College of Education
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS OF TEACHER ATTENTION: CASE STUDIES OF HOW HIGH SCHOOL PHYSICS AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE TEACHERS ATTEND TO STUDENT IDEAS(2010) Lau, Matty; Hammer, David M; Elby, Andrew; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Attending to student ideas is critical for supporting students' science learning (Driver, Guesne, & Tiberghien, 1985; National Research Council, 1996). But, paying attention to student ideas in science class is difficult and does not happen often (Davis, 2001; Feldman, 2002; Levin, 2008; Levitt, 2001; Simmons, et al, 1999). Researchers have looked at how institutional expectations, curricular materials, and a teacher's cognition influence how that teacher picks up on and makes sense of student ideas (Ainley & Luntley, 2007; Levin, 2008; Rop, 2002; Tabak & Reiser, 1999; Wallach & Even, 2005). I argue that we do not yet have adequate ways of characterizing and understanding teachers' attention at the level of the interaction. I have evidence that suggests that when we look in such a fine-grained way, many of our current explanations for what teachers do and pay attention to are not sufficient. The aim of this dissertation is to build on the burgeoning body of work on teacher attention by looking at how to characterize a teacher's attention as that teacher interacts with students in the classroom and studying how a teacher's attention is situated in the teacher's framing of his or her interaction with students. In short, a person's frame or framing of the situation is his or her definition of what is going on in the interaction (Tannen, 1993). I discuss the implications for how we can support teachers' attention to student ideas and some areas for future research motivated by the findings of this study.Item Applying Mathematics to Physics and Engineering: Symbolic Forms of the Integral(2010) Jones, Steven Robert; Campbell, Patricia F; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)A perception exists that physics and engineering students experience difficulty in applying mathematics to physics and engineering coursework. While some curricular projects aim to improve calculus instruction for these students, it is important to specify where calculus curriculum and instructional practice could be enhanced by examining the knowledge and understanding that students do or do not access after instruction. This qualitative study is intended to shed light on students' knowledge about the integral and how that knowledge is applied to physics and engineering. In this study, nine introductory-level physics and engineering students were interviewed about their understanding of the integral. They were interviewed twice, with one interview focused on and described as problems similar to those encountered in a mathematics class and the other focused on and described as problems similar to those found in a physics class. These students provided evidence for several "symbolic forms" that may exist in their cognition. Some of these symbolic forms resembled the typical interpretations of the integral: an area, an addition over several pieces, and an anti-derivative process. However, unique features of the students' interpretations help explain how this knowledge has been compiled. Furthermore, the way in which these symbolic forms were employed throughout the interviews shows a context-dependence on the activation of this knowledge. The symbolic forms related to area and anti-derivatives were more common and productive during the mathematics interview, while less common and less productive during the physics interview. By contrast, the symbolic form relating to an addition over several pieces was productive for both interview sessions, suggesting its general utility in understanding the integral in various contexts. This study suggests that mathematics instruction may need to provide physics and engineering students with more opportunities to understand the integral as an addition over several pieces. Also, it suggests that physics and engineering instruction may need to reiterate the importance, in physics and engineering contexts, of the integral as an addition over several pieces in order to assist students in applying their knowledge about the integral.Item FROM INTERACTION TO INTERACTION: EXPLORING SHARED RESOURCES CONSTRUCTED THROUGH AND MEDIATING CLASSROOM SCIENCE LEARNING(2010) Tang, Xiaowei; Coffey, Janet E; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Recent reform documents and science education literature emphasize the importance of scientific argumentation as a discourse and practice of science that should be supported in school science learning. Much of this literature focuses on the structure of argument, whether for assessing the quality of argument or designing instructional scaffolds. This study challenges the narrowness of this research paradigm and argues for the necessity of examining students' argumentative practices as rooted in the complex, evolving system of the classroom. Employing a sociocultural-historical lens of activity theory (Engestrӧm, 1987, 1999), discourse analysis is employed to explore how a high school biology class continuously builds affordances and constraints for argumentation practices through interactions. The ways in which argumentation occurs, including the nature of teacher and student participation, are influenced by learning goals, classroom norms, teacher-student relationships and epistemological stances constructed through a class' interactive history. Based on such findings, science education should consider promoting classroom scientific argumentation as a long-term process, requiring supportive resources that develop through continuous classroom interactions. Moreover, in order to understand affordances that support disciplinary learning in classroom, we need to look beyond just disciplinary interactions. This work has implications for classroom research on argumentation and teacher education, specifically, the preparation of teachers for secondary science teaching.Item Influence of Subject Matter Discipline and Science Content Knowledge on National Board Certified Science Teachers' Conceptions, Enactment, and Goals for Inquiry(2009) Breslyn, Wayne; McGinnis, J. Randy; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The present study investigated differences in the continuing development of National Board Certified Science Teachers' (NBCSTs) conceptions of inquiry across the disciplines of biology, chemistry, earth science, and physics. The central research question of the study was, "How does a NBCST's science discipline (biology, chemistry, earth science, or physics) influence their conceptions, enactment, and goals for inquiry-based teaching and learning?" A mixed methods approach was used that included an analysis of the National Board portfolio entry, Active Scientific Inquiry, for participants (n=48) achieving certification in the 2007 cohort. The portfolio entry provided detailed documentation of teachers' goals and enactment of an inquiry lesson taught in their classroom. Based on the results from portfolio analysis, participant interviews were conducted with science teachers (n=12) from the 2008 NBCST cohort who represented the science disciplines of biology, chemistry, earth science, and physics. The interviews provided a broader range of contexts to explore teachers' conceptions, enactment, and goals of inquiry. Other factors studied were disciplinary differences in NBCSTs' views of the nature of science, the relation between their science content knowledge and use of inquiry, and changes in their conceptions of inquiry as result of the NB certification process. Findings, based on a situated cognitive framework, suggested that differences exist between biology, chemistry, and earth science teachers' conceptions, enactment, and goals for inquiry. Further, individuals teaching in more than one discipline often held different conceptions of inquiry depending on the discipline in which they were teaching. Implications for the research community include being aware of disciplinary differences in studies on inquiry and exercising caution in generalizing findings across disciplines. In addition, teachers who teach in more than one discipline can highlight the contextual and culturally based nature of teachers' conceptions of inquiry. For the education community, disciplinary differences should be considered in the development of curriculum and professional development. An understanding of disciplinary trends can allow for more targeted and relevant representations of inquiry.Item A CASE STUDY OF URBAN STUDENT AND TEACHER EXPERIENCES SURROUNDING AN OUTDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE FIELD TRIP(2009) Preusch, Peggy Louise; van Zee, Emily H; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Field trips provide opportunities for students to experience many different contexts beyond the classroom, and are a popular choice of K-12 teachers in the US. Recent interest in learning that occurs at informal science education centers such as museums, zoos and aquariums has stimulated studies of the relationship between learning in and outside of schools. Although many studies focus on the teachers, the contexts, and/or the students during the field trip, only a few look at the entire process of learning by including the classroom setting before and after the field trip. This study was designed to develop understandings of the student process of learning during and surrounding an environmental science field trip to an outdoor setting. John Dewey's extensive writings on the relationship between experience and learning informed the analysis, creating a focus on active and passive elements of the experience, continuity within and across contexts, the interactive nature of the experience and the importance of subject matter. An exploration of environmental education (EE), environmental science (ES), and nature study as content revealed the complexities of the subject matter of the field trip that make its presentation problematic. An urban school was chosen to contribute to the research literature about urban student learning in outdoor environments. During the field trip, the students' active engagement with each other and the environment supported meaningful remembrances of the field trip experiences during interviews after the field trip. The students accurately described plants and animals they had observed in different habitats during the field trip. They also made connections with their home life and prior experiences in the outdoors as they discussed the field trip and drew pictures that represented their experiences. One student integrated his outdoor experience with a language arts assignment as he reflected deeply on the field trip. One implication of this study is that educational experiences in outdoor natural environments are complex in ways that contribute to lack of continuity between science lessons in an elementary classroom and environmental science field trip. Long term relationships between schools and informal settings that recognize the strengths of both contexts in terms of student learning processes surrounding field trip experiences are needed to strengthen the educative process for field trip participants.Item A case-study of a socio-scientific issues curricular and pedagogical intervention in an undergraduate microbiology course: A focus on informal reasoning(2009) Schalk, Kelly Anne; McGinnis, James R; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this investigation was to measure specific ways a student interest SSI-based curricular and pedagogical affects undergraduates' ability informally reason. The delimited components of informal reasoning measured were undergraduates' Nature of Science conceptualizations and ability to evaluate scientific information. The socio-scientific issues (SSI) theoretical framework used in this case-study has been advocated as a means for improving students' functional scientific literacy. This investigation focused on the laboratory component of an undergraduate microbiology course in spring 2008. There were 26 participants. The instruments used in this study included: 1) Individual and Group research projects, 2) journals, 3) laboratory write-ups, 4) a laboratory quiz, 5) anonymous evaluations, and 6) a pre/post article exercise. All instruments yielded qualitative data, which were coded using the qualitative software NVivo7. Data analyses were subjected to instrumental triangulation, inter-rater reliability, and member-checking. It was determined that undergraduates' epistemological knowledge of scientific discovery, processes, and justification matured in response to the intervention. Specifically, students realized: 1) differences between facts, theories, and opinions; 2) testable questions are not definitively proven; 3) there is no stepwise scientific process; and 4) lack of data weakens a claim. It was determined that this knowledge influenced participants' beliefs and ability to informally reason. For instance, students exhibited more critical evaluations of scientific information. It was also found that undergraduates' prior opinions had changed over the semester. Further, the student interest aspect of this framework engaged learners by offering participants several opportunities to influentially examine microbiology issues that affected their life. The investigation provided empirically based insights into the ways undergraduates' interest and functional scientific literacy can be promoted. The investigation advanced what was known about using SSI-based frameworks to the post-secondary learner context. Outstanding questions remain for investigation. For example, is this type of student interest SSI-based intervention broadly applicable (i.e, in other science disciplines and grade levels)? And, what challenges would teachers in diverse contexts encounter when implementing a SSI-based theoretical framework?Item Epistemological Authenticity in Science Classrooms(2008-11-20) Hutchison, Paul; Hammer, David; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)A scientifically literate individual understands important characteristics of both the nature of scientific knowledge and the activity that produces it, scientific inquiry. (NRC, 1996; AAAS, 1993) In support of these goals the National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996) envisions science classrooms where students engage productively in activity that is similar to scientific inquiry. It is presumed that by engaging in this kind of activity students will come to deeper understandings of scientific inquiry and scientific knowledge. For this instructional approach to be successful it is necessary students not only engaging in activity that "looks" like science in important ways, but also view their own activity as authentically using knowledge for the purpose of making sense of natural phenomena. Notably the determination of what is authentic is problematic in a science classroom. There are two different possible arbiters "present" in a classroom, the students themselves and the discipline of science. And what is authentic to one might not be to the other. This work provides perspectives on classroom and teacher professional development implications of this view of science instruction. Chapter two articulates a conceptualization, epistemological authenticity, of the nature of student activity necessary to achieve these instructional goals. Such activity involves students engaging in scientific practices with the same purposes as scientists. Chapter three uses a case study of a science classroom to illustrate some of the features of student activity that provide evidence of more and less productive student expectations about the purposes of their own participation in a science class. It also discusses the role teacher instructional choices play in influencing how students perceive the purposes of classroom activity. Chapter four considers teacher professional development, specifically images of exemplary science classrooms in the Standards and a supplement to it (NRC, 2000). The depictions in those documents provide little insight into student activity, instead focusing on the pre-planned instructional sequence. This is poor preparation for teachers who must pay close attention to students. An alternative depiction is presented and contrasted with the images in the supplement to the Standards.Item Novice and Expert Comprehensive Reasoning about Infectious Disease(2008-08-06) Cathcart, Laura A.; Hammer, David; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Infectious disease has plagued humanity throughout history and the threat from infectious disease is still real. All healthcare providers and medical researchers need training that focuses on all components of infectious disease. Educators must help future healthcare professionals learn the value of comprehensive solutions to infectious disease problems. I have designed a case study based interview prompt to examine and describe the thought processes of novices and experts as they solve infectious disease problems. During the interviews both microbiology students (novices) and infectious disease professionals (experts) demonstrated comprehensive thinking about an infectious disease problem. This research is the first step in developing a methodology to identify comprehensive thinking about infectious disease problems. Further research will help educators to create classroom environments that encourage students to practice thinking comprehensively about infectious disease.Item Effectiveness of false correction strategy on science reading comprehension(2008-05-01) Ghent, Cynthia; Holliday, William G; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)False-correction reading strategy theoretically prompted college students to activate their prior knowledge when provided false statements linked to a portion of their biology textbook. This strategy is based in elaborative interrogation theory, which suggests that prompting readers to answer interrogatives about text students are reading increases their comprehension of that text. These interrogatives always asked "why" statements pulled from a text, one sentence in length, were "true." True statements in this study based on a text were converted by the experimenter into false statements, one sentence in length. Students were requested to rewrite each statement (n=12) on average every 200 words in a text as they were reading, converting each false statement into a true statement. These students outperformed other students requested to reread the same biology text twice (an established placebo-control strategy). These students, in turn, outperformed still other students reading an unrelated control text taken from the same textbook used only to establish a prior knowledge baseline for all students included in this study. Students participating in this study were enrolled students in an undergraduate introductory general biology course designed for non-majors. A three-group, posttest-only, randomized experimental control-group design was used to prevent pretest activation of students' prior knowledge thus increasing chances of producing evidence of false-correction effectiveness and to begin augmenting potential generalizability to science classrooms. Students' (n=357) general biology knowledge, verbal ability, and attempts to use the false correction strategy were collected and analyzed. Eight of the participants were interviewed by the researcher in a first attempt in this domain to collect data on participants' points of view about the strategy. The results of this study are not yet recommended for use in authentic school settings as further research is indicated.Item An Examination of Science Teachers' Learning in a Laboratory-Based Professional Development Program(2008-04-22) Kiehl, Melissa Lynn; McGinnis, James R; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Professional development generally refers to the collection of activities that systematically increase teachers' knowledge of academic subjects and advance teachers' understanding of instructional strategies. Given the complexity of the reform initiatives for science education in the United States of America as set forth by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996), professional development might provide a bridge for aligning teacher practice with national standards (Loucks-Horsley, 1995). However, the current model of professional growth, focused largely on expanding a repertoire of skills, is not adequate (Little, 1993). Understanding teacher learning theory and utilizing research on pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) could be the differentiating factor for science teacher professional development; if utilized in design and evaluation, they may promote both knowing science in context and knowing how to tailor science learning to the needs of students (Shulman, 1987). The purpose of this study was to investigate how the Laboratory Science Teacher Professional Development Program (LSTPD), a three year professional development model that immerses teachers in learning science content through inquiry, impacts teachers' learning and classroom practice. It first aimed to analyze teacher learning and PCK; second, it examined their views on professional development; and third, whether they anticipate adapting their practice to include facets of their laboratory experience. Participants were teachers in their second or third year of participation in LSTPD. The study followed a qualitative case study design and made use of in-depth interviews and observations to examine teachers' knowledge, beliefs, and practice. The study drew on a constructivist framework. Findings demonstrated that teachers' understanding of content, inquiry, and science as a living enterprise were greatly increased, and that teachers generated goals for practice that echoed their new understandings. Further, teachers articulated how they connected LSTPD to their classrooms, fueling further discussion of the role of PCK in their experience. This study has greater implications for the design of sustained research-based professional development experiences in promoting learning in teachers, and inquiry techniques in classrooms.