Undergraduate Honors Thesis

Elias Euler, 2015 ▬ Beliefs, intentions, actions, & reflections (BIAR): a new way to look at the interactions of teachers and students

Anonymous — Fri, 01 May 2015 06:00:00 +0000

Elias Euler, 2015 ▬ Beliefs, intentions, actions, & reflections (BIAR): a new way to look at the interactions of teachers and students Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 05/01/2015 - 00:00

(Link) An accurate, nuanced capturing and characterization of student/teacher behavior inside and outside the classroom is a necessity in today’s education reform. In this paper, a new framework, called the BIAR (Beliefs, Intentions, Actions, and Reflections) Student-Teacher Interaction Model, is introduced. This tool incorporates the use of TDOP (Teaching Dimensions Observation Protocol) in classroom observations alongside student/faculty interviews, stimulated recall sessions, and electronic surveys. Once gathered, the data can be compared and rated for their degree of correlation. While the work in this project wasn’t aimed at making any specific claims about the practices of teachers or students, the introduction of the BIAR Model provides a structure for future work in this area.

Off

Traditional

White

Laura Archibald, 2009 ▬ Expert and novice student use of computer simulations: Fourier: Making Waves

Anonymous — Fri, 01 May 2009 06:00:00 +0000

Laura Archibald, 2009 ▬ Expert and novice student use of computer simulations: Fourier: Making Waves Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 05/01/2009 - 00:00

(Link)

Off

Traditional

White

Darren Tarshis, Suma Cum Laude, 2008 ▬ Measuring what's hidden: how college physics courses implicitly influence student beliefs

Anonymous — Thu, 01 May 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Darren Tarshis, Suma Cum Laude, 2008 ▬ Measuring what's hidden: how college physics courses implicitly influence student beliefs Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 05/01/2008 - 00:00

(Link) Educators devote most of their attention to students learning the subject matter of a course. What is less recognized by educators, is that beyond learning the content, students’ attitudes, beliefs, and values change too—sometimes in unexpected and unintended ways. When something is not explicitly taught, but students learn it anyway, it is part of the “hidden curriculum.” Because the explicit curriculum tends to focus on content, it’s the hidden curriculum that influences students’ beliefs about the nature of science, and the nature of learning science. This thesis presents a study of the hidden curricula in three different introductory physics courses. All three are second semester Electricity and Magnetism courses at the University of Colorado at Boulder. This research focuses on four dimensions of the hidden curriculum: Process vs. Product, Source of Knowledge, Real World vs. Abstract, and Gender Bias vs. Gender Neutral. In order to measure these four dimensions of the hidden curricula of three courses, rubrics have been developed, and course environments have been observed and measured using these rubrics. Additionally, the impact that varying hidden curricula have on students is addressed by surveying student beliefs. Results indicate that course practices implicitly affect student attitudes and beliefs in a way that might be predictable by measuring the hidden curriculum—especially for students with less strongly held beliefs. Furthermore, the hidden curriculum sends mixed messages to students, and certain course elements have greater influence on students’ beliefs than others (like lecture versus homework).

Off

Traditional

White

Heather Demarest, 2004 (Suma Cum Laude) ▬ Examining teacher expectations about physics homework

Anonymous — Sat, 01 May 2004 06:00:00 +0000

Heather Demarest, 2004 (Suma Cum Laude) ▬ Examining teacher expectations about physics homework Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 05/01/2004 - 00:00

(Link) There are many different ways by which students learn physics and develop beliefs about physics. These range from exams to lectures, from labs to homework. Teachers have beliefs about the ideal content for each of these media to contain, as well as beliefs about what they typically do contain. The purpose of my thesis, therefore, is to examine in detail, a small but vital way that this information is conveyed from teacher to student: Homework. First, I design a survey to be administered to teachers of introductory university classes. This survey is designed to acquire data about teachers’expectations and beliefs about their homework content. Next, I administer the survey and simultaneously conduct an interview with each professor in my study. Then, I acquire homework sets from the teachers’ classes. I rate these homework sets along the same dimensions the teachers were asked to rate them. Finally, I compare the ratings and analyze them for agreement.

Off

Traditional

White