Student Artifacts Research Articles

A Case Study of Rural Elementary Teachers Integrating Social Studies with the Science of Reading

This study presents a qualitative case study that occurred in a rural school and was bound to the seven second and third grade teachers who taught English Language Arts, their instructional coach, and their 106 students over the 14 weeks they participated. The researchers provided professional development around supporting linguistic comprehension with interactive social studies read alouds. Data sources included professional development materials, lesson plans, videos/transcripts of lessons, grade-level debriefing interviews, individual teacher exit interviews, student artifacts, and instructional materials. The data coding process utilized a priori and open coding. Findings indicate teachers a) recognize social studies aligns with the Science of Reading, b) had a high level of implementation when pairing social studies content knowledge with textual knowledge, and c) implemented strategies aligned with active-self regulation the least. Implications for linguistic comprehension instruction and professional development within the context of Science of Reading are discussed.

Action research communities as a whole-of-school teaching improvement initiative: a multi-method multi-informant study

AbstractProfessional learning communities (PLCs) actioned through collaborative action research (CAR) have been found in the literature to be beneficial for both teachers and students. However, previous studies mainly examined teachers’ perceived effectiveness of CAR-based PLCs, as well as identified steps and elements involved in such PLCs, either self-initiated by teachers themselves or by university researchers in a school-university partnership model. Few have focused on a whole-of-school teaching improvement initiative based entirely on PLCs through CAR. In this study, we provide preliminary evaluation of a 3-year whole-of-school teaching improvement initiative (the SETaRI), based on PLCs through CAR at a regional primary school in NSW, Australia. Analysis of students’ various assessment measures (N = 206), teachers’ survey (N = 44), observation of professional learning team meetings, and various types of student artefacts revealed that students showed general and consistent improvement in both their reading and maths performance over time following the implementation of the SETaRI model, with greater progressive learning effects for those whose initial learning outcomes were lower than their peers. The findings also highlighted data-driven decision making, teacher collaboration, and school leadership as potent elements underlying teachers’ positive attitudes toward the implementation of the model as well as student learning outcomes and improvement. This study provides useful implications for a school improvement agenda focused on action research communities.

Adapting scientific modeling practice for promoting elementary students’ productive disciplinary engagement

ABSTRACT This study explores the adaptations made by elementary school teachers to promote student Productive Disciplinary Engagement (PDE) during modeling activities within an online learning context. PDE means students make collective intellectual progress by using disciplinary practices and ideas to formulate possible solutions or answers. Given the abrupt transition to remote education instigated by the COVID-19 pandemic, student engagement and hands-on learning opportunities have faced significant challenges. This study adopts a collective case study design with an interpretivist perspective, investigating three fourth-grade teachers over the 2020–2021 school year. We collected multiple data sources, including professional learnings, observations, teacher interviews, and student artifacts. The study identified four significant themes pertaining to teacher adaptations that corresponded with increased students’ PDE: leverage technology tools for constructing models; maximise student-centered choice and position students as epistemic agents in modeling; incorporate family and community resources for modeling; and utilise students’ diverse knowledge and expertise in modeling. These findings contribute to our understanding of effective strategies for promoting student engagement and the practical application of scientific modeling in online learning environments.

How Can Language Education Contribute to Securing a Livable Planet?

AbstractThe aim of this study was to test the notion of ecological citizenship empirically in the English language classroom in an underrepresented region, Latin America. A pedagogic project aimed at the development of students as ecological citizens was designed and implemented in 2019 in four English language classrooms in a public secondary school in Argentina. Participants were 111 teenagers aged 15–17 taking their fourth or fifth years. The project addressed the theme ‘the world we want’ using the UN sustainable development goals as a foundation, in particular, those concerned with environmental issues. The study is theoretically grounded on the notion of ecological citizenship and the research question is: How can language education contribute to securing a livable planet? Data types include Instagram publications (video, text, and a variety of semiotic resources); Instagram comments; student artifacts created in class (graphs, charts, tables, icons); infographics sewed together to make a quilt; a project video; the Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters; and a final student survey. Qualitative analysis was done in three phases and findings indicate that the creative arts and community engagement in combination fostered students' development as ecological citizens in this context. Implications for language education are considered.

Unveiling maker mindsets: a journey of formation and transformation through design thinking-making pedagogy within a lesson study context

Maker Education (ME) focuses on fostering students’ Maker Mindsets (MM). However, prevailing ME practices often lack a structured approach, that impedes the effective development of students’ MM. To address this challenge, a Design Thinking-making pedagogy (DTMP) is used to design ME lessons through a three-month Lesson Study (LS) cycle. Employing a qualitative multiple case study methodology, we studied the development and transformation of MM in three elementary school students. Diverse data were collected, including student artifacts, video recordings of teacher discussions, and audio recordings of the interviews. The findings revealed common cognitive, self-efficacy, and collaboration improvements among the three students. Unique changes in individual cognitive skills, motivational patterns, and obstacles to collaboration were also observed. Furthermore, key factors influencing MM development were identified across individual, social, and pedagogical dimensions. Individual factors included prior knowledge, maker skills, and motivation, whereas social factors included teachers’ attitudes, recognition, feedback, and peer collaboration. Pedagogical practices, such as project difficulty, structure, and authenticity, play a crucial role in MM development. This study not only contributes valuable insights into MM development, but also underscores the pivotal role of tailored, personal real-life experiences in ME pedagogy. Furthermore, our study suggests that teachers can enhance ME pedagogy by intentionally designing it to facilitate MM in students, using the LS approach.

Textual Poachers and Fandom Dynamics: A Study of Filipino College Students

In the realm of contemporary culture, fandom, particularly among the youth, has become a focal point due to its participatory nature, fostering active engagement and creative expression. Coined by Henry Jenkins in 1992, fan culture, or "Textual Poaching," highlights fans' dual roles as consumers and creators within various media landscapes. This research investigates the engagement patterns of Filipino college students within their respective fandoms, employing Jenkins' framework of participatory culture as a theoretical scaffold. Utilizing a qualitative methodology, the study scrutinized 175 student artifacts to elucidate how members of fandoms articulate their affiliations and negotiate communal dynamics. Findings suggest students' decisions to affiliate with particular fandoms depend on their immediate needs, interests, and social standing. Fandoms centered around online gaming, entertainment media, and cinematic or televisual narratives are deemed valuable by students, providing inclusive spaces for social interaction, and constructing personal identity.

Literature-based instruction and language learner autonomy: A case study of a tertiary EFL reading course

This qualitative case study aims to investigate pedagogical strategies for developing language learner autonomy through scrutinising a literature-based EFL reading course carried out in a tertiary institution in China. To achieve triangulation, data were collected from multiple sources, including two diagnostic surveys, post-course feedback interviews, student artefacts, teacher’s reflective journal, and related teaching materials. In data analysis, triangulation was accomplished by involving and integrating multiple investigators’ perspectives – three researchers collaborated in analysing data collected from student feedback interviews. Findings of this study could be classified into three categories. Regarding second language acquisition (SLA), results from the surveys and interviews indicate a comprehensive improvement in learners’ L2 competence, in addition to their cognitive and motivational enhancement. With regard to literature-based instruction, evidence from this study contributes to a deepened and enriched understanding of the comprehensive approach to L2 literature and scaffolded extensive reading. For developing language learner autonomy, this study provides a three-dimensional modal with pedagogical implications for literature-based instruction, from the perspectives of teaching content, methodological approaches, and ideological orientation.

Speculative frictions: writing civic futures after AI

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine how young people imagine civic futures through speculative fiction writing about artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The authors argue that young people’s speculative fiction writing about AI not only helps make visible the ways they imagine the impacts of emerging technologies and the modes of collective action available for leveraging, resisting or countering them but also the frictions and fissures between the two.Design/methodology/approachThis practitioner research study used data from student artifacts (speculative fiction stories, prewriting and relevant unit work) as well as classroom fieldnotes. The authors used inductive coding to identify emergent patterns in the ways young people wrote about AI and civics, as well as deductive coding using digital civic ecologies framework.FindingsThe findings of this study spotlight both the breadth of intractable civic concerns that young people associate with AI, as well as the limitations of the civic frameworks for imagining political interventions to these challenges. Importantly, they also indicate that the process of speculative writing itself can help reconcile this disjuncture by opening space to dwell in, rather than resolve, the tensions between “the speculative” and the “civic.”Practical implicationsTeachers might use speculative fiction writing and the digital civic ecologies framework to support students in critically examining possible AI futures and effective civic actions within them.Originality/valueSpeculative fiction writing offers an avenue for students to analyze the growing civic concerns posed by emerging platform technologies like AI.

Examining the Effect of Contactless Intergenerational Befriending Intervention on Social Isolation Among Older Adults and Students' Attitude Toward Companionship: Content Analysis.

Intergenerational friendship, a mechanism of social support, is an effective intervention to reduce the increasing risk of social isolation (SI) and develop companionship in the older adult population. The COVID-19 pandemic provided a unique opportunity to examine the psychosocial intervention of befriending via technology use as a primary form of contactless socialization. The study aims to explore the effectiveness of the befriending intervention through a contactless, intergenerational service-learning project on older adult emotions, especially boredom and loneliness as the key attributes of SI, and on students' attitude toward companionship. During the months of January to April 2022 , undergraduate students enrolled in a health administration course with a special focus on culture were asked to be involved in a contactless, intergenerational service-learning project (n=46). In this study, contactless intervention meant communication using the telephone and apps such as FaceTime and Zoom. Students were paired with older adults to have at least a 30-minute weekly conversation, for 8 weeks, via telephone or an internet-based app such as FaceTime. Students were asked to write a half-page diary after each interaction and a 1-page reflection at the end of the fourth week and at the end of the service-learning project. At the completion of the project, the researchers also surveyed the older adults to assess the impact of the project using a 5-item open-ended questionnaire. Following a heuristic approach and content analysis, student artifacts (110,970 words; 118-page, single-spaced Microsoft Word document) and the older adult surveys were analyzed using MAXQDA, (VERBI GmbH). Qualitative data were extracted to assess the impact of service learning on SI by measuring the attributes of boredom and loneliness among 46 older adults. Students' attitudes toward companionship were also assessed using data from their diaries and reflections. Overall, three major constructs were identified: (1) meaningful engagement, defined as feeling safe, having increased confidence, and having reduced boredom; (2) internal motivation to participate in the weekly interaction, defined as discussion about daily life experience, level of happiness, and ability to exert personal control over the situation; and (3) intergenerational befriending, defined as perceived benefits from the friendly nature of the interaction, ability to comfortably connect with students, and positive feeling and attitude toward the student. The contactless, intergenerational befriending intervention reduced boredom and loneliness among older adults and enhanced positive attitude and confidence among university students. Students helped older adults to develop digital skills for the use of apps and social media. Older adults showed interest in the intervention and shared their daily life experiences with the students, which helped to reduce the gap between generations. Findings indicate the effectiveness of an intergenerational service-learning intervention on SI reduction and increased positive attitude among college students.

A physics instructor’s enactment of three-dimensional learning: Action research

This action research study was conducted in a physics education class focusing on electricity and magnetism. The instructor aimed to integrate three-dimensional learning into curriculum, lesson planning, and instruction to understand successes and challenges of teaching through a new approach and students’ perceptions of their learning process. The data collection included instructor’s lesson planning, pre- and post-lesson reflections, student artifacts, and students’ reflections. The qualitative data were analyzed through constant comparative method to identify theory-driven and data-driven codes, determine their frequency to categorize and construct themes. The results were provided with three themes: (1) the instructor’s integration of three-dimensional learning, (2) the strengths and challenges of the implementation, and (3) students’ experiences. These findings suggested the need for focusing on developing teachers’ knowledge in different domains connected to each other such as scientific practices, crosscutting concepts, subject matter knowledge, and nature of science for student conceptions and instructional strategies.

Effects and mechanisms of analytics‐assisted reflective assessment in fostering undergraduates' collective epistemic agency in computer‐supported collaborative inquiry

AbstractBackgroundUndergraduates' collective epistemic agency is critical for their productive collaborative inquiry and knowledge building (KB). However, fostering undergraduates' collective epistemic agency is challenging. Studies have demonstrated the potential of computer‐supported collaborative inquiry approaches, such as KB—the focus of this study, and reflective assessment to foster collective epistemic agency.ObjectivesThis study used a quasi‐experimental design to examine the impact of reflective assessment on undergraduates' collective epistemic agency and the mechanisms of this impact.MethodsAn experimental class, comprising 40 undergraduates, engaged in KB inquiry enhanced by analytics‐assisted reflective assessment, while a comparison class, comprising 41 undergraduates, engaged in portfolio‐supported reflective assessment in KB inquiry. Classroom observations, audio recordings of group discussions and reflections, and student artefacts were collected in both conditions.Results and ConclusionsThe experimental class demonstrated significantly higher levels of collective epistemic agency than the comparison class, as indicated by their collective knowledge advancement and epistemic and metacognitive actions. Qualitative thematic analysis revealed that reflective assessment enhanced the undergraduates' collective epistemic agency through their collective monitoring and regulation of inquiry and ideas, negotiation and synthesis of the community's ideas, conceptualization of collective theories and identification of collective inquiry trajectories with an internal reflective structure.Major TakeawaysHigher‐level metacognitive actions are critical for productive collaborative inquiry and higher‐level epistemic agency that does not often occur naturally and should be promoted by appropriate scaffolding strategies. Students need data from learning analytics and accompanying prompt sheets to help them develop the internal metacognitive structure for agency and learning.

“We need to step it up—We are basically the future”: Latinx young women co‐construct science storylines in high school chemistry

AbstractResearchers and practitioners in the United States increasingly promote phenomena‐based instruction in science that supports the development of a coherent storyline throughout the unit. Questions about who is constructing the science storyline and how still remain. Employing a qualitative ethnographic case study approach, we explore how three Latinx female students authentically contribute in their high school chemistry class and change the science storyline originally developed by the teacher. Data include over 950 min of video recordings, student artifacts, and interviews collected from a unit about reaction rate, which was contextualized by students' experiences with a local wildfire. The analysis points to three instructional moves that appear to play an important role in shifting the collective storyline: connecting to Latinx students' personal concerns, moving across multiple figured worlds, and recognizing students' epistemological contributions. Implications for supporting minoritized students are discussed.

‘Courageous and uncomfortable’: high school English language arts teachers using shared leadership qualities in virtual and hybrid classrooms during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT Shared leadership research shows that it could be beneficial in the high school classroom. During the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers were looking for best-practice strategies to move their curriculum online and to hybrid. This worldwide crisis provided a moment in time to rethink traditional education in unprecedented mandatory mass virtual and hybrid learning. For this study, data was collected using a three-interview approach on Zoom in conjunction with virtual observations of classrooms, teacher and student artifacts, and researcher reflections. The selected teachers reported that they worked to foster an environment of trust, interdependence, collaboration, and collectivism at the beginning of school year 2020 which allowed aspects of shared leadership and student voice to flourish, even within multiple, changing modalities. Students felt more confident to take safe risks in discussion and thinking because everyone was experiencing change, a shared collectivism. The participants found success using student voice consistently to help create engagement, creativity, and other shared leadership qualities in the classroom. All of the qualities were reciprocal, as trust increased, student voice also increased, and likewise for many of the other qualities. Because of this reciprocity, students were able to discuss and reflect knowledge in new ways that many times they directed. Teachers reported a sense of self-efficacy through students’ engagement in their course work and their willingness to take risks. Many times, the teachers felt like students themselves as they took risks and adapted to the changing requirements.

A pragmatist semiotic analysis of secondary students’ embodied and material reasoning in astronomy

ABSTRACT Background In learning astronomy, students need to shift between 3D and 2D representations involving complex interactions between the body and material environment. Little attention has been paid to the iconic nature of this astronomical diagramming. Purpose This research explored the value for students of diagramming to reveal the structural relationships of astronomical phenomena. The study aimed to 1) operationalise Charles Peirce’s pragmatist semiotics to analyse students’ bodily and material reasoning 2) identify the iconic nature of students’ diagramming through Stjernfelt’s activating of Peirce’s iconicity. Sample Two students (a pair) from a class of 30 Year 7 students (12 years old) and their teacher (1) from a government secondary school in Melbourne, Australia. Design and Methods A micro-ethnographic approach to the analysis of video/audio records and student artefacts was utilised in the context of three moments from a 1 hr lesson on astronomy. This data was analysed using Peirce’s sign types of icon, index and symbol to construct a triadic account of the bodily and material nature of students’ reasoning as diagramming. Results The two students determined, by revealing structural relationships with their bodies as well as a mini-whiteboard and a torch and globe, that the Sun is higher in the sky in Summer than Winter due to the Earth’s rotational axis with a tilt (of 23.5 degrees) and its elliptical orbit around the Sun. Conclusion For students to transduct between 3D and 2D astronomical representations, they need to coordinate space-based and Earth-based perspectives through bodily and material diagramming that makes apparent key structural relationships (i.e. iconicity).

Lucy Sheldon's Music Books and Student Artifacts: A Cultural Glance at Litchfield Female Academy and Nineteenth-Century Litchfield, Connecticut

Lucy Sheldon's Music Books and Student Artifacts: A Cultural Glance at Litchfield Female Academy and Nineteenth-Century Litchfield, Connecticut

‘Who Thinks this Teaspoon Is Art?’ A Discourse Analysis of Elementary School Students' Negotiation of Meaning During Art Museum Visits

AbstractThis intrinsic case study examines art museum learning of elementary school students during a week‐long visit at the Mackenzie Art Museum. Museums are informative institutions that provide opportunities for visitors to engage with self, others, and society. It is a unique place for visitors to learn beyond classroom settings. This project aims to analyse the discourse around art and understand how young learners utilise discourse as tools to make meaning during art museum visits. By examining learners' dialogues, the research investigated a meaning‐making framework that incorporates strategies for negotiating insights in art museums. This study includes approximately 12 hours of video‐recorded data and student artefacts. The data suggests learners engage and form new meanings through building and negotiating discourses with peers and museum educators. Different discourses and knowledge are valued and reinforced by members of the group. This study addresses the gap in children's meaning‐making during art museum visits, illustrating their strategies to construct knowledge and bridge connections.

Community-Initiated Science for Transformative Teaching

ABSTRACT In this paper, the authors explore how teachers and community members in Nepal come together to transform students’ science teaching and science learning experiences. The community members, primarily parents of the students, took the opportunity to drive the kinds of science topics and the nature of science activities the teachers needed to teach in their children’s science classrooms. This paper qualitatively documents the interactions between the teachers and the community members, the teachers’ decisions regarding their science lessons, and the nature of critical consciousness discourses in teachers’ built-in classroom interactions with students. The data were collected over 8 weeks through classroom observations, interviews, and student artifacts. The analysis showed that community-initiated partnership with science teachers builds science teaching that values critical community well-being and that the teachers have the agency to provide spaces for learning focused on critical consciousness. The paper uses transformative learning theory, liberation social psychology, and deliberative democracy as the guiding theoretical perspectives to understand transformative science teaching through teacher–community partnership.

I was a good classroom teacher, why do I feel so lost now? Examining a doctoral student’s transition with becoming a teacher educator during and post pandemic

Employing self-study methodology this work examines not only the transition from classroom teacher to teacher educator but also the increased complexity of this experience while teaching online during the pandemic, and the transition back to some sense of normalcy with teaching in person. Data sources include Author One’s reflective journal, recordings of meetings with critical friends providing feedback throughout the process, and student artifacts from different activities applied from year 1 to year 2. From our coding of the journal from year 1, several codes were identified about Author One’s identity as a teacher educator being tied to the types of interactions he fosters in his classroom.  As he transitions to teaching in person in year 2 (Fall 2021) we look to see how he takes what he learned about fostering these interactions in an online environment and applies them to his in-person teaching. Techniques learned from his semester 2 experience of online teaching guide him in this process and critical friend meetings will focus on attending to the transitional moments in his identity as he makes yet another shift in developing who he is as a teacher educator.

Teachers' and Black students' views on the incorporation of African American children's literature in an after‐school book club: collaborative and culturally based learning

AbstractIt has been suggested that culturally relevant literature can be beneficial to elementary school students' learning. Yet, less research has focused on African American students' perspectives of that literature, including aspects of that engagement that may benefit their learning. Therefore, the main goal centred on US elementary school students' perspectives of African American children's literature in an after‐school book club. There were 15 second‐ and third‐grade African American students from a low‐income area who participated in the 6‐week book club. The book club sessions were recorded, student artefacts were collected and a focus group was held with students. Following the book club, there were two classroom teachers interviewed along with an after‐school teacher facilitator. Based on the analysis, four themes were found. These focused on increased reading motivation, the role of cultural and personal associations with literature for comprehending, engagement in communal learning and improved access to culturally relevant texts. The results extend previous research on the importance of social collaboration and culturally relevant books to promote motivation and reading comprehension among learners and highlight the value of collaborative and culturally based learning for Black children in the American context.

Teaching health justice and reimagining narratives of place through community‐driven science practices

AbstractThis study explores how a biology teacher from a summer science program engaged high school students of color in a three‐week science unit exploring community health at the intersection of history, race, place, and power. The goal of this study is to better understand what community‐driven science looks like in a science classroom when a health equity unit is guided by a biology teacher who engages the socio‐historical, political, and relational aspects of community structure and agency. Using student and instructor interviews, program observations, and student artifacts, I examine how the instructor's positioning as a Black woman scientist shaped her goals and vision and the instructional and pedagogical resources made available during the unit. In addition, I explore how engaging in community‐driven science practices during the unit such as critical inquiry and data analysis supported students' sense making about community health and the possibilities they imagined for their communities. Findings illuminate how engaging community health at the intersection of history, race, place, and power shaped engagement in community‐driven science practices and supported student sense making in ways that surfaced challenges, tensions, and opportunities for disrupting and reimagining community narratives. Further, finding highlight the importance of an instructor's lived experiences and pedagogical vision in supporting emergent forms of student agency and place remaking, and generating possibilities for community healing and hope.