Technology Use in Science Instruction (TUSI): Aligning the Integration of Technology in Science Instruction in Ways Supportive of Science Education Reform

This study describes the development of an instrument to investigate the extent to which technology is integrated in science instruction in ways aligned to science reform outlined in standards documents. The instrument was developed by: (a) creating items consistent with the five dimensions identified in science education literature, (b) establishing content validity with both national and international content experts, (c) refining the item pool based on content expert feedback, (d) piloting testing of the instrument, (e) checking statistical reliability and item analysis, and (f) subsequently refining and finalization of the instrument. The TUSI was administered in a field test across eleven classrooms by three observers, with a total of 33 TUSI ratings completed. The finalized instrument was found to have acceptable inter-rater intraclass correlation reliability estimates. After the final stage of development, the TUSI instrument consisted of 26-items separated into the original five categories, which aligned with the exploratory factor analysis clustering of the items. Additionally, concurrent validity of the TUSI was established with the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol. Finally, a subsequent set of 17 different classrooms were observed during the spring of 2011, and for the 9 classrooms where technology integration was observed, an overall Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of 0.913 was found. Based on the analyses completed, the TUSI appears to be a useful instrument for measuring how technology is integrated into science classrooms and is seen as one mechanism for measuring the intersection of technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge in science classrooms.     

Computational Thinking from a Disciplinary Perspective: Integrating Computational Thinking in K-12 Science,Technology, Engineering,and Mathematics Education

This article provides an introduction for the special issue of the Journal of Science Education and Technology focused on computational thinking (CT) from a disciplinary perspective. The special issue connects earlier research on what K-12 students can learn and be able to do using CT with the CT skills and habits of mind needed to productively participate in professional CT-integrated STEM fields. In this context, the phrase “disciplinary perspective” simultaneously holds two meanings: it refers to and aims to make connections between established K-12 STEM subject areas (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and newer CT-integrated disciplines such as computational sciences. The special issue presents a framework for CT integration and includes articles that illuminate what CT looks like from a disciplinary perspective, the challenges inherent in integrating CT into K-12 STEM education, and new ways of measuring CT aligned more closely with disciplinary practices. The aim of this special issue is to offer research-based and practitioner-grounded insights into recent work in CT integration and provoke new ways of thinking about CT integration from researchers, practitioners, and research-practitioner partnerships.

     

Investigating Socioscientific Issues via Scientific Habits of Mind: Development and validation of the Scientific Habits of Mind Survey

In this paper, we describe the Scientific Habits of Mind Survey (SHOMS) developed to explore public, science teachers’, and scientists’ understanding of habits of mind (HoM). The instrument contained 59 items, and captures the seven SHOM identified by Gauld. The SHOM was validated by administration to two cohorts of pre-service science teachers: primary science teachers with little science background or interest (n?=?145), and secondary school science teachers (who also were science graduates) with stronger science knowledge (n?=?145). Face validity was confirmed by the use of a panel of experts and a pilot study employing participants similar in demographics to the intended sample. To confirm convergent and discriminant validity, confirmatory factor analysis and evaluation of the reliability were calculated. Statistical data and other data gathered from interviews suggest that the SHOMS will prove to be a useful tool for educators and researchers who wish to investigate HoM for a variety of participants.     

THE INQUIRY SCIENCE IMPLEMENTATION SCALE: DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATIONS

Instruments for evaluating the implementation of inquiry science in K-12 classrooms are necessary if evaluators and researchers are to know the extent to which programs are implemented as intended and the extent to which inquiry science teaching accounts for student learning. For evaluators and researchers to be confident about the quality of these instruments, information about their development and validation—particularly about teacher self-report instruments—must be available. In this article, we present the Inquiry Science Implementation Scale, describe the instrument’s development and the results of analyses of the validity and reliability of data collected with it, and discuss the possible uses of the instrument.     

Korean Secondary Students’ Perception of Scientific Literacy as Global Citizens: Using Global Scientific Literacy Questionnaire

We re-conceptualized the meaning of scientific literacy and developed an instrument, which we call the Global Scientific Literacy Questionnaire (GSLQ) based on a new conceptual framework for scientific literacy in the twenty-first century. We identified five dimensions, each with key elements. The five dimensions are (1) content knowledge (core ideas of science), (2) habits of mind (science practices), (3) character and values, (4) science as human endeavor, and (5) metacognition and self-direction. In this study, we attempted to diagnose the extent to which South Korean secondary students perceive themselves as global citizens having such capabilities using GSLQ with 3,202 students (7th–12th grades). Validity and reliability were examined using various statistical techniques including the Cronbach's α coefficient, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis. The use and value of the instrument were discussed by examining the Korean secondary students’ overall scientific literacy as well as their views on each dimension across gender and grade levels. We recommend that teachers and researchers use the GSLQ to assess students’ global scientific literacy and provide comments on its usefulness as a research tool and the practical use of its inventory of items.     

Engineering design skills coverage in K-12 engineering program curriculum materials in the USA

ABSTRACT

The current K-12 Science Education framework and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in the United States emphasise the integration of engineering design in science instruction to promote scientific literacy and engineering design skills among students. As such, many engineering education programmes have developed curriculum materials that are being used in K-12 settings. However, little is known about the nature and extent to which engineering design skills outlined in NGSS are addressed in these K-12 engineering education programme curriculum materials. We analysed nine K-12 engineering education programmes for the nature and extent of engineering design skills coverage. Results show that developing possible solutions and actual designing of prototypes were the highly covered engineering design skills; specification of clear goals, criteria, and constraints received medium coverage; defining and identifying an engineering problem; optimising the design solution; and demonstrating how a prototype works, and making iterations to improve designs were lowly covered. These trends were similar across grade levels and across discipline-specific curriculum materials. These results have implications on engineering design-integrated science teaching and learning in K-12 settings.     

The Student Actions Coding Sheet (SACS): An instrument for illuminating the shifts toward student‐centered science classrooms

This study describes the development of an instrument to investigate the extent to which student‐centered actions are occurring in science classrooms. The instrument was developed through the following five stages: (1) student action identification, (2) use of both national and international content experts to establish content validity, (3) refinement of the item pool based on reviewer comments, (4) pilot testing of the instrument, and (5) statistical reliability and item analysis leading to additional refinement and finalization of the instrument. In the field test, the instrument consisted of 26 items separated into four categories originally derived from student‐centered instruction literature and used by the authors to sort student actions in previous research. The SACS was administered across 22 Grade 6–8 classrooms by 22 groups of observers, with a total of 67 SACS ratings completed. The finalized instrument was found to be internally consistent, with acceptable estimates from inter‐rater intraclass correlation reliability coefficients at the p < 0.01 level. After the final stage of development, the SACS instrument consisted of 24 items separated into three categories, which aligned with the factor analysis clustering of the items. Additionally, concurrent validity of the SACS was established with the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol. Based on the analyses completed, the SACS appears to be a useful instrument for inclusion in comprehensive assessment packages for illuminating the extent to which student‐centered actions are occurring in science classrooms.     

Development of an instrument for assessing the psychosocial environment of science laboratory classes

Conclusion This paper attempts to stimulate and facilitate future research and practical applications involving the psychosocial environment of science laboratory classrooms by describing the development of a new instrument, the Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI), which assesses eight dimensions of the actual and preferred environment of science laboratory classes at the upper secondary school and higher education levels. Comprehensive validation information reported here in tentatively attests to the internal consistency reliability and discriminant validity of the actual and preferred forms of the SLEI for use in Australian or American classrooms. As well, further analyses supported the ability of the actual form of the SLEI to differentiate between the perceptions of students in different classrooms. It is hoped that science teachers and other researchers will make use of the SLEI to pursue several research and practical applications analogous to those completed successfully in prior work in non-laboratory classrooms.     

Measuring language learning environments in secondary science classrooms

The purpose of this study was to explore a new learning environment instrument which could be used by teaching practitioners and other educators to measure the language learning environment in the secondary science classroom. The science teacher is central in creating science classrooms conductive to the language needs of students and should be promoting the learning of language in the science curriculum and in the teaching strategies with English as second language learners. The data in this study were collected using a structured self-administered survey with a sample of 240 secondary school students from eight science classrooms. Factor analysis identified five dimensions, namely, Teacher Support, Vocabulary Development, Assessment, Motivation and Language for Learning Science. These five dimensions explained 56.9% of the variance in the language learning environment instrument. The internal reliability of the dimensions using Cronbach’s α ranged from 0.603 to 0.830. The study revealed significant differences in the dimensions of the language learning environment between what the students perceived to actually be occurring to what they would prefer. Implications from this preliminary research include the ability for measuring the language learning environment in the secondary science class and the potential for practitioners to use the information to develop teaching strategies conducive to learning for all students.     

Science Classroom Interactions and Academic Language Use with English Learners

Academic language is critical for English learners (ELs) to succeed in the science classroom. This study analyzed the instructional practices centered around academic language taking place in eight, fifth-grade classrooms during a grant-funded project. Observational data collected through a classroom observation instrument were analyzed to describe and compare the instructional practices occurring in treatment and control classrooms when teachers and students used academic language. Our findings show both treatment and control classrooms using academic language during the course of the intervention study, but the instruction looked markedly different in each setting. These differences provide valuable insight for practitioners and researchers concerned with the academic language development of ELs in science classrooms.     

Scientific Habits of Mind in Virtual Worlds

In today’s increasingly “flat” world of globalization (Friedman 2005), the need for a scientifically literate citizenry has grown more urgent. Yet, by some measures, we have done a poor job at fostering scientific habits of mind in schools. Recent research on informal games-based learning indicates that such technologies and the communities they evoke may be one viable alternative—not as a substitute for teachers and classrooms, but as an alternative to textbooks and science labs. This paper presents empirical evidence about the potential of games for fostering scientific habits of mind. In particular, we examine the scientific habits of mind and dispositions that characterize online discussion forums of the massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft. Eighty-six percent of the forum discussions were posts engaged in “social knowledge construction” rather than social banter. Over half of the posts evidenced systems based reasoning, one in ten evidenced model-based reasoning, and 65% displayed an evaluative epistemology in which knowledge is treated as an open-ended process of evaluation and argument.     

The Impact of Design-Based STEM Integration Curricula on Student Achievement in Engineering,Science, and Mathematics

The new science education reform documents call for integration of engineering into K-12 science classes. Engineering design and practices are new to most science teachers, meaning that implementing effective engineering instruction is likely to be challenging. This quasi-experimental study explored the influence of teacher-developed, engineering design-based science curriculum units on learning and achievement among grade 4–8 students of different races, gender, special education status, and limited English proficiency (LEP) status. Treatment and control students (n = 4450) completed pretest and posttest assessments in science, engineering, and mathematics as well as a state-mandated mathematics test. Single-level regression results for science outcomes favored the treatment for one science assessment (physical science, heat transfer), but multilevel analyses showed no significant treatment effect. We also found that engineering integration had different effects across race and gender and that teacher gender can reduce or exacerbate the gap in engineering achievement for student subgroups depending on the outcome. Other teacher factors such as the quality of engineering-focused science units and engineering instruction were predictive of student achievement in engineering. Implications for practice are discussed.     

Lines,roamers, and squares: Oh my! using floor robots to enhance Hispanic students’ understanding of programming

Teaching programming and coding skills in K-12 classrooms is becoming a part of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programs across the United States. Often, these opportunities are available through extra-curricular activities such as Robotics club, math club, STEM club, etc. Increasing STEM opportunities for students who are English language learners, culturally and linguistically diverse learners, and/or students from underserved backgrounds is vital. In a pilot study prior to a larger, grant-funded study on the effects of metacognitive strategy instruction on elementary students’ academic performance, the principal investigator (PI) developed an activity with a corresponding assessment instrument. The PI initially incorporated floor-robots into an activity in two fifth grade science classrooms. Pre/post survey analysis provided encouraging results. To follow up on the initial results, the PI and co-principal investigators (co-PIs) introduced floor-robots into eight additional fourth and fifth grade science classrooms over an additional school year, as well as in an after-school setting, to determine how floor-robots might be used effectively to engage elementary students in STEM learning. The investigators introduced over 257 elementary students to three types of floor-robots, and this provided students with opportunities to have hands-on access to programming and coding robots for specific purposes. Of the 257 students who interacted with the floor-robots, approximately 103 were provided with pre/post surveys on Roamer®, one of the floor-robots. Additional data analysis provided surprising and encouraging results.     

Science education as a pathway to teaching language literacy: a critical book review

In this paper, I present a critical review of the recent book, Science Education as a Pathway to Teaching Language Literacy, edited by Alberto J. Rodriguez. This volume is a timely collection of essays in which the authors bring to attention both the successes and challenges of integrating science instruction with literacy instruction (and vice versa). Although several themes in the book merit further attention, a central unifying issue throughout all of the chapters is the task of designing instruction which (1) gives students access to the dominant Discourses in science and literacy, (2) builds on students’ lived experiences, and (3) connects new material to socially and culturally relevant contexts in both science and literacy instruction—all within the high stakes testing realities of teachers and students in public schools. In this review, I illustrate how the authors of these essays effectively address this formidable challenge through research that ‘ascends to the concrete’. I also discuss where we could build on the work of the authors to integrate literacy and science instruction with the purpose of ‘humanizing and democratizing’ science education in K-12 classrooms.     

Bringing Engineering Design into High School Science Classrooms: The Heating/Cooling Unit

Infusing engineering design projects in K-12 settings can promote interest and attract a wide range of students to engineering careers. However, the current climate of high-stakes testing and accountability to standards leaves little room to incorporate engineering design into K-12 classrooms. We argue that design-based learning, the combination of scientific inquiry and engineering design, is an approach that can be used to meet both K-12 educators’ and engineering advocates’ goals. This paper describes an 8-week high school curriculum unit, the Heating/Cooling System, in which engineering design is used to teach students central and difficult chemistry concepts such as atomic interactions, reactions, and energy changes in reactions. The goals of the paper are to (1) describe this successful design-based unit, (2) provide guidelines for incorporating design-based learning into other science topics, and (3) provide some evidence of its value for teaching difficult chemistry concepts and increasing interest in engineering careers.     

Targeted Support for Using Technology-Enhanced Science Inquiry Modules

Designing effective professional development experiences for technology-enhanced inquiry instruction is the goal of the Technology Enhanced Learning in Science (TELS) NSF funded Center for Learning and Teaching. In order to provide this type of support to a large number of teachers, we devised a targeted professional development approach. Participating teachers implemented short inquiry modules that featured interactive scientific visualizations. We collaborated with 16 schools in eight districts and five states. This paper reports the design, implementation, and refinement of the targeted approach. Findings from interview data show that teachers faced challenges that are often associated with enacting technology innovations in K-12 classrooms. The targeted professional development approach addressed the challenges and allowed teachers to successfully implement the modules in their classrooms. The interview data clarify teachers’ perspectives on how using technology impacted their teaching practices and their ideas about student learning. This work contributes to a growing body of literature that identifies and addresses barriers to integrating technology into K-12 classrooms.     

Profiling the Beliefs of the Forgotten Teachers: An Analysis of Intern Teachers’ Frameworks for Urban Science Teaching

The need to equip science teachers with knowledge, skills, and habits of mind to face the challenges of teaching science through inquiry informed this study, which analyzed the secondary science intern teachers’ beliefs about inquiry before, during, and following a series of 2 consecutive science methods courses in an attempt to document the effect of such experiences on their ability and willingness to infuse science inquiry in their science curricula. Nine science credentialing interns participated in the study. Data was gathered from their written reflections and various assignments throughout the methods courses. Results suggested that their beliefs changed significantly after the science methods courses. The implications of the study to secondary science teacher educators and researchers were highlighted.     

Development and validation of an instrument to assess secondary school students’ perceptions of assessment tasks

Research aimed at developing and validating an instrument to assess secondary school students’ perceptions of assessment tasks was conducted. Following a review of literature, a five‐scale instrument of 40 items was trialled with a sample of 658 science students in 11 English secondary schools. Based on internal consistency reliability data and exploratory factor analysis, refinement decisions resulted in a five‐scale instrument called the Perceptions of assessment tasks inventory (PATI). The scales of the PATI are Congruence with planned learning, Authenticity, Student consultation, Transparency and Diversity.