Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
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Item STUDYING EPISTEMIC COGNITION IN THE HISTORY CLASSROOM: CASES OF TEACHING AND LEARNING TO THINK HISTORICALLY(2010) Maggioni, Liliana; Alexander, Patricia A; VanSledright, Bruce; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Building on the literature on epistemic cognition, epistemic beliefs, and historical thinking, three class-level case studies were conducted to investigate features of historical thinking and history-specific epistemic beliefs of high-school students and their teachers. These cases also considered teachers' pedagogical practices and the potential effects of those practices on students' historical thinking and epistemic beliefs. Two junior honors and one freshman US History classes were selected from a school system that fostered the preparation of students for AP History courses by encouraging the use of a variety of primary sources and analysis of documents in teaching history. Preliminary visits indicated that these classes' teachers used different pedagogical practices. Class observations spanned one semester of instruction. History-specific epistemic beliefs were explored using interviews structured around the items of the Beliefs about History Questionnaire (BHQ) and historical thinking was assessed through analysis of think-alouds collected while student informants (4 from each class) and their teachers read a set of 6 documents and responded to a constructed response task (CRT). Specifically, student data were collected at the middle and end of the semester, while teachers were interviewed only once, at the end of the semester. In one of the junior classes, 27 additional juniors responded in writing to the BHQ and to the CRTs. Additional questionnaires and interviews explored teachers' goals, rationales for their practice, and interest in history. In regard to history-specific epistemic beliefs, results indicated that students and teachers manifested ideas indicative of different developmental levels, suggesting that their epistemic beliefs are a complex system, not necessarily characterized by a high level of integration. Differences across students tended to be greater in regard to epistemic beliefs than to historical thinking. In addition, comparison of initial and follow-up data suggested different trajectories of change in regard to students' epistemic beliefs while changes in historical thinking were modest and not consistently suggesting progression in competence. These trends were confirmed by the analysis of students' written responses to the BHQ and the CRTs. The study identified a set of ideas and behaviors that tended to produce cognitive impasse and hindered the development of historical thinking and a series of pedagogical practices, mostly aligned with teachers' goals and beliefs, which might have fostered such outcomes.Item Sixth grade students' mental models of physical education concepts: A Framework Theory perspective(2008-11-19) Bonello, Marina; Ennis, Dr. Catherine; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Framework Theory of Conceptual Change (FTCC) is the prevailing theoretical approach guiding current thought and research into the contextualized development of students' mental models. In FTTC Vosniadou (1994) theorized the role academic beliefs and social and contextual variables play in model development. Physical education scholars have not yet applied FTCC to an examination of students' fitness conceptions and little is known about the role academic beliefs play in knowledge development. The purpose of this dissertation was to apply FTCC to an examination of students' mental models of fitness concepts. I conducted a descriptive study using an ethnographic research design to examine the contextualized development of students' mental models. Participants included one class of sixth-grade students and their teachers at two middle schools. Student data (n=18) were collected using written questionnaires and interviews. Additionally, I collected contextual data through document collection, physical education (n=2) and science teacher (n=1) interviews, and field observations of the physical education lessons conducted at the respective schools. In the first analysis, I identified five generic mental models based upon diverse configurations in students' naive theories to explain exercise induced physical changes. Findings suggested students' diverse explanations reflected the inherent complexity of the concept. The emerging coherence of students' perspectives towards scientific views is gradual. Developing sophisticated conceptions entails developmental, applicational, and integrated processes that evolve into complex relational conceptions. In the second analysis, I identified three mental models students used to explain the concept of intensity and it's relation to other elements in the FITT principle. In contrast to previous research, all 18 students within this study were familiar with the concept of intensity and the FITT principle. Students' explanations were diverse and reflected variations in their conceptual transitions from a holistic elementary school level conception of FITT and intensity. The diverse models reflected students' purposeful and creative attempts to seek coherence and make interdisciplinary and multi-sensory connections. A myriad of variables appeared to interact to facilitate and sometimes limit students' mental models, including school support, language and tool support, and teachers' values and beliefs about teaching, fitness, and student learning.