Off-campus UNL users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your NU ID and password. When you are done browsing please remember to return to this page and log out.
Non-UNL users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
Student experiences in an integrated science course: A phenomenological study
Abstract
The purpose of conducting this study was to describe the experiences of average to high-achieving, middle-income students in a newly implemented integrated science course at a Midwest inner-city high school. The focus of this study was to describe the meaning students ascribed to their experiences in this non-tracked, two-year science course, in which many of the suggestions made by science reform efforts were implemented. A phenomenological approach was used in order to develop a holistic picture of the student participants' experiences. Data collection was confined to interviewing, observing, and analyzing the journals of four middle-income, average to high-achieving students enrolled in the same class during the 1994-95 school year. The data were subjective perceptions of the students in their learning environment. A modified version of the Colaizzi method of analysis of phenomenological data was used. This design utilized the Epoche, Phenomenological Reduction, Imaginative Variation and Synthesis. Co-researchers' statements were clustered into horizons of meaning and organized into themes. The textural themes included curriculum, instruction, teachers, peers, and overall impressions. Relationships to time and interactions with peers and teachers were among the structural themes. From these themes, individual and composite textual descriptions were developed. With the addition of the structural components, an integrated composite textual-structural description of the students' experience in the integrated science course resulted. This final product captured the meanings and essences of their experience. This study adds to the scholarly literature and research as it relates to the implementation of progressive pedagogy and theory regarding student experiences in a science course. It will improve educational practice by helping educators make informed decisions regarding curriculum reform, instructional practices, and classroom environment. This study will also improve educational practice by increasing educators' understanding of student experiences in integrated science settings. This study will help improve science education policy by providing an example of the response of students to a type of educational innovation.
Subject Area
Science education
Recommended Citation
Crapenhoft-Gatewood, Kelly Lynn, "Student experiences in an integrated science course: A phenomenological study" (1997). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9736926.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9736926