Appendix 1. The papers included in the scoping review: Exploring the Applications of QR Codes in STEM Subjects

This is a list of the papers included in the scoping review: Exploring the Applications of QR Codes in STEM Subjects

Analysis of Attitude and Achievement Using the 5E Instructional Model in an Interactive Television Environment

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to examine attitude and achievement among fifth grade students participating in inquiry and lecture-based forms of instruction through interactive television. Participants (N = 260) were drawn from registered users of NASA\u27s Digital Learning Network™. The first three levels of Bloom\u27s Revised Taxonomy were used to measure levels of achievement while the Science Attitude Inventory II was used to measure science attitudes. Results indicated a significant interaction between inquiry and topic area, as well as achievement for remember, understand, and apply levels of Bloom\u27s Revised Taxonomy. Differences between mean scores were in favor of the treatment group on both topic and achievement levels. Findings echo research that encourages the use of inquiry-based instruction to improve achievement. This study also serves as a reference for supplemental content providers searching for an effective instructional strategy when delivering instruction through interactive television. Recommendations for future research include the examination of: development time between inquiry-based and lecture-based strategies, a longitudinal study of attitude and achievement from elementary through middle school, differences between interactive television sessions and asynchronous sessions, and types of inquiry-based instruction related to student achievement and retention through interactive television

“Estoy Explorando Science”: Emerging Bilingual Students Problematizing Electrical Phenomena Through Translanguaging

As science education continues to embrace science-as-practice, equitable science learning environments must value and leverage emergent bilingual students’ ways of communicating. This study investigates the translanguaging practices of a group of elementary-aged emergent bilingual students while they problematized electrical phenomena. Building on asset-oriented theories for supporting student learning, I utilize translanguaging as a theoretical and pedagogical lens for understanding how emergent bilingual students leverage their full semiotic repertoires for productive disciplinary engagement. The study took place in an out-of-school program focused on creating opportunities for students to problematize electrical phenomena, specifically electrical resistance. I present a close analysis of students constructing models of electric flow through a circuit and how electrical resistance regulates that flow. The findings also include evidence that students engaged in different kinds of translanguaging practices when problematizing electrical phenomena and co-constructing knowledge with each other and the instructor. Specifically, students drew from and used multiple linguistic and non-linguistic semiotic resources for communicating their models. Finally, the findings suggest that the instructor\u27s pedagogical moves and own translanguaging practices implicitly signaled to students when and how to participate in translanguaging practices themselves. The findings emphasize the importance of desettling what counts as productive forms of communication in science for elementary-aged emergent bilingual students by eschewing pedagogical models that police discursive boundaries. Therefore, equitable science learning environments must create opportunities for emergent bilingual students to leverage their full semiotic repertoires for meaning-making, by inviting and valuing multiple languages and gestures

Documenting and Assessing Learning in Informal and Media-Rich Environments

An extensive review of the literature on learning assessment in informal settings, expert discussion of key issues, and a new model for good assessment practice. Today educational activities take place not only in school but also in after-school programs, community centers, museums, and online communities and forums. The success and expansion of these out-of-school initiatives depends on our ability to document and assess what works and what doesn't in informal learning, but learning outcomes in these settings are often unpredictable. Goals are open-ended; participation is voluntary; and relationships, means, and ends are complex. This report charts the state of the art for learning assessment in informal settings, offering an extensive review of the literature, expert discussion on key topics, a suggested model for comprehensive assessment, and recommendations for good assessment practices.Drawing on analysis of the literature and expert opinion, the proposed model, the Outcomes-by-Levels Model for Documentation and Assessment, identifies at least ten types of valued outcomes, to be assessed in terms of learning at the project, group, and individual levels. The cases described in the literature under review, which range from promoting girls' identification with STEM practices to providing online resources for learning programming and networking, illustrate the usefulness of the assessment model

Effects of Inclusion of Contemporary Artists/Artworks Within the Core Knowledge Curriculum to Increase Student Engagement

The classroom action research project was initiated when I observed in my classroom that inclusion of contemporary artists and their work influenced student engagement in the creation and completion of art assignments. Twelve fifth grade students participated in the study: six boys and six girls. The students completed an expressive self-portrait using materials of their choice after having been exposed to an art historical artist and four contemporary portrait artists. The students completed a pre-unit survey and a post unit survey. In process artwork was photographed to document engagement. Personal observation and a rubric were also used to evaluate engagement. According to students, engagement and creativity increased due to two factors; the inclusion of contemporary artists and freedom of choice in creating the self-portrait

An Examination of Children’s Learning Progression Shifts While Using Touch Screen Virtual Manipulative Mathematics Apps

The purpose of this study was to examine shifts in young children\u27s learning progression levels while they interacted with virtual manipulative mathematics apps on touch-screen devices. A total of 100 children participated in six mathematics learning sequences while using 18 virtual manipulative mathematics touch-screen apps during clinical interviews. Researchers developed a micro-scoring tool to analyze video data from two camera sources (i.e., GoPro camera, wall-mounted camera). Our results showed that it is possible to document evidence of shifts in children\u27s learning progressions while they are interacting with mathematics apps on touch-screen devices. Our results also indicated patterns in the children\u27s interactions that were related to the shifts in their learning progression levels. These results suggest that an open-ended number of tasks with a variety of representations and tasks at varying levels of difficulty led to children refining their understanding and shaping their concept image of mathematical ideas resulting in incremental shifts in learning. The results of this study have important implications about how mathematical tasks in touch-screen apps may prompt children\u27s incremental learning progression shifts to occur, and thereby promote opportunities for learning. We propose that design features in mathematics apps can be created to support and encourage these learning shifts

Integrated STEM and STEM Partnerships: Teaching and Learning

The overall focus of this Special Issue is on educational spaces relating to integrated STEM and interdisciplinary partnerships that might occur in integrated STEM spaces. These educational spaces include formal and informal schooling and include studies involving collaborative work teams, pre-service, in-service teachers, STEM faculty experiences, pre-collegiate students, interdisciplinary education, science education, technology education, engineering and computer science education, and mathematics education. The purpose of this Special Issue is to bring together a showcase of current studies in integrated STEM and related partnership work in teaching and learning. The newly released Handbook of Research on STEM Education (Johnson, Mohr-Schroeder, Moore, and English, 2020) explores areas of STEM in an international context and sets the stage for this Special Issue. The articles included show perspectives from around the globe

Children's Interface Design for Searching and Browsing

Elementary-age children are among the largest user groups of computers and the Internet, so it is important to design searching and browsing interfaces to support them. However, many interfaces for children do not consider their skills and preferences. Children can perform simple, single item searches, and are also capable of conducting Boolean searches involving multiple search criteria. However, they have difficulty creating Boolean searches using hierarchical structures found in many interfaces. These interfaces often employ a sequential presentation of the category structure, where only one branch or facet at a time can be explored. This combination of structure and presentation keeps the screen from becoming cluttered, but requires a lot of navigation to explore categories in different areas and an understanding of potentially abstract high-level categories. Based on previous research with adults, I believed that a simultaneous presentation of a flat category structure, where users could explore multiple, single-layer categories simultaneously, would better facilitate searching and browsing for children. This method reduces the amount of navigation and removes abstract categories. However, it introduces more visual clutter and sometimes the need for paging or scrolling. My research investigated these tradeoffs in two studies comparing searching and browsing in two interfaces with children in first, third, and fifth grade. Children did free browsing tasks, searched for a single item, and searched for two items to create conjunctive Boolean queries. The results indicate that a flat, simultaneous interface was significantly faster, easier, likeable, and preferred to a hierarchical, sequential interface for the Boolean search tasks. The simultaneous interface also allowed children to create significantly more conjunctive Boolean searches of multiple items while browsing than the sequential interface. These results suggest design guidelines for others who create children's interfaces, and inform design changes in the interfaces used in the International Children's Digital Library

New Teacher Identity and the Edublogosphere: A Multi-Case Study of First Year Teacher Bloggers

New Internet and communication technologies (ICTs) facilitate collaboration and interaction among teachers. The increased presence of web-based tools in education settings prompted this qualitative inquiry. Widely available and inexpensive, these webbased tools (e.g., blogs, wikis, podcasts) provide opportunities for publishing content online. This multiple case study explores the sociocultural construct of identity formation (Holland & Lachicotte, 2007) of four first-year teachers who voluntarily blogged about their experiences. Data sources include the blog posts written by participants during the 2006-07 school year and responses to an electronic questionnaire emailed to participants at the end of the year. A qualitative content analysis (Alaszewski, 2006) was conducted to identify emergent themes in the data. Analysis was guided by a set of dimensions drawn from the research literature on teacher identity and grounded in the data. Findings represent six dimensions of teacher identity that include pedagogical, personal, intuitive, intellectual, social, and political aspects of teaching. The following conclusions were drawn by the researcher: (1) new teachers who capitalize on the affordances of blogging generate feedback from readers that substantiates their experiences and provides encouragement in times of struggle, (2) new teachers rely on their own educational histories to shape themselves as teachers, and (3) new teachers want a “safe place” to interact with other teachers, so much so that concerns about privacy, security and critique are outweighed by the benefits of communicating with other teachers through blogging

Examining Formative Critique In The High School Visual Arts Classroom

Formative assessment techniques are integral to high school visual arts teachers’ curricula, but are not clearly delineated by state and national organizations. Additionally, formative assessment in the high school visual arts classroom, defined in this study as formative critique, had not been examined as extensively, and most research investigated either high school core content practices or critique procedures in higher education settings. This qualitative phenomenological study sought to understand commonalities in the implementation of formative critique by high school visual arts teachers in central Kentucky. In this study, six veteran high school visual arts teachers were interviewed, using open-ended questions and a conversational approach. All interviews were conducted via video conference and digital materials used by participants were collected for analysis. This study found that despite a lack of pedagogical guidance on the use of formative critique from art education organizations, participants’ approaches were remarkably similar. Participants favored an individualized, conversational approach, and used questions to guide student work. Teachers in this study built relationships with their students, creating a supportive classroom atmosphere which lead to positive experiences in visual arts courses. According to participants, formative critique led to student growth and the production of more advanced artwork. Interviewees indicated that students were more willing to take risks and put forth effort when formative critique was used to build constructive environments. Participants indicated that formative critique is used for positive daily interactions with students and focuses on artistic processes. Additionally, summative assessment could be viewed in a formative context under certain circumstances. These findings could be instructive for policy implementation when designing visual arts standards for high school classrooms and could be used to guide administrators’ assessment of teacher practice. Finally, limitations and suggestions for further research are presented