scholarly journals Patterns of Italian high school and university students’ attitudes towards physics: an analysis based on semiotic-cultural perspective

Author(s):  
Italo Testa ◽  
Raffaele De Luca Picione ◽  
Umberto Scotti di Uccio

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to analyse Italian high school and university students’ attitudes towards physics using the Semiotic Cultural Psychological Theory (SCPT). In the SCPT framework, attitudes represent how individuals interpret their experience through the mediation of generalized meaning with which they are identified. A view-of-physics questionnaire was used as an instrument to collect data with 1603 high school and university students. Data were analysed through multiple correspondence analysis and cluster analysis. We identified four generalized meanings of physics: (a) interesting and important for society; (b) a quite interesting, but badly taught subject at school and not completely useful for society; (c) difficult to study and irrelevant for society; and (d) a fascinating and protective niche from society. The identified generalized meanings are significantly correlated to the choice to study physics at undergraduate level and to the choice of attending physics-related activities in high school. Implications for research are discussed.

Author(s):  
José Pereira Coutinho

This article presents results of the author’s PhD thesis based on religious beliefs and practices, and attitudes of towards marriage, life, and sexuality. The sample included 500 undergraduate students from public universities of Lisbon. Applying multiple correspondence analysis and cluster analysis to these beliefs, practices, and attitudes, three clusters or types of religiosity were produced: nuclear Catholics, intermediate Catholics, and non-Catholics. These clusters were characterised in terms of religious socialisation, as well as of non-Catholic beliefs and practices, and aspects of life. When crossed with these last items, the clusters were renamed respectively: socio-centred orthodox, ambitious heterodox, activist and hedonist non-believers.


2011 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 483-507 ◽  
Author(s):  
David L. Mealand

Stylometric tests were run to assess whether, in Matthew, Q material differs in style from that of M. Correspondence Analysis was used on larger samples. Then counts of the five most frequent words in smaller samples were tested using three further methods: GLM, Discriminant Analysis and Cluster Analysis. These tests assigned about 80% of the samples to the expected source. This result permits a cautious preference for the Two Source Theory against the theory upheld by Farrer, Goulder and Goodacre.


Author(s):  
Konstantinos Korres

This paper studies the environment of the discovery learning/constructivistic approach using cognitive tools regarding students’ performance in tests involving different kinds of learning and in the final formal examinations and students’ attitudes towards the approach in Mathematics’ higher education. In particular the paper aims in identifying factors regarding students’ scores and attitudes affected by the approach and groups of students with similar characteristics based on these factors. Data was obtained by a study realized at the Department of Statistics and Insurance Sciences of the University of Piraeus, concerning the application of the discovery learning/constructivistic approach using Mathematica on the course Calculus (Functions of multiple variables). Multivariable analysis methods are used in the data analysis, in particular factor analysis in identifying factors and cluster analysis in identifying groups of students with similar characteristics, in combination with inferential statistics’ methods. The statistical package SPSS was used for the data analysis.


Südosteuropa ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Predrag Cvetičanin ◽  
Miran Lavrič

AbstractIn this paper, we explore whether the myriad production and consumption household practices in four societies of Southeastern Europe (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia) can empirically be reduced to a relatively small number of coherent and socially meaningful combinations, which we have labelled household strategies of action. Approaching the same data from two different angles, namely, using Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) and Two-Step Cluster Analysis (TCA), we have identified five general household strategies and eleven more detailed and specific sub-strategies. More importantly, by projecting these strategies and sub-strategies onto the social space, we have shown that these household practices are linked to the class position of households. On a more general level, it is indicated that the study of household strategies can be viewed as a way of rendering relatively static structural approaches, in this case the Bourdieusian approach to social space, more dynamic.


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