High school students' chemistry self-efficacy (CSE) and scientific identity (SI) are not well understood in the high school chemistry classroom. The purpose of this research was to quantitatively investigate the interaction between gender and giftedness on students' CSE and SI in a suburban high school chemistry classroom, with and without…

Physics education researchers have called for a shift from traditional laboratory (lab) instruction to labs that focus on the development of experimental skills. Although research has demonstrated the efficacy of such reformed labs, much work remains to determine what these labs can and should teach students and how best to achieve these goals.…

Chapter 1 is a seismic study of the mantle structure of the passive margin of northeastern North America. This region experienced multiple episodes of rifting and orogenesis in the past, and the study aims to understand how the Wilson Cycle impacts the geometry of the upper mantle seismic structure beneath southern New England using Sp receiver…

Through this non-experimental descriptive correlational study, 31 high school classrooms were observed, and instances of non-content teacher talk were identified and correlated with female student science identity survey responses to determine the presence or absence of a relationship between the two constructs. A correlational research design was…

The purpose of the study is to see if there is a significant difference in chemistry exam achievement growth for 10th grade students in classes with problem-based learning compared with those students in classes with direct instruction. The state in which the study was conducted is developing new standards that are challenging students more than…

This study investigated the impact of training in self-regulated learning on community college, geoscience students' achievement, metacognition, time management, and science motivation scales. The study also investigated the impact of SRL training on these outcomes as a function of gender and ethnicity. During the Fall of 2022, 70 community…

This dissertation investigates the voluntary usage of clickers to answer in class multiple-choice questions in general chemistry courses and its effect on student performance. The first study explored the demographic composition of two sequential introductory level chemistry courses over six terms. No difference in voluntary usage of the clicker…

Physics is known for its emphasis on innate brilliance as a prerequisite for disciplinary membership and success. Women, Black, Latine, and Indigenous individuals remain vastly underrepresented and marginalized in physics spaces, a reality that is due in part to oppressive stereotypes that position them as less inherently intelligent than their…

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of course modality on the academic achievement of students enrolled in majors and nonmajors biology courses at an open-enrollment community college in the Southeastern United States. Results from a Kruskal Wallis H test indicated a significant difference in final grades between face-to-face,…

Increasing student success and retention rates are top goals for many higher education institutions. Supplemental Instruction (SI) is a widely used academic support program designed to increase students' academic performance and provide students the learning skills they need to persist to graduation. Unfortunately, a lack of time, personnel, and…

This applied dissertation was designed to determine if there is a difference between students' gender, ethnicity, and age and their performance in General Chemistry I at a Christian University in Florida. Many scientific studies reveal the existence of a gender performance gap in chemistry: women mostly underperform men. Certain factors reported…

The current study aims to investigate whether the instructional approach (flipped or traditional) and gender (male or female) influence students' sense of autonomy, relatedness, and competence, or influence their achievements in high school chemistry. Merrill's First Principles of Instruction theory was used to design the flipped classroom (FC)…

In an increasingly complex world, it is imperative that undergraduate science courses prepare students to make confident, informed decisions and predictions. The research presented in this thesis focuses on supporting students to engage in mechanistic reasoning (MR) about phenomena in chemistry and biology (that is, thinking about how and why…

Most educational studies highlight the gender gap in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Female students' interest and success in STEM are behind their male peers, especially in chemistry and physics classes. Females are less likely to pursue a STEM field in college. In addition, few women want to be scientists and engineers.…

Self-efficacy can determine how hard a student works, if they will persevere in the face of obstacles or succeed academically (Britner & Pajares, 2006). It has been suggested that practices in an inquiry-based science class can provide positive experiences needed to increase self-efficacy of middle school students (Britner & Pajares,…