Innovating Pedagogy 2015: Open University Innovation Report 4

This series of reports explores new forms of teaching, learning and assessment for an interactive world, to guide teachers and policy makers in productive innovation. This fourth report proposes ten innovations that are already in currency but have not yet had a profound influence on education. To produce it, a group of academics at the Institute of Educational Technology in The Open University collaborated with researchers from the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International. We proposed a long list of new educational terms, theories, and practices. We then pared these down to ten that have the potential to provoke major shifts in educational practice, particularly in post-school education. Lastly, we drew on published and unpublished writings to compile the ten sketches of new pedagogies that might transform education. These are summarised below in an approximate order of immediacy and timescale to widespread implementation

Innovating Pedagogy 2017: Exploring new forms of teaching, learning and assessment, to guide educators and policy makers. Open University Innovation Report 6

This series of reports explores new forms of teaching, learning and assessment for an interactive world, to guide teachers and policy makers in productive innovation. This sixth report proposes ten innovations that are already in currency but have not yet had a profound influence on education. To produce it, a group of academics at the Institute of Educational Technology in The Open University collaborated with researchers from the Learning In a NetworKed Society (LINKS) Israeli Center of Research Excellence (I-CORE). Themes: • Big-data inquiry: thinking with data • Learners making science • Navigating post-truth societies • Immersive learning • Learning with internal values • Student-led analytics • Intergroup empathy • Humanistic knowledge-building communities • Open Textbooks • Spaced Learnin

A task model for supporting virtual laboratory based on inquiry skills, social and scientific communication

Comprehensive monitoring in virtual laboratory learning needs a task model. This model was design based on inquiry skills, social and scientific communication of prospective physics teachers. The development of these three skills is still a problem in recent research on virtual laboratory learning. This research was research and development (RD) using a preliminary study (literature studies, field surveys, and preparation of the initial product) and development of the model (within limited testing). Respondents were 54 prospective physics teachers and five physics lecturers from several universities in Indonesia. The analysis was done by descriptive qualitative, and quantitative. There are two essential parts of the task model. The first part consists of six inquiry steps, which describe the interactions between students with their virtual experiments. The second part consists of three inquiry steps that analyze how students communicate their virtual experiments through verbal, picture, and diagrammatic representations. Based on these findings, the task model's design is essential to develop inquiry skills, social and scientific communication for prospective physics teachers. The researcher can use this task model in the next step of RD

Teachers Support for English Language Learners to Build Inquiry Skills in Online Biology Simulations

The population of English language learners (ELLs) is on the rise in the United States, but they are lagging behind English speaking students in several subject areas--including biology. Scholarly literature lacks information on how biology teachers use scaffolding strategies to support ELL students with inquiry skills during online simulations. The purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore how biology teachers support ELLs in learning biology, using biology simulations to promote inquiry learning. The conceptual framework for this study included the constructivist perspective regarding the zone of proximal development, Electronic Quality of Inquiry Protocol, and technology use in science instruction. The purposive sample for this study was 4 biology teachers from 2 high schools in large school districts in the southeastern region of the United States who taught ELL students using inquiry-based online simulations. The data sources were face to face interviews with teachers, scaffolding documents, and lesson plans. Data were coded and analyzed for common themes across within and across cases. Results indicated that although biology teachers believed that ELL students benefited from inquiry simulations because of the already incorporated visuals and their ability to interact and manipulate the program, they sometimes lacked technology experiences and struggled with English and literacy that may reduce the benefits of the simulation experiences. The results of this study have the potential to contribute to social change by providing insights that may increase the understanding of how biology teachers can support ELL students when using technology in the form of simulations to promote inquiry learning

Abrupt Shift or Caught Off Guard: A Systematic Review of K-12 Engineering and STEM Education’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

In the past hundred years, there have been a number of pandemics that have affected the entire world, including the 1918 H1N1 influenza pandemic, the 1957 H2N2 influenza pandemic, and the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. While responses to the most recent H1N1 influenza pandemic remained local, the COVID-19 pandemic, on the other hand, resulted in long-term school closures all around the world, prompting a sudden shift to distant education by compelling K-12 educators and students to do so. The purpose of this study is to find out how K-12 education studies reacted to the sudden shift in supporting engineering and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education during the COVID-19 pandemic. To accomplish this goal, we conducted two separate searches in different databases and reviewed 25 articles. These articles were classified into four categories: (1) adaptation to online learning and the effects of a sudden shift, (2) implementing new strategies and tools, (3) STEM education in informal learning environments, and (4) teacher professional development. Our analysis indicated that engineering and STEM education research primarily focused on higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic. The limited number of studies examining K-12 engineering and STEM first investigated the adaptation to online learning by utilizing various resources that elementary and secondary teachers could easily access. Blended learning, flipped learning, and maker pedagogy were encouraged in K-12 engineering and STEM studies. Movies were the most commonly used tool in K-12 engineering and STEM studies. It is encouraging that studies also examined informal learning contexts (outreach initiatives, museums) and inequities in STEM and engineering education. However, the small number of studies in each category reminds us that there is still a lot of work to be done in terms of the future of K-12 engineering education, especially considering that distant education may become a permanent part of K-12 education

Enhancing Students’ Scientific Literacy using Virtual Lab Activity with Inquiry-Based Learning

Laboratory activity is closely related and yet is essential in the process of science teaching-learning. The hands-on laboratory experiment is the one normally used in school. Particularly with the state of online schooling, it is quite challenging to perform a hands-on laboratory activity. The combination of inquiry-based learning with virtual lab activity can be an alternative to developing a more alluring yet meaningful learning process within online learning. This research aims to analyze virtual lab activity with inquiry-based learning on students’ scientific literacy in light and optics topics. Participants were taken from junior high school students in the 8th-grade in Bandung, Indonesia. It includes 40 students with 14 males and 26 females with ages range 13-14 years old who have not yet studied light and optics. A pre-experimental research method with a one-group pre- the post-test design was used. The finding indicates that students’ scientific literacy was significantly increased with a medium category (N-Gain score 0.441). Based on this research, virtual-lab activity with inquiry-based learning could be considered an alternative to conducting a meaningful online learning activity, especially in science education

Guided inquiry laboratory to improve research skills of prospective biology teachers

This study described guided-inquiry laboratory impact on increase in research skills of prospective biology teachers. Skill research indicators are designing, implementing, and reporting. This study was a non-equivalent control group design using experimental and control groups. Data were collected from 60 participants through observation of research skill indicators, namely designing, performing, and reporting then analyzed quantitatively-descriptively. The sample was selected using purposive sampling. The results confirmed that the guided-inquiry laboratory application has a more effective impact on improving research skills than ordinary learning. Each indicator of research skills (designing, performing, and reporting in the experimental class) meets the "Medium" category, while the "Low" category in the control class. This study concluded that the guided inquiry laboratory has a positive impact in improving the research skills of prospective biology teachers. This research provides a reference for teachers to explore the research abilities of their students

Overcoming Challenges in STEM Education: A Literature Review That Leads to Effective Pedagogy in STEM Learning

The current study aims to analyze trends in studies related to challenges of STEM-based learning, analyzing the challenges of STEM education, describing solution approaches to overcome challenges in STEM education, and describing effective STEM pedagogy. To achieve the goals of this study, a literature review related to STEM education and learning was conducted, specifically by performing a bibliometric analysis. The bibliometric analysis is related to a coherent literature review with the theme of "Challenges of STEM-based Learning," analyzed from SCOPUS databases. The results of the study show that to date the existing study trends have addressed a number of challenges related to STEM education, especially those related to STEM pedagogy. The current study proposes a number of approaches to address challenges in STEM education, the focus is on how effective STEM education can be implemented in learning routines. Finally, it was concluded that some effective pedagogical aspects in STEM education and learning include: creating an innovative learning environment that encourages inquiry, experimentation, and critical thinking; utilizing various authentic learning methods and relevant learning resources; facilitating a collaborative learning environment; creating an inclusive learning environment; and reflecting and improving teaching practices