To support learning across settings, educators need to develop ways to elicit student interests and prior experiences. McClain and Zimmerman describe how, during outdoor walks at a nature center, families talked about prior experiences with nature, which were mostly from non-school settings. They used the prior experiences to remind, prompt, explain to, and orient one another during shared meaning-making activity.
This paper examines how students, teachers, and parents evaluate residential fieldwork courses. As in prior research, findings from questionnaire data indicate that fieldwork effects social, affective, and behavioural learning. More surprisingly, focus group interviews captured increases in cognitive learning as well. This paper underscores the value of out-of-school experiences, particularly for students from under-resourced backgrounds.
Researchers asked 5,000 Norwegian college-level students of STEM about the sources of inspiration for their educational choices. The most influential people were teachers and parents—the people who knew the young people best. The findings suggest that the most effective STEM role models are individuals who have a personal connection with the young person making education and career choices.
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.
Parents committed to bringing their children to zoos ascribed the value of the visits to promoting altruism to prepare their children for future social encounters; transferring their own environmental values; encouraging self-esteem; and inculcating cultural norms. This article suggests that ISE educators can attract/engage parents through appealing to moral development for children.
Informal science programs have potential for engaging audiences from non-dominant communities in unique ways. This article investigates specific elements of programs that African American mothers participating in this study preferred for their elementary-aged girls. For ISE educators, this research points out several elements to address when planning programs for African American audiences, including practical issues and content delivery methods, many of these elements could perhaps be applied more broadly for other non-dominant populations.
Data from 15 countries suggest that positive parental attitudes toward science are associated with higher student achievement in science. The findings also indicate that socioeconomic status has no effect on the relationship between parental attitudes and student achievement: Poorer students benefit just as much from positive parental attitudes as richer students.
How and why students develop productive science learning identities is a key issue for the education community (see Bell et al, 2009). Carlone, Scott, and Lowder describe the changes in the science identities of three students as they move from fourth to sixth grade. The authors discuss the processes — heavily mediated by race, class, and gender — by which the students position themselves, or are positioned by others, as being more or less competent learners in science.