This paper describes a Saturday science program for K-2 students designed to enhance their understanding of the nature of science. Teaching strategies were used to explicitly address all the elements of NOS—the role of empirical data, the distinction between observation and inference, the creative processes of science, the subjective (theory-laden) nature of research, and the tentative (though robust) NOS knowledge.
In this article, Lyon, Jafri, and St. Louis discuss the limitations of the concept of the “STEM pipeline,” an analogy commonly used in education and policy discussions to describe the academic progression of students from elementary school through higher education in STEM, ideally resulting in employment in a science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) field. Based on a decade of experience with the urban out-of-school time (OST) program Project Exploration, the authors propose a conceptual framework that supports youth development goals in addition to STEM learning. The Youth-Science
This paper describes a teacher professional development initiative aimed at improving science and mathematics teaching and learning and which comprised 1700 schools by the second phase. The initiative fostered cooperation at the school and inter-school levels and involved teachers selecting “modules”—a framework of resources to support development which address previously identified problem areas.
Students often come to informal learning settings expecting to engage just as they would in a science classroom. This may pose a challenge to ISE educators who want to break out of the ""classroom game,"" in which students are expected to receive and reproduce knowledge. How do educators set the tone to ""reframe"" the interaction to something more productive, in which the learners have a role in the production and assessment of knowledge, leading to a deeper understanding of concepts or theories?
This article examines preservice student teachers’ views of students’ prior knowledge, specifically how these views change over time with classroom experience and where they diverge from the beliefs teachers express in their education methods courses. Teachers’ beliefs about student “misconceptions” have implications for the way they teach and for their thinking on how students learn. The observations made in the study offer informal science education (ISE) practitioners a useful reminder about the value of recognizing and building on student misconceptions, an approach that forms the basis of
The participation in a single planetarium program that incorporated kinesthetic learning techniques improved students’ understanding of celestial motion. Even though this study is focused on astronomy and planetariums, it is of relevance to educators who interface with learners at single events or are working with schools to integrate or complement their informal education offerings with the formal curriculum.
This study looks at how characteristics of parent-child dyads, in combination with exhibit qualities, contribute to their interactions in a science center. Parent schooling, parent and child attitudes toward science, and the type of activity supported at the exhibits play a role in how they interact together. For ISE professionals, this study shows that parents exert a great deal of influence over what and how their children feel and learn about science.
In this study, researchers investigated the commonly held view that collaboration improves scientific argumentation. The study tested the perspective that in collaborative investigations individuals build off each others' ideas, taking advantage of different cognitive and monitoring resources in the group, in order to develop more compelling and accurate scientific arguments than they would have if they had been working alone. The study results showed a mix of outcomes for the students.
A modified guided tour increased students’ intrinsic motivation, interest, and perceived competence, and was more interesting and less boring than a traditional docent-led tour. Providing students with more opportunities for group work and active participation led to improvement in understanding and motivational and emotional states during the visit. Experiencing less negative emotions (anger) during the visit and prior knowledge contributed to a better understanding.
Primary teachers in England recognize opportunities for creativity and score scientifically creative incidents higher compared with incidents that represented reproductive thought but showed narrow conceptions of school science creativity. More opportunities were seen in descriptive rather than explanatory science, particularly in practical over non-practical activities and practical applications over reproductive thought.
In this article, the author describes the process and result of a statewide effort in New York to develop an afterschool quality framework and assessment tool that can be used to guide program design, reflection, and assessment. One benefit of the tool is that it can be used by program stakeholders without the participation (i.e., the expense) of an external observer. This article might be of interest to ISE educators seeking to adopt existing program evaluation tools that do not require the participation of external evaluators.
This paper contributes to a growing body of literature examining ways of supporting teaching and learning of socio-scientific issues (SSIs). Comparing experiences in two schools—one with a monoethnic student population, the other multiethnic—the study finds that both groups of students struggle with meaningful engagement in SSIs.