Active learning: a case study of student engagement in college Calculus

This paper presents a case study for strategic engagement of students in a Calculus course in order to produce increased learning in the classroom. Since it has been shown that active learning can promote greater comprehension for students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses, the researcher utilized many types of active learning techniques to enhance classroom instruction. The key components implemented are presented as a model of enhanced learning through developed classroom engagement. This course redesign model entitled, Strategic Engagement for Increased Learning (SEIL), has the potential to (1) contribute to the body of knowledge on ways to improve mathematics skills for college students, (2) identify successful teaching strategies and technologies that will promote the retention of STEM students, (3) increase the success rate of students taking Calculus, and (4) help produce more STEM graduates needed for the STEM workforce in the United States of America.     

Students' Understanding of the Particulate Nature of Matter

The particulate nature of matter is identified in science education standards as one of the fundamental concepts that students should understand at the middle school level. However, science education research in indicates that secondary school students have difficulties understanding the structure of matter. The purpose of the study is to describe how engaging in an extended project‐based unit developed urban middle school students' understanding of the particulate nature of matter. Multiple sources of data were collected, including pre‐ and posttests, interviews, students' drawings, and video recordings of classroom activities. One teacher and her five classes were chosen for an indepth study. Analyses of data show that after experiencing a series of learning activities the majority of students acquired substantial content knowledge. Additionally, the finding indicates that students' understanding of the particulate nature of matter improved over time and that they retained and even reinforced their understanding after applying the concept. Discussions of the design features of curriculum and the teacher's use of multiple representations might provide insights into the effectiveness of learning activities in the unit.     

Student Initiatives in Urban Elementary Science Classrooms

Student initiatives play an important role in inquiry‐based science with all students, including English language learning (ELL) students. This study examined initiatives that elementary students made as they participated in an intervention to promote science learning and English language development over a three‐year period. In addition, the study examined whether student initiatives were related to other domains of classroom practices. The study involved 70 third‐, fourth‐, and fifth‐grade classrooms with ELL students in six urban elementary schools. Results indicated that students generally made few, low‐quality initiatives. Student initiatives were generally not related to the other domains of classroom practices for grades 3 and 4, whereas initiatives were significantly related to almost all the other domains for grade 5. These results contribute to the knowledge base for fostering ELL students' initiatives in science classrooms.     

Inventing Creativity: An Exploration of the Pedagogy of Ingenuity in Science Classrooms

Concerns with the ability of U.S. classrooms to develop learners who will become the next generation of innovators, particularly given the present climate of standardized testing, warrants a closer look at creativity in science classrooms. The present study explored these concerns associated with teachers' classroom practice by addressing the following research question: What pedagogical factors, and related teacher conceptions, are potentially related to the demonstration of creativity among science students? Seventeen middle‐level, high school, and introductory‐level college science teachers from a variety of school contexts participated in the study. A questionnaire developed for this study, interviews, and classroom observations were used in order to explore potential areas of relatedness between pedagogical factors and manifestations of student creativity in science. Five categories ultimately emerged and described potential areas in which teachers would have to explicitly plan for creativity. These areas could inform the pedagogical considerations that teachers would have to make within their lesson plans and activities in order to support its manifestation among students. These provide a starting point for science teachers and science teacher educators to consider how to develop supportive environments for student creative thinking.     

The role of informal learning spaces in enhancing student engagement with mathematical sciences

By helping create a shared, supportive, learning community, the creative use of custom-designed spaces outside the classroom has a major impact on student engagement. The intention is to create spaces that promote peer interaction within and across year groups, encourage closer working relationships between staff and students and support specific coursework activities – particularly group work. Such spaces make better use of time since students are motivated to stay and work during long gaps in their timetable, can provide a sense of ‘home’ within the institution and can lead to a cohesive community of practice. In this paper, we describe how this has been achieved and currently delivered in Mathematics at Sheffield Hallam University and provide some detailed analysis of the student usage of the space.     

Learning the Learning Cycle: The Differential Effect on Elementary Preservice Teachers

This study examined the difficulties and factors that led to understanding the learning cycle teaching strategy. Participants included 83 preservice elementary teachers (PTs) enrolled in multiple sections of a science methods course taught by the same professor, one of the authors of this study. Analysis revealed that there were four categories of PTs, ranging from Enthusiastic to Fearful students, distinguished by their science content background and attitudes to science. High achieving students, successful in science courses, felt confused by the learning cycle that was so different from their previous science learning experiences and formed mindsets against learning it. Average students who expressed disinterest or even fear of science embraced it as their first successful science learning experience. Multiple exposures to the learning cycle were necessary to overcome these mindsets. Most PTs in all categories increased in their understanding of the learning cycle and perceived it as an effective method for allowing students to construct their understanding of science.     

What Children Bring to the Classroom: Learning Science From Experience

Extracurricular science-related experiences of young students were examined. The sample consisted of 539 elementary school students between the ages of 9 and 13. Students completed the Science Experiences Survey (SES) to identify the number of common scientific materials and activities they experienced outside of the classroom. The factor analysis isolated three underlying factors of extracurricular science-related experiences: life science-related experiences, physical science-related experiences, and general learning attributes related to science. Further analysis identified differences in reported experiences by gender. The data indicate that young girls tend to participate in nurturing life science-related activities, and young boys favor hands-on, action-oriented physical science-related experiences. The research suggests that the gender disparity in science follows a continuuum that begins with the experiences of elementary school students.     

Urban Third Grade Teachers' Practices and Perceptions in Science Instruction with English Language Learners

The study examined relationships among key domains of science instruction with English language learning (ELL) students based on teachers' perceptions of their classroom practices (i.e., what they think they do) and actual classroom practices (i.e., what they are observed doing). The four domains under investigation included: (1) teachers' knowledge of science content; (2) teaching practices to support scientific understanding; (3) teaching practices to support scientific inquiry; and (4) teaching practices to support English language development during science instruction. The study involved 38 third‐grade teachers participating in the first‐year implementation of a professional development intervention aimed at improving science and literacy achievement of ELL students in urban elementary schools. Based on teachers' self‐reports, practices for understanding were related to practices for inquiry and practices for English language development. Based on classroom observations in the fall and spring, practices for understanding were related to practices for inquiry, practices for English language development, and teacher knowledge of science content. However, we found a weak to non‐existent relationship between teachers' self‐reports and observations of their practices.     

Reflections on Success and Retention in Urban Science Education: Voices of Five African‐American Science Teachers Who Stayed

This study highlights the factors that contribute to excellence in urban science teaching as pinpointed by five urban African‐American science teachers who have taught successfully in the urban system for over 10 years. These teachers shared their experiences and reflections on the qualities that contributed to their success and persistence as urban science teachers. Their ability to understand and care for their students was a major contributing factor; other contributing factors included in‐depth knowledge and love of science, caring and commitment to the whole child, effective classroom management strategies, high expectations and motivation of their students, and an understanding and acceptance of the varying parental involvement in the educational decisions about their child.     

The Influence of Mind Mapping on Eighth Graders’ Science Achievement

This study assessed the influence of using mind maps as a learning tool on eighth graders’ science achievement, whether such influence was mediated by students’ prior scholastic achievement, and the relationship between students’ mind maps and their conceptual understandings. Sixty‐two students enrolled in four intact sections of a grade 8 science classroom were randomly assigned to experimental and comparison conditions. Participants in the experimental group received training in, and constructed, mind maps throughout a science unit. Engagement with mind mapping was counterbalanced with involving the comparison group participants with note summarization to control for time on task as a confounding variable. Otherwise, the intervention was similar for both groups in all respects. A multiple choice test was used to measure student gains across two categories and three levels of achievement. Data analyses indicated that the experimental group participants achieved statistically significant and substantially higher gains than students in the comparison group. The gains were not mediated by participants’ prior scholastic achievement. Analyses also indicated that iconography was not as central to participants’ mind maps as often theorized. Depicting accurate links between central themes and major and minor concepts, and using colors to represent concepts were the major aspects that differentiated the mind maps built by students who achieved higher levels of conceptual understanding.     

An Atom is Known by the Company it Keeps: A Constructionist Learning Environment for Materials Science Using Agent-Based Modeling

This article reports on “MaterialSim”, an undergraduate-level computational materials science set of constructionist activities which we have developed and tested in classrooms. We investigate: (a) the cognition of students engaging in scientific inquiry through interacting with simulations; (b) the effects of students programming simulations as opposed to only interacting with ready-made simulations; (c) the characteristics, advantages, and trajectories of scientific content knowledge that is articulated in epistemic forms and representational infrastructures unique to computational materials science, and (d) the principles which govern the design of computational agent-based learning environments in general and for materials science in particular. Data sources for the evaluation of these studies include classroom observations, interviews with students, videotaped sessions of model-building, questionnaires, and analysis of artifacts. Results suggest that by becoming ‘model builders,’ students develop deeper understanding of core concepts in materials science, and learn how to better identify unifying principles and behaviors within the content matter.     

Peer Interaction in Science Concept Development and Problem Solving

Cooperative learning is commonly advocated as an effective instructional strategy in classrooms. Years of research support this recommendation. Recently, however, cognitive researchers and theorists suggest that peer group work may possibly enhance concept development and problem solving. The effectiveness of group work, including peer tutoring, cooperative learning, and peer collaboration, may be explained using several theoretical perspectives. Piaget theorized that the importance of peers comes from their ability to share ideas and initiate the equilibration process in individuals. Vygotsky argued that learning takes place in social contexts only to be internalized at a later time. He proposed a “zone of proximal development” to describe the difference between a student's ability to solve a problem alone and with the help of a more knowledgeable person. Researchers focusing on both theoretical positions argue that results support both theories. Additionally, researchers suggest that peer collaboration may enhance concept development and problem solving ability. Recommendations are made for incorporating effective peer learning strategies into instruction.     

An Illumination of the Roles of Hands‐On Activities,Discussion, Text Reading,and Writing in Constructing Biology Knowledge in Seventh Grade

A previous study ( Wallace, Yang, Hand, & Hohenshell, 2001 ) indicated that seventh‐grade life science students using a learning tool known as the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) performed significantly better on conceptual test questions than did a control group. In the present study, the researcher studied more deeply how students utilized a variety of knowledge sources while engaged in the SWH, including textbook, teacher‐led discussions, laboratory activities, peer group discussion, and writing (including their cognitive mechanisms and the nature of their written explanations). Six case students were selected based on a range of high to low achievement according to grades. An interpretive analysis of interview and document data was conducted. Of the 6 students, 3 relied on firsthand observations from laboratory activities as their major source of understanding; these students used listening, explaining, and writing most frequently. One student relied solely on textbook and teacher statements and actively rejected laboratory observations, relying primarily on reading and synthesis. Two students integrated laboratory observations with canonical information found in the textbook and other reading sources. They were able to bridge between the different epistemological bases for firsthand observations and authoritative text and blended these into rich and detailed explanations for biology concepts.     

The Advantages of an STS Approach Over a Typical Textbook Dominated Approach in Middle School Science

Two sections of middle school science were taught by two longtime teachers where one used an STS approach and the other followed the more typical textbook approach closely. Pre‐ and post assessments were administered to one section of students for each teacher. The testing focused on student concept mastery, general science achievement, concept applications, use of concepts in new situations, and attitudes toward science. Videotapes of classroom actions were recorded and analyzed to determine the level of the use of STS teaching strategies in the two sections. Information was also be collected that gave evidence of and noted changes in student creativity and the continuation of student learning and the use of it beyond the classroom. Major findings indicate that students experiencing the STS format where constructivist teaching practices were used to (a) learn basic concepts as well as students who studied them directly from the textbook, (b) achieve as much in terms of general concept mastery as students who studied almost exclusively by using a textbook closely, (c) apply science concepts in new situations better than students who studied science in a more traditional way, (d) develop more positive attitudes about science, (e) exhibit creativity skills more often and more uniquely, and (f) learn and use science at home and in the community more than did students in the textbook dominated classroom.     

A framework for using learning theories to inform ‘growth mindset’ activities

ABSTRACT

The social psychology theory of fixed and growth mindsets offers one reason for observed underachievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), particularly for students who have previously excelled in these disciplines. Fixed mindset beliefs are linked to behaviours that can lead to avoiding challenges and reduced learning, such as concealing a lack of understanding to retain an image of being ‘smart’. The potential impact of a growth mindset on STEM achievement, particularly for minority and low-household-income students, resulted in calls to develop interventions that encourage growth mindsets and discourage fixed mindsets. However, education interventions are influenced by the educator's understanding of how learning occurs. A framework to show how activities based on different learning theories may encourage growth mindsets or (unintentionally) encourage fixed mindsets can guide the developers of growth mindset interventions. We present such a framework in six tables relating to key areas associated with growth and fixed mindsets: dealing with challenges, persistence, effort, praise, the success of others and learning goals. Each table gives examples of learning activities that may encourage growth or fixed mindsets, fitting with each of four key learning theories: behaviourism, constructivism, communities of practice and connectivism.     

Examination-Type Preferences of College Science Students and Their Faculty in Israel and USA: A Comparative Study

The science-examination preferences of college science students and their science faculty were surveyed, using the TOPE questionnaire at a teacher training and a community college in Israel and the U.S., respectively. The results obtained in the two countries were “intrally” and “interly” compared, in total and by gender, in terms of significant/no significant differences in the preferences made and the reasons provided by the students and faculty for their ranking. The findings suggest that: (a) college science students prefer mostly, the Israelis more so than the Americans, the nonconventional, written exams in which time is unlimited and any materials are allowed; (b) American college science students prefer the traditional class science examination (G) significantly more than their Israeli counterparts; (c) the preference of higher order cognitive skills (HOCS)-oriented exams (B. I and H) is significantly higher for female science students in Israel compared with no gender difference concerning the preferred examinations in the US, and rejection of oral examinations by all in both countries, significantly more by female students; and (d) there exists a significant gap between the preferred type of examinations of science students and their faculty in both countries. In view of the HOCS-orientation and the goal of conceptual understanding in current reforms of science education worldwide, the consonance between these curriculum objectives and examination practices is advocated. This, in turn, requires that provisions be made to lessen the gap between science teachers and their students' examination type preferences for better science learning to occur.     

Multi‐Year Professional Development Grounded in Educative Curriculum Focused on Integrating Technology With Reformed Science Teaching Principles

Visions of science teaching and learning in the newest U.S. standards documents are dramatically different than those found in most classrooms. This research addresses these differences through closely examining one professional development (PD) project that connects teacher learning and teacher practice with student learning/achievement. This study examines the effects on eighth grade science teachers and their students in the context of a PD focused on the integration of information communication technologies and reformed science teaching practices. Findings from this investigation suggest that teachers who participated in PD for two years learned more about technology, improved their practice, and their students’ achievement was significantly higher compared to teachers who participated in one year of the PD or non‐participating peers. Science educators face multiple challenges as they attempt to deliver instruction in fundamentally different ways than what they experienced as learners. The delivery of this professional learning suggest that PD for science teachers should include educative learning experiences if understandings of reforms supported by research are to be realized.     

Impact of first-year mathematics study groups on the retention and graduation of engineering students

Many interventions have been proposed to improve the retention and graduation rates of engineering students. One such intervention is to use study groups for first-year college students; such groups provide a structured environment in which the students can learn course material from each other outside of class and can provide the students with a sense of community. In this paper, we report on the impacts fostered by study groups in first-year mathematics courses on the odds of retaining and graduating engineering students. Students who participated in the study groups are compared to students of similar academic preparation who did not participate in such groups. It is found that student participation in study groups is significantly associated with the higher odds of being retained in engineering studies through the first 3 years of college. The results reported here are not as certain for the effect of study group participation on 5-year graduation odds for engineering students and some possible reasons for this are discussed.