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This study investigated Lesotho junior secondary science teachers’ perceptions and use of laboratory work in teaching. Teaching is described as engagement in a relationship between a person called a teacher and another person called a student with the purpose of facilitating the student’s acquisition of content which the student previously lacked (Fenstermacher, 1986). Using the constructs of scientific inquiry and inquiry-based instruction and constructivism as theoretical lenses the study empirically explored the Junior School Science teachers’ perceptions of the aims of laboratory work and how the teachers used laboratory work in their teaching. At the centre, the investigation sought to understand whether there was any relationship between teachers’ perceptions of the aims of laboratory work and their use of laboratory work. The sample of the study consisted of fifty science teachers (n=50) conveniently selected from 12 schools in the Butha-Buthe district of Lesotho. Data were collected through closed and open ended questionnaires (n=50), semi-structured interviews (n=5), and laboratory lesson observations (n=2). Data were analyzed quantitatively using descriptive statistics and qualitatively using a combination of typological and interpretational analysis. The results show that as a group the sampled teachers held the view that the most important aim of laboratory work was to promote conceptual understanding. In their teaching, most of the sampled teachers use laboratory work to verify theory through largely verificationist, expository and non-inquiry laboratory instructional practices and strategies. The following barriers were reported by the teachers as limiting their use of inquiry oriented and student centered teaching strategies: limitations of resources; time constraints; large classes; pressure to complete the prescribed curriculum; safety issues; and preparations for external examinations. The results also suggest that the teachers’ seeing laboratory work as important for developing conceptual understanding is associated with their use of verificationistic teaching approaches. It is recommended that; Lesotho science curriculum be reviewed, and that teachers should participate in curriculum development to enhance successful implementation of inquiry instruction, professional development programmes be established, and the enactment of inquiry instruction be systematically monitored and evaluated. It is recommended that curriculum developers facilitate teachers’ transformation from expository to inquiry instruction.

Thesis advisor: Michael Barnett / This mixed method study examined the impact of a LEGO<super>TM</super>-based, engineering-oriented curriculum compared to an inquiry-based curriculum on fifth graders' content learning of simple machines. This study takes a social constructivist theoretical stance that science learning involves learning scientific concepts and their relations to each other. From this perspective, students are active participants, and they construct their conceptual understanding through the guidance of their teacher. With the goal of better understanding the use of engineering education materials in classrooms the National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council in the book "Engineering in K-12 Education" conducted an in-depth review of the potential benefits of including engineering in K-12 schools as (a) improved learning and achievement in science and mathematics, (b) increased awareness of engineering and the work of engineers, (c) understanding of and the ability to engage in engineering design, (d) interest in pursuing engineering as a career, and (e) increased technological literacy (Katehi, Pearson, & Feder, 2009). However, they also noted a lack of reliable data and rigorous research to support these assertions. Data sources included identical written tests and interviews, classroom observations and videos, teacher interviews, and classroom artifacts. To investigate the impact of the design-based simple machines curriculum compared to the scientific inquiry-based simple machines curriculum on student learning outcomes, I compared the control and the experimental groups' scores on the tests and interviews by using ANCOVA. To analyze and characterize the classroom observation videotapes, I used Jordan and Henderson's (1995) method and divide them into episodes. My analyses revealed that the design-based Design a People Mover: Simple Machines unit was, if not better, as successful as the inquiry-based FOSS Levers and Pulleys unit in terms of students' content learning. I also found that students in the engineering group outperformed students in the control group in regards to their ability to answer open-ended questions when interviewed. Implications for students' science content learning and teachers' professional development are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

There is a need to change the teaching methods of the science subjects. International surveys, e.g. TIMMS and PISA, have been showing relatively declining skills for the Swedish students in the science subjects. International science education research has found good examples of teaching and learning, but the research stays within the research communities and does not reach the teachers and their teaching. The gap between research results and teachers’ practices in the classroom is the basis of this investigation. Research shows that the teacher is one of the most important factors for student learning, therefore, this study has put great emphasis on the teachers’ competencies. The focus of this investigation is the relations between teachers’ knowledge of the Nature of Science (NOS), the Nature of Science Inquiry (NOSI) and inquiry-based teaching of Science. The project follows longitudinally two teachers as they take part in a researchbased implementation process of predesigned inquiry-teaching sequences in Physics. The context is a secondary school in Sweden (grades 8–9, age 14–16 years). The project is set around group discussions between the involved teachers and the researcher on planning, implementing and analysing actual inquiry teaching. The results describe possibilities and obstacles concerning the implementation of inquiry teaching as perceived by the teachers. Having navigated obstacles the teachers saw great potential in the inquiry model based on students’ motivation and learning. The results of the project provide indications on how future in-service teacher courses in Science could be designed. / <p>The series name <em>Linköping Studies in Science and Technology Education</em> is incorrect. The correct namen is <em>Studies in Science and Technology Education</em>.</p><p>Bilaga 1-7 ej inräknade i antalet sidor.</p>

Social digital gaming is an explosive phenomenon where youth and adults are engaged in inquiry for the sake of fun. The complexity of learning evidenced in social digital games is attracting the attention of educators. Martian Boneyards is a proof-of-concept game designed to study how a community of voluntary gamers can be enticed to engage in sustained, high-quality scientific inquiry. Science educators and game designers worked together to create an educational game with the polish and intrigue of a professional-level game, striving to attract a new audience to scientific inquiry. Martian Boneyards took place in the high-definition, massively multiplayer online environment, Blue Mars, where players spent an average of 30 hours in the game over the 4-month implementation period, with some exceeding 200 hours. Most of the players’ time was spent in scientific inquiry activities and about 30% of the players’ in-game interactions were in the analysis and theory-building phases of inquiry. Female players conducted most of the inquiry, in particular analysis and theory building. The quality of scientific inquiry processes, which included extensive information gathering by players, and the resulting content were judged to be very good by a team of independent scientists. This research suggests that a compelling storyline, a highly aesthetic environment, and the emergent social bonds among players and between players and the characters played by designers were all responsible for sustaining high quality inquiry among gamers in this free-choice experience. The gaming environment developed for Martian Boneyards is seen as an evolving ecosystem with interactions among design, players’ activity, and players’ progress.

Social digital gaming is an explosive phenomenon where youth and adults are engaged in inquiry for the sake of fun. The complexity of learning evidenced in social digital games is attracting the attention of educators. Martian Boneyards is a proof-of-concept game designed to study how a community of voluntary gamers can be enticed to engage in sustained, high-quality scientific inquiry. Science educators and game designers worked together to create an educational game with the polish and intrigue of a professional-level game, striving to attract a new audience to scientific inquiry. Martian Boneyards took place in the high-definition, massively multiplayer online environment, Blue Mars, where players spent an average of 30 hours in the game over the 4-month implementation period, with some exceeding 200 hours. Most of the players’ time was spent in scientific inquiry activities and about 30% of the players’ in-game interactions were in the analysis and theory-building phases of inquiry. Female players conducted most of the inquiry, in particular analysis and theory building. The quality of scientific inquiry processes, which included extensive information gathering by players, and the resulting content were judged to be very good by a team of independent scientists. This research suggests that a compelling storyline, a highly aesthetic environment, and the emergent social bonds among players and between players and the characters played by designers were all responsible for sustaining high quality inquiry among gamers in this free-choice experience. The gaming environment developed for Martian Boneyards is seen as an evolving ecosystem with interactions among design, players’ activity, and players’ progress.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur elever samtalar när de möter en uppgift som syftar till att öva deras förmåga att använda ett naturvetenskapligt arbetssätt. Undersökningen genomfördes genom att fyra grupper om två elever fick en uppgift där de formulerade frågeställningar kring en isballong (en frusen vattenballong). Samtalen spelades in på band. Inspelningarna transkriberades och analyserades med hjälp av en praktisk epistemologisk analys utifrån tre olika kategorier: samtal inom diskursen, samtal om diskursen och samtal utanför diskursen. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att de flesta eleverna har, trots att de har ringa eller ingen erfarenhet av att arbeta med natruvetenskapligt arbetssätt, ganska lätt att ta till sig uppgiften. Resultatet visar även att det inte är samtal som ligger utanför ramen för uppgiften som utgör det största hindret för eleverna att arbeta med uppgiften, utan i stället att det är samtal som rör uppgiftens utformning.

E-learning tools such as Calibrated Peer Review (CPR) have made writing assignments easier to implement and grade; however, we have limited knowledge of how CPR affects student scientific writing. Past CPR research has examined how CPR generated scores change across multiple CPR writing assignments for the purpose of reporting student learning gains. This study will not rely on CPR generated score data. This study (1) independently evaluated the impact of CPR on student writing of ecological inquiry report components using a grading criteria instrument and (2) explored how the revision process influenced the quality of ecological inquiry report components through text analysis. A web-based science inquiry project was implemented in a large (up to 500 students) introductory ecology course. Students observed grizzly bears at McNeil River Falls in Alaska using Bear Cam picture stills. They developed and tested hypotheses about grizzly bear spatial distribution and interactions and reported findings in individual ecological inquiry reports. Students submitted reports to CPR and anonymously reviewed three peer reports and self-assessed their own. Finally, students were given one-week following CPR to revise reports based on peer reviews and submit online. A 28-item grading criteria instrument (9 scales) was used to examine how students revised ecological inquiry reports post CPR. Eight paired t-tests were used to assess the pre-post CPR changes in scores for individual grading criteria scales or components. Cohen's d effect size was used to explore how achievement or performance level, ethnicity, gender and major influenced student text changes to ecological inquiry report components post CPR. Text analysis using a subset of 27 sample reports (pre-post CPR) assessed the amount and location of text changes and the impact of these revisions on the quality of ecological inquiry report components. Common errors in ecological inquiry report components post CPR were also analyzed. Results showed that CPR and revision significantly improved the scores related to the objective, sampling and discussion scales. Analyses using Cohen's d effect sizes illustrated interesting but inconsistent patterns related to the influence of student performance level, gender, ethnicity, and major on pre-post CPR score gains. Text analysis revealed the majority of helpful revisions were related to making the objective identifiable, reporting of sample size and discussion of study limitations and future questions raised by individual ecological inquiry projects. Text analysis shows three common reasons participants failed to meet grading criteria post CPR. Un-testable hypotheses, insufficient descriptions for sample selection, data analysis, variables collected and revisions of only easy grading criteria components. This study provided direct evidence of CPR's effects on student writing and provided a greater understanding of pattern of revision process following CPR.

The aim of this study is to investigate undergraduate students&rsquo / scientific inquiry processes in a physics laboratory designed using problem-based learning. Case study, one of the qualitative research methods, was employed for this aim. Sixteen undergraduate students were participated in this study. Participants conducted inquiry activities for five weeks. The data sources were the observations of participants while they were doing inquiry activities and the laboratory work sheets filled by the participants. A framework suggested by Klahr and Dunbar (1988) in Scientific Discovery as Dual Search model was used to gain better understanding of scientific inquiry process. In this framework, inquiry process consist of three phases / hypothesis formation, designing and conducting experiments, and evidence evaluation. The variations on the participants&rsquo / scientific inquiry processes were analyzed and categorized for each phase of inquiry. Participants&rsquo / hypothesis formation processes were categorized based on the nature of sources used by the participants and how these sources were used. The emerging categories were labeled as &ldquo / concept-based hypothesis formation&rdquo / , &ldquo / equation-based hypothesis formation&rdquo / , and &ldquo / context-based hypothesis formation&rdquo / . Participants&rsquo / designing and conducting experiment processes were categorized into two types: &ldquo / Systematic manipulations&rdquo / and &ldquo / unsystematic manipulations&rdquo / . &ldquo / Haphazard manipulation of variables&rdquo / and &ldquo / using two manipulated variable simultaneously&rdquo / were the two different types of observed unsystematic manipulations. Lastly, participants&rsquo / evidence evaluation processes were categorized based on the driving sources: &ldquo / Data-driven evidence evaluation&rdquo / and &ldquo / prior knowledge-driven evidence evaluation&rdquo / . Detailed descriptions of these categories were presented with examples.

Education reform in the U.S. promotes the teaching of inquiry in science to help students understand how science is done and to increase constructivist, student centered instruction. This qualitative study investigated changes in teachers' understandings about scientific inquiry and nature of science as well as science teaching as a result of participation in one of three summer science research programs. This study also explored what teachers reported valuing about their experiences as they progressed through the program and returned to their classrooms.Data were collected through open-ended surveys, semi-structured interviews, program observation and artifact analysis before, during, and after the research programs as well as follow-up surveys and semi-structured interviews six to nine months after the research programs had ended. In addition to overall findings, six cases are presented to highlight changes and growth that occurred.Participation in these programs did not always lead to the outcomes intended by facilitators, such as strong changes in teachers' understandings about scientific inquiry and full implementation of research with their students; yet there were significant positiveoutcomes from participants' perspectives.Teachers' understandings of scientific inquiry and nature of science changed in small ways as measured by a modified Views of Scientific Inquiry/Views of Nature of Science Survey; however, participants changed their descriptions of science teaching after the programs. These descriptions included more affective goals for their students, the use of more student centered activities, and the importance of engaging students in research. On their post surveys, participants reported their intentions to implement more classroom inquiry, including science research. In follow-up surveys and interviews teachers reported engaging students in more active roles in their classrooms. In addition,teachers reported valuing a number of other outcomes from their participation in these programs. These included increased knowledge and skills in science, insider information about professional science, increased credibility, professional and personal growth, and improvements in students' knowledge and engagement in science and research. An emergent finding of the study was that participating in these research programs had an influence on some participants' identities related to doing science, being a scientist, and teaching science.