Doug Lombardi

The Challenges of Defining and Measuring Student Engagement in Science

Engagement is one of the hottest research topics in the field of educational psychology. Research shows that multifarious benefits occur when students are engaged in their own learning, including increased motivation and achievement. However, there is little agreement on a concrete definition and effective measurement of engagement. This special issue serves to discuss and work toward addressing conceptual and instrumentation issues related to engagement, with particular interest in engagement in the domain of science learning. We start by describing the dimensional perspective of engagement (behavioral, cognitive, emotional, agentic) and suggest a complementary approach that places engagement instrumentation on a continuum. Specifically, we recommend that instrumentation be considered on a “grain-size” continuum that ranges from a person-centered to a context-centered orientation to clarify measurement issues. We then provide a synopsis of the articles included in this special issue and conclude with suggestions for future research.

Coding Classroom Interactions for Collective and Individual Engagement

This article characterizes “engagement in science learning” from a sociocultural perspective and offers a mixed method approach to measuring engagement that combines critical discourse analysis (CDA) and social network analysis (SNA). Conceptualizing engagement from a sociocultural perspective, the article discusses the advantages of a mixed methodological approach, and specifically how mixed methods can expand and enrich our understanding of engagement in certain science learning situations. Through this sociocultural viewpoint, engagement is defined as meaningful changes in disciplinary discourse practice, which captures the dialectical relationship between the individual and collective. The combined use of CDA and SNA integrates an individuals relative position in a group with her situated language use.

Plausibility Judgments in Conceptual Change and Epistemic Cognition

Plausibility judgments rarely have been addressed empirically in conceptual change research. Recent research, however, suggests that these judgments may be pivotal to conceptual change about certain topics where a gap exists between what scientists and laypersons find plausible. Based on a philosophical and empirical foundation, this article presents a theoretical model of the role of plausibility judgments in conceptual change (PJCC) with implications for epistemic cognition. The PJCC moves beyond the limitations of cold cognitive processing by incorporating the warmer constructs of affect, motivation, and motivated reasoning. We review recent research in plausibility judgments that informed the PJCCs development and discuss components of the model. Of particular note is the importance of using explicit critical evaluation to reappraise plausibility judgments that may have been originally made through implicit cognitive processes. We also suggest potentially productive areas of future research based on the PJCC model.

Students’ evaluations about climate change

ABSTRACT Scientists regularly evaluate alternative explanations of phenomena and solutions to problems. Students should similarly engage in critical evaluation when learning about scientific and engineering topics. However, students do not often demonstrate sophisticated evaluation skills in the classroom. The purpose of the present study was to investigate middle school students’ evaluations when confronted with alternative explanations of the complex and controversial topic of climate change. Through a qualitative analysis, we determined that students demonstrated four distinct categories of evaluation when writing about the connections between evidence and alternative explanations of climate change: (a) erroneous evaluation, (b) descriptive evaluation, (c) relational evaluation, and (d) critical evaluation. These categories represent different types of evaluation quality. A quantitative analysis revealed that types of evaluation, along with plausibility perceptions about the alternative explanations, were significant predictors of postinstructional knowledge about scientific principles underlying the climate change phenomenon. Specifically, more robust evaluations and greater plausibility toward the scientifically accepted model of human-induced climate change predicted greater knowledge. These findings demonstrate that instruction promoting critical evaluation and plausibility appraisal may promote greater understanding of socio-scientific topics and increased use of scientific thinking when considering alternative explanations, as is called for by recent science education reform efforts.

The Role of Values in Preservice Teachers' Decision to Teach.

ABSTRACT The current study explored the values preservice teachers use as motivation for pursuing a teaching career. Preservice teachers (N = 97) from a large Northeastern urban university were chosen to complete a survey measuring personal utility value, social utility value, and epistemic value. Data analysis was conducted using exploratory factor analysis, correlations, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). Results indicated moderate and significant correlations among subscales; a two-group MANOVA demonstrated that females were rated higher on the subscale desire to work with children/adolescents and Secondary Education participants rated highest on social contribution; and a MANCOVA using sex as the covariate demonstrated that participants pursuing Early Childhood Education were rated higher on the personal utility value main scale and the time for family and job transferability subscales.

The role of values in pre-service teachers’ intentions for professional engagement

Abstract This study investigated inclusion of epistemic value into Richardson and Watt Factors Influencing Teaching Choice (FIT-Choice) framework to produce a more robust, useful teacher motivation model. We specifically examined pre-service teachers’ social utility value (SUV), personal utility value (PUV) and epistemic value regarding pursuing future professional engagement and development. Using principal axis factoring, we found four main factors: PUV, SUV, epistemic value—future value of knowledge (EVF) and persistence/satisfaction. These factors were then used in a structural equation model (SEM) to predict pre-service teachers’ intentions to pursue future professional engagement. Results provided the following three insights: (a) SUV was the most consistent, positive predictor of professional engagement and predicted all dependent variables; (b) EVF was a newly identified factor and a positive predictor of pre-service teachers’ desire to pursue a leadership position and (c) PUV negatively predicted planned effort and a desire to pursue a leadership position.