Abstract

In 2013, a new set of science standards was introduced for K-12 science education, called the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), which focused on three dimensions of science learning that work together: disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and science and engineering practices. These standards are novel in their emphasis on students needing more than only content knowledge to learn science and engineering. The NGSS science and engineering practices (SEPs) stress the importance of students engaging in the authentic practices of scientists and engineers to help them think like a scientist, practice science themselves, and overcome the misconception that science is a collection of isolated facts (NRC, 2012a). These SEPs include: asking questions and defining problems, developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, using mathematics and computational thinking, constructing explanations and designing solutions, engaging in argument from evidence, and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. We performed a qualitative study to determine the conceptions of undergraduate students, the majority of whom were enrolled in STEM majors, about the SEPs. With a theoretical framework of phenomenography guiding our study's design, we conducted deep, open-ended interviews with 59 undergraduate students. The analysis consisted of transcribing interviews, coding transcriptions, writing descriptions of the codes to identify a limited number of distinct categories that describe how students viewed individual SEPs, and analyzing relationships among these categories to create outcome spaces for the ways students viewed the SEPs. In the current dissertation, we present the students' specific conceptions of each of the SEPs. Although the students had a better understanding of some of the SEPs than others (e.g., they understood planning and carrying out investigations and using mathematics and computational thinking best), we found that undergraduates did not have a high level of understanding of any SEP. This is similar to conceptions of undergraduates in the literature, which mostly consisted of preservice teachers. The undergraduates in this study conflated many of the SEPs, misinterpreted SEPs based on the everyday meaning of terms in the practices (i.e., they discussed an everyday meaning of words like "questions" instead of focusing on the unique meaning of "questions" in a scientific context), and perceived that the structured learning activities in which they engage in their current coursework limit their abilities to engage in the SEPs. These results suggest that STEM students need more opportunities to authentically engage in the SEPs in open-ended environments, coupled with explicit instruction that emphasizes the difference between everyday usages of words in the SEPs and their scientific meanings.

Degree

PhD

College and Department

Physical and Mathematical Sciences; Chemistry and Biochemistry

Rights

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