Education Research Literature Research Articles

Characterization of physics and astronomy assistant professors’ reflections on their teaching: can they promote engagement in instructional change?

The development of reflective practitioners is one of four dominant change strategies in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) higher education literature. However, little research concerns the characterization of faculty’s reflections. Before professional development programs can effectively incorporate reflective writings as a tool for pedagogical improvement, it is necessary to first understand the current state of faculty’s reflections. To accomplish this goal, 98 physics and astronomy instructors were recruited from a teaching-focused professional development workshop and were asked to write a reflection on a self-identified challenging teaching experience.A combination of a priori coding to analyze the content and depth of the reflections, as well as in vivo coding to better capture instructors’ thinking were utilized. The majority of instructors wrote low-level reflections, wherein connections were not made between an instructors’ actions and the observed outcomes or the described experience was not centered on students’ outcomes or educational research literature. Approximately half of the instructors contemplated their own growth and the relationships with their students. However, only a small minority of instructors considered larger societal, cultural, or ethical factors. Plans created by instructors to address future, similar situations heavily relied on the instructors themselves, regardless of the depth of their reflections, and few planned to seek out knowledge from other resources such as peers or the education literature.This study indicates that instructors may not engage in the types of reflection that are considered to promote meaningful instructional change. Trends in the instructors’ plans show that ongoing support is necessary for them to effectively reflect and grow as practitioners. Overall, this work provides valuable insight into the poorly understood nature of faculty’s reflections and showcases the need for more research to fully characterize reflections across STEM disciplines and to better inform professional development.

Climate change education through drama and social learning: Playful inquiry for building extreme weather events adaptation scenarios

Considering the projected impacts of climate change in upcoming decades, innovative educational approaches should encourage inventive problem-solving techniques and societal change, fostering transformative climate adaptation. The value of drama in climate adaptation education remains a novel area in the environmental education research literature and requires further exploration of its potential benefits to Climate Change Education (CCE). This article presents a proposal for CCE to include various elements in a drama workshop by evaluating a methodological framework. Participants in the workshop studied the vulnerabilities that arose from flooding and droughts while dramatizing different social conflicts to develop building adaptation scenarios. Through the exploration of problems via playful activities, participants collaboratively construct narratives and texts rich with meaning, based on a critical and creative perception of themes, needs, desires, and overlapping ideologies. This short-term experience manifests efficacy in elucidating the underpinnings of social systems structures, human values, and motivations. This article analyzes workshop results, providing a pedagogical structure and theoretical foundation, contributing to a better comprehension of drama in education and the creation of capacities towards CCE.

Identifying Implementation Strategies for Integrating Drones into STEM and Career Technology Education CTE Programs

As drone technology is rapidly becoming accessible to school children in terms of both low cost and ease-of-use, primary and secondary school teachers are beginning to consider where modern drones can play an important role in schooling. To date, there is little empirical education research printed in the education research literature guiding innovative curriculum developers in the incipient domain of drone education. As a result, teachers interested in including emerging technologies in their classrooms are often at a loss of where to begin. Through clinical interviews with schoolteachers in the United States, our study identified five readily accessible “departure points” to include drones in contemporary STEM and vocational technology (CTE) school classrooms that help teachers address common curricular goals. Taken together, these interviews reveal that teachers using drones follow one of several distinct pathways as a first step toward achieving a widespread goal of teaching students to use modern technologies to construct, pursue, and communicate findings of fruitful research inquiries—the prevalence of which is not reflected in a comprehensive review of the literature. The five dominant pathways for starting a successful drone education emerging from the interview data were as follows: timed racing trials; precision flight obstacle courses; computer coding; videography; and domain-specific knowledge of drone operation laws and ethics.

What do we know about Computing Education in Africa? A Systematic Review of Computing Education Research Literature

What do we know about Computing Education in Africa? A Systematic Review of Computing Education Research Literature

What Do We Know About Computing Education in Africa? A Systematic Review of Computing Education Research Literature

What Do We Know About Computing Education in Africa? A Systematic Review of Computing Education Research Literature

The paradox of exclusion through inclusion

In our contribution we investigate firstly the general discussion on inclusion in education that had its origins in educational reform movements and in special needs education policies and practices. In line with this, we describe the growing interest in international organizations, resulting into varied attempts on national and local levels to create equal opportunities for all, with particular attention for students with special needs. We furthermore analyse how these concrete policies and practices of inclusive education often coalesced with deficit approaches, resulting into the above-mentioned paradox of exclusion through inclusion. In a next step, we explore how and why inclusive practices keep on reinforcing existing dependencies and possible ways out of the dilemma. In a final section we analyse how in adult education research literature, this paradox of exclusion through inclusion is dealt with and what answers are developed in this particular field of research.

From science motivation to science identity: The mediating effect of science achievement according to gender

Science motivation and identity have been considered important in science education research literature. The role of science achievement between the motivation and identity has rarely been contemplated. Gender issues in science motivation, identity, and achievement have also been considered crucial. Although most studies hypothesized science identity would be a cause of motivation, there seems very few research that quantitatively examined their longitudinal relationship. Data from 186 students in a coeducational general high school in Seoul, Republic of Korea, was collected. Auto-regressive cross-lagged models were fitted without and with science achievement as a mediator. As results, it was shown that science motivation causes identity not the opposite. With science achievement, science motivation showed direct and indirect effects on science identity. By multiple-group analysis, it was shown that male students formulate their science identity indirectly from science motivation through the mediation of science achievement, and female students directly from science motivation.

Effect of an Analogy-Based Approach of Artificial Intelligence Pedagogy in Upper Primary Schools

Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a prominent topic in K-12 education recently. However, pedagogical design has remained a major challenge, especially among young learners. Guided by the Zone of Proximal Development theory and AI education research literature, this design-based study proposes an analogy-based pedagogical approach to support AI teaching and learning in upper primary education. This pedagogical approach is centered on human–AI comparison, where humans are gradually shifted from an analogue to a contrast to make visible the attributes, mechanisms, and processes of AI. To evaluate its effectiveness, a quasi-experimental study with mixed methods was conducted. The quantitative comparison shows that the participants in the experimental group learning with the analogy-based pedagogical approach significantly outperformed their peers with the conventional direct instructional approach in all three dimensions of AI knowledge, skills, and ethical awareness. Qualitative analyses further reveal its pedagogical benefits, including demystifying AI through relatable and engaging learning, supporting student comprehension and skill mastery, and nurturing critical thinking and attitudes. The analogy-based approach contributes to the field of K-12 AI education with an age-appropriate, child-friendly pedagogical approach. Notably, AI education should prioritize teaching for student understanding, and AI should be recognized as an independent subject with interdisciplinary applications.

Interdisciplinary Insights That Reveal Contextual Influences on the Development of Giftedness and Talent

There are powerful, hidden contextual influences that strengthen, weaken, or distort the discovery of aspirations and the development of talents in gifted individuals. These influences can be hidden from gifted individuals and their teachers and mentors because they are not sufficiently addressed in the gifted education research literature. This analysis highlights and describes examples of contextual influences that emerge from phenomena studied by scholars in a wide variety of fields. After these examples are presented and clarified, recommendations for educators and scholars of the gifted are provided.

What we have learned from adult students’ online learning experiences to enhance online learning of other students’ groups?

Adults used to be the largest online student population before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the number of online students multiplied during the pandemic, and now includes the complete conglomeration of all student groups. Due to their longer experience of online education, adult students continue to provide valuable insights on how to enhance online learning for other higher education students. This article reports the results of phenomenographic research on the qualitative differences in the ways of experiencing learning by fifteen adult students enrolled in two online postgraduate programmes. The analysis on in-depth, participant-led interviews demonstrated that online learning is conceptualised in three ways: as an investment, as a process that brings structure, and as a process that enables and empowers an individual. The results of this study are of particular importance for those who are concerned with introducing online learning to the higher education curricula. The paper argues that the stigma of online education being the second choice, maintained in the educational research literature, should be replaced by a holistic approach to education as a process that organically incorporates the online educational elements into higher education. Focusing on how adult students experience online learning provides a broader and deeper understanding of adopted effective practices and the variety of online learning opportunities and outcomes for other students’ groups. Insights based on the results of this study are summarised.

How Media Hype Affects Our Physics Teaching: A Case Study on Quantum Computing

Popular media is an unspoken yet ever-present element of the physics landscape and a tool we can use in our teaching. It is also well understood that students enter the physics classroom with a host of conceptions learned from the world at large. It stands to reason, then, to suspect that media coverage may be a major contributing factor to students’ views on physical phenomena and the nature of science—one whose influence will only grow amid the 21st-century digital age. Yet the role of the media in shaping physics teaching and learning has remained largely unexplored in the physics education research (PER) literature so far.

Co-constructing teaching and learning in higher education: a literature review of practices and implications

The purpose of this systematic review is to examine the assumptions and practices taking place in co-constructed learning spaces within higher education research literature, specifically for undergraduate students. This paper provides an overview of how co-constructed methods take shape in the university classroom and how those methods benefit student learning. A literature search was conducted via education-focused databases using search terms such as ‘higher education’, ‘co-constructed learning’, and ‘sociocultural’. Only primary, empirical articles published after 2007 were included for review, with one exception from 2002. Implications for student learning are discussed within four core thematic outcomes (skill development, engagement, meaning-making, having purpose) and two activators (learning through relationships, creating a safe space). Implications for teachers include a discussion of teaching methods, classroom activities, and the role of teachers. Rooted in theories of constructivist, sociocultural, and third space learning, this review of the literature provides rationale for exploring alternatives to traditional pedagogical methods, highlights barriers, facilitators, and potential downfalls of co-constructed learning spaces, and discusses implications for student learning and for teachers.

Why Are There Still Misconceptions about Evolution?

Why Are There Still Misconceptions about Evolution?

Disentangling the Association Between the Big Five Personality Traits and Student Achievement: Meta-Analytic Evidence on the Role of Domain Specificity and Achievement Measures

Students’ academic achievement is a central predictor of a long list of important educational outcomes, such as access to higher education and socioeconomic success. Prior studies have extensively focused on identifying variables that are related to academic achievement and an important variable in this context appears to be students’ personality. Notably, although findings from more recent studies suggested that the association between student achievement and personality varies by the subject domain (language vs. STEM) and the type of achievement measure (grades vs. test scores), systematic meta-analytical evidence is still lacking. To address this gap in the educational research literature, we conducted a meta-analysis based on 78 studies, with 1491 effect sizes representing data from 500,218 students and 110 samples from elementary to high school. We used a random-effects model with robust variance estimation to calculate mean effect sizes and standard deviations. We found moderating effects of measure or domain for all five personality traits, with differences in the direction of the effects. Our results highlight the importance of the domain and measure when examining how personality traits relate to academic achievement in school. The combination of subject domain and achievement was also found to be relevant for some of the traits. These findings emphasize that subject domains and types of achievement measures should be explicitly considered when investigating the personality saturation of student achievement. We discuss implications for future research, highlighting that there is no “best” or “more objective” achievement measure but, instead, that achievement measures should be chosen based on the research question of interest.

The Combination of Normative Juridical Methods and Literature in Educational Administration Research

Educational problems in the life of society and the nation, including educational administration, often require the use of research approaches and methods commonly used in other fields of science. The study of educational administration covers the area of study not only regarding administrative or management functions in education, but also other areas of study such as education policy, human resources, information systems and finance. Using the library method, it is known that research in education administration studies generally uses quantitative, qualitative, mixed quantitative-qualitative, and evaluative approaches/methods. Through a policy analysis approach, which originates from public policy studies, issues regarding education policy as part of education administration can focus on analyzing the substance of the policy in the form of state/government regulations that have been set by policy makers. Various educational policies that have been stipulated by the state/government, are areas of study for policy analysts so that they can be identified as belonging to the category of good policies or bad policies. Normative juridical methods commonly used in the study of law can be adapted as a methodological alternative in education administration research, which is combined with the library method.

A systematic review of authentic leadership literature in educational research from 1997 to 2021

Given the recent upsurge in publications investigating authentic leadership in education since 1997, this study was carried out to review scholarly publications on authentic leadership in educational research, drawing on a database of 91 studies published between 1997 and 2021. Descriptive methods were employed to identify the features of the related literature with respect to the volume of publication, journal and geographic distribution of the literature, types of studies, authorship trends, citation impact, measurement instruments, research methods, identified antecedents, mediators, moderators, and outcomes of authentic leadership in educational research. The results revealed that the published research consisted mostly of empirical studies. The analysis also revealed that more qualitative methods have been employed in recent years. Significant relationships were also found between authentic leadership and different outcomes (e.g. performance, satisfaction, trust in the leader). Recommendations were provided to improve the quality of the authentic leadership literature.

Israel education: A philosophical analysis

ABSTRACT This paper offers a philosophical analysis of Israel education as reflected in the Jewish education research literature. Six distinct conceptions are identified that all share an educational objective to engender personal and collective Jewish commitment with Israel as an integral value. This conceptual mapping revealed the need for writers on Israel education to clarify what they mean by the idea of Israel’s “complexity” and to address the philosophical difficulty with the reliance of much Jewish religious identity outside of Israel on comprehensive liberalism. This paper addresses this philosophical challenge by outlining an alternative paradigm of Israel education called mature Zionism.

The Cambridge Handbook of Undergraduate Research: New Global Insights

The new Cambridge Handbook of Undergraduate Research provides key insights to the global diversity of undergraduate research (UR) philosophies and practices. This article introduces the Handbook, discusses its structure and key themes, explains how the Handbook was written and explores the lessons that emerged during the writing process. The article demonstrates how global UR is linked to the educational research literature, to academic disciplinary contexts and to educational systems in different countries. The authors draw attention to cultural and sociopolitical differences between nations and suggest fruitful avenues for UR’s future global development. The variety and complexity of worldwide UR implementation frameworks notwithstanding, UR holds significant potential to network community-based research efforts and to support democratization of knowledge creation and dissemination.

Engaging rurality in Australian education research: addressing the field

In this paper, we examine engagement with ‘the rural context’ in Australian education research, focussing on the implications of the signifier ‘rural’—in terms of its inclusion or absence. A review of Australian research literature in rural education indicates that the term ‘rural’ and its synonyms are more often used to denote assumptions of a generalised and predetermined ‘context’ for research than to think about its meaning. We present our findings here and discuss the implications of the signifier ‘rural’ in the Australian research literature to argue that while educational policy-makers must attempt to think differently about the 'problem of the rural’, the field itself also needs to more fully develop the capacity to do this.

Players chatter and dice clatter: exploring sonic power relations in posthuman game-based learning ecologies

ABSTRACT Responding to both recent interest in sound within qualitative education research and sound studies literature that conceptualizes sound as a posthuman technology, we use this paper to explore the following research questions: How does sound both enact and unveil posthuman learning ecologies? And how can education scholars engage sound within posthuman research? Through a posthuman framework, we position noise as an analytical tool for exploring and unveiling more-than-human relations. We then draw parallels between posthuman qualitative research into sound (via noise) and the ideological foundation of experimental music, a musical tradition deeply invested in working with sound as an agentic actor. Within this alignment, we propose using graphic scores to transcribe sonic data without reinscribing humanist research aims. To illustrate, we provide a micro-analysis of preservice teachers engaged in a role-playing game activity and uncover the ways sound asserts its agency within learning ecologies.