Date
3-22-2024
Department
School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Education (PhD)
Chair
Kristy Motte
Keywords
online learning, nontraditional laboratories, science education, higher education, science faculty, remote labs, online labs, lab kits
Disciplines
Education
Recommended Citation
Bostic, Jessie, "A Transcendental Phenomenological Study Examining Science Faculty Experiences with Change When Transitioning from Traditional Laboratories to Non-Traditional Laboratories" (2024). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 5288.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/5288
Abstract
The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe science faculty’s experiences with change as they transitioned from using traditional laboratories to using non-traditional laboratories at postsecondary institutions. The theory that guided this study was the transtheoretical model of change, as it explains the processes of change the faculty may have gone through as they transitioned from using traditional laboratories to non-traditional laboratories. A transcendental phenomenological qualitative design was used with a sample of 10 purposely selected post-secondary science faculty members to answer the study’s central question: What are the shared lived experiences of science faculty transitioning from traditional laboratories to non-traditional laboratories at post-secondary institutions? Data collection included semi-structured interviews with each participant, a sample of a non-traditional laboratory exercise chosen by the participant, and a semi-structured focus group discussion forum. Moustakas’s transcendental phenomenological data analysis triangulated the pertinent themes found through reduction, horizonalization, and imaginative variation. There were four themes identified in the study: support during the transition, the effects of infrastructure on the transition, the faculty’s change in role during the transition, and the faculty’s embracement of change.
