This research reports on the results of two studies which found that mathematically talented students who had had greater exposure to accelerated, enriched, and individualized STEM learning opportunities achieved more significant STEM accomplishments later in life than their matched counterparts. Notable accomplishments were designated as achieving STEM careers, STEM PhDs, STEM tenure, STEM publications, and STEM patents. The researchers found this relationship to hold true even when controlling for high levels of motivation. Furthermore, the research found that experiences that were more
Socioscientific issues bridge science and society. As such, they are open to multiple viewpoints and inherently associated with morality. This paper presents the findings from a year-long study designed to enhance students’ moral sensitivity so that they are better able to recognise and negotiate the moral arguments embedded with socioscientific issues (SSIs).
In this seminal paper from 2001, the researcher posits sociocultural perspectives as a useful theoretical and methodological lens for examining science education. The paper examines the types of questions that are asked when applying a sociocultural lens to the science classroom and usefully references several different bodies of work within the sociocultural tradition. The research paper discusses the ways in which non-sociocultural perspectives have positioned science and the processes of learning science in ways that privilege dispassionate rationality in a way that may not be easily
The purpose of the study was to investigate how situational interest was triggered for high-school students on an aquarium field trip. Although actual learning was not itself measured in this study, the author investigates how the museum setting triggers interest, which in turn influences learning and is therefore important to cultivate. As the author admits, some of the findings are intuitive but the study empirically confirms some approaches, which can spark situational interest. Five areas that triggered situational interest were identified through student interviews: social involvement
The authors of this paper use Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as a conceptual framework for understanding how technology is tied to culturally specific human practices, and what this means in an educational context. ISE professionals can use this paper to better understand the relationship between technology and science education and how technology as a cultural tool can represent inherent (privileged) epistemologies. The researchers in this study examined Reef Net technology of the WSNE (Saanich) First Nation to demonstrate how cultural ways of knowing are embedded in the
The premise underpinning this study is that a learner’s ability to describe and engage conceptually with scientific phenomena is dependent upon his or her ability to understand and use scientific language. The authors thus argue that teaching and learning of science should be divided into conceptual and discursive components, an approach they call ‘disaggregate instruction.’ The authors found that students taught in this manner outperformed those taught traditionally. The authors highlight the impact of this finding for all educators, and note that it may be particularly significant for
This article provides a review of the research literature concerning scientific argumentation in the K-12 classroom. The researcher argues that not all forms of argumentation promote an understanding of scientific practice, and therefore not all support scientific literacy. This paper identifies three main approaches to lessons that aim to introduce students to scientific argumentation: (1) immersion, (2) structure, and (3) socioscientific. The research draws on the work of Ford (2008) and others to find that immersion strategies – lessons in which argumentation is integrated into the
A place-based approach to an inquiry unit on watersheds created opportunities for the development of student conceptions of the human and natural components of urban watersheds. Through direct inquiry experience in the natural environment, student learning and attachment to place was observed.
ISE educators may operate with the assumption that visitors come to the museum for learning, but this research shows that, two years after the visit, what these adult visitors remember is linked to their identity-related motivations for their visit. Based on five broad categories (explorers, facilitators, professional/hobbyists, experience seekers, and rechargers; see Falk 2006), this research shows that what museum visitors learn, remember about their experience, and its subsequent impact are influenced by how the museum meets the needs of these learners.
Using Gee’s (2004) notion of ‘affinity spaces’ – places where people collaboratively interact in response to a common interest or affinity – this paper examines how a week-long astronomy camp can shape student self-identities. The paper also examines the design of the camp and notes that it successfully blends the ‘student-led research’ approach with the ‘cognitive-apprenticeship model’.
The value of science literacy is often taken for granted on the grounds that some understanding of science is useful for all students, not just those who will become scientists. In this paper, the author considers whether science literacy, as traditionally imagined, is actually useful. The paper includes a summary of current perspectives on science literacy, all of which, he argues, aim to produce marginal insiders: people who have had a glimpse of science content and process but no sense of how to connect science with their everyday lives. The author argues for a new perspective on science
This paper reports on a study examining the reflections of 37 scientists and engineers regarding significant experiences in childhood that may have influenced their career choices. Commonalities across the responses include motivational teachers, informal advising and mentoring from family members and teachers, opportunities to tinker and build models and independent explorations of science both in and out of school.