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Provi M. Mayo, Assistant Professor
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Contact Info
Phone: (605) 688-6824
Fax: (605) 688-6364
E-mail: Provi.Mayo@sdstate.edu
Education
B.S., 1994, University of Puerto Rico,
Rio Pedras
M.S., 2000, Purdue University
Ph.D., 2004, Purdue University
My research interests lie in chemical education research and my ideas are mainly collected from my cultural background, research and teaching experiences. I intend to use my knowledge and research as a tool to identify problem areas and gather enough information through to formulate and implement changes that will help students in their chemistry learning. Below are areas of research that I’m interested in.
Manipulatives and abstract concept knowledge
Manipulatives refer to objects that can be touched and moved by students and are used to introduce a new abstract concept in class. Manipulatives have been used in the learning of mathematics since the 1940s, and research suggests that manipulatives are useful in helping children move from the concrete to the abstract level in math education. Manipulatives can be powerful teaching tools if they are used properly. Molecular models are the manipulative commonly used in organic chemistry. The students utilize them to learn molecular geometries, structures, configuration and isomerism. Models are generally used at the beginning of the course and are gradually abandoned by the students as the course progresses. I am interested in the manipulatives used in organic and inorganic chemistry, and what effects they have on the students’ learning.
Language and Culture
Language plays a crucial role in the learning of science by shaping the way students think and learn (Lemke, 1990). It may even determine the way the world is seen, as well as how it can be seen by a student (Hodson, 1998). Language can therefore serve as a barrier that must be overcome in the learning process. Thus, it isn’t surprising that learning can be even more of a challenge for bilingual students when science is taught in their non-native language.
In my masters work, I identified and described the problems second language learners suffer when learning science in a second language. I would like to perform a more detailed study using a broader range of chemical concepts to find out if the problems students faced while answering the interview questions were caused by semantic, syntactic, thematic context and/or pragmatic reasons. In the previous study,
I was able to identify certain nontechnical words used in natural speech which caused confusion to the students. The students were unable to explain the accurate conceptual meaning of these terms.
I would like to do a more detailed study in order to identify the source of these difficulties and to be able to understand them in order to find teaching alternatives. I would also like to address the effect that background experiences, culture and learning in a second language have on the knowledge and learning of science for second language students.
Students’ Visualizations
Information which is perceived tends to be organized in either verbal or spatial form. Each of these is connected with a particular sense modality; space with vision and language with hearing (Millar, 1994). However these associations between vision and space or hearing and language are not exclusive.
For blind as well as sighted children it is important to be able to use two-dimensional shapes as symbols in drawings. This would enable them to depict as well as understand drawings and pictures in which three or two-dimensional material is depicted in a drawing. By using symbols children, blind and sighted, can explain and refer to once abstract ideas in a concrete way. Studies have shown a positive correlation between spatial ability and achievement in chemistry. Pribyl and Bodner (1987) observed that high spatial ability students usually drew line structures when asked to draw a structure of an optically active compound while the low spatial ability students were less likely to do so. I am interested in how blind and sighted students visualize abstract chemistry material and how students as well as the professors cope with this type of concepts in a chemistry course.
Publications
Mayo, P.M. & Bodner, G.M. Science Concept Attainment in Second Language Learners, Journal of Research in Science Teaching. Submitted for publication. |
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