Detecting Students' Experiences of Discontinuities Between Middle School and High School Mathematics Programs: Learning During Boundary Crossing

Transitions from middle school to high school mathematics programs can be problematic for students due to potential differences between instructional approaches and curriculum materials. Given the minimal research on how students experience such differences, we report on the experiences of two students as they moved out of an integrated, problem-based mathematics program in their middle school into a high school mathematics program that emphasized procedural fluency. We conducted an average of two interviews per year for two and a half years with participants and engaged in participant-observation at their high school. In this study, we illustrate an analytic process for detecting discontinuities between settings from participants' perspectives. We determined that students experienced a discontinuity if they reported meaningful differences between settings (frequent mention, in detail, with emphasis terms) and concurrently reported a change in attitude. Additionally, these students' experiences illustrate two opportunities to learn during boundary-crossing experiences: identification and reflection.     

Scientists' Perspective on Introducing Authentic Inquiry to High School Teachers During an Intensive Three-Week Summer Professional Development Experience

The Information Technology in Science (ITS) Center for Teaching and Learning was a National Science Foundation funded program to provide high-quality professional development for 7–12th grade science teachers. The subgroup on which this paper focuses was immersed in an innovative approach to understanding chemistry of the environment. The group was comprised of 10 high school science teachers representative of science classes taught at all grade levels (9–12th). A team of four university professors led the group. The professors developed inquiry modules and communicated some of the intricacies of their research for adaptation to the participants' classrooms. This paper communicates the successful implementation and lessons learned by scientists during the course of an inquiry-based curriculum during summer 2005. The process and pace at which the material was covered, qualitative information about the attitudes of the participants towards the curriculum, and implications for professional development from the point of view of the science team leaders will be discussed. Analysis of time spent with participants revealed the progression and type of activities chosen for the professional development experience were effective. Results from informal participant interviews revealed they were most comfortable in incorporating inquiry into their classrooms after having been immersed in it themselves.     

Student Perceptions of Interest,Learning, and Engagement from an Informal Traveling Science Museum

Informal Science Education (ISE) programs have been increasing in popularity in recent years. The National Research Council has laid out six strands that ISE programs should try to address, including increasing interest, knowledge, and allowing participants to engage in scientific activities. Past research suggests that informal settings can increase interest in science and may lead to knowledge gains. This study examined the impact of a unique ISE program that resembles a traveling museum and offers small‐scale, interactive experiences. Affective outcomes and self‐reported learning outcomes of the students who participated in the program were examined. In general, students reported increases in science interest and some knowledge gains. Students also reported they thought the program allowed them to engage in science. There were differences in student responses based on grade level, with intermediate elementary students more likely to report greater knowledge gains and more likely to see the educational value of the experience. Interestingly, middle school students were more likely to value the social aspects of the experience, another important aspect of ISE. This study provides some insight into the connections between the different ISE strands of informal science education and offers suggestions for future research.     

Science Talk: Preservice Teachers Facilitating Science Learning in Diverse Afterschool Environments

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact a community‐based service learning program might have on preservice teachers' science instruction during student teaching. Designed to promote science inquiry, preservice teachers learned how to offer students more opportunities to develop their own ways of thinking through utilization of an afterschool science program that provided them extended opportunities to practice their science teaching skills. Three preservice teachers were followed to examine and evaluate the transfer of this experience to their student teaching classroom. Investigation methods included field observations and semi‐structured, individual interviews. Findings indicate that preservice teachers expanded their ideas of science inquiry instruction to include multiple modes of formative assessment, while also struggling with the desire to give students the correct answer. While the participants' experiences are few in number, the potential of afterschool teaching experience serving as an effective learning experience in preservice teacher preparation is significant. With the constraints of high‐stakes testing, community‐based service learning teaching opportunities for elementary and middle‐school preservice teachers can support both the development and refinement of inquiry instruction skills.     

A Longitudinal Analysis of an Out‐of‐School Science Experience

A phenomenological approach was used to investigate the longitudinal recollections of participants of an out‐of‐school science program. The experience was a field trip to the Shenandoah National Park (USA) conducted in the fall of 2004. The science topic was geologic history and features related to the Shenandoah Valley. Two major themes relating to the participants' long term recollection of the out‐of‐school science field trip were identified after the interview data was analyzed. First, recollections were highly influenced by actions taken by the students, and, second, program content / subject matter were retained by all of the students to varying degrees. The interactive experiences that aided in memory retrieval from this study closely relates to the interactive experiences associated with memory and learning theory associated with the psychological domain. This linkage and its impact on how students learn in out‐of‐school science experiences are discussed.     

Boundary Spanners as Bridges of Student and School Discourses in an Urban Science and Mathematics High School

A key to improving urban science and mathematics education is to facilitate the mutual understanding of the participants involved and then look for strategies to bridge differences. Educators need new theoretical tools to do so. In this paper the argument is made that the concept of “boundary spanner” is such a tool. Boundary spanners are individuals, objects, media, and other experiences that link an organization to its environment. They serve critical communicative roles, such as bridges for bringing distinct discourses together, cultural guides to make discourses of the “other” more explicit, and change agents for potentially reshaping participants' discourses. This ethnographic study provides three examples of boundary spanners found in the context of an urban public high school of science, mathematics, and technology: boundary media, boundary objects, and boundary experiences. The analysis brings to the foreground students' and teachers' distinct discourses about “good student identity,”“good student work,” and “good summer experience” and demonstrates how boundary spanners shaped, were shaped by, and sometimes brought together participants' distinct discourses. An argument is made for boundary spanners' practical and theoretical utility: practically, as a tool for enhancing meaning‐making between diverse groups, and theoretically, as a heuristic tool for understanding the reproductive and transformative aspects of urban science education.     

Changes in High School Teachers' Constructivist Philosophies

Since the 1980s, over a thousand Korean science teachers and supervisors visited western countries to participate in overseas in-service training programs. This study reports the evaluation of the effect of the University of Iowa's program on the development of teachers' constructivist philosophies by participating teachers. A total of 70 high school teachers who participated during the fall of 1995 and the summer of 1996 were surveyed. The Constructivist Learning Environment Survey was translated into Korean and administered to the participants three times: at the beginning and the end of the workshops and again three months after. Analysis indicated that the effect of the workshop was significant and that the learning was retained. Ways of encouraging teachers to continue improvement in the use of constructivist practices are discussed in light of the realities of Korean science education.     

Beginning Secondary Science Teachers' Conceptualization and Enactment of Inquiry‐Based Instruction

This study investigates the conceptions and use of inquiry during classroom instruction among beginning secondary science teachers. The 44 participants were beginning secondary science teachers in their first year of teaching. In order to capture the participants' conceptions of inquiry, the teachers were interviewed and observed during the school year. The interviews consisted of questions about inquiry instruction, while the observations documented the teachers' use of inquiry. All of the interviews were transcribed or coded in order to understand the conceptions of inquiry held by the teachers, and all of the observations were analyzed in order to determine the presence of inquiry during the lesson. The standard for assessing inquiry came from the National Science Education Standards. A quantitative analysis of the data indicated that the teachers frequently talked about implementing “scientific questions” and giving “priority to evidence.” This study found a consistency between the way new teachers talked about inquiry and the way they practiced it in their classrooms. Overall, our observations and interviews revealed that the beginning secondary science teachers tended to enact teacher‐centered forms of inquiry, and could benefit from induction programs focused on inquiry instruction.     

Predictors of Science Fair Participation Using the Theory of Planned Behavior

The purpose of this study was to use The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to examine factors that predict junior high and secondary students' attitude toward participating in a district science fair competition (attitude toward behavior), beliefs about who would approve or disapprove of participation in a science fair (subjective norm), and perceptions of control about participating in the science fair (perceived behavioral control). Factors used to predict these included gender, type of school (public or private), grade level, GPA, participation in a gifted class, participation in a research course, requirement to complete a science fair project, and level of anxiety about completing a science fair project. Three hundred three participants completed a standard TPB questionnaire and the State-Trait Anxiety Indicator. Multiple regression models revealed that subjective norm and participation in a gifted class were predictors of attitude toward the behavior. Attitude toward the behavior, the science fair project counting toward a grade in science class, the parent's level of education, and the science fair entry being required predicted subjective norm. A discriminant function analysis found that type of school (public or private), parents' level of education, participation in a research program at school, grade level, and trait anxiety were the strongest predictors of perceived behavioral control. It was concluded that science fair entry appears to be involuntary, in conflict with NSTA's Position Statement on Science Fairs. Typically junior high students (whose parents have a higher level of education) attending private schools are required to enter science fairs, and the entry counts toward a grade in science class.     

Beyond the professional development academy: Teachers' retention of discipline‐specific science content knowledge throughout a 3‐year mathematics and science partnership

The Teacher Academy in the Natural Sciences (TANS) provided middle school (U.S. Grades 6–8) teachers (N = 81) with intensive professional development (PD) in chemistry, geosciences, and physics, with teachers enrolled in one scientific discipline per year. Because some teachers were retained and rotated into different disciplines, the TANS program investigated retention of science content 1–2 years beyond an instructional year. All teacher participants exhibited significant gains (p < .001), in chemistry, geosciences, or physics content, between their incoming knowledge and the 10‐day summer academy's conclusion. Chemistry and geosciences content were retained until the end of the PD year. Physics participants reported a significant loss (p < .001), although gains from teachers' incoming knowledge were still significant. When retention was measured beyond the instructional year, only the geosciences content was retained. Chemistry and physics gains were not retained, with no significant differences between incoming teachers' knowledge and content 1–2 years post instruction. Our research indicates that science content support is needed after PD programs, and importantly, that the support differs between scientific disciplines.     

An Evaluation of a Master's Degree in K‐8 Mathematics and Science: Classroom Practice

“Evaluation as a particular kind of investigated discipline is distinguished from, for example, traditional empirical research in the social sciences or from literary criticism, criminalistics, or investigative reporting, partly by its extraordinary multidisciplinarity” ( Scrivens, 1991 , p. 141). It is this unique multidisciplinary feature of evaluation that adds usefulness when determining the effectiveness of programs seeking to integrate mathematics and science teaching and learning across elementary and middle grade levels. In 2005, a K‐8 mathematics and science program celebrated its 15th year of service. The program was the result of education, business, and community partnership efforts focused on improving mathematics and science teaching and learning in schools throughout a metropolitan region in the southeastern United States. To date, over 350 K‐8 teachers have completed a master's degree through this mathematics and science education program. The director realized that an evaluation of the program would likely provide insights that would benefit not only the efforts of the program but the broader mathematics and science teaching and learning community. Hence, the National Science Foundation (award No. 9815931), which had provided start‐up funds for the program responded to this need and provided funding for a longitudinal evaluation of the program. The evaluation was conducted from 1999 to 2004. This article focuses on the evaluation results for years 1 and 2 and addresses the question related to changes in teachers' classroom practice.     

Building Teacher‐Scientist Partnerships: Teaching About Energy Through Inquiry

This study evaluated the effectiveness of teacher‐scientist partnerships for increasing the use. of inquiry in precollege classrooms. It assessed the influence of the Teaching About Energy Through Inquiry Institutes for middle and high school teachers and energy scientists on participants' attitudes about science and science education, use of inquiry instructional techniques, and student attitudes about their classroom environments. Participant surveys, institute and classroom observations, lesson plans, and interviews indicated increased appreciation for inquiry, greater confidence in teaching using inquiry, and greater use of inquiry in the classroom. Student surveys and classroom observations pointed to higher levels of student satisfaction and less friction among classmates during inquiry‐based investigations implemented after the institutes. Moreover, scientist partners reported increased familiarity with principles of science education and best teaching practice, which are essential skills and knowledge for disseminating results of scientific research to nonscientific audiences, as well as their own students. These results suggest that collaborations between teachers and research scientists can positively affect the environment for learning science in precollege and college classes. Successful collaborations are most likely to occur when equal status for teachers and scientists in the partnership is stressed and partners have the opportunity to explore inquiry‐based curricula together.     

Re‐creating a Recipe for Science Instructional Programs: Adding Learning Progressions,Scaffolding, and a Dash of Reading Variety

The purpose of this article is to focus on the development and refinement of a science instructional design program arguing for the feasibility and usability of integrated reading and science instruction as implemented in third‐ and fourth‐grade science classrooms to meet the learning needs of diverse learners. These instructional components are easily inserted into existing programs that build students' science background knowledge and abilities to apply learning through scaffolded activities focused on (1) providing structured opportunities for students to engage in hands‐on activities; (2) increasing vocabulary knowledge and understanding of concept‐laden terms, and (3) reading paired narrative and informational science texts. Extensive research shows that as students transition from third to fourth grade and beyond, they are often challenged in science by new vocabulary coupled with new concepts. Active ingredients of our reconceptualized science instructional design program are narrative informational texts, hands‐on science activities, and science textbook(s).     

Teaching Science in Higher Education: Faculty Professional Development and Barriers to Change

The focus of this research was to better understand the change processes necessary for university science teaching reform to be successful. The professional development processes involved faculty cognitive perceptions of learning, teaching skills, and pedagogical knowledge, as well as faculty culture in teaching science courses. A series of faculty development programs were conducted at nine U.S. locations to explore, develop strategies, and implement changes in science classrooms. A review of research and these professional development experiences provided a base to carry out research activities related to understanding change in science faculty. Faculty participants in the program from 30 institutions were selected to be involved in the study. Ethnographic and case study approaches were used to collect and analyze data. Many faculty members encountered in this study had conceptions of the change process that inhibited successful action. These research efforts provide a predictive model for assisting faculty change and help determine which faculty professional development efforts may be successful in overcoming barriers to change in undergraduate science classrooms.     

Conceptual Representations of Flu and Microbial Illness Held by Students,Teachers, and Medical Professionals

This study describes 5 th, 8th, and 11th‐grade students', teachers', and medical professionals' conceptions of flu and microbial illness. Participants constructed a concept map on “flu” and participated in a semi‐structured interview. The results showed that these groups of students, teachers and medical professionals held and structured their conceptions about microbes differently. A progression toward more accurate and complete knowledge existed across the groups but this trajectory was not always a predictable, linear developmental path from novice to expert. Across the groups, participants were most knowledgeable about symptoms of microbial illness, treatments of symptoms, and routes of transmission for respiratory illnesses. This knowledge was tightly linked to participants' prior experiences with colds and flu. There were typically large gaps in participants' (children and teachers) understandings of vaccines, immune system responses, treatments (including the mechanisms of pain medications and the functions of antibiotics), and transmission of non‐respiratory microbial illness. A common misconception held by students was the belief that antibiotics can cure viral infections.     

Empowering Families in Hands‐on Science Programs

Parental involvement in schools has been documented as a positive influence on children's achievement, attendance, attitudes, behavior, and graduation rate, regardless of cultural background, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status ( National Parents and Teachers Association, 1998 ). Unfortunately, it has been difficult in today's world of working parents to get them actively involved in science, mathematics, and technology programs and to maintain this involvement in upper‐elementary and secondary schools. This study reports on the Science: Parents, Activities, and Literature project's attempt to get parents productively involved in their children's hands‐on science program. The results illustrate that (a) parents will become involved and they find their involvement a positive experience, (b) teachers appreciate parents' contributions as an instructional resource, and (c) students perceive the increased parental involvement positively.     

The impact of an out‐of‐school STEM education program on students’ attitudes toward STEM and STEM careers

There is an increasing awareness of out‐of‐school program value in enhancing student interest and understanding of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This study examined the impact of an out‐of‐school STEM education program on student attitudes toward STEM disciplines and STEM careers. A STEM education program implemented at a public research university was designed to integrate STEM disciplines with hands‐on problem‐based activities. Design features included authentic learning contexts, engineering design processes, and content integration. Data sources included an attitude survey and interviews conducted with forty sixth grade middle school student participants. The analysis revealed significant differences between pre and posttests on student attitudes toward personal and social implications of STEM, science and engineering learning, and their relationship to STEM. Findings showed that the program contributed to students’ developing interest in STEM fields, and helped them make connections between schoolwork and daily lives. Recommendations for future research on out‐of‐school STEM education programs were discussed.     

The Effect of a Horseshoe Crab Citizen Science Program on Middle School Student Science Performance and STEM Career Motivation

The purpose of the present quasi‐experimental study was to examine the impact of a horseshoe crab citizen science program on student achievement and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career motivation with 86 (n = 86) eighth‐grade students. The treatment group conducted fieldwork with naturalists and collected data for a professional biologist studying horseshoe crab speciation and a mock survey. The comparison group studied curriculum related to horseshoe crabs in the science classroom. A series of measures related to self‐efficacy, interest, outcome expectations, choice goals, and content knowledge were given to participants before and after the intervention. It was hypothesized that students would report higher motivational beliefs regarding science and show higher levels of achievement following the intervention than the comparison group. Support was shown for most of the hypotheses. In addition, path analyses indicated that students' motivational beliefs influence content knowledge and outcome expectations, which in turn affect their career goals. These results have implications for incorporating authentic fieldwork within a formal school structure as an effective method for promoting student achievement and STEM career motivation.     

Assessing the Impact of a Research‐Based STEM Program on STEM Majors' Attitudes and Beliefs

The Science, Engineering, and Technology Gateway of Ohio (SETGO) program has a three‐pronged approach to meeting the needs at different levels of students in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) pipeline. The SETGO program was an extensive collaboration between a two‐year community college and a nearby four‐year institution. Two of these approaches, the STEM Summer Research Program and Owens Ready Bridge, have been found to be effective in significantly increasing participants' beliefs and attitudes for both males and females. Participants cite integrative learning activities, mentoring, and small group interactions as some reasons for their growth. This study utilized a mixed‐method approach to better understand the reasons for participant and program success. After five years of evaluation of the SETGO program, findings suggest that students feel more confident not only in their preparation for the rigors of a STEM degree, but also in their decisions to complete the degree.