ACER Research Conference Proceedings (2016)

The focus of ACER’s Research Conference 2016 will be on what we are learning from research about ways of improving levels of STEM learning. Australia faces significant challenges in promoting improved science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) learning in our schools. Research Conference 2016 will showcase research into what it will take to address these challenges, which include: the decline in Australian students’ mathematical and scientific ‘literacy’; the decline in STEM study in senior school; a shortage of highly qualified STEM subject teachers, and curriculum challenges. You will hear from researchers who work with teachers to engage students in studying STEM-related subjects, such as engineering in primary school, and science and maths at all levels. You will learn how to engage both girls and boys in STEM learning, through targeted teaching, activities like gaming, and applying learning from neuroscience

Bridging Science with Society: Defining Pathways for Engagement

Science communication training organizations, are uniquely positioned at the nexus of science and society. Through research and training, they empower scientists to engage with the public to ultimately improve how science informs decision-making processes at the individual, organizational, and community levels. This paper argues that science communication training organizations must unite to provide a comprehensive and exhaustive set of offerings that empower scientists to master foundational communication skills while recognizing the complete social and cultural systems in which their science communication occurs. We present three separate possible pathways training programs could take, depending on the contexts and audiences for engagement. We differentiate between the goals, sites, and audiences for engagement, and the forms of knowledge or preparation needed for productive engagement

Enhancing Inquiry-Based Science and Math in Appalachian Middle Schools: A Model for Community Engagement

Faculty at public comprehensive universities are required to engage in professionally related service to their communities. In contrast to the traditional one-way interaction with university personnel as the service providers, institutions of higher learning can engage in service activities that are mutually beneficial to the community and the university. This paper describes a partnership between a comprehensive university and six middle schools from the rural Appalachian region of Kentucky that can serve as a model for community engagement. The project was designed to enhance middle school student learning in the areas of science and mathematics. Its objectives were accomplished through a three-person team structure requiring the active participation of a middle school teacher, a university science or math professor and a college student. The K-12 teacher provided expertise on pedagogical and curriculum issues, the professor provided support on content and applications, whereas the student played the leading role in the development and application of instructional activities. The middle schools benefited from enhanced student learning, content applications of science, mathematics and technology, and use of inquiry-based pedagogy. The university benefited from professional development opportunities to faculty in the areas of service, scholarship and teaching. There were also several benefits to the participating university students including improved communication, teaching, and team building skills, increased knowledge about both the content and applications of science, mathematics and technology, and support for graduate education through generous stipends

Graduate students\u27 motivation to teach plant sciences to K-12 audiences

Graduate students\u27 motivation to share their knowledge and research with K-12 audiences as future scientists is informed by their beliefs and perceived value of science literacy outreach. Graduate training programs in academia integrate outreach teaching components to equip future scientists with a variety of communication skills, which may reflect either a transmission of knowledge to the learner or through engagement with the learner. As such, the education component of the Partnership for Research and Education in Plant Breeding and Genetics grant sought to train graduate plant science students ( N = 17) to disseminate their research to K-12 audiences. Graduate students participated in outreach teacher training using Learner-Centered Teaching (LCT) strategies to develop and conduct two science lessons for K-12 audiences in a non-formal and formal educational settings. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to describe the outreach teaching beliefs and values of plant science graduate students after receiving the outreach training. The researcher used a deductive approach to analyze and triangulate multiple data sources, including teaching self-efficacy questionnaires, LCT knowledge tests, reflection essays, and semi-structured interviews.^ The research study was conceptualized into three phases (i.e., course instruction and teaching experiences; follow-up questionnaire and interviews; triangulation) of a multistrand design and resulted in three major conclusions. First, plant science graduate students valued learning how to engage with K-12 audiences using active learning. Graduate students\u27 expressed values of the following qualities: (a) how learners can apply knowledge to emerging agricultural issues, (b) how professors (i.e., graduate students as teachers) coach and facilitate, intertwining teaching and assessing, and (c) how to engage with learners actively by providing useful and timely feedback. Second, graduate students described field-based teaching experiences within formal and non-formal educational settings that helped them practice communication skills and develop their teaching self-efficacy. In this study, graduate students valued the following elements of a field-based experience: (a) participation in planning the experience, (b) selection of the learners by age and grade level demographics, and (c) multiple visits to teach the selected group of students. And third, graduate students described an enjoyment of teaching K-12 audiences and the K-12 experience was useful in preparing them to communicate science to technical and non-technical audiences. Graduate students\u27 reflections of enjoyment were referenced with recognition to the sense of autonomy that the graduate students achieved throughout their learning experiences. Moreover, graduate students recognized the transferability of the knowledge and skills from the integrated learning experience for their academic and career endeavors. As graduate-level academic programs continue to adjust and adapt to prepare plant science graduate students to meet the needs of an ever changing society, the following implications are discussed: acquiring (LCT) teaching skills to communicate science literacy, benefits of K-12 audience field-based experiences, the opportunity to use a constructivist approach to assist learners in facilitating science outreach and implications for policy

Creating a Multimedia Enhanced Problem-Based Learning Environment for Middle School Science: Voices from the Developers

This paper describes the design and development process used to create Alien Rescue, a multimedia-enhanced learning environment that supports problem-based learning (PBL) in middle school science. The goal of the project is to further our understandings of technology, pedagogy, and instructional theories as they relate to the application of PBL within middle school classrooms through the application of design-based research. A unique characteristic of the project is that it is developed entirely by a team of graduate learning technologies students, working under the direction and supervision of the faculty. Throughout the development process, graduate student developers learn steps and strategies for designing immersive learning environments, engage in technology development, and conduct research that informs future design iterations. Key features of the development model are described in detail and developers’ reflections are shared. Recommendations for those interested in engaging similar endeavors are provided

Global Engagement Model for Land-Grant Universities, a Grounded Theory.

The purpose of this study is to examine how land-grant universities engage with the public in the era of globalization; to explain the institutionalization of engagement processes accounting for the global context; and, to integrate this analysis into a Global Engagement Model for Land-Grant Universities (GEM) implementing a grounded theory research methodology. GEM’s foundation is both theoretical and empirical. Applying the intensity sampling method, the universities selected for the empirical base were: The University of California, Davis, Michigan State University, and The Pennsylvania State University. Rather than an exact representation of individual universities’ engagement models, the model is the researcher’s representation of global engagement processes for land-grant universities in the twenty-first century. The model explains how land-grant universities engage with the public in the global context in response to the network society and its knowledge economy. GEM’s seminal component is Bilateral Relationships which are the basis for Quality Partnerships and subsequently Engagement Networks. GEM accounts for social processes occurring at the macro level and how they relate to local- and institutional-level processes. The model’s contextualization of the land-grant university in its socio, economic, political, and historical conditions makes it comprehensive. Moreover, the identification of seminal components and their interconnectedness with the entireness allows for explaining a complex phenomenon in simple terms. GEM model is a theoretical tool that can be instrumental in explaining change and continuity in the modern land-grant university. According to this research, the land-grant university has redefined its role over time. And, it is apparent that in the global society the land-grant university has become a scholarship node

STEM choices: a resource pack for careers education and information, advice and guidance practitioners

"This pack for careers education (CE) and information, advice and guidance (IAG) practitioners is central to engaging tutors, subject teachers, personal and careers advisers in the business of STEM careers awareness. It will be updated and supplemented throughout the three years of the project to help boost the confidence and readiness of front-line staff to engage with young people and their parents about STEM choices, and to give well-informed and up-to-date information on the current demand and likely future trends in relation to STEM opportunities. The pack seeks to help CE/IAG practitioners to broaden young people’s perspectives and to challenge stereotyped images of sectors and occupations." - Section 1.

Enhancing Free-text Interactions in a Communication Skills Learning Environment

Learning environments frequently use gamification to enhance user interactions.Virtual characters with whom players engage in simulated conversations often employ prescripted dialogues; however, free user inputs enable deeper immersion and higher-order cognition. In our learning environment, experts developed a scripted scenario as a sequence of potential actions, and we explore possibilities for enhancing interactions by enabling users to type free inputs that are matched to the pre-scripted statements using Natural Language Processing techniques. In this paper, we introduce a clustering mechanism that provides recommendations for fine-tuning the pre-scripted answers in order to better match user inputs

The development and assessment of STEM skills in Australian high schools

This thesis examines the development and assessment of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills within the context of Australian high schools. This is with a view to establishing what Australian employees consider STEM skills to be, the extent to which they can be developed within high schools, and whether the predominant means of their assessment are valid. While the phrase 'STEM skills' is often used by all manner of stakeholders, very few articulate which specific skills they mean under this umbrella term. A survey of the literature, with a focus on the STEM skills desired by employers, was used to propose five domains of skills that are suitable for development within a high school context. These are: literacy; disciplinary; higher order thinking; interpersonal; and intrapersonal skills. Each of these are described in terms of the specific types of skills that fit within these domains. Year 7-10 STEM teachers from across Australia were surveyed regarding what they associate with the phrase STEM skills. It was found that there were many overlaps between skills identified from the literature and by teachers, but both sources included, and omitted, some skills the other did not. The components of the Australian Curriculum pertaining to STEM in Years 7-10, the final years of compulsory STEM education, were examined to see what skills were articulated within the curriculum. These skills were compared with the skills identified from the literature. It was identified that the Technologies curriculum, Design and Technologies in particular, facilitates the development of the broadest range of skills and presents opportunities to engage with integrated STEM education. Teachers were also asked about their familiarity with aspects of the curriculum and the degree of support they felt it provided in developing STEM skills. A range of improvements would help to better support teachers to enable their students to develop the STEM skills Australian employers want. Two international standardised tests, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) that are typically used to argue that Australia is falling behind in STEM were analysed. It was found that they both place a large focus on knowledge and that the higher order thinking skills they seek to assess can often only be effectively demonstrated if the student has the required background knowledge. Neither assess many of the STEM skills identified from the literature or by teachers and thus are proposed to be ineffective metrics, in and of themselves, for determining the level of Australian students' STEM skills. The thesis concludes with recommendations and limitations as well as identification of future areas of research by way of suggesting how teachers could be better supported to develop the STEM skills in their students that Australia's employers want in their employees

Afterschool Matters Spring 2019

Welcome from the Managing Editor of Afterschool Matters, Spring 2019 By Georgia Hall About eight years ago, I took my then six-year-old daughter to a local children’s theater performance of The Wizard of Oz. During intermission, she made it clear to me that, next time, she wanted to be on stage. So began an incredible journey into the dramatic arts that was topped off last January with her final youth theater performance. Process Over Product: How Creative Youth Development Can Lead to Peace Adam Jacobs “The person who fell off the person who fell off.” This was the response of four-year-old Aaron to the question, “What do you want to do a play about?” in the Kids Creative Summer Camp. Aaron meant to say “the person who fell off” only once. In most settings, such an accidental double phrasing would be corrected and forgotten. However, in Kids Creative, the rule is “All ideas are good.” Other campers built on Aaron’s slip-up to create a play called “The Journey to Find The Person Who Fell Off The Person Who Fell Off.” This group of 20 children, ages 4 to 12, who came from various New York City schools, engaged in a brainstorming session in which they shared ideas and asked questions. Everyone in the group, including the teaching artists, added their own ideas using the phrase, “Yes, and….” A storyline took shape: The vice president of Chocolateville was standing on the shoulders of the president of Chocolateville at their inauguration when they both slipped into the Chocolate River. Now a group of heroes has to make a treacherous journey to find them. Each child created his or her character, and the group found ways to weave the story together. Thanks to the Kids Creative processoriented environment, one idea from a four-year-old child developed into a five-part musical play, which was performed for friends and family at the close of the camp session. Beyond the Webinar: Dynamic Online STEM Professional Development By Alexandria Brasili and Sue Allen A group of six afterschool educators come together for a monthly professional development course in which they are learning to facilitate STEM programs effectively. Today’s meeting focuses on how to model science practices. To begin the meeting, the facilitator sets up an icebreaker to allow the other five educators to get to know one another better. The facilitator asks, “What upcoming STEM program are you most excited about?” Sofia, an afterschool educator at a 4-H program, talks about the summer coding club that she is starting; the other participants join in. Supporting Latinx Youth Participation in Out-of-School Time Programs By Nancy Erbstein and James O. Fabionar Scholars in many fields have documented that the sharp population increase among Latinx people in the U.S. has been accompanied by myriad social challenges (Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 2009). Both established populations and new arrivals struggle to obtain quality education, adequate healthcare, and employment that pays a living wage; they also deal with various forms of discrimination. Analyses repeatedly indicate that these and other issues often shape the daily lives and developmental trajectories of Latinx youth. These social issues also undermine Latinx participation in out-of-school time (OST) programs, which hold potential to promote youth well-being (Guzman-Rocha, McLeod, & Bohnert, 2017). Increasingly, leaders of youth-serving organizations voice concern about low Latinx participation (Borden et al., 2006), often recognizing that poor participation reflects a need to develop new capacities and inclusive practices (Perkins et al., 2007). The Unique Challenges of Afterschool Research Lizzie Murchison, Katie Brohawn, Cheri Fancsali, Andrea D. Beesley, and Erin Stafford Funders and policymakers are increasingly recognizing the afterschool field for its vital role in supporting the social and emotional growth and academic achievement of school-age youth. Although this recognition is welcome, it often comes with increased expectations for high-quality research demonstrating the value of programming. To satisfy these demands and make the most of funding opportunities, practitioners must develop strong partnerships with external evaluators. However, developing afterschool evaluation partnerships that work well for all parties is often far more difficult than program directors or evaluators anticipate. Being and Becoming Scientists: Design-Based STEM Programming for Girls Jasmine M. Nation, Danielle Harlow, Diana J. Arya, and Maya Longtin “I am a scientist. I’m not like a scientist.” We were excited to hear this response from one of the girls who participated in our afterschool program focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The STEMinist Program was a research-practice collaboration between university researchers and an afterschool program for female students in grades 4 to 6. This article describes how the program’s ongoing design transformations increased girls’ understanding of and interest in STEM. Design-based framing (Barab & Squire, 2009) enabled ongoing adjustments to the program while also identifying best practices for afterschool STEM learning. To understand the program’s progression and outcomes, we examined the features of the learning environment and the relationships among design components by analyzing qualitative data collected before, during, and after program implementation. Participants’ perceptions of science and scientists helped us understand the impact of the program and ways to improve it. Relationships: The Key to Student Success in Afterschool Programs By Ginger Shea Student success and achievement in afterschool programs depend on caring adults who go above and beyond to make children feel that they are special and can achieve anything (Akhavan, Emery, Shea, & Taha-Resnick, 2017). In the Oxnard (California) School District, where I am the afterschool grant manager, many of the 200 staff in the Oxnard Scholars afterschool program are working in their first job. This is the first time they have been in charge of young people and the first time they have been called “teacher.” These firsts can be drawbacks, but they also can create powerful opportunities to build staff members’ capacity to engage students and enrich their lives.https://repository.wellesley.edu/afterschoolmatters/1038/thumbnail.jp