Identification of secondary science teachers' preconceptions related to avian influenza
Page 1. Identification of secondary 1 Running Head: IDENTIFICATION OF SECONDARY SCIENCE IDENTIFIC... more Page 1. Identification of secondary 1 Running Head: IDENTIFICATION OF SECONDARY SCIENCE IDENTIFICATION OF SECONDARY SCIENCE TEACHERS' ALTERNATIVE CONCEPTIONS RELATED TO AVIAN INFLUENZA ...
What do College Undergraduates Know about Zika and What Precautions Are They Willing to Take to Prevent its Spread
International Conference on Health Informatics, 2017
We describe the development and validation of a Zika knowledge assessment and a survey for measur... more We describe the development and validation of a Zika knowledge assessment and a survey for measuring precautions about Zika. We use these to explore conceptions Midwest United States college undergraduates have concerning Zika, compliance with precautions to prevent Zika, how likely college undergraduates are to take different precautions, and analysis of sentiments about Zika prevention. We found that the median undergraduate is likely to comply with all precautions except using an insect fogger and avoiding casual contact. Specific sentiments tended to accompany different levels of compliance. For example, undergraduates with high compliance expressed concerns rooted in fear and morality.
Understanding communication about the COVID-19 vaccines: analysis of emergent sentiments and topics of discussion on Twitter during the initial phase of the vaccine rollout
International journal of science education, Mar 16, 2023
Osmosis is a fundamental concept of great importance to understanding natural biological, physica... more Osmosis is a fundamental concept of great importance to understanding natural biological, physical, and chemical processes. We provide an instructional guide to assist instructors of advanced high school biology and college biology students in defining questions that are central to deriving a highly developed understanding of osmosis. We present teaching activities that focus on advancing multiple hypotheses about the cause of osmosis, presenting a tentative explanation and model of osmosis, and drawing scientifically accepted conclusions about osmotic processes.
Development and Validation of the Learning Progression-Based Assessment of Modern Genetics in a High School Context
Science Education, Nov 27, 2016
We describe the development, validation, and use of the Learning Progression-Based Assessment of ... more We describe the development, validation, and use of the Learning Progression-Based Assessment of Modern Genetics (LPA-MG) in a high school biology context. Items were constructed based on a current learning progression framework for genetics (Shea & Duncan, 2013; Todd & Kenyon, 2015). The 34-item instrument, which was tied to 12 constructs within the genetics learning progression, was administered to 65 high school students at three time points (pre, middle, and post) across a 23-week period of instruction. The LPA-MG, its 12 constructs, and 34 items demonstrated high reliability and construct validity with respect to the Rasch model and indicated by satisfactory fit. Furthermore, it demonstrated utility in providing both quantitative and qualitative information about how students moved along each construct. Using a repeated measures ANOVA design, we found that students made gains across the 23 weeks that were both large and significant at the 95% confidence level. Students also moved along each construct in qualitatively meaningful ways during the 23 weeks of instruction.
Pedagogical agents are virtual characters embedded within a learning environment to enhance stude... more Pedagogical agents are virtual characters embedded within a learning environment to enhance student learning. Researchers are beginning to understand the conditions in which pedagogical agents can enhance learning, but many questions still remain. Namely, the field has few options in terms of measurement instruments, and limited research has investigated the influence of pedagogical agent persona, or the way the agent is perceived by students, on learning outcomes. In this study, we reexamine the Agent Persona Instrument (API) using confirmatory factor analysis and Rasch methods. We then examine the influence of agent persona on learning outcomes using path analysis. The results confirmed the four factor structure of the instrument, and the fit of items with the Rasch model demonstrates construct validity in our context. However, the analyses indicated that revisions to the instrument are warranted. The path analysis revealed that affective interaction significantly influenced information usefulness variables, however perceptions measured by the API had no significant impact on learning outcomes. Suggestions for revising the API are provided.
Identifying contingencies between constructs in a multi-faceted learning progression (LP) is a ch... more Identifying contingencies between constructs in a multi-faceted learning progression (LP) is a challenging task. Often, there is not enough evidence in the literature to support connections, and once identified, they are difficult to empirically test. Here, we use causal model search to evaluate how connections between ideas in a genetics LP change over time in the context of an introductory biology course. We identify primary and secondary hub ideas and connections between concepts before and after instruction to illustrate how students moved from a phenotypic grounding of genetics knowledge to a more genotypic grounding of their genetics knowledge after instruction. We discuss our results in light of conceptual change and illustrate the importance of understanding students' idea structures within a domain.
We validate the Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution (MATE) on undergraduate students... more We validate the Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution (MATE) on undergraduate students using the Rasch model and utilize the MATE to explore qualitatively how students express their acceptance of evolution. At least 24 studies have used the MATE, most with the assumption that it is unidimensional. However, we found that the MATE is best used as two separate dimensions. When used in this way, the MATE produces reliable (α > 0.85) measures for (i) acceptance of evolution facts and data and (ii) acceptance of the credibility of evolution and rejection of non‐scientific ideas. Using k‐means cluster analysis, we found students express their acceptance of evolution in five distinct profiles: (i) uniform high acceptance; (ii) uniform moderate acceptance; (iii) neutral acceptance; (iv) acceptance of facts, but rejection of credibility; and (v) rejection of both facts and credibility. Furthermore, we found that knowledge of macroevolution moderately explains students’ acceptanc...
Science practices play a central role in meaningful learning. We transformed a college introducto... more Science practices play a central role in meaningful learning. We transformed a college introductory biology course to more practice-based learning environment, in which students constructed knowledge about evolution through explanation and argumentation. These practices, also known as mechanistic reasoning, are a form of scientific inquiry characterized in part by a shift toward reasoning about causal mechanisms. We posit that engaging in these practices may promote a cognitive and social approach to evolution, thereby engaging affective and logic-driven pathways to students' evolution acceptance. In the intervention, we integrated multiple activities and technological tools to foster students' explanatory, mechanistic reasoning. This approach was inspired in part by Robbins and Roy (2007) inquiry-based teaching unit that yielded improvements in college students' explanations and acceptance of evolution. In particular, our investigation promoted sense making, evaluating, argumentation, and consensus building while providing rich, meaningful learning about natural selection. This data-driven strategy engaged students in evolutionary phenomena directly, another avenue to promoting conceptual change. This chapter presents results across a spectrum of evolution literacy components, including (1) conceptual change around natural selection, (2) mechanistic reasoning related to natural selection, and (3) engagement in argumentation around data.
This study explores middle school student learning of Next Generation Science Standards aligned c... more This study explores middle school student learning of Next Generation Science Standards aligned content and practices associated with use of an innovative virtual learning environment. The learning environment, a computer-based game called Mission HydroSci (MHS), was developed with the aim of supporting student learning of water systems science along with the practice of scientific argumentation. Teachers implemented MHS within their science classrooms as a replacement unit for water science over a period of two weeks. Pre-and posttest data were collected from 633 students across ten schools. Data included an assessment of water systems content and a test of argumentation competencies. Students demonstrated positive and statistically significant changes in water systems understandings and argumentation; however, the effect sizes were modest. These results have informed several revisions to the MHS learning environment including modifications to the argumentation platform within the game and additional attention to key water systems concepts.
Thermal Diffusivity of Magmas: Implications for Heat Transport in Partially Molten Zones
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, Dec 1, 2009
Abstract The physical properties controlling heat flow are thermal diffusivity (D) and conductivi... more Abstract The physical properties controlling heat flow are thermal diffusivity (D) and conductivity (k= DrhoCP), where rho denotes density and CP denotes specific heat capacity at constant pressure. We have measured D of synthetic and natural glasses and melts of diverse compositions including silica, feldspar and pyroxene end-members, MORB and obsidian using laser-flash analysis (LFA). As T increases, D of glass decreases, approaching a composition-dependent constant (Dsat) near 1,000 K. Upon crossing the ...
Heart failure is a syndrome which occurs when the heart is not able to pump blood and oxygen to s... more Heart failure is a syndrome which occurs when the heart is not able to pump blood and oxygen to support other organs in the body. Treatment and management of heart failure in patients include understanding the diagnostic codes and procedure reports of these patients during their hospitalization. Identifying the underlying themes in these diagnostic codes and procedure reports could reveal the clinical phenotypes associated with heart failure. These themes could also help clinicians to predict length of stay in the patients using their clinical notes. Understanding clinical phenotypes on the basis of these themes is important to group patients based on their similar characteristics which could also help in predicting patient outcomes like length of stay. These clinical phenotypes usually have a probabilistic latent structure and hence, as there has been no previous work on identifying phenotypes in clinical notes of heart failure patients using a probabilistic framework and to predict length of stay of these patients using data-driven artificial intelligence-based methods, we apply natural language processing technique, topic modeling, to identify the themes present in diagnostic codes and in procedure reports of 1,200 patients admitted for heart failure at the
Assessing, Operationalizing, Profiling Evolution Acceptance in College Students
We validate the Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution (MATE) on undergraduate students... more We validate the Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution (MATE) on undergraduate students using the Rasch model and utilize the MATE to explore qualitatively how students express their acceptance of evolution. Previous validation studies suggest the MATE is 1-dimensional, and it has been used as such in over 19 peer-reviewed studies since 2001. We found, however, that the MATE is best used 2-dimensionally. When used in this way, the MATE produces reliable (above 0.85) measures for acceptance of facts and supporting data around evolution and acceptance of the credibility of evolution and rejection of non-scientific ideas. Using k-means clustering, we found students express their acceptance of evolution within 5 distinct categories: (1) uniform high acceptance, (2) neutral acceptance, (3) uniform moderate acceptance, (4) acceptance of the facts, but rejection of the credibility, and (5) rejection of both the facts and the credibility. Further, we found that knowledge of macroevolution moderately explains students’ acceptance profiles corroborating previous claims that teaching macroevolution may be one way to improve students’ acceptance. We use these findings to express the first set of operational definitions of evolution acceptance and propose that educators continue to explore additional ways to operationalize acceptance of evolution
Measuring Knowledge of Acids and Bases as Continuous and Categorical Constructs toward Understanding Concept Progression
We describe the development and validation of the Measure for Conceptualization of Acids and Base... more We describe the development and validation of the Measure for Conceptualization of Acids and Bases (MCAB) for college students. Items were constructed based on a learning progression framework of acids and bases (Lin and Chiu, 2007). After thorough content review, continuous and categorical scales were constructed using Rasch and Latent Class Mixture Model frameworks, respectively. A valid and reliable 28-item instrument was the outcome of two rounds of data collection and revision. The Rasch scale was shown to be reliable and unidimensional, and the items fit well with the Rasch model. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) showed that the data were described adequately by a 2-class scale. Students in Latent Class 1 demonstrated conceptions of acids and bases consistent with the phenomenon and character-symbol models (Lin & Chiu, 2007). With some exceptions, the students in Latent Class 2 demonstrated conceptions consistent with the scientific model (Lin & Chiu, 2007). Rasch score predicted Latent Class with 93% accuracy, demonstrating that classes derived from LCA are a “progression” in the sense that we use the word. Use of Rasch and LCA models toward generalized understanding of how college students conceptualize acids and bases is discussed
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