TYPES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ SCIENCE IDENTITY

This study examined how a contextually based authentic science experience affected the science identities of urban high school students who have been marginalized during their K-12 science education. We examined students’ perceptions of the intervention as an authentic science experience, how the experience influenced their science identity, as well as their perceptions about who can do science. We found that the students believed the experience to be one of authentic science, that their science identity was positively influenced by participation in the experience, and that they demonstrated a shift in perceptions from stereotypical to more diverse views of scientists. Implications for science education are discussed.

Active learning pedagogies such as inquiry-based learning have the potential not only to improve students’ science literacy but also promote affective learning and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. Moreover, a focus on affective learning may be key to improve recruitment in STEM. Yet, we know little about how participation in inquiry-based courses can impact college students’ affective learning. Here, we present results from a comparative analysis of two affective learning outcomes, attitudes toward science and science identity, after participation in inquiry-based laboratory courses. Then, we synthesize what we have learned about successes and limitations to promoting growth in positive attitudes toward science and science identity after participation in these courses. Our work focuses on non-science majors who are deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing signers in bilingual (American Sign Language and written English) inquiry-based biology laboratory courses. We concentrate on the Deaf Community because deaf individuals often face challenges regarding access in STEM education. Our results indicate that participation in inquiry-based laboratory courses has the potential to positively influence students’ attitudes toward science via repeated engagement with hands-on, student-driven experimentation, peer collaboration, and a welcoming classroom environment. However, participation in these classes had a limited impact on students’ science identities. Some students saw themselves as scientists during laboratory classes, however, their science identities beyond the classroom remained unchanged. While inquiry-based laboratories successfully promote one aspect of affective learning, work is needed to improve students’ science identities and increase interest in STEM careers to more effectively recruit students in these courses.

The literature commonly agrees on the importance of science identity in determining students’ career choices. Yet, there is a lack of empirical research on how diverse learning experiences contribute to the formation of science identity and influence future career choice. Moreover, although early studies often considered science identity as a direct determinant of career choice, recent findings indicate that an insufficient science identity is not solely responsible for low aspirations towards science-related careers. Rather, inadequate chances for career exploration seem to have a more significant impact. Consequently, examining the potential mediating role of career exploration in the link between science identity and science-related career choice is essential. Building on these premises, the present study seeks to systematically explore how diverse learning experiences (i.e., out-of-school informal learning and in-school inquiry-based learning), multiple dimensions of science identity (i.e., competence/performance beliefs, interest, external recognition, and holistic impressions on science identity), and career exploration collectively shape students’ science-related career choices. Survey data from 2836 Chinese junior high school students (aged 12–16) were analyzed using network analysis and multi-group structural equation modeling. The results revealed that career exploration was the most robust direct predictor of science-related career choice across sexes among all variables in the study. Furthermore, science identity influenced career choice indirectly by mediating career exploration. In addition, both types of learning experiences positively impacted career choice through the mediating role of science identity and career exploration, with informal learning experiences having a stronger influence than inquiry-based learning. Notably, career exploration and competence/performance beliefs played a more significant bridging role in connecting learning experiences with science-related career choice. Finally, the relationships between learning experiences, science identity, career exploration, and career choice differed by sex. Our findings demonstrate that learning experiences influence career choice through the sequential mediating effects of science identity and career exploration. Career exploration plays a crucial role in translating students’ science identity, developed through learning experiences, into concrete career choices. Together, these findings provide important insight into the underlying mechanisms that influence students’ science-related career choices.

New discoveries and technological inventions render the world increasingly complex. Fostering students’ scientific and technological literacy has, therefore, become a primary goal for many science educators. Yet the concept of scientific literacy is itself not at all clear. In this article, we contest the dominant approach, which defines scientific literacy in terms of what scientists produce or do. We argue that a more viable approach begins by framing a more general project of (democratic) citizenship and asks what kind of scientific literacy can contribute to this project. The different parts of our argument are illustrated with data from a three-year ethnographic study of science in one community. These data feature adult residents who were dealing with the contested issue of whether or not to extend the existing water main in order to supply with water a part of the community that, at the time, had to rely on seasonally contaminated wells. Irrespective of their science background, these citizens engaged scientists. We argue that educating for citizenship presupposes participation in democratic processes, a stance that has considerable implications for science education.

One of the primary objectives of science education is to cultivate students’ science identity, and evidence points to the efficacy of inquiry-based learning in advancing this objective. Nevertheless, recent concerns have emerged regarding the effectiveness of information technology in supporting scientific research and its impact on students’ science identity. This study explores this domain through a comparative experiment conducted with fifth-grade students at a Chinese elementary school. Utilizing the Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) and the “Solar Oven” STEM learning unit, it scrutinizes the effects of web-based inquiry and traditional inquiry on students’ science identity development. The findings indicate that web-based inquiry is equally effective as traditional inquiry in fostering students’ science identity, especially in the two dimensions of “recognition” and “performance”. Notably, web-based inquiry surpasses traditional inquiry by significantly improving seven out of eleven assessed indicators, while traditional inquiry improves only four indicators. This research provides valuable insights into how integrating information technology within an inquiry-based learning environment can support Chinese elementary school students in developing their science identity. These results have significant implications for science education by demonstrating that web-based inquiry is a valuable approach for fostering science identity among elementary school students.

Piagetian and post-Piagetian conceptions of development and their implications for science education in early childhood

Environmental, economic, and social trends suggest the need for more sustainable ways of thinking and patterns of behaviour. Such a shift would require humanity to function at high levels of ecological literacy, which relies on a certain amount of scientific literacy. However, troubling evidence indicates an international pattern of student disengagement with science at the secondary level. Evidence also suggests that it is difficult to integrate environmental or sustainability education at this level, both within New Zealand and elsewhere. This research was aimed at examining the use of a novel approach, using permaculture, in junior secondary science (Years 9 and 10) to enhance students’ ecological and scientific literacy, as well as their attitudes toward studying science in school.Permaculture is an ecological design system based on science and ethics. A permaculture approach to science education involves eco-design thinking, as well as the use of local permaculture properties and practitioners, and the science behind common permaculture practices. The approach is also meant to be relevant and engaging, and to promote systems thinking. This study involved the design and delivery of an intervention based on permaculture principles to one Year 10 science class in New Zealand.Research took the form of a naturalistic, interpretive, mixed methods case study, which included the use of questionnaires, interviews, and observations. Data collection focused on the impacts of a permaculture approach on the teaching and learning of science, on students’ ecological literacy, and on students’ attitudes toward learning science in school. Pre- and post-intervention questionnaires probed students’ opinions on the environment, science, and learning science in school, and tested their sustainable thinking and systems thinking with concept mapping and SOLO Taxonomy exercises. Classroom observations took place over the course of 12 weeks, on average 3 days per week, totalling 31 days. Before and after some classroom visits, I had informal conversations with the teacher, along with three formal interviews before, during and after the intervention. Three focus groups of students were interviewed immediately following the intervention.Findings show that a permaculture approach to junior secondary science can impact positively on students’ understanding of science and sustainability, and may impact on their attitudes toward studying science in school. It also appeared to impact positively on the science teacher'sattitude toward including sustainability in his teaching practice, and on his own sustainability learning. Regarding both students and teachers, a permaculture approach appears to have been effective to cultivate attitudes and trellis learning.The teacher and the students responded favourably to many aspects of the intervention, including the overall focus on the environment, the field trips, and some classroom learning activities. The teacher reported appreciating the way the intervention contextualised science with real world examples. Most students reported appreciating the experiential aspects of the intervention, as well as the relevance that a permaculture approach to science education provided. Findings indicate that advances in ecological and scientific literacy varied among students. Some students appeared to: improve their use of science and sustainability vocabulary; become more aware of select socio-scientific issues; better recognise scientific and ecological limits and possibilities. Some students also showed advances in sustainable thinking and systems thinking. Although many students expressed concern about issues such as pollution, wildlife, and genetic engineering — and prioritised protecting the environment over making money — there appeared to be a disconnect between these feelings and a sense of personal responsibility to act. Most students reported enjoying learning science with a focus on the environment, with one cohort indicating much greater enjoyment of the permaculture approach than their usual level of enjoyment of learning science in school.Trends in environmental degradation, population growth, energy inflation, and economic stagnation — especially pronounced since the beginning of this inquiry in 2008 — indicate that the world of the future will require ecologically literate citizens who can design and create truly sustainable systems for all human endeavors. Cultivating such citizens, and trellising their science and sustainability learning has implications for science education. This thesis identifies an innovative approach for junior secondary science in New Zealand that provides a way towards a more sustainable future.

Environmental, economic, and social trends suggest the need for more sustainable ways of thinking and patterns of behaviour. Such a shift would require humanity to function at high levels of ecological literacy, which relies on a certain amount of scientific literacy. However, troubling evidence indicates an international pattern of student disengagement with science at the secondary level. Evidence also suggests that it is difficult to integrate environmental or sustainability education at this level, both within New Zealand and elsewhere. This research was aimed at examining the use of a novel approach, using permaculture, in junior secondary science (Years 9 and 10) to enhance students’ ecological and scientific literacy as well as their attitudes toward studying science in school. Permaculture is an ecological design system based on science and ethics. A permaculture approach to science education involves eco-design thinking as well as the use of local permaculture properties and practitioners and the science behind common permaculture practices. The approach is also meant to be relevant and engaging and to promote systems thinking. This study involved the design and delivery of an intervention based on permaculture principles to one Year 10 science class in New Zealand. Research took the form of a naturalistic, interpretive, mixed methods case study, which included the use of questionnaires, interviews and observations. Data collection focused on the impacts of a permaculture approach on the teaching and learning of science, on students’ ecological literacy, and on students’ attitudes toward learning science in school. Pre- and post-intervention questionnaires probed students’ opinions on the environment, science and learning science in school, and tested their sustainable thinking and systems thinking with concept mapping and SOLO Taxonomy exercises. Classroom observations took place over the course of 12 weeks, on average three days per week, totalling 31 days. Before and after some classroom visits I had informal conversations with the teacher, along with three formal interviews before, during and after the intervention. Three focus groups of students were interviewed immediately following the intervention. Findings show that a permaculture approach to junior secondary science can impact positively on students’ understanding of science and sustainability, and may impact on their attitudes toward studying science in school. It also appeared to impact positively on the science teacher’s attitude toward including sustainability in his teaching practice, and on his own sustainability learning. Regarding both students and teachers, a permaculture approach appears to have been effective to cultivate attitudes and trellis learning. The teacher and the students responded favourably to many aspects of the intervention, including the overall focus on the environment, the field trips, and some classroom learning activities. The teacher reported appreciating the way the intervention contextualized science with real world examples. Most students reported appreciating the experiential aspects of the intervention, as well as the relevance that a permaculture approach to science education provided. Findings indicate that advances in ecological and scientific literacy varied among students. Some students appeared to improve their use of science and sustainability vocabulary; to become more aware of select socio-scientific issues; and, to better recognise scientific and ecological limits and possibilities. Some students also showed advances in sustainable thinking and systems thinking. Although many students expressed concern about issues such as pollution, wildlife, and genetic engineering—and prioritized protecting the environment over making money—there appeared to be a disconnect between these feelings and a sense of personal responsibility to act. Most students reported enjoying learning science with a focus on the environment, with one cohort indicating much greater enjoyment of the permaculture approach than their usual level of enjoyment of learning science in school. Trends in environmental degradation, population growth, energy inflation, and economic stagnation—especially pronounced since the beginning of this inquiry in 2008—indicate that the world of the future will require ecologically literate citizens who can design and create truly sustainable systems for all human endeavours. Cultivating such citizens and trellising their science and sustainability learning has implications for science education. This thesis identifies an innovative approach for junior secondary science in New Zealand that provides a way towards a more sustainable future.

We argue it is important for everyone to possess basic scientific literacy for multiple reasons. Viewing oneself as a science person or not can impact one’s confidence and willingness to engage with science content thereby improving science literacy. Identifying as a science person may develop early but is not fixed and may shift through science identity work. We investigated science identity views between STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and non-STEM majors and assessed whether these views may be influenced by science identity work. Our questions were as follows: (1) How does science identity perception differ between non-STEM and STEM majors? (2) How do non-STEM and STEM students’ perceptions of their science identity change over time? (3) How do non-STEM majors describe a science person compared to STEM majors? We surveyed first-year biology majors, senior biology majors, and non-STEM majors to address our research questions. We found significant shifts in science identity in non-STEM majors taking a general education lab science class pre-course and post-course, differences in agreement regarding science identity between groups, and differences in how a science person is defined among the groups. Our data suggest that instructors can scaffold and support students’ science identity work to increase confidence, STEM retention, and ultimately can improve overall scientific literacy.

BackgroundStudying science identity has been useful for understanding students’ continuation in science-related education and career paths. Yet knowledge and theory related to science identity among students on the path to becoming a professional science researcher, such as students engaged in research at the undergraduate, postbaccalaureate, and graduate level, is still developing. It is not yet clear from existing science identity theory how particular science contexts, such as research training experiences, influence students’ science identities. Here we leverage existing science identity and professional identity theories to investigate how research training shapes science identity. We conducted a qualitative investigation of 30 early career researchers—undergraduates, postbaccalaureates, and doctoral students in a variety of natural science fields—to characterize how they recognized themselves as science researchers.ResultsEarly career researchers (ECRs) recognized themselves as either science students or science researchers, which they distinguished from being a career researcher. ECRs made judgments, which we refer to as “science identity assessments”, in the context of interconnected work-learning and identity-learning cycles. Work-learning cycles referred to ECRs’ conceptions of the work they did in their research training experience. ECRs weighed the extent to which they perceived the work they did in their research training to show authenticity, offer room for autonomy, and afford opportunities for epistemic involvement. Identity-learning cycles encompassed ECRs’ conceptions of science researchers. ECRs considered the roles they fill in their research training experiences and if these roles aligned with their perceptions of the tasks and traits of perceived researchers. ECRs’ identity-learning cycles were further shaped by recognition from others. ECRs spoke of how recognition from others embedded within their research training experiences and from others removed from their research training experiences influenced how they see themselves as science researchers.ConclusionsWe synthesized our findings to form a revised conceptual model of science researcher identity, which offers enhanced theoretical precision to study science identity in the future. We hypothesize relationships among constructs related to science identity and professional identity development that can be tested in further research. Our results also offer practical implications to foster the science researcher identity of ECRs.

The fields of science and literacy education continue to be shaped by pervasive gender inequality. Previous research has documented how the formation of a ‘science identity’ is contingent on access to science capital while research in literacy education continues to highlight how boys struggle in their literacy acquisition. Despite a robust scholarship on gendered literacy practices and gender in STEM subjects, to date, there has been little investigation of the relationships between boys’ science identity/ies and their literacy practices. We draw on a case study of 24 middle school boys living and learning in two different regions (e.g. metropolitan, rural) where we focus on how boys conceive of themselves as learners in two curriculum areas: science and literacy. Bridging multiple areas of scholarship (e.g., science literacy, science identity, boys in schooling), we concentrate on the participants’ self-belief in science and self-belief as readers and consider the way they inform each other in reference to place. The implications of our study concern how the science literate boy comes to be in reference to the construction of discursive performances of science masculinities and how they are maintained alongside literate identities.

Science identity helps explain the attitude students have towards science, assessing how and why they choose to engage with it both inside and outside of school. Over time, each student develops an identity as a scientist based upon perceptions held by themselves and others. Students’ science identity may vary depending on their gender, educational opportunities, and epistemological beliefs. For this reason, the study investigated the predictors of primary school students’ science identity. A total of 775 primary school students aged 9–12 from the Turkish sample participated in the research. Structural equation modelling was used to examine the predictors of science identity. Findings showed that science identity is related to epistemological beliefs, science competence, and optional science learning experiences. Accordingly, the models used to explain science identity can be expanded with belief, competence, and experience variables. The current study has contributed to the understanding of the science identity in primary school students and has provided insights into the science identity of children in Turkey as an Eastern society.

ABSTRACTContinuing advances in human ability to manipulate matter at the atomic and molecular levels (i.e. nanoscale science and technology) offer a range of previously unimagined possibilities for scientific discovery and technological application. Paralleling these scientific advances is the increasing realization that a number of associated ethical, environmental, economic, legal and social implications also need to be explored [1]. Additionally, prominent commentators such as Mihail Roco [2] of the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative (www.nano.gov) have argued that “education and training [in scientific concepts at the nanoscale] must be introduced at all levels, from kindergarten to continuing education, from scientists to non-technical audiences that may decide the use of technology and its funding” (p. 1248).The paper below is structured in three inter-related sections. The first section provides a brief report on science education research conducted in the third year of an initial 3-year National Science Foundation funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates program in nanoscience and nanotechnology at the University of Central Florida. Participating undergraduate students and research faculty were asked to respond to a survey -adapted from Bainbridge [3]- that attempted to measure their attitudes to a variety of social and ethical issues currently associated with nanoscale science and engineering research. Selected findings are presented, and implications for the future of K-16 science education, undergraduate engineering education and Science-Technology-Society (STS) studies also are briefly discussed.Consideration of social and ethical issues associated with nanotechnology research will generate several implications for general scientific literacy and public science education policy. Some of these implications are addressed in the second section. Given the extent to which these new technologies are expected to impact all aspects of human experience, public scientific literacy regarding nanotechnology becomes an issue of considerable importance. Here, the onus falls on science educators at the K-12 and university levels to become knowledgeable about nanoscale science and engineering research, and to share their pedagogical expertise with nanotechnology researchers. This section of the presentation will focus on the “social and ethical issues in science” K-12 standards already present in national documents such as the U.S. National Science Education Standards, the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Project 2061 Benchmarks for Scientific Literacy, and the British National Curriculum. Specific examples from current research in nanoscale science and engineering are used to demonstrate how various nanoscale science/engineering concepts may usefully be incorporated into the K-12 science curriculum.The third section of the paper provides an overview of selected international efforts in K-16 nanoscale science and engineering education, and briefly discusses various instructional approaches and techniques that are likely to be useful for other science and engineering educators. Examples are used from a forthcoming book on nanoscale science and engineering education for which the author is a co-editor.

Science is an area of study with unique particularities concerning what “counts” as scientific practices where some learners are legitimized, while other learners are not. Such is the case for preservice elementary teachers (hereafter PSETs) –a population characterized by the literature as being in-need of science intervention. However, most of the literature deficiently conceptualizes PSETs’ science learning, so I sought for ways to refigure their learning positively. Drawing from Van Horne and Bell’s (2017) constructs of practice-linked and disciplinary identity, I offer that PSETs have nuanced, complex science identities that are influenced by their lived experiences inside and outside the classroom. To investigate the lived experiences of PSETs both inside and outside the classroom, 10 video-recorded, focus-group interviews were done while PSETs were undertaking an undergraduate chemistry-content course. Students were asked about their relationships with science as past elementary and high school students, as well as current undergraduate students. Students were also asked how they perceived their learning in the chemistry-content course. The research questions this work seeks to answer are:• How do PSETs construct their science practice-linked identities?• How does Fundamentals of Chemistry afford identity resources that contribute to PSETs’ science practice-linked identities?The data was coded for themes surrounding their science identities, teaching identities, and learning of each individual PSET. Using narrative analysis, I synthesized three allegories, “I am a science person,” and “I am not a science person,” and Ambiguous which aim to elucidate the spectrum of ways PSETs navigate science learning as a science person, a non-science person, and an unsure person. In addition to the PSETs’ stories, I also analyzed how the chemistry-content course curriculum afforded PSETs with identity-building resources that helped science learning as current students and as future elementary teachers. I found that PSETs’ science identities formed before the course impacted the ways they participated in the chemistry-content course (practice-linked identity), but the curriculum offered students opportunities to renegotiate their science identities and practice science in ways that felt more legitimate to themselves and their prospective careers. Overall, I hope this work informs how instructors can design courses that are sensitive towards the needs of their students and highlight the importance of having a curriculum that affords students with the chance to re-engage with disciplinary practices in which their identities are legitimized as meaningful for their learning.If science determines practices that “count,” science must also acknowledge whose practices are accounted.

Despite decades of reform, science education continues to fall short of its aim to cultivate scientifically literate individuals capable of evidence-informed decision-making. However, dominant models of scientific literacy often understate the role of identity—particularly how learners navigate epistemic and affective tensions when making decisions. Drawing on classical identity traditions in developmental and social-cognitive psychology, Dialogical Self Theory (DST), and the Conceptual Profile Model (CPM), I propose the Science Identity as a Pathway to Literacy (SIPL) framework, which positions identity development as central to achieving scientific literacy. SIPL highlights two core developmental processes: (1) developing awareness of the dialogical self and (2) building the capacity to adopt meta-positions. Together these processes help learners coordinate conflicting I-positions and conceptual profiles when engaging with science and in decision-making more broadly. By reconceptualizing literacy as an emergent dialogical competence rather than the mere accumulation of knowledge and practices, SIPL foregrounds internal negotiation, conceptual flexibility, and epistemic agency as essential outcomes of science education. This framing aligns with emerging policy perspectives, including the draft PISA 2025 Science Framework, which recognizes science identity as an important dimension of scientific literacy.