Browsing by Subject "Technology Integration"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Case Studies of Secondary School Teachers Designing Socioscientific Issues-Based Instruction and Their Students’ Socioscientific Reasoning
    (2015-05) Karahan, Engin
    Addressing socioscientific issues (SSI) has been one of the main focuses in science education since the Science, Technology, and Society (STS) movement in the 1970s (Levinson, 2006); however, teaching controversial socioscientific issues has always been challenging for teachers (Dillon, 1994; Osborne, Duschl, & Fairbrother, 2002). Although teachers exhibit positive attitudes for using controversial socioscientific issues in their science classrooms, only a small percentage of them actually incorporate SSI content into their science curricula on a regular basis (Sadler, Amirshokoohi, Kazempour, & Allspaw, 2006; Lee & Witz, 2009). The literature in science education has highlighted the significant relationships among teacher beliefs, teaching practices, and student learning (Bryan & Atwater, 2002; King, Shumow, & Lietz, 2001; Lederman, 1992). Despite the fact that the case studies present a relatively detailed picture of teachers� values and motivations for teaching SSI (e.g. Lee, 2006; Lee & Witz, 2009; Reis & Galvao, 2004), these studies still miss the practices of these teachers and potential outcomes for their students. Therefore, there is a great need for in-depth case studies that would focus on teachers� practices of designing and teaching SSI-based learning environments, their deeper beliefs and motivations for teaching SSI, and their students� response to these practices (Lee, 2006). This dissertation is structured as three separate, but related, studies about secondary school teachers� experiences of designing and teaching SSI-based classes and their students's understanding of science and SSI reasoning. The case studies in this dissertation seek answers for (1) teacher's practices of designing and teaching SSI-based instruction, as well as its relation to their deeper personal beliefs and motivations to teach SSI, and (2) how their students respond to their approaches of teaching SSI in terms of their science understanding and SSI reasoning. The first paper presents case studies of three secondary science teachers within three high schools located along the Minnesota River Basin. The findings of this study documented the experiences of the participant teachers, as well as the contextual influences on those experiences. The second paper presents a case study of a science teacher and a social studies teacher which describes how these two teachers collaboratively designed and taught an environmental ethics class. The results of this study documented teacher's ways of sharing responsibilities, bringing their content and pedagogical expertise, and promoting the agency of their students in the environmental ethics class. The final paper in this dissertation presents case studies of secondary school students who were the participants in the SSI-based science classes described in the first two studies. The results of this study provided evidence for participant student's understanding of science and their socioscientific reasoning, as well as how they were influenced by the instructional decisions their teachers made.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Managing information technology integration and implementation in health care supply chains: two essays.
    (2009-05) Dey, Asoke Kumar
    Information-intensive and customer-centric technologies available today promise substantial improvements in operational performance for both manufacturing and service supply chains. This abundance of technology is overwhelming for managers who, more often than not, find it challenging to determine which technologies they should invest in and how they should integrate the technologies to realize the promised performance benefits. Using data from the health care industry, I investigate the phenomena of technology integration and technology implementation, its antecedents, and its impact on organizational performance. The dissertation is comprised of two complementary parts, the first of which focuses on understanding the selection of a level of technology integration within an organization and its implications for performance. Electronic Medical Records (EMR) is the technological context of this research, and the empirical analysis is based on data from acute care hospitals in the U.S. (n=1011). My findings suggest that health care providers self-select into different levels of technology (EMR) integration. While some health care providers are better off investing in higher levels of EMR integration and benefit from doing so, not all providers choose to follow suit. The second part of my dissertation focuses on understanding factors that best explain successful technology implementation within a health care organization and its implications for performance, given a specific level of technology integration. Here I investigate the computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system and the empirical analysis is based on data from 188 acute care hospitals. I develop a research framework linking organizational readiness, user readiness, and levels of technology integration with the use of CPOE systems. I also hypothesize the relationship between use of CPOE systems and organizational performance under the moderating influence of the levels of technology integration. Study results show that each of the research hypotheses is supported, save that which links organizational readiness with the use of a CPOE system. Finally, implications of the dissertation findings, limitations, and directions for future research are identified.