Student Artifacts Research Articles

Characterising pre-service secondary science teachers’ noticing of different forms of evidence of student thinking

ABSTRACTEvidence of student thinking takes a variety of forms (e.g. verbal responses, gestures) and has varying degrees of visibility within classroom interactions. The purpose of this study was to characterise the nature of pre-service science teachers’ (PSTs’) noticing skills of different forms of evidence of student thinking using video-based interviews. In the interviews, the PSTs were asked to describe what they had noticed in the videos that captured different forms of evidence of student thinking and ‘think on their feet’ to propose the next instructional moves as if they were the teacher. The PSTs’ comments on the videos were analysed qualitatively with respect to the forms of evidence they noticed and how they interpreted and responded to the evidence. Several findings regarding the nature of PSTs’ noticing skills were uncovered. First, the PSTs readily identified non-verbal forms of evidence, such as voting and student actions. However, some forms of evidence that potentially reveal the content of student thought, such as student artefacts, questions and verbal explanations, were less visible to the PSTs. Second, the PSTs used the identified evidence to infer student engagement levels, attributes and understanding and were generally able to propose instructional responses based on the student thinking that they had identified. Third, the findings also suggest that when the PSTs paid attention to the details of the evidence, they were more likely to connect their instructional decisions to student understanding at a content-specific level. The implications for research on PSTs’ noticing and initial education are discussed.

A representation construction pedagogy of guided inquiry for learning data modelling

ABSTRACT Increasingly, learning in science and mathematics is considered in terms of induction into the multimodal language practices of the disciplinary community. A strong strand of research in this tradition has involved students being challenged to invent multimodal language forms, and their ideas refined through structured guidance. Often, however, research into these inquiry processes focuses on student learning, such that detailed descriptions of teaching strategies are not well represented in the literature. In this paper, we explore the nature of teacher orchestration of student learning in a guided-inquiry classroom sequence on the multimodal language of data modelling. The paper describes a classroom sequence in which nine-year-old students measure, invent, compare, and revise data displays to explore ideas about data variation related to their teacher’s arm span. Data included video capture of the teacher’s orchestration of tasks and classroom discussion, student artefacts, and teacher and student interviews. We examine the classroom processes, including task construction and individual, group and class discursive production, through which the teacher orchestrates students’ invention and revision of data displays. These patterns of discursive moves offer fresh insights into the ways in which teachers can support deeper levels of student learning of foundational multimodal science and mathematics literacy practices.

Modeling Elementary Students' Ideas about Heredity: A Comparison of Curricular Interventions

Learning about heredity is important across the K–12 continuum. However, these ideas may be challenging for students. We examined third-grade students' ideas about heredity in the context of a new, six-week, model-based science unit that uses corn as a model organism to support students' ideas about heredity. We analyzed data collected during implementation of the unit, including student artifacts and interviews. We compared these data to those from a pilot version of the curriculum – implemented in the prior year – that was focused on the same disciplinary concepts but was not designed around scientific modeling. Our findings illustrate levels of understanding in students' ideas about three target concepts underlying heredity: life cycles, trait inheritance, and trait variation. We also found that students experiencing the model-based version of the unit exhibited higher levels of understanding for two of the three target concepts than those experiencing the non-model-based curriculum. Analysis of student interviews also showed that students experiencing the model-based curriculum were better able to use key elements of life cycle, such as pollination and reproduction to support their explanations about inheritance. We discuss implications of this work for design and enactment of model-based curricula in elementary grades that can support students' learning about heredity.

Where’s the Science? Exploring a New Science Teacher Educator’s Theoretical and Practical Understandings of Scientific Inquiry

The purpose for this self-study was to explore the theoretical and practical understandings of scientific inquiry inherent in our elementary teacher preparation program, specifically those of new instructors. Although scientific inquiry and inquiry-based learning are emphasized in our program, several new instructors, doctoral students hired to teach undergraduate courses, expressed some discomfort with the lesser amount of traditional science content that could be found in the course syllabi. To support their development and our own understandings of how to guide them as they begin teaching in higher education, it was important that we understood the transition in regard to teaching scientific inquiry and using inquiry-based pedagogy. Thus, we conducted this collaborative self-study on how a new instructor, experiencing such discomfort, was experiencing a transition in which her epistemology of science was being challenged. The implications of the findings, which derived from critical friend meetings, journal entries, and student artifacts from the scientific inquiry course she taught, serve to inform the field of science education in terms of new science teacher educators moving from a traditional teacher-centered science classroom into a student-centered classroom.

Gifted Students Designing Eco-Friendly STEM Projects

This study aims to investigate the experiences of gifted students while designing a STEM-based environmental project within a real-world context. The study employed a single case study with embedded units design in order to investigate the strategies that gifted students exploited in designing their STEM Projects, as well as their experiences in the actual design process. The data collected in the current study were in the form of video recordings, audio recordings, student artifacts, individual and group assessment forms with open-ended questions, and the teacher’s journal. The participants of the current study involved 17 students from 3-4th and 5-6th grade science classes at a Science and Arts Center. The analysis of the data was achieved using content analysis. The findings indicated that when students were presented authentic STEM learning experiences that involve personally or contextually meaningful content, they adopt a critical thinking disposition that allowed them to investigate the criteria and constraints presented in the problem scenario, as well as the financial and environmental perspectives.

Model-based teaching and learning about inheritance in third-grade science

ABSTRACTResearch suggests that it is challenging for elementary students to develop conceptual understanding of trait variation, inheritance of traits, and life cycles. In this study, we report on an effort to promote elementary students’ learning of hereditary-related concepts through scientific modelling, which affords opportunities for elementary students to generate visual representations of structure and function associated with heredity. This study is part of a four-year design-based research project aimed at supporting students’ learning about life science concepts using corn as a model organism. Study data were collected during the implementation of a project-developed, multi-week, model-based curriculum module in eight third-grade classrooms located in the Midwestern United States. Through mixed methods research, we analysed video recorded observations of curriculum implementation, student artefacts, and student interviews. Results illustrate epistemic dimensions of model-based explanations (MBEs) for heredity that students prioritised, as well as significant variation in students’ MBEs in 2 of the 8 classrooms. While findings show neither students’ content knowledge nor model-based instruction associated with their MBEs, qualitative differences in teachers’ curriculum enactment, and more general approaches to science instruction, may help explain observed differences. Implications are discussed for curriculum and instruction in support of students’ MBE for heredity-related concepts.

Hopeful Discourse: Elementary Children’s Activist Responses to Modern-Day Slavery Grounded in Systems Thinking

This qualitative case study examines how fifth graders and their teachers participated in critical literacy instruction grounded in systems thinking on the topic of slavery. Systems thinking seeks to discover relationships and patterns in diverse underlying systems; critical literacy examines everyday texts, focuses on social justice and change, and promotes transformative practices. Classroom observations, photographs, interviews, and student artifacts were collected and analyzed to provide insight into students’ understandings of patterns of slavery from American colonial times to modern-day trafficking. Through a range of texts and different modalities, students sought to understand different group perspectives and ultimately took action to disrupt an unjust system. Three aspects of students’ learning led them to an agentic role: (1) crossing boundaries across time and differences, (2) developing a holistic worldview, and (3) reimagining a different world and altering the existing discourse.

Elucidating High School Biology Teachers’ Knowledge of Students’ Conceptions Regarding Natural Selection

The purpose of the current study was to explore and further elucidate secondary teachers’ knowledge of students’ conceptions (KOSC) on the topic of evolution by natural selection. Prior research has documented students’ natural selection conceptions, but allowing the opportunity for teachers to describe their own students’ conceptions can permit more novel dimensions of student conceptions to emerge, especially since teachers possess a specialized knowledge of their students. Using teacher interviews, student artifacts, and video-recorded classroom observations as data sources, the study employed a grounded theory approach to document the KOSC for natural selection from four biology teachers in a high-needs public high school in the southwestern United States. Results indicated the teachers identified student conceptions consistent with prior research, but also identified novel dimensions of KOSC including how students use their everyday experiences to think about natural selection. The teachers’ KOSC was then confirmed through classroom observations and student artifacts. The study’s findings provide an elaborated framing with which to better understand and leverage student conceptions—which are fundamental in reform-oriented instructional approaches.

A Case Study Exploring Non-dominant Youths’ Attitudes Toward Science Through Making and Scientific Argumentation

The purposes of this qualitative case study were to describe the design and the development of a maker-centered learning environment and curriculum by an interdisciplinary team, and to explore how an after-school program that incorporated Maker education and scientific argumentation influenced middle school youths’ attitudes toward science in the Midwestern USA. The researchers conducted pre- and post-interviews with six students from non-dominant backgrounds and the teacher, and also administered attitudinal surveys to the six students at two time points (pre/post). Additionally, the researchers video-recorded each after-school session, observed the level of student participation in each activity, and examined student artifacts. At the end of the program, the researchers administered a program survey to the six students. The findings revealed a number of themes. This after-school program eased the tension from the formal science learning with the playful qualities of Making activities and developed the students’ practice of social negotiation, which sustained their liking of science. The Making and scientific argumentation activities provided an opportunity to contextualize STEM concepts and practices, which allowed the students to value science by re-affirming as well as expanding their career choices. The Making and scientific argumentation activities helped boost confidence that, up to that point, had been decreasing in formal science learning contexts. The findings speak to the need for future studies that investigate pedagogy issues in Making after-school programs and also examine equity issues in the opportunities for non-dominant youth to participate in these programs.

The Capstone ePortfolio in an Undergraduate Public Health Program: Accreditation, Assessment, and Audience.

The Bachelor of Science in Public Health (BSPH) degree program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte) was launched in 2007, and was initially accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health in 2009. We admit approximately 40–45 students each fall to the upper division major, through a competitive admissions process. During the junior and senior years, BSPH majors complete a core set of required courses including internship; 18 credit hours of restricted electives; and any minor offered by the university (except public health). During 2014–2015, the Department of Public Health Sciences was one of five campus units supported by UNC General Administration to pilot the use of ePortfolios as a tool to help students integrate learning across the courses that make up the major. The pilot program continued for 2 additional years, to promote enduring faculty efforts. We subsequently outline the development and implementation of ePortfolio pedagogy in the BSPH program at UNC Charlotte, including preliminary assessment of outcomes the past 3 years. The adoption of ePortfolios has been instrumental in students' educational experiences for over 2 decades. The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) has advocated that “ePortfolios allow faculty and other educational professionals to help students organize their learning; preserve the variety of forms in which their learning occurs; and reflect upon their learning.” We have learned that effective student ePortfolios do not arise in a vacuum. In collaboration with like-minded campus colleagues including those associated with the university's Communication Across the Curriculum program, we have encountered contributing forces related to the process of “collection, selection, and reflection” including intentional assignments that yield effective student artifacts; and authentic feedback to students through adoption and modification of the AAC&U VALUE rubrics. We conclude that internal and external forces drive the development of ePortfolio content; students embrace opportunities to document learning when those opportunities are structured; the development of the ePortfolio is relational—consistent with student attributes; and ePortfolios enable evidence-based approaches to meet accreditation demands, assessment needs, and workforce expectations.

‘It’s a gassy world’: starting with students’ wondering questions to inform climate change education

There is extensive evidence showing that the climate system is warming and human behavior is linked to the change. Despite increasing attempts to integrate climate change into school curricula, teachers have challenges in preparing and implementing climate change lessons. The study aims to look at (a) the kinds of wondering questions middle school students construct after they are engaged in a climate change activity called ‘It’s a Gassy World’ and (b) what teachers highlight in their reflections on these questions to improve their teaching. In this multi-case explorative study, the data comes from student artifacts, teachers’ written reflections, and semi-structured conversational interviews with teachers. A constant-comparative analysis of students’ wondering questions (N = 165) showed that the nature of the questions varies. These were grouped under three different categories: direct observation, interdisciplinary connections, and future projections questions. We then analyzed five teachers’ written reflections and interviews from a cultural historical activity theoretical perspective. This analysis revealed that teachers paid particular attention to certain tools (physical and conceptual), norms (epistemic and teaching), emotions, and division of labor routines in classrooms. We discuss how students’ wondering questions help teachers notice essential features of climate change learning such as spatiotemporal thinking.

Sixth grade students’ problematization of and decision-making about a wind energy socio-scientific issue

Little is known about how middle school students problematize socio-scientific issues (SSIs), particularly contemporary energy challenges. To address this need, we developed and implemented an instructional module focused on a local wind energy issue and conducted research to explore how sixth-grade students frame, reason, and make decisions about the issue using Construal Level Theory (CLT). Results from analysis of student artifacts (n = 116) and interviews (n = 16) suggest concrete thinkers have negative perceptions, whereas abstract thinkers have positive perceptions. This study’s findings have important implications for the design of SSI-based curriculum and instruction.

The Thinking Frames Approach: a case study of inclusion using student‐generated multiple‐representations

Many teachers struggle to provide equitable opportunities for students with special educational needs (SEN) to learn science concepts in the inclusive classroom. This study examines the experience of teaching in an inclusive classroom using a conceptual change approach, the Thinking Frames Approach (TFA), incorporating the use of discrepant events, social construction of scientific conceptions followed by the production of multiple student‐generated representations of their understanding. An in‐depth case study is presented of the experience of Wayne, a student with complex SEN and the effect on his behaviour and science learning based on video/audio recordings of lessons, teacher journal entries, student artefacts, questionnaire results and interviews. It was found that there were positive effects for Wayne's learning using this approach including improved behaviour, greater feelings of self‐efficacy, increased participation in small group and class discussions and improved outcomes on the same assessment tasks as peers. It is suggested that the structured approach of the TFA, the communication of understanding in different modalities, particularly drawing, and the support of peers enabled Wayne to more deeply engage in construction of understanding and may provide teachers with an easy and effective approach to authentic inclusion where real conceptual gains are made by all students.

Epistemic tools in engineering design for K‐12 education

AbstractEngineering design provides unique ways to include epistemic tools to support collaborative sense‐making, reasoning with evidence, and assessing knowledge. Engineering design processes often require students to apply science concepts to solve problems. We draw from five engineering curricular units that engaged students in specific epistemic practices of engineering: constructing models and prototypes, making trade‐offs between criteria and constraints, and communicating through uses of conventionalized verbal, written, and symbolic models. Through analysis of curriculum products, student artifacts, and classroom discourse, we show how engaging in such practices requires the use of epistemic tools that shape, and are shaped by, the knowledge construction work of the members of the classrooms. The epistemic tools foster creating, sharing, and assessing knowledge claims. Six principles of practice for education demonstrate how such tools can be educative. These principles evince how epistemic tools support goal‐directed, concerted activity that can support the learning of disciplinary knowledge and practice and offer the potential to increase student agency.

Beliefs and Practices Concerning Academic Writing among Postgraduate Language-Teacher Trainees

This paper reports on the initial stages of a larger study on plurilingual rhetorical communicative competences. Experiential evidence indicated a mismatch between the academic writing competences desired from and those displayed by the participants—adult bilingual (L1 Spanish, L+ English) English-language teacher trainees in a postgraduate program at Colombian university. We examined participants’ beliefs and practices concerning academic writing to identify the sources of their challenges and develop the evidential basis for identifying appropriate remedial strategies. This was a mixed methods study, in which we analyzed data from semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, and student artifacts through the grounded theory approach and descriptive statistics. The results suggest that participants’ challenges with rhetorical aspects of academic writing stem from a lack of training. However, participants were relatively successful with aspects of writing in which they had been trained: discrete language skills and purely descriptive prose. We conclude their academic writing difficulties are fundamentally non-linguistic and hypothesize they would face similar academic writing challenges even if writing in their L1. There is an urgent need to address these challenges, not only because rhetorical competences are increasingly important in a knowledge-driven society but also because teachers need to be able to train their own students in such competences.

Professional changes of primary science teachers: experience on collaborative action research in Thailand

This article focuses on impacts of collaborative action research with a spiral process of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting that had been used as a strategy to promote teacher professional development in science education of Thailand. With the school principals’ support, three primary science teachers’ instructional practices are the subject of individual case studies. A range of qualitative methods and data sources including participant observations, individual and collective interviews, teacher and student artifacts were adapted to elicit evidence related to change of teaching practices and perceptions on action research activities. The case study analysis showed that collaborative action research enabled the primary science teachers to change their teaching practices within the classroom conditions. Factors that were identified as important to these changes included: 1) the primary teachers needed school leadership that powerfully attends to their professional development activities; and 2) the teachers needed a university coach to collaboratively reflect and suggest how to teach in the particular subject i.e. science. In the case of a primary teacher who, having no qualifications (i.e., certification-related teacher preparation) in science teaching, additionally needed a community of professional teachers willing to collaboratively reflect on classroom experiences for better inquiry into science teaching practices. As a means to sustain the changes in this educational context, implementing the collaborative action research while providing opportunities for parents to observe and reflect upon teachers’ classroom teaching practices was also found to be important.

A Multimodal Assessment Framework for Integrating Student Writing and Drawing in Elementary Science Learning

Science learning is inherently multimodal, with students utilizing both drawings and writings to explain observations of physical phenomena. As such assessments in science should accommodate the many ways students express their understanding, especially given evidence that understanding is distributed across both drawing and writing. In recent years advanced automated assessment techniques that evaluate expressive student artifacts have emerged. However, these techniques have largely operated individually, each considering only a single mode. We propose a framework for the multimodal automated assessment of students’ writing and drawing to leverage the synergies inherent across modalities and create a more complete and accurate picture of a student's knowledge. We introduce a multimodal assessment framework as well as two computational techniques for automatically analyzing student writings and drawings: a convolutional neural network-based model for assessing student writing, and a topology-based model for assessing student drawing. Evaluations with elementary students’ writings and drawings collected with a tablet-based digital science notebook demonstrate that 1) each of the framework's two modalities provide an independent and complementary measure of student science learning, and 2) the computational methods are capable of accurately assessing student work from both modalities and offer the potential for integration in technology-rich learning environments for real-time formative assessment.

Humanoid robots supporting children’s learning in an early childhood setting

AbstractThis qualitative study explored the affordances provided by the integration of the NAO humanoid robot in three preschool classrooms. Using the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework as a lens, the researchers qualitatively analyzed data from focus groups, observations, field notes and student artifacts, using grounded coding to uncover language and communication, physical, cognitive and social–emotional learning experiences for children. The researchers also examined interactions between the robot, children and teachers to identify successes and challenges experienced during the integration. Findings indicate the robot provided opportunities for student development in all learning domains. Students were intellectually curious about the robot; data showed their eagerness to “talk with,” generate questions about, make eye contact with and learn more about the robot. Students viewed these interactions as two‐way. The presence of the robot created much enthusiasm and excitement, resulting in the opportunity for students to practice waiting their turn and cooperation. Challenges uncovered show that teachers lacked experience and knowledge in the integration and operation of the robot. Despite these challenges, findings show that teachers welcomed the robot as a tool in the classroom to align with curriculum requirements and meet the developmental needs of children.

“For Real Love”: How Black Girls Benefit from a Politicized Ethic of Care

This article examines the concept of a politicized ethic of care, a teaching philosophy that is commonly rooted in the pedagogies of exemplary Black female teachers. Data from a larger study of a girls' empowerment program at a public high school are used to argue in favor of this pedagogical tradition, which has been proven to facilitate the development of positive social identities and schooling behaviors among African American female students. The author challenges Western and gender-neutral approaches to caring for urban Black girls through an inductive analysis of curricula, in-class video footage, student artifacts, and interviews with former participants. Implications for teacher education research are presented.

Preservice teachers’ experiences of STEM integration: challenges and implications for integrated STEM teacher preparation

In the United States, recent STEM education reform initiatives call for teaching STEM subjects through integration of multiple related subjects. In response to this call, an integrated STEM education methods course was developed for secondary preservice teachers in STEM disciplines. At the conclusion of the course, qualitative data (e.g., interviews, student artifacts) were collected to examine the methods course students’ practices and experiences of STEM integration. Teachers’ learning was approached from situated perspectives that shed light on contexts in which teaching practices are situated and funds of knowledge that individual teachers bring to bear to their teaching contexts. While the students successfully developed STEM integration lessons and taught them, they faced challenges attributable to current school practices, limited interdisciplinary understandings, and a lack of role models. Acknowledging the numerous constraints in the current educational system and structure, several ways were suggested to mitigate the challenges and build on the strengths that preservice teachers established.