Dissertations / Theses: 'Science – Study and teaching (Higher) – Australia'

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Veal, David. "An investigation into computer and network curricula." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2003. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1331.

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This thesis consists of a series of internationally published, peer reviewed, journal and conference research papers that analyse the educational and training needs of undergraduate Information Technology (IT) students within the area of Computer and Network Technology (CNT) Education. Research by Maj et al has found that accredited computing science curricula can fail to meet the expectations of employers in the field of CNT: “It was found that none of these students could perform first line maintenance on a Personal Computer (PC) to a professional standard with due regard to safety, both to themselves and the equipment. Neither could they install communication cards, cables and network operating system or manage a population of networked PCs to an acceptable commercial standard without further extensive training. It is noteworthy that none of the students interviewed had ever opened a PC. It is significant that all those interviewed for this study had successfully completed all the units on computer architecture and communication engineering" (Maj, Robbins, Shaw, & Duley, 1998). The students' curricula at that time lacked units in which they gained hands-on experience in modern PC hardware or networking skills. This was despite the fact that their computing science course was level one accredited, the highest accreditation level offered by the Australian Computer Society (ACS). The results of the initial survey in Western Australia led to the introduction of two new units within the Computing Science Degree at Edith Cowan University (ECU), Computer Installation & Maintenance (CIM) and Network Installation & Maintenance (NIM) (Maj, Fetherston, Charlesworth, & Robbins, 1998). Uniquely within an Australian university context these new syllabi require students to work on real equipment. Such experience excludes digital circuit investigation, which is still a recommended approach by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for computer architecture units (ACM, 2001, p.97). Instead, the CIM unit employs a top-down approach based initially upon students' everyday experiences, which is more in accordance with constructivist educational theory and practice. These papers propose an alternate model of IT education that helps to accommodate the educational and vocational needs of IT students in the context of continual rapid changes and developments in technology. The ACM have recognised the need for variation noting that: "There are many effective ways to organize a curriculum even for a particular set of goals and objectives" (Tucker et al., 1991, p.70). A possible major contribution to new knowledge of these papers relates to how high level abstract bandwidth (B-Node) models may contribute to the understanding of why and how computer and networking technology systems have developed over time. Because these models are de-coupled from the underlying technology, which is subject to rapid change, these models may help to future-proof student knowledge and understanding of the ongoing and future development of computer and networking systems. The de-coupling is achieved through abstraction based upon bandwidth or throughput rather than the specific implementation of the underlying technologies. One of the underlying problems is that computing systems tend to change faster than the ability of most educational institutions to respond. Abstraction and the use of B-Node models could help educational models to more quickly respond to changes in the field, and can also help to introduce an element of future-proofing in the education of IT students. The importance of abstraction has been noted by the ACM who state that: "Levels of Abstraction: the nature and use of abstraction in computing; the use of abstraction in managing complexity, structuring systems, hiding details, and capturing recurring patterns; the ability to represent an entity or system by abstractions having different levels of detail and specificity"(ACM, 1991b). Bloom et al note the importance of abstraction, listing under a heading of: “Knowledge of the universals and abstractions in a field” the objective: "Knowledge of the major schemes and patterns by which phenomena and ideas arc organized. These are large structures, theories, and generalizations which dominate a subject or field or problems. These are the highest levels of abstraction and complexity'' (Bloom, Engelhart, Furst, Hill, & Krathwohl, 1956, p. 203). Abstractions can be applied to computer and networking technology to help provide students with common fundamental concepts regardless of the particular underlying technological implementation to help avoid the rapid redundancy of a detailed knowledge of modem computer and networking technology implementation and hands-on skills acquisition. Again the ACM note that: “Enduring computing concepts include ideas that transcend any specific vendor, package or skill set... While skills are fleeting, fundamental concepts are enduring and provide long lasting benefits to students, critically important in a rapidly changing discipline" (ACM, 2001, p.70) These abstractions can also be reinforced by experiential learning to commercial practices. In this context, the other possibly major contribution of new knowledge provided by this thesis is an efficient, scalable and flexible model for assessing hands-on skills and understanding of IT students. This is a form of Competency-Based Assessment (CBA), which has been successfully tested as part of this research and subsequently implemented at ECU. This is the first time within this field that this specific type of research has been undertaken within the university sector within Australia. Hands-on experience and understanding can become outdated hence the need for future proofing provided via B-Nodes models. The three major research questions of this study are: •Is it possible to develop a new, high level abstraction model for use in CNT education? •Is it possible to have CNT curricula that are more directly relevant to both student and employer expectations without suffering from rapid obsolescence? •Can WI effective, efficient and meaningful assessment be undertaken to test students' hands-on skills and understandings? The ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communication (SJGCOMM) workshop report on Computer Networking, Curriculum Designs and Educational Challenges, note a list of teaching approaches: " ... the more 'hands-on' laboratory approach versus the more traditional in-class lecture-based approach; the bottom-up approach towards subject matter verus the top-down approach" (Kurose, Leibeherr, Ostermann, & Ott-Boisseau, 2002, para 1). Bandwidth considerations are approached from the PC hardware level and at each of the seven layers of the International Standards Organisation (ISO) Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model. It is believed that this research is of significance to computing education. However, further research is needed.

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Jones, Janet. "Multiliteracies for academic purposes : a metafunctional exploration of intersemiosis and multimodality in university textbook and computer-based learning resources in science." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/2259.

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This thesis is situated in the research field of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) in education and within a professional context of multiliteracies for academic purposes. The overall aim of the research is to provide a metafunctional account of multimodal and multisemiotic meaning-making in print and electronic learning materials in first year science at university. The educational motivation for the study is to provide insights for teachers and educational designers to assist them in the development of students’ multiliteracies, particularly in the context of online learning environments. The corpus comprises online and CD-ROM learning resources in biology, physics and chemistry and textbooks in physics and biology, which are typical of those used in undergraduate science courses in Australia. Two underlying themes of the research are to compare the different affordances of textbook and screen formats and the disciplinary variation found in these formats. The two stage research design consisted of a multimodal content analysis, followed by a SF-based multimodal discourse analysis of a selection of the texts. In the page and screen formats of these pedagogical texts, the analyses show that through the mechanisms of intersemiosis, ideationally, language and image are reconstrued as disciplinary knowledge. This knowledge is characterised by a high level of technicality in image and verbiage, by taxonomic relations across semiotic resources and by interdependence among elements in the image, caption, label and main text. Interpersonally, pedagogical roles of reader/learner/viewer/ and writer/teacher/designer are enacted differently to some extent across formats through the different types of activities on the page and screen but the source of authority and truth remains with the teacher/designer, regardless of format. Roles are thus minimally negotiable, despite the claims of interactivity in the screen texts. Textually, the organisation of meaning across text and image in both formats is reflected in the layout, which is determined by the underlying design grid and in the use of graphic design resources of colour, font, salience and juxtaposition. Finally, through the resources of grammatical metaphor and the reconstrual of images as abstract, both forms of semiosis work together to shift meanings from congruence to abstraction, into the specialised realm of science.

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Jones, Janet. "Multiliteracies for academic purposes : a metafunctional exploration of intersemiosis and multimodality in university textbook and computer-based learning resources in science." University of Sydney, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/2259.

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Doctor of Education
This thesis is situated in the research field of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) in education and within a professional context of multiliteracies for academic purposes. The overall aim of the research is to provide a metafunctional account of multimodal and multisemiotic meaning-making in print and electronic learning materials in first year science at university. The educational motivation for the study is to provide insights for teachers and educational designers to assist them in the development of students’ multiliteracies, particularly in the context of online learning environments. The corpus comprises online and CD-ROM learning resources in biology, physics and chemistry and textbooks in physics and biology, which are typical of those used in undergraduate science courses in Australia. Two underlying themes of the research are to compare the different affordances of textbook and screen formats and the disciplinary variation found in these formats. The two stage research design consisted of a multimodal content analysis, followed by a SF-based multimodal discourse analysis of a selection of the texts. In the page and screen formats of these pedagogical texts, the analyses show that through the mechanisms of intersemiosis, ideationally, language and image are reconstrued as disciplinary knowledge. This knowledge is characterised by a high level of technicality in image and verbiage, by taxonomic relations across semiotic resources and by interdependence among elements in the image, caption, label and main text. Interpersonally, pedagogical roles of reader/learner/viewer/ and writer/teacher/designer are enacted differently to some extent across formats through the different types of activities on the page and screen but the source of authority and truth remains with the teacher/designer, regardless of format. Roles are thus minimally negotiable, despite the claims of interactivity in the screen texts. Textually, the organisation of meaning across text and image in both formats is reflected in the layout, which is determined by the underlying design grid and in the use of graphic design resources of colour, font, salience and juxtaposition. Finally, through the resources of grammatical metaphor and the reconstrual of images as abstract, both forms of semiosis work together to shift meanings from congruence to abstraction, into the specialised realm of science.

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Kurup, Premnadh M. "Secondary students beliefs about, understandings of, and intentions to act regarding the greenhouse effect." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2003. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1324.

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The greenhouse effect (GHE) is a concern to everyone on this planet. To understand the GHE, students and citizens need an understanding of the chemical processes underlying this environmental phenomenon. Citizens need to be scientifically literate in relation to this phenomenon in order to participate in democratic decision-making and to take appropriate actions in their daily lives. As the GHE is a global issue it will require collective and individual actions to prepare for the likely climatic changes and to reduce the further impact of the GHE. This study focused on high school students' beliefs about, understandings of the GHE and their intentions to act in ways that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Aspects of the GHE that are taught in high school science were also investigated. The study was conducted in five schools each in Western Australia (Australia) and Kerala (India) and data were collected from 438 Year 10 and 12 students representing compulsory and post-compulsory stages of education in both states. Two hundred and thirteen students from Western Australia and 225 students from Kerala completed a questionnaire and a sample of students and heads of science were interviewed. A Propositional Knowledge Statement (PKS) was developed, which is a set of propositions that outline science concepts necessary for an understanding of the GHE in terms of its causes, effects, mechanism and actions that can be taken to reduce greenhouse gas emission. In this study the PKS is considered to be the essential knowledge necessary to interpret the GHE, to take appropriate environmental action, and to make informed decisions as a scientifically literate member of society. The questionnaire and interviews were based on the PKS. The study revealed that high school students strongly believe that the GHE is real and affecting the climate at present and will also affect it in the future. They consider that the GHE is a relatively important social issue and they believe that governments should conduct programmes to raise community awareness and enact strict laws to reduce the release of greenhouse gases. Students' understanding of the GHE is inadequate to make informed decisions and take appropriate environmental actions as a scientifically literate member of society. The majority of students and their families are already taking or are considering taking 10 accepted actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by household activities. The majority of students are not prepared to sacrifice their personal comforts or conveniences to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and they have strong reasons for that, however, they believe that governments should enact strict laws to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and should sign the Kyoto protocol. The GHE is not adequately represented in Western Australian and Kerala science and chemistry curricula. The heads of school science departments in Western Australia and Kerala consider that school science should do more to teach the GHE, as it is an important aspect of scientific literacy. An ideal scenario for students’ beliefs about, understanding of the GHE and commitments to take action that would enable individuals and communities to reduce greenhouse gas emission was developed based on the PKS and reports such as lPCC (2001), UNEP (2001), AGO (1999; 2000) and UN (1992). The actual scenario was based on the data from this study. The differences between ideal and actual scenarios were discussed and implications for improving education about the OHE were developed. Information about the curriculum and students' sources of information about the GHE, students' beliefs, understandings and intentions to act were mapped against the theory of reasoned action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980).

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Houlbrook, Michael C. "The politics and practices of work-based learning : accounts of experiences in the community services sector." Thesis, View thesis, 2007. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/20801.

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This thesis is a phenomenological study of the experiences of students engaged in a work-based learning (WBL) degree in the community service (CS) sector in NSW. The degree – a graduate diploma in social sciences (GDSS) - was developed through an industry/community partnership in response to identified workforce development needs. Positioned as a novel pedagogy, WBL is presented in the broad context, before the specifics of the research are outlined. The thesis presents, first, a political economy of higher education (HE) and the CS sector, followed by a description of the defining principles of WBL, characteristics of practice and issues arising from these things. The phenomenological study of the student experiences is supported by a case study of the GDSS. The research is approached from an ontological and epistemological framework informed by critical theory and critical hermeneutics. The methods draw substantially on data collection through semi-structured interviews and supporting data collected form other sources. The analysis of the data is presented as five major data stories – access, self and study, work-based learning and organisation, managing learning and outcomes. In discussing the data the thesis argues that the students are strongly positioned as non-traditional students with an orientation towards issues of access to HE, as well as a concern with critical practice. The concluding comments of the thesis consider the context of work-based learning under systemic influences of the political economy of the day, notably neo-liberalism and the application of a techno-economic framing of the knowledge economy. Some final comments are offered on the practice of WBL in the CS sector, including the defence of knowledge production as a public good and the life world/system dynamics of partnership.

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Odell, Jessica L. "Student Understanding of Conservation of Energy and Mass in Introductory University Science Courses." Fogler Library, University of Maine, 2005. http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/OdellJL2005.pdf.

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Buckingham, Elizabeth Ann. "Socialisation to higher mathematics : men's and women's experience of their induction to the discipline." Monash University, Faculty of Education, 2004. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/5425.

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Addison, Patricia A. "Receptivity to a proposed change in accounting education." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 1995. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1196.

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This cross-sectional correlation study is concerned with accounting practitioners' receptivity to a propose change in accounting education; specifically, that the existing three year degree course be extended to four years. This change is proposed by the Accounting Profession in Australia. A model of accounting practitioners' receptivity towards the proposed change, at the adoption stage, was revised and adapted from a general model of teacher receptivity to any system-wide change. The revised model has one dependent variable, receptivity, which is measured in three aspects; overall feelings, attitudes, and general behaviour intentions towards the proposed change in accounting education. It has eight Independent variables, and a number of situation variables. These independent variables are; attitudes towards the structure and content of the proposed change, general beliefs about the change based on the expanding scope of accounting practice, overall feelings about the strengths and weaknesses of accounting graduates, overall feelings about alleviating fears and uncertainties of the proposed change, overall feelings about the practicality of the proposed change in the lecture room and tutorial room in two aspects, general behaviour intentions about expectations and achievements for the proposed change, and general behaviour intentions to support instructors and the accounting profession. The relationships between the dependent variables and the independent variables are examined in the context of a number of situation variables.

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Webster, Dianne Robin. "The impact of take-home family oriented science activities on primary school students' science learning : the SAKs project." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2008. https://hdl.handle.net/2123/28968.

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The development of systematic methods of studying natural phenomena has led to a body of scientific knowledge that underlies our technological society. As scientific knowledge expands science literacy for all citizens is becoming increasingly important both in everyday situations, and to ensure appropriate allocation of resources to scientific research and development. Like scientists, young children are eager to learn about the world and readily engage in informal science-related experiences. This study addresses the value and viability of children and their parents using science activities at home. A social constructivist orientation underpinned this exploration of how parental involvement can positively influence children’s science learning in their home environment. Families of fifty-five Year 1, forty-five Year 3 and thirteen Year 5 primary school children participated in the Science Activity Kits (SAKS) project. Parents were asked to help their children complete a total of twenty-six pre-packaged science activities that were distributed between a series of five kits and sent home from school. Each activity included a brief explanation of the underlying science. Questionnaires and written comments from children and parents were used to monitor ways they used the kits. The youngest children had most assistance from parents and were more likely to complete all activities. Many of the Year 3 and most Year 5 children worked independently even when parents were available. When there was little evidence of parental input, children’s logbook entries were more likely to indicate that the child had difficulty with instructions or interpreting investigation results. Year 3 boys were less likely to complete all kits than Year 3 girls and all Year 1 children. Interactions between children’s approaches to the task, literacy skills, kit contents and the nature of parent support all appeared to influence kit completion. Families reported that despite issues with available time they enjoyed the SAKs’ experience and that their children were learning about science. Not only was parents’ participation in science learning highest with the youngest children but also older children were more likely to lose interest in learning science when there was little support. Science education is important and parental involvement enhances science learning of young children. The study demonstrates that science must be included in early childhood education and that parents should be involved wherever possible.

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Wilson, Diane Easter. "A model curriculum for an associate of science in computer science, based on the ACM model, AACJC and CSAB guidelines." Virtual Press, 1991. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/770947.

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This thesis argues that an AS model in computer science needs to be independent of a BS model because their student populations are distinct. The first two years of a BS model cannot be successfully copied in the AS environment. The AS model curriculum must begin at a different level while also providing competencies comparable to those in the first two years of a BS curriculum.Three questions had to be addressed before an AS model could be formulated. 1) What is an AS in computer science? Specific attention was given to the AA, AAS, BA and BS degrees, along with computer engineering, information systems, systems analysis and data processing majors. 2) How does the student population of the AS differ from other degrees? Compared to their BS counterpart, the AS population is weighted toward female, older, ethnicly diverse, mobile, part-time, remedial students who have additional responsibilities. 3) Lastly, is there a need for standardization? An unequivocable yes was the answer. After exploring these questions a model was presented.The proposed model attempted to address the primary goals of the educational, industrial and accreditation organizations (AACJC, ACM and CSAB). A very explicit description of the model was followed by two implementations.
Department of Computer Science

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Leung, Shuk-ching Jessica, and 梁淑貞. "Understanding of nature of science and evaluation of science in the media among non-science majors." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2013. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B50162627.

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Scientific literacy has been recognized internationally for its importance as a goal of science education. Lying at the core of scientific literacy is understandings of nature of science (NOS). A desired outcome from a scientifically literate populace is – critical evaluation of reports and discussions about science in the media. It is generally assumed that an informed conception of NOS will lead to this desired outcome of scientific literacy. Yet this assumption remains untested. The purpose of this research study was to examine the relationship, if any, between NOS understandings and the quality of evaluating science in the media. Sixty-four non-science majors from a local community college participated in the study. Participants were asked to evaluate on three health-related news articles reporting scientific claims by completing the Health News Evaluation Questionnaire. Their NOS understandings were assessed by the Views about Science Questionnaire. Participants were invited for a follow-up interview to further probe their NOS conceptions and quality of evaluating science news articles. The quality of evaluation, and the application and prioritization of criteria by each participant were analyzed. These were compared with the level of NOS understandings. Reasons for applying or not applying and for prioritizing or not prioritizing the NOS-related criteria were also examined in the follow-up interview. No correlation was identified between the non-science majors’ understanding on the targeted aspects of NOS and their frequency of application of these concepts in evaluating the science news except the followings where significant correlations, though weak, were identified. These include understanding of the peer view process and its frequency of application in evaluating (i) Article 2 on the effect of calorie on body weight and memory (r=0.325, p<0.05), (ii) Article 3 on cell phone controversies (r=0.326, p<0.05) and (iii) all the 3 news articles as a whole (r=0.381, p<0.05). Correlations are also identified between understanding of the peer review process and the level of sophistication with its application in the evaluation of Article 2 (r=0.345, p<0.05) and all the three articles as a whole (r=0.39, p<0.05). Another intriguing finding was that understanding of the tentative NOS was found to be correlated with the stance adopted in the evaluation of Article 3 (r=0.434, p<0.05). The poor performance of the participants in evaluating science in the media was attributed to the lack of awareness for the important role of NOS understandings, unfamiliarity with the application of NOS understandings, and compartmentalization among various NOS aspects. These were possible culprits for successful transformation of NOS understandings to critical evaluation of science in the media. Based on the findings, it is argued that NOS understandings are a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for critical evaluation of science in the media. Three additional conditions are suggested: (1) awareness towards the importance and the need in making reference to NOS understandings, (2) ability to apply NOS understandings, and (3) understanding the interconnectedness among various NOS aspects would aid successful transformation of NOS understandings to critical evaluation of science in the media.
published_or_final_version
Education
Doctoral
Doctor of Philosophy

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Cox, Philip F. "Student beliefs about learning in religion and science in Catholic schools." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2004. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/799.

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The focus of this study is the impact of student perception of the validity of content on student learning. It is proposed that, if the content of a subject is perceived by students as being different to the content of another subject, a result of this perceived difference is that students will treat their learning in these subjects differently. To test this proposal, student beliefs about items from the content of the religious education course are compared with student responses to items of content of their science course. A sample of 1418, year 11 students from nine co-educational Catholic secondary schools were asked to respond to a series of outcome statements from the year 10 religious education and science courses. The questionnaire asks two questions; one, can• the student recall being taught each item; and two, does the student believe that the item is true. If the students believe that the item is true, they are asked to indicate one of three possible reasons for their belief. One, they believe the item because the teacher had provided them with evidence that convinced them that the item is true; two, they believe the item because they trust the teacher to teach them what is true, or three they believe the item for some other reason such as faith. This study does not deal with the issue of faith formation, catechesis, new evangelisation or evangelisation which are significant raison•d'etre of Catholic schools and are closely linked to the study of religious education in Catholic schools. Student and staff responses to a number of open-ended questions, and extensive discussions with students in a Reference Group, provide additional insights into the student beliefs regarding the nature of knowledge particularly for the content of their religious education and science courses.

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Smith, Patrick Steven. "Learning to Adapt: Online Social Science Instruction in Higher Education." PDXScholar, 2013. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1089.

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Online learning is a rapidly growing phenomenon in post-secondary education. Institutions of higher learning have embraced online learning for its perceived merits, but without the consideration of how instructors deal with this different learning medium. Little is known of the extent to which different disciplines are suited to the online medium; this is pertinent to disciplines that rely on spontaneous in-person discussion. Furthermore, as colleges continue to invest heavily in online learning, instructors who only possess face-to-face teaching experience may begin teaching online. This poses a pedagogical challenge for instructors who are unfamiliar with the medium. This qualitative, in-depth interview study with ten social science instructors elucidates the process of transition from face-to-face teaching to online teaching. Through grounded analysis, a few key themes emerged. Respondents explain that teaching in the online classroom is qualitatively different from teaching in-person. The asynchronisity of the online classroom - which means students do not "meet", discuss, or learn at the same time - is a subtle yet significant difference between the two mediums. The asynchronous classroom means instructors relinquish control of when and where students will engage in study and discussion, and this requires students to have especially high self-regulatory skills. Respondents also explained that their online courses were several times larger than their in-person ones, with some courses allowing over twice as many students as an in-person course. Consequently, instructors must find new ways to approach teaching in the online medium. This pitfall of relying on old, obsolete methods in the online medium can be avoided if instructors are provided with the peer and pedagogical support of their professional peers, and access to teaching assistants to manage the greater time commitment of teaching online. In order to have a positive experience, online teachers must be willing to take on an intellectual challenge that may defy how they perceive themselves and their role in higher education. If instructors are open to a new intellectual challenge and possess the proper resources, they will become committed to teaching online and perceive the advantages of the medium to outweigh the disadvantages.

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Dietrich, Cynthia S. "A Phenomenological Study of Social Science Instructors' Assessment Practices for Online Learning." ScholarWorks, 2011. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/930.

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Online learning has revolutionized higher education in the United States. In 2007, there were 3.9 million students taking at least 1 online course. Assessment in online instruction is a new experience for teachers because of the recent advent of online course delivery. Current research on online learning does not address instructor experiences with learning assessments. This gap may contribute to online instructors being inadequately prepared to teach online. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore online instructors' experiences with assessments in their undergraduate social science courses. The study was guided by constructivism as well as theories associated with assessment for the college classroom. The main and secondary research questions focused on the participants' experiences with assessment in the online learning environment and the challenges and benefits of assessment in that learning environment. Data were collected with in-depth, semistructured interviews and analyzed via Moustakas's modification of van Kaam's method. The main themes are: (a) instructors use a combination of assessment practices, (b) changes to assessments are based on student feedback, and (c) academic honesty. The present study promotes positive social change by providing members of the online learning community with a better understanding of instructors' assessment processes, as well as the challenges and benefits those instructors face in assessing learning in online classes, all of which may contribute to improved instruction for online students.

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Jones, Michael William. "An extended case study on the introductory teaching of programming." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2010. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/166317/.

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Learning to program is a complex and arduous process undertaken by thousands of undergraduates in the UK each year. This study examined the progress of transforming the pedagogical paradigm of an introductory programming unit from a highly controlled, reductionist 'cipher' orientation to one in which students have more freedom to explore aspects of programming more creatively. To facilitate this, certain programming concepts were introduced much earlier that had previously been the case. This was supported by an analysis of the semiotics and symbology of programming languages that showed that there was no intrinsic support for the traditional sequence of introducing programming concepts. A second dimension to the transformation involved doubling the number of assessments to emphasise the benefits of continual engagement with programming. The pedagogical transformation was to have been phased over four successive cohorts, although the fourth phase had to be delayed due to a revalidation that amalgamated three programmes into a framework. The study was planned during the second phase of the transformation. To ensure that the study did not disrupt the students’ learning experience the main focus of the research was on quantitative analyses of the work submitted by the students as part of the coursework for the unit. This work included programming portfolios and tests. In all, the work of more than 400 students completing more than a thousand portfolios and a thousand tests were analysed, providing a holistic view of waypoints in the learning process. The analyses showed that the second and third cohorts responded positively to the greater level of freedom, creating more sophisticated applications utilising a wider range of programming constructs. In the latter part of the fourth cohort a more traditional, constrained approach was used by another tutor that resulted in a narrowing of the range of programming concepts developed. The quantitative instruments were augmented by questionnaires used to gauge the students' previous experience, and initial views. Analyses of these returns showed that there appeared to be a limited relationship between a student's previous experience and the likelihood that he or she would succeed in the unit and be eligible to continue to the next stage of the undergraduate programme. The original plan was for qualitative instruments to be introduced in the final two cohorts. The re-organisation alluded to earlier restricted qualitative methods to short, semi-structured interviews during the third cohort. Within the study, certain aspects of the pedagogical transformation were considered in more depth: the development and use of a code generator and criterion-referenced assessment. These innovations were part of another dimension of the transformation of the unit, emphasising comprehension and modification equally with construction. This dimension reflects the changing nature of programming, incorporating existing code wherever possible. The analyses showed that comprehension skills developed to a greater extent within the unit compared with modification and construction. The main conclusions of the study were that the pedagogical changes had a beneficial effect on the learning of all students, including those with considerable previous experience, and those who had never written a program before.

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Hays, Lauren. "Academic Librarians' Teacher Identity Development through the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning| A Mixed Methods Study." Thesis, Northwest Nazarene University, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10810849.

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This dissertation was an explanatory sequential mixed methods study that sought to understand academic librarians’ involvement and experience in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). Specifically, the researcher studied academic librarians’ teacher identity development through SoTL. Quantitative data were collected from a survey sent to the Association of College and Research Libraries Information Literacy listserv. Semi-structured interviews with seven academic instruction librarians who took part in the survey provided qualitative data that complemented and built upon the survey results. The theoretical framework, Communities of Practice, guided and supported the research. Results from the study indicated that academic instruction librarians are involved in SoTL for a variety of reasons, but primarily because they believe participation in SoTL improves their teaching. Also, the null hypothesis of if librarians engage in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, their identities will be the same as they were before was rejected, and the research hypothesis was accepted. Engagement in SoTL does impact academic instruction librarians’ teacher identity. After involvement in SoTL most research participants reported that their view of themselves as a teacher grew. Participation in SoTL also impacted academic instruction librarians’ instructional practices. After participation in SoTL, study participants reported an increase in their attitude toward self-improvement and in their use of active learning strategies. These study findings have implications for Library and Information Science (LIS) graduate schools, academic library administrations, and professional development organizations.

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Shaw, Peter. "The conceptions of art practice held by tertiary visual art students." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 1993. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/36703/1/36703_Digitised%20Thesis.pdf.

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This study explores student learning in a tertiary visual arts institution. Students' conceptions of art practice are described using the phenomenologically based educational research method of phenomenography. The study addresses the intentional content of student art practice in the contexts of the visual arts institution and the status of visual arts in the 1990s. Data collection was carried out through interviews with Honours Year visual arts students, which was processed using textual analysis to examine understandings related to the visual arts.

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Martin, Danielle M. "Student Understanding of Groundwater Concepts in Two Undergraduate Geology Courses." Fogler Library, University of Maine, 2008. http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/MartinDM2008.pdf.

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Santhanam, Elizabeth. "Investigation and innovation of teaching and learning genetics at the introductory level in the University of Adelaide /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1996. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phs2338.pdf.

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Coombs, Earl C. "Investigating Student Understanding of Sound as a Longitudinal Wave." Fogler Library, University of Maine, 2007. http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/CoombsEC2007.pdf.

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Dooey, Patricia. "Issues of English language proficiency for international students." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2005. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/628.

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In the last 20 years or so, there has been a phenomenal increase in the number of international full-fee paying students applying to study in Australian universities, The revenue provided in this way has helped to address the problems faced by cash-starved universities facing recurring funding cuts over the same period. Furthermore, the presence of such students on any university campus provides immeasurable enrichment to the student body in terms of cultural diversity and research potential, and indeed it is very tempting in an ever,-increasing global market, to be as flexible as possible with prospective international students. However, the process of admission also demands careful consideration on the part of the various stakeholders involved. Although several factors need to be taken into account, the most obvious and certainly of primary importance would be the need to prove proficiency in the English language, Given that English is the dominant means of communication in the university, all students are required to draw from a complex web of linguistic resources to construct meaning and to complete the range of tasks required of them during their tertiary studies, This volume deals :with the overarching theme of issues of English language proficiency for overseas students studying in an Australian university. This focus can be viewed from many angles, and there are certainly many key facets involved, a selection of which is explored in the papers of the portfolio. These include the following broad areas: recruitment and admissions, language testing and technology, curriculum and inclusivity, English language support, academic conduct and finally the specific needs of international students, as viewed from their own perspective.

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Reynolds, Lisa Marie. "An Empirical Study of Software Debugging Games with Introductory Students." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2015. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc804874/.

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Bug Fixer is a web-based application that complements lectures with hands-on exercises that encourage students to think about the logic in programs. Bug Fixer presents students with code that has several bugs that they must fix. The process of fixing the bugs forces students to conceptually think about the code and reinforces their understanding of the logic behind algorithms. In this work, we conducted a study using Bug Fixer with undergraduate students in the CSCE1040 course at University of North Texas to evaluate whether the system increases their conceptual understanding of the algorithms and improves their Software Testing skills. Students participated in weekly activities to fix bugs in code. Most students enjoyed Bug Fixer and recommend the system for future use. Students typically reported a better understanding of the algorithms used in class. We observed a slight increase of passing grades for students who participated in our study compared to students in other sections of the course with the same instructor who did not participate in our study. The students who did not report a positive experience provide comments for future improvements that we plan to address in future work.

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Blakestad, Nancy Lynn. "King's College of Household and Social Science and the household science movement in English higher education, c. 1908-1939." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1994. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:ab86830a-8703-4d12-ac88-c3020a9eb7ef.

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This thesis is an account of the 'household and social science' course opened at King's College for Women in 1908 and its evolution up to 1939. The course was a significant departure for women's higher education in England as it was the first attempt to define a special university discipline based upon women's 'domestic' roles. However, historical accounts of women's higher education have either ignored or dismissed it, largely because of the predominance of'separate spheres' analyses in the historiography of women's higher education of the 1970s and early 1980s. Such accounts have presented the household science course in a negative light because of its 'domestic' image. This thesis thus offers a reassessment of the household science movement and those who supported it. The 'household science' concept owed its origin to the American 'home economies' movement which originated in the mid-nineteenth century. Chapter 1 provides a history of the home economics movement in America, tracing its evolution in the context of women's higher education until 1914. Initially home economics was seen as a 'vocational homemaking' course aiming to train women for home life. At the turn of the century, however, a 'scientific' model was developed by women scientists in order to promote research into social problems connected with the domestic sphere. These two models~the vocation and the scientific, have developed in tandem in American home economics. Chapters 2 and 3 consider the origins and early evolution of the 'household science' course in England, which was largely influenced by the American 'scientific' model. Chapter 2 first considers the concept of domestic education in the history of women's education and factors that precluded the development of a 'vocational homemaking' course in English higher education. The rest of the chapter analyses the origins of the household science movement in its social and intellectual context, in particular its connection with Edwardian preoccupations with 'physical deterioration' and infant mortality. Like their American counterparts, the founders of the course saw household science as a reform movement which aimed to promote research into domestic problems such as hygiene and nutrition, as well as to create a more useful and relevant university discipline for women's domestic roles, whether as housewife/mother or in 'municipal housekeeping' roles. Chapter 3 discusses the household science course from a disciplinary standpoint, looking at how the syllabus was constructed, the contemporary educational controversies it engendered, and its evolution up to 1920 when the B.Sc. degree was granted. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 examine the main factors which ultimately undermined the success of household science as a discipline. Chapter 4 evaluates career trends amongst KCHSS students from 1910-49, analysing to what extent the KCHSS administration was able to create a professional career structure for the household science discipline. The interplay between administrative policy, career trends, and professionalization is analyzed in relation to three career fields-social welfare, laboratory research, and dietetics. Chapters considers the professional conflicts between KCHSS and the domestic subjects teaching profession. Chapter 6 analyses KCHSS's failure to carve out a unique academic 'territory' or expertise and the various factors that affected this. The final chapter assesses how successful KCHSS was as an institution, looking at how students themselves experienced the course, their motivations for taking it, and its impact on their lives. Although household science was unsuccessful as a discipline, the course did give students a wide choice of career options, creating openings in less conventional spheres for women who did not want to teach and providing opportunities for the less-able student to follow a scientific career. The conclusion considers how the social climate of the interwar period affected the working out of the original household science ideals.

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Zender, Fabian. "An IPPD approach providing a modular framework to closing the capability gap and preparing a 21st century workforce." Thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/51822.

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The United States are facing a critical workforce challenge, even though current unemployment is around 6.7%, employers find it difficult to find applicants that can satisfy all job requirements. This problem is especially pronounced in the manufacturing sector where a critical skills gap has developed, a problem that is exasperated by workforce demographics. A large number of employees across the various manufacturing sub-disciplines are eligible to retire now or in the near future. This gray tsunami requires swift action as well as long lasting change resulting in a workforce pipeline that can provide Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) majors in sufficient quantity and quality to satisfy not only the needs of STEM industries, but also of those companies outside of the STEM sector that hire STEM graduates. The research shown here will identify overt symptoms describing the capability gap, will identify specific skills describing the gap, educational causes why the gaps has not yet been addressed or is difficult to address, and lastly educational remedies that can contribute to closing the capability gap. A significant body of literature focusing on engineering in higher education has been evaluated and findings will be presented here. A multidisciplinary, collaborative capstone program will be described which implements some of the findings from this study in an active learning environment for students working on distributed teams across the US. Preliminary findings regarding the impact of these measures on the quantity of engineers to the US economy will be evaluated.

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Sickel, Jamie L. "TPACK Development in Science Teacher Preparation: A Case Study in Queensland, Australia." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1457379586.

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Bisogno, Janet L. "College science teachers' inquiry beliefs and practices in the science classroom." Doctoral diss., University of Central Florida, 2011. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/4847.

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Lecture was the primary instruction in the science classroom, and the labs were scripted and shown to be "cookbook" with little or no evidence of inquiry noted in the labs obtained. There was more evidence of inquiry at the private four-year college and community college than at the large research institution; what was observed in the classroom mirrored what the professors believed about inquiry. There was a difference in the beliefs between institutions with the professors at the research institution holding an incomplete view of inquiry while the professors at the private college and community college included many aspects of the inquiry continuum in their view of inquiry. There were no differences noted between disciplines.; The purpose of the study was to examine college science professors' beliefs regarding the use of inquiry in the college science classroom, how these beliefs impacted their instructional choices and how these beliefs were enacted in the classroom. Additional questions were how teachers' beliefs vary across institution types (community college, private, four year college, and large research institution), and how beliefs vary across disciplines (life sciences and physical sciences). A case study design was required for this study due to the complexity of the topic and different data sources needed to answer the fore stated research questions. These data sources included surveys, interviews, classroom and laboratory observations and written records such as laboratory activities and syllabi. Twelve college professors at three different institutions; large research institution, small, private four year college and community college were interviewed. In addition to interviews, classes and labs were observed, a questionnaire on the five essential features of inquiry was given and samples of labs and syllabi were obtained. A laboratory coordinator was also interviewed as she was responsible for the laboratory section for two of the professors at the research institution. All schools were located in the southeast United States. The perception of inquiry by college science professors has been found to be a barrier to the inclusion of inquiry in college classrooms and was supported in the current study. While the professors described constraints to inquiry such as large class size, lack of time, disinterest of students, and lack of equipment, these limitations were due, in part, to the professors' incomplete view of inquiry as what researchers do. This view was most pronounced with the professors at the large, research institution. At the research institution, observations in the classroom mirrored the beliefs of inquiry.
ID: 029809264; System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader.; Mode of access: World Wide Web.; Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Central Florida, 2011.; Includes bibliographical references 9p. 155-172).
Ed.D.
Doctorate
Education

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Fetherstonhaugh, A. R. "The development, implementation and evaluation of a Constructivist learning approach based on personal construct psychology." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 1993. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1699.

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This study involved the development, implementation and evaluation of a constructivist learning model based on Kelly's (1955) Personal Construct Psychology (PCP). The thesis begins with a rationale for the use of PCP and then the instructional approach is derived from this theoretical basis. Following the derivation, examples of learning materials used in the implementation are presented. The second half of the thesis deals with data gathered before, during and after the implementation which occurred in two Year 9 science classes. The classes were part of a city high school in Western Australia.

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Snyder, Brian Lyn. "A study of pedagogical approaches to teaching problem solving." Thesis, Kansas State University, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/2097/9880.

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Clarence, Sherran. "Enabling cumulative knowledge-building through teaching: a legitimation code theory analysis of pedagogic practice in law and political science." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011763.

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Much current research and practice in teaching and learning in higher education tends to overfocus on social aspects of education; on how rather than what students are learning. Much of this research and practice is influenced by constructivism, which has a relativist stance on knowledge, generally arguing, contra positivism, that knowledge is constructed in socio-historical contexts and largely inseparable from those who construct it and from issues of power. This leads to a confusion of knowledge with knowing, and knowledge is thus obscured as an object of study because it is only seen or understood as knowing or as a subject of learning and teaching. This ‘knowledge-blindness’ (Maton 2013a: 4) is problematic in higher education because knowledge and knowing are two separate parts of educational fields, and while they need to be brought together to provide a whole account of these fields, they also need to be analysed and understood separately to avoid blurring necessary boundaries and to avoid confusing knowledge itself with how it can be known. Being able to see and analyse knowledge as an object with its own properties and powers is crucial for both epistemological access and social inclusion and justice, because knowledge and knowledge practices are at the heart of academic disciplines in universities. Social realism offers an alternative to the dilemma brought about by constructivism’s tendency towards knowledge-blindness. Social realism argues that it is possible to see and analyse both actors within social fields of practice as well as knowledge as something that is produced by these actors but also about more than just these actors and their practices; thus knowledge can be understood as emergent from these practices and fields but not reducible to them (Maton & Moore 2010). Social realism, drawing from Roy Bhaskar’s critical realist philosophy (1975, 2008), is intent on looking at the real structures and mechanisms that lie beneath appearances and practices in order to understand the ways in which these practices are shaped, and change over time. Legitimation Code Theory is a realist conceptual framework that has, as its central aim, the uncovering and analysis of organising principles that shape and change intellectual and education fields of production and reproduction of knowledge. In other words, the conceptual tools Legitimation Code Theory offers can enable an analysis of both knowledge and knowers within relational social fields of practice by enabling the analysis of the ways in which these fields, such as academic disciplines, are organised and how knowledge and knowing are understood in educational practice. This study draws on social realism more broadly and Legitimation Code Theory specifically to develop a relatively novel conceptual and explanatory framework within which to analyse and answer its central question regarding how to enable cumulative knowledge building through pedagogic practice. Using qualitative data from two academic disciplines, Law and Political Science, which was analysed using a set of conceptual and analytical tools drawn from Legitimation Code Theory, this study shows that the more nuanced and layered accounts of pedagogy that have been generated are able to provide valuable insights into what lecturers are doing as they teach in terms of helping students to acquire, use and produce disciplinary and ‘powerful’ knowledge (Young 2008b). Further, the study demonstrates that the organising principles underlying academic disciplines have a profound effect on how the role of the knower and the place or purpose of knowledge is understood in pedagogy and this affects how the pedagogy is designed and enacted. This study has argued that if we can research pedagogy rigorously using tools that allow us to see the real mechanisms and principles influencing and shaping it, and if we can reclaim the role of disciplinary knowledge as a central part of the pedagogic relationship between lecturer and students, then we can begin to see how teaching both enables and constrains cumulative learning. Further, we can change pedagogy to better enable cumulative learning and greater epistemological access to disciplinary knowledge and related practices for greater numbers of students. The study concludes by suggesting that the conceptual tools offered by Legitimation Code Theory can provide academic lecturers with a set of tools that can begin to enable them to 'see' and understand their own teaching more clearly, as well as the possible gaps between what they are teaching and what their students are learning. This study argues that a social realist approach to the study of pedagogy such as the one used here can begin not only to enable changes in pedagogy aimed at filling these gaps but also begin to provide a more rigorous theoretical and practical approach to analysing, understanding and enacting pedagogic practice. This, in turn, can lead to more socially just and inclusive student learning and epistemic and social access to the powerful knowledge and ways of knowing in their disciplines.

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McOsker, Megan. "Student Understanding of Error and Variability in Primary Science Communication." Fogler Library, University of Maine, 2009. http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/McOskerM2009.pdf.

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Adams, William Edward. "Differences between student perceptions of the actual and the preferred science laboratory classroom learning environments at a South African college of education." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18316.

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This preliminary research study aimed to investigate, with the aid of the Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI), the actual and the preferred laboratory environments as perceived by 264 first, second and third year college Science and Biology students in Cape Town, South Africa. This investigation sought to answer the following main questions: * Are the English and the Afrikaans versions of the SLEI valid and reliable for use as perceptive instruments in a South African context? * What are the relationships between variables such as class membership, the year level of study, the type or level of the science subject studied, the particular lecturer concerned, home language and gender and the students' perceptions of their science laboratory classroom environments? * Do appreciable differences occur between the actual and the preferred environments as perceived by the students? * Are the findings of the present investigation consistent with the results of parallel investigations undertaken overseas? The data was collected by means of standard answer sheets, and analysed by comparison of the mean scores, standard deviations, discriminant validities and the alpha reliabilities of the various scales of SLEI. Bibliography: p. 130-141.

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Sheffield, Rachel. "Facilitating teacher professional learning : analysing the impact of an Australian professional learning model in secondary science." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2004. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/811.

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In education, innovations are frequently introduced to promote changes to the curriculum, teachers' practice, and the classroom environment, however, these initiatives are often implemented without sufficient evaluation to monitor their impact and effectiveness in bringing about the desired changes. This thesis analyses the impact of a teacher professional learning program on lower secondary science teachers' practice. It examines the relationship between teachers' concerns about the strategies incorporated in the Collaborative Australian Secondary Science Program (CASSP) and teachers' ability to understand the strategies, on their ability to utilise those strategies in the classroom. It also seeks to determine teachers' beliefs about their current science teaching practice and how this is different from their beliefs about ideal science teaching, and also, how these beliefs direct teachers’ classroom practice. Finally this study describes a number of primary and secondary factors found to impact on teachers' professional learning. 11tc CASSP model encapsulates the primary factors of curriculum exemplars (curriculum resources), explanation und modelling (professional development), and reflection (participative inquiry). The secondary factors include ensuring adequate time for change to occur, student support and participation, peer teacher support, support from lenders including-heads of department, support from the school administration and support from state education officers. This study has demonstrated that teachers’ professional learning is a complex process that is strongly influenced by teachers' beliefs, concerns and understandings, and is impacted by the primary and secondary factors identified by the research. Teachers must be able to envision the advantages of incorporating new strategies into their existing practice, and consequently seek to make these changes to their teaching. This study has shown that students are also an important influence the implementation of an innovation, without their support, teachers are unlikely to make successful changes to their teaching practice. lmplications of the research include the need to elaborate the CASSP professional learning model to include the secondary factors identified in the study, and the need to inform students about innovations so that they can see the benefits for them in terms of improved learning outcomes.

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Maronde, Dan. "The effectiveness of teaching methods designed to improve student engagement and retention of physics subject matter for both science and non-science majors." Doctoral diss., University of Central Florida, 2011. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/4976.

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Students' mastery of concepts is evaluated using pre- and post-tests, and effects on class performance and retention within the major are examined. Input from both groups of students in the study was obtained through interviews and surveys.; The necessity of students' engagement with the subject matter for successful learning is well-documented in education research in general, and in physics education research in particular. This study examines the merits of two different programs designed to improve student learning through enhanced student engagement with the material. The target populations of the two programs are different: One is the group of students taking a physical science class as part of the general curriculum required of non-science, non-engineering majors; the other is the group of students, mostly in engineering disciplines, who must take the calculus-based introductory physics sequence as part of their majors' core curriculum. The physical science class is required for non-science majors due to the importance of having a science-literate public. To improve this group's engagement with the subject matter, Physics in Films approaches the subject in the context of scenes taken from popular Hollywood films. Students' learning in the class is evaluated by comparison between performance on pre- and post-tests. The students are also polled on their confidence in their answers on both tests, as an improved belief in their own knowledge is one of the goals of the class. For the calculus-based physics group, a large issue is retention within the major. Many students change to non-science majors before the completion of their degree. An improved understanding of the material in the introductory physics sequence should help alleviate this problem. The Physics Suite is a multi-part introductory physics curriculum based on physics education research. It has been shown to be effective in several studies when used in its entirety. Here, portions of the curriculum have been used in select sections of the introductory physics classes. Their effectiveness, both individually and in conjunction, is studied.
ID: 029809914; System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader.; Mode of access: World Wide Web.; Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Central Florida, 2011.; Includes bibliographical references (p. 122-125).
Ph.D.
Doctorate
Physics
Sciences

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Yannotta, Mark Alan. "Conventionalizing and Axiomatizing in a Community College Mathematics Bridge Course." PDXScholar, 2016. http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3105.

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This dissertation consists of three related papers. The first paper, Rethinking mathematics bridge courses--An inquiry model for community colleges, introduces the activities of conventionalizing and axiomatizing from a practitioner perspective. In the paper, I offer a curricular model that includes both inquiry and traditional instruction for two-year college students interested in mathematics. In particular, I provide both examples and rationales of tasks from the research-based Teaching Abstract Algebra for Understanding (TAAFU) curriculum, which anchors the inquiry-oriented version of the mathematics bridge course. The second paper, the role of past experience in creating a shared representation system for a mathematical operation: A case of conventionalizing, adds to the existing literature on mathematizing (Freudenthal, 1973) by "zooming in" on the early stages of the classroom enactment of an inquiry-oriented curriculum for reinventing the concept of group (Larsen, 2013). In three case study episodes, I shed light onto "How might conventionalizing unfold in a mathematics classroom?" and offer an initial framework that relates students' establishment of conventions in light of their past mathematical experiences. The third paper, Collective axiomatizing as a classroom activity, is a detailed case study (Yin, 2009) that examines how students collectively engage in axiomatizing. In the paper, I offer a revision to De Villiers's (1986) model of descriptive axiomatizing. The results of this study emphasize the additions of pre-axiomatic activity and axiomatic creation to the model and elaborate the processes of axiomatic formulation and analysis within the classroom community.

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Gambiza, James. "The relationship between learning styles and perceptions of blended learning : a case study of third-year Environmental Science students at Rhodes University." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016352.

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The use of blended learning to support teaching and learning is growing globally. Few studies, however, have investigated the relation between students’ learning styles and their perceptions of blended learning. This study used a case-study approach to investigate third year Environmental Science students’ learning styles and perceptions of the online component of blended learning at Rhodes University. Vermunt’s inventory of learning’s styles instrument was used to assess the students’ learning styles. Students’ perceptions of online learning were assessed using an 84-item online experience questionnaire. Multivariate cluster analyses based on students’ learning styles, perceptions of online learning and final coursework marks were done. The correlation between learning styles and perceptions of blended learning was assessed. Students had been using computers for about 10 years. About 91% of students owned computers and 50% had access to Internet at home or in their residences. Internet and email were the most commonly used tools for student learning averaging about at least six times per week. Three of Vermunt’s four learning styles were identified. These were the meaning-directed, application-directed and reproduction-directed styles. The undirected learning style was absent. A major finding of this study was the dissonance in learning styles of students. For example, students with the meaning-directed style also scored high on reproduction-directed style. Students combined deep approaches with memorisation when learning. I developed an instrument consisting of seven scales that described students’ perceptions of online learning. The scales were epistemological judgements, multiple sources of information, learning goals, relevance, Internet experience, appropriate tool and student interaction. There was high within scale variability in students’ perceptions of online learning. The perception that the Internet provided multiple sources of information was positively associated with advanced models of epistemology that support the construction of knowledge. There was dissonance between the perception of the Internet as enhancing epistemological judgements and some components of learning style. A perception of epistemological judgements was positively correlated with both deep and surface cognitive processing strategies.

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Baird, Craig A. "Cognitive apprenticeship in a building design office." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2001. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1065.

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This thesis presents a research study that investigated student learning in a mentor supported design office situation, using a cognitive apprenticeship learning approach that utilised authentic design project tusks. In this study, 29 final year Technical And Further Education (TAFE) building design students undertook authentic building design projects with expert building designers, who acted as mentors, in commercial design office situations. The mentors guided student learning by using a cognitive apprenticeship approach to learning, implemented with authentic design projects designed to replicate the everyday culture of practice activities typical of commercial design office operations. This study follows the progress of these students as they worked in collaboration with their mentors in the design and presentation of design solutions developed for the projects. Data about the students' learning experiences in this setting were collected and analysed to determine their learning outcomes, the kinds of knowledge acquired and the means through which knowledge was transferred in the study situation. A holistic interpretivistic approach was used to collect data in three phases. The first of these was a pilot-study with the other two phases providing the main data gathering parts of the study. Much of the focus of the third phase of this study was on verifying findings emergent from analysis of data collected in the first two phases, as well as seeking greater understanding of the study phenomena. Throughout each of the three phases, data were collected from multiple sources, which included interviews, direct observations, personal journals and drawings. Analysis of the data showed that using cognitive apprenticeship learning methods organised around mentor supported authentic projects implemented in authentic commercial design office situations provided successful transfer of declarative, tacit and procedural knowledge from the mentor to the students. This thesis concludes with recommendations for the classroom application of cognitive apprenticeship learning methods, as used by the expert building designers who participated in this research.

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Chimbganda, Ambrose Bruce. "A study of the summarizing strategies used by ESL first year science students at the University of Botswana." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002623.

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One of the major problems faced by speakers of English as a second language (ESL) or non-native speakers of English (NNS) is that when they go to college or university, they find themselves without sufficient academic literacy skills to enable them to navigate their learning successfully, such as the ability to summarize textual material. This thesis examines the summarizing strategies used by ESL first year science students at the University of Botswana. Using multiple data collection methods, otherwise known as triangulation or pluralistic research, which is a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, one hundred and twenty randomly sampled students completed questionnaires and summarized a scientific text. In order to observe the students more closely, nine students (3 high-, 3 average- and 3 low-proficiency) were purposively selected from the sample and wrote a further summary. The nine students were later interviewed in order to find out from them the kinds of strategies they had used in summarizing the texts. To obtain systematic data, the summaries and the taped interview were coded and analyzed using a hybrid scoring classification previously used by other researchers. The results from the Likert type of questionnaire suggest that the ESL first year science students are 'aware' of the appropriate reading, production and self-assessment strategies to use when summarizing. However, when the data from the questionnaire were cross-checked against the strategies they had used in the actual summarization of the text, most of their claims, especially those of the low-proficiency students, were not sustained. As a whole, the results show that high-proficiency students produce more accurate idea units and are more capable of generalizing ideas than low-proficiency students who prefer to "cut and paste" ideas. There are also significant differences between high- and low proficiency students in the manner in which they decode the text: low-proficiency students produce more distortions in their summaries than high-proficiency students who generally give accurate information. Similarly, high-proficiency students are able to sort out global ideas from a labyrinth of localized ideas, unlike average- and low-proficiency students who include trivial information. The same trend is observed with paraphrasing and sentence combinations: high-proficiency students are generally able to recast and coordinate their ideas, unlike low-proficiency students who produce run-on ideas. In terms of the discrete cognitive and meta-cognitive skills preferred by students, low proficiency students are noticeably unable to exploit pre-summarizing cognitive strategies such as discriminating, selecting, note-making, grouping, inferring meanings of new words and using synonyms to convey the intended meanings. There are also greater differences between high- and low-proficiency students when it comes to the use of meta-cognitive strategies. Unlike high-proficiency students who use their reservoir of meta-cognitive skills such as self-judgment, low-proficiency students ostensibly find it difficult to direct their summaries to the demands of the task and are unable to check the accuracy of their summaries. The findings also show that some of the high-proficiency students and many average- and low-proficiency students distort idea units, find it difficult to use their own words and cannot distinguish between main and supporting details. This resulted in the production of circuitous summaries that often failed to capture the gist of the argument. The way the students processed the main ideas also reveals an inherent weakness: most students of different proficiency levels were unable to combine ideas from different paragraphs to produce a coherent text. Not surprising, then, there were too many long summaries produced by both high- and low-proficiency students. To tackle some of the problems related to summarization, pre-reading strategies can be taught, which activate relevant prior knowledge, so that the learning of new knowledge can be facilitated. During the reading process students can become more meta-cognitively aware by monitoring their level of understanding of the text by using, for example, the strategy suggested by Schraw (1998) of "stop, read and think". Text analysis can also be used to help the students identify the main themes or macro-propositions in a text, and hence gain a more global perspective of the content, which is important for selecting the main ideas in a text. A particularly useful approach to fostering a deeper understanding of content is to use a form of reciprocal or peer-mediated teaching, in which students in pairs can articulate to each other their understanding of the main ideas expressed in the text. As part of the solution to the problems faced by students when processing information, we need to take Sewlall's (2000: 170) advice that there should be "a paradigm shift in the learning philosophy from content-based to an emphasis on the acquisition of skills". In this regard, both content and ESL teachers need to train their students in the explicit use of summarizing strategies, and to plan interwoven lessons and learning activities that develop the learners' intellectual ways of dealing with different learning problems so that they can make learning quicker, easier, more effective and exciting.

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Addam, Billey Bright Kwadwo. "Integrating information and communications technology (ICT) into teaching and learning: the case of mathematics, science and technology education in one higher education institution." Thesis, University of Fort Hare, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1019736.

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This study explores the integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into teaching and learning within one Higher Education institution. The main question driving the study was: How is ICT integrated in the teaching and learning of mathematics, science and technology education (MSTE) in a Bachelor of Education programme? This is a case study of lecturers and students in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education. It makes use of questionnaires, interviews, field notes and document analyses to collect data. MSTE lecturers and students were assumed to be well versed in ICT usage and, therefore, well placed to assess its integration into teaching and learning. There were five main findings: First, that Mathematics, Science and Technology Education lecturers showed some ambivalence in their ontological and epistemological orientation to using ICT. Some leaned towards the instruction paradigm and used ICT as a tool for the transmission of knowledge; others leaned towards the learning paradigm, showing an awareness of the need to elicit discovery through ICT. Secondly, that lecturers’ understanding of ICT integration was oriented towards teaching and learning from technologies rather than with technologies. Thirdly, that processes of ‘pedagogical evolution’ were taking place, in terms of which there was a gradual but perceptible shift in the teaching and learning practice of both students and lecturers. Fourthly, there was no evidence to show that lecturers used ICT to promote innovative and creative teaching; in fact, students appeared to be more creative in using ICT resources, than lecturers. Fifthly, and finally, lecturers did not assign ICT-based tasks that promote conceptual understanding. They assigned tasks that asked students to extract and reproduce information from computers, without demonstrating understanding. When used in this way, ICT can, in fact, be de-skilling. From these findings, it can be concluded that ICT integration cannot be understood without exploring the ontological and epistemological orientations, as well as the theoretical orientations, at play in the teaching and learning situation. It is on the basis of these that people, that is, lecturers and students, make use of, ICTs to achieve desired goals. It is therefore recommended that, for the improvement of integration, there should be a greater emphasis on developing and sharing pedagogical expertise concerning ICT use in teaching and learning. It is recommended that a country-wide research survey should be undertaken, based on probability sampling and focussing on pedagogical issues in ICT integration in teaching and learning.

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Keady, Wayne. "The impact of professional learning on science teachers' beliefs about assessment and their assessment practice." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2007. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/269.

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In response to a national reform or education in Australia, the Curriculum Framework for Kindergarten to Year 12 in Western Australian (Curriculum Council, 1998) was developed and signalled a fundamental shift in education paradigm in Western Australia. The change in curriculum required teachers to change from an objectives-based system to an outcomes-based system and this shift in paradigm required a change in teachers' practice in terms of preparation, teaching and assessment. A change in assessment practice required teachers to shift from a norm-referenced system of assessment which was grounded in numerical scores and grades to a standards-referenced system that describes students' progress in skills and understanding in levels. To successfully implement changes in curriculum requires that teachers undergo effective professional learning. A change in curriculum that introduces a complete shift in educational paradigm requires teachers to understand and adopt a new philosophical basis from which they form their practice. For professional learning to achieve this there must be a consideration of the beliefs that teachers hold about the purpose of education and the purpose of assessment. A new approach to assessment practice also requires new knowledge and skills. To make changes to their assessment practice it is likely that teachers will need to change their beliefs about the purpose of assessment and to develop new knowledge and skills. The purpose of this study was to determine the changes that occur in teachers' beliefs and practice as a result of a professional learning intervention. More importantly the study sought to identify the factors that contribute to a change in practice, and what factors contribute to teachers sustaining that change in practice. To achieve this, the study followed a group of five teachers as they were involved in an action research professional learning intervention that was designed to alter their assessment practice to accommodate a change of curriculum. The teachers were observed through professional learning sessions, moderation and planning sessions as well as their classroom practice. Teachers were interviewed at various stages about their approach to, and belief about, assessment. Students in the relevant classes were also interviewed before and after the professional learning intervention about their experiences of assessment in science classes. Further data were collected using classroom observation, surveys, work samples and records of informal discussions. Data were analysed to generate thick descriptions of teachers’ progress and the participants were given the opportunity to provide feedback on the descriptions of their progress. The Data collection and analysis involved ensured triangulation of data which contributes to the credibility of the research, the process of member checking contributed to the confirmability of the findings and a high degree of consistency with parallel data has demonstrated that the findings are dependable. This study identified key determinates of a change in practice which led to the development of a model that describes the factors necessary for significant and sustained change in practice. The data revealed that teachers' assessment practice is determined by the level of pedagogical content knowledge they have, their existing beliefs about the purpose of assessment and their understanding of the criteria used for assessment. To facilitate change teachers require a significant amount of professional learning and a high level of collegial support. No change to practice is likely to occur unless a teacher has their existing practice and beliefs challenged. For change in practice to be sustained teachers need to experience success in their new practice, they need time to develop confidence in the new strategies they adopt and must ultimately undergo a change in their belief about the purpose of assessment. There are parallels between the theoretical revolutions that occur in science, the conceptual changes that occur in science students and the profound changes in assessment practice that some of these teachers experienced. This research has led to the development of a model that describes the process and factors that facilitate a revolution in teachers' professional practice.

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Holly, Christina R. "An investigation of the factors that influence the career aspirations of Year 12 science students." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2005. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1549.

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What has become apparent in recent years is the lack of upper secondary students choosing science related subjects in their final years of schooling. Even of those students who choose science subjects to study in Years 11 and 12 in Australia, many tend to choose non-science pathways for tertiary education options (department of Education, Science and Training, 2003). This is worrying trend, given the numbers of science professionals and teachers required in the new age of technology. By investigating a sample of Western Australian Year 12 students that study any science related subjects, it is expected that there may be some underlying factors that can be identified that play important roles in their career aspirations. Previous research suggests that these factors will most likely be a combination of social, environmental and individual influences. Science learning experiences, albeit positive or negative, also most certainly determine an individual’s interest in science. It is important to understand why science is failing to capture the interest of our best students, who potentially could contribute intellectually to the future of Australian science. A sample of five secondary metropolitan schools was involved in the collection of data. Using a qualitative case study research method, Year 12 science students, aged 16 to 17 years, were surveyed on aspects of career aspirations and experiences in science. Focus groups from each school participated in a narrative inquiry with the author to further probe their thoughts about career choices in relation to science learning experiences. Staff involved in helping students with their career decisions such as Career Advisors, Year 12 Coordinators and science teachers were also interviewed. In summary, it can be noted, that whilst many of our Year 12 science students are reported high levels of enjoyment of science, there is significant room for improvement. Teachers are seen as a vital link in fostering students’ enjoyment of science, and need to be able to teach science in a relevant fashion, enabling students to understand and to be able to explain the concepts of science. Teachers also have an important role to play by identifying the range of careers that scientific knowledge will support. The study found that personal interest and academic ability are significant factors that influence the career aspirations of Year 12 students, it must also be acknowledged that parental influences also have a large influence on career aspirations of Year 12 students, as well as a range of other factors that will be discussed in the body of this research. The choices of university versus TAFE continue to be an issue, with the majority of students opting for university courses even when not academically able to fulfil the course requirements. Career counsellors also need to play a more active role in helping Year 12 students with decisions by being more readily accessible with relevant information, as this was one criticism of Year 12 students that participated in this research. In conclusions, it is important to note that a greater priority needs to be given to developing the quality of secondary science, and education about career pathways in science. It is very important that all students experience a science education that will make a difference in their lives whilst fostering scientific literacy. It is also important, as a society, to attract our best young minds into science as this will only endeavour to increase the competitiveness of Australian science (Goodrum, Hackling & Rennis, 2001).

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Cheng, Winnie, and 鄭梁慧蓮. "An evaluation of a laboratory report writing unit for medical laboratory science students." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1989. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B38626500.

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Messenger, Lynne. "How schools in Western Australia are responding to the pressures of accountability in Mathematics education." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 1998. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/981.

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Western Australian primary schools have responded to the Education Department's call for school accountability in many areas of the school accountability. This study focuses on the endeavours that schools have made to demonstrate their accountability in the subject area of Mathematics. The document "Improving and Reporting Schools' Performance" was made available to all state primary schools at the beginning of the 1996 school year as part of the Student Outcome Statement package. However, only a small number of primary schools have used the Student Outcome Statements in Mathematics in the National Professional Development Program trial conducted by the Commonwealth Department of Employment, Education and Training and supported by the Education Department of Western Australia during 1994 and /995. A few other schools have used the Student Outcome Statements in Mathematics as part of their own school development program. Part of this study tries to identify whether the differences between how the pilot (NDPD trial) schools, those schools which are using the Student Outcome Statements but were not pilot schools, and schools which have not used the Student Outcome Statements at all, have responded to the call for accountability in the area of mathematics. The study also investigated whether there were differences between country and city schools, and whether the size of the school or the presence of a specialist mathematics teacher affected the schools' responses to accountability. A questionnaire was sent to one hundred randomly selected schools and to all eleven schools who participated in the EDWA pilot study, asking the principal to identify the approaches that have been used to justify accountability and the methods used to assess the student in their school in the area of mathematics. The parties responsible within the school for making the decisions about how the school responded were investigated and how the school was informing the wider school community of any changes were also investigated. Three schools which seemed, from their responses to the questionnaire, to have approached accountability in innovative ways were approached and informal interviews were conducted to investigate further the methods of assessment and accountability and the processes that had been used within the school in the decision making process that had been undertaken. Differences were found, in the ways that schools assessed their students and responded to accountability, between the pilot and the non-pilot schools and between those that were using the Student Outcome Statements and those which were not.

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Elliott, Brett M. "The Influence of an Interdisciplinary Course on Critical Thinking Skills." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1999. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc278389/.

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The effect of an interdisciplinary algebra/science course on students' critical thinking skills was examined. A traditional college algebra course was used as a comparison group. The students in the sample enrolled in college algebra and then half were randomly placed into the interdisciplinary course. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest comparison group design was used. The Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal was used to measure the students' critical thinking skills. This instrument consists of an overall critical thinking score as well as five subscores in the areas of Inference, Recognition of Assumptions, Deduction, Interpretation and Evaluation of Arguments. It was found that the students in the interdisciplinary course made greater gains in the overall critical thinking score as well as in four of the five subscores. However, the differences in the gains made in the two courses were not statistically significant. Disregarding course, other factors that were found to be closely related to critical thinking were Composite ACT, grade received in the course, Math ACT and grade point average. It was also found that students whose majors were in the Schools of Arts and Letters or Science and Technology scored higher on critical thinking than students whose majors were in the Schools of Business or Education. Factors found to have no relationship to critical thinking were ethnicity, gender and classification.

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Naparstek, Laurie Schwartz. "Comparing instructor self-perception versus student perceptions using the same teaching evaluation instrument: a study of computer science courses in an urban master's degree program." Thesis, Boston University, 2005. https://hdl.handle.net/2144/31989.

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Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University
PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you.
This study compares instructor self-perceptions with student perceptions of teaching quality using the same 16-item evaluation instrument. Three hypotheses were investigated: (1) Instructors' self-evaluations will be higher than those of their respective students; (2) The more similar student-instructor perceptions, the more likely instructors will receive a higher score compared to when student-instructor perceptions are more divergent; and (3) Students taking a course as a major requirement will be more critical of the instructor than those students taking the course as distribution requirement or an elective. A total of 1,524 individuals (1,452 graduate students and 72 instructors) in a part-time evening computer science program participated in the study of 79 courses over the spring and fall semesters of 1996. Overall, instructors generally perceived themselves more positively than their students, although statistically significant differences were observed for only three relevant items (involving grading fairness, presentation clarity and instructor enthusiasm) of the 16 items evaluated. Instructors whose perceptions were more similar to their students were generally rated higher than those instructors whose perceptions were more divergent from their students; however, the difference was not significant. Finally, contrary to the third hypothesis, the reason for taking a course did not have a significant effect on student ratings of the instructor.
2031-01-02

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Puhl, Les. "An evaluation of the procedures used to assess and remediate the perceived writing difficulties of undergraduate students in the Faculty of Education at Edith Cowan University." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 1992. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1127.

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The standards of written literacy of teacher-education students at Edith Cowan University are perceived by many staff to be inadequate. The Faculty of Education's response to this perceived inadequacy is to carry out a mandatory skills-based remedial writing programme for students whose literacy competencies are judged to be deficient, The instrument used to assess the students' literacy competencies is the English Skills Assessment test. The students' performances in the various skills which the test purports to measure, also determine the area in which they are given remedial instruction if the results of the test suggest this is necessary. However, many Faculty of Education staff are concerned that there are important conceptual, structural, and organisational inadequacies in students' writing which are not identified by the English Skills Assessment test and, therefore, are not attended to in remediation programmes based on the results generated by this test. This study was an evaluation of the remedial literacy programme conducted by the Faculty of Education at Edith Cowan University. The programme was evaluated from two perspectives (a) a theoretical perspective and (b) a practical perspective. Firstly, the study evaluated the procedures used by the Faculty of Education to diagnose and remediate writing difficulties among its first year student intake by comparing the assumptions underlying those procedures to the assumptions underlying a contemporary perspective of writing and the teaching of writing. This comparison revealed that not only were many of the procedures used by the Faculty ineffectual, but also some of the procedures used had the potential to inhibit the literacy development of its students. Secondly, the study investigated whether the English Skills Assessment test was able to identify (a) all the areas in which students experienced difficulties inwriting and (b) the students who were likely to experience the difficulties. The performances of 426 first year primary and secondary teacher education students attending the Mount Lawley Campus of the Edith Cowan University in the English Skills Assessment test were compared with their performances in a research-essay assignment, carried out as a normal part of their course work. The results of this aspect of the study reinforce the findings of an earlier study (Holbrook & Bourke, 1989) which reported that the English Skills Assessment test neither identified all the areas in which tertiary level students experience difficulty in their real writing nor the students likely to experience difficulties, This study shows that Holbrook and Bourke's findings, which related to narrative text, also applied when students wrote expository text. These results challenge the validity of the Faculty's use of the English Skills Assessment test as a means of identifying students with writing problems and show that any remedial writing programme based solely on the areas identified by the test will have a limited impact on the development of students' written literacy. In addition to the data originally sought for this study, other information came to light which showed the limitations of the way in which the Faculty conceptualises students' literacy needs. The emphasis of this programme is diagnosis and remediation. This conceptualisation has produced a literacy unit which is peripheral to the mainstream academic programme and which teaches the surface features of language in decontextualised, skills-based lessons. As a consequence, the unit: (a) is accorded marginal status by lecturers and students alike, ( b ) bears little relationship to what is happening in other units of the course, and (c) contributes little, if anything, to students' literacy development. It is clear from the findings of this study that the Faculty of Educator's remedial literacy programme contains serious flaws which cannot be rectified by attempting to modify the existing programme, The study concludes by recommending that the Faculty of Education should abandon its existing programme, along with its remedial emphasis, and institute a new programme designed to cater for the literacy needs of all its students. That is, all incoming students should be required to undertake a foundation unit which outlines the Faculty of Education's requirements and expectations of students, and teaches them the structures and processes (reading, writing, and thinking) required for successful learning in Bachelor of Arts (Education) courses.

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Shepard, Pamela Ann. "The Use of Part-Time Faculty in Associate Degree Nursing, Social Science, and Biological Science Programs." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1990. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc332403/.

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This study surveyed the opinions of academic administrators of associate degree nursing programs, community college social science programs, and community college biological science programs regarding major benefits and concerns associated with the employment of part-time faculty. This study found that most part-time social science faculty teach in the classroom, half participate in non-teaching faculty activities, and most are paid a contract amount per course or credit hour. Part-time biological science faculty differed only in that most teach a combination of classroom and lab/practicum. Part-time nursing faculty differed in all three areas. Most part-time nursing faculty teach in lab or practicum settings, most participate in more non-teaching activities than other part-time faculty, and most are paid an hourly wage. However, the benefits and concerns associated with the employment of part-time nursing faculty were not significantly different from those identified by academic administrators of the other programs with one exception. Academic administrators felt that part-time nursing faculty expose students to the latest technologies in specialty areas and part-time social science faculty do not. The benefits cited by the respondents, that were in addition to the benefits most frequently cited in the literature, include increased interaction with the community and the ability to "try out" prospective full-time faculty. The concerns cited by respondents, that were in addition to the concerns most frequently cited in the literature, include the inability to find qualified part-time faculty to fill available positions and the concern that the employment of part-time faculty causes resentment among full-time faculty. The results from this study indicate that the literature pertaining to the benefits and concerns associated with the employment of social science and biological science part-time faculty in community colleges can be used to develop policies regarding part-time faculty in associate degree nursing programs.

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Yip, Wing-shun, and 葉榮信. "The difference between traditional learning environment and information enriched learning environment on the acquisition andtransfer of higher order thinking skills in a biological context." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1998. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31960595.

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Strand, Stephen Raymond II. "The Intermediate Value Theorem as a Starting Point for Inquiry-Oriented Advanced Calculus." PDXScholar, 2016. http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/2914.

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Making the transition from calculus to advanced calculus/real analysis can be challenging for undergraduate students. Part of this challenge lies in the shift in the focus of student activity, from a focus on algorithms and computational techniques to activities focused around definitions, theorems, and proofs. The goal of Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) is to support students in making this transition by building on and formalizing their informal knowledge. There are a growing number of projects in this vein at the undergraduate level, in the areas of abstract algebra (TAAFU: Larsen, 2013; Larsen & Lockwood, 2013), differential equations (IO-DE: Rasmussen & Kwon, 2007), geometry (Zandieh & Rasmussen, 2010), and linear algebra (IOLA: Wawro, et al., 2012). This project represents the first steps in a similar RME-based, inquiry-oriented instructional design project aimed at advanced calculus. The results of this project are presented as three journal articles. In the first article I describe the development of a local instructional theory (LIT) for supporting the reinvention of formal conceptions of sequence convergence, the completeness property of the real numbers, and continuity of real functions. This LIT was inspired by Cauchy's proof of the Intermediate Value Theorem, and has been developed and refined using the instructional design heuristics of RME through the course of two teaching experiments. I found that a proof of the Intermediate Value Theorem was a powerful context for supporting the reinvention of a number of the core concepts of advanced calculus. The second article reports on two students' reinventions of formal conceptions of sequence convergence and the completeness property of the real numbers in the context of developing a proof of the Intermediate Value Theorem (IVT). Over the course of ten, hour-long sessions I worked with two students in a clinical setting, as these students collaborated on a sequence of tasks designed to support them in producing a proof of the IVT. Along the way, these students conjectured and developed a proof of the Monotone Convergence Theorem. Through this development I found that student conceptions of completeness were based on the geometric representation of the real numbers as a number line, and that the development of formal conceptions of sequence convergence and completeness were inextricably intertwined and supported one another in powerful ways. The third and final article takes the findings from the two aforementioned papers and translates them for use in an advanced calculus classroom. Specifically, Cauchy's proof of the Intermediate Value Theorem is used as an inspiration and touchstone for developing some of the core concepts of advanced calculus/real analysis: namely, sequence convergence, the completeness property of the real numbers, and continuous functions. These are presented as a succession of student investigations, within the context of students developing their own formal proof of the Intermediate Value Theorem.

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White, Miki Machell. "Analysis and Development of Post Secondary Curriculum on Sustainability." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2000. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2488/.

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This thesis examines existing curricula at colleges and universities about sustainability and uses results to develop an introductory post secondary course curriculum. The proposed course is organized around three major elements - - science, philosophy, and economics - - all integral to understanding sustainability. Materials needed to teach the proposed 3-semester hour course including syllabus, teaching modules, transparencies, handouts, and exams were developed. Suggestions on how to teach a one-semester hour course on sustainability and a workshop on sustainability are also presented. The following research and curriculum development was a project established and funded by the Texas Energy Office, Renewable Resources and Sustainability Program.

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Lui, Chung-wai, and 呂宗偉. "A study of the understanding of key concepts and processes in unit 5 "solvents and solution" of the Hong Kong integrated science syllabusby the science majors of a college of education." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1988. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B38627012.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Science – Study and teaching (Higher) – Australia'

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