Learning In Science Classrooms Research Articles

Facilitating content learning through translanguaging in secondary EMI science classrooms

AbstractDespite the rigorous efforts made to promote the use of English as a medium of instruction (EMI), EMI teachers still face linguistic and pedagogical challenges in effectively delivering subject content in English. Previous research has revealed that, faced with such challenges, teachers employ various strategies to make subject knowledge accessible to students, including pedagogical translanguaging. However, there is little empirical evidence of how EMI teachers deploy pedagogical translanguaging to facilitate content learning in secondary science classrooms, particularly in countries or regions where English is not widely used outside schools. Against this backdrop, the current study adopts a qualitative approach to examine the pedagogical translanguaging practices of two EMI science teachers, as well as the factors contributing to their practices at an international secondary school in Shanghai, China. The methods used were video‐assisted classroom observation and semi‐structured interviews. These were subjected to multimodal conversation analysis and thematic analysis, respectively. The findings reveal that teachers’ pedagogical translanguaging practices involve strategically incorporating and orchestrating all multilingual, multimodal, and multisemiotic resources available to facilitate meaning‐making and enhance students’ comprehension of subject knowledge. Meanwhile, personal, social, and contextual factors play an important role in shaping teachers’ pedagogical translanguaging practices. This study showcases pedagogical translanguaging as a strategic means to create space for teaching and learning in EMI contexts, and provides useful insights into potential improvements to EMI pedagogy.

A literature review: analyzing barriers hindering the implementation of self-regulated learning in science classrooms

Self-regulated learning is a goal-directed process in which learners are metacognitively, motivationally, and behaviorally active participants in their learning process. Although studies have shown self-regulated learning is critical for success in academic learning and beyond; many students do not use self-regulated learning strategies to drive their science learning. To better understand the circumstances surrounding this unfortunate situation, this literature review reports on 15 studies related to barriers that hinder science teachers from enacting self-regulated learning. In this review, we discuss the role of self-regulated learning, then we emphasize the theoretical frameworks, and examine the barriers. Findings from this study revealed six primary barriers: scarcity of time, disregards within the curriculum and assessments, lack of training, opposing teacher views, lack of resources, and students’ resistance toward self-regulated learning. Thus, with the support of current literature surrounding remedying these obstacles, we conclude our review by qualitatively analyzing the relationships between the barriers and suggest approaches toward overcoming them.

Polymer Science in Action: Transforming the Learning Experience for Undergraduates with Active Learning Strategies

Active learning is a powerful teaching and learning approach that enhances students' capacity to construct understanding and apply their knowledge in real-world contexts. However, in university science classes, lectures remain the predominant method employed by instructors, primarily due to time constraints and limited familiarity with active learning strategies. This study aimed to explore practical guidelines for implementing active learning in undergraduate polymer science classrooms, as well as the perspectives of instructors and students on this approach and student satisfaction with active learning. The research involved two instructors and 34 second-year students from the Faculty of Science at a university based in Bangkok, Thailand. Data were collected through classroom observation, a student satisfaction questionnaire, and instructor and student interviews. Data were analyzed quantitatively, using means and standard deviations, as well as qualitatively, using content analysis. The study identified four practical guidelines for implementing active learning in the undergraduate polymer science classroom, which are: using a variety of active learning strategies and techniques that match the nature of students; providing helpful learning media and technology; using higher-level questioning to promote thinking processes; and linking authentic assessment and constructive feedback with real-life situations. These four guidelines proved effective for both on-site and online forms of learning. Furthermore, the students expressed very high satisfaction levels (M = 4.64, SD = 0.49) and positive opinions regarding active learning.

Co‐designing teacher support technology for problem‐based learning in middle school science

AbstractThis paper provides an experience report on a co‐design approach with teachers to co‐create learning analytics‐based technology to support problem‐based learning in middle school science classrooms. We have mapped out a workflow for such applications and developed design narratives to investigate the implementation, modifications and temporal roles of the participants in the design process. Our results provide precedent knowledge on co‐designing with experienced and novice teachers and co‐constructing actionable insight that can help teachers engage more effectively with their students' learning and problem‐solving processes during classroom PBL implementations. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Success of educational technology depends in large part on the technology's alignment with teachers' goals for their students, teaching strategies and classroom context. Teacher and researcher co‐design of educational technology and supporting curricula has proven to be an effective way for integrating teacher insight and supporting their implementation needs. Co‐designing learning analytics and support technologies with teachers is difficult due to differences in design and development goals, workplace norms, and AI‐literacy and learning analytics background of teachers. What this paper adds We provide a co‐design workflow for middle school teachers that centres on co‐designing and developing actionable insights to support problem‐based learning (PBL) by systematic development of responsive teaching practices using AI‐generated learning analytics. We adapt established human‐computer interaction (HCI) methods to tackle the complex task of classroom PBL implementation, working with experienced and novice teachers to create a learning analytics dashboard for a PBL curriculum. We demonstrate researcher and teacher roles and needs in ensuring co‐design collaboration and the co‐construction of actionable insight to support middle school PBL. Implications for practice and/or policy Learning analytics researchers will be able to use the workflow as a tool to support their PBL co‐design processes. Learning analytics researchers will be able to apply adapted HCI methods for effective co‐design processes. Co‐design teams will be able to pre‐emptively prepare for the difficulties and needs of teachers when integrating middle school teacher feedback during the co‐design process in support of PBL technologies.

Young children’s ideas of energy compared with the scientific energy concept: Results of a video study with interviews about children’s own drawings

For accessing young children’s intuitive ideas about energy, twenty-five first and second graders of Swiss elementary schools (age 6–8 years, M = 7 years 6 months) were asked to draw or write what they associated with energy and subsequently interviewed about their drawing or written note. The responses were videotaped. The children’s responses, including gestures and other nonverbal responses, were analyzed using qualitative content analysis (QCA). A concept-driven approach was used to uncover links between the children’s ideas and the core aspects of the scientific energy concept: forms/manifestations, transformation, transfer, dissipation/degradation, and conservation, and a corresponding coding frame was developed. Though the participating children had not encountered energy or topics like electricity or human nutrition in formal schooling, almost all (N = 24) knew the term energy and used it in the interview. The findings indicate that already young children have nuanced ideas on how energy manifests and behaves that can be expressed by means of drawings/notes and verbally. These ideas refer to energy as an inherent feature of certain objects, as a causal agent, or as a kind of substance and are expressed in association with humans, electric sources and consumers, and vehicles, and their activities or features. The developed category systems summarize how young children express themselves about energy and enable comparison of these ideas with all core aspects of energy. The findings of this study indicate how the very first “steppingstones” for energy learning in early science classrooms might look like, and where “blind spots” or aspects that need further attention should be expected. The detailed analysis of the children’s statements with the developed coding frames is a first step towards reconstruction of the children’s mental models of energy and may serve as a basis for the development of educational and diagnostic tools.

The Impact of Inquiry-Based ChemistryExperimentation on Eleventh-Grade Students’ Science Inquiry Process Skills

As the advocacy for active learning in science classrooms grows, so is the need to cultivate learners’ competencies in scientific inquiry. In this parallel convergence mixed-methods study, we examined the science process skills of 221 eleventh- grade students in four out of 30 senior secondary schools, which were selected using a two-stage sampling technique. A six–week chemistry experimentation teaching using the 4-H Inquiry- in -Action model followed a pre-test. During experiments, qualitative classroom observations were made to describe students’ science inquiry process skills. While the quantitative data were collected using the Science Inquiry Process Skills Inventory, the qualitative data were collected using the Event Sampling Observation Schedule. Grand findings show a meaningful level of acquisition of all of the science inquiry process skills under investigation. The skill to use evidence to answer scientific questions was relatively easy, and although students were more inclined to drawing and interpretation of graphs, they experienced initial challenges in designing their own experiments, making accurate measurements, and recording the masses and volumes of experimental samples. These results have underscored the need to employ guided inquiry learning strategies in the Liberian science classroom and hence serve to inform science curriculum reform programs in Liberia.

Integrating socioscientific issues and model-based learning to decide on a local issue: the white butterfly unit

Recent research suggests that integrating model-based learning and socioscientific issue based instruction helps students construct meaningful learning in science classrooms. Thus, this paper presents a unit plan that integrates model-based learning and socioscientific issues. The focus of the unit is the white butterfly which is a local pest. A 4-week middle school unit was developed on the driving question, “How might the population change of the white butterflies interact with the local ecosystems?”. Evaluation of the unit was made through students’ models and explanations. There were three modeling sessions throughout the unit. “Components” and “Explanatory Process” rubrics were developed to evaluate the models and explanations. The results showed that students’ pre-knowledge about the white butterfly and its relationship with the local ecosystem was quite limited and throughout the lessons they were questioned and gained knowledge about the relationship between the white butterfly and ecosystem. Also, students became able to explain the effects and results of the methods used to control the white butterfly but not able to show them by drawing. Therefore, it is highly recommended to evaluate the models together with their explanations, as students’ drawing skills are a limitation for the use of models.

Factor Structure and Dimensionality of an Instrument designed to Measure the Metacognitive Orientation of Thai Science Classroom Learning Environments

<p style="text-align:justify">The purpose of this study was to establish the factor structure and dimensionality of the Metacognitive Orientation Learning Environment Scale – Science (MOLES-S) in the Thai context. The metacognitive orientation of a science classroom learning environment is defined as the extent to which psychosocial conditions that are known to enhance students’ metacognition are evident in a specific science classroom. This study builds on earlier work in the research areas of science education, metacognition, and learning environments. A sample of 5418 Thai science students in grades 10 to 12, from 40 schools across Thailand, completed the MOLES-S that had been translated into Thai. Exploratory factor analysis was undertaken and Rasch analysis was used to calibrate the scale and explore its dimensionality. The results suggest that the MOLES-S(T), where (T) represents Thailand, has the same factor structure as the original MOLES-S, is reliable, and can be used with confidence in research into metacognition in Thai high school science classrooms.</p>

A specialized vocabulary list from an original corpus of digital science resources for middle school learners

• A digital science corpus from middle school resources was assembled. • The corpus consists of approximately 2.7 million tokens. • A type-based specialized list was extracted using three instruments and seven inclusion criteria. • The lexical coverage of the lists was compared with the lexical coverage of four other secondary science lists. • The list could be used as a tool for specialized vocabulary learning in science classrooms where digital science resources are used.

Immersive Research Experiences: Influences on Science Teaching Motivation and Practices

The push for inquiry-based learning in science classrooms has been met with anxiety and oftentimes low teaching self-efficacy among science teachers (Martin, et al., 2019). Professional development offers an opportunity for teachers to gain confidence through experiencing a real research lab. The current study investigates the outcomes of an extensive 8-week professional development program (N=8) on teachers’ classroom instruction and explores the influential factors in instructional change. Focus groups and individual interviews were conducted to understand teacher’s PD experiences. Three major themes emerged: model the actions of scientists, evidence of inquiry-based instruction, and evidence of self-efficacy. Professional development opportunities including an immersive lab experience, opportunities to build a learning community, and opportunities to feel like a student are influential to changes towards are more inquiry-based learning approach in the classroom and higher self-efficacy. When seeking opportunities for professional development for high school science teachers, school leaders and science teachers should search for key features that promote changes in the classroom leading to more inquiry-based learning.

Exploring science teaching in interaction at the instructional core

AbstractRecent instructional reforms in science education aim to change the way students engage in learning in the discipline, as they describe that students are to engage with disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and the practices of science to make sense of phenomena (NRC, 2012). For such sensemaking to become a reality, there is a need to understand the ways in which students' thinking can be maintained throughout the trajectory of science lessons. Past research in this area tends to foreground either the curriculum or teachers' practices. We propose a more comprehensive view of science instruction, one that requires attention to teachers' practice, the instructional task, and students' engagement. In this study, by examining the implementation of the same lesson across three different classrooms, our analysis of classroom videos and artifacts of students' work revealed how the interaction of teachers' practices, students' intellectual engagement, and a cognitively demanding task together support rigorous instruction. Our analyses shed light on their interaction that shapes opportunities for students' thinking and sensemaking throughout the trajectory of a science lesson. The findings provide implications for ways to promote rigorous opportunities for students' learning in science classrooms.

Integrating Brain-based Learning in the Science Classroom: A Systematic Review

<p class="p1">Brain-based learning (BBL) has been described as an important pedagogy that can be effectively used to enhance different teaching methods or strategies. It uses essential principles from brain-based theory to alleviate the disadvantages inherent in traditional teaching methods to achieve classroom goals and objectives. The use of such learning has significant implications for the teaching and learning of science (biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics) subjects at elementary and secondary school levels. In this review, we scrutinise and discuss the results from 25 peer-reviewed studies and underline the methodology and strategies used to advance the integration of brain-based learning within science classrooms. We make a meta-analysis systematic review of how such learning has been used in the science classroom, the success achieved, and the different constructs used to integrate it into elementary and secondary schools. The findings reveal that quasi-experimental studies have dominated the methods used in integrating brain-based learning in science classrooms. In addition, this type of learning topped the different constructs used in science classrooms, with its<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>integration mainly in relation to mathematics. It is concluded that the principles of brain-based learning pedagogy can be adequately used in science classroom instruction because they consider the uniqueness of each student’s brain. This paper therefore recommends appropriate and continuous integration of such learning in the science classroom, especially in subjects where integration is currently low.</p>

Student interest, concerns, and information-seeking behaviors related to COVID-19

COVID-19 creates an opportunity for science classrooms to relate content about viruses to students’ personal experiences with the pandemic. Previous researchers have shown that students are interested in crisis situations like disease outbreaks; however, they primarily acquire information about these events through internet sources which are often biased. We argue that it is important to understand student interest, concerns, and information-seeking behaviors related to COVID-19 to support science classroom learning and engagement about the virus and other potential outbreaks. We surveyed 224 high school students and analyzed their responses to six open-ended questions. We found that students expressed the most interest in topics related to the origin of COVID-19 and vaccines. Their greatest concerns included contracting the virus or someone they know contracting the virus and vaccine distribution. Of our sample, only 6.7% reported using their teachers as their source of COVID-19 information. Science classrooms have the potential to pique students’ situational interest by discussing COVID-19 topics that are important to students, which can increase their academic performance, content knowledge, attention, and engagement in learning about viruses. Moreover, classroom instruction about COVID-19 by teachers has shown to alleviate students’ stress and anxiety. We provide key areas of student interest about COVID-19 to help educators address students’ questions and improve curricular resources on viral pandemics.

Science-Literate Identities Among ENLACE Students

ABSTRACT The culture of a science classroom favors a particular speech community. Thus membership requires students to become bilingual and bicultural at the same time. The complexity of learning science rests in that it not only possesses a unique lexicon and discourse, but it ultimately entails a particular way of knowing. This study examines the academic engagement and perceptions of a group of high school students (N = 30) regarding their science-literate practices. These students were participating in an Engaging Latino Communities for Education (ENLACE) program whose purpose is to increase Latino high school graduation rates and assist them with college entrance requirements. At the time of the study, 19 students were enrolled in different science classes to fulfill the science requirements for graduation. The primary research question: What kind of science classroom learning environment supports science-literate identities for Latino/a students? was addressed through a convergent parallel mixed research design.

"But what are you doing to help them learn?" Reflections on a Career Teaching Human anatomy and Physiology

This narrative study tells the teaching and learning story of the recently retired Dr. Peggy LePage, a longtime member of the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society with a career as a community college anatomy and biology professor spanning nearly three decades. Drawn from a lengthy narrative interview, this paper describes Dr. LePage’s background as a nontraditional student and explores her resilience as a woman in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). When Dr. LePage neared a breaking point early in her career, an encounter with a well-known advocate for active learning in science classrooms transformed her pedagogy. She also became involved with HAPS and never looked back. Narrative passages from her interview emphasize Dr. LePage’s persistence in STEM, her shift toward a teacher as learner mentality, and the benefits of learning communities for anatomy and physiology instructors.

Guidance in computer-supported collaborative inquiry learning: Capturing aspects of affect and teacher support in science classrooms

Technology-enhanced collaborative inquiry learning has gained a firm position in curricula across disciplines and educational settings and has become particularly pervasive in science classrooms. However, understanding of the teacher’s role in this context is limited. This study addresses the real-time shifts in focus and distribution of teachers’ guidance and support of different student groups during in-person computer-supported collaborative inquiry learning in science classrooms. Teachers’ self-perceptions of their guidance and affect were supplemented with students’ self-reported affect. A mixed-methods approach using video analyses and questionnaire data revealed differences between teacher guidance and support associated with teacher perceptions and group outcomes. Groups’ prior science competence was not found to have an effect on teacher guidance and support, rather the teachers guided the groups they perceived as motivated and willing to collaborate. Teacher affect was compounded by student affect, suggesting that consideration of the reciprocal perceptions of teachers and students is necessary in order to understand the teachers’ role in collaborative learning.

Examining the interdependence in the growth of students' language and argument competencies in replicative and generative learning environments

AbstractLanguage and argument are epistemic tools that learners can use to help them generate and validate knowledge for themselves, as emphasized in NGSS and previous NRC reports. Not all learning environments elicit or support the use of these epistemic tools equally, thus affecting how students grow in competence in relation to their use. The present study examined growth in students' competencies in language and argument during one semester, with a comparison of two learning environments—replicative versus generative—using students' lab reports. It also examined interdependence between these growth patterns. The participants (n = 30) were simultaneously enrolled in two required introductory‐level science lab courses—Chemistry‐I Lab (generative) and Physics‐I Lab (replicative)—taken during the first fall semester at the university. The students' written reports for each weekly lab (n = 490) were collected at the end of the semester and scored to quantify students' quality of argument (as holistic argument) and language use (as multimodal representation). This growth was modeled using linear mixed‐effects regression for each competence and each environment. Quadratic modeling was also used to show whether the trend of the growth demonstrated constant increase or a leveling off. Findings provide evidence that students showed higher growth in language and argument competencies in their lab reports for the generative learning environment than in their lab reports for the replicative learning environment. The findings also suggest that there is marked interdependence between the growth patterns of the argument and language competencies. Implications are discussed for learning environments to promote language and argument development. The interdependence of argument and language growth highlights that encouraging language use in a generative manner can be a promising direction for improving argumentation and, by extension, science learning in science classrooms.

Developing deep learning in science classrooms: Tactics to manage epistemic uncertainty during whole‐class discussion

AbstractScience teachers usually view students' uncertainty as a barrier to overcome, a negative experience to be avoided, a deficiency in need of remedy. Building on the theory of deep learning in science as a generative and sensemaking process, the purpose of this design‐based study is to identify tactics for teachers to manage their students' epistemic uncertainty as a pedagogical resource to develop student conceptual understanding during whole‐class discussion. Classroom observations of whole‐class discussion were collected from six teachers' classes ranging from third to eighth grade. A total of 18 whole‐class discussions were collected, transcribed, and analyzed. A storyline talk to manage uncertainty during whole‐class discussion was developed and consisted of three stages: (1) Raise epistemic uncertainty through creating ambiguous conditions; (2) Maintain epistemic uncertainty through preventing immature disclosure and discussing alternative explanations or conflicting ideas; and (3) Reduce epistemic uncertainty through making coherent connections among current uncertainty, prior knowledge, and familiar phenomena. Seven nuanced tactics used by teachers to achieve each stage of uncertainty management were identified. The results suggest that managing uncertainty goes beyond asking questions and problematizing phenomena. When engaging students in storyline‐based whole‐class discussion, teachers should focus on one specific uncertainty and establish a coherent, consistent storyline that raises, maintains, and reduces student uncertainty to horizontally and vertically construct a collective knowledge among students. The horizontal nature occurs within a stage of management, and the vertical nature of a storyline talk is related to moving along from stage to stage. Through the storyline talk focusing on students' epistemic uncertainty, students can truly become agents in the learning process when the lesson is centered on and driven by students' uncertainty.

Effects of Teacher Professional Development and Science Classroom Learning Environment on Students’ Science Achievement

Science classroom learning environment (CLE) and science teacher professional development (PD) are two important factors in students’ science learning. However, the nature of the science CLE and school-level PD that promotes students’ science achievement remains unclear. Using the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015 data, this study aims to explore the multi-level relationships between student-reported CLE, school-level teacher PD, and the possible interaction effects between the two on students’ science achievement. Since sample students were nested within schools, two-level hierarchical linear models (HLM) were used to analyze the data. Results indicated that science CLE factors, including direct instruction, adaption of instruction, and disciplinary climate, had significantly positive relationships with students’ science achievement, while inquiry-based science teaching and learning practices and perceived feedback had significantly negative relationships with students’ science achievement. Moreover, these relationships varied significantly between schools. For school-level PD factors, the proportion of PD in school science and proportion of teachers attending PD within 12 months had significantly positive relationships with students’ average science achievement between schools. More importantly, a significant cross-level interaction effect was found between PD requirements and disciplinary climate. Implications for creating science CLEs to promote students’ science learning, including implementing science teacher PD through a school-level approach and modifying PD based on CLE contextual factors, are also provided.

Context-based teaching and learning practices in upper primary science classrooms in East Gojjam administrative Zone, Ethiopia

The main purpose of this study was to examine teachers’ self-perceived practices of context-based science teaching and learning in science classrooms. To achieve this purpose, a cross-sectional sur...