education program provided noteworthy benefits for pre-service attitudes toward mathematics and science integration when compared to pre-service mathematics teachers in the departmentalized program. The unique attributes of integrated mathematics and science teacher education programs, such as balanced coursework of content, pedagogy, and pedagogical content knowledge, integrated teaching courses, and the increased peer stimulation in classrooms were discussed as possible factors that explain the results. Overall, the three studies demonstrated that the pre-service mathematics and science teachers in the integrated teacher education program were ready to implement STEM education aligned with the reforms enacted by the K-12 policy-making organization while the departmentalized teacher education program, which was recommended by the higher education policy making organization, was preparing pre-service teachers as content experts of individual STEM subjects. Policy coordination in K-12 and higher education emerged as a critical factor for the success of Turkish education reforms.

Teacher leadership has emerged as a component of the movement to increase student achievement in science and mathematics. The Information Technology in Science Center for Teaching and Learning (ITS Center) was funded by the National Science Foundation with the goal of developing science education leaders. This study explored the changes in teachers' descriptions of their leadership in their school settings before and after their participation in a science education leadership program and the aspects of their science education leadership. A study of teacher-participants in Cohort II of the ITS Center was conducted to investigate how they demonstrated leadership in their school settings and to what extent these teachers attributed changes in their leadership to their ITS Center experience. Participants in this study were 15 classroom teachers who participated in Cohort II of the ITS Center. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used. These teacher-participants completed a Teacher Leadership Roles Survey as a part of their application to participate and then again one year after their ITS Center participation. Their primary leadership roles were to serve as a source of knowledge and a generator of new ideas for their fellow teachers. Their major activity was to develop curricular/instructional materials. However, the change in their leadership roles and activities was highly variable. As the literature indicates, demonstration of teacher leadership is highly dependent on context. The participants who greatly increased their leadership roles and activities moved into new, formal leadership roles following their ITS Center experience. Participants who greatly decreased their leadership roles and activities had changed school campuses or districts. A case study was conducted of two teachers demonstrating a great increase in leadership. They identified the components of the ITS Center experience that contributed to increased leadership roles and activities as: relationships developed with fellow teachers, graduate students, and university faculty; extended time for engagement in ITS Center activities; accountability for implementation of ITS Center Instructional Frameworks and Practitioner Research Plan; and their increased understanding of educational research and the role it plays in evidence-based decision making.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [151]-168). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Syracuse University, 2009. / "Publication number: AAT 3385850."

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [151]-168). Also available on the Internet.