Teaching, Learning, Policy & Leadership Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2759
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Item Learning Together: The Lived Experience of Bridging in Scholars Studio(2023) Nardi, Lisa; Hultgren, Francine H; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This hermeneutic phenomenological investigation tends to the connections made in Scholars Studio—an interdisciplinary learning community for first-year students at a public Historically Black College and University (HBCU). In this study, I ask, What is the lived experience of bridging in Scholars Studio? I conceptualize bridging as a pedagogical orientation characterized by making connections across disciplines, between theory and praxis, across time and distance, and with one another. Bridging creates dynamic spaces that resist binary relationships, thus creating the potential for transformation. This study is grounded in the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, Mariana Ortega, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Edward Casey, and David Michael Levin, and follows the methodological structure set forth by Max van Manen. This research captures conversations that bridge the experience of twelve participants—including faculty, students, and staff—who partook in a learning community focused on Black men in education. Through these conversations, the participants affirm the importance of curricula grounded in African American and African history and culture. As participants cross the metaphorical bridge, they consider the “edges” they encounter that are both full of risk and possibility. These edges push them outside of their comfort zones in search of wholeness and create potential sites for improvisation. I end by opening new possibilities for Scholars Studio, including grounding the work in African principles and considering future directions.Item How Electrical Engineering Students Design Computer Programs(2014) Danielak, Brian Adam; Elby, Andrew; Gupta, Ayush; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)When professional programmers begin designing programs, we know they often spend time away from a computer, using tools such as pens, paper, and whiteboards as they discuss and plan their designs (Petre, van der Hoek, & Baker, 2010). But, we're only beginning to analyze and understand the complexity of what happens during such early-stage design work. And, our accounts are almost exclusively about what professionals do. For all we've begun to understand about what happens in early-stage software design, we rarely apply the same research questions and methods to students' early-stage design work. This dissertation tries to redress that imbalance. I present two case studies — derived from my 10 study participants — of electrical engineering (EE) students designing computer programs in a second-semester computer programming course. In study 1, I show how analyzing a student's code snapshot history and conducting clinical interviews tells us far more about her design trajectory than either method could alone. From that combined data I argue students' overall software designs can be consequentially shaped by factors — such as students' stances toward trusting their code or believing a current problem is a new instance of an old one — that existing code snapshot research is poorly equipped to explain. Rather, explanations that add non-conceptual constructs including affective state and epistemological stance can offer a more complete and satisfactory account of students' design activities. In study 2, I argue computer science and engineering education should move beyond conceptual-knowledge and concept deficit explanations of students' difficulties (and capabilities) in programming. I show that in doing design students do, say, write, and gesture things that: – Are outside the phenomenological scope of most (mis)conceptions accounts of programming – Would be explained differently under frameworks that emphasize manifold epistemological resources. Some student difficulties can be recast as epistemological blocks in activity rather than conceptual knowledge deficits. Similarly, some students' productive capacities can be understood as epistemologically-related stances toward an activity, rather than evidencing particular knowledge of specific computational concepts. – Would suggest different instructional interventions if teachers attended to the stabilizing aspects — such as epistemological dynamics — that help these episodes of activity cohere for students.Item A Tale of Two Courses; Teaching and Learning Undergraduate Abstract Algebra(2007-11-21) Fukawa-Connelly, Timothy P; Campbell, Patricia F; Fey, James T; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The abstract algebra course is an important point in the education of undergraduate mathematics majors and secondary mathematics teachers. Abstract algebra teachers have multiple goals for student learning, and the literature suggests that students have difficulty meeting these goals. Advisory reports have called for a move away from lecture toward investigation-based class sessions as a means of improving student understanding. Thus, it is appropriate to understand what is happening in the current teaching and associated learning of abstract algebra. The present study examined teaching and learning in two abstract algebra classrooms, one consciously using a lecture-based (i.e., deduction-theory-proof, or DTP) mode of instruction and the other an investigative approach. Instructional data was collected in classroom observations, and multiple written instruments and a set of interviews were used to evaluate student learning. Each instructor hoped students would develop a deep and connected knowledge base and attempted to create classroom environments where students were constantly engaged as a means of doing so. In the lecture class, writing proofs was the central activity of class meetings; nearly every class period included at least one proof. In the investigative class, the processes of computing and searching for patterns in various structures were emphasized. At the end of the semester, students demonstrated mixed levels of proficiency. Generally, students did well on items that were relatively familiar, and poorly when the content or context was unfamiliar. In the DTP course, two students demonstrated significant proficiency with analytical argument; the remainder demonstrated mixed proficiency with proof and very little proficiency with other content. The students in the investigative class all seemed to develop similar levels of proficiency with the content, and demonstrated more willingness to explore unknown structures. This study may prompt discussions about the relative importance of developing proof-proficiency, students' ability to formulate and investigate hypotheses, developing students' content knowledge, and students' ability to operate in and analyze novel structures.