Noleine Fitzallen

Turning Good Ideas into Quality Research

Often the good ideas and questions that beginning researchers wish to explore are influenced by extensive professional or personal experiences and well established views about the fields of study (Holbrook & Johnston, 1999). It is, therefore, important that subsequent educational research projects not only honour those views, to maintain motivation and interest, but also positions the views within a scholarly frame.

Using engineering activities to engage middle school students in physics and biology

Abstract It is well documented that female students show greater engagement with the biological sciences whilst male students gravitate towards the physical sciences. In this study, it is proposed that implementing learning programmes that utilise the engineering process has the potential to influence middle school students’ interest in academic disciplines where their gender is under-represented. To foster boys’ and girls’ curiosity for and engagement with biology and physics, respectively, middle school students worked through a series of engineering tasks delivered by a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) Education and Outreach Team. The activities included a series of hands-on workshops that focused on biomedical technology and the physics of human hearing and speech. The research included an analysis of data collected through student surveys. The survey included an adapted Draw-A-Scientist Test. The learning programme’s outcomes are discussed in terms of influence on student engagement and the way in which students identify with physics and biology careers and occupations.

Developing a Sequence of Learning Experiences in Statistics

Planning meaningful learning experiences in a discipline such as statistics, leads to a search for starting points both from a general learning perspective and from the developmental pathways known to contribute to understanding the content chosen.

Structure by Design: Reasoning About Covariation with TinkerPlots

What is an appropriate structure for reporting a study of the development of students’ understanding of covariation when using exploratory data analysis software, TinkerPlots Dynamic Data Exploration, following a pragmatist paradigm, and adopting educational design research methodology?

Outcomes for engineering students delivering a STEM education and outreach programme

ABSTRACT University science outreach programmes are used to encourage more school students to select science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects in further education and pursue science-related careers. The benefits of science outreach programmes are often espoused from the perspective of programme participants. Little attention, however, is given to what university students delivering the programmes gain from the experience. This paper seeks to illustrate the benefits of engineering students delivering STEM outreach programmes in schools. It reports on a qualitative case study of the experiences of two STEM Education and Outreach team members from a regional university in Australia. Content analysis of interview data highlighted not only the participants’ motivations and perceived benefits of being involved in the STEM programme but also revealed the skills and attributes honed throughout the experience. Involvement in the STEM outreach programme resulted in the development of social and personal responsibility generic graduate attribute skills, evidenced through their motivations to be involved, the demonstration of understanding of teaching and learning, and application of science communication skills. This study demonstrates that designing and delivering STEM outreach programmes assists in the development of skills that will be beneficial when pursuing careers in engineering in the future.

Engagement and educational technologies

Engagement in the educational context is a fundamental principle that underpins the relationships and interactions among teachers, students, and resources. This simplistic stance belies the complexities of those relationships and the individual components. Each of the components has multiple characteristics and dimensions that add to the complex nature of learning and teaching, which may vary for different levels of schooling.