Although a concern for gender equity provided the framework for this research,
the results of this study highlighted the fact that the question of equity should be
broadened to include concern for the tier of talented women and men who currently
choose not to persist in an undergraduate computer science...
The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine scientific arguments constructed by secondary science teachers during instruction. The analysis focused on how arguments constructed by teachers differed based on the mode of inquiry underlying the topic. Specifically, how did the structure and content of arguments differ between experimentally and...
Multiple factors are known to influence student success in higher education. Barriers to postsecondary success for underrepresented STEM students are numerous and well documented. We detail an exploratory study of STEM faculty notions of successful students and the instructional practices they employ to cultivate student success. We use a conceptual...
This paper explores the affordances and constraints of STEM faculty members' instructional data-use practices and how they engage students (or not) in reflection around their own learning data. We found faculty used a wide variety of instructional data-use practices. We also found several constraints that influenced their instructional data-use practices,...
A large body of research has examined how children enter the science classroom
with previously formed ideas about the content they will learn. These ideas influence how
the child interprets instruction. This study reversed the investigative focus by exploring
how children's ideas in science influence teaching. Specifically, the study examined...
Citizen science work has built the foundation of much of our knowledge on regional-scale large cetacean spatial patterns through historical whaling data. Historical whaling data on sperm whales was used as an example to show the type of ecological questions large-scale, long-term citizen science datasets can address. Results from the...
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are a recent set of standards that leverage decades of research to present an innovative and coherent image for K 12 science education in the United States. Major themes in the NGSS include the intertwining of learning and doing science, addressing connections across scientific...
Scientific inquiry in K-12 classrooms tends to be procedural, lacking opportunities for students to gain understanding of how scientific knowledge is constructed through reflection, debate, and argument. Limited opportunity to develop scientific argumentation skills prevents students from practicing the scientific thinking needed to understand the nature of scientific knowledge and...
This investigation was designed to determine the extent to
which students who are completing planned curricula in science education
are proficient in aspects of critical thinking, and possess
understandings of science consistent with those of the practicing
scientist. The effects of science curricula upon the development of
these abilities and...