Award Date
May 2017
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Teaching and Learning
First Committee Member
Hasan Deniz
Second Committee Member
Jane McCarthy
Third Committee Member
Christine Clark
Fourth Committee Member
Leanne Putney
Number of Pages
131
Abstract
This mixed method study was aimed at examining the influence of dual processing (Type 1 and Type 2 thinking) on the development of high school students’ nature of science (NOS) views. Type 1 thinking is intuitive, experiential, and heuristic. Type 2 thinking is rational, analytical, and explicit. Three research questions were asked: (1) Do the experiential process (Type 1) and the logical process (Type 2) influence the development of students’ NOS views? (2) If there is an influence on students’ NOS views, then what is the nature of relationship between the experiential process (Type 1) and the development of NOS views? (3) What is the nature of relationship between the logical process (Type 2) and the development of NOS views?
The Views of Nature of Science Questionnaire C (VNOS-C; Lederman, Abd-El-Khalick, Bell, & Schwartz, 2002) was administered to 29 high school students at the beginning and at the end of an explicit-reflective NOS intervention offered in an Advanced Placement environmental science course. Changes in students’ NOS views were calculated through a chi-square test and examining the percentage of students holding NOS views at various levels of sophistication. With the chi-square goodness of fit test performed, the relationship between pre and post NOS scores was not significant, X2(3, 29) = 4.78, p <.05. The informed and preinformed NOS views increased (14%, 17%) in frequency while the mixed and uninformed NOS views decreased (i.e. improved 26%, 24%) in frequency from pre to posttest. The reading discussions were coded based on the EBR framework (Furtak et al., 2010) to analyze the use of dual processing. Type1 and Type 2 thinking were both used during the intervention and reading reflections. Type 2 thinking was more prominent when analyzing a problem, formulating a hypothesis, or stating logical claims. The association of NOS education and Type 1 and Type 2 thinking in scientific literacy was examined, and implications and future research are discussed.
Keywords
Dual Processing; Experiential and logical processing; High school science education; Nature of Science; Teacher education; Type 1 and Type 2 thinking
Disciplines
Educational Psychology | Science and Mathematics Education | Teacher Education and Professional Development
File Format
Degree Grantor
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Language
English
Repository Citation
Jackson, Luke, "Examining the Affordances of Dual Cognitive Processing to Explain the Development of High School Students’ Nature of Science Views" (2017). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 2989.
http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/10985946
Rights
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Included in
Educational Psychology Commons, Science and Mathematics Education Commons, Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons