Marion Usselman

Latino parents’ educational values and STEM beliefs

Purpose This paper aims to provide a snapshot of K-12 Latino families’ beliefs about education, their awareness and interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers and their perceived educational challenges. It builds on the existent body of literature by dispelling pervasive notions that Latino parents do not value education. It contributes to the field by providing evidence of Latino parents’ beliefs, awareness and interest in STEM careers for their children. Design/methodology/approach This study reports the results of a focus group needs assessment conducted with Latino parents, surveys and interviews collected for three years during Latino family-focused events. Findings Surveyed parents thought children should attend college to prepare for a better future and career decisions should be dependent on their preference and vocation. They believed STEM careers were important for the Latino community and reported talking to their children about having a job in STEM. Parents perceived several challenges for their children’s education, such as cost, immigration status, lack of information and language barriers. Practical implications Stereotypes regarding Latino family’s beliefs about education have implications for how school systems, educational gatekeepers and stakeholders perceive these students’ opportunities. This paper discredits the perception that Latino parents are not interested in their children attending college or pursuing STEM careers. Originality/value There is a dearth of information about Latino families’ perceptions of their children’s educational goals, knowledge of STEM careers and their interest in such fields. This paper provides a fundamental step toward filling that gap.

Dismantling Stereotypes About Latinos in STEM

The present study compared the effectiveness of a self-affirmation and a role model guest lecture intervention on reducing students’ perceptions of science-related social identity threat. Participants included 67 Latino high school students enrolled in a college preparation program. Students were randomly assigned either to a self-affirmation intervention or a self-affirmation control task, and the role model intervention was open to all students, with some choosing to participate. Results from an ANCOVA found the combination of both interventions had an identity threat reducing effect of moderate magnitude on perceptions of identity threat, and planned contrasts found statistically significant differences in perceptions of identity threat between students who received both interventions and no intervention, and between students who received both interventions and the self-affirmation task alone. Our research suggests that using multiple and combined interventions might provide an important advantage in order to reduce perceptions of identity threat in Latino students.

Simulation-based performance assessment: an innovative approach to exploring understanding of physical science concepts

ABSTRACT This paper illustrates the use of simulation-based performance assessment (PA) methodology in a recent study of eighth-grade students’ understanding of physical science concepts. A set of four simulation-based PA tasks were iteratively developed to assess student understanding of an array of physical science concepts, including net force, acceleration, velocity, and inertia. Illustrative examples drawn from the administration of these simulation-based PA tasks to a sample of eighth-grade students (n = 74) highlight the potential of simulation-based tasks for revealing conceptual understanding of science concepts and for informing curriculum development within the context of design-based implementation research. The paper also describes a variety of challenges encountered over the course of the development, administration, and analysis of the PA data that may be informative for researchers and educators as they consider implementing simulation-based PAs.