Current studies focus on critical pedagogy in the classroom as a practice, but do not connect these practices to praxis outside of the classroom as it relates to identity-based student activism. The purpose of this research is to investigate students' experiences and development as identity-based student activists and the role of dialogue in the…

My dissertation is a pre-mid-post-test, quantitative research design, including surveys and written assessments, to answer these research questions: 1. How do students' science mindset vary over time when engaged in science inquiry activities? Is there a difference between male and female students? 2. Is there a relationship between 7th grade…

Adult online learners represent the largest demographic in higher education. Academic leaders increasingly use non-designer instructors (NDIs) to meet demands. NDIs have little control over course design, part of teaching presence valued by learners. This quantitative, predictive correlational study investigated (1) to what frequency online…

Learning progressions are the latest tool to understand the ways science learning occurs and they underlie the structure and framework of the "Next Generation Science Standards". Prior research indicated a variety of ways to develop and validate learning progressions and learning progression's general positive impact on students' science…

In the last twenty years in US science education, professional development has emphasized the need to change science instruction from a direct instruction model to a more participatory and constructivist learning model. The result of these reform efforts has seen an increase in science education professional development that is focused on…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of technology use and facilitation of inquiry-based teaching across the curriculum through the implementation of a one-to-one technology pilot. This study also explored which technology related factors (Teacher Tech Use, Student Tech Use, Tech Barriers, Teacher Comfort) best predict the use…

This study addressed how different instructional strategies affected preservice elementary teachers' levels of math anxiety and their achievement in a math content course while considering descriptions of their experiences in the course in relation to their math anxiety and achievement. The instructional strategies used were traditional teaching…

This study was designed to investigate differences in high school science teachers' attitudes toward teaching inquiry-based science, beliefs about and practice of implementing inquiry-based methods according to the National Science Education Standards, and the frequency of implementing inquiry-based classroom lessons based on the gender,…

Since 9/11, the repercussions of religious intolerance have reached center stage, highlighted by religious hate crime statistics, governmental policies, and documented cases of increased anxiety. Religious illiteracy is also highlighted as a phenomenon across the American landscape. Conceptual arguments hold that knowledge of other religions can…

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to investigate the role that background knowledge, critical evaluation of information, and a reader's dispositions play in predicting online reading comprehension performance, during comprehension tasks that take place in either less restricted or more restricted information spaces. Sequential regression…

Systematic studies on effectiveness of in-service teacher professional development (PD) are important for science education research and practice. Previous studies mostly focus on one certain aspect of the entire program, for example, effectiveness of PD on improvement of teachers' knowledge or students' learning outcomes. This study, however,…

This dissertation work entails three related studies on the investigation of Peer-Led Guided Inquiry student discourse in a General Chemistry I course through argumentation. The first study, "Argumentation and participation patterns in general chemistry peer-led sessions," is focused on examining arguments and participation patterns in…

The performance of information retrieval systems varies significantly by test topics. Even for those systems that have performed well on average, the results for some difficult topics are still poor. Previous studies have revealed that different optimization techniques should be used for those difficult topics. However, a prerequisite of the…

This study examined student perceptions of effective online instruction, by means of the levels of student connectedness, within the context of the Community of Inquiry model. Both the Online Student Connectedness Survey (OSCS) and the Community of Inquiry (CoI) survey have been previously used to study student connectedness and student perception…

If students are to be successful in the ever-changing scientific world they need to be taught how to think critically, to manipulate materials, and to gather evidence to build knowledge. Most teachers fall short in providing students the inquiry instruction described in the Next Generation Science Frameworks (National Research Council, 2011). This…