Science Education Research Research Articles

‘Don’t Pick, Don’t Lick’: Connecting Young Children’s Risky Play in Nature to Science Education in Australian Bush Kinders

AbstractThe forest school approach to nature learning has gathered momentum in the UK and across parts of Europe including Scandinavia for well over 50 years. In other contexts that include Canada, China, New Zealand and Australia, nature-based early childhood education and care settings, influenced by European forest school approaches, are in a rapid expansion phase as educators and policy makers acknowledge the benefits for children from time spent in nature. It is known that science education opportunities exist in these nature-based settings, yet this area has only garnered limited research attention to date. An example of a nature-based approach to early childhood education which emerged in the 2010s is the Australian ‘bush kinder’. Four- to five-year-old preschool children experience and learn from nature through play in bush kinders. This paper highlights the intersections that occur between risky play and science teaching and learning in the context of bush kinders. Through analysing research in early years science education, guiding curriculum frameworks and early childhood learning, I propose the importance of children’s risky play to early childhood science education. Drawing on vignettes from ethnographic fieldwork data, the merits of risky play in bush kinders to embed science knowledge is illustrated here. Participant observation was used to build a profile of each site and to gather data relating to how educators draw on children’s risky play to seek out opportunities to teach children about physical, chemical and biological science.

Bioluminescence - The Vibrant Glow of Nature and its Chemical Mechanisms.

Bioluminescence, the mesmerizing natural phenomenon where living organisms produce light through chemical reactions, has long captivated scientists and laypersons alike, offering a rich tapestry of insights into biological function, ecology, evolution as well as the underlying chemistry. This comprehensive introductory review systematically explores the phenomenon of bioluminescence, addressing its historical context, geographic dispersion, and ecological significance with a focus on their chemical mechanisms. Our examination begins with terrestrial bioluminescence, discussing organisms from different habitats. We analyze thefireflies of Central Europe's meadows and the fungi in the Atlantic rainforest of Brazil. Additionally, we inspect bioluminescent species in New Zealand, specifically river-dwelling snails and mosquito larvae found in Waitomo Caves. Our exploration concludes in the Siberian Steppes, highlighting the area's luminescent insects and annelids. Transitioning to the marine realm, the second part of this review examines marine bioluminescent organisms. We explore this phenomenon in deep-sea jellyfish and their role in the ecosystem. We then move to Toyama Bay, Japan, where seasonal bioluminescence of dinoflagellates and ostracods present a unique case study. We also delve into the bacterial world, discussing how bioluminescent bacteria contribute to symbiotic relationships. For each organism, we contextualize its bioluminescence, providing details about its discovery, ecological function, and geographical distribution. A special focus lies on the examination of the underlying chemical mechanisms that enables these biological light displays. Concluding this review, we present a series of practical bioluminescence and chemiluminescence experiments, providing a resource for educational demonstrations and student research projects. Our goal with this review is to provide a summary of bioluminescence across the diverse ecological contexts, contributing to the broader understanding of this unique biological phenomenon and its chemical mechanisms serving researchers new to the field, educators and students alike.

Student-driven teaching and educational action research combined: an approach to teaching development and student empowerment

ABSTRACT This paper presents an action research study in a student-driven context at a university. The study focused on students organizing and leading workshops for other students. We aimed to support students in their teaching, facilitate their reflection on their teaching experiences, and contribute to their self-esteem and empowerment. The basis for our research became reflection sessions with two student groups responsible for a series of workshops (six students in total), in addition to gathering data about our context – student-driven teaching in workshops. Context data included open questionnaires for students, staff interviews, planning group meetings and a focus group discussion with other students involved in workshop organization. Reflection sessions were intended to create awareness about students’ practices as well as provide a possibility to develop their teaching. Our data demonstrate how this student-driven context had implications for the educational approach in the workshops, organizing, and the educational action research project. Ultimately, we discuss how the educational action research contributed to student agency and empowerment and what we learned about developing supportive processes in a student-driven context.

“When we use that kind of language… someone is going to jail”: relationality and aesthetic interpretation in initial research encounters

Abstract The aim of this article is to investigate ethical and aesthetic dimensions of negotiating linguistic differences between researchers and participants in the initial research consent process, based on data from a collaborative research project in adult basic education for immigrants, in which a large number of students initially refused to participate. First, we interpret negotiations of consent as relational acts, where teachers and multilingual staff facilitated moral proximity through their affinity or shared biography with students, allowing us to move from anticipated difference to events of subjectivity. Second, we analyze research ethics protocols, notably the standardized consent letter, as aesthetic signs that evoked an affective response, which variously recalled unfavourable subject positions within neoliberal or authoritarian governmentality, including memories of trauma. The dynamic connection between aesthetics and relational ethics highlights the shortcomings of current institutional ethics requirements, since aesthetic interpretation cannot be fully anticipated and instead requires meaning-making in concrete relational encounters.

Qualitative research in science education: A literature review of current publications

This study analyzed articles from the last four years regarding how science education research is framed and discussed as qualitative research. The research question that guided this study was: <i>To what extent do qualitative secondary science teaching research publications reflect high-quality practices found in mainstream methodological texts? </i>The researchers utilized a systematic literature review methodology by (1) creating search terms based on the research question; (2) choosing relevant databases in which to search; (3) conducting the search and gathering articles; and (4) selecting articles based on inclusion criteria. The researchers chose “secondary education” and “science teaching” as search terms relevant to this study. Articles included in the review were peer-reviewed for credibility, available free online as full-text for accessibility, and available in English, which is the authors’ first language. The researchers conducted three levels of screening on the full collection of articles–title, abstract, then methods, to efficiently narrow the large sample of qualitative science education research articles to a manageable and characteristic selection. The findings include that few articles addressed science teaching and learning with deep qualitative engagement. Some articles claimed to use specific qualitative methodologies without adequately expressing aspects of those methodologies, which lend support to the credibility, transferability, dependability, or confirmability of the articles such as the researchers’ subjectivity or member-checking. Those studies that did are indeed diamonds in the ruff.

Educational reconstruction of physics of complexity within a creative writing classroom activity

Disciplinary identity is widely studied in physics (and science) education research. Great attention has been devoted to studying the role of sociocultural factors in students’ career choices and persistence, such as students’ participation or gender differences. However, few works within the literature have investigated the role of the cognitive-epistemic core of scientific disciplines in identity work. In the first section of the paper we discuss the state of the art about science-identity. Then, we discuss the theoretical frameworks that informed the construction of our idea of epistemic-personal consonance/dissonance: the “Reconceptualized FRA to NOS framework” and the “Model of Educational Reconstruction”. In section 4 we introduce a qualitative analysis of data collected within a classroom activity held in 2021 and discuss it according to our Research Question. The findings show that students used complex systems epistemology as scaffolding for the expression of personal needs; they reconceptualized personal demands by borrowing epistemological structures and practices of complexity as tools to change perspectives about personal issues. The findings of this first dataset call for the need for further data to analyze and enrich the discussion around physics epistemology and identity.

A classification tool to foster self-regulated learning with generative artificial intelligence by applying self-determination theory: a case of ChatGPT

Generative AI such as ChatGPT provides an instant and individualized learning environment, and may have the potential to motivate student self-regulated learning (SRL), more effectively than other non-AI technologies. However, the impact of ChatGPT on student motivation, SRL, and needs satisfaction is unclear. Motivation and the SRL process can be explained using self-determination theory (SDT) and the three phases of forethought, performance, and self-reflection, respectively. Accordingly, a Delphi design was employed in this study to determine how ChatGPT-based learning activities satisfy students’ each SDT need, and foster each SRL phase from a teacher perspective. We involved 36 SDT school teachers with extensive expertise in technology enhanced learning to develop a classification tool for learning activities that affect student needs satisfaction and SRL phases using ChatGPT. We collaborated with the teachers in three rounds to investigate and identify the activities, and we revised labels, descriptions, and explanations. The major finding is that a classification tool for 20 learning activities using ChatGPT was developed. The tool suggests how ChatGPT better satisfy SDT-based needs, and fosters the three SRL phrases. This classification tool can assist researchers in replicating, implementing, and integrating successful ChatGPT in education research and development projects. The tool can inspire teachers to modify the activities using generative AI for their own teaching, and inform policymakers on how to develop guidelines for AI in education.

Learning to Teach about Climate Justice and Social Justice in Science Methods

In November, the Editors of NWJTE sat down for a conversation with Dr. Mindy J. Chappell, a Science Teacher Educator in the College of Education at Portland State University. Dr. Chappell’s passions include developing teachers who are prepared to disrupt normative science ideologies and provide young people with science instruction that encourages and empowers them to be leaders in their communities. She engages in arts-based educational science research through the methodology of Ethnodance (a term she coined). She places young people and their lived experiences at the heart of her work.

Key Issues on Action Research in Science Education

Key Issues on Action Research in Science Education

The promises of studying cultural archeoastronomy across the Pacific Basin as a new scholarly science education research agenda

Cultural archeoastronomy provides a unique intersection of scholarly study for science education scholars interested in the nexus of science, society, and culture. The study of archeoastronomy as a discipline combines astronomy, anthropology, archeology, celestial navigation, storytelling, navigational hula, and education. As such, it holds great potential as a naturally captivating hook for improving science education teaching efforts, particularly for place-based students who live in regions where sky stories have had tremendously strong influence on the local culture. This perspective calls for discipline-based astronomy education researchers to better understand the interplay between cultural astronomy and effective Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) teaching of diverse students as an important tool for culturally responsive pedagogical approaches.

Border crossing perspectives of prospective teachers’ first-time science microteaching experiences

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was on understanding and interpreting five minoritised pre-service teachers’ past educational experiences that impacted their first-time science microteaching experiences in a science teaching methods course. The study is unique because it illuminates and contributes to the literature on the importance of minoritised prospective teachers’ educational experiences in their pre-service preparation and how these experiences challenge or contradict the urgency of equitable science instruction in traditional teacher education instructional discourse. The study draws on the literature on border crossing as a guiding theoretical framework, and phenomenology as a guiding methodological framework to analyse first time science teaching experiences. Data included videos and written narratives of first-time science teaching experiences. Analysis indicated that past educational experience of being left out in doing science underscored minoritised pre-service teachers’ first-time science teaching experiences. Furthermore, they had created navigation strategies to counter the past educational experiences by challenging and modifying science teaching routines and devising equitable ways to use science teaching resources to cultivate a sense of belonging. The study suggests that future science education research would benefit from attention to minoritised pre-service teachers’ experiences used to challenge or contradict past educational inequities.

Study on the elements of moral education included in the curriculum documents for preschool education in Romania (2000-2022)

The particularly complex issue of the curriculum for preschool education remains an open one, given the rapid social changes of the current period, but also the results of research in educational sciences and psychology. All of theses force reconsiderations from multiple perspectives, especially related to the cognitive training-development and from the perspective of the child's moral education. The present research aimed to analyze the editions of school programs, the curriculum and methodological benchmarks, official documents approved by the Romanian Ministry of Education, from 2000 to 2022, considering the moral aspects they include. At the same time, a series of comparative analyzes were carried out, at the level of trends, purposes or approach, with similar documents from other countries. The conclusions show that in Romania moral education is not addressed in preschool education as a distinct subject, with its own objectives and contents, some of its own elements are found in other areas addressed by these documents, and the moral model is very little addressed in these documents. Under these conditions, teachers are forced to draw up their own reference documents for the didactic activities they carry out in relation to this classical dimension of education.

Enhanced Educational Experiences through Personalized and AI-based Learning

Academic motivation is a pivotal factor in shaping students' educational trajectories. Mathematics education holds a unique position as a school subject, due to its influence on students' grade transitions and cognitive development at both basic and advanced levels. From March to May 2023, the AI Education (AIEDN) research project investigated how an AI-based learning assistant can enhance students’ understanding of the subject matter through video-based learning. For this study, 275 students were selected in the age range of 14-20 from two secondary (N=137) and two grammar schools (N=138) in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The quantitative experiment tested the extent to which learners solve more tasks, build broader (transfer) knowledge, and retain it. Students were given a set of mathematical problems on an unknown topic to solve in 90 minutes. The test group used the AI assistant to ask questions, while the control group used only keyword searches. The results of the t-test indicated that the test group who used the AI Learning assistant in the advanced course achieved a significantly strong (Cohen’s d=.63) increase in performance results (T(19)=-2.82; p.01). Conversely, the advanced course control group as well as both the test and control groups of the basic course(s) showed no significant improvements.

Using Text Mining to Identify Teleological Explanations in Physics and Biology Textbooks: An Exploratory Study

AbstractCreating and critiquing explanations of phenomena is a significant goal of many scientific disciplines and therefore also a learning goal of science education. A significant source of explanations is science textbooks; however, the large corpus of text in textbooks means that manual review of explanations by individual researchers is extremely time consuming. In this paper, we introduce a text-mining approach for identifying legitimate and illegitimate forms of teleological explanations in school physics and biology textbooks. An ongoing debate exists about the legitimacy of teleological explanations, that is, explanations which account for a phenomenon by reference to a final end, purpose, or goal. Until recently, researchers tended to view teleology as an illegitimate form of scientific explanation. Recent theoretical cases in biology and physics have emphasized that legitimate teleological explanations exist in both domains. Eight science textbooks used in England and internationally were analyzed for instances of teleological explanations. The analysis reveals the efficiency of the text-mining approach for automating the analysis of textbooks and its potential as a research approach in science education. In considering text mining as a research approach, we report terms that are likely to be associated with legitimate teleological explanations. We found that legitimate teleological accounts are used by textbook authors, and we present novel categorizations of these forms of explanation. We argue that text mining can be a useful approach in science education research and our findings suggest guidance for both textbook writers and teachers related to their selection of legitimate explanatory forms.

Increasing Activity and Science Learning Outcomes Vibrations, Waves and Sound Matter Through STAD Model

Purpose of the study: In this research aims to determine increasing activity and science learning outcomes vibrations, waves and sound matter through student teams-achievment divisions (STAD) model.
 Methodology: This research is Classroom Action Research implemented in three cycles, each cycle consisting of four stages namely planning, observation, observation and reflection. The subject of this research are students of class VIII B of Pabelan 2 Public Middle School consisting of 32 students of 16 male students and 16 female students. Research instruments include observation guide sheet, questions and documentation guidelines.
 Main Findings: The results of the research show that the student teams achievement divisions (STAD) learning model can increase the activity and learning outcomes of Class VIII B students at State Middle Schools as evidenced by the increase in student learning completeness in Cycle I, 37.5% of students have completed learning, in Cycle II, 81% of students have completed learning and Cycle III 99% of students completed their studies.
 Novelty/Originality of this study: This research contributes to research with a new foundation in understanding scientific concepts through an innovative approach using the student teams-achievement divisions (STAD) model. The unique findings highlight STAD's significant contribution in stimulating student engagement and increasing achievement of learning outcomes, bringing new nuances to science education research.

Improved matrix model of sequence grid partition based on vector space sampling

In information technology and data science predictive analysis work, the goal is to infer guess values as accurately as possible. A more densely spaced grid of points should be set as a tool for operating measurement models. It has a wide range of applications in psychology, education and other social science research fields. Although the grid seems to meet the requirements of further improving the accuracy of reasoning and guessing from a certain point of view, it also means complex calculations. When multiple false values fall between another grid point, the traditional Data Oriented Architecture fails. To guarantee the accuracy and efficiency of the calculation, it is necessary to solve the problem of excessive noise in the prediction of samples in meta-learning to solve the uncertainty caused by the noise database data or the assumption of the matrix model. This paper proposes a grid partition movable inference least squares method, that is, the sparse Bayesian least squares method based on the grid minimum matrix. The method is used for solving the problem that the prediction noise of the sample in the meta-learning is too large, to solve the uncertainty brought by the generated noise database data or the array matrix model assumption. According to the Symplectic Bayesian learning of the sequence matrix model, the basic parameters for processing the input sample database data are determined. The sparse Bayesian algorithm solution is used on the grid, combined with the off-grid inference guess of the sequence matrix model and the grid division. We set a coarse grid of points around the grid of false values. The rough point grid division is set, and the grid division around the false value is divided in detail. Then select more appropriate meta-learning parameters to clean up data. In the experiment analysis, we take the small sample study as the scene and carry on the concrete analysis to the experiment. The test proof in the fitting degree of the algorithm adopted in the paper surpasses the Support Vector Machine (SVM) and the k-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) algorithm by 3.5% and 6.4% respectively. The convergence effect surpasses the contrast plan above 10 and has a bigger superiority in the inference factor thrust. It proves that the optimization method in this paper has a strong promotion effect for the application of data forecasting systems in various industries, and has theoretical value as well as practical significance.

Investigation and Analysis of Chinese Language Teaching

The survey of Chinese teaching to overseas students is an empirical research method, which is also a common and effective part in educational science research. Appropriate teaching investigation and analysis can beneft teaching effciently. This paper pays attention to the situation of the elementary comprehensive Chinese course for Mongolian students in the School of International Exchange of Inner Mongolia Normal University, and takes the textbooks of "??????Developing Chinese" "?????I?Elementary Chinese (I)" and ???????? "I Want to Give Him a Gift" as the teaching case. This paper analyzes the teaching status of the elementary Chinese comprehen-sive course for Mongolian international students from two aspects: the current situation of teachers, teaching content and teaching objects, as well as the existing problems in the learning process.

Abstract 1773 From the lab bench to bedside, the importance of basic science research in medical education and beyond

Abstract 1773 From the lab bench to bedside, the importance of basic science research in medical education and beyond

Diverging nonlocal fields: Operationalizing critical disability physics identity with neurodivergent physicists outside academia

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education research and physics education research, in particular, are currently struggling with a dearth of research into understanding the experiences and identity development of neurodivergent students. In addition, an even larger gap in research exists looking into nonacademic members who have left the field and still strongly identify with their disciplinary identity. As valued members of our physics community, these colleagues provide a unique perspective as to how identity and participation are nurtured and developed, particularly among rising disabled physicists. To resolve these current issues and aid in future research, we operationalize our new Critical Disability Physics Identity framework and present results from interviews with three neurodivergent post-baccalaureate nonacademic physicists (those who have left physics and retain a strong affinity toward their identity as a physicist). As the first paper in a four-part phenomenological study into the identity development of neurodivergent physicists, we also present an analysis of each interview through a Critical Disability Physics Identity lens and discuss the implications of their Critical Disability Physics Identity development. We find that neurodivergent students experience very little outright discrimination and violence but experience structural ableism in the form of assessment that is not constructed for how neurodivergent physicists perform physics-related tasks. Additionally, we find that neurodivergent physicists seem to ground identity in having a strong interest in physics, something that is only shaken by professors and others in power being neutral toward the discrimination experienced by neurodivergent people. We find that there are very large power imbalances between professors and neurodivergent students and that only when professors and others in power are actively anti-ableist is this power imbalance remedied and neurodivergent students begin to feel that they are physicists. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Braiding together Critical Race Feminista participatory action research: conceptual and methodological considerations

In this article, I discuss conceptual and methodological considerations for the design and implementation of Critical Race Feminista Participatory Action Research (Critical Race Feminista-PAR) projects in higher education. I share some theoretical considerations of Critical Race Feminista praxis and methodologies that have been made by scholars who bridge critical race theories and Chicana feminist epistemology and then offer considerations for areas of expansion for Critical Race Feminista methodology. I also provide an overview of the social justice and liberatory origins of PAR and examples of other “braided” approaches of PAR that help inform Critical Race Feminista-PAR. To illustrate the application of this methodology, I provide an example from a previous study I co-constructed along with Latina higher education staff, administrators, and students that had elements of Critical Race Feminista-PAR. This article has implications for how Critical Race Feminista-PAR can be used to address social problems in higher education and beyond.