Through a study of 14 preschool classrooms serving low-income children from diverse ethnic backgrounds, the authors illustrate how carefully incorporating play-based learning into curricula can improve both literacy and social competence skills. The results illuminate how to more deeply engage learners with informal science education.
The fact that inquiry-based science teaching has been defined in various ways makes claims about its effectiveness with students difficult to synthesize. In this meta-analysis, the authors generate a two-dimensional framework to analyze studies of the effectiveness of inquiry-based science instruction in improving student learning outcomes.
How do people respond to needing information about something as scary as climate change? Yang and Kahlor investigated the role of emotion when people seek new information or stop paying attention to information about climate change. People who were worried about climate change were likely to search out information, and people who were hopeful were not – probably because they didn’t want new information to change their beliefs.
Through this review of research on public engagement with science, Feinstein, Allen, and Jenkins advocate supporting students as “competent outsiders”—untrained in formal sciences, yet using science in ways relevant to their lives. Both formal and informal settings can be well suited for work in which students translate scientific content and practices into meaningful actions.
This study examined the validity of the Draw-A-Scientist Test (DAST), which is commonly used to capture students’ perceptions of scientists. Findings suggest that the DAST is not valid as a sole measurement. The originally identified stereotypical traits are no longer widely held by students.
Integrating technology with reformed-based science instruction that facilitates student inquiry can be challenging for teachers. Campbell, Longhurst, Wang, Hsu, and Coster propose a professional development model that helps teachers use the latest technologies to engage students in authentic science practices.
Why do some people move into science while others move away? Salehjee and Watts collected 12 personal biographies that provide rich descriptions of the different paths—direct or more wavering—that individuals follow. The implications of this study suggest that the informal science sector needs to “keep doors open” for individuals at transition points.
Wallace and Brooks examined the culture of an elementary science education methods course conducted in a summer science camp, along with the professional identity development of the preservice teachers during their participation in the course.
Recent years have brought a shift in the rhetoric of science communication from initial deficit models to practices involving dialogue and, finally, engagement. But to what extent has this rhetorical shift changed practice in the U.K.? Jensen and Holliman analysed practitioners’ views of their science communication practices. Findings indicate that science communication practice is still primarily deficit-based, with some incidence of dialogue-oriented thinking.
To date, no national studies of science-focused out-of-school time (OST) programs have been implemented, making it difficult to get a sense of program diversity and characteristics. In this paper, Laursen, Thiry, Archie, and Crane map the national landscape of U.S. OST science, technology, and engineering programs. The findings allow the authors to describe a generalized profile for each of eight types of OST program providers.
How do people make sense of conflicting beliefs? Although Gottlieb & Wineburg’s paper is about highly educated professionals reading history, informal science educators will recognize similar issues when working with people who hold beliefs incompatible with scientific ways of understanding the world. “Epistemic switching” was a way of considering criteria for truth, reliability, and validity according to one belief system or another. Rather than simply believing or excluding ideas as people who held to only one value system, the people with multiple, competing affiliations actually more
How can technology be used to support inquiry in the classroom? In this study, Rehmat and Bailey probe the effects of a science methods course for preservice elementary teachers that explicitly includes technology integration. The preservice teachers in this course broadened their definition of classroom technology, increased their technology use, and gained a more positive outlook on technology integration.