The university-level environmental studies subject Living in the Environment moved online progressively over two years. A Web-based version of the pre-existing subject was designed, implemented and evaluated over five semesters during 1997 and 1998. By the end of 1998, an online version of the subject was functioning effectively in a manner that enabled a teacher and students to work as a class group transacting teaching and learning activities entirely via the Web. The question of what the subject would be like as a result of going online, in the experience of the subject educators who worked with it, was the starting point for the research reported in this thesis. (For complete abstract open document)

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The purpose of this study was to observe the science teaching practices of six primary school teachers in Standards 5 through 7, to learn about their perceptions of teaching science and to examine whether or not their teaching practices were in keeping with what they were taught during teacher preparation as well as Malawi's educational expectations for primary school science based upon MIITEP (Malawi Integrated In-service Teacher Education Program) handbooks. Three research questions were posited: (a) What is the teacher preparation program for primary teachers in Malawi? (b) What were the instructional practices of the six beginning primary school science teachers who were prepared in the teacher training college programs? (c) What connections were evident between what beginning primary school science teachers were expected to learn and what they demonstrated in the classroom? All of the six participants (5 males and 1 female) had completed MIITEP in the past three to five years. The data sources for these science teachers included a self-assessment form, pre-observation interviews, post-observation interviews, and lesson observations. Data were also gathered from MIITEP handbooks and three science teacher educators who were interviewed. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis. The study revealed that there were matches, partial matches, and mismatches between what the six primary school teachers demonstrated in their classroom as compared with the Malawi Ministry of Education science teacher preparation expectations. Of particular interest were that science teachers did not fully engage pupils in most of the process skills for science teaching, nor did they utilize a variety of appropriate teaching and learning strategies and materials for teaching science. In addition, allotted time for teaching science lessons was not fully utilized due to, among other factors, time conflicts with other official and community welfare duties, and mixing English with vernacular during teaching. Implications for practice and for further research have also been suggested. / Ph. D.

A presente pesquisa, de abordagem qualitativa, propôs-se a investigar estratégias voltadas a alunos do Ensino Fundamental I para promover o início da alfabetização e letramento científico, a serem desenvolvidos ao longo da Educação Básica. Para isso, partiu das seguintes questões: Como trabalhar de forma a levar o aluno à aprendizagem de ciências naturais e desenvolvimento de habilidades fundamentais à formação do indivíduo alfabetizado e letrado cientificamente, como previsto nos Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais (PCN)? Que tipo de texto seria mais interessante para a prática pedagógica com vistas a essa aprendizagem? Trabalhando com alunos do 3º ano do Ensino Fundamental, ciclo I, de uma escola pública da Rede Municipal de Ensino de Guaratinguetá-SP, a pesquisa utilizou rodas de leitura como metodologia de ensino-aprendizagem de conteúdos de Ciências Naturais. Elegendo como suporte os textos de divulgação científica da revista Ciência Hoje das Crianças - CHC, a pesquisa desenvolveu as etapas de aplicação das atividades das rodas de leitura, avaliadas através da observação e análise das interações verbais e atividades complementares de representação verbal, icônica e cênica do conhecimento, além de sessão de jogos. Os resultados revelam o papel central do parceiro mais capaz atuando na ZDP durante as interações, contribuindo favoravelmente para a introdução do aluno no universo da ciência como um saber escolar, iniciando o seu processo de alfabetização e letramento científico e desenvolvendo melhor compreensão e interesse pelos conteúdos das Ciências Naturais. Diante disso, abriram-se perspectivas para a elaboração de uma heurística que o professor poderá levar em consideração se tiver como objetivo uma atuação eficiente na ZDP e a iniciação do aluno nos processos de alfabetização e letramento científico. / The present research, with qualitative approach, aimed to examine strategies focused on Elementary School students to promote the beginning of early and scientific literacies, both to be developed along Basic Education. To that end, it was based on the following questions: How to work in a way that takes the student to the learning of natural sciences and the development of abilities that are fundamental to the formation of the early and scientific literate individual, as fixed by the National Curriculum Parameters (NCP)? What kind of text would be more interesting to the pedagogical practice with focus on that learning? Working with students from the 3rd grade of the Elementary School, cycle I, of a public school of the Municipal Education System of Guaratinguetá-SP, the research used literature circles as a methodology for teaching and learning Natural Sciences contents. Electing scientific divulgation texts of the magazine Ciência Hoje das Crianças - CHC as support, the research developed the stages of application of the literature circles activities, evaluated through the observation and analysis of the oral interactions and complementary activities of oral, iconic and scenic representation of the knowledge, besides game sessions. The results reveal the main role of the more capable partner acting in the ZPD during the interactions, contributing favorably to the introduction of the student into the universe of science as a school knowledge, initiating his early and scientific literacies process and developing better comprehension and interest in the Natural Science contents. As a result, many perspectives were open up to the elaboration of a heuristic that the teacher will be able to take into account if he has an effective operation in the ZPD and the student initiation in the early and scientific literacies processes as goals.

A presente pesquisa, de abordagem qualitativa, propôs-se a investigar estratégias voltadas a alunos do Ensino Fundamental I para promover o início da alfabetização e letramento científico, a serem desenvolvidos ao longo da Educação Básica. Para isso, partiu das seguintes questões: Como trabalhar de forma a levar o aluno à aprendizagem de ciências naturais e desenvolvimento de habilidades fundamentais à formação do indivíduo alfabetizado e letrado cientificamente, como previsto nos Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais (PCN)? Que tipo de texto seria mais interessante para a prática pedagógica com vistas a essa aprendizagem? Trabalhando com alunos do 3º ano do Ensino Fundamental, ciclo I, de uma escola pública da Rede Municipal de Ensino de Guaratinguetá-SP, a pesquisa utilizou rodas de leitura como metodologia de ensino-aprendizagem de conteúdos de Ciências Naturais. Elegendo como suporte os textos de divulgação científica da revista Ciência Hoje das Crianças - CHC, a pesquisa desenvolveu as etapas de aplicação das atividades das rodas de leitura, avaliadas através da observação e análise das interações verbais e atividades complementares de representação verbal, icônica e cênica do conhecimento, além de sessão de jogos. Os resultados revelam o papel central do parceiro mais capaz atuando na ZDP durante as interações, contribuindo favoravelmente para a introdução do aluno no universo da ciência como um saber escolar, iniciando o seu processo de alfabetização e letramento científico e desenvolvendo melhor compreensão e interesse pelos conteúdos das Ciências Naturais. Diante disso, abriram-se perspectivas para a elaboração de uma heurística que o professor poderá levar em consideração se tiver como objetivo uma atuação eficiente na ZDP e a iniciação do aluno nos processos de alfabetização e letramento científico. / The present research, with qualitative approach, aimed to examine strategies focused on Elementary School students to promote the beginning of early and scientific literacies, both to be developed along Basic Education. To that end, it was based on the following questions: How to work in a way that takes the student to the learning of natural sciences and the development of abilities that are fundamental to the formation of the early and scientific literate individual, as fixed by the National Curriculum Parameters (NCP)? What kind of text would be more interesting to the pedagogical practice with focus on that learning? Working with students from the 3rd grade of the Elementary School, cycle I, of a public school of the Municipal Education System of Guaratinguetá-SP, the research used literature circles as a methodology for teaching and learning Natural Sciences contents. Electing scientific divulgation texts of the magazine Ciência Hoje das Crianças - CHC as support, the research developed the stages of application of the literature circles activities, evaluated through the observation and analysis of the oral interactions and complementary activities of oral, iconic and scenic representation of the knowledge, besides game sessions. The results reveal the main role of the more capable partner acting in the ZPD during the interactions, contributing favorably to the introduction of the student into the universe of science as a school knowledge, initiating his early and scientific literacies process and developing better comprehension and interest in the Natural Science contents. As a result, many perspectives were open up to the elaboration of a heuristic that the teacher will be able to take into account if he has an effective operation in the ZPD and the student initiation in the early and scientific literacies processes as goals.

Using a mixed-methods approach, the current study examined the relationship between early childhood preservice teachers' cultural awareness and their self-efficacy in equitable science education. It further aimed to determine if the relationship between these two constructs was moderated by their race/ethnicity or the number of languages they speak. Finally, it sought to identify preservice teachers' understanding of equity in science education, as well as how they planned to incorporate the equity concept into their future science teaching practices for diverse learners in early childhood classrooms. Data for this study were drawn from 380 preservice teachers who self-enrolled in a science methods course as part of a teacher preparation program. To measure the preservice teachers' cultural awareness and self-efficacy in equitable science education, two Likert-scale instruments, Cultural Diversity Awareness Inventory (CDAI) and Self-Efficacy Beliefs about Equitable Science Teaching and Learning (SEBEST), were employed. Qualitative data were collected by administering six open-ended questions. For quantitative results, statistically significant findings indicated that when the participants were more aware of creating a multicultural environment and instruction and/or when they were less biased and were more sensitive/knowledgeable about diversity of students and families, their expectations about science learning of students from diverse backgrounds would be higher. Furthermore, when the participants were more aware of creating a multicultural environment and instruction and/or when they felt more comfortable about confronting students or parents whose cultures and languages were different from their own, they tended to have a stronger sense of efficacy in teaching science to those students. In addition, when the participants were less biased and were also sensitive and knowledgeable about students' and families' diverse backgrounds, they were more likely to have a strong sense of science teaching efficacy. Along with these findings, participants' race/ethnicity was a statistically significant moderator affecting the relationship between their sense of science teaching outcome expectancy and awareness of creating a multicultural environment and instruction. When the awareness of creating a multicultural environment and instruction of both White and non-White participants were increased at an equal level, White participants' expectations for science learning of students from diverse backgrounds were higher than those of non-White participants. Measurement challenges were identified through the analysis process that compromised the validity of the quantitative findings. Thus, they should be interpreted with caution. For qualitative results, three predominant themes related to the participants' conceptualization of equity in science education were identified. First, the participants harbored alternative understandings of the definitions of equity in science education. One third of the participants understood equity as providing appropriate access and support based on the levels of students' needs whereas another one third defined equity as providing identical teaching services and resources to all students regardless of their backgrounds. They also conceptualized equity in science education as an issue independent of their future students' racial/ethnic backgrounds; instead, they regarded it as a subject associated with their students' English proficiency.