Dissertation writing help - Prepare knowledge and understanding about science
Custom Dissertation Writing Service on the connection between students' out-of-school experiences and science learning
This study sought to recognize the connection between students' out-of-school experiences and their learning in science. This study addresses the subsequent questions:
a) What is the relationship between connections to students' out-of-school experiences and learning outcomes in science?
b) How do students use their out-of-school activities to prepare their knowledge and understanding about science?
c) To what extent do science teachers use students' skills and knowledge acquired in out-of-school settings to inform their instructional practices?
This study integrates mixed methods using both qualitative and quantitative approaches to answer the research questions. It involves the use of survey questionnaire and science assessment and features two-level hierarchical analyses of student achievement outcomes nested within classrooms. Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) analyses were used to account for the cluster effect of students nested within classrooms. Interviews with teachers and students were also conducted to provide information about how learning opportunities that take place in out-of-school settings can be used to facilitate student learning in science classrooms.
The results of the study include the subsequent: a) Controlling for student and classroom factors, students' ability to make connections to science learning across contexts is related with positive learning outcomes such as achievement, career in science, interest, self-efficacy, perseverance, and effort. Second, teacher practice using students' out-of-school experiences is related with decrease in student achievement in science. However, as teachers make more connection to students' out-of-school experiences, the relationship between student effort and perseverance in science learning and connections gets weaker, thus closing the gaps on these outcomes between students who have more ability to establish the connections of learning across contexts and those who have less ability to do so. Third, science teachers have limited information about students' out-of-school experiences thus rarely integrate these experiences into their instructional practices. Fourth, the lack of learning objectives for activities structured in out-of-school settings coupled with the limited opportunities to integrate students' out of school experiences into classroom instructions are factors that will prevent students from making further connection of science learning across contexts.