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Lundh, Ingrid. "Undervisa Naturvetenskap genom Inquiry : En studie av två högstadielärare." Licentiate thesis, Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för samhälls- och välfärdsstudier, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-112393.
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There is a need to change the teaching methods of the science subjects. International surveys, e.g. TIMMS and PISA, have been showing relatively declining skills for the Swedish students in the science subjects. International science education research has found good examples of teaching and learning, but the research stays within the research communities and does not reach the teachers and their teaching. The gap between research results and teachers’ practices in the classroom is the basis of this investigation. Research shows that the teacher is one of the most important factors for student learning, therefore, this study has put great emphasis on the teachers’ competencies. The focus of this investigation is the relations between teachers’ knowledge of the Nature of Science (NOS), the Nature of Science Inquiry (NOSI) and inquiry-based teaching of Science. The project follows longitudinally two teachers as they take part in a researchbased implementation process of predesigned inquiry-teaching sequences in Physics. The context is a secondary school in Sweden (grades 8–9, age 14–16 years). The project is set around group discussions between the involved teachers and the researcher on planning, implementing and analysing actual inquiry teaching. The results describe possibilities and obstacles concerning the implementation of inquiry teaching as perceived by the teachers. Having navigated obstacles the teachers saw great potential in the inquiry model based on students’ motivation and learning. The results of the project provide indications on how future in-service teacher courses in Science could be designed.The series name Linköping Studies in Science and Technology Education is incorrect. The correct namen is Studies in Science and Technology Education.
Bilaga 1-7 ej inräknade i antalet sidor.
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Gyllenpalm, Jakob. "Teachers' Language of Inquiry : The Conflation Between Methods of Teaching and Scientific Inquiry in Science Education." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för matematikämnets och naturvetenskapsämnenas didaktik, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-42694.
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The objective of this thesis is to describe and analyse customs of science teaching in secondary schools and teacher education programmes in Sweden in relation to the notion of “inquiry” in science education. The main focus is on customs of language use and the educational goal of learning about scientific inquiry as distinct from the related goals of learning to do inquiry and learning canonical science content. There is also an exploration and description of different teaching approaches associated with “inquiry”. Previous research has noted that a key issue for reaching the goal of learning about scientific inquiry is the extent to which teachers are able to guide students to explicitly reflect upon this topic. A prerequisite is that teachers give students access to relevant categories of language for explicit reflection on the characteristics of scientific inquiry. Because of the situated nature of language use and learning, this also raises the need to address topics of context, culture and customs in science education. This thesis addresses the questions of how existing customs of teaching science are related to the goal of learning about scientific inquiry, how inquiry-related terminology is used in this context, and how relevant distinctions can be made to aid explicit reflection on these issues. Data has been collected in two studies and analysed and presented in four papers. Study 1 is based on interviews with twelve secondary school science teachers, and Study 2 is based on focus group interviews with 32 pre-service teacher students. The results include a description of the existing customs of inquiry-oriented instructional approaches in Swedish secondary schools. They show that these are often not connected with an explicit focus on teaching about the characteristics of scientific inquiry. Inquiry-related terminology is analysed with a focus on the role and use of the terms “hypothesis” and “experiment”. Based on a theoretical framework of sociocultural and pragmatist views on language and learning, it is shown how the use of these terms, both in secondary schools and teacher education, tend to conflate the two categories methods of teaching and methods of scientific inquiry. Some problematic consequences for reaching the goal of learning about scientific inquiry are discussed, as well as possible origins of the problems and how the results from this thesis can be useful in overcoming these.At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Submitted. Paper 4: Submitted.
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Grady, Julie R. "An Investigation of the Practice of Scientific Inquiry in Secondary Science and Agriculture Courses." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/27652.
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The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to investigate the practice of scientific inquiry in two secondary biology classes and one agriculture class from different schools in different communities. The focus was on teachers' interests and intentions for the students' participation in inquiry, the voices contributing to the inquiry, and students' opportunities to confront their conceptions of the nature of science (NOS). The Partnership for Research and Education in Plants (PREP) served as the context by providing students with opportunities to design and conduct original experiments to help elucidate the function(s) of a disabled gene in Arabidopsis thaliana.
Transcripts of teacher and student semi-structured interviews, field notes of classroom observations and classroom conversations, and documents (e.g., student work, teacher handouts, school websites, PREP materials) were analyzed for evidence of the practice of scientific inquiry.
Teachers were interested in implementing inquiry because of potential student learning about scientific research and because PREP supports course content and is connected to a larger scientific project outside of the school. Teachers' intentions regarding the implementation of inquiry reflected the complexity of their courses and the students' previous experiences. All inquiries were student-directed. The biology students' participation more closely mirrored the practice of scientists, while the agriculture students were more involved with the procedural display of scientific inquiry. All experiences could have been enhanced from additional knowledge-centered activities regarding scientific reasoning.
No activities brought explicit attention to NOS. Biology activities tended to implicitly support NOS while the agriculture class activities tended to implicitly contradict NOS. Scientists' interactions contributed to implied support of the NOS. There were missed opportunities for explicit attention to NOS in all classes.
The major voices contributing to the inquiry in all classrooms included those of teachers, students, technology, scientists, textbooks, and mandated standards; however, they were more prevalent in the biology classrooms than the agriculture classroom. The powers influencing the voice frequency may be related to the teachers' own teaching and research experiences, as well as the alignment of the expectations and values of students' participation in scientific inquiry and those associated with the school-classroom communities and the students' identities.Ph. D.
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Svensson, Emma. "”Jag vet inte vad en forskare gör” : En kvalitativ studie om elevers uppfattningar av naturvetenskaplig undersökning i årskurs 4." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för kemi och biomedicin (KOB), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-105290.
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Nature of Science (NOS) har varit i utbildares och forskares blickfång länge. Elevers kunskaper är av intresse att analysera eftersom det kan bidra till en utveckling av lärares undervisning och förståelse av lärandeprocesser i no-ämnena. Syftet med studien var att analysera hur elever i årskurs 4 ser på vad som är en vetenskaplig undersökning och ett experiment. Den data som används i studien består av redan insamlade frågeformulär från 2019. Studiens data analyseras genom en innehållsanalys. Resultatet visar att elevers kunskaper om undersökningar och experiment är varierande. Eleverna ger exempel på att undersökningar kan innefatta att antingen titta först och sedan ställa en fråga eller tvärtom och att ett experiment kan innebära att blanda eller att prova sig fram. Lärare kan utveckla sin undervisning genom att exempelvis använda elevnära innehåll som eleven känner igen och kan relatera till eller använda modeller och metoder för att visa på systematik och underbyggda slutsatser för att bidra till en högre förståelse om naturvetenskaplig kunskap hos eleverna.
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Buxner, Sanlyn Rebecca. "Exploring the Impact of Science Research Experiences for Teachers: Stories of Growth and Identity." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/195355.
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Education reform in the U.S. promotes the teaching of inquiry in science to help students understand how science is done and to increase constructivist, student centered instruction. This qualitative study investigated changes in teachers' understandings about scientific inquiry and nature of science as well as science teaching as a result of participation in one of three summer science research programs. This study also explored what teachers reported valuing about their experiences as they progressed through the program and returned to their classrooms.Data were collected through open-ended surveys, semi-structured interviews, program observation and artifact analysis before, during, and after the research programs as well as follow-up surveys and semi-structured interviews six to nine months after the research programs had ended. In addition to overall findings, six cases are presented to highlight changes and growth that occurred.Participation in these programs did not always lead to the outcomes intended by facilitators, such as strong changes in teachers' understandings about scientific inquiry and full implementation of research with their students; yet there were significant positiveoutcomes from participants' perspectives.Teachers' understandings of scientific inquiry and nature of science changed in small ways as measured by a modified Views of Scientific Inquiry/Views of Nature of Science Survey; however, participants changed their descriptions of science teaching after the programs. These descriptions included more affective goals for their students, the use of more student centered activities, and the importance of engaging students in research. On their post surveys, participants reported their intentions to implement more classroom inquiry, including science research. In follow-up surveys and interviews teachers reported engaging students in more active roles in their classrooms. In addition,teachers reported valuing a number of other outcomes from their participation in these programs. These included increased knowledge and skills in science, insider information about professional science, increased credibility, professional and personal growth, and improvements in students' knowledge and engagement in science and research. An emergent finding of the study was that participating in these research programs had an influence on some participants' identities related to doing science, being a scientist, and teaching science.
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Vildana, Basic. "Systematiska undersökningar i klassrummet inom de naturvetenskapliga ämnena enligt Lgr11 – hur omsätts och tolkas läroplanens begrepp i praktiken av lärare som undervisar i årskurs 6-7 : En intervjuundersökning med undervisande lärare i kemi, fysik, biologi och teknik." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för matematikämnets och naturvetenskapsämnenas didaktik, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-185064.
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Bolander, Alisa Curtis. "Margaret Cavendish and Scientific Discourse in Seventeenth-Century England." Diss., CLICK HERE for online access, 2004. http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/ETD/image/etd422.pdf.
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Stiller, Jaana. "Scientific Inquiry im Chemieunterricht." Doctoral thesis, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.18452/17503.
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Im Unterricht laufen routinierte Handlungen oft unbewusst ab. Solche Handlungsmuster sind wichtig für Lehrkräfte sowie für Schüler, da sie dem Unterricht Struktur geben und Sicherheit vermitteln. Sind sie aber hinderlich für die Entwicklung von Schülerleistungen, müssen sie verändert werden. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es, kulturspezifische als auch schulstufenspezifische Handlungsmuster in Bezug auf die Umsetzung der Phasen der Erkenntnisgewinnung mit Hilfe einer Videoanalyse zu identifizieren. Dabei werden zusätzliche Qualitätsmerkmale einbezogen. Weiterhin wird überprüft, ob die Umsetzung der Erkenntnisgewinnung mit den Lehrer- und Schülervorstellungen zum Naturwissenschaftsverständnis zusammenhängt. Die Analyse der Unterrichtsvideos ergab, dass mehr Unterschiede hinsichtlich der Umsetzung von Erkenntnisgewinnungsprozessen auf kulturspezifischer Ebene bestehen als auf schulstufenspezifischer Ebene. Dabei fokussieren die schwedischen Lehrkräfte auf die Phase der Untersuchung und die dazugehörende Planungsphase. Die Lehrkräfte der deutschen Sekundarstufe I setzen hingegen auch andere Phasen der Erkenntnisgewinnung wie die Hypothesenbildung und die Auswertung und Interpretation vergleichsweise häufig um. Weiterhin zeigte sich trotz des (vorgegebenen) Fokus auf Erkenntnisgewinnung in der deutschen Sekundarstufe I eine konstant hohe Bedeutung der Vermittlung von Fachwissen. In der deutschen Sekundarstufe II ist auffällig, dass viel Zeit dazu verwendet wird, Versuche in selbstständiger Schülerarbeit aufzubauen. Vermutlich wird diesem Befund eine höhere Komplexität experimentellen Arbeitens zugrunde liegen. Generell werden im Chemieunterricht selten Fragestellungen formuliert und naturwissenschaftliche Untersuchungen reflektiert. Als zentrale Schlussfolgerung aus den Befunden kann abgeleitet werden, dass die Förderung einer ganzheitlichen, expliziten und möglichst offenen Umsetzung der Erkenntnisphasen in Schule und Lehrerausbildung notwendig ist.In the classroom, routine actions are often carried out unconsciously. Such teaching patterns are important for teachers as well as for students as they structure lessons and provide security. However, if they are likely to be detrimental to the development of students, they must be changed. The aim of the current study is to identify culturally specific teaching patterns as well as teaching patterns between lower and upper secondary classes, by a comparison between students in Germany and Sweden followed by comparing teaching practices within several grades in Germany. This was achieved using video analysis to investigate the teaching practices used during the phases of Scientific Inquiry. During the analysis, further characteristics of quality were assessed. Further attention was paid to whether the implementation of Scientific Inquiry was related to the views of the nature of science held by the teachers and students. The analyses showed that the implementation of Scientific Inquiry differs more between Germany and Sweden than between grades. Swedish teachers focus on the investigation and the subordinate planning phase. Teachers of the German lower secondary classes focus more on other phases of Scientific Inquiry, such as formulating hypotheses and evaluation and interpretation. Although the focus of the lessons was given, content knowledge was often a particular focus in the German lower secondary classes. In German upper secondary grades it was apparent that a lot of time was spent enabling students to set up experiments on their own. This is presumably due to the higher complexity of the experimental work. In general, time is seldom spent on formulating scientific questions and reflecting on the scientific investigations. A major conclusion that can be derived from this study is that the support of a holistic, explicit and open implementation of the teaching of Scientific Inquiry remains indispensable in school and in teacher training.
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Högström, Per. "Laborativt arbete i grundskolans senare år : lärares mål och hur de implementeras." Doctoral thesis, Umeå universitet, Matematik, teknik och naturvetenskap, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-20628.
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Laboratory work is considered important for student achievements in science education. This thesis will contribute with increased knowledge about lab work in science education in Swedish secondary school. The main purposes are to describe secondary school science teachers’ objectives for lab work and to describe how these objectives are implemented during laboratory exercises. The thesis shows and discusses, from a teacher perspective, the complexity involved in lab work.The thesis is comprised of four papers based on empirical analysis of teacher interviews, laboratory manuals and laboratory exercises. Two interview studies identified which objectives the teachers consider important and compared these to international studies. Two case studies identified how the teachers’ objectives are put forward during lab work and what factors are important for the implementation of objectives.The results from the interview studies show that Swedish secondary school science teachers express general objectives including the development of students’ understanding of concepts and phenomena, of their interest in science and ability to think and reflect upon labwork. This is to a large extent in accordance with objectives identified in international studies. However, when the teachers describe specific laboratory exercises they emphasize the activity and the laboratory skills. Some of the teachers describe lab work that includes scientific inquiry but not specifically, knowledge about the nature of science. Scientific inquiry was mostly used to develop interest in science and not to develop knowledge about how to systematically investigate phenomena in nature. The teachers express their objectives differently in different contexts. The laboratory manuals mostly put forward objectives to help students identify objects and phenomena and to learn facts, which is not always in accordance with the teachers objectives. Results from the case studies show that the teachers’ objectives do not always correspond to the students’ views of important things to learn. It is not obvious that lab work in itself make students understand a certain scientific content, they need help to “see what is intended to be seen”. Interactions between the teacher and the students are important to help students perceive the teacher’s objectives. Many interactions have a starting point in the laboratory manuals, and if the objectives in the manual correspond to the teacher’s objectives it makes it easier for both the students and the teacher to reach the intentions for the laboratory exercise. Implications for science teaching are discussed.Att laborationer har en naturlig och central plats i naturvetenskaplig undervisning håller de flesta med om men hur stor vikt svenska grundskollärare lägger på det laborativa arbetet och dess betydelse för elevers lärande i naturvetenskap är inte klarlagt. Denna avhandling ska ge ytterligare kunskap om det laborativa arbetet i svensk grundskola. Avhandlingen har två huvudsyften. Det ena är att ge en beskrivning av de mål för laborativt arbete som lärare i den svenska grundskolans senare år anser viktiga. Det andra är att beskriva hur laborationer som genomförs i skolpraktiken förverkligar de uppsatta målen. Avhandlingen uppmärksammar och diskuterar det laborativa arbetets komplexitet utifrån ett lärarperspektiv.De fyra delstudierna bygger på empiriska undersökningar av intervjuer med lärare, deras laborationsinstruktioner och av det laborativa arbetets genomförande. I två intervjustudier analyseras vilka mål som anses viktiga och hur dessa förhåller sig till internationell forskning om mål med laborationer. I två fallstudier analyseras hur lärarens mål framträder under det laborativa arbetet och vilka faktorer som har betydelse för hur målen implementeras.Resultaten från intervjustudierna visar bland annat att lärare i den svenskagrundskolan uttrycker generella mål för laborativt arbete som att eleverna skautveckla sin förståelse av naturvetenskapliga begrepp och fenomen, sitt intresse för naturvetenskap, och sitt reflekterande över laborativt arbete. Detta överensstämmer i stor utsträckning med mål som framträder i internationella undersökningar. När lärarna talar om specifika laborationer betonar de istället själva aktiviteten och de laborativa färdigheterna. Lärarna uttrycker således sina mål olika i olika sammanhang. Lärarna erbjuder laborationer där undersökande arbete förekommer men de utnyttjar inte laborationerna till att skapa förståelse av naturvetenskapens karaktär. Det undersökande arbetet utnyttjas främst för att öka intresset för naturvetenskap och inte för att ge kunskap om metoder för naturvetenskapliga undersökningar. Laborationsinstruktionerna innehåller i stor utsträckning mål för att hjälpa elever att identifiera objekt och att lära sig fakta. Instruktionernas mål stämmer inte alltid överens med lärarnas mål med laborationerna. Resultaten från fallstudierna visar att lärarna ofta har fler mål med laborationerna än de som kommer fram under genomförandet och att lärarnas mål inte alltid överensstämmer med vad eleverna uppfattar som viktigt. Det är inte självklart att det laborativa arbetet i sig medför att eleverna förstår ett visst naturvetenskapligt innehåll, eleverna behöver hjälp att ”se vad som är avsett att se”. Interaktionerna mellan lärare och elever och mellan elever och elever är mycket viktiga för att eleverna ska uppfatta målen. Mycket av interaktionerna tar sin utgångspunkt i laborationsinstruktionen. Om målen i denna överensstämmer med de mål läraren vill eftersträva underlättar det både för läraren och för eleverna. I avhandlingen diskuteras konsekvenser för undervisningen.
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Sosenko, Filip. "On the scientific status of interpretive inquiry." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/2648.
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Interpretive social science is well established institutionally at universities and research centres. It benefits from this institutional context in terms of prestige, credibility and grants. In comparison with non-interpretive disciplines however, its scientific status is questionable. What elements of it are really scientific and what elements are threats to this scientific character? This problem has been discussed in the past but unfortunately the discussion has gradually dried up without a successful resolution. In my thesis I am revitalising it. I take a systematic rather than historical approach: instead of picking up the discussion where it has been abandoned, I begin with a working definition of science, and analyse to what extent interpretive inquiry meets the requirements of this definition. The structure of my thesis follows this definition in that what is discussed is the three substantial elements of it - theory, research method, and professional quality control. In relation to theory, I pose questions on a range of topics, such as whether interpretive social science is explanatory, and whether it generates new knowledge. In relation to method, I explore, amongst other things, whether qualitative method permits the production of valid and reliable findings. The discussion of professional quality control considers issues around the reporting of findings and the assessment of these findings by others. I complement my analysis by considering three interpretive case studies, exploring both whether they produce theoretical knowledge and reflecting on their methodological strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, I explore the border between interpretive inquiry and non-fiction arts, such as literary reportage and documentary filmmaking, arguing that this border is more blurred than it may first appear.
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Mitchell, Adam James. "Assessing Scientific Inquiry: Teacher Beliefs and Practices." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2010. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2521.
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Science education reform movements have long urged the use of inquiry methods in all science instruction. More recently, standards and accountability reform efforts have emphasized measuring and improving student science achievement. Researchers have questioned the alignment and balance between these reforms (Lane, 2004; Yeh, 2001). This study addresses issues faced by secondary science teachers as they simultaneously meet the goals of these reform movements. Mixed methods were used to answer the questions: 1) Can a teacher's beliefs and practices regarding inquiry teaching methods be correlated with his/her assessment practices?; 2) What item types are most commonly employed by teachers that use an inquiry pedagogy?; and 3) What assessment strategies do teachers describe to assess scientific inquiry? Secondary science teachers, mostly from one western state, responded to a survey (N = 83) and provided a teacher-made classroom assessment (n = 30). Survey responses were used to assign a teacher inquiry score based on described frequency of pedagogical practices supporting or detracting from an inquiry focus. A rubric based on cognitive complexity was used to determine a numeric value for each test item with the sum of item scores providing an overall assessment score. Using regression analysis and Pearson's correlation this study found a moderate correlation (r = 0.0447, p = 0.0133) between teacher inquiry scores and assessment scores. A modest correlation was also established between teacher inquiry levels (high, medium, and low categories assigned using cut scores) and overall assessment scores using an ANOVA (DF=2, p = 0.0262) and Tukey-Kramer pairwise analysis (low to medium p = 0.046; low to high p = 0.057). Correlations indicate that teachers are able to simultaneously focus on inquiry in pedagogical and assessment practices. Cognitively complex items used by teachers with an inquiry focus measure the same cognitive skills as scientific inquiry. Survey responses to open-ended questions provided additional qualitative data supporting the study's findings. Respondents reported challenges in creating assessments that measure student scientific inquiry competency, but also noted that labs, observation and questioning, and performance assessments are useful in measuring inquiry skills.
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Archetti, Emanuele. "Epistemic horizons in scientific inquiry and debate." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2012. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/5056/.
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The Philosophy of Science is the subject of various methods of analysis, from Kuhn’s paradigms to Hacking’s styles of reasoning. Each of these methods seeks to address the many questions we might pose about the nature of theories and the theorists who shape them. However, there is yet one issue which remains unresolved: the question of how we may best account for persistent disagreements between rival scientific theories in cases where there are no genuine incompatibilities, conceptual or empirical. This thesis offers a novel solution to this problem in the form of a new unit of analysis, the Epistemic Horizon. An Epistemic Horizon is defined by the dialectical relationship between two components: a world-view (weltanschauung) and a set of presuppositions (lichtung) that direct the way individuals investigate the world. The thesis first explores this proposal in a general way. It then turns to an extensive case study involving a persistent disagreement in contemporary evolutionary biology over niche construction. Separate chapters consider the outline of the debate; the historical emergence of the constructionist weltanschauung; the parallel emergence of the constructionist lichtung (and also the competitor lichtung); and how certain metaphors have functioned to catalyze these changes. A further chapter examines two further case studies more briefly, in chemistry and psychology, to illustrate the wider applicability of the Epistemic Horizon approach.
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Colbourne, Peter Francis. "Beyond paradigms in the processes of scientific inquiry." Curtin University of Technology, Science and Mathematics Education Centre, 2006. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=16461.
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Chiba, Kei. "Aristotle on explanation : demonstrative science and scientific inquiry." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.303539.
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Colbourne, Peter Francis. "Beyond paradigms in the process of scientific inquiry /." Full text available, 2006. http://adt.curtin.edu.au/theses/available/adt-WCU20060713.142814.
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Hakkarainen, Kai Pekka Juhani. "Epistemology of scientific inquiry and computer-supported collaborative learning." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape11/PQDD_0011/NQ41435.pdf.
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Fagan, Melinda Bonnie. "Objectivity in practice integrative social epistemology of scientific inquiry /." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2007. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3274925.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of History and Philosophy of Science, 2007.Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Nov. 11, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-07, Section: A, page: 2974. Adviser: Elisabeth A. Lloyd.
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Wallace, Michael. "Undergraduate honors students' images of science : nature of scientific work and scientific knowledge /." free to MU campus, to others for purchase, 2002. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/mo/fullcit?p3060156.
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Pair, Jeffrey David. "The Nature of Mathematics| A Heuristic Inquiry." Thesis, Middle Tennessee State University, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10287185.
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What is mathematics? What does it mean to be a mathematician? What should students understand about the nature of mathematical knowledge and inquiry? Research in the field of mathematics education has found that students often have naïve views about the nature of mathematics. Some believe that mathematics is a body of unchanging knowledge, a collection of arbitrary rules and procedures that must be memorized. Mathematics is seen as an impersonal and uncreative subject. To combat the naïve view, we need a humanistic vision and explicit goals for what we hope students understand about the nature of mathematics. The goal of this dissertation was to begin a systematic inquiry into the nature of mathematics by identifying humanistic characteristics of mathematics that may serve as goals for student understanding, and to tell real-life stories to illuminate those characteristics. Using the methodological framework of heuristic inquiry, the researcher identified such characteristics by collaborating with a professional mathematician, by co-teaching an undergraduate transition-to-proof course, and being open to mathematics wherever it appeared in life. The results of this study are the IDEA Framework for the Nature of Pure Mathematics and ten corresponding stories that illuminate the characteristics of the framework. The IDEA framework consists of four foundational characteristics: Our mathematical ideas and practices are part of our Identity; mathematical ideas and knowledge are Dynamic and forever refined; mathematical inquiry is an emotional Exploration of ideas; and mathematical ideas and knowledge are socially vetted through Argumentation. The stories that are told to illustrate the IDEA framework capture various experiences of the researcher, from conversations with his son to emotional classroom discussions between undergraduates in a transition-to-proof course. The researcher draws several implications for teaching and research. He argues that the IDEA framework should be tested in future research for its effectiveness as an aid in designing instruction that fosters humanistic conceptions of the nature of mathematics in the minds of students. He calls for a cultural renewal of undergraduate mathematics instruction, and he questions the focus on logic and set theory within transition-to-proof courses. Some instructional alternatives are presented. The final recommendation is that nature of mathematics become a subject in its own right for both students and teachers. If students and teachers are to revise their beliefs about the nature of mathematics, then they must have the opportunities to reflect on what they believe about mathematics and be confronted with experiences that challenge those beliefs.
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Brown, Deborah Louise. "What did I learn? : helping students learn through scientific inquiry." Montana State University, 2011. http://etd.lib.montana.edu/etd/2011/brown/BrownD0811.pdf.
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Students enjoy doing labs in biology. However, too often the labs are prearranged cookbook labs where students follow detailed directions blindly without understanding lab concepts or purposes. This research was designed to increase student understanding of biological concepts through the use of frequent inquiry activities. In an effort to help students remember the importance and application of the lab, three self-reflection questions were included at the end of each activity: "What did I do? What did I see? What did I learn?" Pretests and post-tests were used to measure performance as well as formative assessments, surveys, and interviews. While quiz scores did not improve as a result of the treatment, student attitude towards science and labs became more positive.
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Russ, Rosemary Stallings. "A framework for recognizing mechanistic reasoning in student scientific inquiry." College Park, Md. : University of Maryland, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1903/4146.
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Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2006.Thesis research directed by: Physics. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.
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Bucciarelli, Karina. "A Feminist Epistemological Framework: Preventing Knowledge Distortions in Scientific Inquiry." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2019. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1365.
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This thesis explores what to have distorted scientific knowledge claims due to socially constructed conceptions of gender. Using the paradigm example of the explanation of human fertilization misrepresenting knowledge as it maps on stereotypes about the passive female and the active male onto the scientific participation of the egg and the sperm. Exploring arguments presented by feminist epistemologists, I argue that in order to produce knowledge free of distortions due to problematic social conceptions we must engage in a specific epistemological framework with three main components: 1) critically and systematically examine the subject of knowledge in relation to the object of knowledge, 2) make efforts to diversify inquirers as the perspectives of marginalized identities are important to informing where dominant narratives are failing to be objective and 3) actively acknowledge the role that values play in inquiry and promote feminist values. The framework presented is specifically applicable to knowledge distortions present in scientific inquiry but, importantly, can also inform individual epistemic relationship.
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Aristeidou, Maria. "Citizen Inquiry : engaging citizens in online communities of scientific inquiries." Thesis, Open University, 2016. http://oro.open.ac.uk/47451/.
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Citizen Inquiry has been proposed as an informal science learning approach to enable widespread involvement in science and empower citizens with reasoning and problem-solving skills used by scientists. It combines aspects from citizen science and inquiry-based learning, producing science learning experiences within distributed communities of interest. A central challenge for Citizen Inquiry is to involve citizens in planning and implementing their own investigations, supported and guided by online systems and tools within an inquiry environment, while collaborating with science experts and non-experts. This thesis explores how to create an active and sustainable online community for citizens to engage in scientific investigations. To this end, it investigates the design of online communities, recruitment and retaining of members, factors that engage or disengage members from the community, and whether and how members learn throughout their participation. The intervention comprises two iterations of Citizen Inquiry communities: ‘Inquiring Rock Hunters’ and ‘Weather-it’. The communities were accommodated by the nQuire platform and the nQuire-it toolkit, respectively, software designed and structured to support collaborative personally-meaningful inquiry learning. The findings of this research are explained through an analysis that compared the two design studies with previous research on citizen participation projects and online communities. Results highlight the importance of frequent project communication, multiple ways of participation, software usability, and interaction and collaboration between the members, while indicating disengagement factors such as lack of time, interest and confidence. Different categories of learning are identified (activity, on-topic and community), emphasizing the understanding of inquiry activities as part of a complete scientific process and the balance between fun and learning. The thesis concludes with design considerations for the creation of future Citizen Inquiry and other citizen participation communities.
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Sanchez, Sanchez Yafet Erasmo. "An Inquiry into the nature of gravitational singularities." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2017. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/408715/.
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We provide different mathematical frameworks to describe singularities in General Relativity. The main idea is to regard singularities as obstructions to the dynamics of different matter models. The first part of the thesis initiates our examination of spacetime by probing spacetime with matter that can be modelled as a point-particle. In particular, we discuss the case of two-dimensional Lorentzian metrics. We give concrete applications of the framework in the case of the Minkowski spacetime (which is regular) and the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker spacetime (which is geodesically incomplete). In the second part of the thesis, we probe the geometry of spacetime with classical scalar fields. The general motivation is to redefine a singularity in spacetime not as an obstruction to geodesics or curves but as an obstruction to the dynamics of test fields. We discuss curve-integrable spacetimes, spacetimes with surface layers, impulsive gravitational waves and brane-world scenarios, and spacetimes that contain string-like singularities. In the third part of the thesis, we present the outline of a framework to analyse the geometry of the spacetime by probing it with quantum scalar fields. The main focus of this chapter is to describe what is meant by a quantisation in a spacetime with finite differentiability. The fourth part of the thesis presents future outlooks and some open problems.
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Chiarella, Andrew. "Statistical reasoning and scientific inquiry : statistics in the physical science classroom." Thesis, McGill University, 2001. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=33882.
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Teaching science using an inquiry approach is encouraged by several organisations responsible for defining teaching and learning guidelines in North America. However, using this approach can be difficult because of the complexity of inquiry. One source of difficulty is an inability to make sense of the data. Error variation, in particular, poses a significant barrier to the correct interpretation of data and therefore successful inquiry learning. A study was conducted to examine middle school students' ability to make sense of the data they collected in three related experiments. These data involved taking measurements of two continuous variables that were affected by error variation. The results indicated that students tended not to use abstract patterns to describe the data but rather used more local patterns that did not make use of the whole data set. However, many students also indicated an intuitive understanding that a greater amount of data could be used to generate results that are more accurate. This suggests a disparity between what the students understand about data and what they are capable of doing with data. Educational implications are that students may benefit from learning ideal patterns that can be compared to non-ideal data they collect.
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Paterson, Timothy Murray. "Tainted blood, tainted knowledge, contesting scientific evidence at the Krever Inquiry." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2000. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape2/PQDD_0017/NQ48692.pdf.
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Bedke, Matthew. "Meta-normativity: An Inquiry into the Nature of Reasons." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/194231.
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The most important questions we ask are normative questions. And the most fundamental normative questions are couched in terms of reasons: What do I have reason to do? and What do I have reason to believe? Although not always explicitly about reasons, I take it that much of normative philosophy at least implicitly offers first order normative answers to such questions. But stepping back, we can ask what these questions and answers are about - what are reasons anyway? This dissertation addresses those meta-normative questions, questions about the conceptual structure, semantics, ontology and epistemology of reasons. In the inquiry to come, chapters 1 and 2 consider the conceptual structure and core semantics of reasons. I argue that all reasons-internal reasons grounded in motivational states, external reasons connected to morality, epistemic reasons for belief, whatever--share the same conceptual structure and core semantics, so they all will stand or fall together when it comes to questions of reason truths and facts. In chapters 3-5 I argue that reason discourse has realist purport because reason judgments feature cognitive and belief-like attitudes about the way the world is, normatively speaking. To vindicate normativity's realist purport would require an ontology of favoring relations flowing from considerations in the world to actions and attitudes of various agents. So in chapters 6 and 7 I consider such an ontology. Unfortunately, favoring relations do not fit into the emerging naturalized view of the world. To make matters worse, based on the kinds of reasons we accept, there are no good reasons for admitting non-natural favoring relations in to the ontology. Reasons cannot bear their own survey. As a result, this dissertation culminates in a revisionary semantics, discussed in chapter 8, whereby I suggest we all adopt a fictive stance toward propositions about any kind of reason. In the end, we can preserve reason discourse and its characteristic roles in our lives so long as we are disposed to avow irrealism about reasons in critical contexts.
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Birke, Patrick. "MINI Nature-X." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Designhögskolan vid Umeå universitet, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-171725.
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Inspiration is something which can be found in nearly everything. The author´s inspiration is coming from the people around him, the world he lives in, all the shapes, smells, and impressions he inhales on a daily basis. But in fact the biggest inspiration for his thesis concept was the love to nature with all its facets. Together with a huge interest in sky observation and our Universe in general, the author knew quite early that those are some major topics which should be found and set-in in his thesis. Shape-wise he was as well inspired by creating a vision, which doesn´t remind people of already existing products. It should be a concept which triggers other people to rethink what we have today and what we could have in future. To achieve this, it is as well necessary to look into new technologies or inventions. The process for this concept, but also for the authors work-flow itself was meant to go into an experimental direction. With a lot try and error and learning about observations. It was a combination of a digital and physical working process, trying to mix VR with physical crafts. Starting with a vague idea, followed by loose doodles on paper which were further developed in 3D and have been evaluated in VR - this was the writers goal. In the one hand this concept will inspire other people in the way they think and perceive their environment. On the other hand side it reflects the author´s goals and wishes for this thesis. A concept which entails a whole process of theory and praxis and teaches a lot about work planning, time management, team working, or deadlines. If the final result brings people to interpret their own thoughts into the concept, it shows how mind opening an idea can be.
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Dritsas, Lawrence. "The Zambesi Expedition : African nature in the British scientific metropolis." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/2161.
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This thesis investigates the geography in and of Victorian scientific practice by examining the Zambesi Expedition (1858-1864), which was led by the Scottish explorer David Livingstone. A team of assistants accompanied Livingstone: Dr. John Kirk, Dr. Charles Meller, Thomas Baines, Richard Thornton and Charles Livingstone. The official purposes of this expedition, funded by the British Foreign Office, were to catalogue the natural resources of the regions adjacent to the Zambezi River in order to identify new sources of raw materials for British industry and to introduce commercial markets to supplant the slave trade. The scientific results of the Zambesi Expedition have never been catalogued. Only limited attention has been paid to the ways in which science was made in the field and how it returned to Britain In order to address these issues, a survey was made of relevant scientific literature to identify published analyses of the data and specimen collections produced by the Expedition’s staff. Extant specimen collections were located and examined along with archival records and correspondence. The combined manuscript and material evidence reveals that scientific concerns were an important justification for the Expedition. Fieldwork practices are examined in depth and an ideology of technology, expressed in different ways, is shown to have structured the encounters between the British and the locals. The Expedition’s members based their assumed superiority upon technological skill, especially their abilities to understand the environment and to command power—in terms of steam navigation, instrumental authority and the naming of natural productions. Power differentials were apparent in the field when the information possessed by local informants was required for the success of the scientific goals of the expedition. Credibility in the field became a tenuous quality negotiated between local informants, explorers and the metropolitan scientific community. The expedition’s members, as interpreters, were required to navigate the social and physical spaces of the field and the metropolis in order to produce and present credible knowledge. The thesis examines for the first time elements of the reception of the expedition by considering the publication of its scientific results. Critics’ voices are used to uncover those attitudes of the time that judged explorers—and this expedition—according to their prior experiences, social connections and field skills. The work of the Expedition, then, was performed in different spaces and at different scales; operating within and between the field and metropolis and actively linking local practices to global networks. These multivalent practices enabled and circumscribed a British construction of African nature.
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Malczewski, Eric. "The elements of "social" science: an essay concerning the set of elemental empirical phenomena that underlie and distinguish social scientific inquiry." Thesis, Boston University, 2012. https://hdl.handle.net/2144/32032.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityPLEASE 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.
Seeking to contribute clarity in understanding the essential characteristics of social science, the thesis this essay defends is that the legitimacy of "social science" as a distinct patterned activity oriented to attaining objective knowledge of humanity depends upon the recognition of its characteristic set of phenomena and that this set is comprised of meaningful behavior; this set was isolated by Max Weber in his major theoretical work and is the central subject matter of his empirical studies. Weber's approach and view is compared with that of the contemporary Chicago historian William H. Sewell, Jr.; specifically, examination of Sewell's view on the nature of the "social" leverages the importance of Weber's concept of "action" underlying "social action" and draws attention to the elemental importance of "action" for social science. Chapter 1 discusses science seen as a "social institution." In this context, the goal or end of "social science" is examined, and a discussion of Geertz' concept "cultural system" is introduced so as to offer clarity concerning the value of the concept of "social institution." Delineating the "social" for "social science" is argued to be essential for the testing of social scientific theories grounded in empirical phenomena. Chapter 2 engages Sewell's approach to the question of the "social" with a view toward the status of his response as an ontological claim and examines his definition of "semiotic practices." A theoretical discussion of the concepts of "action" and "social action" rooted in Weber's Economy and Society provides the framework for Chapter 3, and a discussion of the importance of explanation and understanding in Weber's view is developed. The central argument here is that the concept of "action" is elemental to Weber's approach. Chapter 4 looks forward and discusses the convergence of thought between Sewell and Max Weber and argues that the merits of this view are suggestive for contemporary scholarship.
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DeNoon, Patricia. "THE EFFECTS OF INCREASING FAMILY INVOLVEMENT ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT IN SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY." Master's thesis, University of Central Florida, 2007. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/3702.
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Research has shown that there is a positive correlation with student performance when there are members of the family, primarily a parent, who are actively involved with the student and their education. The following action research plan was designed to determine how increasing parental involvement affected student performance in a scientific inquiry program. This was done by offering "parenting a middle school student" workshops, encouraging family run practices at home, and inviting parents to attend a class with their student. This research was conducted in a large middle school in a central Florida school district with two 7th grade classrooms. One classroom served as the control group, while the second served as the experimental group. The teacher researcher was responsible for increasing communication with the parents in regards to student behavior and/or performance. Implementation of increased communications are associated with keeping parents informed, however they only work to increase student performance if the parent uses the increased communication and applies the information to use at home. Analysis of the data indicated that there was no difference between the two classes. The majority of the invited parents in the experimental group did not participate in the parent workshops. Students in the experimental groups showed little or no difference in grades on the post unit exam or in their overall grades. Additional research with smaller sampling sizes would be a recommendation of this researcher. When working with an average of one hundred and twenty students on a regular basis, working with twenty five sets of parents to increase communication was a daunting task. The researcher would recommend having an experimental group of no more than ten for future ii i studies. Although a small sample may be sufficient for a descriptive study, it's recognized that a small sample will likely not have sufficient power to detect statistically significant differences if they exist.M.Ed.
Other
Education
K-8 Math and Science MEd
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Walls, Zachary, John B. Bossaer, and David Cluck. "Using Scientific Inquiry to Increase Knowledge of Vaccine Theory and Infectious Diseases." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2016. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/2326.
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Background: The aim of this study was to design and evaluate a laboratory activity based on scientific inquiry to educate first-year pharmacy students in the U.S. about vaccination theory and the attributes of common pathogens. Methods: The laboratory activity had two principal sections. The first consisted of an interactive game during which students rolled a die to determine outcomes based on a set of pre-determined criteria. In the second section, students generated and tested hypotheses about vaccine theory using a computer simulation that modeled disease transmission within a large population. In each section students were asked to evaluate epidemiological data and make inferences pertinent to vaccination effectiveness. Results: Mean scores on a knowledge-based assessment given immediately before and immediately after the activity increased from 46% to 71%. Discussion: A laboratory activity designed to stimulate scientific inquiry within pharmacy students enabled them to increase their knowledge of common vaccines and infectious diseases.
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Cooper, Susan. "ADDRESSING SCIENTIFIC LITERACY THROUGH CONTENT AREA READING AND PROCES." Doctoral diss., University of Central Florida, 2004. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/2460.
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The purpose of this study was to interpret the experiences of secondary science teachers in Florida as they address the scientific literacy of their students through teaching content reading strategies and student inquiry skills. Knowledge of the successful integration of content reading and inquiry skills by experienced classroom teachers would be useful to many educators as they plan instruction to achieve challenging state and national standards for reading as well as science. The problem was investigated using grounded theory methodology. Open-ended questions were asked in three focus groups and six individual interviews that included teachers from various Florida school districts. The constant comparative approach was used to analyze the data. Initial codes were collapsed into categories to determine the conceptual relationships among the data. From this, the five core categories were determined to be Influencers, Issues, Perceptions, Class Routines, and Future Needs. These relate to the central phenomenon, Instructional Modifications, because teachers often described pragmatic and philosophical changes in their teaching as they deliberated to meet state standards in both reading and science. Although Florida's secondary science teachers have been asked to incorporate content reading strategies into their science instruction for the past several years, there was limited evidence of using these strategies to further student understanding of scientific processes. Most teachers saw little connection between reading and inquiry, other than the fact that students must know how to read to follow directions in the lab. Scientific literacy, when it was addressed by teachers, was approached mainly through class discussions, not reading. Teachers realized that students cannot learn secondary science content unless they read science text with comprehension; therefore the focus of reading instruction was on learning science content, not scientific literacy or student inquiry. Most of the teachers were actively looking for reading materials and strategies to facilitate student understanding of science concepts, but they did not want to give up limited class time attempting methods that have not been proven to be successful in science classrooms.Ed.D.
Other
Education
Curriculum and Instruction
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Moussavi-Aghdam, Raha. "Design, Development, and Evaluation of Scaffolds for Data Interpretation Practices during Inquiry." Digital WPI, 2018. https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/etd-dissertations/482.
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Developing explanations is a key inquiry practice in national science standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013) and essential for learning science content (McNeill & Krajcik, 2011) and is conceptualized as consisting of three aspects: claims, evidence, and reasoning (Toulmin, 1958). However, students often have difficulty with these tasks (McNeill & Krajcik, 2011; Schunn & Anderson, 1999). Prior work by our group (Sao Pedro et al., 2014) has shown that auto-scaffolding in Inq-ITS (Inquiry Intelligent Tutoring System; Gobert et al., 2013) can help students acquire inquiry skills and transfer them to a new science topic. These data provide a rationale for the work presented, namely, designing, developing, and evaluating a real-time scaffolding approach for the development of the inquiry practices specifically for data interpretation and warranting claims, which, to us, underlie the explanation practices necessary for communicating science findings. Unpacking these practices can help us better understand, assess, and, in turn, scaffold them. Specifically, this work addresses the: (1) design of scaffolds for data interpretation practices; (2) efficacy of scaffolds for supporting these practices using a modified Bayesian Knowledge Tracing framework that captures the complexities of science inquiry, and (3) transfer of these practices within one science topic to another. Results from this work show that the developed scaffolds were effective in aiding students’ acquisition and transfer of the assessed practices. As such, this research builds on prior work on the nature of explanation (McNeill & Krajcik, 2011) as well as prior work on the assessment and scaffolding of science inquiry skills (Gobert et al, 2013; Sao Pedro et al., 2014).
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Kim, Miso. "Designing for Participation: An Inquiry into the Nature of Service." Research Showcase @ CMU, 2015. http://repository.cmu.edu/theses/88.
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This dissertation explores a conceptual framework for deepening our understanding of the subtle nature of service. I begin my dissertation by posing the problem that current theories of service, which have primarily been drawn from the field of business, do not fully capture the essence of service as demonstrated by practicing service designers. In particular, I show that existing theories of service design are inadequate to address the social and ethical aspects of service, such as human dignity. A philosophical survey of this topic reveals that the basis of dignity is autonomy, or the capacity of an agent to act in accordance with his/her free will rather than external pressure. However, current frameworks of service, which are often based on the logics of mass production and information control, attempt to control customers’ perceptions and actions. There is a paradox of action and passion. In order to resolve this paradox and expand existing notions of service, I propose a framework of service based on the concept of participation, defined as the collective action of parts related to the whole with varying degrees of action and passion for the purpose of achieving a shared goal. I use the intellectual art of dialectic to conduct my inquiry. Dialectic seeks to find the bigger whole of a system through division and assimilation. I first conduct a historical review of different perspectives on service: objectified labor, contracted assistance, mutual aid, and communal sharing. I argue that participation is a unifying concept that encompasses these views. I then explore a framework of service as layers of participation based on varying relationships between action and passion. The four layers of coproduction, argumentation, experience, and commitment coexist within a service. Using this framework, I examine the case study of participatory economy services and explore conceptual models as tools to condition the form of participation.
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Saarikko, Ted. "An inquiry into the nature and causes of digital platforms." Doctoral thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för informatik, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-127430.
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While the shape and nature of platforms varies across different instances, they pursue common ambitions such as reduction of risk, complexity, or transaction costs. Although initially theorised in industrial contexts, subsequent theorising regarding platform development, platform ecosystems, and platform strategy has drawn upon studies of high-tech industries in general and IT-based platforms in particular. While the inherent malleability of digitised data and digital technology offers possibilities, they also make it difficult to pin down the locus of a low-variety platform core. As such, one of the fundamental properties of digital platforms is rather mundane: to provide stability. With that in mind, this thesis pursues the following research question: How can a digital platform maintain stability for its stakeholders in the face of constant technical change? This thesis utilises affordance theory as a means to operationalise a relational view of digital platform, where stability is assessed in relation to stakeholders rather than technical persistence. This dissertation is based on an interpretive case study, primarily using qualitative data in the form of interviews gathered as part of two separate projects that varied both in scope and orientation. The thesis offers two main contributions. First, the idea of platform stability as derived from low-variety components that are persistent over time is difficult to apply in relation to digital platforms. Rather, we need to approach stability as a composite property, based on the ability of the platform to satisfy technical-, informational-, and social expectations. Hence, stability should not be considered as a fixed or absolute property, but rather a moving target. Second, this thesis suggests that the existing notion of (technical) coring needs to be complemented with information coring and social coring when applied to digital platforms. The proposed concept of information coring expresses the ability to hide complexity and present bottom-line results to the user in a comprehensible manner. Social coring refers to the idea of aligning technical integration and social integration in a platform. A relational perspective applied to digital platforms offers a possible avenue for theorising digital platforms as information systems artefacts rather than the dichotomous relationship between platform-as-architecture and platform-as-marketplace found in extant literature.
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Greaves-Fernandez, Nahieli. "Influence of views about the nature of science in decision-making about socio-scientific and pseudo-scientific issues." Thesis, University of York, 2010. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/1214/.
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The purpose of this study was determine which ideas about the nature of science (NOS) were used by students to make decisions regarding a variety of contexts. 128 undergraduates, enrolled in a Science and Society course, were asked to decide what action they would take—both at the start and the end of the course— in a situation about pseudoscientific, socioscientific issues (SSI), and non-controversial scientific issues, about which students had differing degrees of familiarity. At the same time, students’ views of the NOS were also assessed. Generally speaking, students’ views were naïve and—together with their decision-making processes—did not improve after the course. In all cases, familiarity with and prior knowledge of the issue influenced how students justified their decisions. In pseudoscientific scenarios, when the issue (quantum medicine) was mostly unknown to students, many students appeared to be more open to pseudoscientific ideas and to distrust scientists, in contrast with more familiar issues (Aids and weight-loss pills). All students who used ideas of the NOS (endorsement/rejection by the research, appeal to the authority of scientists, caution due to the lack of evidence) to justify their decisions in these kinds of scenarios rejected pseudoscientific arguments. In the case of SSI scenarios, many students used ideas of the NOS (caution due to the lack of evidence) to make their decision, even though personal experience (mobile phones) and risk/benefit analysis (genetic modification for the purposes of curing disease) also played a preponderant role. In non-controversial scientific issues (smoking, diet and self-medication) students barely used ideas of the NOS: personal tastes and preferences were the most widely used criterion. These results contrast with previous research in which ideas of the NOS were not found to play an important role in decision-making. They also suggest that ideas about the NOS are useful for the decision-making process and depend to some extent on the context.
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Ibrahim, Bibi Bashirah. "The relationship between views of the nature of science and views of the nature of scientific measurements." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8661.
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Includes bibliographical references (leaves 124-132).This study builds on the work started by a collaboration between researchers at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and the University of York, UK, which focused or undergraduate physics students' understanding of measurement and uncertainty. The work led to the development of a paradigmatic model which has been found to be useful for classifying students' views on measurement during experimental work. In brief, in the "set" paradigm the ensemble of data is modelled by theoretical constructs from which a "best estimate" and the degree of dispersion (an interval) are reported. However, the majority of students who arrive at university operate within the "point paradigm". They subscribe to the notion that a perfect measurement is one which has no uncertainty associated with it. For many students, therefore, the ideal is to perform a single "correct" measurement with the utmost care. When presented with data that are dispersed, they often attempt to choose the "correct" value (for example the recurring value) from amongst the values in the ensemble. The present work explored the relationship between students' views on the nature of science (NOS) and the nature of scientific measurement. Modifying and supplementing existing diagnostic items in both areas of measurement and nature of science, the VASM (Views About Scientific Measurement) questionnaire was developed, piloted and administered to 179 first year physics students at the University of Cape Town. An analysis of the responses resulted in four profiles of students' views on the nature of science. It also revealed that students who view measurement according to the point paradigm generally have an objective view about science, perceive the purpose of scientific experiment to prove a phenomenon to be correct and use the ‘scientific method' to get a predicted answer in order to be consistent and successful in the scientific endeavour. Set paradigm students acknowledge the importance of human inference in science and scientific experiment is considered as a tool to understand the behaviour of nature. The consequences of this work for the teaching and learning of physics at a tertiary level are discussed.
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Shannon, Jamie. "When Curiosity Kills More Than the Cat: The Perils of Unchecked Scientific Inquiry." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2010. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/71.
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Montuschi, Eleonora. "Scientific metaphor and theoretical explanation : an inquiry into the constructive language of postulation." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.304916.
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Ibrahim, Abdallah I. "Design and initial validation of an instrument for measuring teacher beliefs and experiences related to inquiry teaching and learning and scientific inquiry." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2003. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1061565152.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003.Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xxii, 299 p.; also includes graphics (some col.). Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Arthur White, College of Education. Includes bibliographical references (p. 223-228).
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Bowman-Kragh, Sherry E. "The nature of faith in the lifelong journey : a phenomenological inquiry /." Search for this dissertation online, 2005. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ksu/main.
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Brocklebank, Sean. "Inquiry into the nature and causes of individual differences in economics." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6281.
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The thesis contains four chapters on the structure and predictability of individual differences Chapter 1. Re-analyses data from Holt and Laury's (2002) risk aversion experiments. Shows that big-stakes hypothetical payoffs are better than small-stakes real-money payoffs for predicting choices in big-stakes real-money gambles (in spite of the presence of hypothetical bias). Argues that hypothetical bias is a problem for calibration of mean preferences but not for prediction of the rank order of subjects' preferences. Chapter 2. Describes an experiment: Participants were given personality tests and played a series of dictator and response games over a two week period. It was found that social preferences are one-dimensional, stable across a two-week interval and significantly related to the Big Five personality traits. Suggestions are given about ways to modify existing theories of social preference to accommodate these findings. Chapter 3. Applies a novel statistical technique (spectral clustering) to a personality data set for the first time. Finds the HEXACO six-factor structure in an English-language five-factor questionnaire for the first time. Argues that the emphasis placed on weak relationships is critical to settling the dimensionality debate within personality theory, and that spectral clustering provides a more useful perspective on personality data than does traditional factor analysis. Chapter 4. Outlines the relevance of extraversion for economics, and sets up a model to argue that personality differences in extraversion may have evolved through something akin to a war of attrition. This model implies a positive relationship between extraversion and risk aversion, and a U-shaped relationship between extraversion and loss aversion.
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Kelly, Deborah. "An inquiry into the nature of therapeutic space in palliative care groups, working with nature and imagination." Thesis, Middlesex University, 2017. http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/21959/.
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This research explores 15 years of palliative care group work, inspired by the Asclepian healing temples in Ancient Greece, working in and with nature, using imagery, ritual and bodywork. Through Intuitive Inquiry, incorporating hermeneutic, heuristic and transpersonal elements, the research focuses particularly on the nature of the therapeutic space. From archive material and interview data, five broad themes emerged which were considered integral to creating a healing space and environment, and which were inherently interconnected. Separated only for the clarity of discussion, these themes were named as Pilgrimage, Place, Nature, Imagination (the ‘Mundus Imaginalis’) and Presence. From this, the researcher developed a collaborative model for group work in palliative care and considered the potential impact and relevance to education and practice. Collaboration in this sense refers to the potential of shared facilitation, for example between psychotherapists and artists, and also acknowledges the therapeutic collaboration with the environment, particularly nature, and, in the spirit of Asclepius, with ancient wisdom. The research also highlighted the resonance between the methodology and the research focus. The research process itself became a pilgrimage. This dissertation, with the journey forever unfolding, is a resting post along the way.
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Ogborn, Jon Michael. "Theoretical and empirical investigations of the nature of scientific and commonsense knowledge." Thesis, King's College London (University of London), 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.325509.
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Hoffenberg, Rebecca. "An Investigation into Teacher Support of Scientific Explanation in High School Science Inquiry Units." Thesis, Portland State University, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1542562.
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The Framework for K-12 Science Education, the foundation for the Next Generation Science Standards, identifies scientific explanation as one of the eight practices "essential for learning science." In order to design professional development to help teachers implement these new standards, we need to assess students' current skill level in explanation construction, characterize current teacher practice surrounding it, and identify best practices for supporting students in explanation construction. This multiple-case study investigated teacher practice in eight high school science inquiry units in the Portland metro area and the scientific explanations the students produced in their work samples. T
eacher Instructional Portfolios (TIPs) were analyzed with a TIP rubric based on best practices in teaching science inquiry and a qualitative coding scheme. Written scientific explanations were analyzed with an explanation rubric and qualitative codes. Relationships between instructional practices and explanation quality were examined.
The study found that students struggle to produce high quality explanations. They have the most difficulty including adequate reasoning with science content. Also, teachers need to be familiar with the components of explanation and use a variety of pedagogical techniques to support students' explanation construction. Finally, the topic of the science inquiry activity should be strongly connected to the content in the unit, and students need a firm grasp of the scientific theory or model on which their research questions are based to adequately explain their inquiry results.
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McMillan, Barbara Alexander. "Inquiry in early years science teaching and learning, curriculum design and the scientific story." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp05/NQ62656.pdf.
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Chen, Jia-Hung, and 陳家弘. "The Development of The Nature of Scientific Inquiry Scale." Thesis, 2004. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/71182252398599835166.
Full textAbstract:
碩士國立高雄師範大學
科學教育研究所
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The purpose of this study was to develop the Nature of Scientific Inquiry Scale(NSIS). This inventory has 54 items in total and the administration of this inventory requires about 10 to 20 minutes. The participants of this study were selected from senior high schools in Kaohsiung Area. There were two groups of students, a tryout sample (n=101) and a norm sample (n=573). The results show that the NSIS was reliable with a Cronbach α coefficient of .89, and the test-retest reliability confficient over a 2-week period was .81. In addition to reliability studies of the NSIS, the researcher has carefully examined evidences of content validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity by analyzing data from norm sample. And further, according to the results of exploratory factor analysis, two components of the nature of scientific inquiry was proposed. Finally, the percentile rank and T-score norms of the NSIS were based on 573 students from 9 senior high schools in Kaohsiung Area.
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Lematla, Lieketseng Justinah. "Lesotho high school learners' understandings of the nature of scientific inquiry in relation to classroom experiences." Thesis, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10539/11266.
Full textAbstract:
This study investigates learners‟ understandings of the nature of scientific inquiry (NOSI) in relation to their classroom experiences. Using the constructs of nature of scientific inquiry; inquiry-based teaching and learning; and principles of scientific inquiry as theoretical lenses, the study empirically explored learners‟ (n = 120) understandings of the nature of scientific inquiry which were captured through a questionnaire called Learners‟ understanding of science and scientific inquiry (LUSSI) and interviews and their perceptions of classroom inquiry (their experiences of inquiry were elicited through a questionnaire called Principles of scientific inquiry- student (PSI-S) and interviews). The participants were one hundred and twenty learners, 60 from each of two schools in an Education District in Lesotho. Eight learners, four from each school participated in the interviews. At the centre, the investigation sought to understand whether there was any relationship between learners‟ perceptions of their experiences of scientific inquiry and their understandings of the nature of scientific inquiry. As a result, this study was guided by the following questions: what are learners‟ understandings of the nature of scientific inquiry? What are learners‟ perceptions of their experiences of scientific inquiry? Are learners‟ understandings of NOSI in any way related to their experiences of scientific inquiry? Typological approach was used to analyse the qualitative data and descriptive statistics for analysing the quantitative data. The results of this study suggest that learners hold less informed understandings of the nature of scientific inquiry and that learners are experiencing closed-inquiry in their science classroom. The results also show that other learners‟ experiences of scientific inquiry are not related to their understandings of the nature of scientific inquiry. It was recommended that teachers should engage learners in inquiry activities rather than always carrying out teacher-demonstrations. It is also recommended that further studies should be done in Lesotho to examine the relationship between learners‟ understandings of NOSI and their perceptions of their classroom experiences.
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Dudu, Washington Takawira. "Grade 11 learners' and teachers' conceptions of scientific inquiry in relation to instructional practices." Thesis, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10539/13166.
Full textAbstract:
This exploratory, descriptive and interpretive study investigated the interactions among learners’ conceptions of the nature of scientific inquiry (NOSI), teachers’ conceptions of NOSI and teacher instructional practices when teaching investigations in Physical Science. The participants were South Africa, Grade 11 learners (n= 167) and teachers (n=5), from five schools in the Johannesburg region of South Africa. The schools were conveniently and purposefully sampled. Learners’ and teachers’ conceptions on six NOSI tenets were investigated. These tenets are: difference between laws and theories; difference between observation and interpretation; there is no one method in science; accurate record keeping, peer review and replicability in science; socially and culturally embeddedness nature of scientific knowledge; and the role of human creativity and imagination in the development of scientific knowledge. Data on learners’ and teachers’ conceptions of the NOSI was obtained through; questionnaires, probes and interviews. Teacher instructional practices were determined using laboratory class observations, questionnaires, teacher and learner interviews, and analysis of instructional materials. The data was quantitatively analyzed using mainly, descriptive statistics, correlations, Regression Analysis and Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA). Qualitative data was analyzed using a combination of analytic induction and interpretive analysis. The results show that learners’ NOSI conceptions were inconsistent, fragmented and fluid, with the majority of the learners displaying naïve conceptions. Teachers were found to hold mixed NOSI conceptions ranging from static, empiricist-aligned to dynamic, constructivist-oriented. Teacher instructional practices were found to be a repertoire of contrasting methodological approaches lying along a continuum ranging from close-ended inquiry to open-ended inquiry. The study found the interactions between and among the investigated variables to be weak and not direct and simple, but complex and under the governance of a variety of factors in the instructional milieu. Curriculum and assessment demands were found to be major factors possibly responsible for weakening the interactions. For the investigated variables, it is posited that the interaction between variables is under the governance of both the context in which the instruction takes place and some factors already embedded in the teacher’s or learner’s conceptual ecology. Recommendations and implications for the practice of science education and future research are raised and discussed.