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Description
Title: | Exploratory Case Study of Students' Main Explanatory Approaches to Science Concepts and Their States of Mental Engagement |
Author(s): | Nicdao-Quita, Maria Isabel T. |
Doctoral Committee Chair(s): | David Brown |
Department / Program: | Education |
Discipline: | Education |
Degree Granting Institution: | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
Degree: | Ph.D. |
Genre: | Dissertation |
Subject(s): | Psychology, Cognitive |
Abstract: | Four Filipino students studying in the United States were individually observed in their science classes, were visited at home, and were interviewed about water being heated. The analysis of each student's data led to the two constructs, the main explanatory approach and the students' states of mental engagement (SOME), while the student was cognitively and affectively connected with the phenomenon. The features of the main explanatory approach include an explanatory element and an affective element that pervade the students' thinking about the phenomenon. It is common to and dominant in students' thinking across time. It is the approach of the student taken as a holistic organization within the student when he or she starts dealing with the phenomenon. One of the assumptions behind dealing with the main explanatory approach is that it is much more connected with what kind of person the student is and with the state of mental engagement (SOME) the student is in. SOME refers to the personal energy of a student as he or she relates to and becomes involved with the physical process--there is absorption into the object of study. SOME is related to energizing the main explanatory approach. The interconnectedness of these two constructs can be viewed as a different level of abstraction or interpretation of the students' ways of thinking about the physical process. This way of looking at students' understanding and its connection with students' states of mental engagement has opened up an area with many possibilities, one of which is how the affective structures play a significant role in the exploration of science concepts. |
Issue Date: | 1997 |
Type: | Text |
Language: | English |
Description: | 191 p. Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1997. |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/2142/80183 |
Other Identifier(s): | (MiAaPQ)AAI9737207 |
Date Available in IDEALS: | 2015-09-25 |
Date Deposited: | 1997 |
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
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Dissertations and Theses - Education
Dissertations and Theses from the College of Education -
Graduate Dissertations and Theses at Illinois
Graduate Theses and Dissertations at Illinois