Analysis of Doctor' Dissertations in Science Education Produced mainly by the Universities in the USA.

미국대학을 중심으로한 과학교육분야 박사학위 논문분석

The condensed results of the analytical study on 361 doctoral dissertations in science education recorded in Dissertation Abstracts International during the years of 1985-1989 are as follows: About eighty to hundred dissertations were produced annually, but a slight decline in number was noted currently. About 94.4% of dissertations were produced by the universities in the USA The research data of 361 dissertations were collected from 25 countries. Over 40% of total dissertations had been focused on high school(senior middle school) and college students as the source of research. Disciplines of science constituting the background of dissertations were biology(l9.l%), physics(l2.7%), chemistry(12.0%) and earth science(2.5%). Concerning the research branches, the number of dissertations belonging to complex research(composed of experimental and theoretical research) was 118(32.7%) and those belonging to experimental and theoretical research were 88(24.4%) and 74(20.5%) respectively. Also that belonging to computer-aided research was 45(12.5%). The general methods of data collection were examination & test(34.9%), questionaire(22.2%) and complexmethod(9.1%). The main areas of dissertations were academic achievement(31.8%), teaching assessment(20.2%) and pedagogy(l8.8%).