In this chapter, I have discussed the rationale behind the study, the key research questions, and provided a detailed description of the structure of the dissertation. In my experience, electrical engineering seems to be one of the knowledge areas least preferred by female students pursuing teacher training.
Background to the study
However, this is an avenue for future research, as suggested in the final chapter of this thesis. In this study, I examine data drawn from multiple sources to answer four key questions detailed in the next section.
Key research questions
Question 3
Each question is answered by a different paper; however, there is much more to the study than the answers to these four questions. Earlier, while providing a background to the study, I discussed the ongoing change in education that has resulted from apartheid policies in the past.
Structure of this thesis
Literature review
The second work is the literature on gender studies worldwide and the differences in performance and. This literature review brings together literature presented in the papers that make up chapters 4 to 7.
Learning electricity
However, it is still a current model that understands current as being "used up" by components in the circuit. One might expect that the consumptive current model would naturally lead to circuit diagrams and wiring plans peculiar to the current models that informed their ideas about electricity.
Conceptual change theory
Many school science and technology tasks appear to be designed to be more interesting to boys than to girls (Silverman & Pritchard, 1996; Weber & Custer, 2005). A key component according to Henriksen is the development of female self-efficacy in relation to science and technology.
Frameworks for theoretical analysis
Finally, with the largely failed attempt to change gender attitudes towards science and technology, Henriksen (20 l 0) proposes four reasons why it is important to seek a gender balance in science and technology education. Being able to understand and create visual representations such as 3-D diagrams is a cognitive skill that is essential to performing well in both science and technology.
Genera) learning theories
This theory of building knowledge in this way is called constructivism and can be seen as a combination of empiricism and nativism. One of the aims of the teaching is to create a ZPD in the learner and in the social sphere.
Summary of key ideas
Bandura's (1994) ideas of self-regulation and perceived self-efficacy are key concepts in this study. This article draws on ideas about gender and science and ideas about the impact of self-efficacy on learning.
Overview of the research design and methodology
Research paradigms
This fact places me personally in a subjective role in the design of the study, as well as the collection and. This is consistent with a pragmatic philosophy of the nature of knowledge and a mixed methods approach to data collection and analysis, as will be discussed in the next section.
Overall structure of the study
The data was analyzed in terms of gender, level of science taken at school as well as the quality of school attended. An investigation into performance in the Dollhouse Project as well as the final exam in relation to attitudes, gender and quality of schooling. Analysis: Statistical analysis of test responses in terms of gender and educational advantage as well as performance on the final project and exam and whether or not science was studied until the end of school; Interpretation of reflection data.
In this paper, as well as the third one, there is a greater reliance on the interpretation of the reflection data, with some triangulation with respect to the numerical data.
Research context
The task context was designed to specifically address the interests of female students. The fundamental concepts of basic current electricity were taught in such a way that students became aware of the conceptual frameworks they themselves used to interpret electrical diagrams. This requires the application of knowledge and skills learned in all previous stages of the learning model.
This requires them to exchange ideas about how circuits actually work, which would be the challenging phase of GLM.
Data analysis
In this part of the chapter, I have described the different types of data that were collected in the study. Triangulation with other reflection data collected at the end of the course as well as interview data was also used to ensure validity. One of the assignments given to students in the middle of the course was for them to design and develop circuit diagrams for their homes as well as electrical wiring diagrams.
The validity and reliability of the data collected must therefore be seen in the context of the research paradigms used in each part of this study.
Gender differences in conceptual thinking in electricity amongst technology teacher trainees
Gender differences in conceptual thinking in electricity amongst technology teacher trainees
Abstract
Introduction
The attenuated or dissipative TI1e model is more sophisticated in that while it incorporates the idea of a completed circuit, it also has a non-conservative view of the electric current (the current is "harnessed") and is thus similar to the model unipolar. This progression usually starts from the idea of electricity as a flow of "stuff" from the power source to the various components and then progresses to a model of. This progression of models of how electricity works in circuits can be closely related to earlier models of current attributed to researchers such as Shipstone (1988) and Tasker and Osborne (1985).
In addition, female participants were less confident in their answers to the questions.
Research design
Of the students selected, 61% were female, 67% were privileged, and 72% had not taken science by the end of high school. The design of the teaching program started with a diagnostic phase (the initial pre-tests) which was The diagnostic phase is an essential part of the teaching program for two reasons.
The first was biographical information about the students themselves, which made it possible to divide the sample into six different groups.
Com ments on the data collected
No difference between those who took science at the end of school and those who did not. No difference between advantaged and disadvantaged students, even if they took science to the end of school or not. Significant difference between male and female students who did not take science at the end of school, but not for those who did.
For those students who took science to the end of school, there is no difference in performance between male and female students.
Concluding remarks
Gender, self-efficacy and achievement among South African technology teacher trainees
However, female students performed as well as male students in the design and construction task. However, Figure 4 compares disadvantaged male and female students' performance in different aspects of the Dolls' House task. Performance in different aspects of the Dolls' House task: educationally disadvantaged male compared with female students.
Performance in different aspects of the dollhouse task: educationally advantaged males compared to female students.
34;My very own mission impossible": an APPRAISAL analysis of student teacher reflections on a design and
APPRAISAL analysis of the doll's house reflections
The first thing I struggled with [3] was the plan for my house, but eventually I get it right. I am so proud [8] that I can connect electricity, all these years I thought that boys were the only ones who knew how to do wiring. I have to say this was one of the most difficult and challenging assignments I have ever had to do!.
I would like to thank my teacher for his patience [6] because for the first time I experience some difficulties because it was my first time doing electricity, but I found it easier during the course.
APPRAISAL resources used by four groups: quantitative and statistical analysis
Another factor is the relative brevity of the reflections (average length 185 words), so that evoked meanings cannot easily have been suggested by explicit lexicon earlier in the text. It is clear from Table 2 that female students were more likely than male students to use AFFECT. In this analysis, we look at the dollhouse as being in the nature of a work of art/artefact.
In the context of students' thinking about this task, an easy/difficult distinction was noticeable in the data.
Discussion: the APPRAISAL resources used by the four groups in the study
The most negatively rated aspect of the project was the electricity/circuitry/wiring for the dollhouse. As a proportion of the EVALUATION resources they use, the positive DOM group uses significantly more as a resource than the other three groups (e.g., compared to advantaged male students, z = 3.808); they comment positively on their own ability to complete the task ("It made me believe I'm capable") and tenacity to persevere ("and I overcome all problems"). As a proportion of the EVALUATION resources they use, disadvantaged female students choose to use JUDGMENT significantly more than any other group (compared to disadvantaged males, z = 3.116) and AFFECT, especially negative AFFECT, significantly more than disadvantaged males. - terparts (z = 3.259).
As with disadvantaged female students, this group uses JUDGMENT and AFFECT significantly more and APPRECIATION significantly less (z as a percentage of the APPRAISAL they use) than their male counterparts.
Conclusion
Only half of the ratings used by female students in both groups were positive, compared to three-quarters of the items for male students. This is a limitation of the study and would indeed be a fruitful avenue for further investigation. James Mackay lectures in Science and Technology Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Constructivism as a theory of learning is presented only in terms of its use in the design of a learning task.
Using circuit and wiring Diagrams to identify students' mental models of basic electric circuits
Research design
Example of proper parallel circuit design and corresponding series circuit wiring diagram from the same student. This is very similar to error B, where the circuit diagram is drawn instead of the wiring diagram. In some cases, the students' drawing of the house wiring diagram had fewer errors than the wiring diagram drawing.
This is shown in Figure 7.4, where the idea of a closed loop dominated the circuit design and the components are looped unipolarly.
Discussion
Drawing short circuits in multiple ways and contexts was actually the single biggest error on record. A good example is error A, where the incidence was 33% in the house, 9% in the car and 8% in the inspection. This could be context dependent or simply due to the fact that the car and exam papers followed the homework.
However, in this case, the construction of a wiring diagram was explicitly taught between the home task and the car task, which may explain the differences in the frequency of common errors between the two.
Implications for teaching and further research
Whether the origin of the um polar features of wiring diagrams is due to p-prims, context, the development of intermediate models of thinking, or a combination of some or all of these is something that requires more detailed study. This study simply points out the problems that arose as a result of drawing these diagrams. There is some accumulating evidence to suggest that the context of wiring diagrams affected performance by gender.
Whether the origin of the unipolar features in the wiring diagrams is as a result of p-prims, context, the development of intermediate thinking models, or a combination of some or all of these is something that requires more detailed investigation.
General discussion and conclusion
Synthesis of core research papers
The fact that there is a difference in performance between advantaged males and females on the first four questions in the category that did not do high school science suggests that schooling is not a factor determining conceptual understanding in this case. Similarly, taking physical science until the end of school, as well as whether they had actually connected any circuits in their pre-school education, does not seem to have any influence on the model of electric current used for students in this cohort. It seems that the most important factor in determining the development of scientific models of circuits is gender.
This is supported by the fact that women with advantages managed to perform as well as men with advantages in the house project.
