Informal STEM: learning with robotics and game design in an urban context

Abstract

This mixed methods study examined how engagement in robotics and game design influenced students’ self-efficacy, STEM attitudes, and computational thinking (CT) skills. Predominantly African-American students engaged in engineering and computer science tasks during informal learning environments. Results revealed students’ self-efficacy scores on computer gaming increased significantly. Focus group data supported these findings, revealing that computer programing was challenging, but students enjoyed the tasks, added elements of culture in some cases, and valued the agency the tasks provided. Focal students were also able to make connections to STEM-related careers. Observational data demonstrated that focal students exhibited substantive CT during robotics and moderate CT during game design. Results support the idea that robotics and game design may be used to broaden underrepresented students’ participation in STEM.     

Both Theory and Practice: Science Literacy Instruction and Theories of Reading

Many journal articles detail recommendations to naturally integrate literacy instruction into content-area classes, particularly science, claiming that such instructional practices will support both literacy and content-knowledge acquisition. This begs the question, are the literacy strategies recommended for content-area instruction founded in established educational theories? The purpose of the current study is to examine the implicit and explicit theories driving science disciplinary literacy instruction. Theories assist in organizing and advancing research in a systematic manner. Information on the status of theory is essential to both practitioners (who are implementing strategies) and researchers (who are making recommendations for classroom instruction). Our study revealed that in science literacy, vocabulary instructional practices are frequently supported with Schema and Dual-Coding theories. Articles also frequently used theories grounded in social dynamics, including social constructionism and sociocultural perspective, to support literacy instruction. However, recommendations for other aspects of instructional practices in science literacy are generally not well-grounded in major reading theories.     

Youth Participatory Action Research in the High School Curriculum: Education Outcomes for Student Participants in a District-Wide Initiative

This study employed a quasi-experimental design to examine the effects of a school-based youth participatory action research program on the education outcomes of participating high school students. The program was a year-long elective course in six high schools in the same California district whose student population is predominantly low-income youth of color. A propensity score matching approach compared the reading achievement, attendance rates, and discipline referral rates of 153 students who participated in the program to nonparticipating peers with similar demographics and baseline scores on the outcomes. Results showed that the program significantly improved students’ attendance rates with less compelling evidence for its effect on reading achievement. These findings suggest that youth participatory action research may be an effective pedagogical practice for high school students, particularly low-income students of color.     

Privatisation Of Education In Canada: A Survey Of Trends

The construct of neo-liberalism well defines privatisation within a global convergence of educational policy discourses and practices. This study analyses initiatives for and processes of privatisation in Canadian education from K–12 to post-secondary levels. In considering how privatisation is affecting public education systems in Canada, the authors focus on the commodification and marketisation of education. They also examine issues of equity and the viability of universally accessible and publicly funded education systems. Finally, the study highlights two main interrelated trends: the intrusion of market discourse into education at all levels on one hand and on the other a growing tension between contrasting conceptions of education as a tradable commodity and as a social right.     

A study of the numerical development of 5-year-olds and 6-year-olds

Forty-one Australian children were interviewed at the beginning, middle and end of a school year. The children were selected from three classes, one a class of 5-year-olds, a second a class of 6-year-olds and from the same school, and a third also a class of 5-year-olds but from a school serving a community considered to be higher in socio-economic terms than that of the first mentioned school. Five models, one based on the theories of Steffeet al., and two adapted from Fuson's study of children's elaboration of number word sequences were used to profile each child's numerical development over the school year. Significant mismatches between children's numerical development and typical curricula are described and changes to current practice recommended. Relationships between the theories of Steffe and Fuson are developed and the study's findings are compared with Young-Loveridge's study of similar focus in New Zealand.     

THE CHANGING SOCIAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF NURSING STUDENTS IN NEW SOUTH WALES

This study had two major aims: 1) to establish a reliable data base on the social and demographic origins of nursing students in New South Wales universities since the introduction of the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) and the change from diploma to degree level programs; and 2) to compare the social and demographic origins of nursing students in higher education programs in 1995 with the data base established by Wright in New South Wales in 1986 to detect changes over time. Comparison of data from the 1986 group (N=447) and the 1995 group (N=512) revealed that there was a no significant difference between the two cohorts on the socio‐economic variable. There was, however, a significant difference in the SES variable between the 1986 and 1995 sample for the female group. From a household perspective, there was a significant difference in the number of siblings, and income received by the mother between the 1986 and 1995 cohorts. In addition, no support was found for the assertion that country students would be disadvantaged with the move to higher education programs. It was also found that almost 79.3% of the 1995 group chose to delay their HECS payment until they entered the workforce.     

Interference of delayed matching to sample in pigeons: Effects of interpolation at different periods within a trial and stimulus similarity

Delayed matching-to-sample performance by pigeons was interfered with by displaying a monochromatic annulus around the center (sample) pecking key. The wavelength of the annulus and its point of interpolation within a trial were varied to determine possible differential effects on matching accuracy. Experiment 1 showed that delayed matching was most disrupted when the interference stimulus (570 nm, 630 nm, or achromatic white) appeared during the delay interval of a trial. Little if any disruption occurred when the interference stimulus was present during the sample and choice periods. The spectral relationship between the chromatic interference stimuli (570 and 630 nm) and the sample stimuli (570 and 630 nm) did not consistently influence the degree to which matching accuracy was affected in any interpolation condition. Experiment 2 found a similar pattern of within-trial effects when the interference stimulus was simply a change from a white achromatic annulus to a chromatic one. This finding indicates that illumination changes, such as the popular houselight variation, are not necessary to produce interference in delayed matching to sample. Even with illumination held constant, however, performance was not differentially sensitive to the similarity between interference and sample stimulus wavelengths. It is suggested that other experiments showing similarity effects in interference of delayed matching to sample were conducted in such a way that subjects confused the interfering stimuli with the samples.     

HPE teachers’ negotiation of environmental health spaces: discursive positions,embodiment and materialism

A National Curriculum in Health and Physical Education (HPE) has recently been developed in Australia. This new curriculum reflects, among other educational priorities, both environmental sensitivities and a commitment to the enhancement of young people’s health and wellbeing. HPE is one of the key sites in the curriculum where a focused consideration of the relationship between the environment and health is possible. However, to date no research has considered the ways that HPE teachers might recognise and negotiate these spaces. The research described in this paper addresses this gap through an analysis of semi-structured interviews with generalist primary and specialist secondary HPE teachers, drawing on a ‘narrative ethnography’ approach derived from cultural geography. This analysis highlights the consequences of the absence of a knowledge tradition that explicitly links the fields of the environment and health in HPE. Participants who were able to conceptualise environmental health almost exclusively drew on dominant neoliberal and risk discourses. At the same time, teachers’ embodied histories and affective encounters with non-human nature helped them to rupture or challenge dominant assumptions about environmental health. We argue that corporeal knowledge developed through embodied experiences has the potential to assist teachers in formulating environmental health in ways that highlight how interactions with the environment might enhance health and wellbeing.     

A Method for Detecting Regression of Hard and Easy Item Angoff Ratings

One common phenomenon in Angoff standard setting is that panelists regress their ratings in toward the middle of the probability scale. This study describes two indices based on taking ratios of standard deviations that can be utilized with a scatterplot of item ratings versus expected probabilities of success to identify whether ratings are regressed in toward the middle of the probability scale. Results from a simulation study show that the standard deviation ratio indices can successfully detect ratings for hard and easy items that are regressed in toward the middle of the probability scale in Angoff standard‐setting data, where previously proposed indices often do not work as well to detect these effects. Results from a real data set show that, while virtually all raters improve from Round 1 to Round 2 as measured by previously developed indices, the standard deviation ratios in conjunction with a scatterplot of item ratings versus expected probabilities of success can identify individuals who may still be regressing their ratings in toward the middle of the probability scale even after receiving feedback. The authors suggest using the scatterplot along with the standard deviation ratio indices and other statistics for measuring the quality of Angoff standard‐setting data.     

Improvement Science as a Promising Alternative to Barriers in Improving STEM Teacher Quality through Professional Development

STEM teaching occurs within national and state policy contexts that are constantly shifting in terms of standards and accountability due to the current and intense focus on students’ STEM outcomes. In the last two decades, federal legislation as well as common standards movements increasingly influence what and how STEM teachers instruct their students. Improvement science in education (ISE) has recently emerged as a new method of addressing many of the issues that impact teacher teaching and STEM teacher quality. ISE is a context-focused process improvement approach targeted at school improvement. This article explores three main barriers between STEM teacher professional development and student learning, and focuses on ISE as a promising alternative to current forms of STEM teacher professional development.