“Won't you give up your snack for the sake of science?” Emerging science identities in family everyday interaction

This study provides a rich account of everyday science engagement in a science family (a family rich in science habitus) and sheds light on how science–person and science–antagonist identities emerge through science engagement in such a family. Using audio recordings and field notes obtained over a year of self‐ethnography, I systematically analyze science engagement in one family, showing how science was infused in all aspects of family life. However, the children in this family diverged in patterns of science participation: one child exhibited a science person identity, expressing more positive disciplinary emotions, initiating more frequently, asking more questions, sustaining longer investigations, and generally holding the floor three times more than the other child, who exhibited a science antagonist identity. To further understand the reason why the two children thus diverged in their patterns of science participation, despite many shared conditions, I zoom in on the moment‐by‐moment interactions in the family. Using microanalysis, I explore how positioning and roles may elucidate such local variation. The analysis illustrates how repeating events of identification within everyday family interactions are a powerful mechanism that can help explain such divergences. The findings underscore the importance of parents' awareness of the myriad of ways that recognition and roles are intertwined in everyday science engagement and identity formation. They suggest considering the potential of informal science‐learning environments to lead to alienation from science. Furthermore, the study implies that although we must investigate how socio‐historical categories function to deny individuals' (and groups') access to science, we should also go beyond these categories to understand how equal access to science is denied in less apparent ways.     

Assessing equity beyond knowledge‐ and skills‐based outcomes: A comparative ethnography of two fourth‐grade reform‐based science classrooms

When evaluating equity, researchers often look at the “achievement gap.” Privileging knowledge and skills as primary outcomes of science education misses other, more subtle, but critical, outcomes indexing inequitable science education. In this comparative ethnography, we examined what it meant to “be scientific” in two fourth‐grade classes taught by teachers similarly committed to reform‐based science (RBS) practices in the service of equity. In both classrooms, students developed similar levels of scientific understanding and expressed positive attitudes about learning science. However, in one classroom, a group of African American and Latina girls expressed outright disaffiliation with promoted meanings of “smart science person” (“They are the science people. We aren't like them”), despite the fact that most of them knew the science equally well or, in one case, better than, their classmates. To make sense of these findings, we examine the normative practice of “sharing scientific ideas” in each classroom, a comparison that provided a robust account of the differently accessible meanings of scientific knowledge, scientific investigation, and scientific person in each setting. The findings illustrate that research with equity aims demands attention to culture (everyday classroom practices that promote particular meanings of “science”) and normative identities (culturally produced meanings of “science person” and the accessibility of those meanings). The study: (1) encourages researchers to question taken‐for‐granted assumptions and complexities of RBS and (2) demonstrates to practitioners that enacting what might look like RBS and producing students who know and can do science are but pieces of what it takes to achieve equitable science education. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 459–485, 2011     

The contribution of science‐rich resources to public science interest

This preliminary study examined the effect that five major sources of public science education—schools, science centers, broadcast media, print media, and the Internet—had on adults' science interest values and cognitive predispositions. Over 3,000 adults were sampled in three U.S. metropolitan areas: Los Angeles, California, Phoenix, Arizona, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. To minimize potential sampling bias, the results were weighted by current U.S. Census data to be comparable to demographics from each of the three jurisdictions. Participants were asked to self‐report their current and early adolescent usage of these five science‐related resources, the quality of their experiences with each, and their current abilities, values, and cognitive predispositions relative to science. Data showed that overall, a broad cross‐section of adults living in these cities engaged in a wide array of science‐related activities and that large majorities did so frequently. Nearly two‐thirds of all respondents self‐reported currently participating in some kind of science‐related activity every week and nearly half doing so daily. Results suggested that having frequent; positive science‐related experiences in‐ and out‐of‐school, both early and later in life, correlated with having a strong interest in and positive perception of science as an adult. Although a diversity of positive science‐related experiences correlated with current adult science interest values and cognitive predispositions, only five factors uniquely and significantly predicted adult science interest, values, and cognitive predispositions in the multivariate models: (a) early adolescent experiences visiting a science center, (b) early adolescent experiences watching science‐related television, (c) adult visits to a science center, (d) adults reading books and magazines about science, and (e) adults using the internet to learn more about science. Discussed are issues of self‐selection, quality of experiences, and the complex and synergistic nature of the science learning ecosystem.     

Academic socialization,parental educational expectations,and academic self‐efficacy among Latino adolescents

This study examined the direct association between parental educational expectations and adolescents’ academic self‐efficacy, as well as the moderating influence of parental academic socialization messages. Participants were 148 Latino parent–adolescent dyads with the majority of Mexican origin (80.4%). Most of the parent participants were mothers (85.8%). Adolescents were 13 (46%) or 14 (54%) years of age, and 53% identified as female. Adolescents reported their academic self‐efficacy and perceptions of their parents’ educational expectations; parents reported on their academic socialization messages of shame/pressure and effort regarding academics. The results suggest that, after accounting for parents’ level of education and immigrant status, parental educational expectations were positively associated with adolescent academic self‐efficacy. This association was stronger among adolescents whose parents reported transmitting fewer messages of shame/pressure and academic effort. These results point to the importance of nuances in the content and type of academic socialization messages within Latino families.     

A person‐in‐context approach to student engagement in science: Examining learning activities and choice

Science education reform efforts in the Unites States call for a dramatic shift in the way students are expected to engage with scientific concepts, core ideas, and practices in the classroom. This new vision of science learning demands a more complex conceptual understanding of student engagement and research models that capture both the multidimensionality and contextual specificity of student engagement in science. In a unique application of person‐oriented analysis of experience sampling data, we employ cluster analysis to identify six distinct momentary engagement profiles representing different combinations of the behavioral, cognitive, and affective dimensions of student engagement in high school science classrooms. Students spend a majority of their classroom time in one of several engagement profiles characterized by high engagement on one dimension, but low levels on the others. Students exhibited low engagement across all three dimensions of engagement in about 22% of our observations. Full engagement, or high levels across all three dimensions, is the least frequent profile, occurring in only 11% of the observations. Students’ momentary engagement profiles are related in meaningful ways to both the learning activity in which students are engaged and the types of choices they are afforded. Laboratory activities provided especially polarized engagement experiences, producing full engagement, universally low engagement, and pleasurable engagement in which students are affectively engaged but are not engaged cognitively or behaviorally. Student choice is generally associated with more optimal engagement profiles and the specific type of choice matters in important ways. Choices about how to frame the learning activity have the most positive effects relative to other types of choices, such as choosing whom to work with or how much time to take. Results are discussed in terms of implications for practice and the utility of the methodological approach for evaluating the complexities of student engagement in science classrooms. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 88: 19–43, 2018     

The use of self‐learning modules to facilitate learning of basic science concepts in an integrated medical curriculum

This study used qualitative and quantitative approaches to evaluate the effectiveness of self‐learning modules (SLMs) developed to facilitate and individualize students' learning of basic medical sciences. Twenty physiology and nineteen microanatomy SLMs were designed with interactive images, animations, narrations, and self‐assessments. Of 41 medical students, 40 students voluntarily completed a questionnaire with open‐ended and closed‐ended items to evaluate students' attitudes and perspectives on the learning value of SLMs. Closed‐ended items were assessed on a five‐point Likert scale (5 = high score) and the data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation. Open‐ended questions further evaluated students' perspectives on the effectiveness of SLMs; student responses to open‐ended questions were analyzed to identify shared patterns or themes in their experience using SLMs. The results of the midterm examination were also analyzed to compare student performance on items related to SLMs and traditional sessions. Students positively evaluated their experience using the SLMs with an overall mean score of 4.25 (SD ± 0.84). Most students (97%) indicated that the SLMs improved understanding and facilitated learning basic science concepts. SLMs were reported to allow learner control, to help in preparation for subsequent in‐class discussion, and to improve understanding and retention. A significant difference in students' performance was observed when comparing SLM‐related items with non‐SLM items in the midterm examination (P < 0.05). In conclusion, the use of SLMs in an integrated basic science curriculum has the potential to individualize the teaching and improve the learning of basic sciences. Anat Sci Educ 3: 219–226, 2010. © 2010 American Association of Anatomists.     

A critical review of self‐regulated learning interventions for children with attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder

School practitioners and educators are frequently challenged by the diverse and pervasive academic and behavioral needs of children at risk for and with attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This paper examines the outcome literature on self‐regulated learning (SRL) interventions for youth with ADHD by systematically reviewing the key intervention components and methodologies used. A total of 34 investigations, including 297 children and adolescents, were reviewed and coded on 34 variables across two dimensions (i.e., intervention components and methodology). In general, SRL interventions can be represented in terms of a three‐phase model of SRL that includes forethought, performance control, and self‐reflection processes. In this review, the vast majority of the published literature used single‐case design studies with a singular focus on the phase of performance control. Weaknesses of the existing literature include a lack of follow‐up data, attrition data, demographic information about teachers or other adult participants, and diversity in the sample. Strengths of the outcome literature are that a majority of the studies reported inclusion/exclusion criteria for samples, the criteria used to diagnose children as ADHD, and clinical significance for assessing treatment outcomes. Findings are discussed in relation to previous research, as well as directions for research and practice.     

Supporting and inhibiting the well‐being of early career secondary school teachers: Extending self‐determination theory

This paper reports an original examination of the well‐being of early career secondary school teachers in England, which extends the evidence bases relating to early career teachers’ working lives, teacher well‐being, self‐determination theory and performativity, respectively. Drawing on a secondary analysis of qualitative data generated for four separate empirical studies between 2005 and 2013, in a context in which teachers’ work was subject to unparalleled external regulation, the authors examine the extent to which the well‐being of early career teachers can be explained by self‐determination theory, which posits that well‐being is enhanced when innate psychological needs for competence, relatedness and autonomy are satisfied. The findings suggest that satisfaction of these three basic psychological needs is a necessary but not sufficient condition for optimising the well‐being of early career teachers, which is dependent upon the interaction of a wider range of individual, relational and micro‐, meso‐ and macro‐environmental factors. Amongst the recommendations for policy and practice, policymakers and school leaders are urged to uphold their duty of care to newly and recently qualified teachers by doing their utmost to create conditions for the optimisation of such teachers' well‐being. Several specific means of bringing this about are proposed, together with a checklist for those concerned to support the well‐being of early career teachers.     

Teaching science as a language: A “content‐first” approach to science teaching

Our research project was guided by the assumption that students who learn to understand phenomena in everyday terms prior to being taught scientific language will develop improved understanding of new concepts. We used web‐based software to teach students using a “content‐first” approach that allowed students to transition from everyday understanding of phenomena to the use of scientific language. This study involved 49 minority students who were randomly assigned into two groups for analysis: a treatment group (taught with everyday language prior to using scientific language) and a control group (taught with scientific language). Using a pre–post‐test control group design, we assessed students' conceptual and linguistic understanding of photosynthesis. The results of this study indicated that students taught with the “content‐first” approach developed significantly improved understanding when compared to students taught in traditional ways. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 529–553, 2008     

Intrinsic and extrinsic future goals: Their differential effects on students’ self‐control and distal learning outcomes

Research on intrinsic and extrinsic future goals has mostly focused on their impact on wellbeing with relatively lesser attention being focused on key learning outcomes. This study investigates how the pursuit of different future goals (i.e., society‐, family‐, career‐, wealth‐, and fame‐oriented goals) affects students’ self‐control, and whether self‐control mediates the relationship between future goals and distal learning outcomes (i.e., students’ affect to school and academic achievement 1 year later). The study adopted a longitudinal design involving 8,354 secondary students from 16 schools in Hong Kong. Students had to complete English and Mathematics achievement tests and answer questionnaires measuring the key variables. Structural equation modeling analysis indicated intrinsic future goals were more adaptive compared to extrinsic ones. In particular, results revealed the importance of society‐oriented goal on self‐control and distal learning outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

The impact of science content and professional learning communities on science teaching efficacy and standards‐based instruction

This study examines the impact of standards‐based professional development on teacher efficacy and instructional practice of elementary and middle school science teachers. Professional development activities were conducted over a period of 3 years and included content courses as well as teacher involvement in professional learning communities. Teacher efficacy was assessed at five time points using the Science Teacher Efficacy Beliefs Instrument (STEBI), and instructional practice was evaluated at four time points with classroom observations using the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP). Results indicate that there was significant growth in teacher self‐efficacy but not in outcome expectancy. There was also significant growth in the extent to which teachers implemented inquiry‐based instruction in the classroom. Additionally, a positive correlation was observed between changes in self‐efficacy and changes in the use of inquiry‐based instructional practice. These results are discussed in terms of a model of teacher learning wherein changes in teacher beliefs and changes in classroom practice mutually influence each other, and also in terms of the impact of collaboration on teacher efficacy and practice. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 534–551, 2011