The Impact of Writing Intensive Professional Development on High School Teachersa Science Content Knowledge of Energy in Systems

The Communication in Science Inquiry Project CISIP investigated the impact of writing intensive inquiry based professional development on high school teachers science content knowledge of Energy in Systems In particular we investigated whether different forms of assessment provided different information about the depth of teacher knowledge We developed a two-tier Energy Test linked to both national and state science standards which was administered both before and after science teacher particip-ation in 23 hours of professional development on energy in biological and societal systems Our study found that we were successful in relaying content knowledge to the teachers When we analyzed misconceptions in distracter choices and written responses on the same test however we found we were successful in some areas but not in others The application of knowledge gained about energy in systems through writing scientific explanations was the least successful of al

COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE OUTCOMES OF A SOUTHWEST PLACE-BASED APPROACH TO TEACHING INTRODUCTORY GEOSCIENCE

The physical and cultural landscapes of the Southwest United States epitomize places, which are localities imbued with meaning by human experience. Sense of place comprises the meanings of and emotional attachments to places held by individuals or groups, and thus bridges cognition and affect. Place-based teaching deliberately engages and leverages the sense of place of students and instructor with experiential, cross-cultural, interdisciplinary content and methods that may better engage underrepresented students with rich culturally-rooted senses of place, such as American Indians and Mexican Americans in the Southwest. We propose that psychometric measurement of the cognitive and affective components of sense of place, place meaning and place attachment, can be used to test the effectiveness of place-based teaching. A Southwest-based undergraduate geoscience course, which presented basic concepts in the context of familiar regional places and the cultural knowledge of these places, was piloted for a diverse class of 31 students in fall 2005. Cognitive and affective outcomes were assessed with valid and reliable surveys of place attachment, place meaning, and geoscience content knowledge. The gains were analyzed with non-directional dependent samples t-tests. Student mean place attachment to Arizona increased significantly, t(26) = 2.94, p < 0.01, from near-indifference to positive attachment, and the post-course mean place attachment was greater than that for students enrolled in conventional geoscience courses. Mean place meaning of Arizona increased significantly, t(26) = 7.17, p < 0.01; students developed richer and more diverse understanding of the region. General geoscience content knowledge, measured using the Geoscience Content Inventory, increased significantly, t(26) = 4.19, p < 0.01. The students began the place-based course with content knowledge equivalent to that of their peers nationwide, but their mean post-course score was above the national mean. We conclude that place-based teaching can be assessed both cognitively and affectively. The positive outcomes of this experimental course, and the cultural and personal relevance inherent in the method, suggest that place-based geoscience teaching is particularly appropriate for use in naturally and culturally diverse settings

Research on Instructional Strategies to Improve Geoscience Learning in Different Settings and with Different Technologies

Geoscience instruction today is carried out in a range of settings and with variously situated and richly contextualized teaching modalities. However, the pace and the excitement of technological and methodological advances in education tend to outstrip the more deliberate progress of relevant educational research and assessment. Further, geoscience education receives less attention and support on a national scale than do biology, chemistry, and physics education. As a result, many recent influential studies which demonstrated the effectiveness of active learning in undergraduate STEM, include little or no data from geoscience education. In order to close these gaps and render future instructional strategies as effective as possible, (a) there must be better coordination among researchers and educators in our own professional community and with those in other STEM disciplines; (b) higher standards of evidence must be applied to research in many cases; and (c) certain barriers at the instructional level to full and effective implementation of best practices must still be overcome. In this theme chapter, five grand challenges related to these issues are identified and described to spur more effective, accessible, inclusive, relevant, and practical geoscience teaching and learning

Closing the Loop: Communication for Transformation of Geoscience Teaching Practice

The goal of the GER Framework is to improve teaching and learning about the Earth, by focusing the power of Geoscience Education Research (GER) on the set of ambitious, high-priority, community-endorsed grand challenges outlined in this document. This goal has an underlying assumption - that research results are effectively shared with educators and are used to reform teaching practice; consistent with the feedback loop on the strength of evidence pyramid. Closing this loop is intimately tied to research theme on Institutional Change and Professional Development. However, closing this loop has a broader scope as well. Raising awareness of research results, and then applying the research results, will require engaged, respectful dialogue as well as strategic communication to extend the community of reflective practitioners and gain needed support from administrators. This chapter expands on strategies for communication

Synthesis: Discussion and Implications

This project was a formidable undertaking, necessary to position our community to achieve an important goal: to improve undergraduate teaching and learning about the Earth by focusing the power of Geoscience Education Research (GER) on a set of ambitious, high-priority, community-endorsed grand challenges. Working groups, through examination of the literature and with the aid of reviewers\u27 insights, identified two to five grand challenges for each of the ten research themes. The thematic grand challenges illuminate interconnected paths for future GER. Collective this creates a guiding framework to harness the power of GER to improve undergraduate teaching and learning about the Earth. While the individual theme chapters lay out the rationales for those large-scale grand challenge research questions and offer strategies for addressing them, here the purpose is to summarize and synthesize - to highlight thematic research priorities and synergies that may be avenues for research efficiencies and powerful outcomes

Hands-On Geology for Navajo Nation Teachers

The Navajo Nation comprises the largest land area and the largest population of any Native American community in the United States, and it hosts some of earth\u27s most spectacular geology

Students in Fully Online Programs Report More Positive Attitudes toward Science Than Students in Traditional, In-Person Programs

Following the growth of online, higher-education courses, academic institutions are now offering fully online degree programs. Yet it is not clear how students who enroll in fully online degree programs are similar to those students who enroll in in-person ("traditional") degree programs. Because previous work has shown students' attitudes toward science can affect their performance in a course, it is valuable to ask how attitudes toward science differ between these two populations. We studied students who completed a fully online astrobiology course. In an analysis of 451 student responses to the Classroom Undergraduate Research Experience survey, we found online program students began the course with a higher scientific sophistication and a higher sense of personal value of science than those in traditional programs. Precourse attitudes also showed some predictive power of course grades among online students, but not for traditional students. Given established relationships between feelings of personal value, intrinsic motivation, and, in turn, traits such as persistence, our results suggest that open-ended or exploration-based learning may be more engaging to online program students due to their pre-existing attitudes. The converse may also be true, that certain pre-existing attitudes among online program students are more detrimental than they are for traditional program students.NASA Astrobiology Institute; National Science Foundation [1225741]; ASU OnlineThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

A community framework for geoscience education research: Summary and recommendations for future research priorities

The geoscience education research (GER) community has produced a collaborative research framework that summarizes guiding questions for future research to inform and improve undergraduate geoscience teaching and learning. The GER Framework (St. John [Ed.], 2018a) was developed through an iterative process involving multiple stages of community input. In total, approximately 200 geoscience educators and researchers contributed to this project in one or more of the following capacities: as authors, reviewers, survey respondents, workshop participants, webinar participants, town hall participants, and/or focus group participants. Review of survey data, reports, publications, and discussions resulted in a set of guiding questions and research strategies for ten research areas where individual researchers can make important contributions. While presented as distinct research areas, the ten themes have numerous cross-theme opportunities that integrate content areas, skills, and types of students. Cross-theme recommendations regarding strategies for future research are described here, along with suggested synergies with other national efforts in geoscience and STEM education.This is a manuscript of an article published as Kristen St. John, Karen S. McNeal, R. Heather MacDonald, Kim A. Kastens, Kelsey S. Bitting, Cinzia Cervato, John R. McDaris, Heather L. Petcovic, Eric J. Pyle, Eric M. Riggs, Katherine Ryker, Steven Semken & Rachel Teasdale (2020) A community framework for geoscience education research: Summary and recommendations for future research priorities, Journal of Geoscience Education, DOI: 10.1080/10899995.2020.1779569