Unit:
Department of Primary EducationLibrary of the School of Education
Dissertation committee:
Κωνσταντίνος Σκορδούλης, Καθηγητής του Παιδαγωγικού Τμήματος Δημοτικής Εκπαίδευσης του Εθνικού και Καποδιστριακού Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών
Κρυσταλλία Χαλκιά, Καθηγήτρια Π.Τ.Δ.Ε. Παν/μίου Αθηνών
Peter Heering, Professor at the University of Flensburg, Germany
Ευαγγελία Μαυρικάκη, Καθηγήτρια, Π.Τ.Δ.Ε. ΕΚΠΑ
Αποστολία Γαλάνη, Αναπληρώτρια Καθηγήτρια, Π.Τ.Δ.Ε. ΕΚΠΑ
Γεώργιος Κουτρομάνος, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής Π.Τ.Δ.Ε. ΕΚΠΑ
Ιωάννα Κατσιαμπούρα, Επικ. Καθηγήτρια, Π.Τ.Δ.Ε. ΕΚΠΑ
Original Title:
Historical Experiments in STEAM Education: Exploring the shift in students' conceptions of and attitudes towards Technology
Translated title:
Historical Experiments in STEAM Education: Exploring the shift in students' conceptions of and attitudes towards Technology
Summary:
This study was aimed to investigate the effect of an interdisciplinary STEAM program supported by Project-Based Learning that provided contextualized explicit and reflective instruction of different aspects of Technology on sixth grade students’ conceptions of and attitudes towards technology as well as examine the relationship between their views and attitudes. To this end, a special intervention was implemented, the content of which was determined and designed by the researcher herself. The enactment of the project took place in a primary school in Athens, Greece and involved a group of sixth grade student participants consisted of 100 students in the age range of 11 to 12 years, divided into two subgroups, one of which was the experimental group and the other was the control group. Students' conceptions and attitudes were assessed in a pre/post format using the Technology Perceptions and the PATT-SQ-SE questionnaires respectively, coupled with individual interviews before and at the conclusion of the course. Technology Perceptions Questionnaire was constructed taking both existing theory around this topic and the answers of 50 students from other schools to an open-ended question posed to them at the beginning of the year into account. Questionnaire's categories were designed with the additional objective of bringing together diverse aspects of the Nature of Technology. A mixed methods approach was used, where the qualitative data from 10 interviewees help to explain and interpret the quantitative data from 100 respondents in the age range of 11 to 12 years. Reflective journals were also used to identify contributions of each component of the course to any differential learning outcomes regarding students’ conceptions of as well as attitudes towards Technology. Both deductive and inductive processes were employed to determine the coding frame categories. The results of this study showed that, after this short-term STEAM intervention, there was significant improvement in experimental group students' conceptions of and attitudes towards technology compared to those of control group students. The majority of participants taking part in qualitative research held naive views of the target NOT aspects at the beginning of the study. Post instruction assessments indicated that participants made substantial gains in their views of some of the target aspects of Technology. The results also indicated that the intervention had a positive impact on students’ attitudes towards technology. Three factors were identified by students as decisive in developing their conceptions of and attitudes towards Technology: (1) explicit-reflective in-class discussion, (2) the use of reflective journals, (3) the research setting, (4) STEAM approach, (5) Project-Based Learning, and (6) Classroom Climate. Moreover, there appeared to be statistically significant correlations between students' concepts of and their attitudes toward technology prior to the intervention.
Main subject category:
Science
Keywords:
conceptions of technology, attitudes towards technology, nature of technology (NOT), intervention, STEAM, project-based learning, engineering design process, contextualized explicit and reflective instruction, history of technology, historical replication, camera obscura
Number of references:
764
File:
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Psoma Vasiliki PhD.pdf.pdf
11 MB
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