Erin E. Peters-Burton

Inclusive STEM High School Design: 10 Critical Components.

Historically, the mission of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) schools emphasized providing gifted and talented students with advanced STEM coursework. However, a newer type of STEM school is emerging in the United States: inclusive STEM high schools (ISHSs). ISHSs have open enrollment and are focused on preparing underrepresented youth for the successful pursuit of advanced STEM studies. They promise to provide a critical mass of nontraditional STEM students, defying stereotypes about who does STEM and creating positive STEM identities. In this article, we advance a conceptual framework designed to systematically capture the qualities of ISHSs that can provide exciting new possibilities for students and communities. An iterative review of the literature suggests 10 critical components that may work together across 3 dimensions: design, implementation, and outcomes. Our goal is to apply this framework in various school models to better understand the opportunity structures that emerge and to create a theory of action of ISHSs.

An Exploratory Study of Universal Design for Teaching Chemistry to Students With and Without Disabilities

In this exploratory study, students in four co-taught high school chemistry classes were randomly assigned to a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) treatment or a comparison condition. Each co-teaching team taught one comparison and treatment class. UDL principles were operationalized for treatment: (a) a self-management strategy (using a mnemonic, IDEAS) for the multi-step mole conversion process; (b) multi-media lessons with narration, visuals, and animations; (c) procedural facilitators with IDEAS for conversion support; and (d) student workbooks mirroring video content and containing scaffolded practice problems. All students completed a pre-test, post-test, and a 4-week delayed post-test. There were no significant differences between conditions; however, there was an interaction effect between students with and without disabilities for post-tests. Social validity indicated students found IDEAS helpful. Implications for future research include continued focus on disaggregated learning outcomes for students with and without disabilities for UDL interventions, and refinements for UDL interventions that benefit students with and without disabilities.

The Effect of Cognitive Apprenticeship-Based Professional Development on Teacher Self-Efficacy of Science Teaching, Motivation, Knowledge Calibration, and Perceptions of Inquiry-Based Teaching

This study investigated the effects of a 1-year professional development (PD) based on a cognitive apprenticeship model of research experiences on inservice teacher self-efficacy of science teaching, motivation, knowledge calibration, and perceptions of inquiry of 19 secondary earth science and biology teachers. The PD facilitator, who serves a dual role as a scientist and teacher educator, utilized a cognitive apprenticeship model to shape both scientific thinking and inquiry instruction with 19 inservice teachers. Results indicated that inservice teachers changed their perceptions of inquiry and maintained high self-efficacy throughout all phases of the study. However, teachers refrained from making long-term changes in their cognitive strategy instruction. Implications provide a fuller picture of teacher learning during a RET program, supported with inquiry instruction and the implications of cognitive apprenticeships in offering authentic science research experiences with minimal laboratory resources.

Weathercaster Views on Informal Climate Education: Similarities and Differences According to Climate Change Attitudes

ABSTRACT Surveys have found that weathercaster views on climate change are diverse, with a large majority agreeing that climate change is happening but most remaining unconvinced that human activities are the principal cause. We hypothesized that these differences in climate change views could have implications for weathercasters acting as informal climate change educators, as well as for professional development training for weathercasters attempting to serve such roles. We asked weathercasters at a professional society meeting to provide brief statements on climate change and their roles to educate viewers about climate. We then pooled these statements for an online card-sort activity completed by 29 weathercasters and used network analysis to study the epistemologies of groups according to climate change attitudes. Despite different views on climate change, all weathercasters had a shared ethos for developing their climate change views through consulting observational data and multiple sources of information. Additionally, all weathercasters shared the concern that informal climate education focus on “the science and only the science.” Looking specifically at factual statements on climate change, all weathercasters classified the statement, “Climate is always changing,” as significant for informal climate education. However, there were differences in how weathercasters perceived the importance of changes in the atmospheric concentration of CO2 and how it relates to human activities. The implications of these findings are twofold. First, without interventions to empower all weathercasters as science communicators, the community may split into communicators explaining the contributions of human activities to climate change versus those who question it. Second, professional societies can play important roles to confront this schism through forums that address conflict, the science–policy interface, and scientific discussions around climate. By appealing to values and codes of conduct shared by all weathercasters, professional development activities can help them build confidence in making public statements about climate change as well as to develop appropriate conceptual scaffolding for relationships between human activities, greenhouse gas emissions, global warming, and climate change.

Fun Science: The Use of Variable Manipulation to Avoid Content Instruction

This study examined the beliefs and rationale pre-service elementary teachers used to choose activities for upper-elementary students in a 1-week intensive science camp. Six undergraduate elementary pre-service teachers were observed as they took a semester-long science methods class that culminated in a 1-week science camp. This qualitative, phenomenological study found that counselors chose activities with the possibility of fun being a priority rather than teaching content, even after they were confronted with campers who demanded more content. Additionally, all six of the counselors agreed that activities involving variable manipulation were the most successful, even though content knowledge was not required to complete the activities. The counselors felt the variable manipulation activities were successful because students were constructing products and therefore getting to the end of the activity. Implications include building an awareness of the complexity of self-efficacy of science teaching and outcome expectancy to improve teacher education programs.

Strategies for Learning Nature of Science Knowledge: A Perspective from Educational Psychology

Learning about the nature of science is a crucial part of being a scientifically literate citizen in the modern age. This paper examines parallels between nature of science instruction and the processes explained by self-regulated learning theory, with a particular emphasis on the extension of effective strategies for learners which can be enhanced by the use of self-regulated learning cycles in classrooms. Explicit and reflective approaches to teaching the nature of science are examined and analyzed in terms of self-regulated learning theory, demonstrating learning processes that are addressed and those that are ignored by current explicit and reflective approaches. Results from emerging research on the use of self-regulated learning to teach nature of science knowledge, inquiry, and science practices are discussed.

Sixth-grade students’ engagement in academic tasks

ABSTRACT Student engagement is important for teachers and researchers because it is associated with student achievement. Guided by self-determination theory, this year-long case study used observations and interviews to examine six students’ behavioral, affective, and cognitive engagement in integrated literacy and social studies tasks. Task differences were rated according to the degree to which tasks were authentic, collaborative, challenging, student directed, and sustained. Results demonstrated that, overall, students were more engaged in tasks that include a higher degree of these elements. In particular, students reported that they were engaged in tasks that included collaboration, new learning, and teacher support.

Computational Thinking in the Context of Science and Engineering Practices: A Self-Regulated Learning Approach

A quality educational experience for secondary students involves more than an acquisition of content knowledge; it entails providing students opportunities to develop a variety of thinking skills that enable integration of knowledge and the promotion of student self-directed learning outside of the classroom. One critical skill that is often underemphasized in education is computational thinking. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to discuss the parallels between the processes of computational thinking and self-regulated learning, and the corresponding implications of this integrated framework for instruction in secondary classrooms. Guiding our analysis is the premise that because computational thinking processes can be viewed as goal-directed processes, it is possible to use self-regulated learning theory as a framework for assessing and enhancing computational thinking. Secondary educators have minimal experience with teaching computational thinking in the United States, so not only is a clear definition of computational thinking necessary in the Next Generation Science Standards, it is also necessary to have a learning theory from which to structure this type of thinking.

Implications of Gifted Student Selection Techniques for Scientific Creativity

When schools attempt to identify gifted children, quantitative measures are part of that identification process. While exploring the nexus of gifted children and science, it is worthwhile to ask, “How well are scientific ways of thinking represented on a commonly used metric to identify a gifted child?” This question has become even more important as the U.S. expands its attention on STEM and STEM education.

The Use of Clinical Interviews to Develop Inservice Secondary Science Teachers’ Nature of Science Knowledge and Assessment of Student Nature of Science Knowledge

Abstract To fully incorporate nature of science knowledge into classrooms, teachers must be both proficient in their own nature of science knowledge, but also skillful in translating their knowledge into a learning environment which assesses student knowledge. Twenty-eight inservice teachers enrolled in a graduate course which in part required a clinical interview. For the interview, teachers developed six increasingly difficult questions, interviewed a student, and analyzed the result. Findings show that while teachers needed scaffolding to write cognitively higher questions, they were, however, encouraged to shift their practice from asking questions that had one-word answers to engaging students in connecting knowledge.