Bang, Warren, Rosebery, and Medin explore empirical work with students from non-dominant communities to support teaching science as a practice of inquiry and understanding, not as a “settled” set of ideas and skills to learn.
This paper’s findings illustrate the claim that young people’s prior knowledge cannot be separated from the cultural context in which it is situated. Using examples from a longitudinal ethnographic study of 13 children, the authors Bricker and Reeve argue that, in order to understand young people’s thinking and practice, we need to understand the social and cultural systems in which their thinking is embedded.
This article makes a case for providing multiple types of hands-on resources to support learner inquiry. More specifically, a computer simulation of an electric circuit complemented work with a real circuit to support learners’ conceptual development. When learners had the opportunity to use both simulated and real circuits, less structured guidance seemed to benefit the inquiry process.
To create more equitable learning opportunities for students from marginalized communities, educators can design learning experiences that help young people connect their everyday interests and knowledge to academic content. Nasir et al. synthesized research on how students use sophisticated math in everyday practices like discussing basketball, playing dominoes, and selling candy. Then they explain how learning improves when varied student experiences are made relevant in informal and formal learning environments.
This paper explores how science-aspiring girls balance their aspirations and achievement with societal expectations of femininity. In-depth interviews revealed two models that the girls tended to follow, termed feminine scientist or bluestocking scientist, and the precarious nature of both of these identities. Archer et al. suggest ways that practitioners can better support girls in their balancing acts.
This article describes how two inquiry games promoted student science skills in a museum setting while minimizing demands on teachers, fostering collaboration, and incorporating chaperones. Students who played these games engaged in more scientific inquiry behaviors than did students in control groups.
The aim of the work reported here has been to give an overview of the support that the informal sector provides for learning and engagement with science. In addressing this goal, we have taken the view that engagement with science and the learning of science occur both within and without schools. What is of interest is not who provides the experience or where it is provided but the nature and diversity of opportunities for science learning and engagement that are offered in contemporary UK society. Thus in approaching the work we have taken a systems perspective and looked at informal
What is the relationship between experiences in informal settings and students’ understanding of and attitudes toward science? By analysing existing data sets, Suter finds that science museum attendance has an effect—albeit a small one—on student achievement.
This Barron and Bell article provides a foundational overview for how “cross-setting learning” can equitably engage all youth across formal and informal educational contexts. The paper offers: 1) a review of research; 2) descriptions of supports and challenges to cross-setting learning, including learner interest and identity; and 3) suggestions for research and assessments that capture learning for underrepresented youth.
This Stocklmayer, Rennie, and Gilbert article outlines current challenges in preparing youth to go into science careers and to be scientifically literate citizens. The authors suggest creating partnerships between informal and formal education to address these challenges in school.
Today’s standardized testing methods are too narrow for measuring 21st-century learning that occurs across time and diverse social contexts, from formal to informal and embodied to virtual. This paper uses the concept of “connected learning” to illustrate what 21st-century education involves; it then describes research methods for documenting this learning.
There can be a mistaken impression that the new vision for K-12 science education is only relevant to classroom science instruction. But youth frequently engage in powerful science and engineering activities that take place after or outside-of-school. They learn STEM content, engage in STEM practices, and develop an understanding of how STEM is used in the world. To capitalize on those assets, educators and other stakeholders should learn about, leverage, and broker connections for youth across the STEM learning experiences available in and out of school.