Does Your Article Need A Methods Or Methodology Sub-Section?

In the process of writing a discipline-based science education research article for the Journal of Astronomy & Earth Sciences Education, authors are faced with the question of titling each of the article’s subjections. Some editors and authors advocate a METHODS section whereas others advocate for a METHODOLOGY(IES) section.  What do we currently prefer in JAESE?  The answer is an unsatisfying, “it depends.”  The vast majority of papers in the JAESE Journal of Astronomy & Earth Sciences Education use a traditional METHODS section because most—but certainly not all—papers to date describe studies in which the method of inquiry is based on a balance of pragmatism, cost, usefulness, and actionable information.  This is in contrast to a METHODOLOGY section, which takes time to argue for why a particular approach will be most fruitful for the question at hand.  A robust mix of both are vitally important across the broader discipline-based science education researcher community.&nbsp

Editors Note: Creating Engaging Abstracts For The Journal Of Astronomy & Earth Sciences Education

The crafting of journal article abstracts is a consistent weakness among authors across many disciplines. Far too many abstracts serve as brief “teasers” and fail to comprehensively provide a summary of the research.  Abstracts that result in the largest number of article citations are those that follow a simple writing formula that starts with a broad description of the field and highlights what is as yet unsatisfactorily examined in the existing literature.  The middle section provides the research question, a description of the study-participants, and the research methods used.  Finally, desirable, comprehensive abstracts that present a summary of the paper include illustrative results and a short statement of evidence-based conclusions

Improving Your Argument By Identifying A Literature Gap

More often than not, a peer-reviewed journal article’s literature review is a boring to read as it is to write.  However, literature reviews do not need to be laborious for all involved.  Instead, the best literature reviews offer a crisp view of a researcher’s landscape and succinctly provides a compelling case for critical research that needs to be done in order to move the field forward.  In order to provide readers with a useful literature review, it is critical that authors avoid providing paragraph after paragraph describing a summative chronology of the topic in the literature, but instead provide a critical synthesis of what is known, and what is not known about a topic. In the end, if the reader is convinced of what will be known and advanced as a result of a researcher undertaking the considerable time and effort to conduct and publish a given study, the reader is much more likely to cite your paper downstream in their own work

Editor's Note: JAESE's Initial Aim, Scope And Business Model

It is my professional privilege and personal pleasure to welcome you to the first issue of the new Journal of Astronomy & Earth Sciences Education. This journal is the direct result of the discipline-based science education research community coming together to explore new publishing options and business models to better connect theory, research, and practice of teaching and learning to improving Earth sciences science education at all levels, K-to-grey (kindergarten to senior citizens). Such action has taken tremendous courage by many parties to try something bold and new, as well as hold dear a commitment to honoring science education research traditions of the past. The initial direction and structure of JAESE has been guided by a highly-experienced editorial advisory and review board who have enthusiastically volunteered their time, expertise, and credibility to help this journal come to fruition

Editors Note: JAESEs Manuscript Review Criteria

Authors submitting manuscripts to the Journal of Astronomy & Earth Sciences Education, JAESE, need to be aware that each submission that judged as potentially viable for JAESE is electronically checked for plagiarism before being reviewed by at least two peer reviewers. Each peer reviewer is instructed to provide a formative assessment of the article and a confidential summative recommendation to the Editor. The five specific criteria the Editor and Peer Reviewers use for evaluating manuscripts are the extent to which each submitted manuscript: (i) makes an important contribution to the discipline;  (ii) has a clearly stated research question that is adequately motivated by the existing scholarly literature base; (iii) has study methods and participants tightly and appropriately aligned with the research question; (iv) presents evidence that clearly supports the conclusions forwarded; and (v) has an accessible writing style, grammar, syntax and voice for a wide audience of scholarly readers

Editors Note: JAESEs Appropriateness For Tenure & Promotion Decisions

As with any journal in its early years of publication, the question of, Will peer-reviewed JAESE articles count toward academic tenure and promotion decisions at my institution? starts to come across my editorial desk. This is an appropriate query because, unquestionably, the currency of academic scholarship is refereed publications. On behalf of JAESEs distinguished Editorial Advisory Board, am I am able to respond with an enthusiastic, Yes

Questioning The Fidelity Of The Next Generation Science Standards For Astronomy And Space Sciences Education

Although the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are not federally mandated national standards or performance expectations for K-12 schools in the United States, they stand poised to become a de facto national science and education policy, as state governments, publishers of curriculum materials, and assessment providers across the country consider adopting them. In order to facilitate national buy-in and adoptions, Achieve, Inc., the non-profit corporation awarded the contract for writing the NGSS, has repeatedly asserted the development of the Standards to be a state-driven and transparent process, in which the scientific content is taken "verbatim", from the 2011 NRC report, Frameworks for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. This paper reports on an independently conducted fidelity check within the content domain of astronomy and the space sciences, conducted to determine the extent to which the NGSS science content is guided by the Frameworks, and the extent to which any changes have altered the scientific intent of that document. The side-by-side, two-document comparative analysis indicates that the science of the NGSS is significantly different from the Frameworks. Further, the alterations in the science represent a lack of fidelity, in that they have altered the parameters of the science and the instructional exposure (e.g., timing and emphasis). As a result the NGSS are now poised to interfere with widely desired science education reform and improvement. This unexpected finding affords scientists, educators, and professional societies with an opportunity, if not a professional obligation, to engage in positively impacting the quality of science education by conducting independent fidelity checks across other disciplines. This could provide a much needed formal support and guidance to schools, teachers, curriculum developers, and assessment providers

A Survey Of Best Practices And Key Learning Objectives For Successful Secondary School STEM Academy Settings

Specialized secondary schools in the United States focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) are becoming commonplace in the United States.  Such schools are generally referred to by U.S. teachers as Academies. In a purposeful effort to provide a resource to educators building new STEM Academies, this study provides both a review of scholarly literature and the interview results from five successful STEM Academy educators from across the United States.  This research addresses two overarching questions, a) what are the best practices of STEM Academies, and b) what are the key learning objectives of STEM Academies? Subject integration, in-house engineering curriculum design, student cohorts, community involvement, and internships were all revealed as being consistently reflective of best practices used in successful STEM Academies.  Key learning objectives consistent across the literature and in interview results were: problem solving/the engineering design process and soft skills, such as student collaboration, communication, presentation skills and time management.

Development Of The EGGS Exam Of GeoloGy Standards To Measure Students’ Understanding Of Common Geology Concepts

Geoscience education researchers have considerable need for criterion-referenced, easy-to-administer, easy-to-score, conceptual surveys for undergraduates taking introductory science survey courses in order for faculty to monitor the learning impacts of innovative teaching. In response, this study establishes the reliability and validity of a 28-item, multiple-choice, pre- and post- EGGS Exam of GeoloGy Standards. EGGS addresses 11 concepts derived from a systematic analysis of the overlapping ideas from national science education reforms: NGSS, AAAS Benchmarks, Earth Science Literacy Principles, and NRC National Science Education Standards.  Leveraging best-practices for creating and field-testing items, EGGS emphasizes natural student language over technical scientific vocabulary, leverages illustrations over students’ reading ability, specifically targets students’ misconceptions, and covers the range of topics most geology educators expect general education students to know. EGGS is argued to be valid and reliable with college introductory science survey students based on standard measures, including clinical interviews with students and expert review

Implementing a Web-Based Adaptive Senior Exit Survey for Undergraduates

As part of an institution-wide reform initiative at Montana State University, an adaptive, senior exit survey was developed and delivered via the World Wide Web. Individualized surveys were automatically generated for students so that questions particular to specific major and non-major courses could be administered as well as questions regarding university services. The principle advantages of providing a survey in this format include the ability for students to enter extended student-supplied responses to questions using the keyboard, the use of sampling techniques to target questions to specific student groups, and the delivery of individualized survey results privately to department administrators