The research dimension of higher education programmes is usually discussed in association with doctoral studies. Against a background of scarce literature investigating research in a Master's degree, this article aims to analyse the place of research in Master's qualifications, first, as envisaged by official European and national documents acting…

Continues the work done by Mackay (1971) and Gardner (1973) in which attitudes of students enrolled in PSSC physics were assessed. (PEB)

Describes studies by L. D. Mackay and P. L. Gardner that were designed to teach attitudinal objectives in the Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC) course. Differences in results are attributed to the effect of socio-economic level, passage of time and reduced teacher enthusiasm, factors extraneous to PSSC, and a slightly different sample. (GS)

The test "Measurement About Science and Scientists" (Project Physics, Form 1) was prepared by choosing 101 items from the "Test on Understanding Science" and from the "Science Process Inventory" on the basis of their ability to indicate changes in students' knowledge. The method of building derived tests is described,…

Reports data which provide a partial replication of an earlier study of changes in attitudes of Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC) physics students. Data from the present research failed to support earlier findings. Several reasons for the discrepancies are advanced. (JR)

The study was conducted in Victoria on grade 11 pupils taking the first year of a two-year course based on Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC) materials. The magnitudes of the teacher behavior and pupil personality effects were much larger than the effects associated with different curricula. (Author/MLH)

In this study an experimental test was constructed requiring high school students in introductory physics to use graphic rather than verbal skills in identifying relational concepts of physics. The effectiveness of the test was examined using both traditional and contemporary-PSSC (Physical Science Study Committee) physics. Two hundred twenty-six…

The purpose of this study was to compare the level of concept attainment achieved by students enrolled in a Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC) physics course with that achieved by students enrolled in a traditional high school physics course. A sample of 265 PSSC students and 219 enrolled in the traditional course participated. The instrument…

Fifty-nine secondary school physics students were assigned to treatment groups: (1) Project Physics units, (2) Project Physics and verbal learning unit, and (3) a training program in scientific inquiry. Posttest results revealed that, on most aspects of a science inquiry test, treatments 2 and 3 had significantly greater effect on achievement than…

This questionnaire, developed for use in evaluation of the Harvard Project Physics curriculum, consists of 90 Likert scale items selected to measure seven psychological variables: (1) dogmatism, (2) authoritarianism, (3) rigidity, (4) need-achievement, (5) order, (6) affiliation, and (7) change. Items were taken (with permission) from other scales…

This study compared the achievement and attitudes of twelfth-grade PSSC physics students when they were given lists of behavioral objectives as compared to when they were not given these lists prior to instruction. Five classes of students were involved, one class remaining a control group throughout the 20-week experiment. Students were…

Reported is an exploratory investigation to identify predictors of the variance of measure of high school students' willingness to become involved in science and their perception of the scientist. The study was prompted by three factors: (1) declining high school physics enrollments; (2) research revealing high school students have negative…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the Physics Curriculum Project developed by the Science Education Center of the University of the Philippines on student achievement. The sample was formed of senior high school students. The subjects were divided into four groups according to the combinations of curriculum materials and…

Factors related to the decisions of schools to adopt or not adopt an innovation in science education were studied. The investigations tested a five-factor model of the adoption process which was developed by the author and others during a previous investigation. Data were collected from a sample of 219 American physics teachers who had attended…

This study was designed to determine experimentally the relationship between achievement and grade level for 64 tenth-grade students, 48 eleventh-grade students, and 95 twelfth-grade physics students. All students were enrolled in the Project Physics course in their respective schools. The Physics Achievement Test (PAT) and the algebra I and II…