"The Reflective Science Educator" by Caroline Anne Scheidel
 

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Science teachers--Iowa--Psychology; Critical thinking; Science teachers--Psychology; Iowa; Academic theses;

Abstract

Reflection is synonymous with quality teaching. Though teachers reflect, the domains of reflections vary from teachers in different curriculum areas. Teachers of science have their own interesting characteristics to reflection. The art of reflection contains several unique aspects such as the logistics of reflections, the influence of the reflection, the content, and the perception one has on reflection. These aspects are described through the eyes of a science teacher to better understand their relationship to reflection. Though the research within reflections of teachers is plentiful, there is little on science teacher's reflections. The focus of this study is to determine the nature of reflections of science teachers and answer four research questions that include the following: How and when do science teachers reflect? What do science teachers reflect upon? What influences the quality of reflections? How do science teachers perceive their reflections? A sample of teachers in schools who had characteristic homologous to the investigator's experience were selected and schools were randomly selected to participate. Participants filled out a qualitative questionnaire that focused on their reflections and invited to participate in the document analysis of their reflections and an interview. Of volunteering participants, three were selected. Science teachers reflected on many topics pertinent to teaching in general and several that related to their discipline area. Many used non-formal methods of recording such reflections such as mental thoughts. Teachers built their reflection upon some action that occurred during class, with many of them reporting their results instead of deeper forms of reflection. Factors that keep teachers away from the reflection process included overwhelmingly included time and in-services. Finally, teachers want to improve their reflection skills by increasing the frequency or finding more formal methods of recording. Overall, they were comfortable with the reflection process.

Year of Submission

2008

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

First Advisor

Dawn Del Carlo

Second Advisor

Lyn Countryman

Third Advisor

Robert Boody

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

2008

Object Description

1 PDF file (156 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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