Journal of Research in Science Teaching最新文献

The present investigation adopts an embodied cognition perspective to characterize students' learning interactions between gesture and haptic experience. Haptic technologies have emerged as a promising approach to science learning because they can simulate physical forces that students would otherwise not experience. Student-generated gestures complement haptic technology by offering insight into students' embodied understandings of physical forces. In this study, we examined the role of tangible haptic molecular models by analyzing students' spontaneous gestures and speech after their learning experiences with these models. We designed three learning conditions—Individual Haptic Model, Aggregate Haptic Models, and Equation-Based Instruction—to prepare undergraduate students for learning from an agent-based computer simulation of dynamic equilibrium. Guided by Knowledge in Pieces (KiP) theory, we employed a think-aloud protocol to investigate how haptic and computational environments cue students' knowledge resources and spontaneous gestures. Our analysis of students' speech and gesture revealed that the haptic experiences—particularly individual-level haptic—augmented the computational environment by fostering shifts in students' reasoning (1) from the phenomenological primitive equilibrium to balance and (2) from representing aggregate patterns to individual interactions. We discuss the implications of using gesture as a window into students' developing reasoning, as well as the role of haptic technology in designing embodied learning environments.

Indigenous students are the experts of their own experiences, and in this paper, we center the narratives of 17 Indigenous students pursuing STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, medicine) pathways in colleges and universities across the western United States to better understand the affirming and challenging elements that compose their experiences. We narrate their experiences through the 6 Rs framework, which names relationships, relevance, reciprocity, responsibility, representation, and respect as core concepts for exploring Indigenous research and experiences. These concepts are also offered to frame the work that remains for postsecondary institutions, and especially STEMM stakeholders within these institutions. Our data and analysis point to three key learnings: (1) for many students, work experiences and/or research experiences are a significant factor influencing their STEMM pathways; (2) Indigenous students who identified as more traditional generally experience more conflicts along their STEMM pathways, but these students also understand the importance of their own presence and engagement because of the diverse epistemologies, understandings, and relationships they bring to STEMM spaces; and (3) sovereignty is important for STEMM leaders, faculty, and staff to understand because it is a foundational principle that informs many Indigenous students' decisions along their STEMM pathways.

While understanding the nature of science (NOS) is recognized as a key component of science education because of its potential benefits in nurturing scientific literacy, there is currently limited knowledge on how NOS learning can be supported by teachers' ongoing, in-the-moment assessment in the classroom. This study explores the value of formative assessment as a vehicle to facilitate reflective instruction of the NOS, through building connections between NOS and other related components of science learning. We closely examined one experienced science teacher's lessons on the development of scientific knowledge in a 10th grade science classroom, along with the teacher's post-lesson reflections and classroom artifacts, with a focus on how the teacher planned and orchestrated whole-class discussions following student group presentations. We identify four distinct strategies for formative assessment the teacher enacted in an effort to create “teachable moments” for NOS learning: multicontextualizing NOS, mapping examples to NOS, focusing discussion on NOS, and exploring different aspects of NOS. Across the lessons, while some teacher moves prompted discursive exchanges, others revealed significant challenges and were often met with student silence. Our work uses formative assessment as a lens to reveal the complexities and in-the-moment challenges of NOS instruction, illustrating how even an experienced teacher can struggle to facilitate these conversations. We argue that NOS research should pay more attention to the potential of formative assessment and the need for professional development to support teachers with empirically grounded assessment tasks for use in NOS instruction.

Supporting students' epistemic agency is a key goal of science education. However, the process of realizing this goal in classrooms is complex and layered, and we have a limited understanding of how teachers draw from their practice to position students as epistemic agents, making it difficult to provide concrete actionable guidance for teachers. To address this question, we conducted a case study of one middle school teacher and her classroom to explore how she decided to make space in her instructional practice for students to take intellectual responsibility in the classroom. To capture the teacher's in-the-moment decision-making, we used point-of-view video capture followed by stimulated recall interviews. We examined classroom discourse in three select episodes where the teacher adapted her instruction in response to student contributions. By defining epistemic agency as a person's capacity to position themselves in a conversation as responsible for action, we analyzed patterns of teacher moves that positioned students as responsible for epistemic activities. We found that by linguistically indexing students as responsible consistently across the episodes, student intellectual participation increased in both quantity and depth. Importantly, these indexing actions emerged dynamically from the teacher's goals for deepening student sensemaking. These findings provide insight into a teacher's pedagogical decisions and their outcomes contribute to our understanding of how teachers can support epistemic agency.

Uncertainty is central to science and is increasingly recognized in science education, but the literature lacks a clear definition of the types of uncertainty and the competencies for navigating them, which vary by context. Therefore, a cross-disciplinary integrative understanding of uncertainty is necessary to navigate complex interdisciplinary problems. In order to propose an integrative framework for understanding uncertainty in science education, we conducted a two-stage Delphi study with science educators and disciplinary scientists (n _Round1 = 33; n _Round2 = 48). In the first (qualitative) round, the experts provided written statements on their conceptions of uncertainty, rated given definitions, added missing aspects, and reported important facets of uncertainty in science education. In the second (quantitative) round, we defined the level of consensus as at least 70% agreement and evaluated the experts' responses to 58 closed-ended survey items using a 5-point rating scale to determine their consensus on the types of uncertainty and the competencies needed to navigate them. In Round 1, the experts largely agreed on the relevance of uncertainty in science education, but they provided nuanced critiques influenced by their disciplines. In Round 2, the experts achieved a high level of consensus on the types of uncertainty and corresponding competencies. The results informed the development of an integrated, consensus-based framework. We discuss the findings of the Delphi study and the framework in relation to ongoing debates on uncertainty in the literature and present implications for science teaching.