Brett A. Criswell

Stemming the Diffusion of Responsibility: A Longitudinal Case Study of America’s Chemistry Teachers

National initiatives to expand the aggregate science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workforce reflect America’s goals to increase global competitiveness. However, the aggregation of STEM stakeholders may elicit a diffusion of responsibility because individuals assume others are already acting. Here, we perform a longitudinal case study of U.S. public school chemistry teachers to illustrate a diffusion of responsibility within the STEM community regarding who is responsible for the teacher workforce. Utilizing the 1987–2007 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) data, we determine how chemistry teacher demographics compare to other disciplines. Our results suggest that the aggregate success of STEM education initiatives may mask the need for discipline-specific reform. We describe reforms in the context of boundary objects and discuss implications for policy decisions as boundary crossings.

Pushing for particulate level models of adiabatic and isothermal processes in upper-level chemistry courses: a qualitative study

In the past three decades, researchers have noted the limitations of a problem-solving approach that overemphasizes algorithms and quantitation and neglects student misconceptions and an otherwise qualitative, conceptual understanding of chemical phenomena. Since then, studies and lessons designed to improve student understanding of chemistry has overwhelmingly targeted introductory level, high school and first-year college students. In this article, we present a model-based learning cycle approach with upper-level undergraduate and beginning graduate students that investigated their ability to model the adiabatic and isothermal compression/expansion of a gas in a syringe. We were interested to observe, given the extent of their previous chemistry coursework, how students struggled to connect macroscopic observations with particulate representations. Analysis of laboratory reports, reflective journal entries, and classroom discourse transcripts indicate the learning experience was efficacious in uncovering and addressing student conceptual challenges with using models appropriately to describe gas behaviour under the experimental conditions for this investigation.

Teacher Noticing in Various Grade Bands and Contexts: Commentary

The chapters in this section explore professional noticing in contexts that include both middle and high school pre- and in-service teachers. The authors employ different theoretical and conceptual frameworks, and examine the professional noticing activities of their participants using different research methodologies. To try to tie together these different intellectual contributions, we present and provide initial considerations of six overarching questions related to this important field of scholarship. The hope is that readers will also consider these questions, and will reflect on the way the authors within this section address them as we work as a field to deepen our understanding of professional noticing.

Plugging the ‘Leaky Bucket’ of Early Career Science Teacher Attrition through the Development of Professional Vision

The demand for a qualified, competent, and stable K12 science teaching workforce is being emphasized now more than ever. Widespread dissemination and discussion of reports from the National Academies (Augustine, 2005; Committee & Medicine, 2010), President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technnology (PCAST; Lander & Gates Jr., 2010), and even directly from the White House (Larson, 2012) attest to this fact.

A Diaper a Day and What's Going on with Gaviscon?: Two Lab Activities Focusing on Chemical Bonding Concepts

The call to present chemistry concepts through hands-on, inquiry-based activities has been sounded by countless individuals. While research seems to indicate that this is the most effective way to teach the subject matter, there are certain topics within the realm of chemistry that do not seem to lend themselves well to this approach. One of them is chemical bonding. This article presents a couple of laboratory activities that are designed to help high school-level students gain insight into some basic principles of chemical bonding.The first activity, A Diaper a Day, has the goal of introducing students to the differences between ionic and covalent bonding that manifest themselves in the different ways that sample compounds from each category interact with a sodium polyacrylate–water gel. The second activity, Whats Going on with Gaviscon?, helps introduce the students to the connection between the families on the periodic table and how elements engage in chemical bonding. It does this by looking at the ...