A framework to foster problem-solving in STEM and computing education

ABSTRACT

Background: Recent developments in STEM and computer science education put a strong emphasis on twenty-first-century skills, such as solving authentic problems. These skills typically transcend single disciplines. Thus, problem-solving must be seen as a multidisciplinary challenge, and the corresponding practices and processes need to be described using an integrated framework.

Purpose: We present a fine-grained, integrated, and interdisciplinary framework of problem-solving for education in STEM and computer science by cumulatively including ways of problem-solving from all of these domains. Thus, the framework serves as a tool box with a variety of options that are described by steps and processes for students to choose from. The framework can be used to develop competences in problem-solving.

Sources of evidence: The framework was developed on the basis of a literature review. We included all prominent ways of domain-specific problem-solving in STEM and computer science, consisting mainly of empirically orientated approaches, such as inquiry in science, and solely theory-orientated approaches, such as proofs in mathematics.

Main argument: Since there is an increasing demand for integrated STEM and computer science education when working on natural phenomena and authentic problems, a problem-solving framework exclusively covering the natural sciences or other single domains falls short.

Conclusions: Our framework can support both practice and research by providing a common background that relates the ways, steps, processes, and activities of problem-solving in the different domains to one single common reference. In doing so, it can support teachers in explaining the multiple ways in which science problems can be solved and in constructing problems that reflect these numerous ways. STEM and computer science educational research can use the framework to develop competences of problem-solving at a fine-grained level, to construct corresponding assessment tools, and to investigate under what conditions learning progressions can be achieved.     

The explanatory role of spontaneously generated analogies in reasoning about physiological concepts

Analogical reasoning is increasingly recognized as an important instrument for promoting conceptual change in science learning. This study characterized students' and physicians' spontaneous use of analogies in reasoning about concepts related to the mechanical properties of cardiovascular physiology. The analogies were made in response to questions at different levels of abstraction from basic physiology to clinical problems. The results indicate that analogies generated by subjects facilitated explanations in a number of ways. These include creating coherent representations in novel situations, bridging gaps in understanding, and triggering associations which result in modified explanations. Subjects at different levels of expertise used analogies differently. The more expert subjects used analogies to facilitate articulation and communication; that is, to illustrate and expand on their explanations. Novices and advanced medical students used more between‐domain analogies to explain all categories of questions. This is less evident in physicians' responses to pathophysiological and clinical problems. The paper discusses ways in which analogies can be used productively, and identifies factors that can lead to a counter‐productive use of analogies resulting in misconceptions and erroneous explanations.     

'Everything Must Go!' Clearing and first-year performance

Although the connection between clearing and student performance has not been extensively researched, some academic staff have been concerned that clearing students might be less well qualified and less committed to their programme of study than those who applied earlier in the year. Taking a cohort of 425 students who entered a social science programme at a new university, this article investigates the nature of student and institutional decision-taking during the 'clearing' period and considers the impact of late decision-taking upon student performance during the first year of their studies. Interviews with admissions staff investigated whether the pressures of the clearing period left sufficient time for careful decision-taking by the students and by the institution since it has been suggested that successful performance comes from students whose expectations match those of the programme of study. Whilst clearing students were similar to earlier applicants in terms of gender, age and 'A' level scores, their reasons for entering through clearing differed considerably and these different categories of clearing students experienced wide variations in their progression rates. Some clearing students achieved high progression rates, indicating that they were able to make effective choices even under pressure, and the article suggests that the policy implications of this finding should be carefully evaluated.     

Writing dance: Tensions in researching movement or aesthetic experiences

Dotti researched how students in her tertiary dance class ascribed personal meaning to her use of different dance pedagogies. Jane was involved in the supervision of her thesis within the research process. However, what they discovered was a tension between researching and writing about artistic experiences within the confines and limitations of traditional academic scholarship. In this article each tells her story and shares how these tensions were or were not addressed. They then look at what a thesis is and what different forms of thesis presentation have been used. Finally, some suggestions are offered as to how both academic scholarship and artistic integrity might be maintained in a formal research process. The authors suggest that as an academic community there is a need to seek new ways of researching creative fields, such as dance, so that the academic process does not strangle the artistic endeavor.     

Individuating ‘sparks’ and ‘flickers’ of ‘a life’ in dance practices with preschoolers: the ‘monstrous child’ of Colebrook's Queer Vitalism

ABSTRACT

What are the dominant images of the Child in contemporary Western societies? In order to challenge some dominant images of the Child, this essay explores the possibilities of analyzing an experimental dance practice with preschoolers aged 1–2 years with Claire Colebrook's theorizing on ‘the war on norms’. Colebrook suggests a Queer Vitalism to push the limits of how to understand humanness generally, and more specifically, how to understand processes of subjectification. She moves from a post-structuralist understanding toward the Deleuzian notion of practices of individuation and processes of becoming-imperceptible. In this essay, we draw on Queer Vitalism to show how it is possible to understand children's constructions of subjectivity in events of experimental dance practices for preschoolers. The analysis is performed in close interactions with video-films from these workshops transformed to still photography. We aspire to show how these practices can be understood as counter-power strategies in the enactment of an image of a Monstrous Child. Such an image might transform the taken-for-granted image of the Child and preschool practices in subversive ways.     

Crossing borders: Learning and teaching primary science in the pre-service to in-service transition

This paper reports on a 4-year longitudinal case study of two Australian primary science teachers during their transition from pre-service to in-service teaching. An analytic framework suggested by Aikenhead (1996) was used to interpret teachers' change and professional growth as instances of sub-cultural border crossing. The same framework provides an opportunity for reflexivity on the part of the researchers in coming to understand their own role in the construction of the borders crossed by beginning teachers. The study examines the hazards encountered by teachers as they cross borders and proposes ways of assisting teachers to manage border crossing into the sub-culture of science teaching.     

Relationships among informal learning environments,teaching procedures and scientific reasoning ability

Informal learning experiences have risen to the forefront of science education as being beneficial to students' learning. However, it is not clear in what ways such experiences may be beneficial to students; nor how informal learning experiences may interface with classroom science instruction. This study aims to acquire a better understanding of these issues by investigating one aspect of science learning, scientific reasoning ability, with respect to the students' informal learning experiences and classroom science instruction. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to investigate possible differences in students' scientific reasoning abilities relative to their informal learning environments (impoverished, enriched), classroom teaching experiences (non-inquiry, inquiry) and the interaction of these variables. The results of two-way ANOVAs indicated that informal learning environments and classroom science teaching procedures showed significant main effects on students' scientific reasoning abilities. Students with enriched informal learning environments had significantly higher scientific reasoning abilities compared to those with impoverished informal learning environments. Likewise, students in inquirybased science classrooms showed higher scientific reasoning abilities compared to those in non-inquiry science classrooms. There were no significant interaction effects. These results indicate the need for increased emphases on both informal learning opportunities and inquiry-based instruction in science.     

Teaching as a Knowledge-based Activity

The many knowledge inputs that underpin teaching can be categorised in various ways depending on point of view and analytical purpose. Five different ways of describing the knowledge base are set out here. None is considered satisfactory in terms of addressing how teachers access their knowledge base or how classroom behaviour is affected by different knowledge inputs. A new model is presented, deriving from Lonergan's (1957) epistemological analysis of common sense. This is predicated on a concept of teaching as an intelligent, knowledge-based activity and takes proper account of teachers' professionalism.     

Interrupting Discourses Around Gender Through Collective Memory Work and Collaborative Curriculum Research in Middle School

Many schools in recent years have implemented curricular projects to 'deal with' homophobia and sexism as problems that affect adolescent students and make schools unsafe. The ways in which we, as teachers and researchers, confront such problems, however, depends upon how we view their power within schools. When viewed as discursive elements of a generally heteronormative school environment, gender and sexuality norms become more complicated and subtle, as they are a part of systems of language, actions, and expectations that can be difficult to problematize with students and teachers. Drawing on feminist post-structuralist theory related to normativity and discourse analysis, our research looks at two middle-school projects aimed at interrupting heteronormative thinking by including students in the process of analyzing and re-creating school discourse. In one project, a whole class looks at gender identity formation through analyzing collective memory works collaboratively with the teacher. In the second project, a smaller group of girls works to re-think ways that the science/math curriculum could be more responsive to girls, in the end also analyzing the work that comes out of the collaboration. Together, the projects raise important questions about the effectiveness of such curricular projects, the power of school language around 'adolescence', and the potential for addressing gender normativity on the level of discourse, especially in the face of such powerful ideas of gender/sexuality in the middle grades.     

Not by the hair of your chinny chin‐chin,I'm not so sure that we're letting you in

Abstract

It's no good telling people what you want if what you want is for them to know without your telling them.(Tannen, 1986, p.57)

Deborah Tannen cites conversations between men and women to explore how metamessages (rapport, directness/indirectness, connectedness/avoidance) in communication impact our relationships for the better and often for worse. In many ways, this dance of communication plays out in the female mentorship of males in early childhood preservice experiences. The metamessages of females impact their effectiveness in mentorship and impacts how males look upon their career choice and their own sense of efficacy to carry out their roles as early childhood educators.

Gender bias subtly weaves its ways into the fabric of professional ethos of educational practice. The female ethos in early childhood education often acts as a finely woven screen that makes it difficult for men to open the door to try out,let alone enter the profession. The invisible questioning screens of Do males care, notice detail, do they clearly see children's needs, do they understand the female way?need to be explored so that supportive mentorship can be consciously extended to male preservice educators. This article tells the stories of two male preservice educators and their struggles to open the door of the female ethos in their clinical experiences. Their stories point to the idea that we still have a long way to go to support males in their initial journey to become early childhood educators. © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.     

Facilitating Primary Science Teaching: A narrative account of research as learning

This paper is, in part, a narrative account of a teacher educator's professional growth during a longitudinal case study of three primary science teachers, Katie, Jean and Ruth, as they made the transition from pre-service to inservice teaching. The study sought to explore ways in which the beginning teachers perceived and dealt with constraints to science teaching in the primary school, and how they changed and adapted the knowledge and skills developed at university in a practical situation. The findings of the study are organised by considering what we, the researchers, saw as three categories of challenge for these beginning primary science teachers, their initial alienation from the study of science, the differences between teaching science and teaching other subjects in the primary school, and the impact of novice status on science teaching. Working with participants to help them respond to these challenges became an occasion for our own development as science educators.     

Quality lies in the eyes of the beholder: A mismatch between student evaluation and peer observation of teaching

Abstract

The study described in this article was prompted by the poor performance of students in an ‘at risk subject’ in a science faculty at a university in South Africa. Teacher performance could contribute to poor performance among students, therefore the performance of one of the science teachers whose students were performing poorly was evaluated by his students and through peer observation of his teaching. The article draws on a merger between Bernstein's ideas on framing as well as deep and surface approaches to learning to form a theoretical framework that underpinned the study. Peer observation showed that the teacher employed predominantly teacher-centred, passive approaches to teaching, and the facilitation of active learning was minimal, that is, framing was strong. Students, however, evaluated their teacher positively, indicating that he was an ‘effective’ teacher. Therefore, the perception of what constitutes ‘quality teaching’ is viewed differently by peers and students. This is most likely due to the incompatibility between peers' conception of teaching and students' conception of learning. Therefore, students' feedback on teaching is not necessarily accurate or useful.     

Team Hyena Puppet: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Making and Teaching Science Through Art

In 2016, professors representing Biology, Dance, Music, and Theatre and dance program students created Dunes, a performance piece that depicts the ecological succession of Michigan's sand dunes. The process used to make this work is a direct representation of the steps that Team Hyena Puppet, a collective of teaching artists and scientists, takes in their science-based art collaborations, which are used to reflect on and depict scientific research and simultaneously teach student participants and audience members science through the performing arts.     

‘Multicultural’ science in South Africa's National Curriculum Statement

Abstract

South Africa's Revised National Curriculum Statement for Further Education and Training (FET) is premised on the view that there are competing perspectives and worldviews from which to make sense of phenomena. Accordingly, elements of indigenous knowledges have been integrated into the discursive terrains of all subjects that form part of the National Curriculum Statement. This policy statement invites several critical questions, some of which are addressed in this article in relation to science education. These include questions as to whether seemingly disparate perspectives of ‘the world’ are competing or complementary and whether science (education) is universal or multicultural. A universalist position holds that Western modern science has superior explanatory powers of understanding the natural world to those of indigenous knowledges. A multiculturalist position holds that science is culturally produced and that cultures have disparate ways of understanding the natural world and that different ways of knowing should be recognised as science. This article discusses critical questions arising from much contestation about the nature of science as a consequence of different perspectives on science held by universalists and multiculturalists. Some of the implications this discussion has for science education in contemporary South Africa are also examined.     

European Survey of Master's and Doctoral Dissertions in Science Education

Editorial comment and summaries

English

Drs Kjöllerström and Lybeck present here a brief report of their European survey of master's and doctoral dissertations in science education, undertaken subsequently to a workshop on Research in Science Education in Europe held at Malente, FR Germany in 1976. The full report of their survey has recently been published by the Institute for Science Education (IPN), Kiel, FR Germany.

The article published here reports on the distribution, size and organization of science education research groups, their areas of research interest and higher degree programmes. It also surveys the main areas of science education research at master's and doctoral level undertaken during the period 1971‐1976, and the employment taken up by master's and doctoral students upon completion of their studies.     

Cultures in Dialogue: Perceptions and Experiences of Finnish Teachers of Transnational Dances

This article is based on a phenomenographic study that focuses on identifying the pedagogical conceptions of Finnish teachers of transnational dances. The purpose is to uncover and understand teachers' conceptions concerning the implications of the cultural contexts of their specific dance forms for their pedagogical practices. Through a process of phenomenographic data analysis, the authors have identified three different ways to understand teachers' conceptions and experiences: (1) Dance as a path towards personal expression, (2) Telling a story of being a woman through dance, and (3) Self-approval and the collective nature of dance. The study aims at facilitating discussion about the process of cultural dialogue, especially within dance pedagogy. Understanding the complexity that diverse cultural contexts create is particularly important in countries like Finland, which have only brief histories of multicultural education.     

Exploration and Authority in Science Learning Environments: an International Study

Summaries

English

Scales derived from student responses were used to describe the science learning environments of 14‐year‐old students in 14 different countries. It was found that the best science achievement occured in countries which combined exploratory and authoritarian teaching styles. Within countries, exploratory teaching styles were again associated with high science‐achievement, although the relationship was less strong. These results suggest that some science teachers might improve their pupils’ performance if they adopted more exploratory teaching styles. But no firm conclusions can be reached until the results have been replicated in an experimental study.     

Identifying a Gender‐inclusive Pedagogy from Maltese Teachers’ Personal Practical Knowledge

In secondary education 'energy' is often introduced by distinguishing different 'forms of energy' for different phenomena. Of these forms of energy, only kinetic and potential energy are accepted in current science. The question has been raised whether all forms of energy should be eliminated from secondary school science curricula. As a contribution to this discussion we will first analyse the language used to introduce 'forms of energy' in order to determine possible inconsistencies and limitations of validity, judged from the viewpoint of thermodynamics. In Part II, the results of two teaching experiments at university level will be presented. In these experiments attempts are made to build on students 'forms of energy' language as well as to challenge its limitations. As a result of both parts, conclusions will be drawn as to whether 'forms of energy' can be accepted 'as an intermediary language' and changes to the usual teaching sequence will be proposed.     

Ideas about earthquakes after experiencing a natural disaster in Taiwan: An analysis of students' worldviews

On September 21st, 1999, the central part of Taiwan suffered an earthquake which was 7.3 on the Richter scale. This disaster provided a unique and rare opportunity to study students' worldviews. Science educators have proposed that students' worldviews influence their ways of interpreting natural phenomena and then impose an effect on conceptual development in science. The objective of this study was to explore students' worldviews as revealed by their ideas about the causality of earthquakes after experiencing the natural disaster. In Taiwan's socio-cultural milieu, there are some indigenous world-views about earthquakes including the perspectives of supernatural forces and myths. Through tracking the ideas of 60 fifth graders and sixth graders for eight months, this study showed that students tended to employ the following three major approaches to resolve the incongruence between indigenous worldviews and scientific worldviews. First, they may try to accept the scientific ideas and to abandon their original worldviews. Second, they may try to grasp the scientific views and at the same time try to keep the indigenous worldviews unchanged. Many students held a scientific/myths dual perspective about the causes of earthquakes. Finally, they may retain their original worldview and try to ignore the scientific worldview. This paper finally suggests that science educators need to integrate socio-cultural aspects of science and of learning science into science education research and practice.     

Children's alternative views: alternative to what?

In secondary education, 'energy' is often introduced by distinguishing different 'forms of energy' for different phenomena. Of these forms of energy, only kinetic and potential energy are accepted in current science. The question has been raised whether 'forms of energy' should be eliminated from secondary school science curricula. As a contribution to this discussion we have analysed 'forms of energy' language for inconsistencies and limitations of validity in Part I. In this second part, results are presented of two teaching experiments at university level, each involving five students. In these experiments attempts are made to build on students 'forms of energy' language as well as to challenge its limitations. Details of student and teacher reasoning are presented. The conclusion is drawn that 'forms of energy' language must be reformulated before it can be evaluated with reference to experience. A reformulation in terms of 'value' (cf. Scheler 1997) proved to be productive.