Science

In today’s technologically complex and connected world, students’ needs to develop competencies and confidence with data have never been greater. A new On the Same Wavelength blog post shares work from a National Science Foundation project, Boosting Data Science Teaching and Learning in STEM. The authors describe effective practices for engaging all students with data in the classroom.

Perez , L. & Lionberger, K. (2023, May 3). Opening the door to data science in STEM classrooms. NextGenScience.

This self-reflective case study describes our project team’s efforts to promote equity in science professional learning (PL) by centering the voices of educators in the PL design process and within the course itself. We believe that educators’ experiences, priorities, and expertise are essential to developing professional learning that meets the needs of teachers and their students. We have a particular interest in amplifying the voices of those in historically underrepresented communities.

This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a professional development program rooted in knowledge generation theory. Specifically, it sought to examine the changes in teachers' three orientations following the completion of the first-year workshop, and how these changes impacted their classroom implementation. This investigation takes the form of a multiple-case study of twelve K-5 teachers. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and classroom observations.

The dimensionality of the epistemic orientation survey (EOS) was examined across four occasions with item factor analysis (IFA). Because of an emphasis on the knowledge generation of epistemic orientation (EO), four factors were selected and built into a short form of EOS (EOS-SF) including knowledge generation, knowledge replication, epistemic nature of knowledge, and student ability. To track the stability of the factor structure for each factor of EOS-SF, longitudinal invariance models were conducted. Partial measurement invariance was obtained for each of the four factors of EOS-SF.

In-service professional development is important for improving teaching. However, little research has examined how the roles, beliefs, and backgrounds of the individuals providing professional development can best be leveraged to create effective professional development programmes. A particularly understudied group are community-based On-Site Teacher Educators (OSTEs) who can serve as the bridge between university-based faculty and school employees. OSTEs are aware of the realities of classroom spaces, yet work outside of them, giving them a hybrid capacity to support teacher learning.

National standards that centre on the underpinning epistemic practices of the discipline has emphasised the need for teachers to focus much more on knowledge generation approaches to learning. Adopting a complexity perspective, we attempt to understand how teachers shift over time by examining their epistemic orientation to knowledge generation and their understanding of the nature of the epistemic tools of language, dialogue and argument that underpin these environments.

With an ultimate goal of characterizing teachers' movement toward understanding the epistemic complexity of generative learning environments, this study refers to adaptive teaching expertise (AdTex) as a developmental teaching capacity observable through a teacher's ability to utilize various resources to address the epistemic complexity of knowledge generation practices. The analysis and discussions centered on how teachers develop and utilize epistemic orientation and understandings of epistemic tools for adaptive teaching, making this study distinct from previous research on AdTex.

Abstract concepts, such as gravity, may provide the perfect opportunity to bring phenomena into the classroom. As a knowledge generation strategy, summarizing can foster that opportunity. Using phenomena and summary writing together might help student learning since it requires making connections between their ideas and words to explain the natural phenomena. This article describes how anchoring phenomena and summary writing were integrated into a cohesive unit by using five generative activities that include different language and epistemic practices.

We find ourselves at a time when the need for transformation in science education is aligning with opportunity. Significant science education resources, namely the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the Ambitious Science Teaching (AST) framework, need an intentional aim of centering social justice for minoritized communities and youth as well as practices to enact it. While NGSS and AST provide concrete guidelines to support deep learning, revisions are needed to explicitly promote social justice.

This chapter describes an ongoing research-practice partnership with in-service teachers in communities across Oregon focused on broadening participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Broadening participation is essential for creating more justice-centered STEM in our society and cannot occur without families and communities working in partnership with educators to ensure that community resources, needs, and multi-generational perspectives are centered in this work.