This study investigated differences and shifts in learning and motivation constructs among male and female students in a nonmajors, yearlong structured inquiry college physics course and examined how these variables were related to physics understanding and course achievement. Tests and questionnaires measured students' learning approaches, motivational goals, selfefficacy, epistemological beliefs, scientific reasoning abilities, and understanding of central physics concepts at the beginning and end of the course. Course achievement scores were also obtained. The findings showed that male students had significantly higher self-efficacy, performance goals, and physics understanding compared to females, which persisted throughout the course. Differential shifts were found in students' meaningful learning approaches, with females tending to use less meaningful learning from beginning to end of the course; and males using more meaningful learning over this time period. For both males and females, self-efficacy significantly predicted physics understanding and course achievement. For females, higher reasoning ability was also a significant predictor of understanding and achievement; whereas for males, learning goals and rote learning were significant predictors, but in a negative direction. The findings reveal that different variables of learning and motivation may be important for females' success in inquiry physics compared to males. Instructors should be cognizant of those needs in order to best help all students learn and achieve in college physics.

The purpose of this study was to explore relationships among school students' ( N = 189) meaningful learning orientation, reasoning ability and acquisition of meaningful understandings of genetics topics, and ability to solve genetics problems. This research first obtained measures of students' meaningful learning orientation (meaningful and rote) and reasoning ability (prefomal and formal). Students were tested before and after laboratory-based learning cycle genetics instruction using a multiple choice assessment format and an open-ended assessment format (mental model). The assessment instruments were designed to measure students' interrelated understandings of genetics and their ability to solve and interpret problems using Punnett square diagrams. Regression analyses were conducted to examine the predictive influence of meaningful learning orientation, reasoning ability, and the interaction of these variables on students' performance on the different tests. Meaningful learning orientation best predicted students' understanding of genetics interrelationships, whereas reasoning ability best predicted their achievement in solving genetics problems. The interaction of meaningful learning orientation and reasoning ability did not significantly predict students' genetics understanding or problem solving. Meaningful learning orientation best predicted students' performance on all except one of the open-ended test questions. Examination of students' mental model explanations of meiosis, Punnett square diagrams, and relationships between meiosis and the use of Punnett square diagrams revealed unique patterns in students' understandings of these topics. This research provides information for educators on students' acquisition of meaningful understandings of genetics.

This study explored factors predicting the extent to which high school students (N = 140) acquired meaningful understanding of the biological topics of meiosis, the Punnett‐square method, and the relationships between these topics. This study (a) examined mental modeling as a technique for measuring students' meaningful understanding of the topics, (b) measured students' predisposed, generalized tendency to learn meaningfully (meaningful learning orientation), (c) determined the extent to which students' meaningful learning orientation predicted meaningful understanding beyond that predicted by aptitude and achievement motivation, (d) experimentally tested two instructional treatments (relationships presented to students, relationships generated by students), (e) explored the relationships of meaningful learning orientation, prior knowledge, instructional treatment, and all interactions of these variables in predicting meaningful understanding. The results of correlations and multiple regressions indicated that meaningful learning orientation contributed to students' attainment of meaningful understanding independent of aptitude and achievement motivation. Meaningful learning orientation and prior knowledge interacted in unique ways for each topic to predict students' attainment of meaningful understanding. Instructional treatment had relatively little relationship to students' acquisition of meaningful understanding, except for learners midrange between meaningful and rote. These findings imply that a meaningful learning approach among students may be important, perhaps as much or more than aptitude and achievement motivation, for their acquisition of interrelated, meaningful understandings of science.

This investigation examined 10th‐grade biology students' decisions to enroll in elective science courses, and explored certain attitudinal perceptions of students that may be related to such decisions. The student science perceptions were focused on student and classroom attitudes in the context of differing learning cycle classrooms (high paradigmatic/high inquiry, and low paradigmatic/low inquiry). The study also examined possible differences in enrollment decisions/intentions and attitudinal perceptions among males and females in these course contexts. The specific purposes were to: (a) explore possible differences in students' decisions, and in male and female students' decisions to enroll in elective science courses in high versus low paradigmatic learning cycle classrooms; (b) describe patterns and examine possible differences in male and female students' attitudinal perceptions of science in the two course contexts; (c) investigate possible differences in students' science perceptions according to their decisions to enroll in elective science courses, participation in high versus low paradigmatic learning cycle classrooms, and the interaction between these two variables; and (d) examine students' explanations of their decisions to enroll or not enroll in elective science courses. Questionnaire and observation data were collected from 119 students in the classrooms of six learning cycle biology teachers. Results indicated that in classrooms where teachers most closely adhered to the ideal learning cycle, students had more positive attitudes than those in classrooms where teachers deviated from the ideal model. Significantly more females in high paradigmatic learning cycle classrooms planned to continue taking science course work compared with females in low paradigmatic learning cycle classrooms. Male students in low paradigmatic learning cycle classrooms had more negative perceptions of science compared with males in high paradigmatic classrooms, and in some cases, with all female students. It appears that using the model as it was originally designed may lead to more positive attitudes and persistence in science among students. Implications include the need for science educators to help teachers gain more thorough understanding of the learning cycle and its theoretical underpinnings so they may better implement this procedure in classroom teaching. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 1029–1062, 2001

No abstract