Educational Research Abstracts

Editors\u27 Note: As noted in previous issues of the Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations, the purpose of this Educational Research Abstract section is to present current research on issues relevant to math and science teaching at both the K-12 and college levels. Because educational research studies are published in so many different academic journals and presented as so many different professional conferences, it is a rare public school teacher or college professor who is familiar with the range of recent reposts on a particular instructional technique or curricular advancement. Indeed, the uniqueness of various pedagogical strategies has been tacitly acknowledged by the creation of individual journals and professional organizations dedicated to teaching in a specific discipline. Yet, many of the insights gained in teaching certain physics concepts, biological principles, or computer science algorithms can have generalizability and value for those teaching in other fields or with different types of students. In this review, the focus is on cutting edge research. Abstracts are presented according to a question examined at a recent national educational research conference. Hopefully, such a format will trigger your interest in how you might incorporate new educational findings in your own teaching situation. The abstracts presented here are not intended to be exhaustive, but rather a representative sampling of recent research investigations. Please feel free to suggest future teaching or learning themes to be examined. Please send your comments and ideas via e-mail to [email protected] or by regular mail to The College of William and Mary, P. O. Box 8795, Williamsburg, VA 23185-8795

Responsible research and innovation in science education: insights from evaluating the impact of using digital media and arts-based methods on RRI values

The European Commission policy approach of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is gaining momentum in European research planning and development as a strategy to align scientific and technological progress with socially desirable and acceptable ends. One of the RRI agendas is science education, aiming to foster future generations' acquisition of skills and values needed to engage in society responsibly. To this end, it is argued that RRI-based science education can benefit from more interdisciplinary methods such as those based on arts and digital technologies. However, the evidence existing on the impact of science education activities using digital media and arts-based methods on RRI values remains underexplored. This article comparatively reviews previous evidence on the evaluation of these activities, from primary to higher education, to examine whether and how RRI-related learning outcomes are evaluated and how these activities impact on students' learning. Forty academic publications were selected and its content analysed according to five RRI values: creative and critical thinking, engagement, inclusiveness, gender equality and integration of ethical issues. When evaluating the impact of digital and arts-based methods in science education activities, creative and critical thinking, engagement and partly inclusiveness are the RRI values mainly addressed. In contrast, gender equality and ethics integration are neglected. Digital-based methods seem to be more focused on students' questioning and inquiry skills, whereas those using arts often examine imagination, curiosity and autonomy. Differences in the evaluation focus between studies on digital media and those on arts partly explain differences in their impact on RRI values, but also result in non-documented outcomes and undermine their potential. Further developments in interdisciplinary approaches to science education following the RRI policy agenda should reinforce the design of the activities as well as procedural aspects of the evaluation research

How Educators Can Eradicate Disparities in School Discipline: A Briefing Paper on School-Based Interventions

The number of students issued suspensions in U.S. schools continues to be extremely high, resulting in thousands of students missing school every day. Simultaneously,disparities in school suspension continue to worsen, indicating that students in some groups are missing school far more often and disproportionately(particularly, boys, African American students, students with disabilities, and in some regions, Latino and American Indian students). These disparities are also true of referrals to law enforcement and school-based arrests nationwide. According to recent data collected by the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, students of color made up 75% of referrals to law enforcement and 79% of schoolbased arrests, even while students of color comprise 39% of the nation's public school population.Punitive school discipline matters tremendously to the educational opportunity of young people: New knowledge on school discipline shows that even a single suspension or a single referral to the juvenile court system increases the odds of low achievement and dropping out of school altogether. Moreover, research shows that schools and educators -- not just students themselves -- make a difference in how discipline is meted out

The Effect of Varied Gender Groupings on Argumentation Skills among Middle School Students in Different Cultures

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to explore the effect of varied gender groupings on argumentation skills among middle school students in Taiwan and the United States in a project-based learning environment that incorporated a graph-oriented computer-assisted application (GOCAA). A total of 43 students comprised the treatment condition and were engaged in the collaborative argumentation process in same-gender groupings. Of these 43 students, 20 were located in the U.S. and 23 were located in Taiwan. A total of 40 students comprised the control condition and were engaged in the collaborative argumentation process in mixed-gender groupings. Of these 40 students, 19 were in the U.S. and 21 were in Taiwan. In each country, verbal collaborative argumentation was recorded and the students’ post essays were collected. Among females in Taiwan, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that statistically a significant gender-grouping effect was evident on the total argumentation skills outcome, while MANOVA indicated no significant gender-grouping effect on the combined set of skill outcomes. Among females in the U.S., MANOVA indicated statistically significant gender-grouping effect on the combined set of argumentation skills outcomes Specifically, U.S. female students in mixed-gender groupings (the control condition) significantly outperformed female students in single-gender groupings (the treatment condition) in the counterargument and rebuttal skills. No significant group differences were observed among males. A qualitative analysis was conducted to examine how the graph-oriented computer-assisted application supported students’ development of argumentation skills in different gender groupings in both countries. In each country, all teams in both conditions demonstrated a similar pattern of collaborative argumentation with the exception of three female teams in the U.S. Female teams, male teams, (the treatment condition) and mixed-gender teams (the control condition) demonstrated metacognition regulation skills in different degrees and with different scaffolding

Monitoring What Matters About Context and Instruction in Science Education: A NAEP Data Analysis Report

This report explores background variables in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to examine key context and instructional factors behind science learning for eighth grade students. Science education is examined from five perspectives: student engagement in science, science teachers' credentials and professional development, availability and use of science resources, approaches to science instruction, and methods and uses of science assessment

Deweyan tools for inquiry and the epistemological context of critical pedagogy

This article develops the notion of resistance as articulated in the literature of critical pedagogy as being both culturally sponsored and cognitively manifested. To do so, the authors draw upon John Dewey\u27s conception of tools for inquiry. Dewey provides a way to conceptualize student resistance not as a form of willful disputation, but instead as a function of socialization into cultural models of thought that actively truncate inquiry. In other words, resistance can be construed as the cognitive and emotive dimensions of the ongoing failure of institutions to provide ideas that help individuals both recognize social problems and imagine possible solutions. Focusing on Dewey\u27s epistemological framework, specifically tools for inquiry, provides a way to grasp this problem. It also affords some innovative solutions; for instance, it helps conceive of possible links between the regular curriculum and the study of specific social justice issues, a relationship that is often under-examined. The aims of critical pedagogy depend upon students developing dexterity with the conceptual tools they use to make meaning of the evidence they confront; these are background skills that the regular curriculum can be made to serve even outside social justice-focused curricula. Furthermore, the article concludes that because such inquiry involves the exploration and potential revision of students\u27 world-ordering beliefs, developing flexibility in how one thinks may be better achieved within academic subjects and topics that are not so intimately connected to students\u27 current social lives, especially where students may be directly implicated

Peer mediation for conflict management: a Singaporean case study

The burgeoning interest in conflict and its management has recently begun to impact on schools and school systems worldwide. Motivated by a concern for increasing levels of violence in schools and student�student conflict, many school administrators are looking at conflict management programs as a means of dealing with the problem. Most of the more widely used programs have their origins in the United States; their appropriateness and effectiveness in other countries and cultures is, at best, unknown, and in some respects open to conjecture. In this paper the cultural appropriateness of a peer mediation program in a primary school in Singapore is the subject of investigation. The study also addresses, in an exploratory manner, the effectiveness of peer mediation as a mechanism for student�student conflict management

“Just Don’t Bore Us To Death”: Seventh Graders’ Perceptions of Flipping a Technology-Mediated English Language Arts Unit

This mixed methods study aimed to assess student engagement during the flipped model of instruction in two seventh-grade English language arts (ELA) classrooms. Implementation of the flipped model required students (n=183) and teachers (n=2) to use digital technology via a website and teacher-made videos. It compared student perceptions during a flipped unit to those same students’ perceptions during a traditionally taught unit. A hybrid embedded design and case study interviews were used to assess students’ cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement. Data analysis revealed that overall student engagement decreased in the flipped unit and that students were divided in their reactions to the flipped method with one student poignantly writing on the survey, “Just don’t bore us to death.” This work is significant in that it is among the first to examine whether course content matters when utilizing the flipped method and whether student engagement in the traditional ELA curriculum is unique due its emphasis on discussion and holistic assessment

Interest, Instructional Strategies, and the Creation of Group Space

Research on small-group work and on whole class discussions has shown specific benefits for student learning. At the same time, research on interest stresses the generation of situational interest when particular learning conditions are met. This qualitative study explores whether the type of instructional strategy (small group vs. whole class discussion) influences triggering of situational interest about theoretical and practice-oriented pedagogical topics among preservice science teachers (N = 44). Triggering of interest was identified by participation rate, degree of comfort during interactions, and quality of arguments. Results show that whole class discussions of theoretical topics shifted towards practical teaching issues, while small groups sustained the theoretical nature of a topic. Both interaction patterns imply triggering of situational interest. But the small group interaction patterns indicate the collective construction of a “triple problem-solving space”, in which content, social/relational, and interest were balanced from the start; the whole class discussions needed first to renegotiate the content

‘If you learn about these issues, you're going to learn...more about yourself and things that you come in contact with every day’: Engaging undergraduate students in meaningful literacy in a research writing course

This study explores the experiences of undergraduate students enrolled in a required research writing class that focused on the topics of social (in)justice and diversity and which allowed students to conduct their own empirical research. In order to investigate their experiences with the topics and with the empirical research project, we employed the use of interviews and analyzed the data by organizing it by themes. Short narrative profiles of eight of the participants that we focus on for this study are provided. From the participants’ experiences, we also explore two themes: students’ engagement with social (in)justice in a required undergraduate writing course and incorporating empirical research in a required research writing course. Finally, we provide implications for teaching and teaching writing